139 Surprise

Ed sat down on an obsidian platform just outside of the lava lake. He closed his eyes and entered meditation. 'Let's see...' He focused his mana to explore near his middle heart, searching for the fire storage meridian.

"No, that won't work." Sect Master Long's voice interrupted. "You can only use fire mana to find it. You're using your seven-colored mana. You need to divide your mana into seven."

"Divide it?" He questioned as he opened his eyes. "I've never done that before."

"Tsk." Huo clicked his tongue while shaking his head. "This is the problem with stress awakened espers. The shortcuts to power always cause problems. Most of you never even progress much beyond your initial awakened powers."

Ed ignored the jab at him and focused again. He attempted to take control of his mana and split the fire element from it. However, it was completely inseparable. Whenever he attempted to pull just the fire mana, the other six elemental mana naturally followed along. "It's not working. What am I doing wrong?" He questioned.

"Keep trying." Huo encouraged. "You need to have patience for these things. A thousand failures and one success is still a success."

Ed nodded and meditated again.

Likewise, Huo entered meditation, except his doing so was much more dramatic. A sphere of fire exited his body and swirled around him. He was careful to keep the raging inferno away from Ed, but the intensity of the heat within the cavern shot up dramatically.

'So hot.' Ed complained to himself as he felt his mouth go dry. However, there was a benefit to being surrounded by the heat, lava, and flames. The abundance of the fire element in his surroundings seemed to suppress the other six elements greatly, and because of it he now felt greater control over his fire mana. He pulled and tugged at it, and it slowly moved away from his other mana. His other mana automatically tried catching up to the fire mana to reunite, but it lagged behind due to being suppressed.

'There.' He smiled as he moved the fire mana towards his middle heart. However, his smile quickly turned to a frown when he realized the fire storage meridian wasn't there. 'Sect Master Long said that the storage meridians move around randomly. I guess I'll have to search for it...' He moved his fire mana throughout his body while making sure to keep it away from his other mana types. Even after searching his whole body, he failed to find the meridian. And so, he tried again and again. After seven tries, he finally found it hiding near his liver. It was smaller than the point of a pencil, and it was still moving about randomly.

He concentrated his fire mana and shot it towards the meridian at full speed. However, the meridian dodged out of the way, almost seeming sentient in the way it did so. It even started to run away in the completely opposite direction! 'Damn it. Stay still!' He sent his mana after it repeatedly, missing by a narrow margin each time. Understanding that it wasn't working, he made his mana thinner and spread it out like a net to enclose the meridian.

'I've got it now!' He grinned as he closed the mana net. Suddenly, the meridian charged towards the net at full speed! It broke straight through and kept moving away. Only a tiny trace of his fire mana had managed to enter because of the thinness of the mana net. 'What the hell is with this thing?!' Ed complained to himself.

It was like a game of tag or hide-and-seek as he continued chasing the meridian. Each time he surrounded it, it broke through while absorbing a very small amount of mana. Fortunately, the meridian seemed to calm down and grow slightly slower each time he managed to hit it. He started to treat the capture like a game of war as he divided his mana into individual units and platoons. Occasionally the meridian escaped his enclosure unharmed because of it, but when he did land a successful hit, he managed to insert far more mana than when he previously used the net.

The game continued for over two days before the last of Ed's fire mana entered the storage meridian. There wasn't a single part of his fire mana remaining outside it, which made him feel oddly incomplete. However, the storage meridian now radiated a certain heat, and he felt his connection with fire growing even greater. The meridian still moved randomly, but at a much slower pace. Wherever it passed within his body, he felt his flesh growing stronger and more resistant to flame.

"Well done." Sect Master Long commented. "It took you about ten times longer than it should have, but that's to be expected with stress awakened espers."

"What do you mean?" Ed questioned as he opened his eyes.

"It's because stress awakening is a shortcut." Huo answered. "Cultivators learn to control their mana first and foremost. It's the first thing they ever do, and it remains their primary focus in the early stages. Have you ever seen Tai use flame dragons or flame threads?"

