Chapter 6
At a few points in his life Anton had gotten too close to the heat of a stove or an open fire. A quick jerk of his hand and maybe some cool water or a salve to soothe the burn was enough tofort him after that. However, hed never had fire <em>inside</em> of him before.
As the pressure of the energy in his meridians built up, it transformed into fire. It was already far toote to stop, if he did nothing the fire would rage inside him uncontrolled the best he could do was circte it through his meridians and hope he hadnt killed himself. The energy inside him circted from his core, the area underneath his navel the cultivation technique spoke of as the Dantian and out to his extremities and back. Each time itpleted a full cirction, the power increased. If it continued, Anton didnt know if he could keep it under control.
Each cirction left a little bit of me in the middle of his dantian, extremely hot and spinning around releasing <em>more</em> energy. Anton continued the circtions, trying to remember the instructions down to the tiniest detail. He wasnt sure, but perhaps this was supposed to happen. As the energy circted more and more, it wrapped more strands around the fiery core, twisting like a ball of twine. Then he reached the limit of his control and the strand snapped away from him, coiling around the burning ball. However, instead of unraveling or exploding it suddenly <em>condensed</em>.
Anton had only skimmed over the section of the cultivation manual rted to reaching the first level of cultivation. It wasnt something that should be quick, and he knew age would make cultivating slower. However, perhaps he had underestimated the time it would take. A month and a half didnt seem like long to a man a hundred years old but for someone who was ten or fifteen years old it was indeed much more significant.
Now that he wasnt dead, he pulled out the starry manual again. Indeed, the text covered igniting the first star. Hed only thought he was making progress along the way, pushing himself closer not making the actual breakthrough. However, he couldnt deny that he certainly had the first star inside of him now. There was nothing else that he could call it.
Anton sighed. Was he young and reckless again? Then again, even if hed been prepared what else could he have done? He was ready to break through or it wouldnt have been possible, and there was something to be said about letting things happen as they came naturally.
He stood up and noticed a cracking sound. He looked down at himself and noticed ayer of ckness on his skin. Was he burnt? He scraped some of it with his hand and found it was more of a sort of goop. It didnt hurt, but it smelled foul. He would have to clean himself off.
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After having ignited the first star, Antons body no longer hurt, whether cultivating or not. He felt much stronger as if he were ten years younger. Granted, that would still be what he was like at ny years old, but he thought he was a fairly vigorous ny year old. The most important thing is that his meridians felt more durable, so he was able to cultivate more smoothly.
The manual for Ny-Nine Stars described the choices he had to make next in body tempering. Upon reviewing them once again, he decided that fully refining his meridians next would be the best choice. Better cultivation was good, right? He felt his chest. Since he hadnt died his heart should hold out for the moment. He might want to consider refining the organs in his torso next, however.
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Out in the forest, Antons body felt lighter. Young people never realized what they had until it was toote. That was true for Anton, and he hadnt even really noticed the decline over the past decades, gradual as it was. However, returning to some of his former strength and feeling of youth reminded him. He had the many decades of experience hunting to rely on as well, since farming alone had never been sufficient. His body moved stealthily through the brush. He saw a small pack of deer, and could actually pick them out well enough from a distance that he didnt startle them. His eyes still werent <em>good</em>, but he didnt need to pick out their patterns just hit them in the side.
He was able to achieve a draw on the bow he hadnt in quite some time. It was still far below the bows capacity, but his arrow flew true, sinking deep into the side of the deer. It didnt run nearly so far as the one during the snowstorm, and he was able to quickly bring it back to the vige where he would eat some and turn the rest into jerky.
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Anton turned dour as he looked over the rows of graves. Was there even any point in cultivating, swearing vengeance upon the bandits? Hes taken the first step, but was it even possible to do more?
He shook his head. At least, he had to finish this job. His shovel drove into the frozen ground, much deeper than hed been able to before. Within three hours, he had a shallow grave prepared. Deep enough to keep scavengers out, at least. He moved to find the next nearest body. Lily, he believed her name was. He tried to remember everyones name, but some he only spoke to asionally. He made a simple grave marker out of wood, carving her name into it. It wouldntst forever but it was all he could do. He had no ess to stone or a chisel to make asting headstone.
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Focusing the next tempering on his meridians was more difficult than he had thought it would be. Perhaps he had grown cocky after having ignited the first star. If cultivation was so easy everyone would do it. The first star inside of him stored more energy than he had been able to before, as well as allowing him to gather it more quickly with the proper breathing technique. However, using that energy to temper his meridians beyond where they already were he found to be quite slow. Even spending more time each day cultivating, his progress felt minimal.
Then Anton realized why it was so hard. Hed be aware of his sess, his ability to live on at least for a while. He was being cautious, when his only chance of bing relevant was to surve forward. He couldnt be happy with just the first star, or even the second. He had toplete all of the Body Foundation stage <em>at least</em> to be able to avenge his family- the first nine stars.
With the fire of a small star inside of him, he had to be able to do more. It was quite calm and gentle at rest, but if he riled it up it could spin and more rapidly release energy. That was what he needed. He flooded his meridians with energy, straining them to their limits, limits he more clearly understood now that he had experience cultivating. The fire burned through him, down each extremity one at a time seeping into even the smallest parts of his body. Once his energy faded to a small ember, he gathered more, breathing it in from the world around him.
He barely slept, not wanting to give up cultivating but also needing to bury as many bodys as he could before the thaw. He was rarely d for a long winter and of course he would have preferred the current one to be mild and gentle, but it might not have stopped the bandits. At least he wanted the vigers to be rtively whole in their graves, as much as he could do it. But he also couldnt afford to waste time not cultivating, because he wasnt sure if he could live long enough to be strong if he didnt.
He lost track of time, and soon enough another month had passed. Each day he cultivated, he was more efficient with the energy he gathered and he found he could store more and more in his dantian, and the first star. However, he had begun to slow down, having reached a bottleneck. Was he ready to advance to the second star? There was only one way to find out.
Anton continued gathering energy from the world with every breath, condensing it as much as he could into the first star in his dantian until it was overflowing. Then he called upon the energy, circting it through his meridians, forcing its power against them and into them. Fire burned in his veins, but though there was pain, it was a good feeling. He wasnt beyond what he could bear yet. He kept pushing himself towards the limits, consciously breathing in more energy at a regr pace to feed the fires inside of him. When the fire inside him reached their peak and began to overflow, he grasped them in his control, wrestling the strands of energy around each other until they began to form another ball the second star. It grew and grew and grew, bing harder and harder to control. His meridians were on fire, the pain constantly intensifying, but he pushed back the physical pain with his memories which bore much worse emotional pain, and the desire to somehow make amends for what had happened. As he pushed himself knew the energy would eventually exceed his capacity, but he was unable to pull back and when he reached the limits of his control, it once more copsed into a more condensed star. The second star, burning bright. Hed made it. Perhaps he might be able to have some sess at cultivation after all.