Breaking Through the Meridian Pass

Within the human body, the eight extraordinary meridians and the twelve primary meridians ran through the entire body. If cultivators who had reached the Marrow Cleansing Realm wanted to advance a step further, they had to link the eight extraordinary meridians and the twelve primary meridians into one continuous flow. Only then was it possible to circulate the vital essence throughout the body in a full heavenly cycle and transform it into essence-origin. It was not, however, transformed into true qi. True qi was what martial artists practiced; true qi could not grant longevity, and instead overdrew one's potential. Unless one trained to the innate stage, there was still a chance to enter the Dao through martial arts; otherwise, hopes of longevity were empty. Moreover, jianghu martial arts were inherently a way of obtaining strength far beyond ordinary people by overdrawing potential. To then break into the innate stage was harder than hard.

"This Yin Ganoderma can help me break through, but I might also be unable to withstand its medicinal power and die from my body exploding," Wang Ding thought, his expression shifting uncertainly as he looked at the Yin Ganoderma inside the jade box.

"Hmph. When a man dies, his balls face the sky; if he doesn't die, he lives ten thousand years. Worst comes to worst, I'll transmigrate again. I finally got this chance at eternal life. If I give up over this tiny bit of difficulty, what's the point of even talking about immortality? I might as well pack my bedding and leave early." Wang Ding's face turned solemn. He walked out of the cave dwelling, moved over a huge boulder from outside, and blocked the entrance, leaving only an air hole. Then he returned to the stone bed, picked up the jade box on it, and took out the Yin Ganoderma inside.

Wang Ding held the Ganoderma in his hands. An icy aura shot straight from his palms into his body, making him shiver involuntarily. He looked at the palm-sized Yin Ganoderma in his hands, its color like black jade, its shape like a mushroom, crystalline and translucent, sending out waves of cold air. Wang Ding gritted his teeth and swallowed it in one gulp.

The moment the Yin Ganoderma entered his mouth, it immediately turned into jade liquid and slid down his esophagus into his stomach. Wang Ding casually tossed the jade box in his hand onto the ground, then sat cross-legged on the stone bed, assuming the posture of five hearts facing the heavens. His eyes closed, and he gathered his spirit and calmed his breath.

Not long after Wang Ding sat down, a terrifying chill burst from his abdomen, nearly freezing him into a block of ice. His face turned livid with a swish, and a layer of white frost rose over the skin of his entire body.

Wang Ding immediately knew things were bad. He instantly began circulating the vital essence in his body that had turned into white qi. The white vital essence seemed to transform into a little snake, chasing after the streams of black pure-yin qi inside Wang Ding's body. Whenever it encountered a stream of pure-yin qi, the white vital essence pounced and wrapped it up, absorbing the yin qi in a few moments.

As stream after stream of pure-yin qi was absorbed, Wang Ding slowly recovered from his frozen state. After absorbing the yin qi, Wang Ding's vital essence became thicker and thicker, and its color gradually turned purple. By the time the yin qi was finally exhausted, his vital essence had become pure purple, a full ten times larger than before.

Although all the yin qi had been absorbed, Wang Ding did not dare relax in the slightest, because the most important part came next: opening the meridians.

The Qi Refining Realm was divided into two stages. One was opening all the meridians in the body, called Meridian Opening. As long as even one meridian remained blocked, one had not broken through the Essence Refining Realm and could not cultivate essence-origin. The other was transforming the essence-origin throughout the body into a single breath of innate qi; only then could one step into the second stage of the Qi Refining Realm, Innate.

From Zhang Teng's memories, Wang Ding learned that if one broke through all the meridians in a single attempt while charging the pass, one would receive a complete marrow-cleansing opportunity, increasing the chance of future advancement.

It had to be known that most people without sects opened their meridians one by one. The main reason was that they did not have the resources to accumulate enough origin qi in one go to charge the pass. People like Zhang Teng, who risked their lives to gather heavenly treasures and earthly gems, were few after all.

In other words, Wang Ding had picked up a great bargain. Other cultivators knew there was such a benefit, but none of them dared gamble their lives on it.

Wang Ding calmed his heart and stilled his breath, carefully sinking the purple vital essence into his dantian. In his mind, he recalled the positions of the eight extraordinary meridians and the twelve primary meridians, going over the locations of the entire meridian network once more.

