Having his injuries from the challenge healed Jack was eager to test out his new cultivation method. Sitting on his bed he started to concentrate and a moment later his consciousness was back inside his Dantian, the manual of ‘The blazes of the Netherflame’ in front of him.

Carefully Jack sent out a small sliver of Qi into the small crystal hidden inside the manual, just like he did to start the challenge. But this time, instead of getting absorbed the Qi managed to make a small connection between his consciousness and the crystal.

Jack let out a groan as a torrent of information flooded his mind. The correct flow of Qi, how to refine it, and how to store it, all this became engraved into him. Pained Jack grimaced as a pounding headache came over him. He hated this way to transmit information.

After a few minutes the headache finally subsided and Jack could start looking at his new manual. A small book started to appear before his consciousness, its cover made from black leather and golden flames stitched on it. This book was nothing more than a representation of the knowledge he had just gained, it had no true physical form. It was only an illusion to help him understanding what had just been transmitted within his head.

With a thought the book opened and Jack started reading. After the first page a small frown started to form on his face and, by the end of the book it had only grown deeper. With a sigh Jack closed the book, as soon as he had read the last page and leaned back, thinking.

Whoever had made this manual had created one of the most obscure cultivation methods Jack had ever seen. It had taken aspects of at least half a dozen different cultivation styles and mixed them together. How did that even work?

Another problem was the fact that the manual was incomplete. He only had the first part. That would help him to reach the foundation realm without any problem, but once he got there it wouldn’t help any further as the refining wouldn’t be efficient enough for the bigger amounts of Qi. He would need the second part for that. Sadly he knew where he had to go to get it.

‘‘Don’t let us wait too long’, why does that sound like a threat more than anything else?’, thinking back at the being he met in the shadows Jack shuddered. He had no idea what that being had been, but if he could he would never meet it again. Sadly it looked as if he hadn’t a choice in this matter. And what had that creature been anyway? Some kind of guardian for the cultivation method?

Shaking his head Jack focused his mind back on track. Even though this cultivation method was… unusual, it was quite powerful. It would refine the Qi into a very pure version and that even in a reasonable time. The only lacking point was the fact that it wouldn’t create a special ability besides the access to the Netherflame element. Whatever that was, the manual wouldn’t give a description besides ‘pitch black flames that burn in the darkness of the Nether’. Still, with a name like this it promised to be powerful. So he had decided that he would definitely cultivate it.

Carefully Jack took a part of the Qi inside of his Dantian and formed it into a small ball, barely the size of a fist. It was barely enough for a first try, but it still was almost a fifth of his current Qi and he didn’t dare to use more than that. The risk to lose control was simply too great. Slowly he moved the Qi ball out of his Dantian and into one of his Spiritual Veins.

Jack began to hurry the ball forward. First it simply followed the Spiritual Vein but then Jack started to concentrate more. Slowly the edges of the ball started to turn hazy as a fine mist of Qi started to leak out of the ball and fused with the Spiritual Vein around it, forming a soft glowing coat of Qi on its surface. Soon the ball, now a bit smaller in size, arrived at a crossroad between two Veins. In accordance with the manual Jack nudged the ball to the side to take the diverging path.

The ball followed Spiritual Vein after Spiritual Vein, always guided by Jack’s will. The Qi it left behind coated the Veins surface and glowed slightly as the ball continued to shrink further. But as the ball shrunk it started to glow a bit stronger than before. It was the natural refining of the body that would always happen when Qi was moved through Spiritual Veins. Jack grinned slightly. It was normally at best a side effect of using the cultivation method, but for ‘The blazes of the Netherflame’ it was a very important part.

Soon Jack started frowning in concentration. The small ball of refined Qi was becoming more and more unstable the more it Qi it lost, threatening to break apart. Small ripples formed on its exterior as Jack’s will tried to stabilise it.

Sweat began to form on Jack’s forehead as the ball proceeded on its way. Spiritual Vein after Spiritual Vein got passed and the strain to keep the ball of Qi together became more and more. But slowly a pattern could be seen in the movements of the ball. Looking at it from the outside Jack could see the Spiritual Veins that had been passed and coated with Qi forming an intrinsic symbol, not unlike a Celtic rune just in three dimensions and not just two.

As the symbol continued to grow, Jack could feel small reactions coming from the Qi coating the Spiritual Veins. Slowly it began to change from its pale white colour to a murky grey that quickly became darker and darker. A small shiver run through Jack’s body as it sensed something other growing within him.

An hour later Jack finally guided the ball, now barely the size of a marble, back into his Dantian. In the same moment the ball crossed the threshold between Dantian and the rest of his body Jack twitched as, with a wave of power, the symbol within him became completed. A dark glow started to spread from it and the Qi that formed it turned black.

Jack made an exhausted grin. He had no idea who had thought about building a rune within his Spiritual Veins to purify Qi, but it was as effective as it was insane. He didn’t even want to imagine how many people died because they made a single mistake during its creation, only for the rune become unstable and ripping them apart from the inside.

Breathing deeply Jack tried to push away his exhaustion and started with the second phase of the cultivation method. Slowly the ball of Qi floated into the middle of his Dantian, guided by Jack’s will. As soon as it arrived it burst apart in an explosion of light.

