Dead Dragon's Combat Manual

Chapter 8: Forging A Spiritual Artifact

"I do have a set of techniques that are well-suited for Body Cultivators, but I can't give you them for now. I'm not going to lie to you, I messed up big time..." Fang Yun said helplessly as he felt that he shouldn't have been so impatient to test his techniques.

"What's wrong?" Lou Meng's voice became somber as he could tell from his young master's tone that something has gone wrong with his cultivation.

Fang Yun didn't answer immediately but instead took out a quilt pen and paper from a drawer near his bed. It was then that he drew a diagram on the sheet with practiced handwriting. Once he was done, he used the diagram he held to try and explain his theory.

"Think of the body as a compass and the Spiritual Channels within your body as the pin that points towards the Dao you are searching for. To find the path towards your Dao, the direction you take will cultivate is what decides the different kinds of abilities within you will obtain while proceeding.

North represents the Soul, East represents the Mind, South represents the Physique and West represents the Heart. Any Dao which Cultivators seek will always be attuned to at least one of these four 'directions' and will take on the characteristics of specific forces hidden within these four fundamental building blocks for human life.

The 'directions' the 'pin', or should I say Spiritual Channels, point towards all have their own special form of internal energy within them. These internal energies are considered the four fundamental internal forces that the human body can produce.

From what I could deduce through seeing your Spiritual Channels in action: The more a Cultivator treads upon the Dao of their choice, the more their Internal Qi will take on more characteristics of a specific internal force which resonates with their Dao.

The Dao you chose to seek as a Cultivator is the Metal Dao, a Dao that heavily relies on murder, slaughter and proficiency in weapon arts. So it is only natural that the Dao is in a 'direction' somewhere between your Heart Force, which is also known as Aura, and your Physique Force known as Ki.

Now, after ALL that explaining, let me move on to my main point. After you started practicing the Harmonic Deity's Bone Cleansing circulation technique along with your War God's Sword Tactics circulation technique, an alteration occurred that moved your Spiritual Channels about... here." After he finished explaining the details regarding his theory on human life and moved on towards explaining Lou Meng's cultivation deviation, he stopped talking for a few minutes to let him take in everything he just said.

Fang Yun was practically sharing knowledge that only those who broke through the void and ascended to the Immortal Realm would be able to know of. If an Immortal was to descend down from the higher realms and listen to his explanation, perhaps he would be enlightened on the Dao of Life.

It was too bad that although Fang Yun had a lot knowledge regarding life and death, he wasn't qualified on gaining profound enlightenment on neither the Dao of Life nor the Dao of Death. It was just like an amateur swordsman having 'knowledge' of swordsmanship but not the true 'insight' into it.

If he ever wanted to stimulate his subconscious in order to gain enlightenment on a Dao, he needed to have the cultivation required for it.

After digesting the truckload of information Fang Yun explained in just a few sentences, he looked towards the diagram to see that there was now a new mark on the diagram. Between the Spiritual Channels (Pin), West direction and South direction was a mark that indicated where his Spiritual Channels have currently moved to.

"Now that you're Spiritual Channels have been moved to this location within your body, it will now be easier for you to attune with the Dao of Metal or other similar combat-orientated Dao. What you're going to have no choice sacrificing in return is your affinity with non-combative Dao like the Dao of Music and something you worked your entire life to obtain, your cultivation..." As soon as he finished his way words, Lou Meng's face distorted as he lowered his head in sorrow.