Chapter 26: Level 2 Qi Trainee
In a one-story pagoda near the perimeters of the Tang Mountain, Ximen Wei sat cross-legged meditating in the [Five Niyamas of Space and Time], this was indeed a superb Earth-grade Qi Condensation Manual, the quality of techniques and magical arts are levels beyond the [Lesser Devil Awakening] manual.
Unfortunately for Ximen Wei, he can not use any Qi Techniques or Magical Arts of [Five Niyamas of Space and Time] unless he achieves Qi Ascension and breaksthrough to the first rank of Qi Experise.
After all, every single technique or art of [Five Niyamas of Space and Time] needs one to have mastery over space-path and time-path, Qi Trainees are not capable of controlling the Qi particles of space and time, at most they are only capable of stimulating them and absorbing them into one's body, or more specifically, absorbing them to one's Extraordinary Meridians.
The Extraordinary Meridians of Qi Cultivators can store a certain amount of Qi particles no matter what the type, that's why Qi Trainees, despite only getting started on the path of cultivation, can cast Qi Techniques and other Qi-related methods.
However, there is a limit to how much Qi Extraordinary Meridians can store, and if one stresses them too much by overexerting, the Extraordinary Meridians can get damaged, and one's road to Qi Ascension would be forever barred.
On the other hand, Qi Experts can cast up to a hundred Qi Techniques if not more, and most importantly, they can cast up to five or six Magical Arts depending on the amount of Extraordinary Meridians they opened.
Why's that? Because Qi Experts, upon succeeding their Qi Ascension, will have formed Qi Cores in their bodies, a new organ formed solely by the natural energy of the world, which will allow them to store a tremendous amount of energy and Qi within'.
Qi Cores are meant to store and cultivate Qi particles, while Extraordinary Meridians are meant to channel those Qi particles through the body!
Unfortunately, Qi Cores can store only one type of Qi, at most two or three depending on the Qi Condensation Manual one cultivate.
Thanks to the instructions of his senior brother He Weizhe, Ximen Wei now knows what to do.
In order to become a space-path Qi Expert in the future, Ximen Wei had to cultivate space-path related Qi Condensation Manuals before Qi Ascension, and preferably must not allow himself to be tainted from other paths such as the fiend-path. That means if he wants to be a guaranteed space-path and time-path Qi Expert in the future, he must not use the various Qi Techniques of the [Lesser Devil Awakening].
Fortunately for Ximen Wei, he's still not a Level 3 Qi Trainee which means using various Qi Techniques of other paths will not affect him that much. He can still use [Strengthen], [Enfeeble], [Iron Fist], [Bedevilment] and most importantly [Devilish Paroxysm] before the third level.
Once he becomes a Level 3 Qi Trainee, he must minimalize the use of Qi Techniques and methods of other paths, although there is a high chance of becoming a dual space-path time-path Qi Cultivator thanks to him cultivating the [Five Niyamas of Space and Time], there is still a small risk of him deviating and ending up forming an incomplete, damaged Qi Core.
"I must breakthrough to the second level and form my Eighth Extraordinary Meridian as soon as possible." Holding the manual of [Five Niyamas of Space and Time] in hand, Ximen Wei wholeheartedly focused on cultivating it and comprehending the various mysteries of space and time within' it.
Before Qi Ascension, Qi Condensation Manuals' instructions are quite simple. Fiend-path Qi Condensation Manuals simply excites the nearby fiendish qi particles, guiding them towards the body and allowing the Extraordinary Meridians to absorb them, once they reach a certain quantity, the qi particles will condense into itself and evolve into a higher quality, hence the "Condensation" name in Qi Condensation Manuals.
With every condensation of qi particles, one would breakthrough to another level, until the qi particles reach a certain quality and, alongside the mysterious resonance of Heaven and Earth, will condense into an entirety higher form of Qi that'll call upon the natural energy of the world to form the Qi Core.
That's the main principle behind the QI Condensation Manuals that cover the Qi Trainees levels, Ximen Wei found it extremely simple and easy to understand, that's why when he first got the Qi Scroll from Long Gen, he didn't even spend an hour studying it before forming his very first set of Extraordinary Meridians.
Unfortunately for Ximen Wei, he found it pretty difficult to get used to the [Five Niyamas of Space and Time], unlike fiend-path qi particles, space-path and time-path qi particles were considered of the "unorthdox path", they were one of the most mysterious paths of the Qi World, and even in the entirety of the Immortal Devil Sect, there was only one space-path Qi Expert.
To stimulate and excite the nearby space-path time-path qi particles, Ximen Wei had to spend an entire day before succeeding, when the very first space-path time-path qi particles entered his body, Ximen Wei wore a look of excitement and joy!
