The key step to any Qi Cultivation Art was circulating qi along a specific route through the meridians. Sage hadn’t quite figured out how or why, but the meridians were pretty mystical in nature and by following different pathways in the body it would transform the energy in a different manner. So far Sage saw it as a sort of chemical mixing procedure. Each of the meridian channels seemed to do something a little bit different, just like heating, agitating, or distilling might affect the mixing of different chemicals. Hmm… I wonder if there’s a way to study the effects of each meridian?

Putting aside his errant thought, Sage pushed his qi along the pathways described in the Connecting Heaven and Earth technique. With each slow revolution along the path the energy started to transform. The drops of liquid qi kept their green color, since his previous and current technique were both wood natured, but the qualities of the qi started to shift. Sage couldn’t quite tell just how it was different, but it just felt more solid. After the lesson from that old man, Sage knew the Verdant Firebrand he had practiced had severe deficiencies, so he could only assume the new qi was getting rid of those weaknesses.

Drop by drop the qi in his body was slowly transformed. Over the next few days, Sage finally finished transforming the entirety of his qi and he felt much stronger. When he realized he didn’t even have a good Qi Technique to test it out, it made him embarrassed at his deficiencies. The only purely offensive Qi Techniques he had were of random elements that he had picked up while working as a caravan guard long ago and things he hadn’t practiced in decades. Right now he only had supporting techniques and Divine Breath. Divine Breath was very useful and powerful, but after a few tests he found there wasn’t much of a difference from before.

Just like I thought, Divine Breath is more about the changes to the body and the compression technique… the qi used to power it is not as important.

Giving up on testing he just assumed he had improved and moved on to the next step in training. Connecting Heaven and Earth was pretty normal in the methods for storing and using qi, but its speciality was drawing it in. His task now was to perfect the method, which surprisingly was focused on the aura. He had to learn how to forge his aura into thick roots and sink them down into the ground. Thankfully, the methods were explained in detail in the manual so Sage only had to follow along with the teachings and he would continue to make progress. Just like the roots of a tree drink in water and nutrients, the aura roots seek out and collect the energy of the earth.

A few weeks later, Sage finally succeeded at controlling his aura to the extent that he could form roots. Another week later he mastered the trick that let the roots consume energy. Success! Sage had finally stepped into the basic level of Connecting Heaven and Earth. Just like a seed, the first step was to sprout roots.

Sage could already tell the difference, his cultivation progressing many times faster than it had when he was using Verdant Firebrand. Ecstatic, Sage was ready to start on the other techniques, but chose to take care of some errands and take a breather. He met up with his friends; Yuan Hu, Geng He, and Qui Hou. After another night of celebration and drinking, Sage went to the Central Plaza as well as the Servant District to clear up space inside his Storage Ring. He had a Lifting Pack full of empty Storage Bags, a warehouse worth of trade goods from that Bandit’s Den and the deceased Merchant, as well as a pile of low level pills and weapons. He still had the dozen magical weapons from the Soul Taming Abode and each of them was of supremely high quality, putting the rest of the weapons he’d seen so far to shame. He had no problem with selling them all.

For his trades he tried to get it all in contribution points, but many of the goods weren’t worth that much. The same went for spirit stones. He ended up with far more gold taels and coins than he was wanting. In fact only the few low grade magic weapons and some of the pills could be traded in for contribution points and not many at all. Trading for spirit stones would have been a better ratio, but Sage wanted as many points as possible. The rest of the weapons and pills were traded for spirit stones while the huge store of trade goods all netted him gold. He only ended up with a few hundred more points and spirit stones, but surprisingly the value of the trade goods was immense. The storage chests and wooden crates he took from the bandits netted him near a hundred thousand gold coins worth, a fortune that could purchase him a couple villages or a mansion in a large city. More surprisingly, the goods that the Merchant had were worth just as much despite being carried by just a couple porters.

The last thing Sage wanted to get rid of was that silly Lamp of Passion. After thinking it over, he decided not to get rid of it immediately. While he personally had no use for it, it was very much a useful item to some people. Increasing libido and fertility were things that people on earth spent incredible amounts of money on. While he was sure they had pills here to help with such things, Sage thought it might be possible to use it to make money somehow. Filing it away with his other plans, Sage went home and started training again.

Half a year later, Sage had finally reached the initial level in each of the nine techniques. He looked at his reflection in a bronze mirror and smiled in satisfaction. He looked just as he did before he went on that expedition to the Soul Taming Abode. The Human Seal had been a success. It had felt quite strange sealing his own self, but at the same time it was easier than the other seals he practiced with. He didn’t have the time yet to train the Timeless Eyes, let alone raise them to the third level, but he knew himself pretty well so he was able to form a strong enough seal. The better part was that since he was the originator of the Seal he could release it at will and return to his true body shape.

Such a good Seal, it seems tailor made for me, but I’m sure others have had this problem in the past. Hmm, reminds me of a certain mermaid and puppet.

With the complete overhaul of his fighting techniques, Sage finally felt it was time to start the next step of his path to greatness. Making money! Well… spirit stones and contribution points. The only downside is it would take even more time spent on research and development. It’s too late to start caring about time now, I already gave up on that race a long time ago!

Sage could only think of the parable of the tortoise and the hare. Slow and steady wins the race.

Hmm… what would happen if the snake was in that race? He’d probably be waiting halfway down the track and swallow the sleeping hare before ambushing the turtle with a poisonous bite.

He put aside these ridiculous thoughts as he walked into the Blacksmith’s Hall.