Chapter 7

The next month was dedicated to research, reading through the library that had been left behind twenty thousand years ago. It was amazing that the ring still existed and that the Ng family was able to exist that long. From what I read it had declined significantly from what it was originally.

What family could boast such a lineage? Apparently, its success and ability to survive could mainly be put to one man, Ng Yu. In those times the surname was placed before the first name. He lived for almost forty thousand years, dying about eight hundred years ago. He was immensely powerful but trapped in this realm because the only way to leave was to ascend and he was already beyond that, having descended to this realm a long time ago.

As I read through the books, I made notes of the facts that interested me and discussed them with May and Switch of an evening when we all relaxed.

“May, I have found out why it is a tradition to wait for your fourteenth birthday before you start cultivating. The human body forms a particular shape with energy meridians that when activated cause a natural draw to the local surrounding energy. Until you reach physical maturity it is less likely that you will have achieved the right shape for this to happen,” I explained to May and Switch.

“Does that mean I can start cultivating sooner? Switch doesn't use the natural draw and she is still making progress,” May asked excitedly.

I smiled at her. “From what I can tell there is no reason why not. The natural draw may still work for you, it will just become more powerful in the next few years and it may slow down the time it will take to get there as you will age slower.”

We managed to persuade her to wait until she was able to have a week off school as the detoxification programme is quite gruelling. School was a virtual reality space, but there was a real teacher who monitored the students and set tasks. We negotiated with her so May worked extra hard for two weeks before having a week off.

It took May four days to complete the detoxification programme and start properly cultivating. We were all quite dedicated although for different reasons. I wanted to cure my cancer. May wanted to be able to find her mother and Switch wanted to be stronger, quicker and fitter. On that note, Switch had moved into May's house and we renovated a room with gym equipment. The increased energy going into our bodies was having a pronounced effect on our strength, endurance and toughness. Switch had created a few tests to challenge us and monitor our awesomeness.

We put May through our elemental tests and found only electrical alignment or lightning. This made things easy with cultivating. From my reading, I found having a single element was the most common and having multiple elements usually related to natural phenomenon. People with earth, wood and fire were called island gods. Earth and fire created magma and then life sprouted creating islands. Wind, water and lightning related to storms. This meant the best place for Switch to cultivate was a newly formed or forming island and for me, whenever a storm took place. Of course, we were trying to reproduce ideal conditions with technology.

“I have finally found out why a clan from the fourth world descended to the second world. It always puzzled me since it is so much harder to cultivate here,” I said with satisfaction.

“Well, what was it? My guess is they were hiding from their enemies. In all the stories that I have read those who are stronger oppress those who are weaker, sometimes the only option is to run away,” Switch commented.

“I have to be honest, that was my thought as well, but it is something entirely different. It relates to the differences between the worlds. I have talked before about the nine worlds where each world has more energy than the last. They say the universe is always fair although I think it may just be evolution. So what is the advantage to worlds with less energy? Theoretically, we have stronger souls. Strong souls just means that we comprehend things quicker. People in worlds with less energy don't live as long, so it may just be a consequence of a shortened life expectancy. The point is you can strengthen the body with cultivating, but it is almost impossible to strengthen the soul. The Ng family worked out that people who ascended tended to become more powerful than those who were born in that realm. Funnily enough that thinking was against the normal culture which looked down on those who ascended,” I explained.

“What do you mean shortened life expectancy?” May asked.

“The more energy the body takes in, the longer the body tends to last. According to the books, just by cultivating, we are already increasing our life expectancy but even people who don't or can't cultivate, how long they live will depend on which realm they are born in. We have a life expectancy of between fifty to sixty years whereas the Earth realm humans live up to a hundred and the Terra humans live to two hundred. Terra humans who have cultivated have lived tens of thousands of years.”

“Wow! Another reason to be a cultivator,” May responded.

“More importantly I think it makes it more likely that the world we ascend to will be less technologically advanced. The humans on our world should find it easier to understand advanced concepts and build on them. Sometimes the whole world can be advanced by a single extraordinary person so there is no guarantee on that, just theory.”

“All that sounds great but what I want to know is have you found any martial arts techniques?” Switch asked.

“I think there were quite a few there originally. Unfortunately, I think many have been taken out of the library and not returned, now lost. There is certainly mention of multiple techniques that we don't have. I have only found one martial art instruction book. I will forward you the translated copy and you can go through it and let us know,” I responded. “There is one other thing that may impact our combat effectiveness but there are pros and cons.”

“Tell me more,” Swich demanded with a smile.

“When we have talked about energy flow and moving it around our body we have been talking about primary meridians. According to what I have read there are also secondary meridians that create loops off the main meridians. These meridians already pass a little bit of energy down them, but if you push more energy into them and speed them up, they expand and increase the health and function of the tissues around them. On the plus side, if you can activate these meridians you are sending energy to areas of the body which will naturally enhance them like giving you super sight, super hearing or a superior nose. On the downside, you create more space that you have to fill before you can ascend.”

“What can you enhance?” Switch asked.

“The majority of muscles are all well covered by the primary meridians so I don't think they will make you any stronger. However, there is a spinal meridian that might increase the speed of your reflexes, a visual meridian that might enhance your vision. The same with the ears, brain and even your third eye. Multiple internal organ meridians that will improve their function. I will send you the details on that.”

“How do you open the secondary meridians?” May asked.

“You have to get to the stage where you can push energy outside the normal meridian pathways like opening the ring space and then it is a case of pushing energy into a place where a secondary meridian is expected to be. Because some energy already goes down it, you know when you have hit the right spot. A bit of trial and error, maybe some more detoxification to clear the pathway if it is a bit blocked.” I looked at them both sombrely. “There is a male or female reproductive organ meridian. I have experimented activating mine in the hopes of fixing my original cancer. The meridian was full of toxins so I am still trying to clear it. Likewise, I intend to, at the minimum, open my lung, liver and spinal column meridians. My thought though is that my cancer may have occurred because of the blocked meridian pathway which means to be truly healthy I should activate as many of these secondary meridians that I can. It may delay us ascending though.”

“As you have proved, without health, wealth means nothing, my vote is to open them all. What do the books say? Do they offer an opinion?” Switch asked.

“Yes, but it was based on a different situation. Their advice was to ascend without opening the secondary meridians. The original idea for the Ng family that had descended was to have children here in the Mortal realm and then take them up to the Earth realm and then to the Terra realm as quickly as possible using alchemy pills and energy gathering formations. In the mortal realm, we have four primary surface meridians and one deep meridian. So five rivers that need to be filled with energy to ascend. If you open all the secondary meridians it may increase the equivalent number of rivers to ten or even twenty. They also didn't have technology on their side so adding the secondary meridians would have added decades to ascension. In our case, with frequent use of the pills and creating ideal cultivating scenarios, I suspect adding all the secondary meridians will add a maximum of five years to our schedule.” I looked at May since she was the only one in a rush to ascend.

“Your health is more important, uncle. You are ahead of us anyway. It will be months before we can get to a similar stage. I think it will also increase our chances of survival. If one of us gets ahead of the others they can open another secondary meridian to slow down their progress so that we all go together. Ascending is scary enough. Arriving naked in a strange world that we have no information about. Or information that is twenty thousand years out of date,” May remarked and then gave me a hug.