Or A Blessing?

Cultivation starts from tempering one's body. Using the ambient Qi in the atmosphere, a cultivator channels the Qi through their body, reinforcing it with each circulation. The very first stage in the Body Transformation stage is Skin tempering.

After that one would start working their way, pushing inward—muscles, viscera, bones, and at last, meridians. Despite the meridians themselves being these little channels meant to circulate Qi and being wrapped around bones, they were last to be tempered, simply because of how dangerous it was.

Tempering of the body was required if one wanted to advance in their Qi cultivation. In this case, Qi Gathering was the first stage. It basically required a cultivator to refine strands of Qi from the atmosphere and turn them into these tiny motes and store them inside what is called a Dantian.

These motes become the framework meant to support future cultivation stages. The more motes you have, the sturdier your foundation, and the further you can walk on the path of cultivation. A novel development, yet not removed from the body transformation.

Su Yan had ascended to Viscera refinement, the third stage in Body Transformation, after painstakingly working under the young master for a decade. His Qi cultivation was even worse at only 20 motes, and he had been hoping to achieve the bare minimum requirement to ascend. After all, a starving camel was still larger than a horse. Once past the Qi Gathering stage, he could at least earn some status in the Yang Clan.

But that was a future left behind. Instead, as his eyes fluttered open, a gleam of spirituality passed through them. He pulled himself straight, dusting his clothes and releasing a pent-up breath of air.

"That was terrifying."

Su Yan could still recall the feeling of being caught up in that illusion. In fact, it felt more real than reality to him, so he wondered what brought that about.

"At least now I know this jade slip belongs to some great expert."

There was no other possibility, unless he was being pranked by some cosmic deity. But that felt even more absurd. Shaking his head to rid himself of these worthless thoughts, he looked around to spot the jade slip. Except it was not there.

Rubbing his chin in thought, he mumbled, "Weird, I'm sure I had it in my hand when I passed out..."

He crawled out of the cave to better search for the amulet yet found nothing. Rummaging through his clothes resulted in him finding a half-eaten piece of bread, which he promptly threw to the side. He crawled back inside with confusion lacing his features.

Just as he was contemplating whether an animal must have taken it, he felt a sharp, sudden pain flare in his gut. Simultaneously, a heavy ache assaulted his head. He doubled down and groaned with both pain and frustration. "Not again!"

As he mentally prepared himself for another mental illusion, he was surprised when he found the pain start subsiding without any effect whatsoever. That is, until he felt a sudden weakness take over. "No." He realized with a horrified gasp. "No. NO. NO!..."

He was losing his cultivation. His hard-earned cultivation of his body and Qi. Sure, it was trash, but it had taken him more than a decade to get to this stage. And now he could only helplessly watch as his tempering was undone, his foundation of measly 20 motes released back into the world.

Su Yan was dumbfounded by the process. He didn't even know it was possible to reverse the cultivation of someone. Or maybe it really wasn't? "Did I underestimate the jade slip?"

But if so, what exactly was it trying to accomplish? He was certain it wasn't trying to kill him. Why pull him into an illusion otherwise? No, there seemed to be something else going on that he lacked the context for.

As he had no idea what it was trying to pull off, he settled into being a curious spectator and watched as his life's cultivation was demolished into nothing. "Wow. I don't even know how to feel about that."

And then everything calmed down when his body and dantian had nothing left to give. At last he let out a breath and assessed his bodily condition.

"Not a single trace of Qi." That put him into a somber mood. He was currently on the run from a clan that had experts who could turn him into a blood smear with a single slap. He had left an enraged young master who was probably a few hours walk from where he currently inhibited. And he had to evade or fight against such giants without a nick of cultivation? "What the fuck am I supposed to do?"

As he lay in a despondent mood, ruminating on his life choices, he felt a spark ignite within his mind. A flash of pain followed by a soothing sensation washed over his spirit, and he felt his attention pulled away and directed toward a world of knowledge.

Su Yan felt a rush of knowledge through his mind; it was so fast that he barely had any time to assess it. And then it started to slow down until finally settling into a vaguely mist-shaped blob of insight. He felt awe under the sheer extent of this information. It was so vast that he couldn't even begin to fathom the scale. Somehow the mist seemed to exist into perpetuity.

"This is the jade slip..." He realized with overwhelming awe. Then he shook his head as he realized something else. "No, this is my mind. More specifically, my mind merged with the jade slip."

Logic would dictate that his mind had nowhere the capacity to hold this infinite amount of knowledge. Somehow the jade slip acted as both a part of his mind and yet separate from himself. It was confusing but also reassuring. The jade slip hadn't been a curse but a blessing. Now if only he could figure out a way to regain or even succeed his former cultivation.