Nearly three weeks. That's how long I took to finish my first meridian, which was now a direct path to the back of my head, and an expanding spiral spreading over a third of the back of my head, right under the skin beyond my skull.

And still, it was nowhere near as wide as I planned, as I decided to just finish the bare bones of my meridians first, and expand them later. The next years were going to be really painful. The sacrifices one went through for cultivation. Maddening.

For now I would create my cultivating aid, a crystal matrix of liquid qi inlain between my meridians, ready to purify qi. Qi that would be send in there by my aura, after a new modification.

Wait… I wanted to create that crystal matrix. Out of liquid qi. And my meridians were created out of liquid qi too. Why the extra step?

Did meridians work that way?

I needed a volunteer, or several.

To the beach!

I was stopped short as I opened the door. A curtain of water greeted me. Great, I completely forgot it was raining. Why did it always rain when I wanted to test some new idea? Did the world hate me that much? Because mom absolutely forbid me from going outside while it was raining, talking about some strange dangers that came out in the rain, prying on small beings.

I’d have to wait then. Not really a problem for me normally, after all I needed ever more qi to expand my cultivation, and grow my network of meridians. I would work to fill my single meridian now though, if my plan worked I would need all the qi I could get, to kickstart my crystal lattice meridians.

But if I were able to create my crystal matrix out of meridians instead of liquid qi that would be simply great. Creating liquid qi wasn't meant for precision, and while I could get pretty damn precise by using hair thin strands of void, doing so was tedious and did tend to randomly cause problems every now and then. Creating meridians with liquid qi was far more precise, and could be done at a far smaller scale. I had yet to see my qi randomly get out of control when directly controlled.

Directly using meridians would also decrease the chance of liquid qi muddling up the lattice, and forcing me to redo it from zero every now and then. I couldn't remove meridians though, so I’d have to be extra careful with those. And careful meant slow. Great. More pain. I really hoped I’d get used to that kind of pain soon, or I would go mad before long.

Well, madder than I already was anyways.

Wait, if I was doing some meridian research I wouldn't need to go to the beach, something smaller should suffice, like a fly. My eyes scanned the room, searching for one of the ever present pests.

I didn't find any. Honestly that wasn't all that surprising, considering I went through the trouble of killing nearly two dozen flies earlier that day. I hated the small, persistent pests. They were bad back home, but here, with no way to close the window with something other than a sheet of leather they could get in whenever they wanted.

And just like rats flies were really good at transmitting diseases. And getting seriously ill in this world probably meant death for me and my mom. And I really had no desire to die, and be born in worse circumstances. If I were to be reborn again at all, I had no clue why I was in the first place anyways.

Which meant going through the trouble to kill any pests entering our house with extreme prejudice, trying my best not to actually touch any of them directly. Well, it wasn't like I was in a hurry, though a distraction from the pain would have been nice. Real nice.

A day later I was outside once again, holding a crab in my hand. And all I could do was stopping myself from laughing out loud like a maniac. It worked! Hair thin meridians spread through the crab, slowly filling with liquified qi as I pushed ambient qi into the structure spreading through its shell.

It worked even better than the ones I made out of liquid qi in my earlier tests a few weeks ago, as qi got purified significantly faster. And new qi didn't block the crystal lattice like it did when I used liquid qi directly. Though the increased speed was probably a result of the superior precision caused by me having direct control over the process, and not simply abusing a natural process like I did with the creation of liquid qi.

This changed things. I had already planned to spread vein like meridians through my body in due time, but didn't actually plan to fill it with liquid qi crystals, as that would be bothersome and restricting. But now? If I ever wanted to cultivate as fast as possible, I had new possibilities.

I could join a caravan, gobble up all that delicious qi on the move without any effort on my own, and naturally advance ever further, without any effort of my own. Well, with no effort after I finished all those meridians at least. Not that I wanted to do that though, travelling in medieval times was dangerous. And I didn't need any danger in my life!

Did I want to change my meridian map because of that? I could start by gathering some liquid qi all over my body, just under the skin, and start creating cultivating meridians right there. It would be the best thing to do, probably.

At the very least it would maximize the total qi I gathered. But that would also mean creating meridians not originating in my brain, and I didn't know if I wanted that. It could very well be that didn't matter, or it could absolutely matter. Because I had to open my dantian at the center of my meridian system, as told about by my fiend, so it stood to reason that center would also have to be the center of my expansion.

In the end the increased speed really wasn't worth the risk. Sure it would speed up meridian creation significantly the earlier I started, but at the rest of having the center of my meridian network somewhere else. I decided I’d continue as originally planned, with the minor change of connecting the occasional meridian to my skin. To siphon off all the liquid qi created by the hair thin crystal lattice meridians that I would spread all throughout my skin.

