"Huuuu…. Haaaa…" Shu He was currently sat in the middle of his stone walled room floor in the dead centre calming himself with his breathing exercises, he was only wearing underwear once more as he helplessly had to put his sect robe through a good wash because they stank of all sorts of animals.
Because of that, his robes were currently hanging not too far away from him drying off.
"To think that I'd still be drying clothes like this after joining a cultivation sect…" He muttered to himself; his expectations really didn't fit reality.
He had heard that some of the creationist divisions had shops up in the sect where you could buy their products so he would have to go there at some point, but apparently they also cost a good chunk of points for the good things.
'Convenience comes at a cost I guess'.
Shu He sighed.
He had slept for a few hours before slowly pulling himself up, his internal clock always got him up early in the morning, so he struggled to sleep much if he went to bed late like last night.
Now, he couldn't leave his room without clothes, and it was required to wear the sect uniform at all times outside of private quarters as a disciple, so he couldn't even slap on his older clothes to go out; He would need to get another set of clothes in the future but-
'More points down the drain for that…' He sighed again, no matter what he wanted to do, most of it needed points.
He certainly had a good amount to start out with, but he still wasn't entirely sure how long that would last him if he were to spend it carelessly.
Either way, right now there was only a couple of things that Shu He could do, and those two things were laying still on the white stone floor in front of him.
To the left, a black scroll tied with a fancy white ribbon.
To the right, a flask filled with white pills.
They were to the two gifts he had received yesterday from Old Yu when he made a trip to the Covetous Dragons Pavilion, right now he was trying to decide which to take a look at first.
'I know nothing about the scroll other than the fact that he said to take a look when I returned, I have no idea what's inside or what I'll experience by opening it.'
His gaze shifted to the flask.
'Ten Qi Puddle Pills… he said it would normally take about two full weeks for a normal cultivator of my stage to digest, but I have a feeling it will be shorter for me…' The golden flame flickered in the back of his mind as he stared at the pills.
"No point wasting more time, since I don't know much about the scroll I'll go for it first, no need to save surprises for last!" He said as he reached for the scroll and held it up to inspect it.
It was pitch black but he could make out patterned grooves in the paper showing ever so slightly under the brightstone slight, the white ribbon was wrapped tight around it like it was glued on and near where it was tied was a white square.
'This should be the lock, right?' He thought to himself.
He held the scroll in one hand, and with his other hand he brought his index finger to his mouth and bit the tip ever so lightly just to draw some blood.
Without any hesitation he then planted his bleeding index finger on the white square.
"…" For a few seconds, nothing happened.
"Did I do something wrong?" Shu He frowned as he was about to bring the scroll closer to his eyes to take a look he heard a sound.
Schwschwschwschwschw.
It was a weird crackling sound, like a thousand flames cracking or countless insects skittering about.
'Where's that coming from?' He perked his ears up before he quickly realised it was coming from the scroll in his hands!
Beneath his fingers, the white ribbon was turning red like it was absorbing his blood, he could feel a strange heat growing beneath the skin of his fingers.
"What the?!" He loosened his grip from the scroll and surprise, he expected to see the scroll fling across the room when he did so, but it didn't, instead it stood still suspended in the air.
'?!' Shu He's pupils constricted as he felt a weird force envelop him, it wasn't aggressive instead it felt inviting, he felt it telling him to touch the scroll once more.
He stood up from the floor and step by step slowly walked over to the scroll, the ribbon had turned from red to black as it steadily disintegrated into nothing leaving the bare black scroll.
His hand reached for the scroll and ever so gently he brushed the beautiful black surface with his finger.
SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~
A loud sound resounded and filled his room, the scroll unfolded as it floated in the air, its length far surpassing what should have been possible as it became a wall of text surrounding Shu He on all sides, the text on the paper glowing with an eerie darkness that seemed to morph and undulate constantly.
Meanwhile Shu He was stood stock still, his eyes reflecting the flickering light coming from the scroll, mesmerised he didn't move a single inch.
After the scroll had unfurled itself a red symbol appeared where it originally was, the scarlet light enveloped Shu He, scanning him before silently fading in to nothingness.
And then, the text on the walls began to shine, the light piercing Shu He as his face began to show signs on pain, yet he wasn't sound of mind, he didn't respond only acting like a doll absorbing the light.
However it wasn't such a simple process- The qi in Shu He's body quickly began draining like someone had pulled the plug on his reserves, the more it drained the paler Shu He began looking, his eyes began to turn dull, and his skin started seeming slightly emancipated.
As this was happening, the scroll's light began to slow like it was hesitant, the brightness began to fade, seemingly giving up on whatever it was doing.
