The next couple days passed by quickly and I successfully unblocked all eight meridians, eating my clear stone roots in various ways from mashed with butter and some gravy, to roasted in duck fat, the strange part happened when I ate my last one even after clearing all my meridians. I don’t know what I was expecting but it wasn’t for the same medicinal tingle to start again this time on a ninth meridian. Hurrying I cultivated and found that I did indeed have at least one extra meridian and the next morning I couldn’t help but ask the elder lecturing what it meant.

“Excuse me elder, but is eight truly the maximum number of meridians? This morning I seem to have cleared a ninth.”

A flash of surprise lit up the elders face and soon shock turned to glee.

“Ha ha well done my boy.” This elder was a large, red faced man and whose laugh was deep and chesty. “Indeed there are more than eight although most won’t find them so we don’t bother mentioning them to new recruits. No point getting all of your hopes up for nothing. The truth is that there are four extraordinary meridians, most only discover them at core formation realm if they can reach it. It’s truly rare to see someone so young find them and you said you’ve already cleared one, good job.”

Envy and surprise rippled through the crowd of disciples. Getting praised by one of the elders was extremely rare and hearing that not only had I unblocked all my meridians before most of them had even drawn in their first breath of qi, I had unblocked more than the normal eight.

“By the way what method did you use for impurity cleansing?”

“I traded some qi nourishing pills for clear stone roots elder.”

“Hmm quite unpalatable those, good job.” When he saw my strange expression he questioned me with his eyes.

“They’re actually taste quite good if cooked properly.”

“Oh? A budding spiritual chef as well?” Seeing the confusion echo through the crowd he laughed and began to talk again.

“I suppose todays lecture shall be about the different professions then. As many of you will undoubtedly realise cultivation takes resources and gaining a profession is a great way to meet those demands. There are three most famous ones; pill refining alchemists, weapon refining blacksmiths and formation refining artisans. There are, however, numerous other ways to use qi to make money. For instance spiritual farmers are experts in growing herbs and produce much higher quality herbs than normally grown in the wild and will naturally sell for a higher price, or beast tamers and breeders who rear demonic beasts to keep for food or use as mounts and battle companions. On the subject of food, the best chefs who can work with qi rich ingredients can make delicious tasting meals whilst retaining the natural properties inherent to special ingredients. The results are barely inferior in terms of medicinal output to alchemists but by eating food naturally the body is better at filtering out impurities that can otherwise become more concentrated in pills.”

My eyes lit up listening to him, I always enjoyed cooking and hearing that spiritual chefs weren’t the least inferior to esteemed alchemists gave me another goal to work towards.

“Sadly the profession is much rarer so most have to muddle through by themselves to create recipes rather than the well established pill formulas. We have many alchemists working in the sect, but as far as I know we only have one master spiritual chef.” As he spoke he looked towards the mountain range in awe. “One of the core elders at the soul formation stage. I know he personally cooked for the sect master’s one thousandth birthday banquet just under a decade ago, even the sect masters from other major sects couldn’t help but compliment his food.”

My eyes went wide listening to him talk. Just how strong was soul formation, I hadn’t even heard of it yet and just how long was a thousand years. In my previous life countries could rise and fall in mere centuries, what would it be like to live longer than entire empires could span.

“Anyway,” my focus was brought back to Elder Thomson, “at the end of the month some of you may have the option to move away from this courtyard and join the foot of one of five of the seven mountains that make up the sect. Which you choose, if given the chance, will likely be based on what profession you begin to learn. Jade mountain, is home to the sects formation experts, cauldron mountain holds the alchemists and black hammer point collects blacksmiths. The other two are mount cut, a place of worship for those striving solely for the martial path, especially the way of the sword and spell mountain, full of experts in fighting solely using various profound qi abilities. I would think carefully about where you want to join in the future, whilst changing mountain isn’t impossible, those who fail to stick to a path they set with the determination to see it through won’t survive long in the cultivation world so you will likely be looked down upon by fellow disciples.”

After he finished his lecture I rushed off towards the marketplace and bought another three roots for a qi nourishment pill, after that I spent my day in the library slowly reading through my book of herbs to see if anything might come in handy. I found learning amazingly easy, I had the mental plasticity of a ten year old, with the comprehension abilities of someone in their twenties, not to mention now that I was qi refining my whole head just seemed clearer as if I was constantly in my top condition. I, for once, felt like a real genius, able to pick things up at the drop of a hat.

I did actually find one useful looking ingredient, known as the minor rejuvenation mushroom, it was pure white in colour and had the ability to heal injuries. The magical part was that if the injury was solely non qi related then past faults and minor scar tissue would also be revived.

My current body had taken a battering over the years. In such a hostile environment I was lucky to be alive, so hairline fractures and the odd deep cut were hardly worth mentioning at the time, but I didn’t want them to continue to effect me in the future, so taking the mushroom soup would be a good move.

Sadly I couldn’t be the only one to have this idea and with demand so high they were quite expensive. I would need at least a full tray of mushrooms which would cost me about twenty five gold, the equivalent of almost two qi nourishment pills. With a heavy heart I bought them and came back home pocket much lighter.

Not knowing the best way to prepare these specific mushrooms I decided to go for an old favourite. I used some of the savings I took with me to the sect to buy a baguette, or the closest approximation I could find. After cutting it length ways I gave it a light drizzle with oil and placed it in the stone oven. Only a couple minutes later before it had turned fully golden I rubbed it down with garlic and lined it with crushed garlic and butter before layering on the sliced mushrooms. Placing it back under the heat I waited for the mushrooms to cook and the bread to fully toast before retrieving.

Who doesn’t like garlic mushrooms and who doesn’t like garlic bread. What a perfect combination and the taste was delicious, the creamy butter and strong garlic alongside a pungent umami mushroom flavour. I soon felt a steady warmth rise up in my body and knew it was doing this work, old scars on the hands evaporated on the spot, and inside my body small nerve damage from minor frostbite through the winter was completely restored as well as hollow pockets in my bones filling in. Altogether with the addition of my nourishment pills, I had gone from bruised and battered starving vagrant to the peak of physical fitness in over a week.