"It won't be long before my breakthrough!" The biggest hassle to start cultivating is the first step, once Ximen Wei overcome the issue of absorbing space-path time-path qi particles, he naturally found it easier to absorb even more such qi particles.
It wasn't long before the qi particles inside Ximen Wei's Extraordinary Meridians reached a bottleneck, finding it hard to expand and increase in quantity, so as per the instructions of [Five Niyamas of Space and Time], Ximen Wei went ahead and started applying the methods of condensing Qi and elevating it to a higher quality.
The amount of qi particles of space and time inside Ximen Wei's body became smaller and smaller, at the same time, it became denser and denser, until eventually, only a tiny amount remained, however in terms of quality, that tiny amount was many levels above the qi particles that used to be in Ximen Wei's body. In fact, just that tiny amount of Level 2 Qi Particles can overpower and slice through Level 1 Qi Particles with utter ease.
Once the qi particles condensed and transcended into a higher quality, they formed a small resonance with the outside world, calling upon a small amount of the natural energy of the world, that mysterious energy entered Ximen Wei's body, and formed into the illustory shape of an Eighth Extraordinary Meridian.
Very quickly, the illustory shape of the Eight Extraordinary Meridian started turning solid until it completed.
Ximen Wei is now officially a Level 2 Qi Trainee, someone on par with the young master of the Song Family, Song Jianyi, and ont only that, he has Eight Extraordinary Meridians. If Ximen Wei were to be in the Criminal District, he would be able to join one of the top-tier gangs and criminal organizations that used to reside in the Green Lotus City, in fact, he would be able to establish his own gang, and many criminals would flood over, seeking for his protection.
In terms of physical bodies, Level 2 Qi Trainee are borderline superhumans, only the physically strongest mortals and athletes would be able to compete with them... And when Level 2 Qi Trainee unleashed their Qi Techniques, any mortal would be slaughtered effortlessly.
When Ximen Wei was still imprisoned in the Song Family's dungeon, he found it hard to go against a squad of armored mortals, he had to rely on his Qi Techniques and stealthly attacks to exterminate them in such a short period of time, if he were to directly go up against three or four trained soldiers wielding spears and swords, even with the use of Qi Techniques he will find it hard to deal with them, and unless he had an escape-type or movement-type Qi Techniques, he may even perish!
After all, Qi Trainees are just mortals who wield borderline supernatural, sometimes the Qi Techniques of Qi Trainees can at most mildly injure a regular mortal. In fact, in the eyes of the truly powerful Qi Experts, Qi Trainees are just... slightly stronger mortals... Any Qi Expert can slaughter even the strongest Level 3 Qi Trainee with just the wave of a hand.
In order to elevate and form his Seventh Extraordinary Meridian, Ximen Wei had to slaugther an entire village of over 20 people, if it weren't for their fear of "Immortals" and other various legends, those villagers could've definitely bonded together and resisted Ximen Wei's massacre.
Now that Ximen Wei is a Level 2 Qi Trainee, he wanted to test his powers, and see how much he has improved.
Leaving his residence, Ximen Wei headed towards the training grounds of the Immortal Devil Sect, it was inside one of these large four-story pagodas, in the third floor. It was just an area with training dummies inside, two or three people were inside the training grounds practicing miscellaneous techniques such as martial arts, swordplay and other stuff.
Ximen Wei stood in front of the training dummy and immediately unleashed one of his most powerful attacks.
"Qi Technique - [Iron Fist]!"
Power surged through Ximen Wei's veins and Extraordinary Meridians until his fight fist shone with a metallic luster, it exploded with unprecedented power as it headed towards the wooden training dummy, leaving behind ripples in the air.
POW!
The training dummy exploded into shrapnel that rained down everywhere, clearly the power of Ximen Wei's Qi Techniques increased by leaps and bounds. Before, Ximen Wei's [Iron Fist] was able to leave behind small, fist-sized holes whenever it hit something, but now, it contained so much energy that it straight up exploded the wooden dummy into tiny pieces.
Upon seeing what his fists were capable of, Ximen Wei nodded in satisfaction and unleashed three Qi Techniques simultaneously, wanting to see what his full power would be like if his enemy was weakend, and he was strengthened.
"Qi Technique - [Enfeeble]."
"Qi Technique - [Strengthen]."
"Qi Technique - [Iron Fist]."
Ximen Wei punched the wooden dummy with all his might, his fist carrying with it a terrifying amount of energy, it was so powerful that the tearing sounds of the wind could be heard.