"Yes." He nodded.

"Those are not part of his powers. They are purely a form of mana control. Not just him, but almost every cultivator in the sect controls their mana into unique forms ideal for their combat styles." Huo grinned. "Regardless, you can always work on improving your mana control later. From the looks of it, you'll either need to improve your control or go to extreme environments to control your other mana types well enough to capture the other meridians."

"Will my fire mana always be locked in the storage meridian from now on?" He questioned. He could feel his fire mana trapped within the meridian and knew he could take it out, but it felt odd not having any fire mana circulating his body with the others mana types.

"That's only because you just filled the meridian." Huo answered. "Your mana will recover soon, and everything will feel normal again. At that time, your total amount of fire mana will have doubled. It'll also keep your normal mana in balance since the extra fire mana will remain in the meridian unless you call it out."

"I see." He nodded. "Thanks... What are the meridians anyways? They don't seem to line up well with western concepts of anatomy and medicine."

"Mm." Huo nodded. "Let me ask you, Ed. Do you think the human body is the same today as it was hundreds of thousands of years ago? Or even just a few thousand years ago?"

"Probably not." He shook his head. "Though we shouldn't have changed much overall in that period of time."

"Exactly." Huo agreed. "The cultivation techniques we use today were made by our ancestors from a very long time ago. Their bodies may not have matched up with ours exactly. And though the physical form may have changed since then, that doesn't mean the spiritual form has done so as well. Of course, this is just one of the more popular theories." He chuckled. "The real and more common answer is far more dissatisfying. The truth is that we simply don't know."

"I see." Ed sighed. 'So, even the great sect leaders don't know all the answers? Then who does?' He couldn't help but think back to the strange visions he had in the manullium mine underneath the remnants of Reef city. He had a feeling that many answers could be found there, but it was far too beyond him to bother thinking about for now.

"Well then." Sect Master Long stood up. "It's about time we head out. Need to get cleaned up and ready for the wedding procession. Tai should've prepared it all by now."

The two walked through the obsidian doors and began walking down a tunnel.

"Will the sect leader of the Purple Origin Sect really just hand his granddaughter over?" Ed questioned. "I don't see it being quite that easy."

"It'll be fine." Huo laughed. "Chonglin and I go way back. He'd be thrilled for his grandchild to marry my son. Not to mention the Fire Dragon Sect is the Purple Origin Sect's biggest supporter both within and outside the sect. We're completely inseparable!"

"I see..." He nodded. "I just figured it'd be hard to get OP Baldy's approval even if you got the sect leader's."

Suddenly, Huo froze in place. "Why would I need OP Baldy's approval?" He questioned in confusion.

"Hmm?" Ed tilted his head. "Your son is trying to marry Yuki, right? I never knew she was the granddaughter of the leader of the Purple Origin Sect until recently, but I thought it was common knowledge she was OP Baldy's daughter."

"Ed..." Huo grabbed him by the shoulders. It looked rather intimidating with the way his body towered above him. "Are you absolutely sure that Yuki is that bastard's daughter?"

"Yeah..." He nodded. "Yuki and I met at the Hunter Academy in Steam Work City. Her father, Mr. Sai, taught the students there. Also, she's pretty obsessive about listening to him. You'll almost definitely need his approval for this."

"FUCK!" Huo cursed aloud. "How the hell did Chonglin keep this under wraps for so damn long?! I never saw that bastard Tama show up to the sect once whenever I visited!" He began pacing back-and-forth, rubbing his chin while thinking.

"Wait, then whose daughter did you think Yuki was?" Ed curiously questioned.

"I assumed she was Hao Fang's daughter!" He complained. "They were always together until that brat went to Europe to play around with Sinless as a captain!"

