Reason

Using the two techniques on their own was easy. Using them together? Impossible.

The two techniques shared nearly 60% of the pathway from the Dantian to his Mind, where the Spiritual Sea lay. Only in some places did they go their separate ways, and that was just not enough for Alex to use them together.

Even if they were mostly different, as long as they ended at the same meridians—which these two techniques did—Alex couldn't use two separate Intents for the same flow of Qi to use them at the same time.

So, if he wanted to use them together, he needed to combine the two Intents and use them on Qi that flowed through the right pathway. Since 60% of it was the same, Alex could be certain he could use those pathways. It was only the other 40% he would have to figure out.

'It would be something in between,' he thought. 'Shouldn't take me too long. Just a couple of years.'