Chapter 577: Breakthrough – Part 3

*Whack!*

"Ow! Mom!" Eris pouted while Sasha rubbed her temples again, thoroughly embarrassed by her daughter’s uncouth behaviour.

Everyone had a good laugh at their usual mother-daughter antics, but soon re-focused as Elizabeth continued, "Little Eris’ description is actually quite apt. Cultivating in the Mortal Realms really is similar to eating, a conscious act we perform in order to take in nutrition and nourish our bodies."

Returning to the blackboard, Elizabeth began writing again, "Once in the Vein Opening Realm, the meridians take over the process of carrying World Qi as they are designed explicitly for that purpose. It is also by flowing World Qi around like this that we refine it into Spirit Qi adapted to our bodies and expand or ’open’ our meridians fully."

"To reach the Core Formation Realm, similar to the breakthrough process from the Body Tempering to Vein Opening Realms, we gather as much Spirit Qi as possible into our meridians then concentrate it all at our dantian, forming our Core."

"Cultivation in the Core Formation Realm is all about filling our dantian until it too is saturated with Spirit Qi."

"Finally, to break through to the Sea Establishment Realm, we gather all of the Spirit Qi from our core and meridians then use it to break open our Soul Sea; after which we continue to nurture our Soul with more Spirit Qi until it is saturated."

"In other words, Mortal Realm cultivation is just a repeated process of accumulation, all in preparation to enter the Spirit Realms."

Once she reached this point, Elizabeth turned around to confirm that no one had dozed off.

This was all basic information that everyone in the room knew by heart, so it wouldn’t be surprising for them to have tuned out slightly.

Fortunately, only the young fox was napping, while all the others were paying full attention to her lesson.

It was true that they all knew this information already, but since Supreme Elder Carlson had deemed it necessary to review it, they figured she had an important point to make.

Smiling faintly, Elizabeth tapped the blackboard with her chalk and continued, "Before a few months ago, I had never thought much about why Cultivation Techniques worked the way they did, instead focusing entirely on how well a specific technique functioned. I imagine most people have a similar mentality."

"Naturally," Celestina nodded, "It’s similar to how people know how to use Spirit Tools, but only Spirit Professionals understand how to make them."

"Precisely," Elizabeth agreed, "But it was precisely that lack of understanding that caused Project Ascension to stagnate. It all stems from our lack of understanding about how circulating a Cultivation Technique actually draws in World Qi."

Turning to Lucas, the old man smiled, "It was only when you casually mentioned to me that you were having a problem increasing the pressure of your steam engine that it suddenly occurred to me what we were missing."

"I understand now!" Lucas leapt to his feet, his eyes sparkling, "It’s all about the Qi pressure gradient!"

"As quick as always, Lucas," Elizabeth praised honestly.

It had taken her many days of study and contemplation to reach this conclusion, while the young boy had managed to make that logical leap after just a little bit of prodding.

Truly, Elizabeth was thankful Lucas didn’t have her level of cultivation and was so incredibly busy; otherwise, she would never have had an opportunity to work on Project Ascension as he would have solved everything by himself by now.

"Ahem," Celestina cleared her throat, "Care you explain it to the rest of us?"

"Ah... Sorry, I got too excited," Lucas apologized while scratching the back of his head.

Everyone had a quick laugh again while Lucas sat back down, allowing Elder Carlson to carry on, "Actually, without all the knowledge I had Lucas teach me about physics, I probably wouldn’t have figured this out either."

"Putting it simply, World Qi, and Qi in general, naturally flows from regions of higher concentration or pressure, to those of lower concentration or pressure," Elizabeth explained, "Now, this isn’t always the case, as there are many methods to maintain higher concentrations of World Qi in certain places, like this chamber for example, but in general, this tends to be the case."

"Following that logic, I reviewed and even tried using several dozen different Cultivation Techniques..."

"You did what!?" Allina gasped, as did everyone in the room.

Celestina even dashed over from where she was leaning against a table and checked Elizabeth’s pulse and the flow of Spirit Qi in her meridians.

Only after she confirmed that there was no internal damage did Celestina breathe a sigh of relief before scolding, "That was incredibly reckless of you, Elizabeth."

"Oh please, give me some credit," Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "I never completed a full circulation of those techniques, I simply initiated them to study what happened."

The reason for everyone’s concern was simple; trying to use multiple different Cultivation Techniques almost always resulted in damage to one’s meridians as the circulation paths weren’t the same.

A simple analogy would be how a person choked when water went down the wrong pipe in their throat.

Do this once, you cough for a bit and perhaps feel a bit of pain.

Do it repeatedly, and you could permanently damage your lungs and throat.

Elizabeth Carlson had just admitted to doing the cultivation equivalent of choking herself dozens of times, so it was only natural to become concerned.

After calming the room down, Elizabeth carried on, "As I was saying, I monitored the flow of Qi inside my body as I was circulating those Cultivation Techniques and discovered that it was the flow of Qi itself that created a suction force on the outside World Qi, drawing it in through my pores and lungs from the air around me."

"Again, it wasn’t an exact measure, but in general, the higher the Grade of Cultivation Technique I used, the faster Qi circulated and the more I could draw in."

"En," Lucas followed up, "That makes sense. It’s similar to how faster flowing air sucks in slower moving air because the faster air is at a lower pressure."

Seeing some confused looks around them, Lucas smiled wryly and waved his hand, "The science will take too long to explain right now. Just trust us when we say that the faster the flow of air, and I suppose Qi, the lower the pressure."

Celestina, Allina, Sasha, and Christina all wore slightly unconvinced looks, but still nodded.

As for Eris, she was completely lost, so she was more willing to accept what Lucas was saying as that made things easier for her. She was also sure that if she asked him later, he would take the time to properly explain, so she wasn’t worried about it right now.

"In any case," Elizabeth brought the conversation back to the subject at hand, "I believe the reason the Focused Breathing Art is considered the worst of all Cultivation Techniques, but also the most universal, is because all it does is use out body’s natural circulation of air and blood to draw in and move World Qi around."

"It’s also why combining it with the Unarmed Foundations Art works so well in the Mortal Realms, but not at all in the Spirit Realms. The Forms of the Unarmed Foundations Art are perfectly designed to enhance our natural, internal circulations while simultaneously strengthening our physiques."

"In other words, it helps us hone our body and enhance its natural rhythm, making it perfect for Mortal Practitioners to absorb and saturate themselves with Qi and for True Cultivations to ’un-learn’ circulation patterns, but it doesn’t independently create a new circulation path."

"En," Celestina nodded, "In order to break through to the Grand Spirit Realm, we need to Awaken by teaching our bodies to constantly and unconsciously circulate our Spirit Qi."

"At that point, Spirit Qi flows freely through all our meridians, Martial Qi through our bloodstream, and Soul Qi through our nerves, but only by consciously practicing our Cultivation Technique can we further enhance our strength, similar to how our hearts still pump blood around our body when we’re asleep, but that doesn’t make us stronger. Exercise is required for that to happen."