Obviously the provided 'notes' were lacking. A lot. They were hand written self reminding materials, not intended for sharing or distribution... and only a subsection of information at that!
But it didn't really matter. Adam was one of the few people in existence who could easily and reliably test Cultivation Techniques on his own body with little or no consequences, as long as he was careful.
No, aside from fully learning the local language (Spoken and written), Adam felt like a moron after a basic comment Miss Assistant made on page four. Well, the page was labeled something that probably made sense to the original author, but it was the fourth page in the pile.
It was a short comment about how reducing the brightness of her fire arrow technique made it go further.
Which... well, it set 'Research' off on a crazy train.
When using a technique, activating an ability, using a skill... whatever. There was a set amount of energy available. Some would be used to structure your attack. A bit more for detecting the target or directing the next few moves. More used when launching said actions. And the rest would be used to retain the attack's shape and deliver the attack load.
In other words, the more complicated the move? The less energy delivered. The brighter it was? The more power wasted that could have been used to increase attack speed or the damage on impact.
So Adam's 'Meridian Rebirth' technique was wasting energy like a boat made out of screen doors. That Flame energy consuming his flesh, burning his spiritual nodes... it was all wasted power that could be recollected and properly used.
With renewed focus and actively pausing his attempts at cultivation (The 10 streams were slowly gaining progress but were still being absorbed before completion), Adam then combined Binding power and Flame energy again... but only crafted half as much as before.
Basically doubling the amount of control over the mess, though it wasn't so simple. Doubling the amount of energy to work with took almost three times as much concentration, so his control over the spiritual conditioning process should have skyrocketed by deliberately limiting himself.
With 'Research' active, he slowly focused on a single Meridian, this one undamaged. As the heat began to affect the surrounding area, Adam used his attention to drag that lost power back into the mass of Flame energy that streamed in from his floating Shard.
...His body was still warmer than normal, but his blood wasn't boiling and his flesh was just... itching. More flesh was able to survive the process as well, even if the amount of improvement was far lower than the 'Burn it all and duplicate the survivor!' methods. It would take many more cycles to get things up to his standards, but there was almost no pain... just a faint itching.
After a few more tests, Adam redirected his focus to a 95% healthy meridian on his left hip.
The sting as the meridian evaporated was... easier to bear. The heat that previously would have begun scarring the local muscles was instead pushed back into the pattern, speeding progress up slightly. After a cautious test or two... yes, he could regrow this spiritual node without scaring his body. Repairing his meridians would now be far easier and less messy!
Adam's grin grew as he moved step by step from his healthy flesh into the twisted mess exposed to his bandages. This would be slow deliberately as he ensured each meridian was regrown and enhanced enough to handle basic energy loads. In around... a quick check to 'Research'... yeah, around eight hours or so, all his existing but damaged meridian nodes would be reborn.
Then... then he could attempt to regrow some of the destroyed spiritual connections. Maybe regain his ability to flip two people off at the same time.
The black impurity sludge spurted out of his body at odd intervals and places as each individual damaged meridian point was carefully examined, destroyed, regrown, and enhanced. Without attempting to repair his whole system at once, only the left side was expelling the encountered scar tissues, rogue energies, and spiritual organ debris.
Still smelled like crap, but it was more bearable.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Xiao Quan paced in her room.
It was fine, right? It was probably fine. She had backup copies of her notes of course, some things were too important to risk loss due to damage or being stolen.
But she couldn't risk the kid accidentally suffering a catastrophic issue. Cultivators without guidance have caught their soul on fire, destroyed their meridian network, evaporated parts of their brain... the risks of taking action without proper knowledge was too high! Far too high.
She tried to calm down.
Her notes would be useful, yes, but it was only the most esoteric of data. Dense data, with her ramblings and discoveries... no actual techniques or tricks. Hopefully it would keep the child distracted long enough for her to get permission from the official Healers to try and get him accepted as an Outer Assistant at least, maybe eventually become a Outer Disciple. Then she could share the more useful stuff.
The difference between the two positions is mostly related to talent during cultivation, as the various Disciples got monthly allocations and allowances of cultivation resources, various pills and liquids designed to promote cultivation progress. Assistants on the other hand tend to focus on topics other than pure cultivation, or act like apprentices to others as she helped Healer Qin.
Surely his enhanced recovery could interest someone to sponsor him? She herself was only an Inner Assistant, lucky that an Inner Disciple Healer had found her talents and invested in her learning opportunities. She had spent a lot of her free favors and resources already supporting the Outer Sect's orphanage, her ability to act now was heavily limited.
Quan looked up as the door opened. "Healer Qin?"
The man walked in with a grin. "Good news, Assistant Quan! Healer Jin got approval from someone high in the Sect, all of the boy's medical costs are covered now. You'll even get reimbursed slightly, as we haven't used all of the medication resources you gave up."
Her face lit up in a grin. "That... that's brilliant!" She glanced at her notes. "I'm sure I can convince him to join our Sect after talking a bit, and he seems eager to cultivate... without the burden of healing fees I'm sure he will advance quickly!"
