5. Failure

Lu Shang quickly got to his room and locked the doors and windows to prevent anyone from seeing was going to happen next.

It would have been good to let everyone know that he can finally cultivate, but he had another plan, and that plan was to get everyone shocked and feel regret for looking down on him when they later found out that he wasn't as trashy and useless as they thought he was.

Without wasting any time, he sat down on the floor cross-legged with his eyes closed and then calmed his mind to make it easier for him to focus. 

After some minutes of focusing and calming his state of mind, all the knowledge he gained from reading the book started to appear one by one in his head.

'As a first-time cultivator, you have to make sure your martial core is good and stable. Then the absorption of spiritual energy to help you cultivate will become much easier.'

He checked inside his body with his perspective and found tiny pieces of broken martial core floating; this was his martial core; martial cores are normally circular, but his was different because the martial core was broken. His broken martial core was what was stopping him from cultivating.

Lu Shang doesn't know what to do concerning his martial core; without his martial core being arranged together as one, he will not be able to cultivate, but he wasn't ready to give up; he wants to try following the process and see if he will be lucky.

Lu Shang spent his time following the steps on how to cultivate according to the instructions written in the book; he didn't want to rush things.

His mind was extremely calm; he wasn't ready to lose focus, and he was going to do anything within his capability to make sure he succeeded. This was his determination.

He was so determined that he forgot about everything around him and even about himself, entering a state where he didn't think about anything except cultivation; no worries, nothing could come between his path and cultivation. He sat down there like a stone structure with no life in it.

He stayed in that position for 2 hours without anything out of the ordinary happening. Just when he thought nothing was going to happen, he decided to stop it and then find something meaningful to do that would gain him respect, like blacksmithing and other things.

When he had already given up on himself and was about to lose concentration, a bright light flash passed him, and his consciousness was brought to a strange place filled with darkness. 

He turned around, trying to figure out where he was, but he couldn't tell if it was natural or because of something else; all around, there was nothing but blackness. With a confused expression on his face, he tried to think of where he was, but wasn't able to come up with any idea.

He was standing still; there was no noise or movement from any direction.

Everywhere was total darkness.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed in the distance and moved in his direction at lightning speed.

Upon getting to him, the light began shining above his head like the sun. It illuminated the area where he was, the bright light hovered there above his head. Then the bright light abruptly burst, emitting white colored rays of light that tightly wrapped around him.

Gradually, as the light started to spread and expand, covering his whole body like an umbrella, he felt warm.

The light surrounding him made him feel comfortable; it made his body soft. He could feel a little pressure pressing down on him, but with an unwilling look on his face, he struggled to remain standing under the strange pressure.

He had this feeling that something was amiss, but he didn't find anything strange when he looked around himself.

Suddenly the light started to enter his body, moving directly towards the floating, tiny pieces of martial core in his body. The light began to shine brightly inside his body, filling it with light.

Thick sweat covered his body as the light brought pain to his body. With gritting teeth, he felt stabbing like pains in his body; it was becoming unbearable with each second.

Ahhhhhhhhh!

"What is wrong with my body?" He screamed amidst the pain he was facing.

After what seemed like an eternity, the unexpected started to happen: the broken, tiny pieces started to join together under the bright light in his body. They merged into one.

Sweat was all over his face; beads of sweat rolled down his face, which he hadn't noticed until now. 

He had a bright smile on his face after looking at his body, finding out that his broken martial core had been repaired. "This is worth the pain, I feel," he satisfyingly thought.

After the arrangement of his martial core, the light dissolved and dimmed until there wasn't a tiny light again. He breathed in relief.

His consciousness slowly disappeared from the place.

CRACK!

Crackling sounds could be heard from within Lu Shang's body as his bones began to restructure themselves. There was a visible expression of pain on Lu Shang's face, but he was bearing all the pain due to his determination.

After some time of following the first instruction and finishing the restructuring of his body, he proceeded to the other instructions.

'When you want to absorb spiritual energy into your body as a first-time cultivator, you have to be careful and calm in doing so to prevent any form of injury or backlash.

You have to focus your mind and attention on it and wait until the spiritual energy has completed its path before allowing yourself to absorb it.

There are two ways to do it: either by absorbing in a sitting position or by focusing on your cultivation. The best way to be able to absorb the spiritual energy from the yin or yang-qi source (heaven) into your cultivation is to focus your body in a sitting position and focus the light at the top of your head, and the spirit source will connect to you and merge with your body.

There are several advantages when this method is used: not only does it help increase spiritual energy by channeling the spiritual energy into your body, but it also prevents you from getting injured from excessive power absorption.'

This time Lu Shang was very serious and focused because this was the most critical part of the cultivation instruction, and if he failed or lost focus for a few seconds, he would suffer greatly from it.

Spiritual energy from the air and yin-yang qi started to speedily gather around Lu Shang. He could sense that the speed at which the spiritual energy was gathering was abnormal, but he didn't care about it as long as it wasn't going to cause any harm to him.

Something strange began to happen in the Lu clan environment; the wind started to blow violently, and people that were cultivating at that moment could feel the spiritual energy becoming less and less until there was none for them to cultivate.

All the cultivators imagined what caused the spiritual energy to disappear completely, but they could not come up with any ideas and could only keep quiet. The people in the clan didn't notice that all the spiritual energy was focused in one direction, and that place was Lu Shang's room.

Lu Shang started to absorb the spiritual energy into his body, and he felt the spiritual energy fill up his entire body. He did it slowly and calmly, letting the yin and yang qi find their way into his body.

Experiencing this for the first time, he became happy that he had finally been able to cultivate and would, from now on, become a cultivator.

Suddenly he seemed to lose control of his body, and a worried expression could be seen on his face. No longer in control of his body, the spiritual energy entering his body now was ten times faster than when he started absorbing it.

"What's happening to me?

This went on for hours, and he was cultivating nonstop. A bright light suddenly came out of his body; this light was so bright that it lit up Lu Shang's room while it was still daytime. It was already late into the afternoon, and the sun was high up in the sky, but still, the room of Lu Shang shone brightly.

Lu Shang's body convulsed as the intense spiritual energy overwhelmed him. The rapid influx of power caused a severe backlash, and he could feel his organs trembling under the strain.

In a moment of agony, he vomited a mouthful of blood, staining the floor crimson.

His face twisted in pain, and his body trembled uncontrollably. The bright light that had filled the room slowly dimmed, leaving behind a trail of wispy energy that dissipated into the air. Lu Shang's consciousness wavered as he struggled to regain control over his body.

Lu Shang's body could no longer bear the immense strain of the intense cultivation process. Overwhelmed by the power and unable to control it, he finally succumbed to exhaustion. As his consciousness faded, he gradually fell into a deep slumber.

As Lu Shang fell unconscious, his body worked tirelessly to recover from the backlash it had experienced. The pain had subsided, but his internal organs still bore the lingering effects of the intense cultivation. Slowly, his body began to heal itself, repairing the damage caused by the overwhelming spiritual energy.