A Breakthrough

When Aren pushed the doors open, he felt again the sensation of being sucked forwards by some giant something and his vision blurred slightly. A moment later his vision cleared again, and he found himself standing in front of Elder Cloudform's canvas looking at the intricate painting of the doors.

He shook his head to clear it and looked down to see if the books he had chosen had been brought out with him. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the small green and white clad books still securely clenched in his hand, he then looked around for Elder Cloudform, whom he remembered had been standing next to him when he entered the Hall of Hidden Scriptures.

He spotted him sitting down, a block of smooth ruddy brown clay rolled out in front of him. His eyes were closed in meditation again, but his hands moved dexterously about in the clay's surface, shaping the clay into whatever he was currently envisioning.

Elder Cloudform seemed to sense Aren's gaze on him and opened his eyes; he stood up, leaving his clay working unfinished, and came over to Aren.

"What techniques did you choose?" He asked in his gentle voice.

Aren handed over the two books and Elder Cloudform glanced at their covers, making a soft exclamation of surprise. "It has been a while since any disciple brought these techniques out of the Hall of Hidden Scriptures..." He seemed to go into a state of contemplation and stared off into space.

Aren waited, feeling rather awkward for a minute and then because he could not bear the silence any longer, he raised his voice to ask a question, "Where is the Hall of Hidden Scriptures? Also, why is it separate from the normal scripture hall?"

Elder Cloudform came out of his reverie and looked down at Aren, "I cannot tell you where the Hall of Hidden Scriptures is, that is highly confidential information. I can, however, tell you that it is kept separately from the normal scripture hall in order to protect the many precious methods that are stored inside. Over the years, the Eternal Summit sect has gathered together a plethora of techniques, some of them very precious treasures that many would give a fortune to obtain."

He then fixed Aren with a sharp, piercing gaze, his sky blue eyes seeming to reach into the depths of Aren's soul. "This is also why it is forbidden to teach any techniques you receive from the sect to anyone, even other disciples, without permission from either your master or another Elder. I tell you this now so that you do not make a fatal error, because this kind of mistake is indeed fatal."

After saying this, Elder Cloudform looked back down at the books, still held in one hand, "But these techniques... You certainly managed to find some of the most difficult techniques to cultivate, well, maybe this is fate." He gave a chuckle and handed the books back to Aren, then he waved a hand at him, shooing him out of the room, "I don't expect that we'll meet again any time soon. I stay in this room most of the time and you won't have any reason to come back here unless you perform some great service for the sect and are gifted the right to choose another technique. That or you reach foundation establishment, then you shall come to receive the latter portions of your techniques."

Aren reached the door, bowed low to Elder Cloudform, and then exited the door, being careful to close it behind him. He then jogged out down the corridor, into the still bustling reception area and out into the square outside of the scripture hall. Aren felt impatient to begin cultivating, he rushed towards the steps that led down from the scripture hall towards the outer disciple village where his hut was, not even paying attention to the glorious treasures of the inner sect disciples.

He arrived at his little hut, feeling out of breath yet again from the long journey. He stumbled inside and collapsed onto his bed, after a few moments, he then withdrew the 'World Tree Methodology' from the small pouch on his waist that he had found along with the sect rules and identity medallion when he was cleaning up the previous day.

This pouch was not anything amazing like the interdimensional pouches or bags of holding that he had heard high-level cultivators possessed, it was simply a tough leather pouch that could be attached to his belt. Although it was nothing much, he was still thankful to have something to carry his possessions in, especially as he had arrived at the sect with nothing but the clothes on his back and a small supply of spirit stones.

He left the 'Sutra of the Open Mind' inside the pouch and began to flick through the first few pages of the World Tree Methodology to refresh his memory of the initial steps to cultivating using this method. After flicking through the pages, he turned back to the first page and began to thoroughly examine the initial steps to draw spiritual qi into the body. He looked at it until he was sure that he had memorised the steps and then, jumping off the bed and seating himself on the floor in the required position, he began to execute the breathing exercises detailed in the World Tree Methodology.

