Woah. I succeeded! Yang Bin thought, as he looked around. Unlike the previous time, there was no golden spark, thus it was mostly darkness. There were only two things amidst this darkness, his white ethereal body and the token with red markings.
Hesitantly, he reached out for the token. Upon touching it, red words popped out.
"Cultivation technique: Eight Meridians."
"Spirit Cultivation Technique: Ascendant's Gaze."
"Movement Technique: Phase Shift."
With the appearance of these grand words, Yang Bin felt like his spirit world had a subtle change. As he read the techniques, he was awed.
Currently, Yang Bin does not know anything about techniques. Since he was only at the first rank of body tempering, he simply didn't have the capabilities to perform any techniques. Thus, his parents have yet to teach him any.
Carefully, Yang Bin raised his arm and touched the first technique, "Eight Meridians." Immediately, more words popped up.
"Eight Meridians is a cultivation technique that allows one to cultivate their extraordinary qi meridians. Successfully cultivated, the user can devour qi using the acupoints, and the meridian would purify impurities and circulate the qi, allowing faster cultivation and recovery speed. There are eight extraordinary meridians. Each meridian is more difficult to unblock than the last, but the reward is also greater. Once all eight are opened, your cultivation speed will increase by at least ten folds. Even without actively cultivating, your improved body would slowly absorb qi from the air, slowly increasing your cultivation."
"The first extraordinary meridian is the Governing Vessel. It's acupoint starts at the low abdomen and move…"
The paragraph continued describing each and every single one of the meridians in lengthy detail. Unfortunately, Yang Bin didn't read it all; the first sentence and a half was as far as he got.
Ah. This is too much. Too boring. Yang Bin complained. Although it was boring, Yang Bin was excited about the effects, especially the cultivation and qi recovery speed.
Like movement techniques and cultivation techniques, there are also offensive and defensive techniques. These techniques usually require qi to use, depleting the qi reserve. When the qi reserve is fully depleted, the cultivator won't be able to cast any techniques that require qi. If they try, they will suffer a backlash.
Next to the lengthy paragraphs, there was a diagram of the human body sitting in a meditative pose. In the diagram, there were numerous lines running from top to bottom, speckled in dots. This diagram not only illustrated the eight extraordinary meridians, but also the twelve meridians and acupoints. After taking a long look, Yang Bin moved onto the second technique.
"Spirit Cultivation Technique Ascendant's Gaze cultivates your spirit. It is split up into three stages based on master. The first stage is called Mystic Pupils. Your reaction speed, vision, and thinking speed will be enhanced. Second stage is Heaven's Eyes. In this stage, your vision is greatly enhanced and your mentality fortified. Most illusions and mental attacks pose no threat to you. The last form, Millennial Sight, allows you to briefly slow down time of the area in your sight."
"To cultivate this technique, start by sensing the spirit energy around you then…"
Even though the ability of Millennial Sight was more tempting than those of Eight Meridians, Yang Bin was too excited. From the limited knowledge Yang Bin had, spirit cultivation was a rare cultivation path that cannot be trained by everyone; only by those who had a spirit cultivation technique and an abundance of spirit energy in their surroundings. Despite fulfilling these criterias, it still is not guaranteed for the cultivator to be able to sense spirit energy and cultivate it. Yang Bin was rather certain that he couldn't train this technique, as there wasn't a single spirit cultivator that he knew of in the Yang Clan. He could only sigh dejectly, as he moved on to the last technique.
"Movement Technique: Phase Shift also has three stages. The first stage is called Phantom Tracks, creating afterimages and illusions, when you move. At higher levels, the phantoms could move independently. Second form, Vanishing Steps allows you to completely disappear from the opponent's sight, when you move. Final form, Void Walk allows you to teleport within a certain range. Even those with strong spirits are unable to track you…"
Next to these words, there was a hologram of a person performing phantom tracks. In actuality, there were three, but Yang Bin simply wasn't able to see the last two. In the first hologram, there were multiple afterimages; it looked like a group of people running rather than one.