"I'll start with the foot taiyang bladder meridian," Wang Ding calculated inwardly. He circulated the purple vital essence and began charging the pass.

The purple vital essence was like a little dragon, like a dragon returning to the sea, rushing toward the hand taiyang bladder meridian. Along the way it was like splitting bamboo, directly opening the meridian completely. Then the vital essence flowed back along the meridian and returned to the dantian.

"Good. Next is the foot shaoyang gallbladder meridian." Wang Ding pressed on with redoubled effort, constantly attacking the meridians. One after another, the twelve primary meridians were broken through: the hand taiyin lung meridian, the hand jueyin pericardium meridian, the hand shaoyin heart meridian, the hand yangming large intestine meridian, the hand shaoyang triple burner meridian, the hand taiyang small intestine meridian, the foot taiyin spleen meridian, the foot jueyin liver meridian, the foot shaoyin kidney meridian, and the foot yangming stomach meridian. Finally, all twelve primary meridians had been charged through.

Wang Ding did not relax in the slightest. Borrowing this momentum, he immediately began attacking the eight extraordinary meridians. The penetrating vessel, belt vessel, yin linking vessel, yang linking vessel, yin heel vessel, and yang heel vessel were all broken through one by one. Only the conception vessel and governor vessel remained before the pass would be completely cleared.

But the profound gate of life and death was not so easily broken. The purple vital essence slammed headfirst into the acupoint on the conception vessel, only to be fiercely bounced back.

Wang Ding's heart tightened. He knew the crucial moment had arrived. After making a slight adjustment, he circulated all the vital essence in his body and surged toward the conception vessel like mountains toppling and seas overturning. With a boom, the vital essence was bounced back again, and Wang Ding was shaken until his qi and blood destabilized. But Wang Ding was not discouraged in the slightest. He launched charge after charge. From the outside, it could clearly be seen that blood had been shaken out of Wang Ding's seven orifices, and his entire body had swollen by a size.

"I can't fail. I still have to live forever. How can a mere little difficulty block my path to the Dao? Break for me! Break! Break!" Wang Ding roared as he circulated all the vital essence in his body. At last, the conception vessel gave a soft crack and was opened. Wang Ding's vital essence was like surging river water, unstoppable, and in one burst of momentum, it also pierced through the governor vessel in one stroke.

The vital essence descended from the dantian, passed through the perineum, traveled up the spine, rose to the Niwan Palace, then poured down, passed through the Twelve-Story Tower, fell into the Yellow Court, and descended to the dantian, completing one heavenly cycle. After this repeated nine times, the purple vital essence transformed into a drop of purple liquid essence-origin and fell into the dantian. At this point, Wang Ding had fully stepped into the Qi Refining Realm.

The instant Wang Ding entered the Meridian Opening stage, his entire body trembled, and in a daze he arrived at a certain place. He saw a purple sphere floating before him, emitting dazzling purple light. Wang Ding froze, then carefully observed his surroundings and thought, This should be my Dantian Purple Mansion.

Then Wang Ding's spirit grew slightly troubled, and he returned to the outside world.

Wang Ding regained his senses and felt a stench drift into his nostrils. He opened his eyes and looked down, only to see his entire body covered in a layer of pitch-black filth. Joy immediately climbed onto his brows. It turned out that by entering the Meridian Opening stage in one go, Wang Ding had achieved the effect of shedding his mortal body and exchanging his bones, changing his tendons and cleansing his marrow, forcing the impurities in his body out.

Feeling very uncomfortable, Wang Ding got up, moved away the large stone blocking the cave dwelling, and came to a pool of water halfway down the mountain, where he washed his entire body clean.

"Now that I've reached the Meridian Opening stage, and after cutting away hair and cleansing marrow, my strength is at the power of three flying dragons. Next is accumulating essence-origin. Once the essence-origin is full, I can charge into Innate," Wang Ding thought, feeling the surging power inside his body.

Suddenly, a surging pressure that shook heaven and earth filled the entire world. A golden pillar of qi reaching to the heavens abruptly shot skyward from deep within the unbroken mountain range where Wang Ding was located.