Chen Xiuyuan finished his last mouthful of rice, washed his bowl, and went to the clearing behind the house.
Elder Shi was already sitting by the wall, the beast-hide diagram spread across his knees. Shi Lei had come too. He set the wooden saber he had brought behind the door, without opening with a move as he usually did.
"Did you get any sleep last night?" he asked.
"I did. Woke up earlier than usual."
Shi Lei laughed. "My first time, I stayed awake all night. When daylight came, I could barely stand, and they sent me straight back to bed."
Chen Xiuyuan smiled along with him, then lowered his head to scrape a lump of mud off his sole. He really had woken early, and while lying in bed, he had still been thinking about that unopened Heavenly Meridian. But he had not rushed out of bed to practice another round.
The accumulation left over from last night had to be completed when his body was fully awake and his Qi and blood were plentiful.
He returned to his usual spot and first focused on the breathing exercises he had already mastered. Warmth gradually gathered. After these twenty-odd days of recuperation and practice, what had once been a thin, feeble thread could now flow steadily onward, right up to the last stretch of the pathway that remained unopened.
Elder Shi watched him without urging him on.
Following the diagram, Chen Xiuyuan sorted out the sequence in which to apply force and traveled the entire stretch he had learned to distinguish clearly yesterday. His Qi and blood slowly gathered, and that last bit of accumulation finally settled into place.
[First Heavenly Meridian accumulation: 100%] [Accumulation complete. Breakthrough available.]
He exhaled and opened his eyes.
"Elder Shi, I'm ready."
The old man had him describe clearly what he had felt as his Qi and blood passed through just now. After listening, he also asked whether his body felt any discomfort before turning the beast hide to the side showing the first meridian.
"Follow what you've already practiced. Don't get to the final moment and add another whole set of things for yourself."
Shi Lei withdrew to the courtyard gate, leaving him a quiet space. Someone passed outside and wanted to come in to borrow a basket. Shi Lei led them off to the other side, and their voices soon faded into the distance.
Chen Xiuyuan closed his eyes and reconnected that clear route.
In the past, whenever he reached this point, his Qi and blood would gradually disperse, or only a little warmth would remain, too weak to continue. Now, all the necessary accumulation was in place. He did not have to force it forward on a held breath. Simply gathering and circulating it as he had learned let him keep reaching the unopened part of the Heavenly Meridian.
He was still a little nervous.
The children of Blood Stone had to learn this step too, and Shi Lei had once been unable to sit or lie at ease over it. But however ordinary this first step might be, when it came to him, it was still something he had never experienced.
Chen Xiuyuan did not chase after that nervousness with his thoughts. What he recalled were the things he had actually done these past days: his crooked stance had been corrected, he had figured out where his breathing rushed ahead, the blood food he had traded for had gone into his body, and he had not missed a single day of the required practice.
His Qi and blood advanced, pressed against the blockage, then spread along the pathway.
The warmth that had previously stopped at one spot now had somewhere to go.
Chen Xiuyuan's shoulders and back relaxed slightly. The Qi and blood in his chest and abdomen flowed along the Heavenly Meridian, then rejoined their original circulation. Wherever they passed, a distinct warmth arose, while his hands and feet remained firmly in place, undisturbed by the sudden strength.
His first Heavenly Meridian had opened.
[Cultivation: Meridian Opening Realm, newly entered.] [Heavenly Meridians opened: 1/108.] [Next Heavenly Meridian accumulation: 0%]
When Chen Xiuyuan saw these words, he was still circulating his Qi and blood. The newly opened pathway remained within his body. He gathered his Qi and blood using the method Elder Shi had taught him, then slowly steadied his breathing before leaving his stance.
He did not encounter another threshold that suddenly appeared.
He had completed it, and so he had passed through.
He clenched his hand, clearly feeling an additional strength in his arm that he could call upon, yet he did not dare use all of it at once. Elder Shi beckoned him over, first asked about the process in detail, then had him apply force through the stretch he knew best.
The old man rested two fingers on his wrist. After a moment, he nodded.
"It's open."
Shi Lei had been leaning by the gate all this time. Only after hearing those words did he come over and squeeze Chen Xiuyuan's arm.
