121 Consecutive Breakthroughs

After traveling for several days, Ed and Flair arrived at a port in Los Angeles, California.

Ed's body lit up with a seven-colored glow as he melted his own flesh to shrink his height. His face looked like something out of a nightmare as his skin melted and reformed until he looked like Dupe. "How is it?" He questioned Flair.

"Hmm..." She tilted her head to the side. "Don't you need his hair too? You're practically bald right now and the color is wrong."

"Ah, right." He agreed. "One second." He flew back into the skies until he spotted a white bird. He quickly captured it and returned to the ground. A brief moment later, he finished melting the feathers into spiky looking white hair. "Good now?" He asked.

"Mm." She nodded while smiling. "You look just like the birdbrain."

"Good, let's go."

The two headed for the docks. Seagulls flocked everywhere, covering the port in their less than desirable waste. Sea lions lazily rested on the docks, blocking the work of the sailors until a dog scared them away. Ed closed his eyes and slowly inhaled the salty aroma of the sea while a refreshing breeze cooled him off. "Mm." He nodded. "I hate it already. Let's get out of here."

"Eh, what's not to like?" Flair questioned. "I think the breeze feels pretty good."

"Tsk." He clicked his tongue. "It smells and feels sticky. I already want a shower."

"Are you really the same person that spent months away in the wilderness and over half a year in the cage?" She chuckled. "I never took you as someone obsessed with cleanliness."

"I'll have you know I washed in clean lava almost every day in the cage." He smiled. "Besides, you'd be picky about being clean too if you were always covered in open wounds. Last thing I need is getting sick."

"Can espers even get sick...?" She played with her hair, rubbing her hands along the ponytail. "I don't think I've ever seen or heard of an esper getting sick."

"Then maybe they can't." He replied.

Soon, they arrived at a large steel ship. It wasn't as impressive as the ship Captain Fang had used years ago, though it was just as big. In fact, it looked extremely lacking for a long journey across the Pacific Ocean. There were no cannons or special weapons. The steel appeared ordinary in nature. There wasn't even a hint of manullium built into the hull.

"Governor Kismet, you've arrived!" A brawny man wearing a white captain's hat and white sailor uniform waved towards them from the boat. "Come on board!"

Ed hesitated a moment before walking up a platform onto the ship, Flair following behind him.

"It's great to meet you!" The Captain enthusiastically shook his hand. "I've been ordered to take you to Hawaii, where you will then transfer to another ship." He pounded his chest. "You have absolutely nothing to worry about. I'm a professional!"

"Right..." Ed nodded while looking around the ship. "And how are you going to protect us from mutants during the voyage?"

"Haha, I thought you might ask that!" He lifted a whistle tied around his neck and blew into it. A short moment later, a chorus of footsteps echoed below deck. Nearly a hundred men appeared before the captain and saluted. "Captain!" They loudly yelled.

"These are the finest espers under my command." The Captain smiled proudly. "With them on board, the journey will be smooth sailing. I've traveled through the Pacific dozens of times without a single issue. You can trust the words of Captain Eiden!"

"Alright..." Ed nodded. "Let's set sail as soon as possible then. I've kept my acquaintances waiting long enough."

"Of course!" The Captain agreed. He turned and yelled towards the crew. "What are ye waiting for! Get yer asses moving! I ain't got all day! One of ye step outta line, and you'll be scrubbin the deck til dawn!"

Ed's eyes widened in surprise at the Captain's sudden change of speech.

The Captain hurriedly turned back around while smiling politely. He slowly flipped his hand, gesturing towards a staircase near the back of the deck. "If you'll please follow me, I'll show you to your cabins. Dinner will be sent to your room as the sun sets. If you have any requests, please don't be afraid to let me know." He began leading them downstairs.

'Creepy two-faced bastard.' Ed thought as he followed. He wasn't used to others treating him so politely. Hell, even his own Harmony members treated him like one of their own, rarely holding their tongues at all. 'I guess this is normal for a Governor...' He sighed to himself.

They traveled down a dimly lit hallway, passing dozens of rooms. "Here we are." The Captain smiled while glancing at Flair. "I assure you miss, you have nothing to worry about. None of the crew would dare be disrespectful to our honored guests."