When it landed on the wooden dummy, the force was so great the metal support hooking it to the ground threatened to break, even the nearby Qi Trainees in the training grounds couldn't help but look to see what's going on.
Naturally, Ximen Wei was quite happy with the result, he went to another wooden dummy and made sure there were some distance between the two. He was going to cast his long-range Qi Technique and see how strong it has gotten.
When he was only a Level 1 Qi Trainee, [Blood Spirit] was able to block the attack of the Level 2 Song Jianyi, from this alone, anyone can tell that [Blood Spirit] is a superb long-range attacking Qi Technique and add on top of that the fact that [Blood Spirit] can strengthen itself by absorbing the surrounding blood, it's absolutely one of the best top-grade Qi Techniques beneath the Qi Expertise realm.
Ximen Wei's fingers moved in an incantation gesture, casting one of the [Lesser Devil Awakening]'s Qi Techniques.
"Qi Technique - [Blood Spirit]."
Just like before, a two-horned abomination appeared from a blood-colored vortex, it had no eyes, no nose, no ears, just a toothless mouth that let out eerie laughs from time to time, unfortunately since there was no surrounding blood to strengthen it, Ximen Wei had to expend some of his energy and blood to empower it.
After the [Blood Spirit] finished forming, it headed straight towards the wooden dummy in the distance, blood and gore was oozing from it, naturally this long-range attack won't last for long before dissipating, however, since it was powered by Ximen Wei's Level 2 Qi and eight Extraordinary Meridians, it moved at such a speed that it'll definitely not dissipate before hitting it's target.
Puff!
When the [Blood Spirit] collided with the wooden dummy, it exploded into a cloud of blood that turned the wooden dummy into nothing but a black, oozing liquid. In terms of strength and power, the [Blood Spirit] is clearly nowhere near the [Iron Fist] empowered by [Strengthen], however, [Blood Spirit] possesses such terrifying corrosive abilities that not even a Level 3 Qi Trainee would dare to take it head-on.
After testing his abilities, Ximen Wei left the third floor very satisfied and headed towards the first floor to inform the sect of his breakthrough.
Every disciple of the Immortal Devil Sect has to inform the nearest four-story pagodas of their breakthrough to update their identification talisman and receive their rewards. Yes, you've heard that right, each and every disciple of the Immortal Devil Sect receives a reward upon achieving a breakthrough!
It was natural, after all, the Immortal Devil Sect is a school that teaches it's student about the Dao and the ways of cultivation, it must encourage it's student and disciples in some way or another.
When Ximen Wei reached the third floor, he went to the reception area and informed the maiden over there of his breakthrough, when she heard the news she was pretty surprised, after all Ximen Wei just joined the sect one day ago, it's inconceivable that he made his breakthrough one day after joining the sect, plus he's just ten years old.
But upon remembering that he was a '3rd Heaven' talent, she didn't pay the matter any heed and quickly updated his identification talisman.
Since Ximen Wei has eight Extraordinary Meridians now, his identification talisman not only included an update about his cultivation base and the number of points, but also about his talent.
'I'm now a 4th Heaven talent discipe of the Immortal Devil Sect, I'm only two Heavens lower than the most talented outer-sect disciple. I wonder how many Extraordinary Meridians that guy has opened? 10? That's impossible. Eight is the limited acknowledged by almost all the organizations while nine is only mentioned in myths and legends, according to He Weizhe, not only one has to be extremely lucky in order to open the ninth Extraordinary Meridian, he also has to gain the approval of the Heavens themselves... I don't know what that means but one thing for certain is, the 6th Heaven disciple of the Immortal Devil Sect definitely does not have ten Extraordinary Meridians.. Are you telling me that 9th Heaven disciples have thirteen Extraordinary Meridians? Impossible.' Murmured Ximen Wei to himself.
There certainly has to be secrets pertaining to the Heaven-tier talents of the Immortal Devil Sect disciples, it's impossible for it to be only about Extraordinary Meridians, there certainly have to be other things that go into talent evaluation such as battle prowess, cultivation base, foundation, age, cultivation speed and other factors.
'How young must the 6th Heaven disciple be?' Ximen Wei's eyes narrowed.
'I already met two of those Heaven-tier disciples outside the Green Lotus City, they were Level 3 fourteen year old Qi Trainees, who were able to fight valiantly despite being outnumbered.'
Ximen Wei exited the four-story pagoda and headed towards his residence.
'I must be evaluated as a 4th Heaven talent because of my age, my cultivation speed and my eight Extraordinary Meridians opened despite being only a Level 2 Qi Trainee... I have a fairly decent chance of opening the ninth Extraordinary Meridian as well, so my future potential could be counted into the equation.'
