The only source of natural light in the little room was the triangular window at the foot of Zhang Tie's bed. Naturally, the attic window wasn't very big. It was all right during the day, but at night the room grew rather dim, just as it was now.
Relying on the faint light coming from outside and his familiarity with the room, Zhang Tie fumbled around until he lit the oil lamp. To save oil, he had turned the wick down as low as it would go, so once lit, it gave off only a soybean-sized flame that flickered beneath the glass. Still, at least the room now held a little light and warmth.
After lighting the lamp, Zhang Tie didn't take off his shoes. He flopped onto the bed and stared blankly at the room's pointed ceiling. In the dim light, he spotted what looked like a small spiderweb in one corner of a ceiling beam. Looking at the poor web, which might not catch a single flying insect for who knew how long, and the spider that had spun it, Zhang Tie was suddenly overcome by a sense of kindred misery.
The thudding of the bed downstairs in his brother's room became even clearer as Zhang Tie lay there, making it even harder for him to settle down and cultivate. He could only lie on the bed, bored and restless, tossing and turning with an itchy, miserable feeling in his heart. Eventually, he got so bored that he began counting the thuds from the bed below. When he passed seven hundred, the rhythm downstairs suddenly quickened. Then, a few dozen seconds later, everything fell silent. When the room below grew quiet, Zhang Tie let out a long breath. At last, some peace and quiet. Then he realized in horror that, at some point, his right hand had grabbed hold of the unruly fellow down below. It was stiff and hard as a rock now, and it seemed he had unconsciously been doing a fair bit of "manual single-cylinder piston exercise."
Could joining the Airplane Brotherhood have infected him with those guys' sleazy hobby?
Zhang Tie yanked his right hand out of his pants as if he'd touched a red-hot iron. He panted heavily for a good while before finally calming down. It might not have been a big deal to other people, but it was different for Zhang Tie. When he was twelve, his father had sat him down and spoken very seriously about this. His father had told him that the Hua Clan were naturally smaller than people of other races, and ordinary people had no physical advantage in the most important Warrior attributes: strength, speed, and stamina. In this era, differences in physical ability were often fatal, especially among low-ranking Battle Soldiers of levels one to three and those who had yet to become Warriors. Zhang Tie was well-developed for a member of the Hua Clan, but at school, he ranked in the lower-middle range for both height and physical strength. In the Airplane Brotherhood, he was only just about as tall as the fatty Barry and Shavin, but Barry was much broader and clearly stronger than Zhang Tie. The difference in physical ability between the Hua Clan and other races was pronounced before one became a true Warrior. Higher-ranking Warriors could eventually disregard these innate differences, but at the beginning, the gap was an uncrossable chasm.
His father had told him in no uncertain terms that, as a member of the Hua Clan in Black Flame City, if he wanted to close the physical gap with others and win himself a place in this era, the most important thing was to become a Battle Soldier as soon as possible and raise his Battle Soldier level. The higher his level, the smaller the gap would seem, and the wider his path ahead would be, giving him better odds of surviving. To become a level-one Battle Soldier and keep advancing in his profession, the most important thing was to pass the test of igniting Thought Fire within each Bright Point in his body. It was a hurdle everyone had to face, and in this era, where strength ruled and all races contended, it was the most important measure of a person's worth. To ignite Thought Fire in each Bright Point, one's physical condition was crucial. An act like "manual single-cylinder piston exercise," once it ended in a discharge, damaged a young person's body each time, draining away a great deal of energy and vital essence and making it harder to ignite Thought Fire, while leaving the body and mind more vulnerable.
"This is a slow process of suicide that's hardest to notice. So no matter what other people do, you must never pick up this habit. There are some secret tales about it among the Hua Clan: anyone who becomes obsessed with it not only damages his body, but also squanders his luck. His life will be full of misfortune!" That was the last thing his father had said. He had only breathed a sigh of relief after making Zhang Tie swear that he would never acquire such a bad habit...
Of course, according to his father, what had happened the previous night was a natural phenomenon known among young men as "an overflow of excess essence," and didn't cause serious harm to the body.
Remembering his father's warning, Zhang Tie quickly pulled his hand away and thought, That was close. I nearly broke my vow without even realizing it. He shuddered at the thought and took a while to calm down. Once he had settled, he sat up, walked to the window, and happened to see his brother walking away from their house with a woman. His brother had already put on his City Guard uniform and was escorting the woman home. From behind, she looked like the daughter of the tailor shop owner, Mr. Wang, who lived on their street.