"Ah, I see." Ed nodded. He had known already that Captain Fang was the son of the sect he was visiting in China. He also knew that Yuki was the granddaughter of a sect leader. As soon as he found out from Tai that the Purple Origin Sect was where he was supposed to go because of the Mortal Dragon Technique, and that Yuki was a member, he had put two and two together. Fang Chonglin, whose name he learned from Huo, was the leader of the Purple Origin Sect. His two sons were Huo Fang, also known as Captain Fang, and Tama Sai, also known as OP Baldy. Lastly was Yuki, who is Mr. Sai's daughter. 'Looks like things are going to get interesting.' He grinned to himself when thinking of Tai trying to get OP Baldy's permission. 'I might as well just sit back and enjoy the drama.' He chuckled to himself.

"Damn." Huo finally stopped pacing and calmed down. "It's been a longtime since I've gotten worked up like that, and in front of a junior no less." He looked to Ed. "I apologize for my unsightly behavior."

"Ah, sure. No problem." He waved his hand. 'Maybe Tai and him are blood related after all... They've certainly got some similar habits.'

"Follow me." Huo said as he hurried down the tunnel.

Ed quickly followed behind him.

"Whatever Tai prepared won't be enough." Huo frowned. "A dowry for the Purple Origin Sect Leader's granddaughter is one thing, but for OP Baldy? It's entirely different! We'll need to double... no, triple the dowry! It'll help show our sincerity and respect. Yes." He nodded. "That should work."

"Is it really that big a deal?" Ed questioned. "I know he's supposed to be the strongest esper in the world or whatever, but is he really that important? Honestly, he never seemed as strong as the American President to me."

"Humph." Huo snorted. "That's obviously because you've never seen him get serious. Do you know what makes him such a strong cultivator?"

"His control over mana and efficient fighting style?" Ed guessed.

"Wrong! Completely wrong!" He shook his head. "Plenty of espers have mastered perfect mana control. There may even be one or two freaks out there better at it than Tama. There are two reasons he's so powerful. The first reason is obvious. He holds the most golden faith energy in the entire world by a long shot. In fact, all golden faith energy cultivators on Earth probably barely match him when combined."

"That much?!" Ed's eyes widened in surprise.

"Of course, that much." Huo nodded. "He's basically worshiped as a god in every country on the planet. He's a household name, and people even build shrines of him. The only other person that comes close to him is the Indian Buddha."

"Like the religion?" Ed questioned, never having heard of the Indian Buddha, though he had heard of just Buddha.

"No." Huo shook his head. "The Indian Buddha is a man living in India, within a region that was part of the former country of Nepal before it fell during the apocalypse. He holds the 2nd most golden faith energy in the world, but he doesn't even come close to Tama."

"Never heard of him." Ed replied.

"Exactly." Huo nodded. "That goes to show just how famous and worshiped Tama is. But that pales in comparison to the 2nd reason Tama's the strongest."

"Which is?" Ed curiously questioned. He and OP Baldy weren't exactly on the best terms, and even Nexus had failed to provide him with any decent information on the man. It was in his best interest to learn as much as possible.

"That..." Huo hesitated. "Forget it. It's not my secret to tell."

'Damn.' Ed sighed to himself.

Soon, the two left the tunnels by using flames to fly through the same hole Ed had entered from. They appeared in the small office with the same lady working behind the desk as the previous time.

Surprisingly, Tai was there waiting for them. "Father." He said respectfully. "I have prepared the dowry and was just about to go get you. Are you ready?" He smiled.

"Put that plan on hold for a few days." Huo frowned. "We need to prepare more. Yuki is OP Baldy's daughter."

"What?!" Tai replied in shock. "Are you sure?"

"Your friend was the one who told me." He nodded. "But just to be safe, I should contact Nexus. Fortunately, they gave me a way to contact them whenever I want. In the meantime, you focus on increasing the dowry." Huo quickly walked away.

'Eh? The Fire Dragon Sect is working with Nexus?' Ed wondered worriedly.

Tai was speechless for a moment before speaking. "I'm sorry, Ed. I've got work to do. Can you return to the mansion yourself?" He didn't wait for an answer as he hurriedly left the building.