I knew that ki got denser as one advanced in cultivation, and I figured that Organa’s would have been far denser than anything that had ever existed on Earth, but I still underestimated it. That tiny speck held enough ki to fill my entire budding core 20 times over. If I don’t get it under control, it will cripple me. I’d be able to recover. Eventually. But it would set me back years, and my meridians would be fragile until I could reform them when I reach the Renewal stage. That’s obviously not an option.
The first thing I do is widen my meridians as much as possible, and try to open myself up, allowing the surge of ki to escape out my pores. That relieves a good portion of the pressure, but the speck is far from empty, and the ki is only expanding faster. I think I might be able to weather it if I just focus on keeping my meridians intact while the ki runs its course. They would still be damaged a bit, but it would be damage I could heal in a few months at most.
There’s another option though. Crisis is always followed by opportunity, and here, I have an opportunity to use the excess ki to help form my own ki center. It’s dangerous, and if I fail, I could die. Trying to control so much ki so early in my cultivation career is strenuous on the body, and even if I succeed, I’ll take some internal injuries. However, if I do succeed, my new ki center will be able to process the surging ki much more efficiently, and even use it to strengthen myself further.
My entire body is in pain, but I take a deep breath and dive a level deeper in meditation, shutting off the sense of my own body’s condition. This is the main reason that what I’m doing is so dangerous, but I can’t afford to be distracted by the pain. With the pain gone, I turn my attention to the ki. There’s no way for me to properly control so much of it right now, but I can at least guide it in the right direction, letting it flow through my body.
My meridians are like raging rivers, and the space behind my navel is like a whirlpool, but for now they’re both doing alright. That won’t last long as the flow of ki increases, but it’s enough that I don’t have to worry about them for the next few minutes as I carry out the most crucial step.
Very carefully, I start expanding the shell I made around my center. Having a ki center that’s too big has some drawbacks, but I don’t have a choice, as an ordinary one won’t cut it in this scenario. Unlike a damaged ki center, an oversized one isn’t technically a detriment, and it’s something I can fix in a couple weeks if I decide I don’t like it.
I use Organa’s ki to thicken the shell as it expands. A few times, it punches a hole through, but I patch it up within seconds. Once the shell is large enough that I believe it can hold what I need it to, I move onto the next step: filling it up. Usually, I would have preferred to let ambient ki flowing through the meridians do this part over time, but I don’t have a choice here. If I try to direct that ki, my core will shatter. Instead, I leave that ki alone, and instead siphon off a bit from Organa’s speck. Even that bit is almost too much, and the shell starts bulging on one side where it hits, but I quickly move to thicken that all, bringing it back to a more uniform sphere.
Once that’s done, I let myself breathe a sigh of relief. That was the most delicate part. I can’t afford to let up my focus, but now at least, everything is in place, and I can simply keep doing maintenance. If I can just keep my core and meridians intact for long enough, the ki center will be formed without issue. That’s easier said than done though.
With every passing minute, the flow from the speck increases, and it doesn’t feel like it’s close to running out yet. It takes every ounce of concentration to maintain the balance between what’s flowing into my meridians and what’s flowing into my core, and even so, after what feels like an hour things start to go wrong.
Snap!
A meridian in my forearm bursts. I rush to patch up the hole, and as soon as I stop the leak, another bursts in my thigh. Before I can even finish that, another in my other arm bursts, and soon, I’m stuck in a nigh-infinite loop of patching up burst meridians. This is definitely not good, and it will take me at least a month or two to recover from the damage, but it’s still manageable. I can feel that the speck will run dry soon, so I only need to hold out for a little-Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
BOOM!
The worst breach yet occurs, right on my ki center. I quickly let go of all the other holes I was plugging and set to fixing this one. It’s much more difficult, and I have to completely cut off the flow to the center in order to be able to work on it in peace. That means increasing the flow to my meridians, which makes them burst even more, but I have no choice but to ignore it until this is fixed.
