A Backward World IV

Three hours later, Rani brought the pills to Kle In's room. Kle In has been contemplating on what has happened earlier and the reactions of the other kids is more than enough clue of their envy and hatred. He now knew that these pills is not something he can demand whenever wants however it really is necessary for him to break through.

As Rani handed the bottle containing six pills, he said, "You have the lowest aptitude in terms of Elemental Affinity and physique among all disciples within this brotherhood which means you will need more resources compared to others. As a disciple of Elder Tao Ad, you get to enjoy some resources, but you need to work hard. If you do not work hard, these resources will be given to others, you understand?" Rani wanted to sound sincere but his facial expression says otherwise.

“Mhh”

Kle In pretended to listen and nodded as he watched Rani leave. Judging from Rani’s words and reaction just now, it appears they are being unnecessarily extravagant. He suddenly felt an inexplicable guilt that he wanted to return the pills back but the need to break through is of utmost importance. Having witnessed the one sided massacre of the young Lanases 3 months ago is proof of how vile and brutal this Gang is and he has this feeling they will toss him out if he does not become a cultivator soon.

Kle In clenched his first. He feels conflicted if he should share the pills.

After a few minutes, he made up his mind. Since Rani just gave him another batch of pills, it is already too late to return it back. He decided to pay everyone back if there is another chance.

Right now, he must focus on cultivating now while they can still provide him pills.

Now that he has the pills, he did not immediately meditate and walked around the room as he contemplated on yesterday’s problem.

The issue is that every time he connects to the ninth Major Qi Node, he just fails to do it and the next thing he know, the pill effects had already lapsed.

As an adult inside, he felt embarrassed that he cannot complete the so-called basics. He tried recalling Rani's instructions and what was stated on the books and he was sure he did not miss anything however after an hour, he felt like asking for help.

While he was getting desperate, he was suddenly struck with an idea.

“What happens if he does not sit on a lotus position?”

Kle In stood up and tried gathering Qi into his dantian. When he formed enough ball of Qi, he tried circulating it. He realized that he was able to pass through the 8th Major Qi Node but does not know where to connect the 9th Node. According to the book, it should be close to the starting point since the 9 Nodes are located within his stomach.

He smiled having figured out something then placed one Qi Sensing Pill into his mouth. He then closed his eyes and began to concentrate.

After refining the surrounding energy and forming enough ball of Qi in his dantian, instead of having the circulation start with the first Qi Node, he started on the 9th Node. After the wave of Qi passed the 9th Qi Node and connected to the 8th Node, connecting it back to the ball of Qi in his dantian became automatic. What transpired next brought him to great elation.

Weng!

A circular ring of aura glowed around his body and he looked like a deity that descended from heavens.

Kle In felt a new profound power as the nine Qi Nodes within his stomach is circulating naturally. He looked at his palm and smiled as he made a fist.

“This is powah!”

He wanted to laugh having understood the secrets to reaching the first stage of cultivation. He believes that the reason he was able to finally connect the Nodes was like akin to a tunnel. The force he could muster to connect to another Qi Nodes lies on whether the Nodes were unblocked or exposed by the Refined Qi in his Dantian. He does not know why his brother never mentioned this, nevertheless he broke through.

As an experiment, he sat down again and meditated and tried making a connection to the other Qi nodes on his chest. It did not necessarily have to perform a circulation but to have all the Qi Nodes exposed to his refined Qi from his dantian.

Kle In wanted to stop and celebrate as his conjecture is actually working however he did not want to waste the precious time when the pill is still in effect.

Slowly, every time he has gathered and refined Spiritual Qi in his dantian, he guided them towards the Qi Nodes on to his chest.

Time passed and when the pill effect started to diminish, he decided to open one Qi Node on his palm until it finally lit up.

Beaming with energy, Kle In got to his feet and moved towards the opposite side of his bed and extended his arm on one of the wooden chairs. He guided the Spiritual Qi from his dantian then towards the Qi Node on his arm and forcefully crushed the top rail of the chair.

CRACK!

“Magnificent! I’m strong!”

Kle In has no words to describe it he suddenly started to make some karate poses and punched the air around him.

HYA! HYA!

