Chapter 97: Breakthrough

A pavilion stood atop a hill. Beside it, Meng Shanming sat in his wheelchair while Shang Shuqing stood behind him with both hands on the chair. The two watched the cave across from them, watched Niu Youdao enter, watched the curtain fall across the entrance, and watched Yuan Gang and Yuan Fang take up their positions outside.

Meng Shanming asked, "Judging by his appearance, he can't be very old, can he?"

Shang Shuqing thought for a moment.

"He went to the Shangqing Sect when he was still a boy, then spent five years under house confinement there before I invited him down the mountain. Calculating from that, he definitely isn't old. He should be around my age."

Meng Shanming stared toward the cave and slowly nodded. Then, unexpectedly, he sighed with feeling.

"Remarkable. Truly remarkable! Mr. Dong Guo certainly knew how to judge people. No wonder he accepted him as a disciple on his deathbed. The Shangqing Sect may have let an enormous opportunity slip through its fingers!"

Shang Shuqing's gaze shifted from the cave to Meng Shanming.

Curious, she asked, "Uncle Meng, isn't it perfectly normal for cultivators to enter seclusion? Why do you sound so impressed?"

Meng Shanming said, "I'm not a cultivator, but in my younger days I had a great deal of contact with them, so I understand a little. Secluded cultivation is normal, yes, but not like this. In ordinary cultivation, a person can stop at any time and deal with any sudden problem himself. There is another kind of seclusion, however: when a cultivator is breaking through a bottleneck and advancing into the next major realm. At that time, a cultivator is extremely vulnerable and has almost no ability to defend himself. Even a three-year-old child might be able to kill him. He cannot tolerate disturbance. At best, an interruption may limit his cultivation for the rest of his life. At worst, he may suffer cultivation deviation. In more serious cases, he may even die. Look at how carefully he's prepared, as though facing a great enemy. He even asked us to post guards throughout the surrounding area. Which kind of seclusion do you think this is?"

Shang Shuqing's heart tightened.

"It looks like the second kind!"

Meng Shanming nodded.

"That's how it looks to me as well. You said you saw him fight at Nanshan Temple, and that his three senior brothers were all defeated by him with ease. Taken together with what we're seeing now, I suspect he is attempting to break through into the Foundation Establishment Realm. Nine chances out of ten, that's exactly what this is. To attempt the Foundation Establishment Realm at such a young age should be extremely rare even in the cultivation world. Given time, his future prospects may be limitless. If he emerges successfully... Commandery Princess, you must remind His Highness to maintain good relations with this man. Do not become a second Shangqing Sect."

Shang Shuqing nodded softly.

"I'll remember, Uncle Meng."

Inwardly, however, she thought, I've been doing exactly that all along.

"He shouldn't be coming out anytime soon. Let's go."

Meng Shanming spoke calmly. Shang Shuqing turned the wheelchair and slowly pushed him down the mountain. At the slope, several men came forward to help carry the wheelchair down...

Inside the cave, as the oil lamp went out, Niu Youdao's body and mind gradually sank into the darkness. There were no distracting thoughts. Suddenly, a point of light bloomed within that darkness and spread outward. The gate of the body opened, and his consciousness entered. Cultivators called this inner vision.

When perception of the body's internal state reached a certain extreme, every detail came together into a complete whole. Structure and form naturally emerged, and everything within the body appeared in the mind as a clear image.

The same principle applied elsewhere: once every detail of a thing was understood, one had at least grasped its general shape. The instant Niu Youdao focused his awareness inward, every change in his body became clear within his mind.

Golden and silver light revolved slowly around one another. There were two such pairs, one within each of the Ren and Du meridians. Dense qi force coiled around them, ready at any moment to erupt with tremendous power. For a cultivator, this was an unusual phenomenon.

Under normal circumstances, when a cultivator's true qi settled, its source rested within the sea of qi in the dantian.

