Chương 24: Profound Truths of Qi

In the garden pavilion of Lin Yi's courtyard. Lin Yi was deep in meditation as he started to familiarize himself with the content of the Locking Yang Nourishing Art. To cultivate this extraordinary immortal art, several meridians were needed. One of the 12 Standard Meridians and three of the 8 Extraordinary Meridians. In these meridians, special Qi circulations and Qi constructs needed to be formed.

These pathways differed from the normal ones in the Classic of Qi Refinement Art in that they were not basic Qi constructs based on the whole meridians, which were the simplest solid Qi form. In fact, the meridians' spiritual nature allowed such constructions to form relatively easily, but they would also contain all the meridians' functions. The solid Qi forms needed for the immortal art were different.

The Qi circulation pathways, or Qi constructs, should have only the necessary characteristics for their intended task. Advanced cultivation methods often used these specialized solid Qi forms too. The four meridians used for the Locking Yang Nourishing Art were the already known Kidney Meridian, the Penetrating Vessel, the Belt Vessel, and the Governing Vessel. Additionally, the cultivator's primordial yang was naturally also needed. The Kidney Meridian's abilities were already known.

It was deeply connected with one of the three Splendors, the Essence. It could govern birth, growth, development, reproduction, and aging. Furthermore, it produces marrow, nourishes bones, supports the brain, and governs water metabolism. All that was needed for the longevity part of the immortal art. The Kidney Meridian also had the function of anchoring Qi, which was needed for locking the primordial yang.

The meridian also helped sense and gather primordial yang and normal leaking yang qi, as it was associated with Innate Qi. Next was the Penetrating Vessel, also called Chong Mai. While it was called a vessel, it was still a meridian. It originated deep within the lower abdomen and connected it with the chest. It regulated menstruation, which was not really important for Lin Yi, and influenced reproduction, as well as the 12 Standard Meridians.

But its most important ability for the Locking Yang Nourishing Art was that it could act as a reservoir for Qi and Blood. The third meridian was the Belt Vessel, or Dai Mai. As its name suggested, it traveled approximately horizontally around the waist, like a belt, and unlike most other meridians, which ran vertically. It bound the vertical meridians together, stabilized the waist and lower abdomen, regulated Qi flow between the upper and lower body, and influenced reproductive and pelvic function.

The immortal art had, due to these functions of the meridian, a reputation among the more proactive members of the sect. But in fact, the most needed characteristic of the Belt Vessel was its binding and stabilizing forces. These were used for locking the primordial yang. The last meridian was the Governing Vessel, known as Du Mai. It ran from the midline of the back and spine, towards the head and over it. The Governing Vessel functioned as the sea of the yang meridians.

It could govern the yang channels, coordinate yang qi, and strongly influence the spine, brain, and marrow. It also connected with the kidneys as well as supported the defensive and active yang functions. It was an important base for the immortal art. To construct special Qi circulations and Qi constructs with distinct meridian characteristics, one first needed to comprehend the meridians more deeply. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

To build the Qi forms, cultivators did not yet need to understand the characteristics' meanings truly. Mere spirituality would not be enough for that. Only with a divine soul and divine sense could one touch upon these mysteries. But there was, naturally, a different way found through human ingenuity. To be clear, the human in human ingenuity did not mean it was limited or invented by the human race. The word human represents the whole human dao, and not merely one species.

Meridians were spiritual organs made out of special Qi derived from one's Innate Qi. Their special characteristics arose from the evolution of the human body and the transformative nature of Qi. In their deepest essence, meridians were solid Qi constructs forged into form with profound truths of the dao. Outwardly, these truths were unseen by spirituality and could only be peered at by higher spiritual senses.

But even for spirituality, these truths, mostly known as the characteristics of the meridians, could be interpreted in the form of patterns. Looking at meridians from the perspective of spirituality or Internal Sight, one would see that they are made of these Qi patterns. Each meridian and characteristic had different patterns. Naturally, for those without divine sense, it was nearly impossible to assign the patterns to their characteristics. Luckily, the older generations did that for them already.

The Locking Yang Nourishing Art contained template images for the patterns of each meridian's characteristic. And while, for every living being, the patterns were never exactly the same, the templates could help in finding the correct ones. For example, every meridian had the characteristic of transporting Qi and thus had Qi patterns for that characteristic.

It was just that the flow and efficiency of the transport were not good enough, so cultivators created Qi circulation pathways, which allowed more efficient, and importantly automatic, Qi flow. Normal Qi circulation pathways were created by Qi circulating among and across the desired meridian and direction. In time, the Qi circulating among these pathways would solidify into acquired spiritual organs or Qi constructs. Lin Yi experienced this for the Kidney and Heart Meridian once.

However, these pathways would possess all the characteristics of the meridian, as was intended in the Classic of Qi Refinement. But if one wanted only the ability of Qi flow, or others, then one had to understand which Qi pattern of the meridian was responsible for that ability, and replicate only this pattern into a new Qi construct. Of course, since one did not comprehend the true meaning, one couldn't create the new construct in any part of the body, but needed to do it in the meridian.

The meridian would then harmonize and use its profound truths to power the new Qi construct. From then on, one could expand the Qi construct towards outside the meridian. The combination of these characteristics would determine how most immortal arts worked. Lin Yi understood this relatively well, as the basics were already taught in the Valley of Immortal Seedlings. Now, he had to understand as well how the Locking Yang Nourishing Art used this and other characteristics.

Firstly, he had to know and organize which characteristics of the four meridians were needed and find his own personal Qi patterns for each of them. From the Kidney Meridian, all characteristics were needed for the immortal art, so Lin Yi had to differentiate and understand each of them. From the Penetrating Vessel, only the characteristics of the reservoir of Qi and Blood were needed. The Belt Vessel had the important abilities to bind, stabilize, and regulate Qi. The rest were unimportant.

The Governing Vessel had, too, most of its characteristics used for the extraordinary immortal art. The Locking Yang Nourishing Art was divided into three stages of completion, similar to the stages of the Qi Condensation Realm. They were Initial Beginning, Minor Completion, and Grand Completion. To cultivate the art, one did not at first sense one's primordial yang, as one might expect, but instead had to create the storage and container for it. This storage container was a Qi construct, not unlike a dantian.

It was responsible for storing and locking the primordial yang, so that it wouldn't be tainted or leak away. It could be considered a new artificial spiritual organ, named Primordial Yang Elixir. The Primordial Yang Elixir was formed in the Penetrating Vessel. The meridian's pattern, with the characteristic of acting as a reservoir of Qi and Blood, also called the sea of blood, was used as a blueprint to create the storage characteristics of the Primordial Yang Elixir.

The primordial yang would be bound to the Primordial Yang Elixir, and as the former did grow stronger and stronger, the latter would do the same. The elixir's storage and container capacity would continue to increase. Additionally, from the Kidney Meridian, Belt Vessel, and Governing Vessel, Qi circulations will be expended and added into the Primordial Yang Elixir to strengthen the locking ability further.

The patterns of the anchoring Qi, and association with Innate Qi of the Kidney Meridian; binding of the vertical meridians, stabilizing the waist and abdomen, and regulating Qi of the Belt Vessel; and coordinating yang qi, and supporting the defensive and active yang function of the Governing Vessel will be combined into the essence of the Primordial Yang Elixir to 'imprison' the primordial yang.

Once this was finished, the Primordial Yang Elixir could be said to be completed, and with it the stage of Initial Beginning.