As he was lost in thought while doing his moves, the image of Aunt Shi standing at the door greeted him.

“Dinner’s ready."

Kle In stopped and froze in embarrassment. He wanted to drop to the ground and perform some pushups and pretend he is exercising but Aunt Shi already turned around and walked downstairs.

Kle In cursed and when he thought Aunt Shi’s attention would be towards his fellow gang brothers, he was surprised to find that everyone has already left except Aunt Shi.

Klein almost chocked in embarrassment just thinking someone witnessed his karate moves.

“I will not reheat your food once it gets cold.”

Kle In took his seat and grabbed a spoon. Seeing that Aunt Shi looked like she saw nothing, he decided to distract his mind by thinking on how he should go about expediting the process of opening all his Qi Nodes and wonders if there is a pattern to it.

After dinner, he went back to his room.

He opened the book again and studied the positions of each Node before finishing the succeeding pages.

The book is straightforward and similar to how Rani explained cultivation to him, there is not much information aside from connecting and circulating 12 Major Qi Nodes to become a Mid-Early Qi Condensation Practitioner and 15 Qi Nodes for Peak-Early Condensation.

He closed the book and devised a plan to achieve breakthroughs tonight.

While the amount of Spiritual Qi he can accumulate in his dantian is limited, based on his understanding earlier, he just needed to lessen the quantity that flowed through each Node to complete a circulation.

Kle In sat down again and meditated. Since he opened the Nodes on his chest before dinner, he guided the flow of energy to form a circulation.

WENG!

It did not even take 2 hours before he broke through Peak-Early Condensation Realm and with the rise of his cultivation level, the amount of Qi he can now gather in his dantian tripled as well further boosting his strength.

By midnight, Kle In paused and looked at the book about basics of cultivation again. Drunk from the success of having reached three realms in night, he felt like conquering all levels of Qi Condensation tonight.

He opened the book and when he got to the last page, he was disappointed there are no instructions on reaching Early-Mid Qi Condensation.

Kle In laid on the floor and spread his arms. He is still in disbelief that he had actually become a cultivator. His thoughts wandered and imagined himself becoming a real superhero saving damsels in distress.

Minutes passed and his euphoric state died down until he started thinking about cultivation again. He is confused if cultivation is truly even difficult at all. He remembered Rani telling him that he has the weakest Elemental Affinity yet he did not even encounter any real hurdles achieving Peak-Early Condensation.

Kle In smirked as he felt proud with his achievement. He wanted to go out now and confront Rani to tell him that he is wrong however the image of Elder Tao Ad came to his mind. Of all the cultivators he met, that old man was the strongest.

Kle In snapped out of his childish thinking and got to meditative position again. He already knows he won’t be able to sleep tonight so he may as well open up all his Qi Nodes. He may not know the next step of breaking through to Mid Qi Condensation but if there is one thing that is obvious, it is the relation of Qi Nodes to Higher Realms.

He asked himself, “If 9 Qi Nodes is required for the first level, 12 on the second, and 15 on third, it is already obvious that all 99 Qi Nodes is needed upon reaching the peak.”

Starting from his right hand, he guided the Spiritual Qi and slowly lit up each nodes towards his fingers. Tomorrow, he decided to ask Rani about the circulation patterns for higher levels when he has the chance.

Time passed and before sunrise, Kle In opened his eyes. He had successfully opened up all 99 Qi Nodes in his body and unlike the last time, he was no longer as excited.

Kle In looked at the 3 remaining pills on the bottle and when he went to pick it up, he noticed the two other books Rani took out. It was titled Basic Inscription and Fundamentals of Formation.

He guessed that this is probably what he will be learning further.

There is at least another hour before breakfast so he sat down and flipped the pages for a cursory reading and when he got to the middle pages, he was greeted with an image, a diagram so familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time.

Out of the blue, he suddenly recalled another fragmented memory of his previous life. He remembered being disguised to look like a zombie while walking towards a Formation that has similarities with the diagram on the book.

When he was near the center, a giant floating eyeball locked into his location. He pressed a button in his hand. He knew he detonated but right before he disintegrated, he saw something within that Giant Eye. He saw triangle enclosed with a circular light that look like a magic circle from a fictional book.