"That's good." She cheerfully smiled. "My boss gets pretty scary when things don't go his way. It wouldn't be good for anyone if I'm made unhappy. After all, we share a special relationship!" She giggled.

The Captain's eyes went wide as he looked back-and-forth between the two. "Governor Kismet... don't worry! I won't breath a word of this scandal to anyone!"

"What scandal?" Ed frowned. "First of all, I'm not married, so it wouldn't be a scandal." He glared at Flair. "Secondly, we have no special relationship beyond that of a business partnership." He looked at the Captain. "Can you leave us alone for a moment?"

"Ah, of course." Captain Eiden respectfully nodded. "Your room is the next one down, and the door is unlocked. Feel free to send for me if you need absolutely anything at all!" He hurriedly bowed while taking his leave.

"Speak." Ed demanded as he glared at her.

"Relax." She covered her mouth as she giggled. "I'm just getting some low-key revenge on Dupe. It's no big deal."

He crossed his arms across his chest and frowned. "Not a big deal? I think my subordinate purposefully damaging the reputation of my officer that has risen through the government ranks is a pretty damn big deal."

"Look, this is a personal matter." She frowned. "So stay out of it. And if you ask me, I think you trust Dupe way too much. Somebody with that many clones and living that many different lives... They're bound to go off the deep end eventually." She didn't wait for an answer as she entered her room and slammed the door shut.

"Humph." Ed snorted. 'I keep an eye on Dupe whenever I can, but he can be in god knows how many places at once while I'm just a single man.' He shook his head while sighing. 'Dupe's always proved himself trustworthy, and even if he wasn't, I have no means to prove it. Every time I go down this trail of thought I just end up wasting time.' He entered his own cabin, his mood considerably worse than when he arrived.

The steel cabin was sparsely furnished with a small cot, desk, and chair. It was probably better than the rooms the ordinary sailors shared, but it was certainly lacking when considering Dupe's current status. Not particularly caring, Ed sat down on the cot cross-legged, closing his eyes and entering meditation. Tao scurried off his shoulders and curled up on the nearby pillow to rest.

'Mm. It's been a while since I've cultivated.' He felt the mana flowing through his body. It felt much stronger than in the past. 'I'm guessing the purple smoke helped temper my mana over the last half year. I wouldn't be surprised if I could use my mana freely in a normal manullium mine.' In addition to his mana improving in quality overall, it had also had a significant change. In the past, his seven-colored mana was always perfectly balanced between the seven elements. However, there was now the color purple mixed in with the rest, and interestingly enough, his total amount of red fire mana had decreased by a proportional amount when compared with the gained purple mana.

'Hmm... I should test it.' He carefully activated his silver flames atop his shoulders, and his purple mana was used to fuel it. 'Mm.' He nodded to himself. 'So, the purple mana is used up first for flames. What about my ordinary powers?' He transitioned to melting a small piece of cloth on the cot. Surprisingly, the purple mana was still used up first. 'Interesting...' He continuously burned through his mana, using it as inefficiently as possible on purpose. After several minutes, he ran out of purple mana. His powers then defaulted to his ordinary mana, and he noticed that the quality of his transformations had dropped several pegs.

'I see.' He nodded. 'The purple mana is at a higher level and can be used for any of my powers. For now, one of my goals should be to convert all my ordinary mana into purple mana, but to do that I'll need to master the 49 paths. But I also need to fix my soul cracks so that I don't cause too much damage to myself...' He exited meditation and gripped his hair. "So frustrating!" He complained. He was finally coming to understand more and more about cultivation, but there always seemed to be something holding him back.

'Forget it.' He sighed while reentering meditation. 'I might as well focus on the Mortal Dragon Technique instead of getting myself killed along the 49 paths.' So far, he had opened both heart meridians, the triple burner meridian, and the lungs meridian. While these four sounded like a lot, there was still a lot more to go, with there being a total of twelve organ meridians and an additional 8 special storage meridians. He had only managed 20 percent of the total so far!

