Chapter 21: Chaos Sutra Is Too Powerful

Meridians were like the grand rivers of the human body, carrying spiritual qi throughout the cultivator’s entire body, while apertures were like hidden aqueducts, divine locks, and gates connecting those rivers together.

They allowed a cultivator to draw in spiritual qi from the surrounding world, filter it, and direct it into the correct pathways.

Every cultivation manual had its own unique circulation pattern.

A low-grade technique might only require four or five common meridians and half a dozen easily accessible apertures. These techniques were simple, relatively safe, and could be practiced by almost anyone with enough spiritual qi.

But high-grade cultivation scriptures were completely different.

The higher the grade of a scripture, the more hidden pathways it required. Unfortunately, most cultivators were born with countless meridians naturally clogged, dormant, or completely sealed.

Some apertures were also impossible to open through ordinary cultivation. They remained hidden deep within the body, waiting for the cultivator to reach a certain level of strength or comprehension before they could even be touched.

For example, a Heaven-Grade cultivation manual might require more than fifty apertures to circulate spiritual qi properly. If a cultivator only had ten apertures naturally open and tried to force the technique anyway, the massive amount of spiritual qi would have nowhere to go, not to mention it would seek pathways which didn’t even exist.

The result would be ruptured meridians, severe internal injuries, or even death.

Some apertures weren’t even connected to the physical flesh in the conventional sense. They were metaphysical structures tied to the soul itself, which was why certain high-grade techniques required not only a strong body but also a powerful spiritual foundation.

Cultivators would spend years nurturing and refining the meridians they already had before attempting to force open new apertures. They would temper their bodies, circulate spiritual qi through the same pathways countless times, and slowly clear the dormant meridians that blocked the flow.

The more pathways a cultivator unlocked, the more powerful cultivation manuals they could practice.

It also allowed them to use more powerful martial arts without placing excessive strain on their bodies. After all, martial arts and sword techniques weren’t simply about knowing the correct movements. They required dozens of apertures to open and close in perfect coordination, allowing spiritual qi to surge through the body at precisely the right moment.

Thinking about it, I couldn’t help but realize that the years I had spent grinding at Early Core Formation hadn’t actually been wasted.

I might have been stuck at the same realm for years, but I had spent all those years slowly clearing and refining the enormous network of meridians and apertures within my body.

Combined with my newly acquired Heaven-Grade Spiritual Roots, that foundation meant I could finally attempt to cultivate a Heaven-Grade Chaos Sutra without immediately destroying myself.

I reached out and unrolled the jade scroll.

Ancient characters covered the surface of the scroll, each one carrying a profound aura that made my mind instinctively focus.

As I read the opening section, I slowly understood what made the Primordial Five Elements Chaos Sutra so different from ordinary cultivation techniques.

The Primordial Five Elements Chaos Sutra did not seek to specialize, but to return all things to their singular origin.

Heaven and Earth were born from Chaos, and Chaos was divided by the Five Phases: Metal to sever, Wood to nourish, Water to adapt, Fire to destroy, and Earth to endure.

Most cultivation paths discarded four elements to chase a single blade, but this sutra commanded all five streams, cycling them through seventy-two major apertures and thirty-six profound meridians in an unbroken, perpetual wheel.

When all five streams converged at the core, the five colors collapsed into primordial grey, forging the True Chaos Core.

This would grant me qi capable of assimilating any elemental art, crushing any single-attribute domain, and enduring heavenly tribulations without faltering.

I stared at the diagrams showing the seventy-two apertures and thirty-six profound meridians, a faint smile appearing on my face.

"Seventy-two apertures..."

I slowly traced the first circulation route with my finger.

"Let’s see how much power a True Chaos Core actually holds."

The intricate diagram etched into the jade scroll was dizzying to look at. Lines of glowing elemental light intersected across thousands of tiny nodes, marking the seventy-two major apertures and thirty-six profound meridians required to circulate the Primordial Five Elements Chaos Sutra.

Alongside the illustrations was the precise circulation pattern: qi had to be divided into five elemental streams, channeled simultaneously through specific junction gates, and converged in an unbroken, rotating cycle at the lower dantian.

I closed my eyes and sank my divine sense deep into my own body, carefully comparing the sutra’s required map against my inner network.

A bitter chuckle slipped past my lips.

Out of the seventy-two apertures demanded by the scripture, I had only opened forty. As for the thirty-six profound meridians, I had managed to clear only twenty-three.

Naturally, over many years of stubborn, desperate grinding, I had cleared plenty of other channels in my flesh, dozens of minor paths and secondary gates scattered throughout my body. But those belonged to the mediocre orthodox arts I had practiced in the past. They didn’t align with the five-phase geometry of this Heaven-Grade Chaos Sutra. For this technique, those extra channels were essentially useless.

I opened my eyes and let out a quiet sigh. Still, I wasn’t disheartened in the slightest.

I had already anticipated this kind of wall. High-tier cultivation scriptures were legendary precisely because ordinary mortals simply didn’t possess the physical or metaphysical architecture to handle them. The fact that my decades of scraping by had already opened more than half of the required gates was already a massive, pleasant surprise.

"No point rushing it," I murmured, rolling the heavy scroll back up.

With a flick of my wrist, the jade scroll dissolved into a speck of light, safely stored away in my space ring. Until I systematically unlocked the remaining thirty-two apertures and thirteen meridians, attempting to forcibly circulate the full sutra would do nothing except blow my insides to pieces.

’As if I’m doing that after finally having a chance to dominate this world.’