"You certainly saved yourself some trouble."
Chen Xiuyuan looked up at him.
"When I reached the last part back then, I threw myself into confusion first. It took me some days to settle down before I managed it," Shi Lei said. "This time, from start to finish, you didn't rush that breath."
Chen Xiuyuan looked down at his palm without mentioning the panel. He made mistakes when he practiced and lost his rhythm when he was tired, but as long as the accumulation he had truly gained remained, he knew where that final step would land.
Elder Shi put away the beast hide and told him to sit for a while.
Chen Xiuyuan sat on a low stool, listening to the sound of water in the kitchen and someone outside the courtyard calling a child home. Suddenly, he very much wanted to tell his family that he had learned something very difficult today, and that when he faced danger in the future, he finally had a little more assurance than before.
The words reached his lips, then stopped.
His phone was in the bag inside the house. He could no longer turn it on whenever he wanted as he had at the beginning. He glanced at the threshold and slowly brought his hands back to his knees. Only after his breathing steadied did he ask Elder Shi, "Can I test my strength now?"
Shi Lei had already brought over the stone block they often used from beside the wall.
"Use this. Don't get so excited that the first thing you do is tear down your own door."
The stone block had always stood in the corner by the wall. Elder Shi had used it to weigh down beast hides when drying medicinal herbs, and Chen Xiuyuan had moved it while tidying the courtyard. In the past, carrying it to the gate had meant setting it down halfway to adjust his grip. The moment his fingers loosened, the stone would slip downward.
Shi Lei told him to lift it from the foot of the wall again and take the same route.
Chen Xiuyuan first secured his hold, lowering his center of gravity as usual. The stone block did not suddenly become lighter when it left the ground. After a few steps, he sent his Qi and blood through the newly opened Heavenly Meridian, and only then did the strength in his arms, waist, and back gradually connect.
The part that had easily grown sore and weak first could now keep holding out.
He reached the gate and set it down steadily, without loosening his grip halfway. After putting it down, he could not help looking down at it again. It was still the same stone block, with mud from yesterday's scraping still on its edges.
"Another go?" Shi Lei asked.
"Wait. Let me first remember where I applied force just now."
Chen Xiuyuan walked back from the gate, sorting through that circulation in his mind. When he lifted it a second time, it felt less awkward. This time, he walked more steadily, and even lowered it slowly to the ground instead of dropping it at the end.
Shi Lei tapped the ground beside the stone block with his toe.
"You smashed a hole here before."
The hole had mostly been trodden flat, but Chen Xiuyuan could still make it out. Looking at that old mark, he suddenly smiled. Carrying it back and forth twice told him more clearly what he had gained these past days than looking at the line naming his realm did.
But when he wanted to make another trip, Elder Shi stopped him and had him take up his saber instead.
Chen Xiuyuan picked up the wooden saber and exchanged moves with Shi Lei as usual. The moment their weapons met in a head-on block, he felt the difference himself: his wrist was not pressed down as easily as before, and positions he had once needed to retreat bodily to defend now allowed him a little more leeway.
But the wooden stick in Shi Lei's hand immediately changed direction.
Chen Xiuyuan had rejoiced too soon. He still applied force in the original direction, his wooden saber pressed against empty air, and his shoulder received a tap.
"I didn't go that way," Shi Lei reminded him.
Chen Xiuyuan drew back his saber and tried again. His Qi and blood could steady his strikes, but they could not see which way his opponent would change direction for him. He brought his attention back to Shi Lei's hands and feet, waiting until the wooden stick actually came before blocking, rather than rushing to use that little bit of newfound strength.
This time, he deflected the wooden stick to his side and brought his saber back with the motion, linking both movements together.
Shi Lei sped up a little, and he struggled to keep up again. His mistake lay in chasing the saber tip with his eyes first, which delayed his footwork. However much strength he had in his hands, he could not make up for it in time. Chen Xiuyuan stopped and committed the mistake to memory, without blaming it on his Heavenly Meridian.
They practiced slowly a few more times before Shi Lei slapped the wooden stick into his palm.
"That's enough for today. You've only opened one, and you're already eager to clash head-on with me. Do you still want to eat lunch?"
