Dara left them to their training and went to begin unlocking his Principal Meridians, and though he had made the little preparations he could make for the time being, the feeling of danger that woke him from cultivation only grew ever closer and stronger as the time passed...

Dara then began to feel really unsettled because he wasn't sure if the preparation they've made would be enough and he was also thinking about the duo practicing archery should in case they had to flee for their lives…

Though he might be stronger than all of the younger generation members of the Village of Sang, Dara wasn't so impetuous to think he was infallible by the slightly older generation members, not to talk of those of his parents age bracket and finally the village chiefs who even his father would have to call uncle in terms of age bracket…

Thus, he began his cultivation with renewed vigor and diligence;

It was night time, which meant it was the time where the Dark Qi within these lands are at their most abundant and potent, and Dara sat within his pit having opened his eight great meridians…

Then he shut his eyes and found the first of them all; the one channeled into his brain, and then he began to trace deeper from there until he found his first Principal Meridian...

Then in just about two minutes, he had opened it through as the potent pure Qi from the Dark Qi he absorbed surged straight through it, fully opening it, just like a clogged drainage pipe which had just seen the dirt within it removed…

Potent and pure QI gushed through this meridian and bathed Dara's brain with it as his thinking speed overclocked like the CPU speed of the strongest gaming laptops on the planet, whilst the dark and deathly part of the Qi surged into his hand of death…

Dara found the next principal meridian, and there after he found the third, then finally, at the latter part of 10 minutes later, Dara found the twelfth and then he began to unlock them all simultaneously…

Brain, Heart, Abdomen, Blood, Bones, Tendons, Muscles and Flesh;

Dara added twelve Principal Meridians to each of them bringing his total meridian number to 104, and at this point, he could handle anyone native within the Grey or the Dark Lands in a one on one or group battle, except they use sheer numbers to overwhelm him…

"If I go by what Uncle Min has said, then I should perhaps be in the 2 Star Qi Creation stage by now, almost as strong as the village chief of his tribe…"

"The Dark Qi here is still potent and abundant, should I-?"

Dara thought of continuing to unlock the Peripheral Meridians, but he decided against it for two reasons;

Firstly, he really planned on using the extra potent Dark Qi in the Dark Lands to open them, and since they were going to be weaker than the Principal meridians and much weaker than the Eight Great Meridians, that meant he would need a much more potent Qi if he was to bring them to the same strength as his Eight Great and 96 Principal meridians…

Secondly was the fact that he felt he had cultivated to fast and if he wasn't careful, something might go wrong, after all, nothing ever goes so smoothly in life, most of the residents of the Dark and Grey Lands barely manage to open their 12 Principal Meridians, and here he was having an orthodox 96 Principal meridians instead…

Furthermore, the world as he knew it only knew about an expert having 12 Principal Meridians, and since he doesn't have any idea on how this technique he obtained from the Dark Soul was created, he felt using it carelessly might land him in a very chaotic quagmire which might end his cultivation journey if he wasn't careful...

Thus, as a result of that, he decided to strengthen all 104 of his meridians instead…

He expanded them to their maximum elastic limit to increase the rate at which he absorbed Qi, and also strengthened them to increase their flexibility, so as to cope with excessive pulsation or force of Qi output when doing battle…

Thus, after about six solid hours, Dara was done cultivating, and since he still had a bit more than three hours before it was noon, Dara decided to sort through the two strange memories in his mind and see if he could obtain any information on battle tactics or maneuvers that might perhaps help them with their upcoming battle...

