Martial Disciples pull qi from the environment and infuse it into their muscles. When a muscle group is completely saturated, the cultivator uses the stored energy to open an acupoint which will allow the connected muscles to constantly, passively gather energy.


    As a Martial Disciple, qi is mostly locked in the muscles. To create a flame in your right hand, you channel the qi from your lower-right arm into the palm of your hand. If your lower-right arm runs out of qi, it is possible to slowly drag qi from other parts of the body to replenish it, but you are usually better off waiting for it to recover.


    A Martial Master creates meridians throughout their body. These are essentially blood vessels for qi. They allow qi to quickly and easily travel anywhere in the body. After the proper meridians are in place, it no longer matters how much qi is in your lower-right arm, you can use qi from anywhere in your body to constantly power a flame in your right hand.


    It should be said, the amount of qi a Martial Master can access is not significantly different from a Martial Disciple. The massive quantity of qi needed to advance as a Master is locked into static structures, the meridians, so it is not usable for powering techniques. The primary difference between a Master and a Disciple is that a Master has the ability to transfer and use qi from anywhere in their body. Considered from a combat perspective, though, the meridians also add significant structural strength to the body, even if the energy itself cannot be directly used.


    So, what is a Martial Grandmaster?


    The human body has a point in the torso, located slightly above the navel, called the dantian. The dantian is a natural gathering point for the body’s qi. This can only be seen clearly in people who haven’t cultivated yet. Cultivation shifts the flow of qi and forces it into muscles and meridians. The dantian still exists, however, and it is where qi wants to pool.


    To break through to Martial Grandmaster, a cultivator must create a structure in their dantian capable of containing qi and connect it to their meridians. This becomes a qi reservoir capable of containing vast amounts of energy that can be released through the meridians on demand. To Grandmasters, this qi reservoir is the dantian, and the dantian is the qi reservoir. The two are synonymous.


    <hr>


    I sat in my apartment and studied the Rank 3 technique the elder had provided me. The first thing I needed to do was create my dantian. This process was extremely similar to the way I had weaved my meridians together, but it was complicated by the fact that it was shaped like a large sphere instead of a thin tube. Once I started, it would be nearly impossible to stop until it was complete since the shape didn’t allow it to be easily ‘tied off’, so I had to prepare.


    The first thing I did was sell dozens of pills to the pill hall. As a Martial Master Peak, it would be natural for me to be able to create ten to fifteen pills a day, so I worked to complete every mission I could to build up contribution points. I didn’t touch the competitive missions, but I grabbed any regular mission available, and if one wasn’t available, I focused on the pills the sect had put a bounty on.


    It only took me two weeks to save enough points for a year’s worth of rent.


    After that, I began preparing pills for myself. Mainly, I needed Meridian Builder pills. They would provide me with the qi and focus I needed to complete my dantian in one sitting. I also made several Rank 2 Fasting pills, so I wouldn’t need to eat, and Restorative pills, so I wouldn’t need to sleep.


    Using these pills was usually a bad idea. The pill toxins contained in them could quickly lead to problems if you relied too heavily on them instead of simply eating and sleeping. Eating and sleeping took time, but pills toxins could permanently damage your foundation. This situation was different, though. If I needed to stop cultivating for any reason, it could cause irreparable damage to my dantian. Damage from pill toxin was the lesser of two evils in this situation.


    Finally, while my rented apartment had well-made furniture, it wasn’t the best for cultivation, so I spent several thousand contribution points on an exceptional cultivation mat. It had a simple formation woven into it that would allow me to completely block out the world around me as I cultivated.


    Once my preparations were complete, I sat down in my room and began my breakthrough.


    <hr>


    I started by weaving together a tight ring of qi. This was where, eventually, a connection would be created with my meridians. Then, using that ring as a starting point, I slowly worked my way out, creating a large quarter of a sphere with the ring in the center.


    When building meridians, the qi strands are slightly loose, and have a bit of separation between them. This is to allow qi to enter and exit them as needed. My Peak-Yellow technique used flat ribbons that could expand and contract so I could more carefully control the rate at which this process happened.


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    Building a dantian was different. Qi should only be able to enter and exit through the openings for the meridians, so it needed to be weaved tightly enough that nothing could escape. This pressure, to create a surface with absolutely no gaps, caused the time needed to complete the task to skyrocket. It took me more than a week to create the first piece.


    The cultivation technique I was using called for the creation of four such pieces. This was to allow for four openings in the dantian. My Rank 2 technique created two meridians in my torso, and each of them would have a pathway in and out of the dantian.


