Chapter 15 - Cultivation Prodigy

Noticing her anxious look Falven smiled warmly “Don’t mind these minor problems, let him come. This is not an issue in my eyes”.

“Please senior brother, don’t underestimate him. In the view of many he’s an even more tragic opponent than our core disciple. Our core disciple has great achievements regarding the sect’s arts and techniques, behaves righteously, is sociable, can be diplomatic. He’s gained much fame as Devil Suppressor and is a perfect core disciple. Ryuji Sark, instead, has an aloof personality, he’s not shown any diplomacy or social skills neither he seems to be interested in them. His perception is good but not amazing at all. His strength lies in his battle experience. His combat prowess is sky high, he seems to enjoy the thrill of battle and doesn’t miss opportunities to spar and start ferocious fights. He has already undertaken many bloody missions, faced life and death situations and developed a bloodlust aura”.

“Got it, junior sister, thank you for your words, they depict him as a quite interesting fella” Falven smiled. He was too well aware of the attitudes and trains of thought of these geniuses, he was one of them himself. The kind of cultivator he preferred was the one who faced danger and polished his skills in battle.

Soon after Roaring Lion arrived with the cultivation resources the two young disciples excused themselves, leaving the youth alone at the peak. This accommodation was truly great, it had private areas designed for practising movement skills, attacking techniques, to cultivate and for meditation. The furniture inside was simple and pragmatic as Falven preferred.

Getting to the centre of the formation, he enjoyed the feeling of thickened chi all around him, this felt so good, as back in the days. If the chi of this world had been of the original amount, this formation would have provided a tremendous quantity boosting the cultivation speed even more. Falven leveraged the formation and the crystals received by the sect to quickly absorb and circulate the chi.

The process of reforging his meridians started again, his aim was to upgrade his chi circuit to the knight grade as soon as possible. At the right moment, he swallowed a purple pill that was among the sect resources. A sudden outburst of chi was released in his dantian region, this violent chi became even more frenzy when met the surging chi controlled by the asura art.

This kind of pill was usually used to help the breakthrough from one cultivation stage to another, but Falven exploited its violent chi to complete the destruction and reforging process of the meridians.

Puff, he could feel it, the efficiency of his meridians was significantly better than before, from soldier grade to knight grade. But this was not enough, as blacksmiths keep hitting the iron until it’s hot, Falven had to gain the maximum profits from the unstable state his meridians were in. This was the moment they had the highest likelihood to transform again.

Falven’s meridians were vibrating, an agitated state kept them from stabilising. They didn’t seem riverbeds where the chi would flow but swirling snakes, ready to change skin.

The Heavenly Meridian Silver started flowing in his body, running through every meridian, wrapping and incubating them.

The youth rigorously kept track of every change in his body, controlling the pace of the chi, sensing how his meridians were reacting to the treatment. Finally a victorious smile brightened his face, success, Captain grade Chi Circuit!

He basked in the success for a few seconds, but didn’t loose focus. He had to exert the maximum efforts, not repeating the same mistakes of the past. He had always been the prodigy of an era, amazing cultivation prowess, even more terrific law perception, a second to none ability to communicate with the Dao. He thought it was enough to cultivate a dangerous and painful top grade art, but the truth was different.

Your enemies don’t wait for you. There’s always someone who’s willing to walk the extra mile, there’s always someone potentially as talented as you and the one who wins in the end is who puts the most effort. He had never been lazy, cultivating each year. The result? That was not enough.

This time he would become the true prodigy cultivator, perfect, taking and fighting for every single opportunity that allowed him to push the bar higher and higher and higher and higher.

Using the remnants of the pill chi and of the Heavenly Meridians Silver, that should normally have been slowly assimilated or expelled by the body, he activated the asura art again, circulating his chi in still vibrating meridians.

The meridians were forced to stabilise immediately, instead of waiting days as the normal procedure suggested. Then the youth took out the captain crystals the sect had given him and absorbed their chi reinvigorating the chi flow in his meridians.

Breaking through to the Soldier specialist stage, that was the goal. The chi kept circulating times and times again. At each passage in the dantian region this massive flood would leave a tiny portion of chi there. Each time more chi would accumulate, being compressed the more it grew.

Falven exploited the secrets of his art to make this process as efficient and effective as possible. In order to enter the Specialist Soldier grade a cultivator needed to create a chi flame by condensing chi in the dantian region, which is close to the navel.

In the end the chi flame came to life. The flame was small but burnt vividly, dark shades conferred it an ominous feeling. It gave the impression to be able to burn and purify everything in this world. This tremendous potential was given to the flame by the Asura laws imbedded in it by a perfect execution of the Asura Art.

The prodigy went to rest, luckily his resting room had a wondrous formation that hastened the chi replenishment. After waking up he immediately resumed the cultivation, without missing any seconds, as if his life depended on that… and probably that was true.

The chi flame in the dantian region had miraculous refining and purifying abilities, therefore it was used to refine and eliminate the impurities in the chi. When the process was completed it would be then transformed in a core and the Soldier veteran stage could be accessed.

The chi that could be absorbed by the atmosphere or by crystals would be usually impure. Additional to pure chi, other kind of natural chi would be mixed to it. In this world elemental chi like fire chi or lightning chi and other minor impurities like devil chi would be part of the blend.

Some cultivators would develop arts based on the refinement of a specific chi, like ice chi and for cultivating they’d need to absorb that particular chi. The advantage of these arts relied in the boosted proficiency in using laws and techniques related to ice, granting an easier comprehension and higher command over these laws.

The disadvantage consisted in bounding the cultivator to ice arts and to cultivate absorbing ice chi, which would be easy to absorb in environments with much ice chi, but very difficult to find in other places. Additionally Falven was well aware that pure chi could be defined as the origin of any kind of chi, the primordial layer that allows all chi in this world to exist. It was the most righteous path a cultivator could walk, allowing him to practise arts and laws closer to the Dao primordial principles.

Days passed one after another, during the morning Falven would study and practise the 3 Primordial Steps and the Slaying Dao manual, afterwords he would cultivate purifying his chi to the limit. At the same time he studied the dagger he obtained in the scamming street and the bone he won at the auction.

Accepting a satisfying chi refinement was not an option. He was bent on purifying it to the limit, achieving a completely pure chi, a feat never accomplished by any human before. Falven was going to change the meaning of prodigy cultivator!