The Science of Cultivation

Chapter 78: Searching for Meridians

Now then, how should I proceed with studying spiritual roots?

Li Lang dove into his old memories of the few cultivation novels he had read. He normally only read the beginning parts and the ending, skimming for sections to do with immortality. Many of them never went into detail about how, except to absorb energy, but cultivation often had something to do with the meridians.

So far, he hadn’t heard anyone mentioning meridians, but he believed spiritual roots to be in the same line of thought.

The issue is that the human body does not have such a thing…Unless the people in this world are different.

He booted up his terminal and retrieved the old reports he had compiled back when he first experimented on Qi overdose. He had recorded every single participant’s cultivation rank and number of spiritual roots back then, which has now come in handy.

From that information, he concluded that people with grade one aptitude had up to seventeen spiritual roots, and all those who had eighteen or more were grade two. Long Yi with grade three aptitude had forty-one roots. He even remembered his childhood friends had over eighty spiritual roots back during the Clear Heart Sect’s entrance exams.

From what he had seen, the number of spiritual roots was directly correlated with aptitude.

While he gleaned a lot from this information, it didn’t help to verify what type of existence spiritual roots were. So far, he believed it filtered out the toxins in Qi, but he didn’t know if it was something physical in the body or something intangible.

It didn’t take long for Li Lang’s mind to wander off in brewing up ways to secure the remains of a body for study. He believed it could be worth it, despite the risk of being mistaken as a dangerous person or a grave robber.

His urges only grew stronger when Ruby suddenly notified him that the auto-analyzer was finished with the blank talisman paper. He read over the report, which consisted of the material makeup of the paper and the Qi signature of the talisman. There was nothing special that caught his attention.

“Hmm, like I had suspected. The function of a talisman all lies in the Qi aspect, or in this case, the runes I’ve started to learn about.”

“Master, should I proceed with putting the inkstones into the auto-analyzer now, or did you have something else in mind?” the child-like voice innocently asked.

“No, go ahead as planned. No point in wasting any time.”

Li Lang moved over toward the large machine encased in glass to see the inkstone enter the mouth of the auto-analyzer. He stayed until the estimated amount of time appeared on the screen, showing a measly three hours. The catch was that it wasn’t able to analyze the Qi aspect of it.

“Master, the inkstones contain small traces of Qi from someone in a higher realm than you. None of its Qi properties or signature can be analyzed.”

“That is fine. I’ll get another sample at my level soon enough. Go ahead and analyze it anyway.”

“Right!”

Seeing there was nothing else that needed his attention, Li Lang exited from the artifact space. He opened his eyes and found his two companions already dead asleep.

However, he wasn’t tired and was brimming with curiosity. If any of his old coworkers were here, they would not be surprised at all, especially if they knew Li Lang had embarked on a new re

Hmm, if it’s not a physical thing, maybe it is a Qi construct? But then, I don’t have a proper way to study it. The auto-analyzer only gives me the Qi signature, and I don’t have anything that can observe internal Qi.

Li Lang spent the rest of the morning brainstorming various ways to go about his next step. He concluded that he needed more information, so he added a trip to the Bloodwave Conclave’s bazaar on his agenda to find some related texts.

When he finally exited the space and ‘woke up’, he found Wei Ping and Long Yi missing. He rushed to complete his morning routine before heading out toward his new mentor as well.

It was almost noon by the time he arrived at the house belonging to his Brushweaving teacher, Yi Lin. Li Lang had thought he was already late, but when his mentor opened the door, he found a man with a head full of bed hair, wearing a sleepy look.

“Good morning…You’re early, Li Lang.”

“...Should I be coming later? It’s almost noon.”

“Hm…that’s why.” Yi Lin lazily rubbed his eyes. “Yeah. I usually don’t wake up until noon. But since you’re already here, come on in. Did you eat yet?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then feel free to read the texts up in my study. I have written a bunch of notes ever since I started Brushweaving, so there should be some beginner-level texts somewhere. I’ll go make something to eat and I’ll be there with you.”

The young mentor quickly disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Li Lang to his own devices. As he was instructed, he climbed up to the second floor and arrived in the messiest room of the entire house. Somehow, after one night, his mentor had messed the place up even more compared to yesterday.

However, the bookshelves in the corner were at least spared from the chaos. Books were properly lined up on the shelves and Li Lang simply had to climb through the mess of a room to reach it. He found an entire shelf dedicated to his mentor’s research notes, which were ordered chronologically. He picked up the oldest texts and began diving into his mentor’s former insights.

He only made it past the first sentence before he grimaced.

How in the world can someone in a profession that involves holding a brush all the time have such bad handwriting?! I can’t read this!