Chapter 23: Double Breakthrough

Once Ki Jung got back home, she informs Auntie and little brother that she was going to cultivate in seclusion for the next couple of days. She wants to attempt to breakthrough with both her Blessed Whole arts to further improve her inner body and the depth and breadth of her Dantians and meridians. Ki Jung hopes to achieve this through intense cultivation while in seclusion at the Pergola at the Academy. As an instructor, she has full-time access to the academy grounds and most of its buildings, per her agreement as a student and Master instructor.

Earlier in the week, Ki Jung stopped in at The Five Elements to inquire about any potions or other concoctions that might help with a bottleneck like the one she was facing. She ended up with a new manuscript that went into detail about bottlenecks and various ways to break through them. Thus, this trip to the academy. She purchased the ingredients and recipe for a concoction that should help with cultivating the inner body and Qi related systems. She paid the academy’s alchemist master to make it for her.

Changing to a fresh set of clothes, Ki Jung bids her local family goodbye and heads to the academy. Once there, she prepares her space by cleaning it and then laying down a special mat that announces her status as being in a state of biguan. Biguan is the solitary method of cultivation. Typically, it is done in strict isolation. Ki Jung doesn’t have a place with as intense an energy density outside of the pergola at the academy to use. Thus, she is here to undergo Biguan. Taking the pill that the alchemy master had created for her, Ki Jung settles in.

For the next day and a half, Ki Jung sits in lotus, circulating her Qi through her body’s meridians. With a focused determination, Ki Jung slowly increases the amount of Qi in her Dantian and the density of the energies flowing through her meridians. This has a dual purpose. Directly, it is pushing her Dantian and meridians to their limits. This was a necessary evil. One mistake and she might suffer Qi deviation, which few ever recover from. Indirectly, it should also benefit her body by pushing the limits of her circulatory, renal, gastrointestinal, lymphatic, and limbic systems.

With great care and focus, Ki Jung begins the circulation of her Qi through her body. At the same time, she engages Blessed Whole. Slowly, she sings down into a deep state of meditation. Her mind is multitasking at a subliminal level, where no conscious effort is necessary. All that is required is the purpose and direction to guide it.

Ki Jung is not the only one there at the pergola. Others come and go, but no one disturbs her in the semi-secluded space she occupies. Anyone observing her can see that she was in a profound state of meditation. Additionally, they would notice a light glow that surrounds her body and seems to ebb and flow with each breath. Those who fully understand know that she is drawing Qi into her body from the very air around her with each breath. Between each breath, the mat replaces the Qi from the space around her. This is due to the formations carefully set into its designs.

Inhale, compress Qi, exhale, circulate the energy through the meridians. This goes on with the rhythm of a machine. Her body is bursting with energy as she neared the end of her seclusion period. Ki Jung was on the razor’s edge of either a breakthrough or Qi deviation.

Slowly coming up from her long and deep meditative state, Ki Jung took note of her body’s condition and stopped bringing in more Qi. Instead, she focused on her Dantian and taking that near to overflowing energy and compressing it with a firm will and intense effort. Some period of time later, the energy collapsed in on itself, forming a denser core. As this happened, she had the first breakthrough she sought.