Chapter 37: Opening meridian

[Change is inevitable.

With your vision unlocked

Gone are everything memorable

Soon you will find truth to be ever locked.

Beware of what seems.

Follow only in your dreams.

Open the meridians

Forge it black with obsidians]

Athan’s words echoed like a broken radio as Eren sat on the floor of his dorm room.

Why must his master always speak in vague riddles? It frustrated him then, it infuriated him now.

Eyes closed, he found comfort in the Immortal Library of Ræzoň. He never tired of the expansive skies and endless horizons laid out in front of him, right here at the top of the spire. It made him feel home.

Sitting atop 10-star Ascension Arts and Martial Manuals, legs hanging off to the side, he had in his hands the untitled journal Athan left for him. An inheritance left behind by the most powerful man in all of Immoræ.

He parsed through its rough, papyrus pages, looking for answers but found none except more questions.

Usually, an inheritance scroll contained the culmination of knowledge an apex cultivator amassed throughout their millennia of life.

The journal of the Venerable Ursine King was one of those inheritance scrolls.

Written in that fur-bound book were everything the apex cultivator used in his journey to immortality. What path he chose, why he chose it, what he could have chosen differently

It contained their Ascension Arts and Martial Manuals and the proper way to cultivate them.

There would be valuable insights and inner reflections written in these inheritances, one that would prove crucial in a new cultivator’s journey.

Most of the time, even the locations of heirloom weapons would be written for their inheritor to find. And of course, there would be tips and tricks to locate the necessary cultivation materials for future breakthroughs.

Follow these inheritances, then one shall find themselves atop the apex of cultivation.

Opening of the meridians was one of the crucial steps in that journey.

Eren thought he’d find the method in this untitled book. A new kind of technique for opening the meridians that were unique only to Athan.

But there was none. Only riddles.

He threw the journal away in a fury. Its pages flapped as it descended down into the base of the spire, amongst the Martial Manuals and Ascension Arts that were very low in quality.

It was his own sense of rebellion. A last attempt to force Athan’s prideful ego out of hiding amongst the bookshelves in his Mind Palace.

The journal flopped onto the floor with a thud, and nothing more.

Eventually, he turned his focus to the journal of the Venerable Ursine King.

This book contained the methods to open one’s meridians. Much like what he was known for, this approach of opening the meridians focused only on the rudimentary. No risk, no experimental methods. It did its job, but did it perfectly.

Eren couldn’t go wrong in choosing this for opening his first set of meridians. It would be a good foundation. The very best, even.

For creating such perfect methods, the Ursine King received the greatest acclaim. He received a compliment from Athan.

His Master never complimented anyone. Athan would rather create his own, better version of something rather than admit someone’s accomplishments.

Most, if not all the time, he’d prove himself superior. Except with the Venerable Ursine King’s meridians.

It was too basic, his Master complained. How can one improve something so simple?

Eren’s decision, therefore, was easy.

The words of the Ursine King whispered to him alongside the breeze of the skies around him.

[’...that was the day I found myself a frog at the bottom of a well, looking up at the enormity of the skies thinking I could grasp it in my hands. ’Twas tragic.

I was rejected. Tossed away by the Flying Mountain Sect as trash. I was not even selected to become an outer disciple, while those who I had debased as worthless got personally picked by the Elder cultivators.

The heavens had forsaken me, they said. None of my meridians have opened naturally.

What would take my peers days to cultivate, I would need months. They said I was hopeless.

It wasn’t till I forged my own path did I realize they were being miserly. They didn’t want to open my meridians. Too much cost, for very little gain. Why grow a tree, when you could eat from the ground?

But I must give them thanks. If not for their rejection, I would not have found the motivation to forge my own path. I hope that you, whoever finds my inheritance, shall not need to build a mountain to reach the pinnacle, for I have already laid out the path to the apex.]

Eren found himself in the same situation as the Venerable Ursine King. His body’s meridians were blocked. Ten years of coma had not allowed his body to naturally progress its own growth.

He’d be starting from the very bottom, at the same place that the Ursine King found himself at during one of the most pivotal moments of his youth.

[Look upon your hands and find your Spirit Gate meridian at the bottom of your palms. Prick it at your seventh shallow breath and visualize...]

It dictated the path to open the hand’s meridians. Written in acupuncture terminology.

Without his medical training in the Palatine of Wisdom, adhering to the Venerable Ursine King’s words would be nigh impossible. Its words and complicated jargon discussed spiritual nodes in a human body that wouldn’t be found in modern physiology textbooks here on Earth.

Execution and timing was crucial as well. The human body was always in movement, meaning those nodes were always fluctuating. Breaths, muscle spasms, bloodflow. All of these factors affected the proper placement for opening the meridians.

He took out one of the needles, its sharpness glimmering. He inserted it at the base of his palm and took a deep breath.

Visualization came next. Connecting with his Dantian.

Ræzoň bubbled up around his skin, before descending into his inner body.