Chapter 93: The Problem with his Spirit Meridian System
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Congratulations, my young friend, you’re finally walking down the path of the superhumans!” Ning Shewo said with a smile.
“We have a superhuman in our family now?” Meng Yishan and Bai Suxin were both shocked and delighted.
‘d.a.m.n it! My big brother has become a superhuman?! Doesn’t that mean that I no longer have a chance to free myself from misery?! I’ll be bullied for the rest of my life!’ Bai Jiacao had very complicated emotions.
Meng Chao remained calm. He raised his right arm and exercised it a little. He could sense spirit energy flowing slowly through his spirit meridian system. “I remember everything that happened that day. I heard that those who reach a breakthrough while they’re near dead have a high possibility of experiencing some sort of sequelae, and they’re commonly known as broken-star superhumans. They’re not in perfect condition, right?”
Dr. Su Yuan hesitated for a moment before he nodded and said, “That’s right. You’re a broken-star superhuman.”
Bai Jiacao widened her eyes and quickly took over the conversation. “Dr. Su, what’s wrong with being a broken-star superhuman? We just had a broken-star superhuman appear in our area recently. Even so, we decorated the area, fired off a lot of firecrackers for him, and set up many tables to celebrate it!”
“Well, it isn’t too much of a problem.” Dr. Su Yuan smiled at the girl. “How much do you know about the spirit meridian system?”
“I know the answer!” Bai Jiacao raised her arm and rambled off the answer like a machine gun. “My teacher said that aside from the blood circulatory system, lymphatic system, and nervous system, we have a fourth system in our bodies, and it’s known as the spirit meridian system.
“It is made of 108 main branches and 1,024 branch meridians. It’s a very old circulatory system in our bodies, and it might have started forming since the moment the first cell was born in the ancient oceans. When the aquatic lifeforms started moving to the land, it began to mature.
“Regardless of the ancient nautilidae or trilobita, who are both creatures who ruled the seven seas, the dinosaurs that were nearly one hundred meters tall, or other huge life forms, all of them showed signs of possessing the spirit meridian system. Human predecessors were able to win against these huge creatures and claim ourselves to be the kings of all living beings because we have the highest number of spirit meridians in our bodies. The meridian system in our bodies is also the most complicated.
“However, hundreds of thousands of years ago, certain things happened on Earth. Maybe because spirit energy ran dry on Earth, or maybe because it was no longer of any use after humans proclaimed themselves kings of all beings, the spirit meridians gradually regressed and became hidden in our bodies. They’re just like tonsils appendixes. One usually isn’t able to sense their presence.”
“Yes. You’ve been doing well in your studies. You’ve managed to memorize all the crucial points,” Dr. Su Yuan said. “The evolution of life has always adhered to the principle of improving things that we need and casting aside what we don’t. When humans were able to use basic intelligence and simple tools to declare themselves as the rulers on Earth, why should they develop even stronger organs?
“It has to be known that stronger organs require more energy. For example, the human brain weighs less than five percent of the total ma.s.s of the body, but it requires thirty percent of the oxygen we take in and consumes thirty percent of our energy. If a brain was overdeveloped, it would also cause a series of reproductive and nurturing problems.
“It’s the same with spirit meridians. When supernatural abilities are activated in the body, they start using up energy at an insane pace. In an environment where spirit energy has run dry, if the person only eats food through conventional means, even if they eat twenty-four hours a day, it would not make up for the energy required for the spirit meridians. In the end, they would ‘starve’ to death.
“Hence, during the compet.i.tion to survive on Earth, being a normal human was the best solution for us.
“But we’ve come to the Other World. It is a ‘battlefield’ filled with spirit energy. Our cells have changed, and our evolution clocks have been forced to speed up several times their original speed. Everything, thus, has become different.
“There is a creature called red seabream on Earth’s ecosphere. It only has one male fish in a school, so it is surrounded by hundreds of female fish. If the male fish dies, the largest and fiercest of the remaining female fish soon change into a male fish.
“Aside from them, the swamp eels, true oysters, and many other creatures have also shown signs of changing their s.e.xes, just like the red seabream.
“This shows that when faced with stimulants from the world around us, genes can change. The survival strategies contained in a body can cause drastic changes in a person, and among them is changing a person from a normal human who only consumes a low amount of energy and has low fighting power to a superhuman, who uses a lot of energy, but has high fighting power.
“But the problem is that this sort of change definitely comes at a price.
“Let’s go into the specifics regarding your brother. Before he was ready, he received too much stimulation. Rampaging spirit energy surged into his body. It strengthened the three main meridians in his right arm, but that made the other one hundred or so main meridians in him shrivel up. It’s just like how a circuit board would be burnt when the current that traveled through it was too strong.”
“Ah!” The girl covered her mouth. “What happens when the main meridians are burnt?”
“The 108 main meridians are equivalent to 108 strokes. If there is only one main meridian, then, the person would be able to draw one line with it. If they have two main meridians, they can write two lines with them. The more main meridians are cleared, the more lines they can draw, and the more words they can form,” Dr. Su Yuan explained patiently.
“When superhumans guide spirit energy into their bodies, they go between the different lines like electric currents circulating at high speeds in circuit coils to form unique spirit energy magnetic fields. That is how they form skills, divine arts, martial arts, secret skills, killing moves, and divine skills.
“One star superhumans are said to be in the Spirit Realm. Their main cultivation goal is to clear their spirit meridians. The more spirit meridians they clear, the more likely they are to form more complicated and powerful spirit energy magnetic fields. They can also release more skills.
