A current of Spiritual Energy began to travel through Red’s veins as the pills took effect. A few seconds later, this torrent was joined by the suffusion of greenish Moon energy that started to gather around the youth’s body. The strain in Red’s veins grew, and he gritted his teeth in pain.

One issue he faced was that his Vein Opening Pills didn’t have a clear target, as all his veins were technically opened. That being the case, they didn’t automatically go towards his third eye vein as Red wished, and instead wreaked havoc through his veins without purpose. Added to the Moon energy, this was a recipe for disaster.

The youth would look like a torch in the dark to anyone capable of sensing Spiritual Energy at this moment. His veins bulged, and a terrible feeling of fullness spread through his body. It was a terrible strain.

Yet, this wasn’t the first time he felt something similar. Red remembered his time in the underground, when the blob covered him with an overwhelming amount of Spiritual Energy. Back then, the pain was debilitating, and he could do nothing but twitch on the ground until the feeling was gone.

Now, however, Red wasn’t helpless.

As the energy inside his body threatened to go out of control, Red focused in his veins. A feeling of force that the youth never felt before came to him, and Red tried to direct this raging current inside his body in a certain direction.

Sure enough, the energy responded to his command. Or rather, his veins forced it to obey. It wasn’t a smooth process, and Red felt that if he lost focus even once, the energy would go back to its rampage. However, it still worked, and it was as much influence as Red ever had over Spiritual Energy in his life.

This, of course, wasn’t a coincidence. Once someone opened all their standard acupoints, they would be ready to open their Spiritual Sea, and this was made apparent in the fact that they could now exert some degree of control in the Spiritual energy inside their bodies. It wasn’t enough to execute techniques, but it was enough to direct it towards their Spiritual Sea.

Red, on the other hand, used it for another purpose. Few people went through a similar experience as him, considering that the third eye acupoint was always the last one they opened, and after that, they would focus on their Spiritual Sea. However, the youth needed to open another acupoint in this vein, one he didn’t even know existed.

As such, he could use this partial control to his benefit.

The energy moved as one towards his third eye vein. With nowhere else to go, the energies bounced off his Spiritual Vein walls and cycled back towards his other veins.

Immediately, Red suffered a terrible headache.

The youth frowned and gritted his teeth, fighting through the pain.

‘Still nothing.’

He hoped under the Full Moon’s influence, this elusive special acupoint would reveal itself. This clearly still wasn’t the case. Even as more Moon energy filled his other special acupoints, no changes happened to Red’s body.

This final acupoint was still nowhere to be seen.

Red started to have some doubts. The Full Moon had been his last hope. Now, no matter how he tried to rationalize it, he was just out of ideas. Either there was no such acupoint, or Red just wasn’t capable of opening it as is.

There was still one option, even if it was an extremely dangerous one. Red looked down at his lap, setting his eyes on the insectoid core. Green Spiritual Energy was gathered around it as the stone absorbed it all in great quantities, glowing with much more power than Red himself.

It was clear the core couldn’t absorb all this power gathered around it at once, and its surface was suffused with Spiritual Energy.

‘I need to try it.’

Red laid his hands on top of the core and closed his eyes. Immediately, he felt the tingle of Spiritual Energy spreading through his skin and without hesitation he focused on it. The youth focused on his Lower Arm Veins and tried to draw this energy in.

It took little effort. The overflowing Spiritual Energy entered his body with no resistance, finally having found an outlet. This immense torrent of energy entered Red’s veins, and he felt as if he was just about to explode.

His plan was simple. Brute force.

Viran told him that the only requirement to open his special veins was cultivating near a source of Moonstone Energy. Perhaps the reason Red couldn’t open this acupoint wasn’t because it didn’t exist, but just that he didn’t have enough Moonstone Energy.

In the past, he could open his other special acupoints just by cultivating with the core by his side. But what if this one was different? What if he needed even more Moonstone Energy?

Then, what better way to do it than absorbing it into his own body?

This was, of course, a dangerous plan. No common mortal could handle the output of a monster core, not even someone who opened all of their twelve veins. They would most likely just cripple themselves or even explode from the inside.

Yet, Red had something a normal cultivator didn’t have.

Just as he felt his veins were about to collapse, another energy acted upon his body. It seemed to heal his wounds from the inside and ease the burden on his veins ever so slightly.

This was his regenerative power.

It could heal the wounds right as they were happening. However, even with that, Red’s veins were under an unbearable burden. If this energy remained in his body for long, not even his regeneration would be able to handle the harm inflicted on the youth.

Red gritted his teeth in pain. He struggled to unite the two currents of power inside his body, circling it around his vein to ease the pressure. It did little to help with the pain, but at the very least, he managed to exert some control over this vast energy.

However, the hard part was still ahead of him.

