Jeanean

Todays chapter is a little longer, please enjoy!

Two months later.

-I finally made it to this point! The last two months bore great results and I can finally attempt the breakthrough. But it certainly is a bit strange, I had so many questions and no one could answer them for. I found the answers by myself in the end, but did they never wonder about what these impurities they expel even are? After all its so much that it can't be healthy if they actually were inside someone's body, especially in these amounts.

The same goes for the method of breaking through, just saying: „condense all your Qi in your dantian and figure the rest out by yourself."

Isn't that too much? Do they not want their disciples to become stronger? Even I could figure out a better way just by knowing enough about meridians and their placement.

Well, let's see if my theories can keep up in reality.-

It was early in the morning and she had just reached the limit of the Qi-gathering realm on the day before.

Like physical matter, Qi had three very similar states. The most common one was a gaseous form that one could find almost everywhere in nature as well as a fluid form that only condensed in places where the Qi density reached extreme heights. The last one, the solid form, could only be found in precious treasure plants where that took very long times to condense.

The first three realms if cultivation went in exactly the same order.

During the first realm, the Qi-gathering realm, one had to attract and absorb the gaseous Qi into their body, slowly pushing out the impurities in their muscles and organs to make space for the Qi.

Xu Ran had actually been rather surprised with her old self, why she had never asked herself what these impurities even were, especially since it wasn't all that hard to figure out.

The answer to that question was the five common elements. Fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. These five elements had the property of supporting and suppressing each other, which in nature had the effect of them acting like water and oil, never properly mixing.

But if the Qi entered the body of a living thing, it would be put under the control of the mind occupying the body. But a human baby obviously wasn't able to control that Qi creating a situation were it couldn't move for a long time unlike in nature. Under those conditions, the five different kinds of Qi would slowly start to mix with each other and the mind would instinctively suppress the supportive nature to ensure that the Qi wouldn't create a chain reaction and go out of control, harming the body. On the downside, this meant that the body would naturally accumulate dead Qi, Qi were the elements suppressed each other to a degree were it became completely useless.

But that was only the start, elemental Qi was made up of two components. First, the „pure" Qi, and second, the elemental particles that would give the Qi special properties.

If dead Qi is created, what was actually mixing were only the elemental particles, but in that process, they would acquire another property, which is to repel pure Qi.

Due to that, the human body would constantly accumulate elemental Qi, but while the pure Qi got expelled from the body, only the elemental particles would remain.

Those were the impurities. And just like it wasn't possible to dissolve a stone in water, one had to put pressure on them and slowly push them out.

The process of breaking through to the Qi-circulation realm was almost the same. After all, impurities were pushed out of the muscles and organs the density of the Qi in the cultivator's body would slowly start to rise until it would condense into its fluid state. But that was were the first hurdle occurred on the path of cultivation.

While condensing Qi into its liquid state, had the advantage of increasing its power and the cultivator's control over it, making spells and techniques possible, it would harm the cultivator's body, making it necessary to find a new place to store it.

The answer to that was the dantian.

Focusing her mind, Xu Ran started to recall all the meridians from the book.

-First are the three main meridians which are directly connected to the dantian. Also called the vertical meridians. One going from the dantian down the right leg and into the foot before going back up along the side of the body, then into the right arm, hand, back through the shoulder until it loops back to the dantian. The second is just an exact copy of the first just mirrored. The third one is the middle one, going down into the crotch, then up along the spine and into the head until it also loops back to the dantian.

Next are the connecting, or horizontal, meridians that connect the three meridians. One in each main part of the limbs, making it three each. Nine in the torso and another three in the head, making it a total of twenty-four.

Then there were the sub-meridians with a total number of over a hundred meridians that created a tight network all over the body, as well as connecting all the important parts like the inner organs or the sensory organs.

And last but not least are the countless and extremely fine thread-meridians. The only type of meridian that doesn't go in a loop but is instead the second connection between the system and the outside besides the dantian. But while Qi can only enter the system through the dantian, the thread meridians are the only way for the Qi to leave the system.

Thanks to the book, I already know where the meridians are, but even then I was barely able to feel the main meridians and only two horizontal meridians in my torso.

With the higher density, the Qi will probably be pretty hard to control and I have to make sure that it only flows through those meridians at first. If I make a mistake and let the Qi flow into a sub- or thread-meridian, I don't think that they would be able to take the pressure and burst. And I guess that leads to internal injuries and finally a failed breakthrough if it happens one time too often.

It's no wonder that many people never breakthrough in their entire lives, huh?! After all, the vast majority don't know where the main meridians are when they attempt the breakthrough for the first time, not even mentioning the smaller meridians.

Very well, let's begin!-

Xu Ran cleared her thoughts and took a suitable sitting posture before proceeding to spin her Qi around her dantian in a whirlpool-like manner.

While the dantian had the same property of being able to contain Qi just like the meridians, it was a very unique place as it could contain much larger quantities and take a much higher pressure, at the same time, it was also the only place that allowed Qi to enter from the outside.

Thanks to that, the whirlpool of Qi spinning around the dantian slowly entered the dantian while being compressed into its liquid state.

As soon as this happened the Qi went on a rampage like an angry bull. It was even harder to control than Xu Ran had initially thought and before she knew it, it had already flown into the main meridian on her right side and even a horizontal meridian.

Before it could spread any further, she was barely able to force it back into the main meridian. The more it split up into different pathways, the harder it would be to control the Qi, so she put all her effort into keeping it only inside the main meridian.

It was almost like riding a wild horse through a maze full of hurdles. Of course, the horse would always choose the easiest path, but that didn't mean that was also the one Xu Ran wanted it to go.

Just as suddenly as it started, it also ended. After the Qi went once through the right main meridian, some of the impurities had been pushed away. With each circulation, the pathway became clearer, slowly turning into the path of least resistance, making the Qi flow that way naturally and making it easier to control.

After not even twenty minutes, Xu Ran opened her eyes and breathed out. She had made a perfect breakthrough. And in not even a third of the time, it supposedly took normally.

„As I thought, it's weird that no one is teaching the disciples this stuff..."