Chapter 18: Welcome Back
I focused on my seed, trying to guide its transformation like I had during my last breakthrough. But something was different this time. The energy patterns were more complex, more... willful. Where before they had been like a gentle stream, now they reminded me of ocean currents, deep and powerful and not entirely predictable.
The first hints came as ripples in my inner world, spreading outward from the seed in waves of golden light. The stellar core pulsed, each beat sending sparks of qi racing through my meridians.
It was beautiful, in a terrifying sort of way.
"Qi patterns intensifying," Azure reported. "Detecting significant qi accumulation in your lower dantian."
I remembered Senior Sister Liu's lengthy explanation about the dantian being the "foundation of all cultivation, the crucible where essence is refined into power, and the wellspring from which true strength flows."
After ten minutes of similar metaphors, I still wasn't entirely sure what she meant. Was it physical? Spiritual? Both? Neither? If someone were to dissect a cultivator (not that I was volunteering), would they find an actual dantian, or was it more like a concept, an idea given form through cultivation?
Cultivators had a peculiar talent for making everything sound profound while explaining absolutely nothing - rather like those politicians who could talk for hours without actually saying anything of substance.
Still, at least I could feel where the energy was gathering, even if I couldn't quite grasp what exactly was gathering it or how. The whole thing made my head hurt if I thought about it too much, which was probably why most cultivators just accepted it without question.
Right now, though, I had more pressing concerns than philosophical questions about cultivation anatomy.