Perhaps sensing someone watching, Zhang Tie's brother glanced back up at him and grinned, lifting his chin. Zhang Tie glared at him and shook a fist, then watched their backs disappear into the dim street.
A small dish of Crystal Sand sat on the windowsill, with an ordinary Double-Headed White Crystal nestled in it. The crystal was natural, though only just good enough to meet the standards for a low-grade, second-tier crystal. Left in the Crystal Sand on the windowsill, it could charge itself naturally. It was a bit like the things called batteries before the Great Cataclysm, but more useful. A second-tier Double-Headed White Crystal was nowhere near as valuable as the third-tier Pyramid Shadow Crystal Zhang Tie had sold that day, but it was the best cultivation material he could afford for now.
Holding the crystal, Zhang Tie took off his shoes and sat cross-legged on the bed in the lotus position, ignoring the strange smell from his feet. He placed both hands in front of his lower abdomen, aimed one end of the Double-Headed White Crystal at his navel, closed his eyes, and began to cultivate...
The cultivation process was simple and tedious. First, he slowed his breathing, making each breath long and steady. Then he let his spirit and thoughts follow the "breath" he drew into his mouth, guiding it downward by feel to his navel. He repeated this process over and over until he could sense the Bright Point called the Divine Palace at his navel. Once he felt it, he used his spirit and thoughts to "polish" it in rhythm with his breathing, fixing his gaze on it like a fly on rotten meat. One day, "flames" would kindle within the Bright Point, igniting Thought Fire. That was the sign of becoming a level-one Battle Soldier, and it was also the mark of "adulthood" for everyone in this era.
In this era, if a man couldn't even ignite Thought Fire in the most basic Bright Point, the Divine Palace, he was more or less on a par with the crippled and the feeble-minded. That was the law of survival in the Black Iron Era.
To Zhang Tie, the Bright Point at his navel was like gold buried beneath the sand, and his meditative state was like a broom, sweeping away the sand to reveal it. His thoughts were like sandpaper, rubbing and polishing the gold until it shone smooth and bright. One day, just as friction from drilling wood could start a fire, the Bright Point would heat up and catch fire. Then he would succeed...
The cultivation method was taught at school, starting in primary school, and was free to learn. According to the schoolteachers, the Bright Points were humanity's greatest secret. Other than the visible Bright Point called the Divine Palace at the navel, all the other Bright Points in the human body were hidden. Without meeting certain conditions, they could not be sensed at all. As for exactly how many Bright Points the human body contained and what the mysterious ones did, no one could fully explain even now. How to discover and sense more Bright Points in the body, and how to cultivate them faster, were secrets everywhere, for everyone. The powerful sects, orders, temples, and legendary Warriors were all guardians and beneficiaries of those secrets.
In Black Flame City, about one-fifth of the population spent their whole lives able to ignite Thought Fire in only one Bright Point, circling around that single point for the rest of their days...
For an ordinary person like Zhang Tie, entering a meditative state was difficult. He could only do it by constantly adjusting his breathing. It took almost half an hour before he finally sensed the Divine Palace Bright Point at his navel. Then he began pouring his spirit and thoughts into it without pause. He felt the area around his navel slowly grow warm, and the Divine Palace Bright Point gradually took shape. Under the constant "polishing" of his spirit and thoughts, it began to glow, first faintly, then brightly. Finally, in his perception, it became a grain-of-rice-sized presence shining with a cyan radiance. At the same time, once the Bright Point began to glow, the crystal in his hand slowly formed a faint connection with it. A trace of energy, impossible to sense under ordinary circumstances, flowed from one end of the crystal into the Bright Point. With his spirit and thoughts working together with the crystal, the spot of blue light on the Bright Point gradually grew more solid and brighter. Its radiance began to illuminate the darkness around it, little by little, like a star in a pitch-black sky. It was faint, but it still gave him a glimmer of hope.
He didn't know how much time had passed before he felt his spirit and thoughts running dry and could no longer complete the "polishing." Only then did Zhang Tie emerge from his meditative state. A few hours of cultivation a day hardly seemed to bring any noticeable progress. For him, progress only became apparent after weeks or months of accumulation. The clearest sign was the color of light on the Bright Point. Over the years, since he began cultivating the Divine Palace Bright Point, Zhang Tie had progressed through red, orange, yellow, green, and cyan. He had now reached the cyan stage. Blue came next, then purple, and after purple, he would ignite Thought Fire. Judging by past experience, the final two stages would take at least another year and a half. This pace wasn't fast or slow; it was about average. Most people ignited Thought Fire in the Divine Palace during their first year in the military after graduating from school, crossing the most important threshold of their lives.