*Swish!*

A sword cut through the air with ease, as a young fox girl’s tail fluttered ever so slightly as she spun her body around and slashed down once more, splitting the straw dummy in half. The young fox girl landed on the ground and looked at what she did with a bit of disdain in her eyes. “It took two strokes…. This is not even close to being enough….”

“Little one, you can not be hasty. The path of cultivation is always long.” Elder Eijiro walked over and placed his old hand on Yuki’s head. “Your progress can already be considered top grade. You are close to opening your meridians, are you not?”

“Mmm…. I will be trying for the first time tonight.” Yuki replied with a nod of her head.

“Good, here.” Elder Eijiro pulled out a porcelain bottle and handed it to Yuki. “Do not tell the others. I have kept this for many years, and there is only one left, but it will help you in opening your meridians. This is called a qi pill. It is only a level one pill, but it is enough for someone who has yet to even enter the first fate. If you are lucky, it will be enough to open more than one meridian. You should take great care during the meridian opening phase. Open as many as you can before progressing to the meridian cleansing phase.”

“Mmm… I did plan on that, but the method I have does not mention how many meridians one can open….” Yuki read that the more one could open, the stronger one would become. But she did not know what the max amount of meridians a person could have.

“Legend states that there are one hundred and eight altogether. But even I do not have more than ten open. So I am not sure if this is true or not. It could be, but only those who stand above the heavens can reach this state.” Elder Eijiro explained.

Yuki’s eyes sparkled. If she could open up one hundred and eight, just how powerful would she be in the future? It was at this moment that Yuki decided this would be her goal. She would open up all one hundred and eight of her meridians! Elder Eijiro saw what Yuki was planning, but he did not say anything. He wanted to give the little girl something to strive for, after all…. The full circle of the body fortification realm was her end point on her path of cultivation. Elder Eijiro thought about the cultivation method in his room and sighed as he shook his head. He used his old hand to scratch Yuki’s ears as he said: “Only those who work hard can become extremely powerful.”

Yuki innocently nodded her head as she ran off with the porcelain bottle in hand. Watching her tail swish back and forth happily, Elder Eijiro began to wonder if he was doing the right thing. “Should I really hinder her path?”

“We can only do as our ancestors have done. If she were to go further down the path of cultivation, she would only bring danger to herself and to us. We have lived thousands of years hidden away from the world. We shall do so for many more.” An old ancient voice entered Elder Eijiro’s ears. He sighed and nodded his head before turning around and walking back to his seat within the training grounds.

Yuki quickly returned to her courtyard and sat down in her favorite spot under the old ancient tree. She sat with her legs crossed and looked at the porcelain bottle in her hand. After taking a deep breath, Yuki opened the porcelain bottle and let the pill roll out into the palm of her hand. Her eyes lit up seeing the gem like pill. It was a milky white with a few darkish spots, but to her, it was a treasure beyond treasures. Her first qi pill! A pill that, once swallowed, would give her a burst of spiritual qi to help her cultivate with.

To her, this was very precious and something she did not wish to use. But she knew now, when she was about to open her meridians, she would need as much spiritual qi as possible in order to do it. From the other children, she learned when they opened theirs, they only got one meridian opened, which seemed to be the standard. For her, she wanted to open as many as Elder Eijiro all in one go! And then she would keep pushing, trying to open more and more until she had all one hundred and eight before she moved on to the next phase of her cultivation!

Yuki had read many cultivation novels but to actually have one of those fabled pills in her hand was just too amazing for her. She almost could not bear to use it, but she had no choice if she wanted to become stronger. She took a deep breath, and after gazing at the pill for a few more seconds, she popped it into her mouth and began following the process of opening meridians.

The meridian opening phase consisted of actually taking in spiritual qi through the pores of her skin. This was not an easy task, as it required a lot of hard work and training to reach this point. And this process was very painful. Once you are able to successfully pull the spiritual qi into your body, you then have to guide it to the first meridian. This was called your fate meridian, and it was the first step to becoming able to break into the realm of real cultivation.

But for Yuki, she could skip using her pores to take in spiritual qi since she had just taken a qi pill if she so chose to. But the more spiritual qi you can gather, the higher the chances of opening more meridians. With her eyes closed, she could feel the surge of spiritual qi well up in her body. When she first put the pill into her mouth, it had instantly melted and turned into a pure qi essence that slipped down her throat and spread throughout her body. She was currently gathering this spiritual qi and forcing it down to her fate meridian.