“There are 108 main meridians in the body. Since our power comes from the land, our legs are the contact points for the magnetic fields of our lives and the magnetic field of the planet. Hence, there are 36 main meridians in our legs. There are 24 main meridians in our organs, and 24 in our arms. There are 16 in the brain, and the final eight are like raging dragons. They connect all the acupressure points in our bodies and are known as the dragon meridians.
“When we just transmigrated to this place, our martyrs didn’t understand the secrets behind spirit energy and spirit meridians. Just like your older brother, they fought madly in the battlefields, and when they were in life and death situations, they suddenly reached breakthroughs. This method of becoming a superhuman is crude, and it deals a lot of damage to the meridian system.
“Later on, we developed a mature and scientific cultivation system. With the nourishment from gene medicine, protection from the cultivation rooms, and guidance from powerful fighters, the difficulty and danger in awakening were decreased drastically.
“The superhumans who are awakened through scientific methods usually clear twenty-three main meridians in the beginning. The outstanding, talented people are even able to clear from sixty to seventy main meridians. They sometimes clear even the dragon meridians, which makes their cultivation in the future much easier.”
“From sixty to seventy?” Bai Jiacao made some calculations. “Others are able to clear from sixty to seventy main meridians, but my big brother only managed to clear three of the main meridians in his right hand. Doesn’t that mean that even if there were twenty of my brothers, they wouldn’t be able to win against one of those scientifically awakened superhumans?”
“That’s not necessarily true. Even with three main meridians, he can create a very powerful spirit energy magnetic field and execute fatal killing moves. If he deploys his strategies well, he might be able to win against people with dozens of skills,” Dr. Su Yuan said. “But we usually believe that the upper limit for broken-star superhumans is rather low, and their cultivation speed is rather slow. Hence, it’s much more difficult for them to reach higher realms.”
“Then, what should we do? Can we cure him?” The girl was even more nervous than Meng Chao.
“With the current medical technology, it is very hard for us to repair damaged main meridians,” Dr. Su Yuan said. “But the damage to some of his main meridians will not affect him in his daily tasks, life, learning, or fighting. He’ll just be slower when it comes to cultivation. When he fights, the number of skills he can release will be lower, and it’ll be harder for him to reach Heaven Realm and Deity Realm.
“Speaking of which, most superhumans remain as one star, two-star, or three-star superhumans, which means that they’re only able to stay at Earth Realm. It was very hard for your brother to survive that dangerous battle in the wild, so even if he’s just a broken-star superhuman, he’s still a superhuman!”
His words were directed at the girl, but he also wanted to comfort Meng Chao.
But Meng Chao’s mental state was even more stable than what Dr. Su Yuan thought. He nodded and said, “That’s right. That battle was indeed very fierce.
“At that time, I was already exhausted and covered in injuries. I even drank the blood of a Blade Shattering Python’s heart and ate its gallbladder without caring about the costs before injecting a lot of high-calorie medicine into my body recklessly.
“I’m already very lucky that I was able to successfully break through in that sort of situation. Paying a bit of a price for it is worth it.”
Meng Chao had long since reached an understanding.
Regardless of whether it was the Ultimate Level One Hundred Saber Techniques or Princ.i.p.al Sun’s Demon Subduing Pole, both of them were incredibly domineering. They were not something that his current self could use at will.
If he used them forcefully, he would definitely have to pay a price. Back then, he had felt his blood burning, as if there was magma raging in his body, so it was very normal that a few of his main meridians were burnt.
But he did not feel upset because of it, and he did not regret it either.
Even if it happened again or a hundred times more, he would still do the same.
No matter how great of a price he had to pay, he would take over Princ.i.p.al Sun’s will and use Demon Subduing Pole to reduce that d.a.m.n monster into a pulp.
When Meng Yishan and Bai Suxin heard him say it, they sighed in relief.
They were incredibly happy that their son managed to survive and even became a superhuman. Since he was commended by the local government, he would no longer have to worry about going to university or getting a job. This made them very happy.
Dr. Su was right. There were only a few people who could rise to great power. They did not hope that their son was a rare genius, anyway.
Now, this was pretty good.
Bai Suxin even felt that being a broken-star superhuman was better. It meant that her son would not need to go into the depths of the fog and fight against the matchless monsters.
During the past few days, when she saw her son laying in the ICU, she had been so terrified that she felt as if her soul had left her body.
Ning Shewo watched their expressions and knew what the parents were thinking. He smiled and said, “To fighting-oriented occupations, it will pose as some problem if your main meridians have shriveled up. But to supporting occupations, this isn’t too important. For example, harvesters mainly rely on branch meridians, not the main meridians.”
Ning Shewo explained to the Meng family that aside from the 108 main meridians hidden in the body, there were also 1,024 branch meridians.
The main meridians were like arteries and veins, while the eight dragon meridians were the thickest arteries.
As for branch meridians, they were like capillaries.
Fighting-oriented occupations required the fighter to release instantaneous forces, so it was only natural that they had to cultivate their “arteries”.
Supporting occupations, however, paid attention to acc.u.mulating strength bit by bit and precise control. Regardless of whether it was harvesting, creating maps, or processing, they did not need to shout, strike their chests, and release explosive force.
“I heard from Xueshi that you’re still thinking about whether you should enter the martial arts course or the resource course. It’s perfect now. G.o.d has chosen for you. Come to Agricultural University’s resource course.
“I have quite a number of friends who are lecturers there. I also go and give lectures there sometimes. We can help you refine your harvesting skills.” Ning Shewo did his best to invite him to Agricultural University. “The supporting occupations’ requirements for realms are lower than those of fighting occupations. With your talent, you will definitely have a bright future in the field.”