Chương 12: Opening Gates

Advance and Retreat were the exercises the next morning. Carefully stepping forward, heel first, arms flowing forward. Then, sliding the rear leg back while the hips stayed square and one stayed in full control. The exercises were significantly more involved than the ones they had done the previous days, as more muscle groups were activated.

Jianyi enjoyed them a lot, and the link to his spear forms was even clearer than with the other movements—and the lingering regret about not being able to work with his spear was gone by now. Between their training sessions, they spent some time maintaining the fence around the compound. It wasn't really in disrepair, but he assumed everything looked pristine because it was maintained before it became necessary.

It added to his exhaustion, as it was quite strenuous work if your legs were still shaking from hundreds of repeated movements. Minghao seemed amused by the occasional sighs but showed little mercy during the afternoon session. Jianyi did not complain. But once they were done, he did take a quick catnap to prepare himself for the next attack on his gates.

He settled into his cultivation chamber and focused on his qi. Carefully, he tried to separate it into two parts. At first, he failed, but as he shifted from slicing at it like a loaf of bread to coaxing it gently, as one might lure a shy puppy from its hiding place, a small sliver of qi slowly took form, separating from the still small but larger piece.

Now, as he directed the sliver to one of the channels leading to and from his lower dantian, it worked smoothly—no weakness spread—instead, he managed to follow the golden glow as it traveled through his body. The channel he had picked at random flowed through his right leg all the way to his feet and back up. The fascinating part was that he saw both open gates that connected to these pathways. He could even see the minuscule trickles of qi entering his body continuously.

They were too small to lighten the channels by themselves, but as he flew through them with his sliver of qi, he gathered them up, leading to a small increase in its size. As he continued, now through his left leg, he immediately saw the difference with his gate on his thigh. Where an open gate looked like a golden membrane that allowed qi to flow in but nothing to leave, the clogged meridian was a dark spot that blocked not only the membrane itself but also partially the pathway leading to it.

He felt revulsion as he got closer to the impurities and tried to steer the sliver of qi away from it as far as possible. He shuddered at the thought that this was in him, a part of him of which he had been unaware until a few days ago. The picture was similar in all the meridians he visited on his slow journey through his body. While the gates in his arms seemed harmless, those near his stomach, lungs, and heart sat dangerously close to these vital organs.

The idea of rupturing his neck while opening his gates was disturbing, too. Not that that would stop him from progressing, though. Just a risk that needed to be dealt with. The inspection of his body also made him more determined than ever to clear all meridians. Both because of the looming threat of the test, and he didn't want these impurities to remain in his body indefinitely. Happy with his progress, Jianyi went to bed rereading the scroll again, this time focusing on the actual technique to open the gates.

According to the manuscript, his left thigh gate was next, and he looked forward to making his first true attempt within a day or two.

"Today, we will focus on a single movement: Turn. It is a critical component, especially for sweeps and slashing forms." Minghao pivoted on the rear foot and rotated his body as one, his arms leading the way. Jianyi felt reasonably comfortable with the movement but acknowledged that it was more complex than most of the others. It took quite a while until Minghao was satisfied with his progress. Towards the end, he also made him change the rhythm of the movement, accelerating and slowing down randomly.

Jianyi was exhausted after the training, but he felt as if the few days under Minghao's guidance had already helped him strengthen his body further. It was time to do the same with his spirit. He would make his first attempt at opening a gate that evening.

After training in the morning, he had agreed with Minghao that he would attempt a gate opening that day, so after his errand, he returned to his room, disrobed, taking the advice from Elder Sun to heart, and sat down in the cultivation chamber right away. He had the pill bottle he had received from the elder beside him as well. He had memorized the pattern for moving qi through his pathways, so he felt decently prepared and ready to start unlocking his potential, as the librarian had called it.

As a first step, he separated a part of the qi in his lower dantian. This time, however, he didn't just take a sliver but did the opposite. He left a sliver in his dantian and moved the larger part through his channels. The idea was that more volume would strike the impurities harder and therefore increase his chance of succeeding. He circulated the qi a couple of times throughout his body for practice.

