'Gba gba gba!!!!!!!
Li woke to the sound of someone banging on his door furiously.
Groggily got up from his bed feeling as if he had done all the work in the world. He moved carefully to the door and opened it.
'Li, sect master wants you now' a blue-robed sect disciple told him and then turned and walked away without giving Li the opportunity to say anything
Li walked back to his wardrobe and put on his sect robe. The scene he had just witnessed flashed in his mind over and over again.
Was it a dream, he asked himself. But it looked so real, he told himself again, succeeding in confusing himself with his thought.
He walked along the corridors, perfunctorily bowing to everyone he saw absentmindedly. The dream wouldn't leave his head, deep-thinking of the scenes he saw, his lookalike and the people wanting to collect something from him. He was very confused and didn't know what it all meant.
Soon Li found himself in front of the door to the sect master's quarters. He knocked softly and hearing the master's voice, opened the door and went in.
'Li greets master' he said with a bow
'Li' smiled the sect master at him 'hope you like your quarters?
'Yes master. I've never slept in that kind of room or bed before' Li replied shyly
'Good, good' the sect master laughed heartily at Li's response. His laughter made Li become shy and uncomfortable.
'Don't be shy. Now sit down, I have some lessons to impart to you' sect master commanded him.
Li sat down in the lotus position exactly how the sect master had sat and watched him intently.
'Li' sect master began saying earnestly 'You have great power as shown from your potential test and we need to groom you properly to harness that power. While you are cultivating, know that you must choose a path that you will follow, although it is not yet time. You can only choose a path after your bloodline awakening. Is this clear so far?
'Yes master' Li replied
'Good. Now know that you need to control your Qi. You've awakened your Qi according to master Han, right? Sect master asked
'Yes master' Li replied
'Now show me' sect master commanded
'I-I-I-I-I don't understand master' Li stammered
'Close your eyes. Concentrate deep within you, close out every other thought but my voice. Concentrate deeply, feel the energy that is running through you and locate its source' sect master commanded.
Li did exactly as his master commanded, breathing deeply before exhaling. Concentrating on his inner being, trying to locate what the sect master told him to locate. At first there was nothing.
'Don't panic. Just take it slow. Breathe in and out, in and out. Concentrate deeply. Ignore all sounds'
Li continued to do exactly as his master commanded and then after what seemed like hours but was in fact only about fifteen minutes, Li saw several tiny bright red lights moving all over the inside of his body. He felt 'saw' the light moving all over his body.
'Concentrate on the source of the light. Try to trace the light to its source' Li heard the voice of the sect master as if from a very far distance. He did as instructed, improvising along the way by isolating one of the tiny streams and following it all the way to its beginning. There he saw a burst of light as if several fireworks were converging.
He was amazed at the sight and could only look in wonder at the wonderful display of light somewhere around his navel.
'Its beautiful' he gasped, opening his eyes in shock and losing the sight. He hurriedly closed his eyes again and concentrated. A beautiful smile escaped his lips and he couldn't help but sigh in wonder.
'Good! Good! Good! Sect master exclaimed with three repetitive sounds of good. 'Now trace each of the streams back and tell me what you see. Don't open your eyes, just describe what you see.'
Li did as he was told as he kept scrutinising the tiny stream of light one after the other. First thing he noticed was a major stream from his heart area to his navel. He noticed that the stream was slightly larger than all the others. Then he suddenly saw that there was a kind of bump just before his heart causing the flow there to be reduced and sluggish.
He checked further and saw that there was a total of thirteen bumps obstructing thirteen streams of light and limiting their flow.
But Li noticed something strange. There were very many tiny dots of very deep, deeper red than the streams of light flowing through the inside of his body. The tiny dots were quite many and seemed to be very independent.
Li then described this scene to the sect master still with eyes closed, but something told him not to say anything about the tiny redder dots he saw in the streams of light. So, he kept quiet about that part and just described the tiny streams of light.
He was however, reluctant to let go of the sight of the light streams.
'Now open your eyes' the sect master commanded
Li sighed in disappointment as he opened his eyes and lost the wonderful sight.
'Don't be disappointed. You will see more of it as you cultivate. Now listen. The tiny stream of light is your Qi. It has been awakened that's why you can see it as a stream of light. Those bumps you saw, obstructing and limiting the flow of the stream of light are your meridians. You can notice that each one is situated very close to a vital part of your body; your heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas, eyes and your limbs.
'While cultivating, what you do is supply energy to those streams of light, making them bigger and flow better. Before this can be done however, you must cultivate and open each of your meridians. That means unblocking each of those bumps to allow for easier flow of Qi. Do you understand? Sect master asked.
'Yes master' Li replied in awe
'So, you must cultivate diligently in order to open all thirteen of your meridians before you are nine years old. You must learn control. The stage where you open your meridians one after the other is the Qi opening stage which is the stage after Qi awakening which you have done.
"Opening all your meridians allows you to move to the next stage of cultivation which is the Qi nourishing stage. Some genius open all their meridians by eight years of age while everyone, even someone with the most mediocre of talents should open all their meridians by nine years old. Do you understand? Sect master asked
'Yes master' Li replied as he listened with rapt attention, fascinated by all he was hearing from his master.
'Now cultivate fervently everyday so you can open all your meridians by nine years at the latest' sect master instructed
'How master? Asked Li in confusion
'Meditate with the cultivation manual you were given at the discipleship pavilion. That is the sect Qi opening cultivation chant. Make sure to chant the sutra on it as you meditate on it daily, like this' explained the sect master, demonstrating to Li how to cultivate.
Li could see tiny streams of almost invisible light flowing into his master as he closed his eyes and breath in and out, silently repeating the sect cultivation technique for Qi opening.
Li sat with mouth open in shock and disbelieve as he watched this scene, wishing he could go back to his room and try it for himself.
'Do you understand everything? His master asked him
'Yes master' he replied eagerly.
'Have you had anything to eat? Master asked
'No master, I fell asleep immediately I got into my room. I was very excited to see the bed and all the things in it. I slept off immediately I hit the bed' Li replied with excitement and then suddenly became shy when he saw the Sect master's laughing face.
'Hahahahahahahaha' Laughed sect master 'No need to be shy and nothing to be ashamed of. You should have seen me when I first saw my quarters in the sect. I was just five years old from a poor family. I slept on the floor because I was afraid to sleep on the soft bad I had never seen in my poor village'.
Li was shocked to hear what the sect master said.
'Yes Li, I am also from a poor family. Although not an orphan, we were quite poor and barely had enough to eat. Sleeping was done on the bare floor covered with straw. Being identified as someone with a great talent allowed me to embark on the cultivation journey and saved me from abject poverty.' Sect master reminisced as he stared into the distance, lost to the presence of Li, thinking about his family that had died hundreds of years ago.
He sighed as he came back to his senses and looked sharply at Li.
'Good. Now do you have anything to tell me? sect master asked him suddenly out of the blues.