'In order to increase my talent evaluation, I need to increase my battle-prowess, start comprehending the profundities of the Dao and show my talent to the sect. That way I'll get more resources!'
In the Immortal Devil Sect, talent evaluation could be considered one of the most important aspets of the sect because every disciple receives a monthly allowance of points based on their talent.
Man-tier disciples only get a measly 1 to 4 points every month while Earth-tier disciples get 5 to 9 points, meanwhile Heaven-tier disciples get 10 up to a 50 points every month!
Ximen Wei's current monthly allowance is 24 points, with more points he can purchase weapons, martial arts, Qi Techniques, Magical Arts and even Qi Artifacts. Basically, with the aid of the Immortal Devil Sect's resources, his cultivation path would be easier and unimpeded.
At the moment, thanks to his breakthrough, Ximen Wei has 21 points! The Immortal Devil Sect rewarded him with 20 points because of his breakthrough, however, Ximen Wei was not that happy because when he joined, he had a thousand points!
A thousand points in the Immortal Devil Sect can get you a Rank 1 Qi Artifact, that's how precious points were!
Thankfully, Ximen Wei did not regret his decision whatsoever because he viewed [Five Niyamas of Space and Time] as one of the most important tools he can use to return back to Earth and meet up with his beloved ones.
In the Forbidden Graveyard of the Immortal Devil Sect, two figures stood shoulder-to-shoulder, one was an emaciated old man while the other was a dashing, beautiful young man... Both of them emanated an ancient aura that instilled fear and terror into whoever felt it, and if any one of them were to roam the Divine Star Continent, they would undoubtedly be recognized as one of the most supreme figures of the continent.
Unfortunately, a strong aura of death loomed over the both of them, clearly this aura of death stated that the demise of these two formidable figures is near.. The two of them lived for far too long, and they used many unspeakable methods to resist the cruel passage of time and live to see the current day.
Naturally, these two were the Patriarch and Founder of the Immortal Devil Sect and the White Devil Bai Gu Jing.
"Old brother, it seems the little kid has embarked on a different cultivation path. Should we take action and force him to cultivate the fiend-path just in case?" Bai Gu Jing casually spoke, his gaze penetrated all the way down to Ximen Wei's residence.
"No need, if fate wants the child to cultivate another path other than the fiend-path, then let it be. I feel like our main job here has been accomplished, and we can go back to slumber. However, we should be extra careful and assign a Dao Protector to the child." The Patriach said.
"At most both you and I will last couple of months before we perish, we definitely can't act as Dao Protectors. It's best if we have someone from your sect handle it, and just in case, we'll go into slumber and only act when something truly dangerous happen, or when one of those old geezers act."
"That's what I was thinking about as well, since the kid cultivates space-path and time-path, we can have Murong Xi act as a Dao-Protector, this will be beneficial to us and our true self, even in death." The Patriarch flew down from the Forbidden Graveyard into the main castle below, he quickly arrived the Sect Leader's Immortal Cave.
"Demonfire." The Patriarch's archaic voice resounded throughout the entire Immortal Cave, startling Sect Leader Demonfire out of his meditation, when he recognized the voice of his eternal patriarch, he quickly arrived in front of him and paid his respects.
"Junior Demonfire pays his respects to the Patriarch." Sect Leader Demonfire, despite being an infamous Qi Lord, a Rank 4 Qi Expert capable of shaking the entire Divine Star Continent, was acting respectfully and cautiously in front of the old man.
The old man in front of him was the Patriarch and Founder of the Immortal Devil Sect, he has obviously been around ever since the establishment of the sect, and despite the passage of time, the old man in front of him did not pass away yet!
Ever since the establishment of the Immortal Devil Sect, tens of thousands of years has passed! Qi Paragons can at most only live for ten thousand years with life-extension methods before perishing. Therefore Sect Leader Demonfire guessed that the old man in front of him must be an utter monster.
"Demonfire, there is a newly recruited disciple to the Immortal Devil Sect who goes by the name of Ximen Wei, he is tied to the sect by karmic luck. Assign Rank 3 Qi Expert Murong Xi to him as a Dao-Protector. Before he becomes a Rank 2 Qi Expert, make sure to protect him from threats above the fourth rank. Understood?"
"Junior Demonfire understand Patriarch's insturctions." Sect Leader Demonfire clasped hands as he acknowledged the Patriarch's commands, he quickly issued an order to his subordinates to station the space-path Qi Expert Murong Xi as Ximen Wei's Dao-Protector.
"If you don't have any questions, then I shall take my leave." With that, the Patriarch disappeared into the Forbidden Graveyard, digging a grave for himself and Bai Gu Jing before going into slumber.
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