The day before, he had not tried to accelerate the qi to its maximum, so he wanted to get a feeling for that before starting in earnest. To cleanse the meridian in his thigh, he was supposed to cycle the qi two times from lower dantian to stomach, to neck, and back, and on the second return, shoot all the way to his leg. That part was relatively simple; the tricky part was hitting the gate and doing it in a way that would limit the damage to the adjacent pathways.

Jianyi took a deep breath, centered the qi he was manipulating in his lower dantian, and began. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. The first loop went without a hitch; he moved through the channels effortlessly. On the second loop, he briefly wavered and almost missed the exit to his leg. Instead of continuing, he slowed down, returned the qi to his dantian, and took a couple of breaths.

This was too important to brute force it and taking a few minutes to get it right was the smart choice. He tried again, and it went well. He felt in control, he neared his leg, he knew where the meridian was, he smashed the bundle of qi against the gate and felt a sharp, severe pain, as if a spear had ripped right through his leg. He struggled to breathe as the pain threatened to overwhelm him. Still, he managed to focus on his internal world. While he moved the qi back to his dantian, he assessed the meridian.

At first glance, not much had changed. The impurities were still in place, the gate closed. Despair threatened to take hold at his failure, but he took a deep breath and controlled himself. He focused on the gate and looked closer. There were thin cracks in the impurities. Was there still a chance? He did not wait for luck to decide his fate. Jianyi grabbed the bundle of qi again and moved it to his thigh.

Instead of smashing it, he just slowly brushed by the impurities, overcoming the revulsion he felt despite the strong urge to vomit. A small piece of impurities broke free and was swept away together with the qi. Again! He directed the qi through his dantian, back to his leg. This time, a larger piece broke free and, just like a house of cards, led the rest to tumble from the gate as well. Success! He could see the membrane of the gate and some tiny bits and pieces of qi entering his body.

As he returned the qi to his dantian, he brought large parts of the impurities with him, and he got physically sick. Quickly, he grabbed the pill bottle he had gotten from Elder Sun, removed a single yellow pill, and swallowed it dry. It dissipated on the way down his throat, and he could feel an intense warmth spreading through his body. At the same time, the feeling of sickness, of wrongness, still increased as the impurities floated through his channels and dantian.

He struggled to remain focused and decided that things were out of his hands now, so he lay down and let the pill do its work. The warmth increased to heat, and with the heat came sweat. It wasn't the usual clear, slightly salty sweat, though. Instead, it was dark and grimy, and the stench was almost unbearable. Instead of being sick from the impurities inside his meridian pathways, he was now ill from the stench of his body. The heat continued for a few more minutes, then abated.

He felt deeply exhausted but managed to get up and shuffle into his bathroom, favoring his left leg, where he scrubbed himself clean from head to toe. He could already see the first symptoms of bruises on his thigh that would form and accompany him for a few days at least. Despite the unpleasant task, a small smile formed on his lips—he had made it, his first gate opened. Sitting in the shower, he once again looked into his spirit, and slowly the smile vanished. His pathways looked…

raw, as if a grater had been put to use. This, in combination with the severe pain in his leg, must be the reason why Elder Sun had recommended two weeks between attempts. If the pathways wouldn't fully recover, it also explained why every subsequent attempt was harder—and fewer open gates at birth limited one's potential. He could not imagine stressing his pathways in any way while they were in this state. The more time passed, the more uncomfortable his leg felt.

Sloppily drying himself off, he hopped to his bed on one leg and fell into a fitful sleep that was interrupted by jolts of pain in his leg.

Jianyi woke from a knock on his door. He wanted to jump out of bed, but a sharp pain in his leg held him back.

"Come in!" he yelled weakly. It was Minghao, with a tray of breakfast ready for him.

"Your face tells a story of a painful opening attempt," the retainer said.

"Did you succeed?" Jianyi nodded with a pained smile.

"I did. I managed to open one gate! But now I understand why it is considered hard."

"Congratulations, it is indeed not a simple matter." He poured them both some tea and handed one cup to Jianyi.

