The medicinal liquid entered his stomach, and Jian Ren hastily used his mind to guide the medicinal energy throughout his body, allowing it to merge into his bones.
Normal martial artists would let the medicinal energy assimilate inside the Dantian in order to absorb it, and only later would they spread it throughout their body. However, Jian Ren didn't have a Spirit Root; thus, his Dantian was completely empty and had no way to store energy.
The only thing he could do was to allow the medicinal energy to scatter into every cell. Although this medicinal liquid was formed only from ordinary medicinal herbs, it displayed a surprisingly remarkable medicinal effect after going through Jian Ren's pairings and proportions.
As the medicinal energy rushed throughout his body, countless pores opened up. It was as if every single cell had been in a state of starvation as they all began to crazily absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
BOOM!
A muffled explosion came from within Jian Ren's body. His originally sealed meridians were all forced open and Jian Ren couldn't stop himself from letting out a muffled groan.
When others cultivated, they would use the Dantian's qi in order to gradually open up their meridians in a step-by-step manner which would not cause any pain.
However, Jian Ren couldn't do so; he could only borrow an outer energy source. This energy was like the ocean's water flowing into a river field; its violent and ferocious nature wasn't something that just anybody could withstand.
"This pain… I will definitely remember this pain." Jian Ren gnashed his teeth. If it weren't for some vicious person stealing his Spirit Root, how could he have been forced to choose such a crazy method?
BANG BANG BANG!
Continuous explosions echoed out from his body as his meridians opened up one by one. Every time a meridian channel was opened, intense pain would wreck his body.
When all his meridians were finally opened, Jian Ren fell into a coma again.
Jian Ren found himself in a dark place once again, but this time he can see his body clearly even though there was no source of light present there. Jian Ren, clearly having no idea how he ended up there, felt scared and couldn't help but ask himself if he was back in a dream.
"How do I get out of here? Should I just wait till I wake up naturally? ...Since I'm here, I may as well walk around and check this place out."
After being in the dark place for a couple of minutes now, Jian Ren's eyes start to adapt to the darkness and could see things more clearly. Looking around in all directions, he found a pale glow of lights coming from one position and decided to walk towards it; trying to find out what it was. While walking towards the pale glow, Jian Ren observed some changes to the dark sky.
"What are those faint streaks of light in the sky? I've never heard of phenomena like this before, guess I'm definitely in a dream."
There were silver and grey faint streaks of light in the sky, which would fade away into darkness and then appear again. Thousands of them could be seen, as if they were dancing in a mysterious harmonic pattern. After a few minutes, Jian Ren reached the source of the pale glow that he observed from far. Finally seeing the object - he found it to be an tightly bound scroll, but it was made up of faint glowing runes and was surrounded by mysterious scripts which were floating in the air; forming the shape of a circle around the scroll, not having a physical presence itself.
"Those runes and scriptures look similar to the ones that were carved on the outside of the ancestral temple of Wu Lim city. But aren't they used by cultivators to make qi formations? Why would they appear in my dream?"
Jian Ren still remembered when he visited Wu Lim city with his father during the New Year's festival two years ago. His father brought him to the ancestral temple to pay their respects, but commoners could not go inside the temple, so they paid their obeisance from outside. He remembered his father finding him staring at the carvings on the ancestral temple. His father explained that those carvings were used to create qi formation by qi cultivators, which were used for various things such as fortifying, strengthening, offence, defence and many more.
As Jian Ren approached the scroll, the various runes and scriptures became more vibrant. Feeling an urge to touch it, Jian Ren grabbed the scroll and found it to be solid even though it had no physical body. A moment later he felt a sharp pain in his head, then felt a rush of information in his brain; mysterious chants filled his mind, creating an imprint in it.
"The Nine Paths of Heaven's Way, assimilate the essence of the nine paths, understand a million hearts as one and ascend the path of the great cosmos."
As soon as the chants stopped in his mind Jian Ren found himself back in his room. For a moment, his eyes lost focus and he remembered where he was. Checking his body and finding everything normal, he tried to remember the chants that filled his mind; only able to remember one part of them. He tried to remember the rest of the chants but felt as if there was a fog obscuring his memories.
"I can only remember the first part: The Heaven's path Sutra. Should I recite it? There should be no harm in trying..."
Jian Ren started chanting the heaven's path sutra. At first, he felt nothing, but after completing the first chant he felt a pulling feeling spreading all over his body; as if something was beckoning him. This incredible feeling lasted a couple of minutes before fading away and the normal sense of self returned to Jian Ren.
"What was that feeling? What was reacting with the heaven's path scripture so strongly? I felt an overwhelming need to get whatever it was."
Reciting the chant once again, Jian Ren felt the pulling feeling trying to drag his body. This time he tried to sense the waves of energy that were moving in his muscles. As he focused on the waves of energy, they intensified and then he the direction in which the object was beckoning to.
"Hmm?"
As Jian Ren kept sensing, his longing for whatever it was that was calling him got even more intense, his blood started bubbling and rushing and it sounded like a mighty river.
Suddenly
BANG!!!
"I've broken through?!"
"Haha, I broke through to the fourth stage of body tempering! What luck, two breakthroughs in one day!
"This chant used the intense longing I felt in order to stimulate my blood as well as they medicinal liquid I took earlier in order to forcefully break my limits and make me achieve a double breakthrough."
Thinking that he may be able to fulfil his long-lost dream of becoming a qi cultivator one day, he felt excitement he had not felt ever before and all the feelings of sadness and despair he felt from before was washed away.
"If I become a cultivator, I'll be able to buy back the jewellery my mother sold and I will no longer have to live with my head down! I'll be able to walk proudly with my head held high."
Jian Ren looked inside his body and frowned
"Although I've forcibly opened my meridians, my useless Dantian is still unable to hold the true qi. When I fight with others, there's no way I can keep it up for more than a few moments. This still isn't good enough."