Opening the Meridians

Time trickled by. Shen Luo had repaired this one branch meridian more than thirty times. In the first dozen attempts, it had ruptured before the ant-patterns could pass through the Fenglong Acupoint on the outside of his calf.

He had made progress since then. The ant-patterns had passed through that section of the meridian and reached the Fenglong Acupoint, but the moment they entered, the acupoint violently rejected them. Before they could begin to gnaw, it burst, damaging the nearby meridians as well. It had taken Shen Luo considerable effort to restore them.

After that came collapse after collapse. Even when the ant-patterns entered the acupoint smoothly, his body instinctively rejected the Yin Baleful Qi as soon as it flowed in.

Worse, one attempt had disturbed a nearby Magic Meridian and drawn a surge of Magic Power to sweep it clean. The resulting turmoil had left the meridians in half his calf a complete mess and robbed the whole area of sensation.

Without the Great Dissection Technique to set each meridian right afterward, Shen Luo's calf would have been crippled by now.

But after so many failures, Shen Luo had grown increasingly adept at controlling the ant-patterns and feeding in the Yin Baleful Qi. He had opened all the Fenglong acupoints along the branch meridian; only the final Three Yin Intersection Acupoint remained.

At that moment, his eyes were tightly shut and his hands formed a seal as he devoted all his strength to keeping the runes on his leg running. A string of ant-patterns had gathered within the Three Yin Intersection Acupoint, where they were locked in an inseparable struggle with the Magic Power stored there.

Shen Luo's brow knotted with pain. But this was a critical juncture in opening the meridian with Yin Fiend, and he dared not