Blake reserved the next day for opening his Bone Meridian. But he had no free Honour to do it with.

  The first order of business was finding a monster to kill so he could gather a little more Honour. He travelled along the route the spiker had carved, but it was getting harder and harder to stay on the path. All the footprints had filled in, and he had to guess by the fallen trees and the last remains of the carrion birds and the corpses.

  Problem was, most of the carrion birds ran when they saw him now. Maybe he just looked scarier, but if anything, it was probably a rudimentary sense telling them to run from him.

  Interesting that an animal could sense Honour where a human couldn’t, but then again, mana cultivation seemed to have been a crutch for many cultivators, letting them advance quickly but…weakly.

  Then again, he wasn’t one to talk. Honour cultivation for him was faster than mana cultivation ever would be.

  One is not inherently weaker than the other. There are many, many forms of cultivation in the universe, Ethbin said. You found one that worked for you. Others fail because they are unwilling to travel an untrodden path. The reason most modern cultivators fail seems to be their overreliance on Harvesting techniques instead of good old fashioned cycling.

  At noon, when the mists were the brightest, Blake found the corpse of the spiker.

  “Not good…” he muttered. Something had killed it, and he didn’t have any business interfering with that. “Ethbin, do you sense anything?”

  Nothing strong enough to kill it, he replied. And whatever did kill the spiker decided to move off without even eating its prey.

  Blake swallowed, and for the first time since entering the mists, his throat felt dry. But Ethbin was right. The spiker’s corpse was food for the giant crows, bog wolfs, and a horse-sized Blended badger made entirely of stacked mushrooms.

  “Well…” Blake muttered. “Don’t all you attack at once.”

  He was being sarcastic, though if they all attacked at the same time, it might give him some problems.

  Thankfully, as he approached, only the badger turned to face him. It had red stripes along its face instead of black, but when it opened its mouth and snarled, its teeth were sharp and hard, made of a whitish-yellow rock.

  “Hey,” Blake said. “You wouldn’t happen to be a bit stronger than me, would you?”

  It’s around the sixth stage of Condensation, Ethbin said. Really, we need to figure out your senses sooner than later. You can’t go around mocking mana cultivators for not sensing you when you can’t even feel the pressure of spiritual energies.

  “Problem for later,” Blake said.

  Those are starting to stack up…

  “We’ll solve one right now.”

  As he raised his staff, he winced. His collarbone was hurting worse today, and if he wanted to keep going, he was going to need his Bone Meridian open.

  The badger let out an angry cry, then slapped the muddy ground with its paws—and five-inch-long claws made of the same jagged material as its teeth.

  Blake inhaled, drawing Honour from his two easiest sources—bravery and loyalty. It came without thinking. It flowed into him, now that he had a foe and a situation where he could use it. He split his focus, making sure to condense some of it while he used the rest for an Augmentation technique.

  There was a practical limit to what he could do with Honour. While there was technically an infinite sea of it in the universe, how much travelled through his siphon was the first true limit. As well, his Echo form still didn’t have infinite Honour to draw from.

  With his upgraded Augmentation technique, he could feel the Honour depleting, with him using more than he drew in. These two sources weren’t going to be enough in the long term.

  But they were enough to bash the badger’s head as it approached. Building speed, swung the staff from low to high, then slammed it down. It collided with fungal armour, but the impact shattered it, and something below let out a hollow crack.

  The badger yowled and screeched, but it kept charging. Claws outstretched, and jaw wide, it aimed for Blake’s throat.

  He stepped back, batting its claws away, and leaned to the side. Its teeth clamped together like a gunshot, but they got nothing.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  He danced around the badger for a few more minutes. Or what felt like minutes. He never got the same clean strike at the badger’s head, but it landed a few slashes in return. His forearm was bleeding, and a thin cut ran across his forehead, leaking into his eyes.

  The badger had enough of this, too. It made another charge, ignoring Blake when he struck it on the head. He slammed his staff into its skull, but the rebar was weak and damaged. It snapped in half at the point where the cultivator’s axe had cut. The blow still forced the badger’s mouth shut, but the beast kept charging. It lowered its head and slammed into his chest, flinging him back through the swamp.

  He slammed into a wall of rotting flesh—the spiker’s corpse—then rolled to the side in time to avoid the beast’s claws. They cleaved a deep gash in the corpse, splattering black blood and gore across Blake’s face.

