Chapter 11 - 11: Second Heart Of Qi
"Haven Heart Qi Method..." Wei Wuyin muttered silently in his heart, while it trembled with an immense amount of shock. To produce an additional Heart of Qi? The concept was exceptional!
A Heart of Qi was condensed from one’s mind, matter, spirit, and essence. Mind related to thoughts, beliefs, memories and things of the mind. It was strictly an internal aspect and required one to have a full understanding of self.
Matter was both external and internal, condensing one’s essence of flesh and external world. The essence of flesh is born when the body reaches an appropriate point in maturity. It was the first achievement on one’s cultivation journey at the Foundation Establishment Realm, Physique Tempering Phase.
Spirit was a very lofty aspect and required one to touch upon their soul and mix it into the soul of the world to create a spirit. The soul of the world was everywhere, but finding your own was difficult. While everyone had a soul, many would find it difficult to sense. However, once sensed, with cultivation methods, directing the intermixing of internal and external, one establishes a unique spirit that they can control.
The last was essence and was strictly external, the exact opposite of mind. It referred to the Essence of Heaven and Earth absorbed using one’s meridians and stored in one’s Dantian.
The core focus of Foundation Establishment was two of the four requirements and why they existed before one could condense Metaphysical Qi, energy capable of acting as an extremity and under complete control of its wielder. It was completely different than blood.
The Heart of Qi held about ninety percent of one’s energy, the rest flowed through the body in a consistent pattern along one’s awakened meridians and flesh. It also acted autonomously like a normal heart and absorbed Essence of Heaven and Heart without needing direction to restore itself to full, and refined foreign energies to strengthen itself. Creating a second would essentially double a person’s reserves, double their recovery rate, and cultivation speed.
The natural advantage was incredibly obvious.
Godlord Lin continued despite everyone’s shock, "The Haven Heart Monolith describes seven levels. You’ll be graded by your progression three months from now. For those three months, this hall will be your cultivation room. You can begin." Her words were succinct and explained simply.
Wei Wuyin calmed his heart as he stared at the Haven Heart Monolith. While he did, the others were surprised because of Godlord Lin’s words. They were to cultivate here for three months? With everyone else?!
Usually, cultivation requires quiet and isolation to ensure that no one interferes. If they cultivated a method that could cause them to experience qi deviation, then doesn’t that make things difficult?
The vigilance in their eyes was heavy.
While they dwelled on that, Wei Wuyin never had any doubts towards the situation. The moment it was said, he understood the reasoning. Because there’s a chance for qi deviation, those who truly reach it first would show signs of where and how, and the others could learn from this to be more cautious. Essentially, it may seem like Godlord Lin was promoting rushing and conflict, but in fact, she was promoting patience and observation.
Wei Wuyin walked up to the Monolith and looked at the characters. There was a heading in enlarged text, his eyes focused on that line. It said: Haven Heart, 1st Level - Mind Dissolution & Clone.
He didn’t read the contents but moved to the area with the second heading and all the rest. He wanted to gain an understanding of the levels before moving forward. The levels were as such:
2nd Level - Matter Rebirth & Fusion.
3rd Level - Pure Essence & True Essence.
4th Level - Spirit Severing & Spirit Transformation.
5th Level - Haven of Heaven.
6th Level - Myriad Hearts.
7th Level - *.
The seventh level didn’t have a name, but he could see the basic idea of the method now. It resolved around creating a fresh state of mind, matter, essence, and spirit and congealing them using something called the Haven of Heaven and creating another Heart of Qi.
This answered a few questions of his, but this was just a conjecture he made based on the titles alone. There were still things he hadn’t understood.
If he wanted to create another Heart of Qi as he was, it was impossible. His mind, spirit, and matter was deeply connected to his Heart of Qi. In fact, if his Heart of Qi was destroyed, he would become a cripple, riddled with mental deficiencies, soul damage, and his body would be weaker than a child’s.
The grand power he possessed would collapse, and he would be unable to cultivate again. It would be like severing his legs. He had no more flesh or ability to create a second pair. Unless...he went back into his mother’s womb and restarted his birth.
"No wonder qi deviation was incredibly likely...if those aspects were damaged, you’d lose control over your qi. In fact, the first and fourth levels are the hardest." He recalled that Elder Bai said someone had reached the fourth level, but not the fifth.
The Mind and Spirit.
Without those, controlling one’s qi was a dream. You might even explode. If you can’t consciously control your Heart of Qi and the metaphysical qi it contains, it could go awry in a blink.
Gulp.
He swallowed a wad of saliva. This did test intelligence and comprehension, a single mistake and...
Han Yu self-destruction could happen.
He looked towards Godlord Lin and felt his heart calm. It wasn’t because of her beauty, but her power. She may be able to stop them from exploding at least, and if she acted, perhaps qi deviation could be handled.
He wasn’t the only one who thought that, and many felt relieved in their hearts. Even if they suffered a little, at least they had a powerful Godlord to save them. There were already a few who had read the first level completely and went into deep contemplation and meditation.
Wei Wuyin nearly patted his chest as his breathing had relaxed, but abruptly stopped. "No...thinking like that is suicidal. Even if she could, would she? Relying on someone to save you is like hoping Elder Ji would protect your life in the Outer and Inner Competitions." As he recalled Elder Ji blatant favoritism and inaction as sect members were killed, he came to a realization.
She had no reason to help.
Everyone here was by choice and were warned earlier. If they die, why did she, someone who likely wasn’t from the sect, need to save them?
It’s not like she said she would. That was even more telling.
He looked towards He Long and Shu Yang who were seated in a lotus position while meditating on the method’s mnemonic. They were competing against each other and felt confident. They had to.
