Chapter 86: A Real Cultivator
They ended up making a key of sorts, but only after deciding that, instead of just locking with the latch across from it, they would also lock with the ones above and below. The key had to be inserted into the dantian at the top of these interlocking hardened qi sections.
Creating the constructs was almost as hard as coming up with the design. It required Paike to blend his physical cultivation with his spiritual cultivation in ways he hadn’t heard of before. But they were able to get some tiny objects to keep their shape and rigidity in his spirit.
He attached them on the side of his dantian, in careful rows that mimicked the tiny bits of solid qi that Guan Li was carefully maintaining in the real world. Guan Li ran the key down and the series of interlocking latches untied. He then pulled the key back up, twisted the key, and detached it.
In its wake, all the latches redid themselves. It was quite efficient. There was only one real lock at the top; the rest of the design was just on the latches around it.
Paike mirrored his actions on his own spirit, and everything worked as intended. Right now, it only caused a slight crease in his dantian as he had left the membrane uncut. There was no need to rush to set everything up while he was trying to keep his spirit in one piece.
For once he was afforded the luxury of time, and he was taking advantage of it. After several more tests, there wasn't anything for it but to give it a shot.
There were two things he was concerned about right away. First, that the latching objects themselves would end up being too weak and would break when he tried to close it up. Second, he worried that the attachment points to the dantian were not strong enough.
He had done his best to mitigate these by spreading the forces across many attachment points. He thought it was pretty strong, but obviously hadn't been able to determine how strong. Maybe it was something he could see if Elder Song could help with.
His more lasting concerns were many. Would these constructs last? Or maybe the dantian would heal around them. He was hoping this was something he could reuse even if he had to make a new cut each time. However, if everything held, he might be able to get the cut to heal open.