As the warm pressure of this talisman fills my sea of consciousness, it begins to bring me to that blank white state of focus it has two times before.
All of the background stress from being targeted by the Ye Clan fades away.
The mental gymnastics of favors given and taken by Kang Yelang is pushed from my mind, and the uncertainty of ongoing business deals with the Wang and Mu Clan to acquire the necessary artifacts for my physique's progression becomes an afterthought.
My last point that takes a few seconds more than everything else to fade is Lan Xin.
It's been a few weeks, but I still remember the intensity of our moment in my hidden realm.
It is not her I'm worried about. Despite a complicated start, I actually believe she's going to be far more loyal and easy to get along with now.
What troubles me most is the sensation of my souls being torn apart still seared deep into my mind.
There is a disagreement between my two souls that I do not know how to solve with my current means.
Even this problem leaves my psyche.
Now, the only thing in this growing sea of focus are the memories of my constant practice cycling elemental qi control over the past month.
My mind slips even further back to when I was only practicing with fire, then to the imagery of Lan Xin recently pouring her fiery qi into a tier 2 dagger and throwing it across a battlefield toward an illusory demon comes to mind next.
This process was instant.
Her dantian churns with fire qi, as its filtered through her single root on the way in and out.
Cultivators with multiple elemental roots cannot pull off such a feat unless they completely suppress all of their other roots usage except a single one.
If I were to do the same, and only focus on my fire root, letting the other four wither, I could store fire qi in my dantian like this too. I would be limited to one fifth of the meridians in my body though, as the others have naturally formed with my other elemental roots at birth. It would basically cripple my 9th grade root potential even further.
However, this isn't the full reason she can summon fire so fast. It has a lot to do with her physique that holds large amounts of pure refined fire qi in her body at all times. She simply raises a hand, and channels qi already flowing through her physique into a spell. Her dantian does not need to be stimulated at all.
It would be far more reasonable to replicate this.
My attention shifts to a pile of silver needles and the jade slip in my storage next.
These needles pierce precise locations on their target's body, halting movement and energy flow.
I pull out the slip and imprint it with qi.
The jade slip cracks apart then crumbles to green dust, and its last information packet surges into my forehead, right where the enlightenment character still glows.
A mental holographic image of a cultivator spins slowly, marked all over with colored lines.
Each line tethers to the dantian through one of the five spirit roots and connects to others, forming a harmonious network of meridians all throughout the body.
They perfectly connect the cultivator's head to their neck, to their shoulders, arms, spine, and legs.
Many of the meridians are far more commonly used to cycle a single kind of element. There are common flow patterns added for one, two, three, four, and five spiritual root holders.
This information is sharp and glimmers in a golden heavenly aura, like it's been added by my upgrade card as an addition.
There are 360 glowing white points all over this holographic chart, showing every significant acupoint.
Deep embedded in the image, there are 720 additional golden specs of light, showing faint outlines for another set of acupoints, but they fade quickly.
I only focus on the stronger white points that line up with the rest of the meridians on the chart.
There are no words transferred in this jade slip; it is only archaic understanding.
I see where multiple acupoints align with extremely important meridians, and how they can be blocked off simultaneously to create the paralyzing effect I witnessed that Illusory Demon create with his silver needles.
At the same time, I can pick apart this diagram to see where other acupoints could be targeted to increase the flow and efficiency of energy in others. Some can even be used to temporarily merge two pathways together and create a far denser stream of qi if necessary.
The influx of knowledge from this chart, merging with the constant iterations of my own cultivation, forms a strange epiphany.
I eat a heavenly grade milk fruit without hesitating and attempt what I'm picturing before I lose the focus.
Instead of just refining qi through one spiritual root, I stimulate all five simultaneously.
As my body becomes reinforced by the enchanted fruit, all my meridians flare up and handle the dim glow of five elemental qis slowly streaming into my body.
I don't attempt to push them out far enough to their exit points to begin casting spells, though.
Instead, I leave all five in semi-dormant, cloudlike states all around the meridians in my chest.
