"Quick, praise me for my good singing!"
Elder Luo stretched out his hand and scooped up the disheveled Xiang Beifei from the lake, laughing merrily.
"Good singing, my foot."
Xiang Beifei wrung out his soaking wet clothes and wiped his hair, pulling waterweeds off his hair.
His spiritual power was still too weak to resist Elder Luo's invasive singing.
"Hahaha! I just love to see you in such a mess."
Elder Luo was extremely pleased.
Every time, Xiang Beifei always brought him many surprises and accidents, and such a talent always amazed him. However, since Xiang Beifei was still only in the later stages of Qi-Controlling, his cultivation wasn't high, which is why he struggled during spiritual power training.
Seeing the genius youngster falter made Elder Luo very happy; it was probably very rare for him, finally being able to get one over on the young lad. So, he let loose with his voice, singing so vigorously that Xiang Beifei was engulfed by his song, unable to extricate himself.
However, he sang within limits, merely leading Xiang Beifei into a dangerous illusion, but not drowning him completely, allowing him to find a way to escape in this fantasy.
Otherwise, if Xiang Beifei was to drown in the spiritual power-condensed illusion, he would die in reality as well.
Elder Luo definitely couldn't afford to lose Xiang Beifei; after all, he was his Little White Crane. So, while singing, he always paid attention to the pitch, keeping the danger within a range that Xiang Beifei could withstand.
In fact, Xiang Beifei had Xiaohei, and it was hard for Elder Luo to affect him through the system, because Xiang Beifei helped Elder Luo with tasks every day, and the points were all in Elder Luo's system, enabling him to control Elder Luo's system if he wished.
However, after much consideration, he still didn't let Xiaohei help because he knew that if he had to venture into the external desolate realms and face those powerful spirit-type desolate beasts, he must learn spiritual power!
Xiaohei could only fend off the system's capabilities, but the abilities of the desolate beasts were uncontrollable—or rather, at least Xiaohei didn't know if it could control those desolate beasts, so Xiang Beifei didn't let Xiaohei intervene; he needed to enhance this capability just in case.
Anyway, Elder Luo wasn't going to drown him; getting tricked was a part of it, but through this process, Xiang Beifei's spiritual power still improved remarkably!
"I feel like I could climb onto the shore next time."
Xiang Beifei ignited his spiritual power and then evaporated the moisture from his body.
"Alright then, once you climb ashore, I'll switch to another song for you. Let me think... next time I'll sing 'Unease' to let you experience what it means to be really anxious! Hahaha!" Elder Luo laughed loudly.
As long as it strengthened his spiritual power, he was even okay with listening to "Two Tigers."
"By the way, can you tell me what the Meridian Opening stage is like?" Xiang Beifei asked as he grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and sat down.
He now needed to think about the next stage of his cultivation; currently, his cultivation had already reached the peak of the later Qi-Controlling stages! It seemed he was just a whisker away from reaching the Meridian Opening stage.
"Sure, let me think! Meridian Opening is about expanding the meridians in the body, taking the body's spiritual power load to a higher level," Elder Luo said, in an excellent mood, beginning to explain what exactly Meridian Opening entailed.
This world is filled with spiritual energy; condensing the spiritual energy and directing it into the body can create spiritual power in every corner of the body and control this energy.
To achieve this is to master Qi-Controlling.
However, the body's capacity has its limits. When spiritual energy enters the body and cultivation reaches the late stages of Qi-Controlling, unable to transform more external spiritual energy into spiritual power, it signals that the body must expand its capacity.
At this time, it was necessary to create a Qi-containing meridian within the body.
The existence of meridians allowed the cultivator's Spiritual Power to be more abundant, thereby enabling the deployment of stronger abilities.
Typically, these Qi-containing meridians are tethered along the physical blood vessels, meaning the concept of Meridian Opening is to establish an additional Qi-containing meridian outside every blood vessel, used for storing Spiritual Power.
