Breaking Through

Night approached, but the men from Morgan Commercial Corp still hadn't shown up. Finally, Miss Keeley forced a smile on her face and excused herself, saying she was too tired and needed rest. She followed Michelle up to her room. Moxinke and Cessacioun looked at each other, though they didn't know whether to comfort her or not. After all, it was her own family affairs. However, everyone started to respect Han Jin even more after that. Even the experienced and knowledgeable Cessacioun had thought that as long as the members of Morgan Commercial Corp heard that Miss Keeley was in town, they would immediately send someone to welcome their young master. In reality though, the situation seemed to be developing in an increasingly complex way.

"I'll go and talk to her." Sunier stood up. "You'd better go to bed early because we are going to the market tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning... I might need some extra sleep tonight. Please don't disturb me." This said, Han Jin also stood up lazily and walked into his room. It was time for him to complete his intermediate stage of constructing his basis, which was why he didn't want to be disturbed by anyone.

In the room, Han Jin took out a second grade magic crystal and put it on the table. It was a fire-element crystal that he had gotten from Sunier during dinner. Since he had no space ring, he had to entrust Sunier to keep the unstable magic crystals for him. He then closed the door and went to his bed, slowly sitting down.

He had some experience of basis construction from his former world, so this time there was nothing to be worried about. The only thing that made him feel nervous was the strange territory of Beitman.

Han Jin had learned a little about Beitman through chatting with his friends. The first thing he had learned was that Beitman was far more chaotic than Holy Crown City! The owner of Holy Crown City, Lord Dismark, had established his dominance as the sole ruler of the entire city. No matter how it might appear from the outside, the city was quite stable from within. There were no factions opposing Dismark's rule, and all his subjects, from the peasants and slaves to the nobles, followed his rule. But here in Beitman, things were quite different. The four satellite cities constantly plotted against each against each other, which would often result in bloody murders. On top of that, Beitman's attitude toward other territories was also whimsical and unstable at times. It might be an ally of Holy Crown City and Wild Willow City one day, but then would switch to Black Raven City's side the next. Due to this, the capital of Beitman earned quite an infamous nickname: The City of Treachery.

Nowadays, during Lord Dismark and Lord Zaganide's rule, neither side would ever trust Beitman in a deal. One could go as far as to say that as soon as one side achieved victory, Beitman would definitely be their next target. As of now, however, neither side made any moves against Beitman because both sides focused all their resources on each other. They had to concentrate their power against the strongest enemies in front of them. As for forming an alliance with Beitman, that was simply out of the question!

As a matter of fact, the four rulers of the satellite cities were aware of the precarious position they were in. There were only two ways for them to strengthen their defenses: either start closely cooperating with each other, or initiate a final struggle against each other, and the victor who emerged would gain control of the whole Beitman. The former was very difficult, while the latter was not only much harder, but may also push them into a more desperate situation. However, human nature was definitely not something that could be reasoned with, as all four rulers of the satellite cities appeared to have unanimously chosen the latter option. It seemed that they had made their decisions to march forward despite all the difficulties, like a desperate man marching toward a mountain path even though he knew there was a tiger there.

Even so, each ruler had their own worries. At least, none of them dared to escalate this hidden conflict into an official civil war. Hence publicly, they battled each other with their sharp tongues, but if some problem truly could not be resolved, they were more than happy to employ some shady trick to get their way.

In these turbulent times, lives were as insignificant as weeds. In the peaceful Radon Town, Han Jin had no sense of urgency in absorbing energy, but here in Beitman, the uninhibited and fierce expressions on the faces of those 'monsters', as well as Cessacioun and Michelle's descriptions concerning this land, all reminded Han Jin that dangers existed everywhere around him.

From thousands of years' of history, he knew the only way to survive in such a chaotic time!

Han Jin sat on his bed with his legs crossed and the five centers upward, namely, the center of his two hands, two feet, and his head. He concentrated his mind and breathed in and out rhythmically. With each breath, the energy inside him expanded and shrunk accordingly. About half a month had passed since Sunier had injured him, and during those days, Sunier had spent most of her days hunting holy animals for him, allowing him to accumulate nearly ten thousand Yuan's worth of energy. With this reserve, Han Jin was sure that he could finish this intermediate stage of basis construction.

What's called the intermediate stage of basis construction was to unblock the small heavenly circuit, and the process didn't require any technique at all. Moreover, Han Jin had once reached the stage of qi cultivation and spirit refinement. Thus for him, as long as he got enough energy, unlocking the small heavenly circuit was as easy as lifting his fingers.

As the energy collided within him, Han Jin could feel a twinge of stinging coming from his coccyx joint. But he didn't strengthen the collision force of the energy, nor did he try to control it; he just sat there and let the process go on naturally. He knew that, at this moment, the key was to keep everything natural. The more one tried to control something, the more likely something might go wrong.

An hour passed, and then another, but Han Jin was still sitting patiently and waiting. The pain from his coccyx joint started to become hotter and hotter, and finally, his body abruptly trembled slightly. A current of energy broke through the block of the coccyx joint and rushed straight up to the governor meridian like a torrent of magma.

Han Jin drew a long breath. Only at this point did he start to control his energy intentionally. When the energy reached the Jiaji point, he paused for a while before the current burst out through the block and rushed directly to the Yuzhen joint.

Now his back was itchy, but it was a sign of blood suffusing. His Baihui point was also bouncing ceaselessly. But none of that distracted him. He once again sunk into concentration and allowed everything to proceed naturally.

The most difficult part of the small heavenly circuit was to break through the Yuzhen joint, which was also called the joint of iron, after which came the sea of marrow, the most important part, as it was where one's spirit was located. If anything went wrong here, the damage caused would be irreversible.

In traditional Daoist inner cultivation, the body of a human being was divided into three tripod stoves. One was called the lower elixir field. It was the place where one's static elements located. When one unlocked his small heavenly circuit, his energy should be moved to his middle elixir field, the place to contain one's Qi. At last, the energy would be pushed to the upper elixir field. As for how far a person could go on the road of cultivation, it was, to some extent, decided by whether one could unlock his small heavenly circuit successfully or not. Though it was nothing difficult for Han Jin, he still needed to be careful enough to avoid any possible deviation.

Han Jin showed his impressive patience. With his expression calm and peaceful, he didn't try to deliberately control the energy, nor did he completely forget about them. Although it seemed contradictory, it was, in fact, closely related.

A mirror sat on the ground. When a bird flew across the sky, its image would be left in the mirror. From a Daoist perspective, that image was the purest depiction of one's purpose. If one tried too hard to control the bird and neglect the image, then it meant he had forgotten his true purpose and would give rise to obsessiveness. On the contrary, if one didn't control the bird at all and let it go, the image would disappear, as would his true purpose.

The most important point of the small heavenly circuit was to keep one's ideation between forgotten and unforgotten.

After an unknown time, Han Jin's Baihui point bounced more and more fiercely, and all of a sudden, his eyes lit up. The energy had broken through his Yuzhen joint, which caused a soft and joyful feeling deep in his mind. This feeling was as if his brain was suddenly being filled with wisdom, or as if he was bathing in a hot spring. Sticking the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth, Han Jin guided the current of energy to flow down directly through his body, and finally gather in his sea of Qi.

He didn't stop until he finished thirty-six circuits successively. After that, Han Jin slowly opened his eyes. As he had expected, he had accomplished his intermediate stage of basis construction successfully. All that was left was the next step...