My heart and organs would have burst from the pressure if they were not reinforced right now.
I'm able to spend a few seconds concentrating on the pathways one by one and follow the strange flows of the chart in my mind.
I pull out a hair thin tier 2 silver needle from my storage, and bring it toward one of the most robust and simple acupoints on the chart.
After a deep breath out, when there is hardly any air left in my lungs, I slide the needle into my flesh, through the acupoint, touching two meridians on either side.
One is glowing green and the other is glowing red.
A wisp of green wood qi full of vitality slips through the acupoint, using the silver needle as a stream of least resistance. These meridians shouldn't normally touch, but now, the two pathways overlap.
The wood qi is overwhelmed by the stronger, violent fire and is consumed, making the red pathway burn brighter.
Heat starts burning my surrounding flesh, but I hold on and trust the vision that is so clear in my mind.
I pull out a second silver needle, and gently pierce another acupoint, merging this fire qi that grows too hot to flood into a meridian holding stagnant earth qi.
It heats up the slow-moving earth qi, causing its momentum to grow while it takes more and more energy from the fire to move faster on its own.
A third silver needle is slid into another major cross section acupoint, merging the earth qi into a sharp, stagnant silver metal meridian.
Pain courses through my chest as spikes of metal qi are misdirected, but the hot earth qi cools and merges with this chaotic metal.
The mixed qi of burned wood and consolidated ash, mixing with pure earth qi, creates a dirty heavy material that wants to condense into a denser slag.
It is nowhere as pure and shiny silver as the qi that is filtered directly through my metal root, but it manages to push its way through and coexist with the brittle silver qi to flow even further.
I'm sweating all over, and the limits of this milk fruit's bone reinforcement enchantment are being pushed to the limit.
I even feel my physique and my mortal grade ring activating, fully stimulating the full weight of my Martial Grandmaster physique to hold this experiment together.
A fourth needle is used to merge my dirty metal filled meridian into a meridian filled with cool blue water qi.
This water flows faster and more chaotically than any other element.
The brittle metal is broken up into shards and forced through the meridian. Many thicker pieces are compressed, squeezed, and no longer hold a rigid form. The water becomes murky, filled with the essence of all the qi it's just absorbed.
I can feel the dirty metal attempting to dissolve into a water-like state, but my concentration and technique are not good enough.
The entire cycle is becoming a mud-like mess, and my whole body is starting to shake.
I grit my teeth and take out a fifth and final needle to merge the last meridian to the first one I started with.
This murky water flows into the original wood qi-filled meridian and completes the cycle.
The wood qi starts soaking up the strange mixture of nutrients, as though it's alive on its own.
It all flows back to my meridian holding fire qi and it creates a violent wave of flames that burns my flesh from the inside even with the mink fruit's reinforcement.
This qi is extremely impure, and sending it through another cycle will definitely cause damage. I need to end the testing here.
Even so, a smile grows on my face.
There is not only one meridian connected to each spiritual root.
My mental and physical capacity are not capable of multitasking right now, but I can feel the raw white qi in the atmosphere of this array seeping into some of my free meridians.
It is possible to pull raw qi into my dantian while simultaneously channeling qi throughout my body's meridians, I just need more practice.
For now, I carefully pull out every needle to seal up the acupoints that are merging these five meridians and promptly eat two golden patterned pills.
One is a Healing Elixir to make sure my body heals properly from the damage I'm putting it through, and the other is a Marrow Cleansing Pill to rid myself of the awful concoction of qi I've created.
My whole body lights up in a white and golden glow, and a horrible-smelling wave of brown and black residue seeps out of my pores.
As my meridians are cleared out, the peak of my enlightenment talisman's focus begins to decline too.
I start pulling in raw white qi from the open air to continue my practice while the milk fruit's properties are still present.
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Author's Note:
One chapter of Five Element Overlord will be posted every weekday: M,T,W,TH,F.
If you'd like to support me, and read 45+ chapters ahead of the public release schedule, my patreon is linked in my bio:)
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