If this had happened while the ball was still inside the Spiritual Veins the cultivation method would have failed. At best Jack would have been in a lot of pain, at worst he would have been permanently injured or even crippled. But now, within his Dantian, the explosion had enough place to expand harmlessly.

What remained of the ball was a white glowing nebula of Qi that floated aimlessly inside his Dantian. Now for the harder part. Carefully Jack extended his will into the nebula and started to move the Qi. Slowly the nebula started spinning and forming a vortex. As the vortex grew it started to suck the Qi around it closer. Bit by bit the attraction increased, but strangely the only Qi that was influenced by it was the former nebula. The other, still unrefined Qi that was inside the Dantian remained floating inside a small puddle some distance away.

As the vortex continued to grow it soon absorbed the entire nebula inside of it. But that wasn’t enough to stop its endless hunger. The attraction from the vortex grew and grew until finally…

*snap

With a snapping sound the Qi coating Jack’s Spiritual Veins got torn from its resting place and sucked towards his Dantian. A torrent of pitch black Qi began to flow until it reached the spinning vortex. Greedily the vortex began absorbing the black Qi around it. Slowly its colour changed, until it became the same deep black like the Qi had before.

A shiver run through the vortex as it absorbed the rest of the black Qi and for a moment the attracting force lessened before it returned again. But a few moments later it happened again, a sign of the growing instability in the vortex. And finally, when almost all of the black Qi was absorbed, the vortex sputtered a last time before it collapsed into itself, just like a star would collapse to a black hole.

Within a moment all the Qi that was stored in the vortex were pulled into the middle of it, clashing inside an area no larger than the point of a needle. As the mass of Qi gathered it began to pressure itself more and more until it finally happened. A part of the Qi solidified. It was a strange, pitch black crystal, so small that it was almost impossible to see it, but as soon as it was created the rest of the Qi began fusing to it, causing it to grow rapidly.

Jack watched as the crystal grew. First it was just a small sphere, but quickly small tendrils began forming on the sides. These tendrils began branching off again, spreading further and further until he could finally recognize the form. It was the same rune that had been formed by his Spiritual Veins, just a lot smaller being just the size of a small coin. And yet it was filled with a much more dense energy compared to the rest of Jack’s Qi.

Jack sighed in relief. He had finished the initial circulation of his cultivation manual, so the hardest part was over. Now he would simply have to feed the rune with more refined Qi and it would continue to grow on its own.

Deciding to give it a try, Jack sent out a new part of his Qi towards his Spiritual Veins. Almost autonomous the Qi took the same path the ball of Qi had taken not too long before. Quickly it became refined and soon returned to the Dantian. As if guided by an unseen force the refined Qi flew over to the rune and stopped right next to it. Strands of pure white Qi began to come loose and flew over to the rune where they quickly became integrated inside the structure before they turned into the same black colour as the rest. The rune began dispersing the new Qi inside of it and grew a miniscule amount.

But not all of the Qi got directly absorbed. As soon as a few strands of Qi had been absorbed, the suction of the rune stopped. It was as if the rune had decided that it wasn’t hungry anymore and needed time to digest its meal. Instead the cloud of Qi settled down around the rune. But even if it wasn’t absorbed, the proximity to the rune began to change it. Quickly the white cloud turned into a black haze that floated around the rune.

Jack nodded to himself. Just like the manual had said, the rune would continue to grow. There was a limit to that however, though it would take a long time to reach it. And then he would have to go back to meet that creature.

Shivering Jack returned to his testing. After a moment of concentration a small part of the black haze split from the rune and flew out of the Dantian. Following the Spiritual Veins it quickly reached Jack’s hand before it left his body altogether.

Jack opened his eyes. There, over his open palm floated a small pitch black flame. It was so black it seemed to absorb the light around it. Looking at it gave a strange feeling of warmth that was fused with a coldness that chilled to the bone. A grin crept on Jack’s face.

‘So this is the Netherflame. Interesting.’

But the grin vanished a moment later and turned into a frown. Something about the flames was strange. Trying to get a better look he moved his head closer to the flames.

The flames were darker than the night sky, but there was something off about them. When Jack focussed on the edges of the flames he would sometimes see a flicker of colour. A deep green, so weak he had almost missed it.

Confused Jack scratched the back of his head. The manual didn’t mention anything about that. According to it the flames should be simply black, no other colours whatsoever. Maybe he made a mistake that resulted in the element changing? Either way, he would have to test the flames soon.

‘I should search a better place for that’ he thought as he looked around. He had almost forgotten that he was still inside his room, this clearly wasn’t a place where he should make experiments with fire.

Just when he wanted to extinguish the flame he noticed something strange. The black parts of the flame looked just like a normal flame from afar, but if he looked closer he could see thin tendrils that were moving inside of it, wriggling and twisting with each flicker of the flame. Involuntarily Jack had to think back at the tendrils that held him while he was floating in the darkness before the challenge. Was this the same?

Frowning at the many unanswered questions Jack decided to go to sleep soon. He would test his flames tomorrow. Hopefully he would get some answers this way.