"The opening of Qi-containing meridians is not a simple matter. Many people slow down in their cultivation progress after stepping into the Meridian Opening phase. Why? Because the creation of these meridians is profoundly challenging. They need to attach along the exterior of the human body's blood vessels, specifically for deploying Spiritual Power, so naturally, their length is about the same as the blood vessels,"
Elder Luo explained leisurely.
Xiang Beifei suddenly realized.
He vaguely recalled that the total length of human blood vessels was about 96,000 kilometers! To forge meridians of such length would indeed demand a terrifying amount of time and energy.
It was no wonder that Lu Hong had been stuck in the early stages of Meridian Opening for over a decade and had only broken through to the later stage this year, while Principal Li Nanxing, at seventy or eighty years old, had spent his lifetime just reaching the later stages of Meridian Opening.
Lu Hong's predicament was due to a past injury; perhaps his meridians had been blocked, needing powerful Spiritual Power for recovery—a kind of medicine like the advancement pills were for such purpose.
Principal Li Nanxing must have fully developed all his body's meridians, but to step into the God Refining Realm, he needed even stronger Spiritual Power as aid, and the God Refining pills belonged to such auxiliary substances.
"You don't need to rush now, you've just recently entered the late stages of Qi-Controlling; there's still plenty of time—hastening could prevent achievement—"
Elder Luo said, pausing suddenly, eyeing Xiang Beifei strangely, he asked, "Wait a minute—haven't you reached the Meridian Opening phase yet?"
"Oh! Not yet," Xiang Beifei responded.
"That's good! That's good! Then I shouldn't be contradicted by your progress." Elder Luo sighed in relief, lightly patting his chest, appearing slightly more composed.
Every time he explained to Xiang Beifei how long cultivation techniques tend to take, Xiang Beifei would always jump in, proving through his actions that, well, Elder Luo's theories were fit for nowhere.
This made Elder Luo feel quite embarrassed, so now he dared not speak with too much certainty.
Regaining his composure, he said, "Alright, don't worry about it. You've merely reached the late stages of Qi-Controlling recently. You should first consolidate your current realm. I've seen too many students. Based on my experience, analyzing your current cultivation situation, it should maybe take four or five months... um, no... three or four months... uh... two months! Yes! Two months! You might reach the Meridian Opening phase in two months."
Elder Luo earnestly calculated with his fingers, arriving at the boldest prediction!
Xiang Beifei had reached the late stages of Qi-Controlling around the end of August, and now it was only the beginning of November, not much time had passed.
Normally, SSR ranks progress very quickly in the lower realms, potentially reaching late Qi-Controlling by early August.
For instance, Hou Chengwu, the last time they met, his cultivation level was higher than Xiang Beifei's.
Xiang Beifei and Hou Chengwu awakened their systems around the same time, but Xiang Beifei took an extra month to enter the late Qi-Controlling compared to the SSR Hou Chengwu.
Elder Luo now considered Xiang Beifei's talent to be a level above SR but slightly below SSR.
Based on the data from his school's previous SSR class, SSR Awakeners from late Qi-Controlling to Meridian Opening, it would still take about three or four months, likely being around early December to reach Meridian Opening.
In the Qi-Controlling realm, each minor realm ascended quickly, but between Qi-Controlling and Meridian Opening, there was a significant chasm; many elite colleges' S ranks can reach late Qi-Controlling within a year but may take three or four years to reach Meridian Opening.
SSR ranks, being more powerful, would cultivate extremely fast, without needing three or four years, only three or four months, likely reaching Meridian Opening by December.
Since Xiang Beifei was a month slower than SSR ranks in reaching late Qi-Controlling, normally, he would also be a month slower in reaching Meridian Opening, which would mean late December would be a likely time.
Elder Luo counted on his fingers again, reaffirmed his calculations, then adjusted his system settings to [Mental Arithmetic:9999] to re-calculate—Yes, having calculated so meticulously, he couldn't possibly be wrong again!
He boldly wagered it would take two months!