Chapter 161 - Festival’s Eve (Part I) (Patreon)

Lucian spent an entire week reading every scroll and parchment he received, going through each of them at least three times before arriving at a harsh conclusion.

Cultivators and mages have something in common, he thought, glaring at the scroll on his lap as though it were his greatest enemy. They are too proud.

Throwing the scroll aside, he looked toward Wang Chen, who was practicing palm strikes with unwavering focus, and sighed.

I was once a scholar, so I understand why not everyone agrees with a particular point of view, Lucian thought, standing up and pacing across the room. But why go claim everyone else's knowledge as utter nonsense? And why be so sure of your own ideas? No, never mind, I did the same…

In the past, Lucian had read magical theses from every major school, attended scholarly gatherings through special means, and studied countless books that defended one author's ideas while contradicting another's.

To him, it had all been a tangled mess of words people used to explain how magic worked, and why their runic circles or magic tower blueprints were supposedly superior.

Now, after reading these cultivation scrolls, Lucian realized cultivators were no different. Holding back a groan, he picked up one of the scrolls he had nearly torn apart earlier and frowned.

If I follow this one's teachings, the best way to open the seventh meridian is to find Lightning Qi, refine it into a pill, and swallow it.

He picked up another scroll, its pages already creased from his frustration.

And this piece of garbage claims I should defy the Heavens by... touching myself... without finishing, then spend days nurturing my frustration while blaming the Heavens.

Every time he remembered that scroll, he wanted to rip it apart.

I'm lucky to have Wang Chen, he thought, tossing both scrolls aside. At least I have a clue about what really works.

Despite his irritation, Lucian was satisfied with the knowledge gathered.

He had access to numerous interpretations of the twelve meridians, seven chakra points, and three Dantians, so he had been able to compare what he learned about the first ten meridians with Wang Chen's moments of enlightenment.

Taking his time, Lucian concluded that although most of what these scrolls contained was nonsense, they were all attempting to describe the same truth, but the authors themselves didn't realize it.

The biggest clues lie in the names of the meridians and Wang Chen's enlightenment, Lucian thought, focusing on the seventh and eighth meridians. They were the Lesser Yang Descending Meridian and the Lesser Yang Ascendant Meridian.

Glaring at the scrolls he had previously thrown on the ground, he smirked.

One represents failure, while the other represents success, Lucian thought.

For reasons he still didn't understand, it seemed impossible to truly open the seventh meridian without already being prepared to open the eighth. In Wang Chen's case, opening these meridians had worked well because he and Lucian were cultivating an inverted path.

In the natural path, there was a proper order and rules to be abided by.

Because of that, Lucian had deliberately postponed his own breakthrough until he finished reading everything, costing him a week. He needed to know if there were other hidden traps in cultivation! After all, he had come to believe that whether through enlightenment, study, observation, or reflection, one could only open the seventh meridian correctly after understanding how to open the eighth.

The Lightning Qi scroll, for instance, claimed that after swallowing the pill, one had to guide the remaining Lightning Qi through the Spiritual Root in a complete circulation, allowing the pain to dissipate before achieving relief through the eighth meridian.

If one didn’t know how to guide the Qi correctly through a specific breathing technique, the lightning would dissipate, and their seventh meridian would wither.

Meanwhile, the second scroll used a completely different explanation.

According to it, one first had to endure days of frustration before finally releasing their yang essence without breathing techniques, thereby opening the eighth meridian. If they failed to endure, the seventh meridian could be opened, but the eighth would be much harder to unlock. And there was also a chance they wouldn't be able to release yang essence ever again!

In the end, Lucian realized the two meridians were fundamentally linked, and to avoid overlooking anything important, he continued reading the remaining manuals three more times, studying all the steps toward the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Separating genuine insight from empty arguments consumed most of the week. The rest was studying the hidden traps and comparing the ten meridians with Wang Chen's enlightenment.

Of course, since Wang Chen had only reached the tenth meridian, Lucian didn't fully trust his own deductions about the eleventh and twelfth, much less those concerning the chakra points and dantians.

For now, he merely noted his theories for later verification. In his view, Wang Chen's spontaneous enlightenment was more valuable than all the scrolls in this room combined.

Watching the plump cultivator continue practicing, Lucian pushed aside his wandering thoughts and sat down cross-legged.

If my theory is correct, I should be able to open both the seventh and eighth meridians almost simultaneously, he thought, breathing deeply. But to do so, I need a single chain of memories.

Choosing such memories proved surprisingly difficult.

One memory filled with overwhelming frustration and anger, of when I challenged something far beyond myself, followed by another memory directly connected to it, of when I ultimately succeeded.

This kind of prerequisite made Lucian understand why only older cultivators advanced through reflecting on their past. He couldn't believe that many people had experienced a frustration profound enough to become a defining moment in their life, just to overcome it and find genuine peace.

Far too few would have the luck, opportunity, and mentality to do so. More often than not, those memories would remain lifelong regrets. It was rare for it to turn into a story of resilience and overcoming the odds.

Lucian even began another theory that those who cultivated incorrectly would remain trapped at the seventh meridian until they truly overcame that frustration.

Assuming they were ever given the chance, of course.

It reminds me of the Rune of Lust, Lucian thought, closing his eyes and taking a slow breath. The way it digs into a person's memories, extracting everything tied to their soul if they fail to overcome its test, is strangely similar.

Steadying his breathing, Lucian calmed his mind and summoned the memory he had chosen for his breakthrough. Then, using the Two-Leaf breathing technique, he felt Qi circulating through his six opened meridians.

Soon, his thoughts darkened, and a star-filled night emerged before his mind's eye.

On the ground, a gargantuan creature lay sleeping, its body stretching and forming a chain of mountain ranges. Its scales shimmered beneath the moonlight, while black and crimson plates merged seamlessly with the landscape, rising and falling in a slow, synchronized rhythm with each breath.

Lucian was recalling his first encounter with the slumbering Crimson Mountain, known to the lizard species as the Black Devourer.

While the memory resurfaced, green lights flickered inside his Spiritual Sea, also known as the Sea of Consciousness. There, the outline of the Resonant Sea Ancestor slowly formed as thousands of spiritual orbs, each echoing with endless melodies, rushed toward the memory, shattering more of the fragments imprisoning her.

Soon, she too witnessed the gargantuan being through Lucian's recollection, and another piece of knowledge entered her mind through her resonance.

This entity, vastly larger than any demonic beast she had ever seen, was known to Lucian as one of the Five Beyond the Supreme.

It was called the Evil Dragon, Du'vahryxs.