Devourer Of Destiny - Chapter 137

“Congratulations, Theo, you are now a Meridian Circulation expert. Open your eyes and stand up.”

The young man did as he was told and rose, opening his eyes and regarding his hand with a trace of awe. Ebon Dirge had taken special care with the process, but it had still taken no more than half an hour in all.

“Th-that’s it?” The young student asked in a muted tone as he stared, dazed, at that hand.

Dirge barked a laughed. “That’s a beginning, not an end, Theo. That’s hardly an ‘it’.”

“But I thought it was supposed to be… painful. Arduous.”

“The trials and tribulations of cultivation have many painful episodes,” Dirge remarked, “but dilating acupoints, connecting meridians, and establishing the flow of essence is hardly one of those. In the right hands, of course.”

Theo blinked rapidly a few times as though attempting to clear a fog before looking up from his hand and at his teacher. “I’m sorry if I sound disrespectful, I’d just heard different things from my friends about it all.”

Dirge curved his lips in a wicked smile. “No doubt you did. There are a lot of cultivators who imagine that they are accomplished at the process just because they can handle it for themselves without the kind of pain you are talking about. Opening your own meridians and opening somebody else’s takes an entirely different level of perception, though. When you are opening your own, you have discomfort and pain as cues; when you are opening somebody else’s, that feedback doesn’t exist. Inevitably that ends up with some pain and damage, to the point that some of them might as well be excavating the damn thing.”

“Excavating?”

Dirge nodded. “The process we just underwent is acupoint dilation and meridian connection. Another way of handling meridian opening is through excavation, the forcible carving of the meridian’s path. Entire new meridians can be created in this way, but the process can be fairly excruciating.”

“So when you said that sixty-five meridians shouldn’t limit me–”

Dirge barked a laugh. “Don’t even think about it. I already told you not to fixate on the number and here you are worrying about it.”

Theo’s gaze turned down. “I’m sorry, Miss Sable.”

Dirge sighed. “It’s not that it’s impossible, Theo, but it’s a horrible idea for someone in your position. Meridian excavation requires a great deal of wiggle room as the paths are often not as straightforward as one imagines they should be. You have far too many meridians to do it because it’s entirely possible that one of your natural meridians becomes ruptured in the process. Not only would you ruin a perfectly good natural meridian, but you’d also potentially cripple your cultivation entirely.”

Theo nodded numbly, and Dirge could see his downcast eyes widen as he imagined the consequences. “Th-thank you for explaining. I think I’m good now.”

“Superb,” Dirge remarked, a bit dryly. “Now, before we get into the weeds on opening meridians, let’s talk a bit about what you can do now that you have opened one. Close your eyes again for a moment and focus on that path from the opening through the pathway all the way to your plexus. Can you sense it clearly now, not just in your imagination?”

After a moment’s pause, Theo nodded. “Yes, Miss Sable.”

“Good. That means your first thread of spiritual sense has awakened,” Dirge explained. “We’ll deal with what you can do with that later, but for now that indicates that everything is perfectly normal so we’re just going to train one thing. You can open your eyes now, but try and maintain that sense of your meridian and plexus.”

Theo’s eyes opened and he frowned. “It disappeared.”

“Not at all surprising,” Dirge noted. “Do it again. Keep doing that until you can maintain that inner vision while looking around.”

Theo nodded and tried again. Dirge remained silent for a full ten minutes until finally his student’s lips split in a grin. “I did it!”

“Great. Now, hold it and let’s talk a bit about essence,” Dirge continued. “I’m certain you’ve heard a lot about it, but let’s start with the basics just because I don’t know what exactly you do know.”

“Surrounding us and inside all things to some extent is what is termed ‘essence’. Essence is the primal energy that infuses all creation. There are many theories on its exact purpose and source, but those are irrelevant as nobody has a satisfactory answer on the subject. Here in the South, we are surrounded by an abundance of this energy, while to the north of us in the center of the continent it is much more sparse, yet everything natural continues as it is regardless of that concentration.”

Even in the Divine Realms, nobody had a definitive explanation to provide, amazingly enough. For many it was a conundrum, but no matter how many it perplexed, it existed and functioned all the same, just like all sorts of other phenomena.

“Whether it is some intrinsic element or just the leftovers of some cosmic accident, it’s there, and we who call ourselves essence cultivators take advantage of essence. The primary defining characteristic of essence energy is that it can be shaped and manipulated to perform tasks beyond what we could do merely with our own hands. Got that?”

Dirge was about to pause when Theo nodded his head.

“Good. Now, let’s talk cultivation. Cultivation is the development of the self in the furtherance of obtaining mastery over both self and surroundings. Some consider it alchemy or forging or what have you. Think about it however it makes you comfortable, and just know that the key is self-refinement. Essence is the motivator of that refinement, and mastery over it is the indicator of its success.”

“Right now, you have entered the stage of Meridian Circulation, that very first step. As the name suggests, you are opening the meridians and learning to draw essence through them, both in and out. Meridian Circulation experts handle all manipulation of essence through that most fundamental of methods: direct control. Are you still seeing your meridian and your plexus, Theo?”

“Yes, Miss Sable,” Theo acknowledged, his voice a tense with a hint of strain.