He didn’t do anything like rush to cultivate. Instead, he read the contents of each level three times over and if he couldn’t remember a part in his mind, capable of completely reciting it word for word, he would read it again. His slow and cautious actions were noticed by the others, but they didn’t interfere. Everyone tactfully agreed with silence that they wouldn’t interfere with others.
Because if you did, that made you a target for the other seven.
"Wei Wuyin, how about we help each other?" A soft voice filled with attraction sounded. Wei Wuyin noticed it belonged to Lang Yi. She waltz over and smiled sweetly towards him.
"If you get on your knees and decide to use that tongue and cheek of yours, I’ll consider it." He indifferently replied. His words were vulgar and attracted the gazes of Yan Zhu, Jiu Lang, Shu Yin, and Qu Gui. They weren’t as rash as the boys who were already fully immersed. The caution within them wasn’t much different from Wei Wuyin.
Lang Yi’s expression froze. Her eyes flashed mysteriously. She knew that out of all the men here, Wei Wuyin was definitely the most talented and intelligent. He had safely ascended from an honorary disciple to core disciple in less than a decade of time without anyone’s support. He was also one who had an incredible amount of self-restraint, not proposing to Godlord Lin like the other useless men here.
To her, Wei Wuyin would likely obtain a top three spot as long as his qi didn’t deviate.
It wasn’t just her, Jiu Lang thought the same. It was why she wanted to kill Wei Wuyin from an early stage, but he grew so suddenly and explosively. With his status as a core disciple, it became an infinite amount of times harder. The worst part of it was that the enmity had been set.
If one day Wei Wuyin became a sixth phase expert before her, that’ll be the day of her death. If not, the pen would etch it into the stone.
His words did catch them all by surprise, but shockingly, Lang Yi smiled, "If you want, I can..." her eyes turned shy and started to exude sexual energy. Most men would see this and lose control, but not Wei Wuyin. He coldly snorted and ignored her.
He went into a far off corner and sat down. He was really far, unlike everyone else who tried to stay close to the golden monolith and Godlord Lin. Not only did the monolith exude an area of pure Essence of Heaven and Earth, Godlord Lin was probably nearby so she could easily interfere if one experienced qi deviation, leaving them more confident.
However, Wei Wuyin chose a very distant corner. This caused everyone to wake up and look at him in confusion, even Godlord Lin glanced over.
Wei Wuyin ignored them all, "If you cultivate with a failsafe, then you’ll be willing to take any risk. Also, I can’t guarantee one of you won’t explode. If you do, what if Godlord Lin doesn’t do anything? You’ll all end up like Mei Mei or worse." Those words of caution echoed in his heart and thoughts.
If Godlord Lin wanted to save him, this distance was irrelevant, so he didn’t place that much importance on it.
He closed his eyes and mediated on the mnemonic of the first level, Mind Dissolution and Clone. The first level required one to disconnect their mind from their body and melt it. The term ’melt’ isn’t in a literal sense, but if it was described literally, Wei Wuyin’s mind could be considered a wad of different materials and minerals inside, like ore, and he needed to melt that ore.
Then, he needed to create two casting moulds. One that was his original mind, and the other would be its clone.
As he pondered this, he truly felt that this method was devised by metalworkers of the mortal world. It may even allow the mind to benefit just from the dissolving and purify itself from the excess. However, what he didn’t understand was the crux of the issue. There were two problems: solidification and segregation.
Since one had to ’melt’ their minds, they would need to resolidify it as well. However, there was barely any clue on how to do this.
As for segregation, that, while before resolidifcation, was the hardest obstacle. If he sliced his mind in two, then it’ll just be two halves of one whole? That didn’t seem like a clone, but like a coin sliced in two. You could only use it if its put together, and if it is, it’s considered one coin - not two.
Let alone a clone...they wouldn’t even be similar. He couldn’t segregate his memories and all his mental functions, could he? The very thought of doing that felt like a bait lured out for the idiotic. If bitten, instant mental crippling or qi deviation.
As he thought longer on it, he felt the appropriate way was to use blade forging methods on one’s mind. The method was more so a general guideline, so he decided to use his own comprehension. Segregating seemed destined to fail. The very concept was an impossibility, anyone taking that route was likely going to fail, in his opinion, or end up with serious mental deficiencies.
The safer yet also the most appropriate to him seemed to be creating two swords merged into one, and then separate them after creation. If possible, he would empty one side and completely fill the other, leaving a hollow shell of one - a clone. This path was decided by him after an entire week of deliberation.
After deciding on his path, he smiled with relaxation. Then, his ears perked.
"Gargh! Help!!" A distorted voice filled with shock, disbelief, and fear resounded. Wei Wuyin turned his gaze to see Tao Gui, whose body was slowly growing bigger and bigger like a stuffed doll or puffer fish expanding. His muscular form looked hilarious as he grew and bulged in weird areas.
Wei Wuyin instinctively shrouded himself with a metal qi ward. He placed his hands forward, ready to erect a defensive barrier at any time.
Godlord Lin watched calmly despite Tao Gui’s exceedingly pitiful gaze focused on her. He continued to expand.
"Plehduze, haulpnnmmee!" His eyes seemed to lose its light of intelligence as his mind seemed to have slowly collapsed on itself. His body trembled as if he was undergoing a seizure but the qi in his body continued to grow wild.
Jiu Lang was the first to react among the core disciples as she leapt away, her body enshrouded by an emerald qi. The others seemed to have realized something and instinctively placed up their wards. However, He Long was nearby and in deep cultivation, likely executing his deduced method to dissolve his mind. He still hadn’t awakened despite the few seconds of commotion.
BOOM!