Niu Youdao, however, possessed two sources of true qi, one in the Ren meridian and one in the Du meridian. There was an advantage to this. His qi could be triggered with extraordinary speed, allowing him to react to external changes almost instantly.

The remaining thirty-one Transmission Protective Talismans were still inside him, each spread like a spiderweb through one of the same thirty-one acupoints where Dong Guo Haoran had planted them. There had originally been thirty-six. One had been destroyed when he dealt with the crows at Small Temple Village. One had been used when he nearly froze to death while drifting on the bamboo raft. Another had been consumed when he resisted Tang Susu's attack. Two more had gone into cultivating the Qiankun Art.

That left thirty-one. After leaving the Shangqing Sect, he had essentially stopped daring to refine them. If he kept refining and absorbing their power, his true qi would become increasingly full and forceful until his meridians burst. Foundation Establishment. As the name implied, it meant constructing a stronger foundation. And the foundation through which qi traveled was the meridian network. The purpose of this seclusion was to break through into the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Breaking through meant forging stronger meridians, turning channels capable of carrying only a small stream into riverbeds able to withstand the surge of a mighty river.

Once his essence, qi, and spirit had all been adjusted to their optimal state, the two pairs of golden and silver lights within the Ren and Du meridians suddenly accelerated. The four lights converged.

Together, they rushed toward one of the Transmission Protective Talismans entrenched within an acupoint and began circling it at high speed. Hot and cold qi intertwined, refining it.

Under normal circumstances, a cultivator attempting to break through into the Foundation Establishment Realm required a considerable supply of Spirit Essence Pills.

These pills were among the most important cultivation resources beneath Heaven. Refined from spirit herbs, they contained large amounts of spiritual qi.

Whenever a disciple of a sect reached the point of a breakthrough, the sect would normally provide pills to assist him. Niu Youdao had no such conditions. The Shangqing Sect had confined him for five years without giving him so much as a single pill. To this day, he had never even tasted a Spirit Essence Pill.

Fortunately, Dong Guo Haoran had used his own life-source Dharma essence to plant thirty-six Transmission Protective Talismans within Niu Youdao's body.

And fortunately, Niu Youdao cultivated the Qiankun Art, which could refine foreign true qi within the body and turn it into his own.

In practical terms, the Transmission Protective Talismans Dong Guo Haoran had left inside him contained vastly more spiritual qi than ordinary pills.

To make a comparison, spiritual qi was like dust scattered through the air, while life-source Dharma essence was like that same dust condensed into solid stone. The difference was obvious.

That was also why a single Transmission Protective Talisman, once released in the form of energy, had possessed enough power to block one strike from Tang Susu, a Golden Core Realm cultivator. The two pairs of golden and silver spheres whirled around the Transmission Protective Talisman. Niu Youdao pushed the refining speed to its limit. The four spheres continuously refined Dong Guo Haoran's life-source Dharma essence and directly absorbed the resulting true qi. They drank it in ravenously.

The more they absorbed, the more vigorous the four spheres seemed to become, their radiance growing increasingly brilliant. But Niu Youdao, the vessel containing them, came under ever greater pressure.

The more true qi the golden and silver spheres absorbed, the fuller and more forceful the qi they radiated became. Niu Youdao could feel his meridians gradually swelling beneath that pressure. The expansion continued. And with every passing moment, the strain on the meridians increased. Gradually, pain appeared on Niu Youdao's face in the darkness. Fine beads of sweat seeped from his skin. The meridians throughout his body were being forced open and torn apart bit by bit. And he could not stop.

He had to continue. Worse, he had to guide the expanding pressure evenly. He could not allow one region to burst while another remained intact. Every meridian in his body had to be torn open at roughly the same rate. He was inflicting the suffering on himself deliberately. The pain of ripping apart one's own body from within could be imagined. He had no idea how long the process lasted.

Eventually, every meridian throughout his body had expanded to nearly twice its original width, its surface covered in countless tiny fissures.