  He couldn’t run, and he had no weapon. The only way in was deeper. He charged at the badger, arms outstretched, and hugged its neck. Without his staff, he didn’t trust his ability to choke it to death, but he still had enough Honour to break its neck. His bold charge caused a surge in Honour, which he fed to his Heart Meridian.

  It was time to test out his new strength.

  Honour flared in his channels. Instead of invisible fire, he perceived a rush of black mist rushing like wind, tumbling and rushing through him while fuelling the Augmentation technique. So that was what it looked like?

  He didn’t have time to ponder it. It was him or the badger. He gripped the beast’s snout and the back of its head. Shouting with exertion, and pushing through the lancing burn of his broken bones, he snapped the badger’s neck.

  The beast collapsed below him, and he fell into the mud beside it. He rolled over onto his back.

  Howlers and fell-crows were approaching from all directions, looking to feast on the remains of whoever won. But when Blake rose to his feet, covered in mud and blood, the other monsters turned and ran off into the mists.

  Blake breathed out, then, wincing, walked back to his staff. It was broken, and at the moment, useless.

  You won’t need it anymore, Ethbin said.

  “What do you mean?”

  Look down.

  Blake wiped away the mud from his rank seal. It shifted, and now, it displayed five waves. He’d made it to the fifth stage already?

  You completed all the prerequisite learning, Ethbin said. And you’ve condensed enough Honour, and you were doing it the entire fight. Once you get to the sixth stage, by opening your Bone and Spine Meridian, we’ll find a sect.

  “I…didn’t even notice.” He paused. “But does that mean…I’m just supposed to fight with my hands now?”

  It means that once you join a sect, you can earn yourself proper weapons, and you won’t need to use your hands.

  “I’m…ready?”

  Once you open your last two Aes Meridians and find a way to project the strength of a mana cultivator, yes.

  Blake nodded. “First thing, then. Let’s get the Bone Meridians open.”

  He trudged through the mud, heading as far away from the spiker’s towering corpse as he could. Finally, when he didn’t think he could walk any longer without his body disintegrating into a pile of painful bones, he climbed into a tree.

  “Same as before?” he asked.

  Same procedure. Same spiritual pain. You remember where the Bone Meridians are?

  “I should.”

  Blake envisioned his channels, then followed the Muscle Meridians as far as he could. Bones were easy to find. The channels in the muscles turned inward, where he reached his blocked bones. Channels ran through them, too, spiralling and making a powerful net.

  He poked and prodded with a needle of Honour, using the leftover from his fight with the fungal badger, until he pierced through the blockages.

  His back arched. Deep, penetrating soreness surged through his lowest ribs, where he pushed out the first blockage. It felt like the marrow was turning to gas and the bones were liquifying, but a shell kept it in place. When the channel cleared, the bone was stronger than ever before. Slightly flexible, but receptive to Honour and Augmentation techniques.

  When he reached his third and fourth ribs, which he’d broken a few years back on the mist rigs, he found his toughest blockage yet. It filled the entire channel, and it felt like stone. Instead of a needle of Honour, he needed a dremel.

  It took hours. That much he knew. He wasn’t shouting anymore, only involuntarily twitching, until finally, he broke through.

  Then he reached his collarbone. It was still broken, and the channels were tight and frayed as the bones tried to pull apart. Clearing the meridian, however, wasn’t as painful as he was expecting. There hadn’t been enough time to build up a horrible blockage from an improperly healed bone.

  But it did mend itself. The marrow sealed together first, borne by the inner channels, and bone sealed overtop.

  He worked through the night, pushing out blockages in his arms and legs, until finally, he could run Honour in a stable loop through his entire skeleton.

  Then he passed out.

  He woke up next evening, body empty of Honour, but without any pain in his skeleton. He rubbed his collarbone. It was fine. Mended. He pushed on it. Still no pain.

  As for the excretions? He was pretty sure they ended up in his blood, too, which was going to make the Blood Meridian opening a pleasant process.

  “This cultivation stuff is pretty handy…” he said.

  You don’t say. Ethbin didn’t sound impressed.

  “I don’t suppose you can do that without…you know, having to open all your meridians again?”

  After Body Tempering, you will be able to consume your own Honour to repair minor damage to your body.

  “Ah. Now, for the spine?”

  First, get yourself more Honour. You’re at the fifth stage, but this time, it’s not your Honour sea size holding you back. Stage six is opening the Aes Meridians, and stage seven is opening the Vir Meridians. You’ll open the Vir Meridians when you make it into a sect.

  “Let’s do this one more time, then.”