It takes a full minute before I’m confident in letting the flow return, and by then, more than 20 meridians are leaking profusely, some on the verge of entirely tearing apart. I work on the worst ones first, getting them out of the danger zones before moving on to the ones that worsened while I did that. For about ten minutes, I play the most tense game of whack-a-mole of all time until finally, the flow begins to abate.
I redouble my efforts as the ki in my body calms down, finally taking a chance to fix the holes for good. The speck empties fully, but I spend another hour in deep meditation repairing my meridians before they finally reach a state that I can afford to take a break. When I do, I immediately regret it.
“AUGHH!”
As soon as I exit the deep meditation and allow the pain to reach my mind, I let out an involuntary scream as my back arches and I fall backward. My body is not in good shape. There’s no permanent damage, but every single muscle in my body feels like it was worked nonstop for hours. I lay on the ground, unmoving and in so much pain I can barely think as the water continues to pound my prone form.
I don’t know exactly how long I lay like that, but after a time, clarity slowly returns to me as I grow accustomed to the pain. I don’t move, but as soon as I’m able, I re-enter meditation. I won’t be able to repair my body instantly, but I can still work on my meridians a bit. They’re still quite fragile right now, and I need them to be stronger in order to circulate ki and heal myself.
After about an hour, I am able to get a light film of ki around all my meridians and my ki center. It’s far from a permanent solution, since the film is rigid, and won’t hold up to anything rigorous, but it will at least allow me to circulate ki as long as I’m perfectly still, like right now.
With that, I start letting the ki flow, and I find myself a bit disappointed. My ki center is way too big. Sure, it can hold more ki, but since it’s so large, it’s hard to properly pressurize the ki, so the flow through my body is weak and sluggish compared to what I’m used to. Despite that flaw though, it is still a perfect core. The intense flow through my meridians during the formation process ensured that none of the connections would be missed. It’s not the end of the world though. This type of ki center is good for endurance, so even if my instantaneous power is reduced, it is made up for in staying power. I’ll definitely reduce it in size at least a little bit, but I’ve never actually used a larger ki center like this, so it will be good to test it out… In a month once my meridians are actually functional.
Of course, there’s also the option of going to Organa. Based on how easily she healed my arm, I’m sure she could fix me up in an instant. I’m not foolish enough to fall for the same thing twice though. Even if it would be more convenient, I’d rather not let her give me another “gift.” The last one nearly killed me, and when she finds out what I did to it, I doubt that the next one will be anything I can come close to handling at my current level.
No, it’s better to just avoid her and handle it on my own. I’ll be able to move around by tomorrow, and I’ll be able to function relatively normally within a week. I’ll have to put off trying those Hunts, and I’ll have to take things slow on the mandatory one in four weeks, but I can make myself busy with the Lessons in the meantime. I need to gather information anyway. It will also give me time to figure out how to handle the cat.
Speaking of the cat, where is it? My head isn’t under the water anymore, so I can somewhat hear my surroundings, and I can’t figure out where it is. I can’t sense its ki anywhere either. Did it disappear again? Whatever. I have more important things to worry about right now.
I focus back on my body, letting the ki circulate and heal my damaged muscles and organs. I don’t get close to finishing, but I’m able to heal the most critical areas and get my muscles to the point that I can at least move. I could do more, but as I am right now, sleep will be just as effective, if not more. The hunger from earlier is gone, replaced by pain, but I’m sure it will be back in the morning. That’s a problem for tomorrow’s me.
I stand up shakily and turn off the water. Not only the bathroom, but the entire dorm is full of steam, which is frankly a bit uncomfortable, and is possibly the reason that the cat disappeared, but there’s not really anything I can do about it. Well, maybe there is, since there are a few switches on the wall, one of which might help circulate the air, but I don’t want to figure that out right now.
I stumble out of the bathroom and into the bedroom and I flop down on the bed. Not ten seconds later, I’m asleep, and dreaming of one of my past lives.