The following year was quite peaceful.


    Every other month, I advanced my cultivation, and I spent the intervening time studying any small changes to my body. The enhanced technique provided by the Dao was far more powerful than I could have hoped, and as long as I cultivated correctly, there was zero impact on the qi flows in my body at each step of cultivation. Using that as my guide, I was able to correct the thousand tiny errors I made in the process and smoothly advance to Martial Disciple Peak.


    At the same time, I helped Mei and SuYin cultivate their techniques. The ones they were using were far from the quality of my own, but I was still able to help them improve beyond the limits of what I had originally written down. Because of her age, Mei cultivated at a slightly faster pace to reach Martial Disciple Peak at the age of 20. SuYin was younger, only 19, so she allowed herself to go slower and had only reached Martial Disciple 7.


    While Mei should advance to Martial Master this year, I wanted her to wait until I had completed my study of the Martial Master dual-element technique. If I could improve it, it would allow me to provide significantly better guidance for Mei during her breakthrough. She had nine months before qi stagnation would set in, so I was a little rushed, but as I told her, qi stagnation isn’t too terrible when you have unlimited access to Perfect pills.


    On other fronts, I continued my pursuit of Rank 1 and 2 alchemy mastery. After I completed the order for the Su Clan, open discontent had been silenced. I wasn’t sure if it was gone, but my ability to more than fill the role left open by Zhong left others with little room to attack me. According to WuJing, the Pavilion had begun sending most of my pills outside the Wastes since the people here were too poor to afford them. This was the first step to our goal, but I needed to take on the role of a peak Grandmaster Alchemist before we could step outside this small corner of the world.


    I continued my study of herbalism using the flowerbed in my apartment, but my results were mixed. I didn’t have a teacher, the techniques I was using were substandard, and the location of my plants was less than ideal. Still, I was slowly gaining an understanding of the process. I monitored the medicinal energy in plants from the moment a seed was created to the time they were ready for harvest. The small changes in its structure, and the accumulation of toxic energy, was a complex interplay between the plant and its environment. While I could learn some of this from books, the more I watched, the more I felt I needed someone to guide me.


    After arranging everything through Mei, I was finally ready to break through to Martial Master once more.


    <hr>


    After sitting down in my cultivation room, I made my final preparation.


    “System, move my temporary reset point to this moment.”


    Confirmed. Cost 19,706 credits. 25,806 credits remaining


    This wasn’t where I wanted to place it. I wanted it to be nearer to when I was Martial Master Peak. However, I planned to create a new Rank 2 cultivation technique, and I was hoping to trigger a new discount. If I waited until after I did so to create the temporary reset point, I would just be burning that discount for no good reason.


    That done, I began working on my cultivation technique.


    Improving the Mid-Profound technique to a basic Peak-Profound technique seemed like an incredibly simple thing to do. The only difference was improving the quality of the meridians to match a Peak-Yellow technique. After studying the manual for a short time, I had quickly realized that the original author had used weaker meridians simply because this technique would be incredibly difficult with Peak level ones.


    The cultivator needed to create two meridians simultaneously, always keeping the flow of fire and wood qi throughout the body balanced. Creating a single peak meridian had challenged me greatly the first time I did it, and that was after I already had years of practice with weaker ones, so I could imagine that a Peak version of this technique would be nearly impossible for the average cultivator.


    After constructing several practice meridians, I quickly concluded that it would be no problem for me. My enhanced affinities and experience were enough to easily cultivate this technique at a Peak level, but that wasn’t good enough. That wouldn’t make a ‘novel’ cultivation technique, only a slightly improved one. I needed to go further.


    There were two key issues I wanted to address. First, the dantian. The Rank 3 technique I used previously had me cut holes in my meridians for qi to flow to and from my dantian. After living with that cultivation for years, the only word I had to describe it was janky. It felt like someone created a meridian system and only later realized they needed to attach a dantian, so they kludged together a way to make it fit. That wasn’t acceptable. I wanted a cultivation system designed to work together properly.


    The other problem that I was fixated on was the layout of the meridians. Why were so many Martial Masters going crazy? What was wrong with them? I finally had an answer. The flows of energy through the body were what affected the mind. If meridians were placed exactly on top of the existing flows, it would speed them up, making the effect more pressing, but it should be manageable for nearly anyone. If they were misaligned, or completely misplaced, they interrupted the flow of energy through the body leading to mental deviations.


    The Twin Mountains Sect encouraged disciples to cultivate Rank 1 and 2 techniques with completely different energy flows. If disciples were extremely patient, and allowed the qi flows to completely settle after each breakthrough, it wouldn’t be ideal, but they may be able to cultivate without too many problems. However, the more they cultivated without returning to baseline the worse the mental deviations would get. Worse, even with a perfect ascension, this mix of cultivation wouldn’t lead to a strong cultivator.


    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    I needed to perfectly place my meridians to match my natural qi flows precisely. Where qi naturally diverted towards the body’s dantian, I would leave openings in my meridians, allowing qi to move freely there and back even before I made a proper storage vessel at Rank 3. Leaving holes in my meridians may be questionable, but it seemed to be the best option unless I was willing to throw away all standard practices and form my dantian first.


    Still, I didn’t believe this was enough to be truly novel. I needed to push further.


