When one devoted oneself wholeheartedly to cultivation, time passed the fastest.
Even Zhang Tie had not noticed when the leg that had been broken under torture had completely healed.
Advancing from level nine to level ten required igniting twenty-one bright points. These twenty-one bright points were scattered throughout the body. Sometimes, Zhang Tie felt that igniting bright points was less like cultivation and more like using some special method to decipher an extraordinarily advanced safe.
The entire human body was a safe with 987-digit keys. The first 34 digits of this safe's combination were very simple, but the remaining 953 became complex, almost impossible to crack.
At first, Zhang Tie had thought there would be some pattern to the order in which bright points were ignited. Only later did he realize there was no pattern at all. Or rather, for the safe that was the human body, every bright point had a purpose and significance beyond ordinary understanding. Behind each one seemed to lie a special component; together, they formed the human body, the most precise machine of creation. Not one could be missing.
The purpose of cultivation manuals, it seemed, was to tell people how to reassemble this precise machine according to a particular method and sequence, inject it with the energy it required, and then start it up once more—this was Zhang Tie's understanding.
For the ninth bright point, Zhang Tie ignited one on the bone beneath the nail of his left little toe.
For the tenth bright point, Zhang Tie ignited one on a small triangular bone inside his right ear.
For the eleventh bright point, Zhang Tie ignited one in the region of his liver, followed by one in his throat, one atop his skull, then several near his qi sea. After that,