Creating a Cultivation Technique: Eight Meridians Mystic Pole

Chapter 3: Creating a Cultivation Technique: Eight Meridians Mystic Pole

Though he was eager to learn about this world, He Yu understood that he wasn't strong enough yet. Forget the "monsters" that might also devour the world's spiritual treasures—even ferocious beasts like tigers, hungry wolves, and giant bears were more than he could handle. For now, his only task was to grow stronger. No matter what dangers lay ahead, his own strength came first, especially in an unknown world.

Looking at the many spiritual treasures before him, He Yu suppressed his craving and continued deeper into the forest. He needed to prove something: whether, as he suspected, spiritual treasures really were everywhere.

He walked more than a li into the forest, and though he was exhausted, his mind was in turmoil. The spiritual treasures he had seen along the way were beyond anything he could have imagined. Vermilion Fruit, lingzhi, fleeceflower root, and other medicinal herbs were as common as cabbages by the roadside! Every ten or twenty meters, he came across several plants. They were all quite old, too—the youngest were at least a hundred years old, and the oldest was more than a thousand.

Though He Yu was excited, he didn't really understand the value or effects of medicinal herbs. In his previous life, he had read plenty of ancient texts, but their descriptions of medicinal properties and age had been brief. And he hadn't been a cultivator, so how could he truly understand these herbs? None of that mattered, though. What mattered was that his problem with spiritual energy was solved.

After walking a li, He Yu lost interest in going farther. He was about to start devouring spiritual treasures to strengthen the "Demon Core" inside him when a thunderous crash sounded nearby.

"Roar...!"

"Hiss...!" Enormous roars and hisses rang out clearly, and at the same time, a terrifying sense of danger rose in He Yu's heart.

He hesitated, but couldn't resist his curiosity. He immediately lowered his presence and cautiously crept closer. Worried about making a sound, He Yu moved extremely slowly. Fortunately, it wasn't far, and before long, he arrived.

Peering through gaps in the lush plants, He Yu saw what was making the roars and hisses. He sucked in a sharp breath, cold dread flooding his heart. A striped giant tiger and a brown python were locked in combat. Both beasts were enormous: the tiger was more than ten times larger than the biggest tiger He Yu had seen in his previous life, while the python was a hundred meters long and as thick as a barrel. Its gaping maw could swallow an elephant whole, and its forked tongue flicked like a giant spear, slicing through the air with a sharp whistle.

What truly terrified He Yu was the "demonic aura" radiating from the beasts. The tiger's was pale yellow, while the python's was brown. Their colors differed, but He Yu could sense that their auras shared the same nature as the power within him. Yet countless tendrils of demonic aura, each more than ten meters long, streamed from their bodies. Compared to them, he was utterly outclassed!

Bang!

The tiger and python fought fiercely, but their strength was evenly matched, and neither could gain the upper hand. The tiger was ferociously strong, while the python was agile, quick, and vicious. Each had its own advantages.

The two beasts glanced toward He Yu's hiding place, then paid it no further attention and resumed fighting with all their might.

They spotted me. A chill surged through He Yu. He had thought he was well hidden and that the distance would keep the two beasts from noticing him. He hadn't expected them to spot him in just a few breaths.

He Yu was sure they knew he was there, but they didn't care at all. The only possible reason was that he was too weak.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Just as He Yu was reeling in shock, the tiger and python both rose into the air. Their demonic aura gathered into clouds that carried them into the distance, though they continued fighting along the way.

"Monsters?" Seeing the two beasts ride the clouds, He Yu cried out in his heart. This was beyond anything he could comprehend. Their demonic aura could still be explained as something like qigong, but riding the clouds was the way of the immortals!

He had narrowly escaped death, and He Yu felt both relieved and excited. The two beasts' appearance gave him even more confidence that he could cultivate into a demon.

He headed back. This forest was too dangerous. This time, he had encountered two beasts fighting. If he had met either one alone, he would probably already be dead.

When he returned to the riverbank, he found a gap among some rocks and arranged it a little. Soon, he had a place to stay. His body was small, so making a simple shelter was easy.

He placed the spiritual treasures he had picked into his shelter, then found a few small stones to block the entrance. He needed to focus on cultivating.

Since he had decided to cultivate into a demon, he needed a cultivation technique. With one, he could achieve twice the result with half the effort, and cultivate more effectively. In his previous life, He Yu had been obsessed with cultivating and seeking immortality for a time. He had studied countless cultivation methods and qigong techniques online, and had read nearly every ancient text, including the Tao Te Ching and the Daoist Canon. His knowledge of cultivation theory was fairly extensive.

Now, He Yu wanted to create a cultivation technique of his own. He didn't know whether the cultivation methods from his previous life were useful, but even if they were, they had been designed for humans. Now that he was a crab, how could he practice a human technique?

The human body had twelve main meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians!

The Three Cinnabar Fields: the upper, middle, and lower cinnabar fields!

The five viscera were also divided according to the Five Phases!

A crab's body was different. He Yu didn't know how it was divided—he had never paid much attention to such things before! Perhaps biological researchers knew a lot about it.

