Chapter 50: Meridians - 50
As soon as Zhou Fan's fire Qi came into contact with the tube-like structures, it was absorbed.
Looking at Cao Lin, Zhou Fan saw that he didn't seem to feel anything.
Continuing to look at his body, Zhou Fan saw that the Fire Qi was just sitting in the spot where it was absorbed.
Instead of saying that Cao Lin had absorbed the Fire Qi, it was more accurate to say he was holding onto it.
Since it wasn't doing anything on its own, Zhou Fan decided to move it around for him.
The tube-like structures filled the whole body and even went up to the brain. It branched out like a nervous system throughout every part of the body.
A name came to Zhou Fans mind, meridians. Zhou Fan started to move the Fire Qi around Cao LIns meridians and soon, he completed an entire cycle around the body.
As soon as the cycle was completed, Cao Lin started to sweat intensely, and before long, impurities started to pour out of him.
At first, Cao Lin started to freak out when he saw the unknown, yet disgusting gook coming out of him. However, after Zhou Fan's reassurance, he once again sat down and let the process be completed.
As soon as impurities stopped pouring out, Zhou Fan blasted some water at him that instantly cleaned the impurities off.
"Did you feel anything before impurities started to pour out?" Zhou Fan questioned.
"Besides the sweat, no." Cao lin answered.
After some brief pondering, Zhou Fan decided to try again.
"I will repeat the process. This time, try to sense anything going on inside your body." Zhou Fan said.
"Ok." Cao Lin answered as he sat in a meditative position.
As Zhou Fan once again pushed Fire Qi into his meridians, Cao Lin felt something.
The more he focused on it, the hotter the sensation felt. As Zhou Fan pushed the Fire Qi around, Cao Lin attempted to memorize the movements and feeling.
After 10 more full cycles, Cao Lin had finally memorized the route.
Only then did Zhou Fan stop.
"I've memorized the route, but what good does that do?" Cao Lin questioned.
Since the only Qi in the natural air was Chaos Qi, he couldn't absorb it.
"You'll see later." Zhou Fan answered.
Since Cao Lin had memorized the route, Zhou Fan moved on to the other people. Although their memorization skills varied, it didn't take too long before everyone, including Yipeng, had memorized the route.
They all had the same route since it worked for everyone. Zhou Fan also had no idea as to what is more efficient. He had guessed on Cao Lin and simply repeated on the rest.
Before he continued with the next step, Zhou Fan called the beasts over.
With Xiaolong in the front and the rest next to him, Zhou Fan observed their bodies the same way he did with Cao Lin. After looking, Zhou Fan wasn't surprised to see that they didn't have meridians like the others.
Instead, they had a core at the center of their bodies with vein like structures, similar to the others meridians, branching out from the core like a sprouting seed.
Since they didn't need a route like the others, Zhou Fan didn't waste much time with them and simply got them used to the feeling of their specific Qi's.
Another notable thing was that the beasts could also absorb the other Qi's.
After testing their affinities, Zhou Fan discovered that Xiaolong had an affinity with every basic Qi, and lightning Qi. Zhuque also had an affinity with every basic element, but it was HEAVILY leaning towards fire Qi. She also had an affinity with Life Qi. Bainu, the white tiger, had the same basic affinities, but was leaning heavily towards earth Qi and had an affinity with shadow Qi. Xuanwu and Hang lu shared the same affinity's which were the basic Qi's and leaning towards water Qi and an incredible affinity with space!
When Zhou Fan discovered their shared affinity with space, he was astonished. He had the most expectations towards Xiaolong, but the turtle and snake out did him.
Shaking his head, Zhou Fan got them to sit around with the others and sat in the middle.
"In a few moments, I will be changing the surrounding Chaos Qi into absorbable Qi. Prepare to feel and absorb it. Trace it along the path I showed you and all should go well." Zhou Fan said.
He then got straight into the action without waiting for a response.
As he felt the Chaos Qi, he split it into every conceivable Qi he had comprehended.
Although Zhou Fan didn't have a specific affinity with these elements, they were all parts of Chaos Qi. Since he appeared to have an affinity with Chaos Qi, he could just as well control the other elements.
Unless there was some Qi out there that was equal or greater than Chaos Qi, Zhou Fan could control it.
Actually, there were some limits for Zho Fan himself. Although he could control everything that was technically a part of Chaos Qi, he didn't have the strength to control some of them.
Qi's such as space and time were nearly impossible for him to control at this point. At most, he could allow space Qi and time Qi to be split off from Chaos Qi, which allowed the turtles to absorb space Qi.
Even so, Zhou Fan wasn't envious. Eventually, he would be able to control those Qi's. Not to mention, he could already control Chaos Qi, which is much more powerful than time and space Qi combined.
As the Qi was split, everyone was able to sense it almost immediately. As if their body was dying of thirst and had just found water, the Qi's they could absorb flowed into them and rotated intensely.
After 5 hours had passed, only the beasts had made any progress in cultivation. From their previous states of 1st level Qi gathering, every beast had broken into the 2nd level. Unfortunately, not a single one of the others had made progress.
After 10 more hours had passed, Zhou Fan was about to give up. All of a sudden, he looked at Cao Lin, who then broke into the 1st level of Qi gathering. When he broke through, Zhou Fan had some more hope and gave the others another 5 hours before calling it quits.
