Ashes To The Peak

Chapter 8: Tangled and clogged Vessel.

Gao scrambled backward, trembling like a leaf as he practically threw himself out of the private chamber, slamming the heavy wooden doors behind him.

Outside in the hallway, two gang guards standing watch on either side of the doorway caught sight of Gao’s disheveled, terrified state. Subtle, mocking smirks broke out across their faces, clearly enjoying the fact that the arrogant thug had just been thoroughly humiliated and screamed at by the boss.

Gao caught them sneering at him. Instantly, his terrified expression vanished, replaced by a dark, murderous snarl. He glared at the two guards, his hand dropping to the hilt of his blade.

Frightened by the sudden, explosive hostility of the hulking man, the two guards immediately wiped the smirks off their faces and looked away in silence.

After all, no matter how badly a man gets bossed around by his superiors, there will always be weaker fools beneath him that he can beat into submission, and as Gao marched out of the inn toward the slums, his mind was already burning with thoughts of how he would drag Zareth out of that bed tomorrow morning.

Back at the shabby abode...

A single, delicate thread of Wind Aether Qi moved within the pitch-black sea of his internal expanse. Yet, moving it was an excruciating ordeal; it dragged heavily through his consciousness, stalling and grinding as if caught in a suffocating trap every single time it attempted to flow forward.

"Tangled and clogged natural meridians!" Zareth thought, his mind heavy as he slowly opened his physical eyes.

Cold sweat drenched his pale skin, dripping from his forehead onto his filthy pillow. Maintaining a hold on that microscopic strand of energy had proven to be far more draining and difficult than he could have ever anticipated. Nearly two hours had passed since he first established a solid grip on the Wind Aether Qi, and while he had made noticeable progress in resonating and controlling its subtle nature, a terrifying reality had surfaced while inspecting his vessel.

Before he could even dream of identifying his core seed or beginning actual cultivation, he was forced to confront a massive obstacle. The natural meridians, the primitive, unawakened pathways that every living human possesses, even a mere mortal, were horribly twisted, tangled, and choked with physical obstructions throughout Zareth’s body.

A fresh, towering mountain had been placed directly in his path. Before starting his cultivation at the very first stage of the Body Tempering Realm, he would need to use his Wind Aether Qi to temper the first layer of his physical vessel, his skin and flesh. But this was merely the beginning of his nightmare.

If these natural meridians remained unaligned or were improperly cleared, breaking through the foundational stages of the Body Tempering Realm, especially beyond the Fifth Stage, would be nearly impossible.

Worse still, it would completely destroy any chance of ever advancing to the next major realm: the Meridian Opening Realm, where a cultivator's spiritual meridians would be awakened and opened, allowing far greater quantities of Qi to circulate through the body.

Phew!!!!!

Zareth let out a long, heavy sigh, his chest rising and falling in the quiet room.

"This won't do," he thought bitterly. "Using only a single, fragile strand of Qi to work through such heavily clogged pathways will accomplish nothing at all."

He paused, gathering his scattered thoughts. "For now, I must set the meridian issue aside. My immediate priority is fixing this useless physical frame, I must begin tempering my body, starting with my skin and flesh."

Closing his eyes once more, he sank his consciousness back into the void.

"Using a solitary string of wind won't cut it," he reasoned, digging deeper into his vast reservoir of knowledge as dozens of potential methods flashed across his mind. "To temper my flesh efficiently, I need continuous, concentrated force. Maintaining a single thread for hours on end is far too exhausting for my current strength. I need a different approach."

He refocused his entire being, descending into his inner sea. Within a few breaths, his perception reached into the darkness and seized a single thread of Wind Aether Qi. He drew a slow, calculated breath.

"First, I will compress this string... I will turn it into a single drop of condensed Wind Aether Qi."

Focusing every shred of his willpower, Zareth squeezed his soul strength inward, driving the wispy thread down toward a central point. He concentrated his entire existence onto that single, microscopic coordinate.

Sweat poured over his skin, his body trembling beneath the sheer mental strain of manipulating ambient Aether Qi without an awakened core.

Minutes dragged on in grueling silence.

...Drop!

He made it! The scattered thread collapsed inward, condensing into a single, glittering bead of condensed Wind Qi.

Refusing to let the surge of excitement break his focus, Zareth lingered carefully around that delicate sensation, anchoring his mind so he wouldn't lose his grip. Then, leaning back into the surrounding atmosphere, he hunted for another strand of Wind Aether Qi.

He found it, seized it, and compressed it into a second drop. With painstaking care, he guided the new drop until it merged smoothly with the first.

Dozens of breaths. Capture the thread of Wind Aether Qi. Compress it into a drop. Add it to the growing sphere.

It was an outrageously difficult approach. Because Zareth lacked an awakened Spirit Core to store and refine Qi, he was forced to use his sheer soul strength as a makeshift means of holding the condensed energy together, maintaining a floating sphere of condensed Qi that expanded with every passing minute.

At first, condensing a single drop took dozens of agonizing minutes. But with every cycle, his proficiency grew. The time required shrank from minutes down to just a handful of calculated breaths. Yet, the mental toll was brutal: he had to maintain absolute concentration to hold the expanding sphere of condensed Qi together while simultaneously scanning the surrounding for new strands of Wind Aether Qi and compressing them on the fly.

He was slowly, methodically building a temporary accumulation of condensed Qi.

Thud!!!!!

Suddenly, the makeshift wooden door was kicked wide open, slamming violently against the rotting wall!

The sudden, jarring shock shattered Zareth's intense concentration. Within his inner sea, the balance collapsed instantly. The delicate sphere of condensed Qi destabilized, bursting apart and dissipating into nothingness like smoke caught in a hurricane.

Ghhk—!

A heavy, painful cough erupted from Zareth's throat as his eyes snapped open. The sudden backlash of dispersed energy left his head throbbing with a dull, vicious ache.

Gao stomped into the room, holding a battered wooden bowl of greasy gruel.