After executing the technique for roughly an hour, he felt a sudden indescribable sensation in his lower navel, in the region of his dantian, like having a connection to the very stuff of life. Excitement shot through him, 'This is spiritual qi!' he thought ecstatically. This sudden rush of emotion, however, disrupted his enlightened state of calm and the feeling in his dantian immediately disappeared as though it had never even been there.

Aren relaxed his muscles and entered a normal sitting position, his face creased into a frown. The instructions describing the process only said that one had to first sense the spiritual qi in the air and then draw a strand in to circulate through one's meridians and purify one's body, it did not really go that in depth on how to establish a stable connection so that one could draw the spiritual qi in. He could not help but feel excited when the sensation of spiritual qi appeared in his dantian area, he didn't realise that any kind of disturbances would make the sensation immediately disappear.

He sighed; then resumed the meditation posture and began to execute the breathing exercises again. This time, no matter how long he utilised the posture and breathing techniques, he could not get the sensation of spiritual qi to reappear. Perhaps it was the tiny sliver of expectation lingering in his heart or maybe it was for some other reason, but he could not quite reach that clear-minded state he had earlier on.

After sitting for the rest of the day trying, and failing, to sense spiritual qi again, he was finally driven to abandon his efforts by hunger. After having eaten, he sat on his bed and stared out of the window at the darkening sky, he could not see the peak from here so all that obscured the dark blue abyss were a few small clouds and some of the trees from the forest.

He sat looking at the sky and considered his situation, he could not, it seemed, have anything other than a clear mind whilst cultivating, otherwise, he would be doomed to failure. He went back to his attempts again after his meal but still could not succeed and, after a couple of hours, he decided to give up for the day.

He lay on his bed and engaged in some introspection, had not expected to connect with the land's natural qi on his first try, that had excited him immensely and gave his confidence a boost. Despite this, he would have found it strange if he had successfully established a flow of qi in his meridians during his first cultivation session. He did not have heaven-defying talent, so he expected to spend quite some time to reach the first layer of qi condensation. He had a fitful sleep that night and after he awoke, he had a light meal and began once again, to cultivate using the World Tree Methodology.

Before he knew it, a week had gone by since Aren had entered the sect. He had spent his days in cultivation, apart from making a trip to the sect market to purchase a new robe. During this week, he had still not successfully reached the first layer of qi condensation so he attended a lecture held by one of the foundation establishment inner disciples on cultivation in the hopes of gaining some inspiration.

The amphitheatre used for the event was packed with outer disciples, some new disciples like him, but others already had a powerful cultivation base, being at the fifth, sixth or even eighth layer of qi condensation. The lecture seemed to be very insightful, most disciples letting out exclamations as they obtained enlightenment on issues that they had been stuck on, but Aren just felt confused.

He left the venue after the lecture feeling dejected and foolish, he now understood how ignorant he had been in regards to the world of cultivation. Having realised this, he decided to limit the time he spent cultivating and spend the rest of his time in the scripture hall, reading up about the essentials relating to cultivation.

Thus he spent another week, more or less equally splitting his time between cultivation, and forays into the scripture hall for information. After this week, he had a much better understanding of some of the finer details about cultivation, but he also had many more questions burning in his mind. He had thoroughly investigated the spiritual base and had corrected some of his previous misconceptions.

For example, he had been under the impression that the elements in the spiritual base were all present in equal amounts, however, he now knew that he was wrong. The elements were actually present in different amounts like, for himself, the water element in his roots might be more abundant than the metal element, but it was stated that it was almost impossible to measure the actual levels.

