Sunshine glared at me through the window, slashing my sleep-deprived face in brilliant gold, ethereal gold made by the infinite torch with no handle in the sky.

I'm getting poetic, must be sleep deprivation finally kicking in and don't dare blame me for not sleeping on time, it's that this manual is so good, I can actually start to see why cultivators are so strong and how Qi is the most powerful substance in existence.

First, you have to know the source of the mystical all-powerful Qi, all life has Qi, no matter how small or big, they all will have Qi even if the creature is incredibly small, it is generated in a place called the dantian, for humans, it's just below where the rib cage ends and the stomach starts, this place is a sort of space outside of your body, the book called it a "sub-dimension", this sub-dimension generates Qi in a constant amount no matter the time or the status of the body, it will always stay stable.

The generated Qi then gets let out of the dantian and into the body, being guided by blood flow until it had spread to every part of the body, granting everywhere it settled strengthened properties to its main functions, but by the number of times the Qi has split the effects are minuscule.

So it instantly becomes clear what would be the step towards progress, it would be taking control of the Qi flow and guiding it towards the places where you want, sounds easy? it isn't it, you see Qi likes places where it had been in, it's intimate with familiarity, the more traveled a place is, the harder it is to dissuade Qi from abandoning it, one of the reasons why someone can't change from a speed demon to an iron-hard brute, their paths already set because Qi doesn't like to move from places in the body it visits most.

In actuality it's nearly impossible for someone to sense their own Qi because the feel of the Qi has been so 'normal' that it isn't even registered for the conscious mind, it had been there since people were in the womb, and its unchanging nature made the mind dismiss it as background information, like the beating of the heart or breathing, although even deeper entrenched into the unconscious, the only plausible way to dig out this sense is to spend 20 years in constant meditation at the age of 10 or, make someone put their own Qi into you, alerting the mind of the change in the normally consistent sense, but this alerting of the mind only happens to few, and even then, the sense is mostly dulled and not very responsive for the majority, as they say, 'heightened sensation equates to more talent'.

Now, can you blame me for my sleep deprivation? I can actually feel the Qi flowing inside me now that I really pay attention, the dantian is most distinctive, then the heart and the lungs, and afterward are the other internal organs, then the limbs and finally the external organs, but trying to feel anything deeper is quite impossible for me at the moment.

The more Qi you can feel, the more you can control, I have the vague feeling of controlling only half of the dantian, the other half was going through its usual route.

I shook my head, the first step is to guide the Qi to where I want it, to the part I want to improve, that would be the brain but that is inefficient, the manual is essentially a medical journal of places in the brain where the most improvement could be had when Qi is inserted into it, and the places to avoid, like the metaphorical nodes in the brain connected to various dimensions, energies, and entities, but that is not important now.

Crossing my legs and interlocking my fingers, I closed my eyes and delved into my body, feeling my bloodstream in a vivid heat, how it gutters at the ends, I focused into the source, pulling with my will on the Qi stream, only half responded but it resisted ferociously, but it was weak, indeed the paths it had flowed in had been traveled many many times, alas its imprint was weak, I guiding it through specific streams mentioned in the booklet, it coursed through the heart, then took the way into the brain, I guided more into the left part of the brain than the right, letting it flood into it and making sure it didn't go into any places it shouldn't have.

I took a deep breath as the Qi settled, my mind starting to ramp up, my thoughts accelerating, many ideas popping up, memories long forgotten turning into faint feelings and images, my senses also expanded, my eyes didn't get better but my brain processed more and dismissed less, but strangely I didn't feel the strengthening of my Qi sense, it stayed the same.

I guided the Qi for two hours until it settled down and kept to the same path from source to the brain.

I wanted to really test how much better I've improved, and damn me if I didn't learn a way to defend myself, I bet a lot of people who spent their Qi in the more physical aspects would be ready to throw down the moment someone even hinted at a fight.

With my new smartness I chose the bow and arrow, with my fast thinking and better sensing, I could calculate trajectory from the power of the pull of the string to the wind direction and its speed being felt on my skin, and I wouldn't even have to get close to someone who most probably spent their Qi into their muscles, I would be in a very big disadvantage if anyone got into close-quarters combat, but I could post a significant threat if I could constantly hit headshot or even eye shots because even stone-skinned giants can't protect the eyes, and you can't fight if you can't see.

I exited my home and followed the signs to the training grounds, the road I took was fairly packed with cultivators in white clothing and the servants clothed in a subdued brown, the two parties were separated with a social barrier, never to interact or relate in any way.

That struck me in my core, only a short time ago I would have been the same as the servants, one among many and subservient to literal superior beings, whose bodies could shatter stone and could think a magnitude higher, a gulf between mortal humans and cultivators.

I would still harbor affection and love for my family, but we wouldn't be in the same world, I swept the feelings of sadness and resignation from my mind as I entered the vast training ground, many we're sparing with wooden weaponry and further in we're sparing with cold steel, taking bone-crushing blows and still fighting with the vigor of bulls, there was also the race track, were they ran so fast that they blurred.

I strode into the archery range, although it was less archery and more elemental slugging range, cultivators that throw wind slashes with their arms, fireballs with their right hand and water bullets in their left, when they stomped the ground earth rose and fell like hammers on the strawman, I even saw a martial artist going through stances while throwing bolts of lightning.

I go towards the weapons rack and jammed several quivers full of metal-tipped arrows and stopped at the variety of bow shapes, some looked longer than others, I shrugged and picked the tallest looking one, go big or go home, I positioned myself away from any of the other people and readied myself for the gruesome amount of shots I would have to do, and if that doesn't work, I may possibly get a personal trainer, but I at least have to try by lonesome.

I took a breath and fired my first arrow and missed, missed by quite a bit *sigh*, this is going to take me quite a while isn't it?