Over the next few hours, I try the same process again three more times.
Once my dantian is filled with raw white qi, I forcefully push all five elements out, and try to cycle them together.
This exact pattern and order of elements is the only one that works.
Wood must produce fire, fire must produce earth, earth must produce metal, metal must produce water, and water must produce wood to continue the cycle.
My following attempts go better than the first, as I'm far more confident in the process.
Even when the mixed five elements of qi take on a brownish tint of impurities, I still manage to complete the full loop a few times on my last try.
I've used up all of my heavenly grade marrow cleansing elixirs, and don't wish to attempt this again without a surefire way to clear out my meridians at the end of it.
Instead, while the red milk fruit's enchantment is still holding my body together with such a sturdy base, I practice my element control separately, focusing on the cracking bottleneck around my spirit roots.
I manage to get a solid 15 sessions in, refilling and expelling full dantians worth of qi to mature my roots faster.
I find that the small select group of meridians and acupoints I stimulated directly around my chest to do my tests earlier allow for a much faster and smoother qi flow.
It may be that the marrow cleansing pills still have a lingering aftereffect, or one possibility that stays behind is the thought that not only can my spirit roots mature, but the meridian pathways that carry qi can too.
By the time morning comes, my bottleneck becomes brittle like glass.
My spirit roots are so inflamed from being overworked, I don't even need a pill or extra fruit to push me over the edge.
With the natural qi coming from the floor, I refill my dantian for the final time, and break into the mid stage of level 6.
I collect my upgrade cards for the day, eat a healing elixir, and begin my daily routine of bathing and resting.
–
5 full weeks pass by.
Lan Xin stops by once a week to hand off the collected spirit stones from my mines, and every other week she brings extra items from the spirit herb peak auctions.
Soul Metal from nearby clans starts to become less common, so not many spirit stones can be used on unique materials some weeks.
The remaining 18 foundational fragment supply is used up, so I give her another 30 to spend.
I already had almost three hundred looted from the wedding, and now over two hundred more from the illusory demon's attack. I can't use them for cultivation myself, so their only source of value for me is to be spent.
With the added spirit veins around the lake, there are now 107 streams of constant income, bringing in over 720,000 spirit stones per week, already accounting for the leakage from the slightly flawed black flag harvesting arrays.
Lan Xin drops off 650,000 per week, and when there are no interesting soul materials or enchanted goods to buy, I have her purchase up the stock of high grade element stones, high grade spirit fruits, and high grade assorted pills from Lingshi City just to have on hand.
It leaves my Li General Shop as one of the only reliable vendors to always have high grade consumables constantly in stock.
When even these items become scarce, she spends the rest of the budget on more black flag harvesting arrays from the Lin Clan. They only rest unused in my storage for now, but I can never have enough now that I have access to hundreds more inferior grade veins.
We do not cross paths in the outside world, only messaging through communication talismans and dropoffs outside my abode.
When she drops off a few milk fruits from the auctions, I place an extra heavenly grade firestone in her payment ring the following week.
It makes for a very productive training session.
I collected over 210 upgrade cards during this period.
A large portion of them go toward healing elixirs and marrow cleansing pills.
Another portion goes toward upgrading all of the enchanted talismans Meng Ruo crafted for me, to have an arsenal of defenses and offenses that can be useful against foundation establishment cultivators.
The rest, counting over a hundred, sit in my storage unused.
My focus over these 5 weeks has been entirely consumed moving back and forth from the center of my 5 element cultivation array to my rematch simulator. Over 3,000,000 spirit stones are spent battling 9th level blood demons. I still leave a few hundred thousand spirit stones as a buffer in my storage at all times.
On average, I've eaten one heavenly grade milk fruit every 4 days.
I start every session by practicing my new self-made 5 element qi control technique.
I do not use the same meridians every time. I slowly try out the merging points in all 360 major acupoints, using the meridians in my shoulders, waist, arms, legs, and even get into the smallest, most fragile meridians in my fingers and toes by the end.
At the middle of every session, I focus on pure root maturity growth, and at the end I challenge the next minor bottleneck.
This is followed by a day of healing and rest.
Then, it is followed by two straight days inside the rematch simulator.
I am becoming proficient enough to kill 9th level blood demons consistently with my bare hands.
The lingering effects of consuming red milk fruits have seeped into my body and physique. My Martial Grandmaster Physique is settling into place with more weight, and I'm being filled with a natural vitality that is strengthening my actual flesh, bones, and blood.
My increasing qi cultivation efficiency makes it possible to toy with 9th level blood demons as easily as I could 7th level blood demons weeks ago.
At the end of our matches, I do not kill them straight away.
Instead, I take the time within the simulator to practice my 5 element qi cultivation technique.