But then suddenly-
WOOOSH.
A golden aura burst out from Shu He's body, overflowing with life, his eyes reflected pure gold; far greater than when he used his 'sight'.
This light wasn't just coming from the flame in his body, it was coming from something much, much more profound.
In response the light on the wall like scroll ignited, it began shining like the sun as the text moved many times faster than before, Shu He's body became a storm of stars as they penetrated his body from all angles.
And then it was done.
The text had all left the scroll, it was now as blank as snow, the black patterned scroll now merely simple black paper, it fell to the ground with a clatter.
Shu He's body swayed back and forth before he fell to his knees, the golden aura completely dissipated like it never existed.
The room fell into pure silence for a moment before light began to return to Shu He's eyes.
"Huh?" He let out a gasp as he looked around him.
"What happened?" He saw the scroll laying on the floor and walked up to it, picking it up and taking a look.
"It's blank?" He rolled it up taking a good look along the way, no matter where he looked he couldn't find a single hint that this scroll once had content.
"This can't be…" He took a step and wobbled slightly, falling to his side, and catching himself on a piece of furniture.
'What the hell? My Qi…' He soon realised he had pretty much bottomed out on his Qi which was causing him to feel weak.
He pulled himself on to the floor where the flask of Qi Puddle Pills laid from before and popped the lid off, pulling one out.
'I was going to take one anyway' He thought to himself as he swallowed it.
He felt it enter his body and the outer shell began to dissolve, a strange force interacted with his own qi and soon after the pill began releasing qi in deluges, filling his empty body.
He laid back and moaned a little, he felt like he had just quenched his thirst after walking through a desert for days.
'These pills are great; they work well for qi recovery as well' He though to himself before pulling his body up again and taking another look at the scroll.
'There's really nothing here, but that's definitely not right'.
He tried to recall what he was doing before, he remembered picking up the scroll, examining it and planting his bloody index finger on the seal.
'After that.. nothing.. I remember nothing!' He scratched his head in annoyance.
"The old bastard better not have given me something harmful!" He swore to himself he'd get revenge if so.
'But nothing seems to be happening to me… other than my qi being drained'.
He tried scrubbing his memory to see if he could recall even a fragment of what happened, but to no avail.
'No, wait…'
His brows furrowed greatly, and he closed his eyes.
He could feel it, something there in the back of his mind, but it was like an itch was just out of reach.
"Agh, god damnit!" He couldn't 'touch' those memories, no matter what he did they were just out of reach of his conscious.
He ended up red faced and stressed because he couldn't remember, before long he just decided to give up for now.
'I'll just ask that old codger next time I see him what it was' He thought as he laid back on the cold stone floor, closing his eyes.
For now, he's focus on his cultivation.
Currently he was at the 'Blood Enhancement', he needed to saturate his body with qi and initially awaken his body's meridians, he had done this and now he is working towards the next stage.
Contrary to what one might think, succeeding in one stage doesn't mean passing to the next stage, rather you need to succeed in a stage to be considered it; For the next stage 'Meridian Awakening' even more so, unlike the first two stages there are clear checkpoints to measure someone's progress towards this stage.
For this stage one must fully awaken each of the 12 major meridians in their body, there are 6 yin and 6 yang meridians, they can be awoken in any order however males have an easier time awakening yang meridians and females the yin meridians because their bodies naturally contain these opposing energies.
"Heart, lung, pericardium, liver, kidney, spleen, small intestine, large intestine, sanjiao, urinary bladder, gall bladder, and stomach" He recited the list he had known since he was younger, currently he had managed to awaken 3 meridians, all yang meridians.
So if one were to correctly address his cultivation level he would be '3 Meridian Blood Enhancement'.
Each meridian awoken increased ones qi quality, and the greatest benefit to having all twelve awoken is the qualitive transformation in ones qi and control, it is the ability to externalise their qi!
This is the reason achieving Meridian Awakening is considered the true start for a cultivator; Before this they would at most be considered stronger humans but the ability to externalise qi means the ability to use techniques!
Shu He felt the massive amount of qi rolling about his body from the pill, the was essentially at full capacity already yet even this wouldn't be enough to wake a single meridian, luckily the pill hadn't even been 10% consumed yet! It was still laid in his stomach steadily emitting qi.
Having gotten comfortable laying down he decided to begin cultivating as he always did, steadily he directed his qi through the sanjiao meridian, the one he had been steadily working on, the river of qi was steadily absorbed as Shu He felt a sense of freshness grow in his body as it flowed.
'With this amount of Qi I can work much faster than before!' A smile crept up on his face.