B2 - Chapter 25: Specks of Light

B2 - Chapter 25: Specks of Light

William combed through his memories, studying the times when the change occurred in his meridians.

Each speck of light was slightly larger than the previous one, leading him to make a guess he felt would be proven correct. What he gathered already pointed in that direction.

While the Lung Meridian seemed to skip the stage where the Qi was a fog in varying stages of denseness, he wrote that off as a consequence of changing his cultivation technique to Horizon’s Seeker. Even if it wasn’t, it seemed like an anomaly compared to the following three meridians.

The Heart, Stomach, and Liver Meridians all acted in a similar manner. They all had a predictable path. A thin wisp of Qi spread throughout the meridian before it slowly changed to a thick fog, then came the speck once it reached a certain point.

More importantly, he could pinpoint the range his Spirit attribute was at when the meridians rejected additional Qi.

The Lung Meridian did this when his Spirit was in the high twenties. The Heart Meridian around sixty.

As for the most recent one, the Stomach Meridian, couldn’t be much more than a hundred and ten Spirit. The rejection occurred with barely any of the new Qi absorbed.

William thought about it carefully. The Spirit needed for each following rejection increased drastically, or at least it seemed that way with what he had just recalled.

There was far too little data to draw any patterns from, but if it continued, he guessed that the Liver Meridian would reject any additional Qi when his Spirit was around two hundred.

The only way to test this out was to assign his unused points.

Points: 303

William had plenty to spare, but he would need to use a quarter of it just to see if he was correct.

... This was not the move.

He had to keep repeating that to himself since it seemed there were no other benefits to be had, even if he was proven correct.

But on the other hand, this was the Spirit attribute. How much could it set him back if it turned out to be a suboptimal idea?

In the worst case, he would be able to recover the seventy points that would be spent in seven levels. A benefit of the Foundation Establishment Realm is that each level-up gave him ten stat points instead of the five he had become used to.

William needed to find out.

[+40 Spirit]

[Modified | Spiritual Energy]

[Spiritual Energy Capacity | 650 —> 850]

He closed his eyes, cautiously guiding the newly added Qi into the Liver Meridian. Everything was absorbed without issue. As expected, the thinly spread wisp of Qi in the meridian thickened into a transparent fog.

It wasn’t enough.

He added more, far less than before, to ensure he wouldn’t miss the crossing point.

[+20 Spirit]

[Modified | Spiritual Energy]

[Spiritual Energy Capacity | 850 —> 950]

The same thing happened. The Qi inside the meridian became more dense but still showed no sign of forming the speck of light.

Again.

That was a convenient side effect of talking to himself.

“Yes.”

The Qi Refining room transformed. His surroundings were suddenly depleted of the thick Qi, the soft light changing into something much brighter and lit up the dull, grey room.

It allowed William to see the arrays carved into the walls before they started to glow a brilliant blue.

[External force is affecting the user’s mind]

That was a familiar alert.

The dull room disappeared from his vision and was replaced with endless grassland. Similar to the Qi Refining room in Xuanjing City.

“State the desired level of your opponents.”

William kept his mouth shut. He couldn’t say he wasn’t surprised by a disembodied voice speaking to him, but it wasn’t the oddest thing he had seen so far in this world.

As for what the voice told him, that would greatly depend on which skill he would be practicing. He wanted to focus on [Force Multiplier], but that seemed counterproductive since he already had that hundred percent next to it... not that he knew what it stood for.

He pulled up that submenu to confirm it for the first time in a while.

Martial Skills (4):

1. Force Multiplier (100%)

2. Thunderous Palm (90%)

3. Thunderous Kick (90%)

4. Earth-Shaking Stomp (70%)

William stared blankly, wondering when the compatibility his weaker skills had increased in percentage. The last time he had seen them, they were below fifty percent.

It certainly wasn’t from practice unless it counted the killing spree he went on with the mobs in the Shard.

At the very least, it made his decision easy. He wanted to see if there were any changes to his basic martial skills.

But there was something William wanted to try before it slipped his mind again.

“What does the percentage next to the martial skills mean?” He asked out loud.

“Query not applicable. State the desired level of your opponents.”

Whatever controlled the room answered him instead of the system. As was expected. There was a reason he often forgot to ask the system something.

It was a waste of effort.

“Give me an opponent in Early Stage Foundation Establishment Realm.”

“Accepted.”

A humanoid opponent appeared around a hundred feet away. He could have chosen something higher for a better match, but that was for later.

William wanted an easy fight to test out his weaker martial skills.