'Guess I'll start with the stomach this time.' He thought as he focused his mana along his spiritual paths towards it. Just like in his past breakthroughs, he sensed a resilient barrier barring the path of his mana. Not wanting to waste any time, he concentrated his mana together into a sharp compact shape. Focusing so hard that sweat covered his forehead, he shot the mana forward!

Riiip. The barrier was little better than paper before his mana. It was torn apart almost immediately, having practically zero resistance against the mana. Ed's mana quickly poured into the spiritual area of his stomach. Shockingly, it only took minutes to completely fill the stomach with mana, whereas in the past it would have taken days or weeks.

"Amazing..." He sighed aloud as he felt an invisible chain being lifted from his body. With the weight gone, he suddenly felt less anxiety and stress than he had before. It seemed that every breakthrough he made with the Mortal Dragon Technique improved his control over his emotions even further while also expanding his total mana capacity. It was truly an ideal technique for chimera practitioners. 'I really need to get a similar technique for my Harmony chimeras.' His eyes opened and shone with resolution.

'Now what should I do...' He wondered. He had planned on spending the entire voyage in meditation to attempt breaking through a meridian, but they had just barely left the port and he had already accomplished it. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pouch holding 11 purple mana-cores. He had acquired 10 from the original trade with Tai and an extra one for healing Tai's arm. 'I shouldn't.' He sighed while shaking his head. Who knew if his soul could handle the strain? A small breakthrough in the 49 paths might very well lead to his death the next morning.

'Well, I guess I might as well keep focusing on the Mortal Dragon Technique... Nothing better to do.' He closed his eyes and reentered meditation. This time he focused on the spleen. The book had specified that the spleen and stomach were spiritually connected. 'I don't think I'll ever truly understand these cultivation techniques.' Ed sighed while shaking his head. 'It completely contradicts western medicine. Hell, I've opened enough bodies myself to know how things are and aren't connected. Still, if it works then don't fix it I guess... Maybe someone at the sect will know the reason for the contradictions.'

Concentrating on his spleen, he encountered dozens of barriers blocking it. Again, his mana easily tore through it. It seemed the barriers were simply too weak to handle his new purple portion of mana which was doing the bulk of the work. Another invisible chain snapped, and his body felt incredibly relaxed.

Surprised at how quickly he had finished once again, he decided to keep going. 'Onwards to the liver!' He smiled. His mana poured in, shattering any barriers that stood in his way. Soon, another invisible chain was lifted, and he felt less angry with the world. It was as if his past grudges were no longer as big a concern in his daily life, though he would still choose to act on them if the opportunity presented itself.

Next came the kidney meridian and bladder meridian. Convinced with how easily he was breaking through, he actually split his mana into two and targeted both at once. Nearly an hour later, the barriers covering both were torn to shreds. Mana filled the two meridians, and he felt more weight vanish from his shoulders. His entire body felt stronger, as if something had changed on a fundamental level. His blood, bone, and flesh were all healthier despite the vast improvements he had already done to them in the past.

'What's that smell?' He wondered but shook his head and ignored it. He was far too engrossed in the breakthroughs to care. He grinned. 'Only three more organ meridians to go!'

Next were the small intestine meridian and large intestine meridian. These ones were unique in that they seemed to have thousands of miniature barriers throughout them. However, Ed's mana tore through them all easily. 'If only cultivation was always this effortless.' He sighed as a mixture of ecstasy and pleasure overtook his body. Soon, he finished breaking through both meridians. His sorrows and grievances dulled as he felt greater control over the emotion of grief.

Ed sniffed and frowned in disgust. Whatever the smell was had gotten worse, but he had come too far to stop now. 'Just one more.' He focused on the final meridian, the Gallbladder. Just like the previous ones, the breakthrough was completely effortless. Another invisible chain vanished, making his body feel even lighter.

'I've broken through all 12 organ meridians!' He celebrated to himself. 'Next are the storage area meridians...'

"UGH!" Ed gagged as he smelt the most nauseating vile scent to ever exist. He covered his mouth as he forced himself not to vomit. 'What the fuck is that smell?!' He wondered as his eyes shot open.