What was also mentioned, was that the balance of the elements could also be changed by practising techniques of a specific element, like if he practised an earth element technique, the amount of earth element in his roots would begin to increase whereas the others would begin to decrease. When he had first read this, he had immediately thought of trying to eliminate the metal element from his roots because it opposed the wood element in his spiritual seed, however, later reading revealed this to be impossible.

He had also read a great deal on a skill known as alchemy. It was the art of concocting pills and elixirs that could aid one in their cultivation, however, it was a difficult art to learn and mostly required one to have some fire element in their spiritual base, although some rare cases did not.

There had also been a mysterious art mentioned in some scriptures which he had come across by chance called spiritual possession, by which a cultivator could, with a powerful enough spiritual sense, essentially inhabit an object or weapon, practically making it a part of their body. The scripture he had been reading had then gone on to say that most cultivators did not bother with the process as one had to possess a highly refined spiritual sense which took years to develop and grow. Also, since controlling something with a strand of qi was much easier and could produce effects that were almost the same, the skill had gone mostly out of practice in modern times.

Aren returned to his hut after his week spent studying, and sat in his hut in the same place that he had when he had first begun to cultivate and thought about the past week that had gone by. During the week he had picked up on titbits of gossip that had been floating around the disciples in the scripture hall.

He had heard that seven people from the newly recruited disciples had already reached the first layer of qi condensation within the last week, which was considered fast when considering that the majority of disciples took closer to a month. He had heard that one of them was very young and could not help but think of the little girl and her guardian who had been taken by Deepheart after the assessment of their spiritual bases.

Aren sighed and began to execute the breathing techniques from the World Tree Methodology yet again, these methods were now thoroughly ingrained in his brain from the days of practice. Although he did not have outstanding talent, he still had a pure wood spiritual seed and so had an advantage when cultivating wood techniques like the one he currently was.

After gaining some enlightenment from his trips to the scripture hall, he had made it a personal goal to reach the first layer of qi condensation before the end of the coming week. The news that other disciples had already broken through to the first layer had ignited a competitive spark in Aren's heart and he planned to cultivate for as long as necessary to achieve the same results.

The evening grew dark as he breathed. In. And then out. In. Out. The strange meditation posture, which had at first seemed awkward, now seemed like it was the most natural position in the world.

Hours passed by as Aren sat there in silent meditation, his little hut silent except for the rhythmic sound of his breathing.

Midnight came and went, and still, Aren sat there. He did not know why he persisted for so long on this particular night, but something in his heart was telling him that good things would happen if he persisted.

Soon the soft glow of dawn began to send its tendrils through the window and onto Aren's bed but still, he sat, eyes closed, breathing. In. Out.

Just when the sun began to break fully over the horizon and announce to the world that day had, indeed, begun, Aren felt something in his lower navel. In his dantian area, he felt the same connection that he had felt just over two weeks ago. Felt the same connection to the very stuff of life, the spiritual qi of the world.

Aren felt excitement boiling just under the surface of his calm but managed to keep his cool. He kept on breathing, in and then out, in and then out. The feeling in his dantian became more and more substantial, like there was actually something there connecting him to the vast sea of spiritual qi that permeated everything.

Still, he kept breathing, keeping his posture correct and his mind calm. And then he suddenly felt a great burst of pain spreading from his dantian along his meridians. It felt like there was something forcing its way through his meridians, burrowing into his very flesh. He gritted his teeth in pain but his concentration was broken, he wanted to flail about and scream but he could not, his body was frozen in place.

The pain was still spreading, whatever was moving through his body was leaving painful aches wherever it went. Aren hissed with the pain it caused, his face grimacing, but at the same time, he realised that the path the 'something' was following was the exact path that was detailed in the World Tree Methodology's section on qi circulation for the lower layers of qi condensation.

He realised, with a great rush of excitement, that the thing that was currently forcing its way through his meridians was probably a strand of spiritual qi! Aren closed his eyes and willed the process to happen faster. It was torture, but he knew that when it was over if he succeeded, he would be in the first layer of qi condensation.