    Referring to the Rank 2 versions of the techniques I used for insights previously, I found two different options for enhancing a Martial Master’s cultivation. One had eight additional meridians placed throughout the chest and head. This seemed interesting, but the placement of these additional meridians didn’t match any of my current qi flows, so I was hesitant to use it. The other two created countless capillary meridians throughout the body to follow ever smaller tendrils of qi. This idea would be significantly more work, but I believed it was an excellent fit for my Rank 1 technique which utilized additional acupoints.


    Plan in place, the only question I had remaining was how big to make the meridians. They should contain the natural flow, but they should also be capable of holding larger quantities transferred from around the body. I was worried, though, that if they were too big it might reduce the pressure.


    With no better idea, I began experimenting. I created an arm meridian that was the same size as the natural qi flow, but after testing it a bit, I realized that it was constricting the rate at which qi wanted to move. I carefully dispersed that meridian, venting the qi back into the environment, and started again. I slowly increased the size until I reached a diameter I was happy with.


    Using that sample meridian as my reference, I began working on my first true chest meridians. The fire and wood qi in my body followed different paths, so I carefully made separate channels for them. Every centimeter, I created several small capillaries to follow tiny tributaries that branched throughout my chest. I was not willing to pause for a moment in this process. I wanted each meridian to be completed in a single sitting to avoid any small defects from arising.


    I ended up swallowing Meridian Builder Pills like they were candy. Each time, I had to take two, one for each element, and after several hours I also had to begin taking Fasting and Restorative pills to avoid eating or sleeping.


    The process of making a single pair of meridians went on for days, but when I finally finished, what I saw was a thing of beauty. The placements weren’t completely perfect, but they were close. My only disappointment was I didn’t get an announcement for a novel technique, but that wasn’t too surprising, I wasn’t done yet.


    After a quick rest and a real meal, I got back to work. With the first pair in place, the qi flows for my new meridians had slightly shifted, so I worked mostly from memory to try to place them where they should be, not where they currently were. Again, I was less than 100% successful, but it was close enough. Once I was finished, I let my qi flow through them, enhancing my body and internal organs. Once again, I had ascended to Martial Master.


    System Alert: A novel cultivation technique has been created. The Focused Hearth Fire Mantra. Rating beyond Peak-Profound Rank 2 Wood-Fire Cultivation Technique. Would you like to submit this technique to the Dao?


    “Yes!”


    Submission Successful. Contribution Confirmed. Calculating… Reward: 50% discount for the next purchase below 2,000,000 credits.


    Note: Profound Rank 2 techniques will no longer qualify you for further discounts.


    Information flooded my head and I collapsed to the ground. Countless calculations for qi flow, meridian size, proper placement, and ways to alter the weave to best accommodate branching meridians poured into me.


    After I finally regained my senses, I looked at my brand-new meridians and wanted to cry. They took me over half a month to create…


    Taking a deep breath, I slowly and carefully began to unweave and disperse them. I couldn’t allow myself to use such terrible meridians.


    <hr>


    A month later, I left my cultivation room, once more a Martial Master 1.


    I finished in time, but I still needed to hurry to ensure Mei was able to advance before it was too late. I opened my door to begin searching for her, but she was standing right outside.


    “Hey Fang, ready?” she grinned.


    I shook my head. “It feels like you’re showing off…”


    “Just excited. I only have around half a year left, need to get to it!”


    “Alright,” I said, “come on in.”


    We both headed to my cultivation room. It was a bit cramped with the two of us, but the isolation helped with focus.


    I examined her energy body as I had done several times before. Everything was clean, and she showed no signs of impurities from either poor cultivation or bad pills. The flows within her were vastly different from my own, so her meridians would need to be placed very differently, but the new knowledge I gained made understanding the necessary changes easy.


    “Have you been practicing?” I asked.


    Mei held out her hand and began forming a practice meridian. I examined it and frowned. Comparing it to the manual I had given her, she did an excellent job, but…


    “We need to fix that, it’s not right,” I said, trying to understand my thoughts. “The weave isn’t right.” I held up my hand and created a large example. “Can you do this?”


    Mei examined my altered meridian for a long time before trying it. Even after several attempts, it wasn’t quite right. There were small, nearly imperceptible burrs in the weave. It would have worked, but it wasn’t perfect.


    “It will take time,” she finally said, shaking her head.


    “Let me…” I reached out with my water affinity and tried to manipulate her qi. She had a high enough affinity that it was difficult for me to wrest control of it, even with it far outside her body. “Can you, I don’t know, let me move your qi? I’m not sure if it’s something you can consciously do.”


    Either she knew what to do, or her blessing kicked in, but suddenly I was able to manipulate her practice meridian like it was my own.


    “Alright,” I said, a little excited, “I think this will work. Start forming your first meridian but give me partial control. You focus on gathering qi and placing it into a rough weave. I will perfect it and make sure its size placement is correct.”


    Mei nodded and got to work.


    Compared to constructing my meridians, the process was a breeze. In less than a day, Mei had a brand-new Peak-Yellow meridian. After two, she stepped into the realm of Martial Master.


    “Thank you, Fang,” she said. This time, she didn’t cry. She didn’t show much of any emotion.


    “You’re welcome, Mei.”