“Good. Now, you’ve already been doing the rudiments of essence manipulation all your life in the same way everybody does: by breathing. This is the foundation of breathing techniques, and I’m sure your clan has one it’s very proud of and that you can’t disclose. Everybody has their own ways with that,” Dirge smirked as he noticed the incremental widening and relaxation of his pupil’s eyes, the worry of having to betray that secret appearing and dissipating in succession. “Ultimately, the only way in which breathing techniques truly differ is in how they teach you how to focus your mind, and that is all in preparation for this next step.”

Dirge had no intention of exploring Theo’s breathing technique at this point. Once the kid got through his initial lessons, he’d be discarding it entirely anyway in favor of something more suitable anyway.

“Now, instead of using your lungs to motivate air, you need to use your meridians to motivate the essence in the air. Together, meridians and plexus, you have inside you a wonderful system for drawing in, storing, and pushing out essence. The foundation of Meridian Circulation techniques, then, is taking this new kind of breathing-like process and doing more than just mere suction and expulsion. Still with me, Theo? Do you have anything to ask?”

“I’m still good, Miss Sable,” Theo replied, although tiny droplets of sweat were beading at his brow now.

Dirge nodded, satisfied. “The first thing to do, then, is draw in essence with your meridian and store it in your plexus. It will seem like a mist, a cloud-like and intangible substance. That is normal. Consider how you were trained with your breathing technique and apply it to how you draw in the essence. Don’t worry that you’ll end up with air or something either; your acupoint naturally only permits essence to permeate into the meridian, to put it simply.”

The droplets of sweat on Theo’s brow grew larger, and his breathing was momentarily quicker before it finally slowed. Dirge could sense a trickle of the ambient essence in the air drawing into the young man’s hand.

“I see that you’ve managed it, Theo,” Dirge remarked. “Good. Keep that up; it’ll take a while to near your capacity. That is the first advantage of opening more meridians: you can motivate more essence at once. The other, of course, is that with practice you can multitask and simultaneously replenish your essence while expending it.”

“For your first homework assignment, I am going to give you a task to perform with essence alone. Many teachers provide their students with simple spells for striking down a target or something like that, but as you know, I am not most teachers.” Dirge pulled out a bundle of red ribbons stacked neatly and bound with a string. “When you return, I want you to take these ribbons and tie them into as many knots as you can manage, using only your essence.”

The corners of Theo’s mouth turned down very slightly, but he quickly asserted control before it became a frown and nodded. “Of course, Miss Sable.”

Dirge laughed. “Do you think my task is too easy and you’d rather be doing something cooler and more awesome like blowing up targets, Theo? Don’t think this is the easy way. You’ll hate these little strips of cloth long before you’re finished, but you’ll do every single one of them. Do that, and you’ll run circles around others at your same level. Remember, it’s control you want, not just blunt trauma.”

“So how do I tie the knots, Miss Sable?” Theo ventured to ask.

Dirge smiled. The kid wasn’t entirely a stump at least. “You can hold the ribbon between your thumb and forefinger, like so,” and he pulled a ribbon from the stack. “Driving the essence out from your acupoint much like you would handle the exhalation in your breathing technique, think about that essence caressing the ribbon, stroking it to bend to the shape you will it. Like so.” The ribbon in his hand looped around itself rapidly until its full length was in knots. “I don’t expect this level of speed or accuracy just yet, Theo. Do the best you can, and make sure to replenish your essence between attempts. You really don’t want to know the feeling of trying to squeeze out that last bit and going empty, trust me.”

Theo nodded. “How long do I have to complete it?”

“As long as it takes, my dear,” Dirge replied. “Once you manage it and bring them back to me — and I make certain you didn’t try cheating me — then you can come back here and I’ll proceed with opening more meridians and we can get into performing some real magical techniques.” He offered the bundle of ribbons to his student.

Theo took the bundle in his left hand and nodded. “I’ll get it done as soon as possible, Miss Sable.”

“Get it done correctly, Theo,” Dirge commented with a small smile. “You’ll probably be at it for the next few days.”

Theo nodded, his throat bobbing with a small gulp. “As you say, Miss Sable.”

“You can stop drawing essence and leave now, Theo,” Dirge directed. “If you have any questions or problems that crop up, be sure to come to me. Otherwise, I’ll see you when you have those knots tied.”

Theo gave a small bow and left the office. Dirge leaned back in his chair and let out a slight chuckle. This particular method of first-time training was bordering on torture, but he had not in the slightest exaggerated its benefits. Depending on how the kid handled this task, Dirge would alter his lessons accordingly. Provided the kid could do this with the barest competence, though, he’d be able to vault over his peers.

Fine control was something few students learned early, but it was one of the most significant limitations on the complexity of the techniques they could learn. Dirge had recalled this training from his own past after his bouts in the arena, where most of the opponents were still wielding essence clumsily despite being the latter part of the Foundation Building stage. He had come relatively late to learning this kind of control himself, and he remembered the bitter hatred he had for those damnable ribbons at the time, but afterward he had never regretted it.

Still, Theo’s life would suck for the next few days. Luckily for him, he was still young enough to get over it.