After recalling the countless cultivation methods and theories in his mind, He Yu calmed himself, focused his thoughts, and tried to look inward. Though his mind held countless cultivation methods and theories, the first step of inner observation was much the same in all of them. Besides, it wasn't exclusive to humans, so he could do it too.

According to what he remembered, inner observation supposedly took ten days or half a month to achieve. He Yu didn't expect to succeed on his first try. But following the method he remembered, it wasn't long before he could see inside his body. He found that he had eight main meridians—far fewer than a human—and no three cinnabar fields. But each of the Eight Main Meridians had three inner mansions, which served much the same purpose as cinnabar fields. They were only a third the size, but there were plenty of them!

Twenty-Four Inner Mansions!

The Half-Demon Core Seed sat at the center of the Twenty-Four Inner Mansions.

After examining himself, He Yu was astonished to discover that all Twenty-Four Inner Mansions were identical. Unlike the three human cinnabar fields, each of which had its own mysteries, didn't that mean he could use all Twenty-Four Inner Mansions at once?

Human cultivators first drew qi into their bodies and formed true qi in the lower cinnabar field. At later stages, they had to return to their origin and achieve Innate True Qi. Then, they condensed a Golden Core, transforming their energy into true essence. The Golden Core also rose to the middle cinnabar field, while the Innate True Qi in the lower cinnabar field merely helped it grow. Finally, the Golden Core merged with the three hun and seven po souls to become a primordial spirit, which entered the upper cinnabar field. By then, the middle cinnabar field was basically useless, and the Innate True Qi produced in the lower one was optional as well.

He Yu's Twenty-Four Inner Mansions might not match the three human cinnabar fields, but they were like all three combined. As he cultivated, he wouldn't need to move up to a higher cinnabar field. Best of all, he could cultivate in all Twenty-Four Inner Mansions at once. Even if one inner mansion couldn't compare to a human cinnabar field, what about twenty-four?

Others would have one Golden Core, but he could have twenty-four Demon Cores. And in the future, he could send out twenty-four primordial spirits at once! That was incredible!

"Isn't man supposed to be the most intelligent of all creatures? Why does it feel like this crab of mine is even more incredible?" He Yu wondered. He didn't know how insane this world was: even he, a creature near the very bottom of the food chain, had greater natural gifts than the humans of his previous life.

After figuring out the meridians and inner mansions in his body, He Yu continued examining himself. He found that he had no internal organs at all. Instead, there was only a River of Origin in the lower part of his body, an amalgamation of the five viscera and six bowels. He continued probing deeper...!

Not long afterward, He Yu had examined his body completely. He began considering how to use the countless memories in his mind as a foundation for creating a cultivation technique. One designed for his own body would be the most suitable.

Time slipped by as He Yu worked on creating his cultivation technique. Whenever he grew hungry or thirsty, he went to the river to drink and ate some spiritual treasures. Over time, the Half-Demon Core Seed inside him grew twice as large, and his body nearly tripled in size. He Yu was now a big crab, about the size of a child's palm. His shell was incredibly hard, and his pincers were powerful. With demonic power behind them, they could crush even a rock. He was already a tyrant in this little river. The water snakes, big fish, and crayfish that were stronger than him feared him, for his shell was too hard to damage, and his pincers were far too powerful. Now, whenever He Yu entered the river, the aquatic creatures fled at the sight of him.

He didn't know how much time had passed. He only remembered eating spiritual treasures seven or eight times, so it must have been about a month. At last, the cultivation technique he had been pondering over finally had the beginnings of a solid foundation.

He Yu named the technique Eight Meridians Mystic Pole. It took an entirely different path, using his eight legs to absorb spiritual energy from the world and draw it into his body, directly entering the Eight Main Meridians. This would open all his meridians at once, forming true qi, demonic aura, and Demon Cores in the Twenty-Four Inner Mansions, and then primordial spirits. On top of that, the Half-Demon Core Seed in his body would help guide and control the Twenty-Four Inner Mansions, keeping their energies from running wild.

In between cultivating, he also kept training his eyes. A crab's body was covered by a thick shell, leaving only its eyes exposed—a major weakness. How could He Yu let such a weakness remain? Even if he couldn't make his eyes as hard as his shell, he still had to train them to make them less vulnerable.

Eight Meridians Mystic Pole was divided into levels. The first was Qi Induction, followed by Golden Core, then primordial spirit. As for what came after that, He Yu had no idea. In the ancient texts he'd read, the Golden Core was usually the limit. The primordial spirit was little more than legend. He Yu had only completed the first level of Eight Meridians Mystic Pole, Qi Induction. He always felt that something was missing from the second level, Golden Core. It wasn't the difference between a Demon Core and a Golden Core; that was merely a result of the differences between living beings. The giant tiger and python he had encountered not long ago had Demon Cores unlike his own, but ultimately, they all belonged to the Golden Core stage.

He Yu felt that an important step was missing from the path to the Golden Core, but no matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't figure out what it was. He already had a Demon Core inside him. What else could he be missing?