By all external appearances, Elias Vance looked incredibly calm. He might have been meditating, or simply resting. But inside his small, heavily sealed cultivation chamber, a silent storm of reconstruction was raging. Internally, he was reorganizing his body's entire energy grid like someone rewiring a massive city during a blackout—working with laser precision, fueled by caffeine-deprived willpower, and possessing absolutely no patience for sloppy design.
"This is absurd," he muttered, mid-meditation, his voice barely a whisper in the quiet room. "Why are spiritual pathways basically wet spaghetti tubes?"
His divine sense (his advanced mind-scan), sweeping across his entire meridian network, confirmed what he already knew: traditional meridians were incredibly inefficient. They meandered through muscle and bone like poorly planned plumbing, full of unnecessary bends and twists. There was no real reinforcement. No intelligent distribution system. Just Qi (spiritual energy) leaking out and dissipating with every curve and twist, like water slowly dripping from a leaky pipe.
The old cultivators, the ancient masters, called it "natural flow." They believed it was just how the body worked. Elias, the scientist from Earth, called it bad engineering.
"Well," he said, opening his eyes, a determined glint in them. "Let's fix that. Permanently."
Fiber-Optic Flesh: Meridians Reinvented
Elias began by mapping the full structure of his meridians in exquisite, subcellular detail. Every tiny pathway, every valve-like junction, every branching point—they all appeared in his divine sense like dim, foggy rivers of weak, flickering light. They were barely efficient.
He'd already made the decision days ago, ever since he'd forged his powerful tomahawk-shaped core. Qi was now pure, refined energy—fine, raw, and potentially dangerous if not contained properly. It needed real infrastructure. Not just biological tubes.
So he reimagined his meridians completely. He transformed them into fiber-optic channels—tiny, hollow, glass-like protein filaments. These would be lined with self-repairing lattice molecules, running beneath his skin like an internal network of high-speed internet cables.
Qi, under this new model, became coherent light pulses—structured waves carrying energy with minimal loss, moving at incredible speeds.
"Fiber-optic Qi," Elias muttered, a satisfied smirk on his face. "Bandwidth: unlimited. Latency: zero. Compatibility with dumb sword techniques: unfortunately, still necessary, but now with extreme prejudice."
He hollowed out the old meridians carefully, strand by painstaking strand, and replaced them with these new, ultra-efficient photonic lattice conduits. Inside these new channels, he embedded tiny Qi splitters (like optical couplers to divide the energy), waveguides (to perfectly direct the energy), and phase amplifiers (to boost the energy pulses). These were all concepts borrowed directly from high-grade optical circuits he knew from Earth.
Instead of Qi bleeding inefficiently into surrounding tissue with every movement or technique, it now moved like a laser—tight, controlled, and ridiculously fast.
And the best part? He could route it. With complete, instant control.
Integrated Systems: Light as Weapon
Traditional meridians operated like simple roads, moving traffic one direction. Elias's new meridians operated like advanced data buses and power lines—simultaneously. They weren't just for movement; they were for precision delivery.
He mentally "coded" his pathways to split energy based on his intent. Want to punch with 78% of his power but instantly route the remaining 22% to defense in his other arm? Easy. Want to preheat Qi for a powerful fire attack while simultaneously charging his legs for a burst of movement? Done. All happening at the speed of thought.
Qi, now acting as light, could be refracted, focused, or even dispersed depending on his combat needs. He could create razor-sharp beams of Qi or wide, defensive shields of diffused energy.
He added tiny crystalline lens nodes at major joints—his shoulders, knees, and palms—to act as internal focusing arrays. If needed, he could now concentrate Qi in his hand, split it into multiple streams, bounce it off his arm nodes, and redirect it to his legs mid-kick, all in a single, fluid motion.
It was absurd. It was beautiful. It was pure, applied science in a world of mystics.
And the light was actually visible. His body now pulsed faintly beneath his skin—lines of soft, blue-white light, like lightning veins glowing beneath translucent stone. To others, it might seem like a mysterious, advanced body tempering technique. Elias knew better. He'd turned himself into a living, breathing Qi laser grid.