Reading the final form, Yang Bin felt a wave of excitement. As an 11 year old, Yang Bin found the ability to teleport really cool. He had desired this ability, alas the more he learned about cultivation, the more he realized it was just a pipe dream. Or so it was until now. Suppressing his excitement, he reread from the beginning to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
"Haha! It looks like my misfortune days are finally over." Yang Bin laughed with newfound hope. At first he had suspected Lengnu may have tricked him, since entering his spirit world was such a difficult task. Now that he had finished reading these techniques, he realized that this could change his fate.
An evil grin then appeared on his face. "Yang Yu just wait. The beating you gave me today; I will repay it two fold! Now how do I get out of here?"
With a bit of concentration, he was able to exit. Leaving his spirit world, he took a deep breath to suppress his excitement and looked down at the fiery flower in his hand. He hesitated for a second, as if thinking. Then, with a resolute expression, he consumed the petals. A warm feeling began to spread across his body seconds later. Feeling this warmth, he hurriedly closed his eyes and channeled the warm feeling into his meridians.
Following the instructions on the technique, the energy rushed to the first vessel, and it started clearing with very little resistance. However, by the time it was fully cleared, a quarter of the energy had been used up. With the remaining three-fourth, he guided it to the second vessel. Using the remaining energy, it was barely able to clear the second vessel.
A satisfied smile came onto Yang Bin's face. After unblocking two of the meridians, he felt a slight change in his surroundings. He felt lighter and was able to faintly feel the qi in his room. He tried cultivating a little and could feel the slight improvement.
"Wonderful! Amazing!" Yang Bin had a huge grin on his face. For the first time, he could actually feel himself improving. Intoxicated with this feeling, he cultivated the entire night. It wasn't until the break of dawn that he stopped. Feeling the faint sunlight hitting his face through the cracks of his window blind, he opened his eyes. Hm? How long did I cultivate for? It's probably really late; I should sleep.
Yang Bin glanced at the window. The moon seems quite bright today. He observed it silently a bit longer. Perhaps even a little too bright. Even a full moon wouldn't shine so radiantly.
He got off of his bed, and immediately his brows wrinkled. His body felt sticky and dirty. Looking down, Yang Bin realized that his body seemed to be covered in a substance that looked like dust. Cringing slightly, he still made his way to the window blind. After parting it, he saw a glimmering golden ball, dying the sky in orange.
He was nonplussed for a second; he had never seen the moon like this before. Finally, it hit him. It's the sun! It was then he smelled the scent of eggs. Unsure of what to do, Yang Bin took his bedding to the restroom to wash it before taking a quick shower. In the shower, he discovered a pleasant surprise.
"Mom! Dad! I reached the second rank of body tempering!" Yang Bin dashed into the living room and gleefully shouted.
His parents were stunned for a moment by his outburst before quickly congratulating him.
"Good. Looks like you didn't waste my fiery flower." Yang Gang smiled slightly and patted his back.
Meanwhile, Li Jing's reaction was a lot more dramatic. "Congratulations!" She squeezed him in a tight embrace. "Good job son! I knew you could do it."
Yang Bin was grinning widely as well. Although a single rank improvement wasn't much, it was a lot when it was compared to Yang Bin's current cultivation speed. In the past, he could only upgrade a rank after diligently training an entire year. This one improvement signified that his days of slow improvement were over, freed from the chains that held his cultivation back.
"Go get breakfast. I'll call your sister down." Li Jing patted his head.
Nodding, he went to the kitchen. As he hungrily wolfed down his meal, many thoughts raced in his mind. These techniques are truly a fate changer. My body seemed to have been purified after I unblocked those two vessels. My cultivation would improve by leaps and bounds. Now all that's left is to try out the other two techniques.
Eager to learn the techniques, he swiftly devoured his breakfast. Excitedly, he ran out to his usual training location, but his excitement dimmed really quickly.