Chapter 51: Reach For The Stars - 51
As Zhou Fan stopped producing Qi, everyone woke up from their stupor.
When they opened their eyes, everyone but Cao Lin and the beasts were confused since they didn't feel any different.
As for Cao Lin, he was feeling excited by the increase of strength.
"I'm sorry I got your hopes up." Zhou Fan said, silencing Cao Lin's celebration. "Besides Cao Lin, it seems none of you have the talent for cultivation."
As soon as his words sounded out, he could see the confusion on their faces change to that of sadness.
"After my seclusion, I will further investigate cultivation, and see if there is a better way for you all. Until then, continue with the assumption that you won't be able to cultivate." He continued.
Although there was a chance that he could discover better ways to cultivate, Zhou Fan didn't want to get their hopes up.
While they were cultivating, Zhou Fan could see how much Qi they were absorbing, and Cao Lin was the only one going at a fair pace.
Besides their cultivation speeds, Zhou Fan discovered that they cultivated differently from him.
When he was in Qi gathering, he individually absorbed specks of dust and it was instant, but they had to first absorb the Qi, then circulate it around their body until it was absorbed before they repeated. Also, they didn't absorb specks, but streams, much like he did in foundation establishment.
Perhaps he had to absorb it one speck at a time at first because Chaos Qi was too powerful. Or perhaps he was just different because he didn't have meridians and his whole body was what absorbed the Qi.
After he had finished speaking, everyone besides Cao Lin and the beasts started to leave. When only they were left behind, Zhou Fan spoke towards Cao Lin
"Congratulations, you are now a cultivator. I'm not sure how talented you are or how far you'll go, but I have high hopes for you." He said.
"Thank you sir. I feel 50 years younger already." Cao Lin said with a smiling face.
"That's good. Don't die on me too soon. After my seclusion, I'll see if I can find a way to naturally produce Fire Qi and Demon Qi."
"Thank you again. I'll take my leave now." He said with a bow before walking in the same direction as the others.
With just the beasts left, Zhou Fan put a smile on his face.
"Good job guy's. You did just as good as I expected." Zhou Fan said while petting them.
In fact, the only thing that could be improved was Xuanwu and Hanglu's ability to absorb space Qi. During the session, they didn't absorb a single speck of it. However, some of the fault lay with Zhou Fan since he didn't have much control over it and could only barely bring it out to be absorbed.
After playing around with them a little bit, they too went back to their habitats.
Finally, Zhou Fan was alone. Instead of cultivating in the cave, Zhou Fan flew out of the tunnels and headed to a nearby mountain.
Although 'nearby', it was a couple kingdoms away and it took about a minute for Zhou Fan to arrive.
When he got there, he saw a mountain that pierced through the clouds. Zhou Fan had specifically chosen it because it was one of the biggest mountains in the empire and was relatively nearby.
At the foot of the mountain stood a couple of villages and even a city. Even so, they weren't anything impressive. Especially compared to the kingdoms in the Mortaniel empire.
Without wasting too much time looking at the scenery, Zhou Fan flew to the peak of the mountain, just 20 feet below the tip, and made himself a makeshift cave.
This would be where he cultivated for now. Although he didn't know how long this would be his cultivation spot, he knew that he didn't mind it being destroyed instead of the cave.
He imitated the previous procedure of shaping a place to sit and making a small pool of lava on the side.
Finally, Zhou Fan began to cultivate. The first thing he noticed was the speed at which he absorbed Qi. Compared to before, it was multiple times faster.
If his cultivation speed before he comprehended the Dao could be compared to a snail's crawl, his new cultivation speed would be a cat sprinting.
As the day passed, Zhou Fan felt that the effect was equivalent to 3 months of cultivation before he comprehended the Dao.
That was a 90x increase. It was like going from struggling to pay bills to living in a mansion without worries.
Without a doubt, Zhou Fan felt that the 60 year journey was worth it. With just a single year of cultivating, he would be able to make up for the 60 years spent understanding the Dao and then some.
Zhou Fan continued to cultivate and after a total of 2 days passed, Zhou Fan broke into the 3rd level of nascent soul.
By now, his soul was 100x stronger than it was when he first broke through.
As he cultivated and felt the immense increase of his strength, Zhou Fan couldn't help but wonder why he felt the need to cultivate.
When he first started to cultivate, his motivation was to rule over the world, but now, such a thing felt pointless and without merit.
Looking outside the cave, Zhou Fan saw the stars.
'Good. My next goal is to literally reach the stars.' He thought, deciding to make himself a goal.
With a new motivation, Zhou Fan continued to cultivate through the night.
As 4 more days passed, Zhou Fan broke through again, reaching the 4th level of nascent soul.
Even so, he didn't stop there. With a goal such as reaching the stars, he needed to be much stronger. Perhaps 4 or 5 big realms further. Maybe even more.
He had heard theories of space and what it was. The common idea was that there is no air up there and it is an unsurvivable and infinite darkness, besides the stars and the sun.
However, he could test it in the future.
Once again, Zhou Fan continued to cultivate.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
121 Power
stone 
Paragraph comment