His parents were startled and suspicious at the same time. They knew that although Yun Tian was young he wasn’t the type to exaggerate especially when they told him the matter was serious but, they had never heard of someone becoming aware of the qi in the world that quickly before.

To their knowledge, even for supreme geniuses that sense it on their first try it takes hours and for average people it takes numerous attempts through several days or even longer if they could at all. It was all up to the individual as sensing qi wasn’t something you could teach. It instead was purely dependent on talent and opportunity.

Since their son was so smart at such a young age they were sure he had to be a genius when it came to cultivation and that was why they expected to only wait for a few hours for him to sense qi, but for it to have only taken a few minutes left them astounded and in disbelief.

They were excited, but also wanted to make sure he really could sense qi and it wasn't a fluke of some kind. They exchanged glances and Yun Peng said, “Okay Tian, you can open your eyes now. We’re gonna teach you about the first layer of the Meridian Opening Realm now.”

Yun Tian opened his eyes and as his focus left the qi he could no longer feel it there.

He exclaimed, “Woah, I don’t feel it anymore!”

Liu Qing explained, “Once you get used to it and cultivate some more, you will be able to feel it around you all the time. It’s great you were able to sense it so fast, but now you have to be extremely serious and pay great attention to what we’re about to teach you okay?”

Yun Tian nodded and his mom proceeded to teach him.

“The goal of the Meridian Opening Realm is to open several acupoints in your skin which the meridians in the body use to connect to the outside world and absorb qi. The qi would then travel through the body enhancing it, while enlarging and strengthening your meridians at the same time. In the end, the qi would ultimately be absorbed by the dantian in your abdomen.”

She continued, "You have to open your acupoints and meridian channels in a specific order and each one will get harder after the last.”

They then taught him this specific order and even gave him a book that went into much greater detail and even included pictures to be used as examples when you go through the process yourself.

Yun Tian read through the first part about opening the acupoint on his heel and connecting meridians. After he familiarized himself with it, which took him around 10 minutes, he asked his parents whatever questions he had.

They answered his questions one by one and then even gave him a little quiz on the various parts. They trusted him, but he was still young so they still wanted to double check that he was ready.

Once they were sure he had it all down, Yun Peng asked, “Are you ready then?”

Yun Tian nodded and said, “Yes,” with a smile betraying his extreme excitement.

“Go ahead and gain a sense for the qi around you again then. After that, what you have to do is to focus all your thoughts on drawing a strand of qi into the acupoint on your heel. Imagine it flowing or even stabbing into your acupoint,” his mother instructed him.

He nodded before closing his eyes and sitting back down in a meditative posture again. He went through his mothers instructions as he cleared his mind and gained a feeling for the qi around him once again. It was even easier with past experience and took him less than a minute. Afterwards he tried to do as his mother said and focused all his thoughts on drawing some of the qi near his heel into the acupoint there.

At first he did not know how to achieve this and only continued to focus on the strand along with trying to urge it to his acupoint however he could. He imagined some force pulling it to his acupoint and while this worked the qi was moving extremely slowly. He did his best to imagine it moving faster but nothing worked. Suddenly, he felt his acupoint also had a very slight suction force on the qi so he tried focusing his thoughts on that instead. He imagined directing that force to absorb the qi along with his thoughts of drawing in the qi.

Immediately, it moved much faster and finally, along with the suction force and his urgings a strand of invisible qi came directly to the outside of his acupoint. He then tried pulling it inside and opening his acupoint completely.

It was pulled towards his closed acupoint. It got so close it touched it and pushed against it. Along with some slight pain, it very slightly opened and enlarged it before going inside. He continued to direct this strand of qi along his meridian and felt something open and enlarge within his leg. He couldn’t see his meridians or anything like that, but as the qi travelled along them he could just feel where they were. It felt quite magical to him.

The qi travelled throughout his body’s meridians as he was told and it finally ended up in his dantian where whatever little qi that was left was absorbed. He could no longer feel it after that.

The beginning was a little painful but after that the whole process was soothing and he felt like something warm was flowing throughout his body. After he felt the strand disappear into his dantian, he felt more full of energy than ever before.

This was merely the after effects of the qi travelling throughout his body. The Meridian Opening Realm was purely a foundational realm for before you open up your dantian and are truly able to utilize qi. In this realm you would be stronger than normal people, but your strength was still not very great yet.

After he got out of his stupor, he opened his eyes and said, “Mom, Dad I had the qi enter my acupoint and then travel though my meridians ultimately ending up in my dantian like you said.” 

They had been watching Yun Tian with a vigilant gaze the entire time in case something went wrong. When they saw Yun Tian open his eyes they were somewhat worried, but hearing his words they were extremely happy. This meant that what happened before was not a fluke and their son was a genius.

They both jumped up and hugged him saying things like “That’s our little Tian!” or “I knew my son would be a genius!”

After they did this for a while though, they stopped and seriously reminded Yun Tian, “Tian you are extremely talented, that is for sure. But don’t think talent is all there is to cultivation. Hard work is extremely important too. You have to continue to follow that same pattern over and over again drawing in qi and letting it travel through your meridians. If you don’t work hard it doesn’t matter how talented you are.”

Even though they were happy that their son was a genius they did not want him to get arrogant and not practice hard. They reminded him that cultivation cannot be completed in an instant and needed constant practice to become stronger. Especially with this foundational realm. He needed to repeat this practice over and over to completely open his acupoint while also enlarging and strengthening his meridians.

Yun Tian took his parents' advice to heart as he always did and went back to practicing hard after his parents said, “Go through the process a few more times to make sure you got it down. We’ll stop after an hour.”

He repeated the process from earlier and continued absorbing qi to enlarge and strengthen his meridian. He did this for a whole hour getting slightly faster with each time and absorbing a tiny bit more qi each time. After the hour was over, his mom said, “Okay, you seem to have it down. Make sure to rest and not persist for too long. I’m sure you can feel your body getting more energetic but it's your mind that needs some time to rest instead.”

Yun Tian opened his eyes at her words and tried to see how he felt to see if what his mom said was right.

“You’re right mom. I’m a little tired, but I feel like I can keep on going for a while longer no problem.”

His father’s face became stern as he cautioned, “Tian don’t overdo it. You can still cultivate for a while longer after we leave, but at most you can go for another two hours. You promise?”

Yun Tian felt slightly reluctant to only go for two hours after just how good he was feeling after cultivating, but he always listened to his parents. He wasn’t like most kids with his above average intelligence and he knew that whatever his parents said was them watching out for him and was what’s best for him.

So, he said, “Okay, I promise.”