Only when Niu Youdao sensed that he had reached the limit, that another moment of pressure might cause the entire meridian network to collapse, did he finally stop refining and absorbing the talisman's power. His hands trembled from the pain as they slowly rose before his chest. He shaped them as though cradling a sphere and began to rotate them gently.

Inside his body, the two pairs of golden and silver spheres surged into the meridians of his limbs and organs. They circulated continuously through the Great Heavenly Cycle.

At the same time, the spheres began releasing their own energy. Golden and silver motes scattered along their path, countless points of starlight pouring outward. Those motes began seeping into the innumerable fissures covering his meridians. Only then did bitterness give way to sweetness. Where the starlight entered the wounds, one kind felt warm and another refreshingly cool. The sensation was so comfortable that it seemed his very soul might float free of his body.

After the agony and extreme exhaustion, that comfort made him desperately want to sleep. Niu Youdao fought to remain conscious. He forced himself to stay awake.

If he failed to inject this transformative energy into the damaged meridians now and make them stronger and tougher, everything he had done would be wasted. Worse, the injured meridians themselves would be ruined, leaving him unable to circulate qi ever again. The reason was simple. His meridians had already been expanded to the absolute limit of what they could endure. Once all those wounds healed, there would be no second chance to tear them open the same way.

If he tried to force them apart under pressure again, they would simply burst. The golden and silver motes continued spilling outward. As they did, the radiance surrounding the four spheres gradually faded. Niu Youdao had no idea how long the process continued. He no longer had the strength to calculate time. There was only one thing left to do. Endure. And endure again. At last, all the light surrounding the two pairs of spheres disappeared completely. Their golden and silver cores were revealed.

Even those had dimmed, and the spheres could barely continue rotating. Only then did Niu Youdao finally stop. He slowly opened his eyes. Everything before him was black. He could see nothing. He tried to move. He discovered that even lifting a finger was almost impossible. The slightest motion brought terrible pain. A movement any larger than that made him feel as though he would collapse. His fleshly body could no longer maintain its balance under his own control.

So he called weakly into the darkness.

"Monkey... Monkey... Monkey..."

He did not know how many times he called. At last, Yuan Fang's voice faintly came from outside.

"Master Yuan, Master Dao seems to be calling you."

Yuan Fang's hearing was still the sharper of the two. A flash of light suddenly appeared from the direction of the cave entrance as someone lifted the curtain. Once they truly heard and confirmed Niu Youdao's voice, hurried footsteps approached. A fire lighter flared. The oil lamp in one corner was lit. Yuan Gang carried the lamp while Yuan Fang followed him over. The first thing they smelled was blood. When they finally saw Niu Youdao clearly, both men were badly startled.

He looked as though he had been coated in blood and left to dry. A crust had formed over the surface of his body. His features were almost unrecognizable. His eyes were dim and weak.

"Master Dao, what happened to you?"

Yuan Gang's expression changed dramatically as he reached out to support him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Don't move me. I can't be moved around right now..."

Niu Youdao weakly shook his head. He knew perfectly well where the blood coating him had come from. During the breakthrough, it had seeped slowly from the pores all over his body. Hearing that, Yuan Gang immediately let go. Tension appeared on a face that was usually expressionless.

"Master Dao, what do you need me to do?"

Niu Youdao asked weakly, "How long was I in seclusion?"

Yuan Fang immediately answered, "Nine days! Master Dao, you were in seclusion for nine full days!"

Nine days?

Niu Youdao gave a miserable smile. Nine days without a drop of water. No wonder he was so thirsty. A faint rasp escaped his throat.

"Water... thirsty... water..."

Yuan Gang nodded repeatedly. Then he turned and saw Yuan Fang leaning in with his head extended, staring up and down at Niu Youdao in open curiosity. Yuan Gang's temper flared instantly. His leg shot out. Caught completely off guard, Yuan Fang was kicked hard enough to roll down the stone steps.

Yuan Gang roared, "What are you staring at? Water! Didn't you hear him? Go get it!"

[End of Chapter 97]