Sweat had appeared on Chen Xiuyuan's forehead. He slowed the circulation of his Qi and blood and glanced at the panel.
His beginner progress in the Savage Elephant Great Strength Art had reached fifty-six, while the Bloodstone Saber Technique remained at beginner thirty-eight. The realm field clearly read newly entered Meridian Opening Realm. One Heavenly Meridian had opened, and the accumulation required for the next was still being recorded from the beginning.
The meridian he had gained before had not disappeared because of that. Once he connected his breathing, his Qi and blood could still pass through it.
He sat down and poured himself water, then topped up Elder Shi's bowl as well. The old man took another folded beast hide from the bottom of the wooden box, spread it out, and weighed it down on the tabletop.
This one was drawn in finer detail, with several annotations on applying force beside the Heavenly Meridians and lines added later over the old ink.
"Study from this from now on."
Chen Xiuyuan leaned closer and recognized the first meridian he had opened, but some of the rest made little sense to him. At a glance, it all involved connecting Qi and blood, but the finer sequences differed. Which stretch needed to store them first and which needed to send them on slowly could not be fully understood through his experience with the first meridian alone.
"Do I push through the next one like this too?"
Elder Shi moved his finger to the side.
"First learn how to travel the route, then start accumulating. Opening this one can help you circulate Qi and blood. It can't practice all the other places for you."
Chen Xiuyuan listened from the beginning, stopping to ask whenever he did not understand. Elder Shi did not explain the entire diagram at once either. He first pointed out only the route Chen Xiuyuan would practice next, having him try to identify how it connected with the meridian already opened.
Halfway through listening, Chen Xiuyuan suddenly asked, "Once all a hundred and eight are open, is that the end of cultivation?"
"Once all the Heavenly Meridians are open, there are still foundations to forge afterward. Even Meridian Opening alone isn't finished just by counting through them once." Elder Shi pressed his finger back onto the diagram. "Focus on this part for now. It takes thirty-six to reach minor accomplishment. Don't take one step and skip everything after it."
Chen Xiuyuan nodded and committed the diagram to memory. The road ahead was still long, but at last it was no longer merely names spoken by others. He could point out how far he had come, and could also see clearly which part ahead he had yet to learn.
Shi Lei finished his water and rose to leave. Remembering something, he turned back and asked whether Chen Xiuyuan's work inside the gate would stay the same.
"The same."
"Now that you've opened a meridian, carrying things will be easier. But don't charge into the woods just because someone calls you along."
Chen Xiuyuan smiled. "I know how much one Heavenly Meridian can do now."
He looked at the spot on his shoulder where the wooden stick had struck. In the past, he would have had to take Shi Lei's warning on trust. Now that he had tested it himself, he was instead clearer about where he had grown stronger and where he would still take a blade.
Near noon, Shi Yuan poked his head through the gate. Seeing that the courtyard's stone block had moved, and that Shi Lei was putting away his wooden stick, he asked whether Chen Xiuyuan had succeeded.
"I did," Chen Xiuyuan answered.
Shi Yuan smiled and placed the small parcel of meat he had brought by the table.
"This is what wasn't collected yesterday. It doesn't count as a free gift. If you can carry more from now on, I'll be putting it under your name."
Chen Xiuyuan took it and asked why he had made a special trip. Only then did Shi Yuan take a neatly wrapped piece of cloth from inside his clothes. Its corners were folded evenly, and the outline of a section of wooden shaft showed within.
"The old arrow-making craftsman is back. The others couldn't identify it before, but he's had a look and said he wants to ask you in person how you got this arrow."
Chen Xiuyuan put down the parcel of meat.
"Did he recognize who it was sold to?"
"He only said the workmanship looked familiar, not whose it was. Go over tomorrow morning. Auntie Sang has something to show you too."
Shi Yuan set the cloth bundle down securely without unwrapping it. Chen Xiuyuan fetched the herb-identification booklet and turned to the small sketch of the broken stream, his fingertip stopping where the arrow had struck the empty basket.
When they had returned that day, they had only wounds and a broken arrow.
Now, at last, someone recognized where that arrow had come from.