Everyone had to pay back the various costs for healing in the Sect, though some would get sponsored or donations from people attempting to show support or grow political connections. Most simply had their pay slightly garnished, so that the fees would eventually get paid without burdening weaker cultivators with heavy fees or punishing them with heavily reduced resources. Healer Jin was a bit famous for his acts of charity, just paying off debts for those with harsh circumstances... thankfully that wasn't needed here now.
Healer Qin handed over some documents. "One of the Elders has already prepared a basic admittance pass that we can offer the child, though the boy will need to choose a new name. I'm sure he doesn't desire his old one at this point."
She hummed. "Might be a bit tricky. I've been using more basic vocabulary as he had... issues following our conversations initially. And he only recently requested some literary learning materials... I do not know what literacy level he has reached."
Quan tapped her chin and nodded. "I can just read it out loud and have him confirm if he fully understands the contract. I wish we were allowed to offer him a higher initial position than Outer Assistant though... some people have pride issues."
The male healer snorted. "It is standard policy for all members of our Sect to start at the base of the mountain. Otherwise, you lose appreciation of the climb." He sighed and fondly remembered. "I met my wife all the way at the bottom back then. Nothing but Outer Disciples, her background worthless and my pride far too big for my own good."
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah, you tell that story all the time." She gripped the contract. "I'm going to go right now, I'm sure that he would want to join us... and if he is accepted, I can officially get the orphanage to accept him! He would have food and shelter, time to adjust to his disabilities... maybe find a friend or two there like I did..."
Healer Jin waved her off. "Meh, do what you wish... but I, on the other hand, need sleep."
She glanced at the black windows, night fully fallen, and winced. "Ah... yeah, maybe I'll wait till morning."
She missed the man chuckling as he left, already looking over her notes. If the boy accepted this opportunity then she would start by showing her old notes on the Sect's official Houtian First Order Cultivating Technique, it was more complicated than the basic generic version so popular in the outside poor villages and a bit of help could really move him along towards cultivation. Maybe even help the healing process!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Having all his existing meridians repaired really... really felt good.
Adam carefully used his right hand to wipe more impurities off into the bucket near his bed. Eventually, he would likely have to rebirth the meat of most of his left side, his crippled leg especially, but with the support of his mostly restored Meridian nodes... well, several circulation routes that the body naturally and autonomously circulated started cycling again, ones he had been unaware of and that 'Research' found fascinating.
The work load on his body had reduced by a factor, his physical strain in general had dropped like a rock, and his mind felt... so much more relaxed.
It allowed him to triple the amount of power being guided in his body without dripping excess power. And 'Research' had basically enhanced his techniques and sensing abilities by several folds now that he wasn't accidentally overloading his own skills by trying to do too much at once.
He glanced at his missing left wrist... and winced. All the other meridian points were easy enough to repair... but he was MISSING several in his left arm.
Good news? Meridian Rebirth worked, only a few nodes meant to be in his actual hand and arm end were currently missing now that the rest had been regrown from literally nothing.
Bad news?
The 'Rebirth' technique had hurt, of course. And needed almost ALL Binding energy he gathered, preventing several healing sessions... he nearly passed out due to the massive amount of concentration needed.
By the time he finished the last meridian point in his left arm, or at least the last one that he could make until he regrew the damn thing, the mental process only made him feel like a brick was smashing his head. So... progress.
Then again, everything that broke the rules of what was 'possible' was likely due to a combination of being stupid hard and absurdly painful. Case in point, he COULD use this rebirth process to regrow his hand.
It was slow.
It was... very painful.
And it involved turning his left arm's stump tip into actual embers of flaming flesh.
God it was gross. The end of the limb looked alright to some extent, like a bed of coals. But the flesh leading up to it was wriggling and squirming like maggots and worms, barely any progress occurring at all.
Then again... ten minutes of healing after two hours and fifty minutes? It wasn't as bad as his two minutes of cultivation liability, but yeah.
This could take months. Months... ten minutes at a time.
Best case scenario? If it took a single month to regrow his wrist and hand, that was 43,800 minutes of recovery. Which due to his constant pauses to gather energy, would take 7,446,000 minutes in total to work with if there was no delays or issues in the process... or 14 years, 57 days, 10 hours, and 37 minutes.
Thank you, overly specific 'Research' result.
Point was, Adam wasn't going to wait over fourteen years to be able to clap.
So for now, after attempting (and uh... failing) to fully heal his left arm's stump, he dropped attempts at rebuilding any further meridians and focused 'Research' BACK onto his so far difficult cultivation.
The results were... interesting.
First of all, the difference between a fragile network of damaged cultivation routes and partially missing meridian nodes when compared to his repaired system? Unbelievable.
There was no comparison possible. He was still seeing a multiple strand Cultivation Technique route being suggested, but the pattern was FAR easier. Less interactions between routes, more energy allowed through various passages, less minute changes needed to prevent instant disaster... it was night and day, really.
