Chapter 11: Foundation Establishment
It had been 3 days since Shawn reached the peak of Body Tempering Realm. By now he had condensed 25 Celestial Meridians. Now, only the 7 orifices and 4 limbs were left. According to his cultivation technique, he has to condense the meridian pathway to the orifices before moving on to the limbs. First, the mouth, then the nose, and after that, the ears and finally the eyes. The sun had already set by the time it was done. Shawn had a quick dinner and continued his cultivation. For the limbs, there wasn't any specific order, so he decided to go for the arms first before creating the pathway to the legs.
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The next morning, Shawn looked up as the first rays of dawn pierced through the darkness of the night. In 4 days, he had condensed all 36 Celestial Meridians. If anyone with the bare minimum knowledge about cultivation knew this, they would probably collapse in shock. After all, an average genius took 9 days to condense 9 Perfect Meridians. While Shawn had condensed 4 times that in less than half the time. That is besides the fact that Celestial Meridians are way above Perfect ones. Now Shawn was ready to break through. All he needed to do to enter the next stage was to push all 100,000 wisps of accumulated Qi through all the meridians to open them. Taking a deep breath, Shawn sat down on his balcony and gathered the Qi. He moved them first to the 7 Chakras. Since the 7 chakras were aligned vertically through the middle of the body, it was the easiest to open them.
The feeling of opening the meridians was like a river breaking through dams and blockages. He could feel small tremors throughout his body as he opened the chakras one by one. In no time he had opened all 7 Chakras. Then Shawn started absorbing and refining the Qi in the atmosphere. Since he had 7 open meridians, It only took half a day to fill up his Dantian. At night, he again gathered the Spiritual Qi in his body and this time, pushed through the spine. He could feel a warm current of Qi rushing up his spine, from the Coccyx to the Cervical. In a few minutes, he had opened another 5 meridians. Again, he repeated the process of absorbing Qi and opening Meridians throughout the night. After opening 5 meridians of the spine, he was able to gather the Qi by morning. After each opening, the rate of absorption and refinement of Qi increased exponentially. By the time he gathered the energy for arms and legs, it only took a few hours. After 2 entire days, Shawn opened all 36 Meridians.
"Hahh~ Finally. Now only the final step remains before I break through. Isn't that right, System?"
[Indeed, Host. Since you have opened all 36 Celestial Meridians, you just need to gather the Qi in your Dantian one last time and move it through all 36 Meridians, creating a cycle for cultivation and using techniques. This will also be the new pathway for using Spirit Manipulation and Spirit Amplification.]
The new pathway that was established will be the foundation of his cultivation. That is why it is called 'Foundation Establishment'. This Qi pathway will also be used to cast techniques.
Motivated by the System's words, Shawn gathered Qi for one last time. In just 4 hours he gathered 100,000 wisps of Qi, a stark contrast to the 3 days it took to gather it for the first time. This time, Shawn didn't start from the Chakras, but rather his limbs. Limbs, Orifices, Fu and Zhang Organs, the Spine and lastly the Chakras before entering the Dantian. This will be the route for future Qi absorption. As took as the Qi entered the Dantian, Shawn felt a tremor throughout his body, bigger than the ones he felt after opening the meridians. It was as though his body was breaking out of a shell, trying to unleash its true power. After an audible crack, Shawn felt the familiar feeling of a breakthrough, but much more comfortable. If advancing through minor realms was relaxing, this was heavenly. It was incomparable. Our protagonist took another major step towards his journey to Immortality.
As Shawn was revelling in the afterglow of his breakthrough, he felt something crawling out of his skin. It was a weird feeling. A moment later, Shawn noticed small droplets of a black liquid coming out of his pores. There were so many such droplets that in no time, his attire was ruined. These droplets also carried a horrible stench.
"Eww~ What is this disgusting stuff? SYSTEM, EXPLAIN!"
[No need to be worried, Host. You just secreted the impurities in your body. This will happen after every major breakthrough. So get used to it.]
"Then why didn't you tell me sooner?!"
[Because you never asked, Host]
The system said in an innocent tone, as though it didn't understand what it had done wrong. However, Shawn was buying none of it.
"**** you!" Cursed Shawn, as he ran for the washroom. He took off his clothes and dropped them into the shower with him. He couldn't let his mother see the impurities lest she get suspicious, so he decided to wash them himself. After he was finished with his clothes, he took a nice, hot. After that, he jumped into the bathtub for a long bath.
"Ahhh~. Nothing beats a warm bath after a long day of hard work."
Shawn indulged in a relaxing bath after a successful breakthrough. With the echoes of his breakthrough still lingering, Shawn closed his eyes as his mind drifted into the realm of dreams after days of arduous cultivation.
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A/N: Good day, readers. This is my first Webnovel, so there are bound to be mistakes and some areas might feel lacking. I hope you guys will inform me about any oversights as well as help me increase the quality of my work. I am open to any advice, ideas or suggestions.