Chapter 106: New open

After the hellish situation with the Physique Accelerant Paste, Eren laid on the ground right next to their campfire, sweating. He was completely spent.

"You okay now, Eren?" Sky asked, offering him a bowl of Skyward Herb soup.

He declined. But he did ask for a glass of water. Drinking Skyward Herb soup now would only re-activate the intense cramping pain of the Physique Accelerant Paste, with none of the benefits.

After drinking water, he took a deep breath.

Then, he looked at his own body. He had applied the Paste to his torso and his back. With it, he could activate the 5th and 6th Primary Meridian in his body.

According to the Venerable Ursine King’s journal, the opening of these meridians would be the actual start of his journey as a cultivator.

[My inheritor. Opening the 5th and 6th Primary Meridian saved my life numerous times before. You may, or you may not know it, but your body is the most vulnerable aspect of your cultivation.

It is where your enemy’s energy will be spent targeting. It will be the subject for most of your battles.

And so, it is important that you are able to protect yourself when the time comes.]

Opening the Primary Meridians in his torso and his back would allow him to finally add R?zoň Reinforcement onto his body, even without looking at them.

This was the most important part of cultivation. Without it, one would be vulnerable from attacks from the outside and behind oneself.

This was especially important here, on Earth. After all, Awakeners here weren’t even aware of the Primary Meridians being a thing. They thought it was simply a myth from ancient times.

And so, if they wanted to protect their bodies and their backs, they would have to do so by looking down at their own bodies.

But even then, the extent that they would be able to do that was to cover their torso, and a small part of their backs.

Depending on which Ascension Art they used, they could simply look down at their stomach, and their R?zoň could be applied on their torso and their back as well.

But if one didn’t have a powerful Ascension Art that had that kind of shortcut, then they would be hard-pressed to cover their backs with Reinforcement. They would have to turn their heads back, or use some kind of special mirror just so that they could do so.

Once he’d had his fill of water, Eren returned to his hovel and discreetly brought out his pins and needles.

He was willing to tell everyone about the way to create the Physique Accelerant Paste. He was willing to tell them about his way of replenishing sunspores.

But he was not willing to tell them about his acupuncture.

He then looked at his own stomach and counted the distance between his navel and his chest. Eventually, he found the right spot corresponding to the 5th Primary Meridian.

Without hesitation, he pricked his own stomach.

Immediately, he used his own R?zoň to create a vortex that helped open the Primary Meridian.

It wasn’t long before he created an entirely new pathway from his Dantian all the way over to his torso. His body suit became filled with muck and grime and all sorts of dirt.

After that, he immediately laid down on the ground, face-first and bent his hands backward.

This was a hard procedure than opening the meridian on his torso.

After all, he couldn’t look at his own body. And second of all, he would be pricking a needle dangerously close to his spine. The wrong move could completely paralyze him from the waist down.

He sensed for the ridges of his spine, counting a few, before finding the right spot. Then, without hesitation, he used his other hand to prick it with a needle.

His movements were precise and without any jittering. Hesitation was the enemy of perfection. He’d learned that long ago.

And soon, he created another vortex of R?zoň from his back, with its eye directly placed on top of the needle. With both the physical and the spiritual, Eren was able to break through the barrier of the Primary Meridian, allowing him to spend a few R?zoň drops to create another highway connecting the inner body to the outer body.

All in all, the process took about an hour or so. Eren had gotten faster with his meridian opening.

He had done this before, so he knew what to do. But partially, he knew that he had to hurry because he didn’t have much time left to spare.

Right now, those two rivaling groups should be fighting over each other on who should take the Territory. It wouldn’t be long till they settled on an answer. And by then, Eren would be too late.

He had to get there now.

Eventually, he walked out of his hovel and immediately went over to the pool to wash off the impurities he had expelled from his body.

While pouring a bucket of water over himself, he saw Celeste looking over at him while leaning on a tree.

"You... you look even better than before," she said to him.

"Is that a compliment or a question?"

"It’s shock. That lotion that you put on your body actually made you stronger, didn’t it?"

Celeste saw the minute details in Eren’s body. He wasn’t physically bigger. His muscles weren’t that large. But there was something about his overall physique that made her believe that he had become stronger by a level.

And somehow, he had done it in a few minutes.

"It’s called the Physique Accelerant Paste," Eren told her. "It makes the muscles more matured by stimulating it through prolonged exposure."

"Ahh... that’s why your whole body was cramping," Celeste nodded. Then, she looked at him. "Even the Cai family, famed for their pills and Awakening materials, don’t have a medicine this potent, you know. The best that they could do is make your Psion Gathering about 10% better."