Nine rings hummed- as the bell's tongs reverberated, the ground fell silent. The empress's wary gaze now left Ping Fei, turning solemn. Li Chen noticed that, although the usual low-key mother now made the very first open move, many ministers seemed not to worry about it, except a few whose faces turned ashen.
It seems a large part of the court was under her control. The empress seems distressed at the very least, but maintaining her composure, she spoke, "Let the ceremonial dance commence".
Eighteen drums were carried and placed, nine to the left, nine to the right, by burly men. They took out the drumsticks behind their back and started drumming them. Its voice, tearing apart the heavens as eight dancers came forward, led by the crown prince, wearing hideous and terrifying masks.
The dance ended as they lit up the flame bearer. After a long process of offerings to the gods and ceremonies. The initiation started, and the emperor called the princes and princesses who had come of age, that is, nine years old. Of eight siblings first and second princes started their journey nine years ago, the third princess started their journey nine years ago, the fourth prince had no aptitude, and the fifth princess chose not to cultivate.
The sixth prince stepped forward as the emperor placed his hands on the prince's wrist. "Weak and thin meridians, unsuitable", he spoke.
Then came the seventh prince, "Average meridian size, suitable", he spoke. The emperor inserted a thin needle into the feet of the prince with a flick. Channelling his essence, he opened the youngquan acupoint.
Li Chen looked at this, surprised. Where is the huge stone or a compass? Is it that there is no such thing as spiritual roots?. No cultivator checking their aptitudes but a mortal. He read about meridians in the scripture pavilion. The five-tiered pagoda, where he usually plays guqin. He was only allowed access to the first and second floors. He read every book there, and they spoke of history very vaguely. Some books were just myths and stories, so the children here are not bored enough to get some wild ideas.
He read that human has 12 ordinary and 8 extraordinary meridians. Having these intact means you can enter the Meridian Unclogging stage. Although the books said they are a part of cultivation, after reading the stages in the bamboo slip, he inferred that they are a prerequisite to enter this stage. Every mortal has these meridians, but they are weak. If you injure yourself badly, they might collapse or shatter. Mending is possible, but not so easily.
Coming back, surprisingly or unsurprisingly, many had shattered meridians, and some chose not to enter cultivation. The twelfth prince did have an average aptitude, and he chose to initiate. Also, he sneered, looking at Li Chen smugly going back to his place.
Now it's Li Chen's turn. He stepped as the emperor gave a reassuring gaze, as if to say, even if your meridians are shattered, we will protect you.
The emperor let out an excited gasp. He praised, "Good, very good, you initiated yourself along with wide meridians, your path will be smooth". Even the noble consort let out a surprised 'hmm' as she looked at li yan as if she could see her bright future ahead. Twelfth Prince's mood turned sour, and he let out a mouthful of imaginary foul air.
The ministers clapped, praising li chen, the emperor's luck and the kingdom's bright future. Those with a little bit of understanding could find the hidden meaning. The emperor's luck came from the consort Huang Ping, and the kingdom's future comes from him, li chen.
They are completely ignoring the fact that he, as a prince, is also the emperor's subject, and that it should not be interpreted as luck, but the emperor's virtue bearing fruit. Meaning they are speaking as if he is the emperor's equal outside of the normal 'the ruler and his subjects' standard.
Li Chen felt head ache coming his way, but the emperor seemed to be occupied with something else; he accepted the praises noncommittally.
This continued for a while; of the eighteen siblings, only eight entered the martial world, including the first, second and third. Five girls and four boys, many princes had shattered meridians, thanks to the palace intrigues.
'If you stick out your head high, unless supported by a thick brach you will be pruned, li chen assessed. If his mother were not powerful enough to protect him, his meridians would have shattered long ago, and even his life would be in jeopardy. This is the price to pay for being born into nobility.
After having a small chat with his mother, after being called into her residency, he came back. Thinking of the new books he could read from the scripture pavilion, he was expectant. After writing his diary as usual, he slept.
On the Third-floor window of the scripture pavilion, li chen his back against one frame, his leg against another, with a book in his hand, took a bite of a fruit, special to this world.
If the history books on the first floor are like a rough blueprint, here every minute detail is noted, and it isn't much. The history books of one kingdom on earth are enough to form a small mountain. Here, it is just half a floor; he only had one conclusion: 'Too peaceful'.
The number of wars can be counted with just one hand throughout the three-thousand-year history. Natural disasters, too, are discernibly low, even if a natural disaster stuck it would not take many lives, just a few or no casualties at all. Other kingdoms will open-handedly accept the victims, providing them with food roof, and a job if they wish to flee their kingdom. The nobles viewed money as grass and tossed it like leaves during famines. There are more doctors than soldiers and scholars.