    After the first piece was complete, I needed to expend a bit of my focus to hold it in place as I began to work on the second. After the second was complete, I had to keep both of them locked into place. While working on the final piece, I was not only concentrating on weaving a perfect quarter sphere with zero gaps, but my mind was also stabilizing and holding the three previously created parts in place. If I let up for even a second, there was a significant chance that they would begin to unravel, wreaking havoc within my body.


    It took me a total of three months to finish assembling the pieces, but I had no time to relax. I had to constantly keep a firm mental lock on everything.


    Once all four pieces were in place, I began to knit them together. This used a completely different weave, and again, it had zero room for error.


    Slowly, I placed one stitch after another. A few times, the threads and the pieces didn’t line up perfectly, so I had to carefully pluck out the stitches and try again. This caused minor damage, but I had no choice. The weave was too complex for me to complete perfectly on my first attempt, but it was also nearly impossible to practice, so I had to accept the imperfections.


    Finally, after a total of five months without rest, my dantian was completely formed. It sat there, in the middle of my torso, and showed no signs of collapse or unraveling.


    At this point, I wasn’t yet a Martial Grandmaster because my dantian wasn’t connected to my meridians. However, because the structure was complete, I could rest without worry. When I started connecting my meridians, I, again, would not be able to stop until the process was complete, so I took this time to sleep, eat, and recover.


    <hr>


    After two days of rest, I started again.


    From my dantian, I created four meridian-like branches and extended them to the point that the ends were nearly flush against the two meridians in my torso, then I tied off the ends of three of them and slowed down the movement of qi in my body.


    Working as quickly as I safely could, I sliced open one meridian and began weaving a connecting branch into it. Even with my qi slowed, it still leaked through the opening and made connecting the branch challenging. I forced everything into place and tightly knit it together.


    Qi began moving from that meridian into my dantian. It pooled there, but if too much accumulated, it would begin to be forced out, causing it to burst through the three branches I hadn’t yet connected.


    Swiftly, I made another slice further down in the same meridian and connected the next branch to it. This began to allow qi to flow from my dantian back into the meridian, greatly reducing the risk of pressure build-up.


    Then, I repeated the same process with my other torso meridian. First cutting open and connecting a branch for qi to flow in, then connecting the final one to allow qi to flow out.


    Everything complete, I could finally relax.


    <hr>


    I had reached Martial Grandmaster 1, and while that meant I had a dantian fully capable of storing qi, it didn’t contain much energy yet. Instead of immediately ending my seclusion, I began to cultivate to begin filling it.


    I didn’t have any Rank 3 pills to help me, and Rank 2 Meridian Builders were useless here, so I just focused on cycling my cultivation technique to slowly gather energy in my dantian.


    To advance as a Grandmaster, one had to completely fill their dantian with qi. When no more could be added, and it began to feel like the walls of the dantian were starting to buckle, the cultivator needed to compress and compact it, making it denser and more potent. Each compression was an advancement in a Grandmaster’s level, and qi could be compressed nine times, meaning a Martial Grandmaster 10 was a Martial Grandmaster Peak.


    I watched my qi as I cultivated. I could see the qi slowly drain from my muscles, enter my meridians, and get deposited in my dantian. Being empty of qi, the acupoints in my muscles would then begin to pull in qi from the environment at an accelerated rate. My dantian was nearly empty, but it was slowly building second by second.


    As a Martial Master, I didn’t have to worry about constantly cultivating. I only needed to replenish the qi as I used it. The qi used in creating meridians was always pulled in as I built them.


    Living as a Grandmaster would be different. Gathering enough qi to advance would take a significant amount of time, and any time I wasn’t cultivating I was simply delaying my advancement. Using qi for any reason would take me further away from advancement. Concocting Rank 2 pills had essentially been free for me because I didn’t need to worry about the qi I was using, but spending qi to concoct Rank 3 pills would mean delaying my cultivation.


    This could all be counteracted by consuming Rank 3 Qi Gathering pills, but the more of those I consumed, the more pill toxins would build up.


    I wasn’t going to eschew alchemy. Learning Rank 3 alchemy was far, far more important to me than advancing my cultivation a step. I just had to keep the costs and benefits in mind as I did so.


    As a Martial Grandmaster, I could live for 300 years, and my cultivation base wouldn’t start to stagnate until age sixty, so I had time to both learn and cultivate.


    While I had originally been hesitant to use the weaker cultivation technique, it did provide me with a backup plan for the future. If I couldn’t both learn alchemy and advance my cultivation at the same time, I would still be able to stockpile Rank 3 pills and quickly advance my cultivation as needed without having to worry about my mental state. It might not be ideal, but having the option was nice.