Secondly, the reorganized memories from his past about cultivation and the notes from Miss Assistant. This was valuable data, very useful!
Standard cultivation techniques followed a very simple pattern. The act of breaking through from First Order to Second Order Warrior (And so on) was caused by the spiritual pathways being improved SO MUCH that weaker or blocked routes become accessible.
In other words, people were not cultivating muscles, then tendons, then bones, and so forth on purpose. Nor because of simple tradition.
No, it was a side effect of how energy was being incorporated into the user.
Energy was being forced from a layer below the skin, where the Cultivator could control it easiest, THROUGH the muscles, past the tendons, and into the bones. After the innards were reinforced enough, the stored Qi rivers flowing through the users meridian points could then join together into the 'Qi Sea'. After reaching the Seventh Order Stage of the Houtian Realm, this Qi Sea was needed to penetrate and enhanced the bones of the body, the producer of blood for the cultivator.
Only after all that mess could one begin to reinforce with energies outside their basic system, such as the skin and so forth.
Adam's method was... skipping some stuff.
He was unblocking spiritual paths, enhancing meridian nodes, and (as a byproduct) reforming his flesh by directly controlling so many strands of energy that it confused things. His power was getting through areas that would normally be blocked off at various 'bottlenecks' of cultivation (Stages Third Order to Fourth, Sixth to Seventh). By having more than one strand, some energy was passing through spiritual paths too small for full power access, and some routes were opened that normally would be shut closed as power pressed against other areas.
Of course, Adam wouldn't be able to show others how to do such a thing, as it required knowing his body VERY intimately. And his cultivation rank was still zero because the Binding energy was still being absorbed by the many passages traveled before a cycle could be completed... but it was an interesting situation to observe.
He wouldn't be able to shoot up to 10th Order Peak Houtian or anything. After all, going up Stages had more requirements than simply just passing the various bottlenecks involved. Process wise... the vast majority of cultivators had to build up internal reserves of power first for LONG periods before even reaching those issues. Without enough Battle Qi, forget getting to Second Order, no matter where that power can flow.
Past memories implied that kids with HIGH talent could reach Initial First Order Houtian Warrior (The most basic of basics) after a month's hard work of cultivation and gathering heavenly power. Otherwise, three to six months wouldn't be that unusual. And some children... well, not everyone could become Cultivators.
Adam glanced up at his Shard, swirling as it slowly decayed various bonds of power to release Binding energies.
Yeah, he wouldn't take that long, probably. Aside from his very powerful energy manipulation skills due to his Martial Spirit, the energy he was using most, this 'Binding' energy, didn't feel normal. Every other energy was more... sticky. Willing to be goo like as it bumped around. This stuff felt more... clean. And in some way, similar to his Shard.
...It may be a type of Soul energy.
Either way, THIS was the stuff Adam wanted to work with. It not only enhanced his body and nourished his system, but it allowed easy manipulation of energies he bonded to it. Maybe after fully tempering his system with Flame energies he could test other combinations? After using 'Research' first, of course.
A quick glance at his body internals... then a glance back at the Shard...
His flesh wasn't 100% fixed, his hand was missing, but his spiritual paths were stable and secured.
With concentration, he focused on the Binding energy swirling around the Shard, which would normally be pulled into his body for another attempt at cultivation.
'Growth.'
Adam felt his face split into a grin (Now that his scar covered left side of his face could move again) when the swirl of Binding power... began to swirl faster.
And grow.
Ever so slowly, the Shard was able to consume the smallest of trash energies and consume it as fuel, a replacement for magic, as Binding began to generate extra power from within its own power swirl. The rate was... not astounding. But compared to the current filtration, sorting, dismantling collection system?
Before, he could cultivate for two minutes every two hours and fifty eight minutes.
Now? One hour of 'Growth' and energy straining could fuel ten whole minutes!
Adam had 'Research' waste some energy and use techniques to test the various Cultivation routes in his newly repaired system, reveling in the lack of pain and burning as his body was now strong enough to redirect the wasted heat back into the system.
At this point it looked like his new energy absorption method would have only seven strands operating at once instead of ten, but the pattern would be a bit tricky and different.
One strand to each limb, one route passing through the heart, one through the brain, and one passing through the torso area overall.
The limbs were the least risky, the brain was the most concerning (Though tests were going well), the heart seemed to be related to a conceptual issue, and the torso path bound the other meridian routes together, enhancing various sections of his spiritual network and helping bind together the general mesh of cultivation. In a way, it simplified his issues a lot, as only his left arm's route had to be customized to handle the lack of certain nodes.
Glancing at his Shard glowing bright blue with 'Growth', instead of the white of 'Purification' or the metallic 'Research', Adam relaxed as the Binding energy replicated, the trash swirls shrinking as they were slowly being consumed by his Shard. His mind carefully studied the suggested Cultivation Routes and potential alternatives to be followed.
...Crap. He was going to have to name this Cultivation Technique at some point, wasn't he?