Hidden Features & Debug Mode
Of course, nothing Elias built was truly complete without a "debug mode" and redundant systems.
He created a complete backup system beneath his main pathways—tiny micro-threaded meridian wires, less than a hair's width, woven into the deepest layers of his tissue. These were specifically built for diagnostics, emergency overrides, and immediate Qi rerouting if a primary pathway was damaged. It was like having spiritual firewalls and circuit breakers built directly into his bloodstream, ready to prevent any catastrophic failures.
He even included Qi packet analyzers. If an enemy's technique hit him, his body would instantly scan the energy type, determine its precise wavelength and frequency, and then pre-load counter-frequencies into his own Qi reserves. It wasn't perfect yet; there were still tiny delays in the analysis and counter-attack preparation. But it was learning. Every time he was hit, his body got smarter, faster, more adaptable.
"Body's officially smarter than most outer sect disciples," Elias muttered, blinking at the data overlay in his retinal HUD. "And definitely cleaner. No more random Qi-induced rashes."
Spiritual Plumbing, Redefined
Once the entire system was complete, Elias did something few cultivators ever bothered to try—a full load testing. He compressed Qi at its absolute maximum volume, forced it through his new pathways with extreme pressure, and then monitored for any leaks, overheating, or loss of energy.
Nothing.
Every pulse of Qi hit its target like a bullet train, arriving exactly where he intended, with no deviation. Internal directional control? Flawless. Heating efficiency? A staggering 98.6%, meaning almost no energy was wasted as heat or diffusion.
His previous sloppy energy flow—which was half the reason most cultivators' spells and techniques were inefficient—was now gone. His body didn't just channel energy anymore. It conducted it. With intention. With precise logic. With effortless elegance.
He snapped his fingers—and a ripple of Qi surged up his arm, split perfectly at the elbow, redirected across his back through the new pathways, and returned to his other hand like a mirrored lightning bolt. It was instantaneous, silent, and terrifyingly efficient.
He chuckled, a low, satisfied sound. "Oh," he said, flexing his fingers, watching the subtle blue-white glow beneath his skin. "That's going to be annoying for someone. Very annoying."
New Cultivator Outfit
By now, the skin-tight silk robes most disciples wore felt… restrictive. And laughably inefficient. Elias didn't need fashionable baggy robes with long, flapping sleeves that just got in the way. He needed utility fabric. Something that complemented his new, hyper-efficient body.
He analyzed the air particles in his chamber, found enough raw material (this world was surprisingly rich in ambient spiritual compounds), and synthesized a completely new outfit using particle assembly techniques via his divine sense. It was like a spiritual 3D printer.
The final result?
A graphene-thread underlayer for ultimate flexibility, incredible strength, and unparalleled cut resistance.
A breathable pressure-mesh tunic with tiny, invisible formation-sewn padding for shock dispersion, designed to absorb impact without bulk.
Lightweight nanoweave bracers on his wrists and forearms, capable of hardening instantly under impact, like built-in shields.
Integrated Qi channels sewn invisibly into the belt and shoulders for direct technique amplification, guiding energy to specific points.
The colors he chose were practical: matte black with subtle, almost invisible blue-light filament seams that would pulse faintly with his internal Qi flow when active.
It didn't scream "powerful cultivator," like some of the elders' flashy robes. Instead, it whispered "problem solver." It was sleek, functional, and utterly unique.
Final Touch
With everything in place, every internal system rewired, rebuilt, and optimized, Elias stood once again in front of his obsidian mirror.
Muscles primed. Fiber-optic circuits glowing faintly beneath his skin. His internal reactor humming.
He threw a punch—not slow, not dramatic, not even a practice wind-up. Just a clean, direct jab.
The air in front of his fist shattered with an audible crack, like glass breaking. The solid stone wall behind it instantly spiderwebbed with cracks from the concussive force. The very wind in the chamber folded away from his fist, creating a miniature vacuum.
He smiled. A genuine, tired, but utterly triumphant smile.
"Now we're getting somewhere," he whispered. The first stage of becoming truly formidable was complete.
"Core," he thought, addressing his spiritual reactor directly, its hum intensifying in response. "It's your turn for an upgrade. A big one."