"Elder, your bed is ready," the maid bowed respectfully towards Elder Jing and waited for her instruction.
"Alright, you may leave now since I'm going to rest," Elder Jing said with a wave of her hand.
The maid nodded and soon exited the guest room.
Elder Jing waited for the sounds of the maid's footsteps to fade before firmly latching the door from inside.
The next moment, she used the little Qi she had regained so far to sense her surroundings.
A blue glint appeared in her eyes, and her vision expanded, penetrated everything around her. She was clearly able to see through everything within a hundred-meter radius of her.
Finally confirming that no one was keeping check on her, a sigh escaped Elder Jing's lips as she went towards her bed.
When she was comfortably seated on the bed, the orange pendant around her neck shone, and the entire room got filled with sparkling blue stones up to the bed's edges. The scene looked as if the entire bed was currently floating in a glittering blue sea.
These blue stones were called spirit stones, and they were a direct source of spiritual Qi for cultivators.
Unlike naturally absorbing Qi from the surroundings, absorbing it from these stones is more efficient because of the high concentration of Qi that is stored inside them.
Breathing the air in the room, which was now dense with spiritual Qi, Elder Jing felt a lot more energised.
'The cost of using the Divine Phoenix Orb together with the Heavenly Transportation Formation was far greater than I had anticipated.
Not only was the formation destroyed, but we also lost five great elders who were powering it…' a regretful expression formed on Elder Jing's face as she thought back on the events that had unfolded.
'Luckily I was able to survive, otherwise it would have all been for nought…' She sighed the next moment. Her journey through the spatial cracks had been nothing but tormenting.
If not for the vast number of treasures, pills and elixirs she had stored in her pendant, she would have been ripped apart by those treacherous spatial currents.
Stabilising her mind, Elder Jing soon focused her attention on what was important. Closing her eyes, she soon started absorbing Qi to fill her depleted Qi reserves.
'I must regain my strength as fast as possible to get started with my mission,' She thought with conviction and got submerged in her task.
As time passed, the spirit stones in the room started losing their glimmer before turning to nothingness.
Once that happened, she would take out another batch of spirit stones and continue with her absorption.
Like this, the night elapsed the rays of the sun slowly embraced the town, signalling the start of a new day.
Just like the day before, after working on his stamina, Yi Chen was inside a training hall and was being lectured by Master Ru.
"Generally, a child starts opening their Qi points at the age of six and by the time they are eight years old, they have reached the ninth level of [Elementary Transformation Stage] and are attempting their breakthrough to the next stage [Meridian Refinement Stage].
So, they take an average of two years. However, in your case, if everything goes well, it should take you four years to break through and six more years after using several elixirs to catch up with my current level.
Therefore, just because of yesterday's accomplishment, you should not become content and lower your efforts. Your efforts will only need to increase from this point onwards, understand?"
Master Ru asked with seriousness.
"Yes, I understand," Yi Chen nodded with seriousness.
"Good. Now, before I go and explain to you the particular sequence you'll be following to break through to the Second Level, why don't you tell me all nine areas where the Qi points are concentrated?"
Master Ru asked. He wanted to check whether Yi Chen had gone through the manual's first few chapters thoroughly or not.
Yi Chen nodded and said while recalling.
"The nine areas where our Qi points are divided are as follows:
1. Head
2. Neck
3. Front Torso
4. Back Torso
5. Right Arm
6. Left Arm
7. Nether Region
8. Right Leg
9. Left Leg
Each of these areas has forty Qi points in it, and in [Elementary Transformation Stage]'s each level, we are focusing on one particular area, opening all the forty Qi points in that area."
Master Ru nodded in a pleased manner.
"It's good that you're taking this just as seriously as I am. As you have just said, we are focusing on specific areas during each of the nine levels. So, can you tell me which area we'll be focusing on for the first level?" Master Ru asked.
"It's the Front Torso," Yi Chen answered without an ounce of doubt.
"Very well. So let me make you more familiar with the opening sequence then. After the first point is opened, your next focus should be on…" Master Ru began explaining the entire sequence Yi Chen needed to follow to open the other 39 Qi points located in the front part of his torso.
He had planned to keep repeating it in morning classes until Yi Chen had fully opened all forty points so that he became extremely familiar with the sequence.
While this was happening, Feng Yu was sitting in a lotus position in her personal training hall. Her forehead was creased, and the beads of sweat on it kept trickling down her neck.
Unlike yesterday, her breathing was also quite rough, and she was trying her best to circulate the cold Qi in her body while resisting the push from the fire Qi that resided inside her.
It was only after an hour that she opened her eyes, which were filled with confusion and exhaustion.
'Why is my Qi suddenly reacting more vigorously?' She asked herself in confusion as no answer seemed to arrive in her mind.
She had been using [Frost Purity Arts] as a means to calm and control the boisterous fire Qi within her all these years. It provided her the ability to go about the rest of her day without seething in pain caused by her fire Qi's fiery nature.
'Is the time period of Qi backlash suddenly shrinking? ...but why now?' Feng Yu couldn't help but think with concern. Normally, there would still be a few months left for it, but now she wasn't very sure.
With anxiety and frustration filling her mind, she pushed her tired body off the ground and made her way back to her quarters as a part of her desperately hoping that her conjecture was wrong.