I had much to think about as I went home.

The first, and most important in the long term, was the state of my meridians.

The Elder had given me a new path to follow. He said he didn’t know to which extent I could reinforce them, but I wouldn’t know until I tried.

I hadn't come to the Sect to be a cultivator. My objective when I set off was to find a place that allowed me to pursue my interest while allowing for a better path in my life.

That had been a big motivation for me. It's not easy to leave the place you lived in for so long if you didn't have a good amount of resolution. Unfortunately, I hadn't found the perfect place to fulfill my dreams here. I thought I would have been safe from harm inside the Wudang Sect, and that I could go on with my life undisturbed – a stupid thought in hindsight. A Sect is a place for cultivators. If someone didn't wish to become one, he shouldn't step inside one – and I didn't want to be a Cultivator.

Until now, at least.

Maybe this really was Karma, because as I gave Li Chu a wake-up call, with my beating, he also gave me one with his, and I came to realize something.

I may not be fit to be a good cultivator, but that didn't mean that I couldn't be one. Everyone could cultivate, and people outside the Wudang Sect still grew in power regardless of their speed of advancement. Cultivators didn’t reach the heavens. Cultivators strived for it.

That’s how I viewed it, at least.

Not many had enough talent to reach the peak – I surely didn't. Some reached the limit of their abilities, unable to progress further, many died before that or suffered unrecoverable injuries – but I wouldn't know until I tried.

With luck and determination, I entered the Qi Gathering Realm when no one thought it possible, joining the Sect. I wouldn't be sent home with my tail between my legs – certainly not by a mere Li Chu. I also wouldn’t give in to his demands – I refused to bow down to him.

I will fight, and I will win. This was my determination.

I still couldn't face him head-on, though. I needed more time to grow, learn, and prepare.

The first measure I implemented the following days was to avoid my home. It was too easy to find out where I stayed by going to the Management Hall. There were many unoccupied houses in the Seventh District and only a few downsides to sleeping in an unclaimed house – so that had been the most obvious choice to make. I would also change the place I slept at every night – annoying but safer.

I also stopped going to get food at the mess of the Sect. I would have gone to the city, but I couldn't safely get there yet, so I had them pack me something that would last me a while for a few credits. At least the things served here were all high quality. I had been amazed the first time I went there.

I also found some time to write a letter to my family and Sister Qing. I found out there were various additional features if I was willing to pay the price. One of them was to have any letter addressed to me to be delivered to my current address. Of course, didn't use any since I both wasn't staying in my registered home, and I didn't have the credits to spare, however few they were.

I had decided to postpone paying back the Medical Pavilion again, preferring to wait until the end of the month. I would also pay the interest rate if necessary, but I hoped to avoid it.

The next step was obvious. I had to go to the Martial Repository.

A few days later, after I got enough credits, I paid it a visit.

The building in question wasn't as big as the Library, but it was still awe-inspiring – the methods were also different. Since there weren't as many books one just had to look at the catalog to find the relative section and could take and peruse the book by himself. It seemed less restrictive than the Library, but there were its reasons.

The first was a Formation that covered the whole building. The second was the Elder stationed there.

Both of those reasons were plenty enough to avoid doing anything foolish.

“Greetings, Senior Brother,” I said to the one manning the entrance.

“Good Morning, Junior Brother,” he said, looking bored.

I moved my bracer over the Credit transfer array and went inside.

As I entered the Repository, I noticed a different air here – if I had to describe it, I would say "heavier".

I didn't take much time to search. Everything was neatly divided into sections, and subsections, so I went in the right one straight away. I could not take out a book since the cost was too much for me right now. Taking out a Martial Technique required way more credits than a simple book.

Elder Wong suggested a few things to focus on – concealment and sensory enhancement.

There were various methods to achieve them, and some didn't break the rule on qi usage inside the Sect’s grounds. What I was searching for were self-sustaining Techniques. They were a particular branch where the Technique the practitioner applied on the body feed by itself on the cultivator's qi. It was convenient for certain purposes but wasn't very known or appreciated due to the drawbacks.

The first was that more than a few together couldn’t be used, since they would interfere with one another and one had to continuously circulate to feed them the required qi. The second reason was that since they aren't under the direct control of the person, they're easily disrupted.

It wasn’t too much of a problem for me at the moment, so I choose a disguise and a hearing enhancement Technique. They were not too hard to learn, and therefore their effect was not too pronounced, but even just a slight alteration of my facial features gave me a completely different look – this was what was said in the manual. It could have been done with the right products and expertise, but I didn't have either, and it was more convenient this way.

The hearing enhancement would give me the ability to hear the heartbeat of people from at least three meters away. It would be easy to notice them from much farther away, from their breathing, or if they made a move.

Luckily, as the Elder said, they didn’t need too much qi to activate and maintain, so even I could do it.

They were also easy to memorize, so I took my time to commit them to memory. I would practice them later.

The next thing I searched for was a method to temper my meridians.

There were a few of them. Based on the need of the cultivator, one could choose specific meridians or all of them and, also, the time they wanted to dedicate to it.

I then went to look for my other objective. There weren't many books on it, but it found one that explained the most used and accessible methods.

Apparently, to strengthen the meridians, one had to damage them and let them recover naturally – like one strengthened the body. Dealing with them, though, was a dangerous and delicate affair. If one accidentally went too far, there was a risk of crippling oneself. In fact, to strengthen the meridians, one had to consider the amount of qi needed for daily tasks afterward.

That was where the differences came.

Some methods let you damage your meridians to the point where you couldn't use qi. You could start using some again only after hours passed, with the quantity gradually becoming higher as time passed.

Others were more "gentle" but required much more time to get the same results.

I wanted to use the first one, but I wasn't sure my meridians could take it, and it also required some resources I couldn't afford at the moment. I could only resign myself to the second option.

The method was, simply, circulation.

As Elder Wong said, just circulating qi was enough for a cultivator – but not in my case.

Normally, when someone did it, he stayed below the threshold of the meridians. Forcing more qi to move would damage them, making it harder to use them for some time. One could also easily cripple oneself, depending on the damage.

I tried multiple times to force my qi to go faster. I did that by keeping it as close as possible to my limit without going over it – I never voluntarily tried to do damage.

Using just circulation for the first method wasn't an option since it was hard to damage the meridians to such an extent in a short period. Or better, it was hard to do it in a controlled way.

But if one only had to do some slight damage, it could be easily done. He just had to circulate to the limit, then push just a bit more. It would require some concentration at the start, but it should be easy to keep up. It was also one I was confident wouldn't cripple me.

I could adjust the intensity to a certain extent if it was too much or too little.

And I could see how I reacted to various levels of pain.

There were warnings about keeping it up for too long, due to the side effects continuous pain had on the psyche of the cultivator. Because of that, the first time I planned to use it at a reasonably low level for a single day, then leaving one for recuperating.

I will consider after that how much I can do, I thought.

Since I still had time, I took a look at the other techniques of this level.

I kept myself focused on the task, until now, but I was excited to look around.

Who wouldn't be excited to be in the Wudang Sect's Martial Repository? This was the lowest level that could be accessed by all disciples, but it was still incredible. There were so many techniques I wanted to use.

Cultivators still couldn’t use qi externally at the Qi Gathering Realm, but there were still so many interesting techniques. Water walking, fire resistance, speed burst – so many possibilities.

I want to try them, dammit!

I could just look at the moment, but one day I would be here learning them. I could do it.

I will do it.