Then he shut his eyes and sent his consciousness into his mental space…

There he found the tree which had its root connected into his body, soul and mind; and from the changes he could see on the tree, he realized that the tree most definitely grows as he gradually cultivates and gets stronger;

'Perhaps, a fraction of the pure Qi I use in cultivating is being absorbed by this tree roots and used to nourish it…'

'Though the tree looks very important since it is attached to my body, mind and soul, but I really need to get more information about it to determine if it is as important as the amount of Qi I lose to it…'

Dara thought to himself before sending his consciousness towards the golden beacon of light where he usually obtained that information from and approached it;

'I really need to control the amount of information I receive so that I don't fall unconscious again…'

'Otherwise, if I fall unconscious for too long this time around only to wake up to find myself captured, or never wake at all, then all these efforts I have made over the past five months would have been for naught…'

Dara then connected to the golden beacon of light, and just like it had done in previous times, lots of information surged into his mind, and after about five solid minutes when he felt his consciousness getting strained, Dara stopped;

He had just assessed the Dark Souls memories, but he had no idea about the information he had just received, and thus decided to push them all to the back of his mind…

He understood that over time as he begins to accumulate more knowledge and experience about the cultivation world and its intricacies, all these information would begin to show their usefulness...

Thus he rested for a bit, before looking to his own soul which was seated in a meditative posture and then for the first time sent his consciousness into it, and then Dara discovered something that truly stunned him speechless;

In there, within his own soul, was another beacon of golden light, but for some reason, this one seemed to have several mysterious scripts etched onto it, and just by looking at them, he found his mind grow befuddled and almost began to forget what he had learnt from the Dark Soul just moments ago;

'Such mysterious power!?' Dara exclaimed in shock when he felt the effects of this ancient scripts;

'If I can tap into the powers of these scripts and be able to weaponize them, it would birth one of the most overbearing abilities in existence…'

Dara thought to himself as he began to fantasize himself in battle and then hitting his opponent with the power of these scripts, and then the enemy forgets their battle techniques or martial arts...

Or even worse, they forget the reason why they were fighting him in the first place....

Or for the sake of his fantasies see his enemy forget who he/she is entirely; that would definitely make him become the most fearsome expert within his battle class, or even a bit higher…

But all that was for another time; currently, he simply wanted to gain some basic tactical battle skills and knowledge, and without dwelling on too much ceremony, he approached this golden beacon of light whilst trying not to pay any attention to the ancient scripts scattered all over it…

The he tapped into a part of the golden light where the ancient script had not reached, and once again, his mind received a dose of information once again, and this time, he could slightly relate to the information he obtained and a little of his worries were eased, and with a thought, his consciousness retreated from the mental space as his eyes opened…

He looked up to the entrance of the hole and realized that it was already getting as bright as this place could get which was like the amount of light we get around 7pm in modern day earth…

He stood up and exited the pit and walked to the front of the plateau just in time to see an arrow whiz past and hit the wooden target he had erected the night before, and on the wooden target he saw four arrows on target and another four around the pole with only two on the floor;

'Only a two percent increase unh?'

Dara who had yet to see the person who fired the arrow thought it was Aunt Lin who was on target practice session, but when he looked up to see who it was, he was shocked to find Uncle Min just stepping away from their shooting spot whilst Aunt Lin was just grabbing her bow;

"Eh?" He blurted in shock…

This was the same Uncle Min who could barely land five hits on the entire pole last night, but was now hitting the target four times out of ten, with another four hitting the rest of the pole and only two misses?

He was really impressed;

'If Uncle Min has improved this much, let's see how much Aunt Lin has improved…'

He thought to himself as he stood out of their sight and watched Aunt Lin step up to the shooting spot…

She nocked an arrow to her bow and with less than five seconds in delay, she fired it;

~Doosh!~

Chomp!

The arrow moved with blinding speed which was the reason why Dara had made them so thin and light, and without Aunt Lin even looking to see if it hit or not, the arrow landed right at the center of the target, and Dara couldn't help but nod mentally in commendation of her efforts…

One had to know that these arrows had no feather's to aid their flight or trajectory as the tail itself was wooden and one with the entire arrow, thus, being able to retain such accuracy despite the inadequacy of the weapon was a truly incredible feat, and Dara was impressed by it.