I do not have as stable meridians without the body reinforcement's active enchantment, but inside this simulated chamber, I'm not worried when my meridians shatter, or I lose a limb or two from merged pathways gone wrong.
I can even try pulling in raw qi from the air into my dantian while simultaneously trying to cycle elemental qi throughout my body.
There is no way to bring silver needles into the rematch simulator, so I have to manually force my meridians to overlap on acupoints.
This is possible to do with pure physical force, controlling the muscles in my body, and even straining tension points on my Martial Grandmaster physique.
There is a tough learning curve, one that I don't think would be possible to achieve outside.
This is because the first few dozen tries often ended in blocked meridians that brutally explode or tear. Another common result is bending too many meridians together creating the opposite direction energy flows colliding and causing horrible full body explosions that kill me.
After enough tries, it's also allowed me to find the easiest pathways to execute these kinds of trials, and actually succeed with small amounts of qi at a time.
It allows me to test out riskier versions over and over until I can get the technique right.
Eventually I find a balance in the largest, most sturdy meridians, practicing enough times to build up the proficiency to try outside of the simulator.
I'm able to go from a completely still resting state of pure white qi in my dantian, push it out through all five of my roots, cycle it around the meridians in my torso a few times, then carefully untether the connected pathways from each other.
When the cycle is broken, there is only one direction this elemental qi can flow, outward. They are released from my hands, feet, or other obscure less optimal release points
With all of this constant practice, I easily break into the late, then perfected stage of a level 6 qi refiner after a total of 11 heavenly grade milk fruits.
There are now over 300 stacked perfect grade blood demon physiques mirrored into my blood soul dagger again.
Meimei has stopped eating all of the soul metal I give her; in fact, she's become a picky eater and quite lethargic.
The little fox doesn't even go near the tier 2 soul jade from the illusory demons I try to give her.
She curls up and cultivates near me sometimes, but often just sleeps deep in the metal portion of the cultivation array.
She's at the perfected stage of level 6, facing her first major bottleneck that won't pop easily on its own. Her soul nourishing physique is also stuck at the mid stage.
Little Red does not face any issues. His mood stays very content.
His 4th level of qi refining has allowed him to absorb the pure fire coming up from this array much faster than before.
I watch as he nurtures his natural flame physique from the initial stage back to the perfected stage three more times.
The instant it hits the highest stage, the little toad sacrifices it.
However, it doesn't trigger his rise in qi cultivation levels like it did the first time.
Instead, a pure red flame fragment is created, and it disappears into his body.
The little toad has three consolidated perfected mortal grade natural flame fragments sitting inside him, but he does not feel any stronger than the day he hit the 4th level of qi refining.
He is planning something.
Little Red now sits at the late stage of this natural flame physique again, pulling in flames from the array, peacefully watching me cultivate.
Every time I send a thought of curiosity his way, or inquire if he needs any resources from the outside world, the toad brushes me off with a croak and replies that he is content.
The cooldown on my enlightenment talisman usage has worn off again, but I'm waiting for a call from Lingshi City… Any day now, the Mu Patriarch could be back with the artifacts I need to finally progress with my acquired physique.
–
During my final session in the rematch simulator today, I put everything I've been practicing to the test.
This sandy unknown arena surrounded by golden mist has become very familiar, and the 9th level blood demons I've been battling are like sparring partners I've practiced with hundreds of times.
I begin cycling a very tame version of my Jade Purity Soul Scripture to get the raw qi in my dantian to push its way through my roots, then begin practicing my crude 5 element qi control technique to keep a small amount of elemental qi cycling through a few of the larger, most mature meridians.
At the same time, I successfully dodge the first incoming blood sword headed at my neck.
A smile forms on my face as I see an easy opening I've used to kill this demon dozens of times before.
With my strength, a single punch in its physique's minor soul fluctuation is enough to end the battle right now.
Instead, I spin around and raise a hand.
Five major meridians in my torso tremble all at once, as I release my internal grip on their merging points.
A rush of elemental qi surges through my body untamed.
In less than a second, semi-pure fire qi courses through my right shoulder, down my arm, and flows out without having to stimulate my dantian or spirit roots at all.
A massive dark red Martial Fireball filled with burnt wood qi forms in my palm and bursts forward to explode into the blood demon's back.
The man is sent flying from the impact, and half its skin and muscles are burned off.
I run forward and finish the demon off with my bare fists as usual, but cannot stop grinning as I do so.
There was almost no wasted time between the thought of activating my spell and the moment where I channeled fire qi out of my palm.
I've just reverse engineered instant spell casting, something that may be impossible to qi refiners without a single spirit root, or a specialized elemental physique.
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Author's Note:
One chapter of Five Element Overlord will be posted every weekday: M,T,W,TH,F.
If you'd like to support me, and read 45+ chapters ahead of the public release schedule, my patreon is linked in my bio:)
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