Red started to direct this current upwards through his Spinal Vein, which connected to all the other veins in his body. Then, it started to pour into his third eye vein with force, flowing with extreme speed towards the very edge of this vein, located around the middle of the youth’s forehead.

Red brace himself for impact.

The youth felt as if an explosion had happened inside his head. A pulsing pain started to spread through his forehead, and Red had to bite his own lip to retain his focus. His vision darkened, and a ringing sound echoed in his ears.

Still, he held on and concentrated on the inside of his body. That was when he noticed it.

The current of energy seemed to have opened a small path towards something in his third eye vein. However, that path closed in almost an instant.

Red would have thought it didn’t exist at all if it wasn’t for the fact he felt a huge chunk of this current of energy had suddenly disappeared out of nowhere, easing the pressure on his veins. The youth still trembled from the realization.

‘There’s something there!’

Red didn’t have time to examine it, but he was sure something happened. It felt different from the feeling he got when he opened his other veins, but he didn’t have time to consider it.

Red directed the diminished current of energy against his third eye vein again, disregarding the headache he was suffering. The torrent crashed against the vein, and once more, the youth felt the same small path partially open again before closing just as fast, accompanied by another wave of pain spreading through his head.

The youth gritted his teeth and fought through it. He looked inside his body again and noticed that the Spiritual Energy had completely disappeared. Three Vein Opening Pills and the power of a monster core, all spent in two attempts to open this strange acupoint.

‘It’s not enough.’

This was not to mention that no progress seemed to be left behind. Whatever path this power had opened, closed just as fast, and Red felt no vestiges of it left behind. This left the youth with one conclusion.

‘I need to open it in one go.’

This wasn’t how normal acupoints were opened, since you could work on a single acupoint over multiple sessions, gradually wearing it down. However, this clearly wasn’t a normal acupoint, so perhaps Red needed to do it all in one go.

Yet, would he even have enough Spiritual Energy to do it? Would his body be able to handle that much power?

‘I need a constant source.’

Red looked down at the insectoid core, which was still pulsing with Spiritual Energy. The absorption wouldn’t last forever, though, so the youth made a quick decision.

He started to draw more energy from the core through his hands, but this time, he didn’t separate his palm from the stone. The torrent of Moonstone energy flowed through his veins uninterrupted, and Red started to direct it all towards his third eye vein.

The current hit the walls of his vein like a waterfall, and Red felt its effects. The pain was overwhelming, ringing through his head as he felt a path start to travel up his glabella.

The youth doubled over, almost collapsing onto the ground. Still, he held on, focusing on directing the energy towards this newly forming acupoint.

The path continued to open. Still, the progress quickly slowed down until it completely stopped. Not even the energy from the core seemed to be enough to open this path, as it suddenly formed a stalemate.

All the while, Red was on the verge of collapse.

‘It’s not… enough.’

The youth was starting to get desperate. His whole body was under extreme strain, but even with the force of a monster core, he still couldn’t open this acupoint. What more could he possibly need? And even if he had that, could his body handle any more power?

‘No! I need to do something now!’

This wouldn’t get any easier. This he knew instinctively, and if he lost this opportunity, who knew when he would have it again? What if the imperials attacked the next week, or even tomorrow? He didn’t have the privilege of waiting another month.

Red could feel the energy bulging above his glabella. Perhaps it wasn’t that the power wasn’t enough, but rather that it had to travel too long of a path from the youth’s palms all the way over to his head. It took too much relative time for the energy to reach the path, and by then it would have lost a great amount of its momentum.

Red needed a more direct connection, but he wasn’t a Lesser Ring Realm cultivator. He couldn’t absorb energy from any part of his body, and was forced to use his hand because the acupoints in his palm provide a more direct connection with the core.

‘No… There is a way.’

Red had a sudden idea. Something his master Viran did in his last battle, and something the youth tried a long time ago as he sought to escape the underground. Now that he knew the rough area of where this elusive acupoint was, couldn’t he do the same thing?

Red’s last inkling of hesitation disappeared as he felt the path in his glabella slowly retracting. The youth gritted his teeth and went ahead with his plan.

He took one of his hands off of the core and grabbed a knife from his waist. Then, without hesitation, he made a deep cut right above his glabella, just short of hitting bone, where he felt the path forming. His regeneration powers were too occupied with the rest of his body, so Red didn’t need to worry about the wound closing.

Then, without hesitation, he brought the green core up to his forehead and touched it against his open wound. A flood of energy flowed through his flesh, forming a torrent that poured right into this third eye vein and towards its expanding path.

Red felt his head burn up as blood started to pour down his face at an increasing rate. He couldn’t determine what was happening to him, but there was one thing he could feel.

The path was expanding. It continued to form right up to the middle of his forehead.

Then it hit something. The acupoint opened, and Red felt an explosion inside his head before his entire world went dark.