"To many more successes on your path of cultivation."

"Thank you! I really appreciate what you and Elder Sun are doing for me. The martial arts training is more than I ever could have hoped for, and even though it is just a single gate, it feels like I am making meaningful progress." Minghao grinned.

"I am glad you feel that way. I am having a good time, too. I am sure the elder will be happy to hear about your breakthrough. I bet you would love to brag to your friends back in town about it, right?" Jianyi shrugged.

"I don't really have friends. There were always more important things to do." The retainer raised an eyebrow and grunted.

"I was never a very gregarious guy, either, but if I think about my time on the frontlines, the one thing that made it all bearable, the only reason why I have a few fond memories, was the friends with whom I went through it," Minghao paused.

"Now that I think about it, the same is true for the first few years in the sect. Though we have all gone our separate ways by now, these are still the people that I know would have my back no matter what." Jianyi nodded. Minghao snorted.

"Anyway, don't rush your recovery. It will come back to haunt you if you do."

Jianyi spent the next day largely in bed, just getting up for some very light stretching. But the day after was the first day he would run an errand outside their home on his own. It was just a short one, to the library on their peak, but he was looking forward to it, nonetheless. First, he collected the three scrolls that Elder Sun needed him to return, stowed them in a satchel, then he hobbled off down the path to the square where the library for the inner disciples was located.

As he did his best imitation of running up the stairs to the library, a trio of young cultivators, a man and two women, were exiting the building. Only with a last-second application of Retreat, did he manage not to run into them with force, but he still bumped into one of them.

"Watch where you are running!" the woman, rather short, with green eyes, exclaimed. She looked at his plain clothes.

"Are you even a sect member?" Jianyi was slightly taken aback by the ferociousness with which the question was delivered, but nodded politely.

"My apologies. I am just dropping something off."

"Show some respect and address me as 'disciple' or 'elder sister'." That was indeed another thing that Minghao had mentioned, and Jianyi should have been more attentive—the reaction of the young woman had taken him by surprise, though. The disciple was close to continuing her tirade when the other woman, similar height but much darker skin and brown eyes, intervened.

"Leave him be, Ruolan; he is likely very new and just doing his job." The other woman muttered something under her breath and moved on, while the young man chuckled and followed her. The disciple intervening on his behalf nodded to him.

"Nice movement there, but it needs a bit more practice," she said with a wink. Jianyi bowed in thanks for the acknowledgement and her brief kindness before stepping into the library. In the small foyer, a large counter barred people from entering without registering first with the librarians manning it. Behind them, he could see into a large open space with too many shelves full of scrolls and books to count. The floors above could be seen as they consisted of broad balconies that held more scrolls.

From his position, he could see four floors, each smaller than the one below. Jianyi had never seen so many books in one place—or even altogether in his life. The knowledge and techniques available were mind-blowing to him. His thoughts wandered to some of the lingering questions that stayed on his mind after his first gate opening.

"What can I do for you?" one of the librarians, an older man with short hair and wrinkles that marked him as a mortal, asked, pulling him back to the present. Jianyi bowed slightly.

"Apologies, I am here to return three scrolls on behalf of Elder Sun. Can you help me?"

"Certainly, that is why I am here," the librarian chuckled.

"Just hand them over." After Jianyi had done so but didn't make any move to leave, the librarian asked.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"Mhh, I don't know. This is only for inner disciples, right?"

"Inner and core disciples and elders, of course, yes."

"Do you know, by chance, whether the library for outer disciples has any information about meridian gate openings?" The old librarian snorted, not to have to laugh out loud.

"It most certainly does. There aren't that many topics that hold more relevance for young cultivators. Even though these days many come with their gates already open, it is still a priority for the sect to make sure all potential is unlocked." Jianyi bobbed his head in thanks.

"Thank you for your guidance."

"Yes, yes, tell me, are you working directly with Elder Sun, or are you just a messenger?" the man asked quietly.

"I am his student and servant," Jianyi replied. The old man bowed rigidly.

"Please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you, disciple."