It would take a long time to finish all that still, and I really didn't envy all those that stupidly kept to tradition, and made everything by hand. They’d have really weak meridians, or have to cultivate for a long time. Or use a stupid amount of qi filled resources, which didn't sound all that good to me.

I was getting ahead of myself though, I really should get my first set of meridians first, before planning anything else. Furthermore by now I often saw mom glancing at me with a conflicted look on her face. I guessed it had something to do with me not having officially broken through into the ‘first’ realm yet.

She wanted me to be a cultivator, but we got more and more customers ever since about a year back, and mom was drowning in work. She really needed any help she could get. I probably had entered the age one normally went to search or get an apprenticeship normally, meaning my future prospects would look quite bad if I didn't manage to become a cultivator soon.

I’d ask her in a few days.

Though, I decided here and there that I wouldn't officially ‘break’ into the first realm until my apprenticeship was going on for a few months. Until then I had plenty time to think of a one syllable name for myself.

---

“Hello Alranutsu, are you there?” A voice called out.

Damn. She found out. Using an immortal’s name in their aura always alerted said immortal of that person. And a persistent young human was waiting at the entrance of his forest. Three weeks! She had only left three weeks ago, practically the blink of an eye really, and here she was again.

Alranutsu sighed loudly, and got up from his resting spot. The human was surprisingly persistent. He got some water, shaped a cup, and allowed her to see him, standing next to her with the cup floating between them. As always when she saw him the human’s lip quivered for a moment, like she suppressed some kind of reaction.

“Hello little human. Do you want something to drink?” He asked.

“Sure, thank you.” She said.

His small human took the floating cup, taking a sip of the spiritual water within.

“This is good.” She said. “So, I have three hours before I have to return home. What do you want to do?”

“Return to cultivate. You stopped me right in the middle of it.” He grumbled.

“Oh come on. Don't be so grumpy!” She cried. “I even gave you another week, to finish my first meridian.”

“You gave me time?” He grumbled. “You do know I am a powerful immortal and you a second realm cultivator?”

“Of course I do. But what does that have to do with anything. You’re old and grumpy, and need someone to help you appreciate the finer things in life. You only seem to do one of those, sleeping. But I don't think you eat, or drink, or have any kind of other fun. That can't be healthy. And the mental health of one as powerful as you is even more important than that of someone weaker.” She stated. “So I am going to help you.”

“I don't need any help. I am just fine.” He tried explaining the slow human again,

Fruitlessly, as he talked on deaf ears, his human ignoring the argument.

“Good to see you agree. So, today we’re going to visit some nice landscapes. Take me to a waterfall with a small lake.” She said.

Alranutsu sighed, but complied. Apart from killing the human nothing would make her shut up, and he kinda liked the brave little thing. And stupid, but she was human, but that was a state of being, not something she could change.

“You really have no idea what I am talking about, don't you?” The human complained.

He didn't know what her problem was. There was water falling into a small creek right in front of them. He really liked drinking that water too, back when he still drank stuff.

“Let's go somewhere like this, I am sure a forest as vast, and beautiful as yours has something like it.” She said.

A small marble flew towards him again, filled with a little qi. He touched it, and an image of a large waterfall, and a small lake beneath entered his mind. The sensation accompanying it were strange, alien really. So he destroyed all but the picture itself.

Did his forest have something like that? His aura swept out, searching for such a waterfall. There. Not the exact same thing, but similar enough to satisfy his human. Hopefully.

“Beautiful.” The human whispered as they arrived.

He looked at the waterfall and lake, but really couldn't see anything special. Just some water falling down into more water.

“You don't get it, do you?” The girl asked. “Close your eyes, breathe in, breathe out. And repeat. Feel the aura of this place, the peace and quiet. The tranquility.”

He did as asked, and sure enough, he could feel the aura of this place. Peaceful, but with an undercurrent of competition and killing. It really felt perfect.

“Now, open your eyes again, and see how the aura and the location interact with each other. How they build a perfect picture of a healthy forest, a place where life meets to drink lifegiving water.” She commanded.

He did, and had to admit the picture did look good. The peace and calm he liked and needed while cultivating, but also the excitement of stalking prey, catching them unawares and ripping into their unsuspecting form. Like a good hunt needed to be.

It made a good picture. Not good enough to come here on his own, but what fox couldn't appreciate the simplicity of nature, of the nature of beasts.

“I can see what you mean. A little.” He admitted.

“Took you long enough.” The human said with a grin. “We stood here for nearly an hour before you managed to find what I mean. You are slow, old fox.”

“Impudent human!” He grumbled.

Still, he felt great, refreshed, and ready to cultivate. So he moved his human back towards her town, and returned to cultivating by himself. The human would return in time, and he was looking forwards to it. A little. Maybe.