Too unbelievable. Opposite to Earth. If this is real, the mortal world is indeed an ideal place to live. In this li kingdom flood arose two years ago, destroying countless trees and no humans, not even animals. These disasters seemed more like a warning rather than a misfortune. Two hundred years ago, this kingdom was really prosperous and thriving. It was exactly at this time that war arose, along with natural disasters. Overturning waves, quaking earthnodes, and erupting volcanoes, raging hurricanes, and thundering heavens were seen in the Southern Ming Kingdom.
Although not much was written, it was evident that after this war, the li kingdom slowly faced its downfall. It's mine produced no gold, no trades came this way, summer was too hot, while winter was too cold here. Only those who travelled between kingdoms noticed this.
'There is indeed such a thing as heaven's anger and virtue manifesting, he thought. As he skipped another page, it was written that cultivators cannot enter the mortal world or their cultivation will disperse. They can only stay here for short periods of time. If they wish to stay longer, they have to seal their cultivation. It seems heaven truly wished for mortals to live in peace.
He rose and walked towards the fourth floor. He picked up a dipalpidated book named 'The Way of the World', and he had to admit the name really piqued his curiosity.
He came to the window again, looking at the world outside. He opened the book while climbing onto the window.
"The earth is square while the heaven is round", it started. He wiped his eyes to check if it was his imagination. He's dumbfounded. 'Are there people in this world who say things like Earth being a plane?', he mused to check what arguments they wrote to prove their thesis. He stumbled as he fell inside the pavilion. Picking himself up hurriedly, he made his way down the stairs and across the inner courtyard until he arrived at the martial training ground.
"Disperse, " he said, his authority unquestioning. The guards practising nearby dispersed.
"This is the first i saw the prince in an excitement also filled with panic", a soldier whispered.
"Indeed, he was always humble, never spoke with authority", another replied.
"He treated everyone as equals with respect no less; even maids were very enthusiastic to serve him", commented one.
"Ping Fei is making waves in the court, and he has a good aptitude for cultivation. I said so right, no one noble is humble. Just stepping into cultivation and he already revealed his edge, removing his mask", one spoke sarcastically.
"Shut up, I refuse to believe that the respectful, mature and good-natured prince changed at once. I saw sincerity in his eyes every time he spoke, as if it were true that we are on the same level. He's been in the pavilion for almost seven days; maybe he discovered something". One reprimanded him.
Li chen took a pole from one of the weapon hangers and stabbed it into the ground. He took a small stick from a nearby tree as he noted the shadow cast by the pole at its top. He waited for the shadow to change, and then he noted it again, repeated it time and time again. His maids saw him standing below the steaming sun, muttering something under his breath. The maid bought him cold tea to cool his organs, as he refused to eat the midday meal.
This shadow is not drawing its expected pathway, hyperbols but a simple arc. He drew from the hour of si(9 a.m.) to you( 6 p.m.). He felt his knees go weak as he fell to the ground, and his whole perception of the world changed. Now he truly came to terms with the fact that he is no longer on planet Earth. The rules that apply there will no longer hold true here.
"This world is indeed a plane and maybe a square, as written. This world position in the void is fixed. There exists a plane above this world from which the dome of this world is derived. The sun moon, and the stars are the manifestation of this plane above, and they circle this dome, which they call 'false heaven', and the plane above is the true heavens - every cultivator's target location." he spoke rapidly, out of breath, as if every word drained his life force.
"No, what of seasons. Seasons exist because of the Earth's axial tilt and its elliptical orbit around the Sun. Leaning towards and it's summer solstice, leaning away and it's winter solstice, and half tilt gives spring equinox and the other half autumn equinox", he scratched his head.
He read before that the summer is heavier in li kingdom is heavier compared to other kingdoms. He felt that it might be because heavens exist here and that it might showcase its anger through nature.
Now it makes sense; there exists qi in this world, one small domain of kingdoms experiences one type of weather, while another domain experiences another type of weather. Each type of weather refers to one type of qi. These qi are breathed by the heavens. The seasons are caused by heaven's breath exhaling and inhaling - expanding and contracting its qi across the world, affecting temperature, precipitation, growth cycles and everything.
As he is deeply processing the information he found and deduced, he entered a state of enlightenment. The essence in his body gathered from the yongquan acupoint, rising to weizhong, huiyin and then finally impacting qihai. A burst of cool sensation arose from his body, spreading everywhere, cooling his hot body. It did not stop there; it opened up neiguan and longgong acupoints before calming down. He now reached the middle stage of the acupoint opening stage - the human layer.
Seven days ago, he was given a set of tai chi movement techniques. By following these postures and movements, we can open up the acupoints from bottom to top. He already opened up more than seventy acupoints using his high reserve of essence. There are 12 main acupoints divided into four acupoints per layer from the bottom to the top: the earth, human, and heaven layers. He opened the weizhong and huiyin representing the earth layer a few days ago, but he was struck at the qihai acupoint. It's not a bottleneck, but it just takes more time to progress at this stage. There are four bottlenecks in this stage: qihai, tanzhong, yintang and baihui. The lower three are the access points to the three dantians, and after opening baihui, one can step into the spiritual sensing stage.