Early the next morning Qi was woken up by his father to walk him from the farm towards the North Gate smithy by Green Jade city. Having to walk for about an hour to get to the smithy and wanting to be early the sun wasn't yet peaking over the horizon. This however didn't put a damper on Quans' spirit as he instructed Qi on his expectations.
Quan: As I mentioned yesterday do your best to incorporate your task at the smithy into a skill as it will make the process of learning smother in you journey overall. Also if you can get a high achievement in a mortal skill related to the artifact creation the master of the smith may take you on as a True apprentice! This way he may think about giving you his inheritance as a first grade Artifact refiner when you achieve your break through from meridians to Qi refinement.
Qi: And you said before that i should be getting to that stage by about 13 years of age right?
Quan: With your start I think you can achieve it sooner by even 12 if you are diligent!
Qi: so do the meridians get harder to open as more open?
Quan: The 12 main meridians should all open in the same amount of time as one another as for the two greater meridians will take longer for sure three times longer some times more.
Qi: ( Wait with the spirit stone I figure opening my first meridian will only take a month isn't that far to fast?) What can speed up opening ones meridians?
Quan: Ha Ha Ha! Ambitious just like your father but short of getting a Spirit foundation fruit I don't think we can speed up the process much more than making sure you eat your soul splitting peas.
Qi: So both of those increase your spirit right?
Quan: Yes but one is a first grade plant with painful side effects that only people with less means use as a way to buff their spirit; and the other is used by cultivation families to help set up their heirs for a better start.
Qi: (so does my high spirit allow me to open my meridians quicker than others?) Is the fruit hard to grow?
Quan: yes it is a second grade spirit plant with a long growth time its biggest perk is it can be used by mortal to buff their spirit perfect for someone before they can properly utilize spirit qi.
Qi: Are there no other ways to increase your Spirit?
Quan: Yes but you would need to be at least of the first level of Qi Refinement to use spirit elixirs and pills. Not to mention the spirit stones required to buy them but enough of that. Those are things to worry about once the family starts to make more money.
Qi: When you say the family does that mean we are part of a bigger family and are a branch?
Quan: No of course not I mean you and me.
Qi: Ahh
Quan: Now look the smithy is in sight the one in charge will be Dong Jaun ask for him, let him know who you are and give him this.
Quan hands a bag to Qi as he starts to turn around.
Quan: I have a lot to do at the farm as I've just got permission from the steward of our district to open up another acre of Farm land by our four acres so next year we can have more resources.
Qi: So you will be expanding into the forest near the farm? Wait I see buildings but there barely more than dots!
As Qi said this his father had already taken off excited by the prospect of "Deepening" the foundation of the family by opening more fields to rent.
Qi: ( I think he forgot as a cultivator he can see further than I can) Sigh... well better keep following the road till I can also see this smithy.
A short time later Qi did find the smithy as the horizon started to brighten up from the sun rise. course from the sound within the smithy and the smoke billowing out one of the chimneys he knew someone was already there hard at work.
Qi walked up and knocked on the door a few times. Then a Young man with short black hair and a honest face of average height and built looking to be from a common background; Opened the door.
Young man: Hey kid what are you doing here?
Qi: Hello I am Bao Qi here to see master Dong Juan.
Young man: Ahh hello I am Li Yong, please come in I'll take you to see master Dong.
Qi followed Li into the building that looked more like a compound. Once brought through a space that looked like a shop that wasn't open this early in the morning. Li was taken into the back to the work space and too a lit up area. Here he saw a short bald man with strong arms looking like he was nearly as wide in the shoulders as he was tall. Feeling someone approach this man turned around with a stern look in his eye to see who had come.
Juan: Li how is this kid that is following you?
Li: Master Dong this is Bao Qi.
With this Qi stepped forward and presented the bag his father gave him.
Qi: Master Dong my father said to look for you and give you this.
Juan Dong took the bag while sizing up Qi with a stare. Then with a shake of his head he said: So you are crazy Bao's kid I don't know why he figured he should send someone as young as you to me. You do look big enough to work the bellows and haul ore.. Li your working on some Martial level weapons today right?
Li: yes master I am.
Juan: Good Qi you will be giving Li a hand today with anything he needs.
Qi: Yes master Dong.
With this said Master dong turned back to his forge and resumed his work. Li signaled Qi to follow him and moved towards a forge further down. As they moved away Li started to point out some areas he needed to know about like where the ore and fuel was stored. As they approached a forge that had some materials ready to work Li turned and said.
Li: Ill let you know what I need you to do and explain some of the steps of forging as I go. Now do you have any questions?
Qi: Yes why are we making martial level weapons?
Li: Well most puppets used by Lower level cultivators are of the martial level and equipping them with a true artifact can not only be costly but overkill for some of the creature faced on the front lines. Also as long as these weapons are used on creatures in the first couple stages of cultivation they will still cause wounds though not significant.
Qi: So throw away weapons for the meat grinder at the frontlines?
Li: Well yea if there is a retreat mortal level puppets usually are used to slow down the pursuers. Also what has your father been teaching you talking about the frontline when your just a child?
Qi: Literally anything he can think of mister Yong.
Li: You poor kid Just call me Li I'm only 19 with no real background like most outside the city wall.
Qi: Ok Li what do you need me to do.
With a grin From li a busy day at the forge started. Qi helped with preparing fuel and ore and worked the bellows as Li instructed. As Li took some time between the processes of forging to explain things to Qi after all he knew that this would be a junior apprentice of his masters. As Master Dong did not kick him out at the beginning of the day. Course as his father was known as crazy Bao there was a bit of pity to help people warm up to Qi.
Through out the day Qi did have a few breaks with Li and had a lunch provided by the workshop. Near the end of day Qi did gain a mortal level skill of forging as watching li and helping him did seem to be enough to gain entry level.
Of course with his high spirit comes the ability to comprehend skills easier as high level cultivators have an easier time remember information with their increased spirit.
In the evening Master dong dismissed Qi with enough time to make sure he could get home in time for supper.
On his walk home Qi had his other task his father gave him to worry about which was to open his meridians.
Qi: ( I feel my progress will be too fast using the spirit stone so maybe I can try without it and see how fast that is.)
With that as his plan he got home to eat and returned to his room to attempt without the stone. With the previous feeling of spirit he had Qi could feel the spirit Qi around him and pull it towards him self. After a couple hours of opening his meridians he realized only using the qi around him he wouldn't meet his fathers diligent time.
Qi: (maybe I should take some time to study on how easy it is to check on someone's progress of opening meridians.)
Qi of course took time to study with the books available to him to better understand how he should proceed. Also with his time at the Smithy he would as questions of LI about cultivation and learned from Li that even cultivators like himself at the 2nd refinement stage with a low grade cultivation could use their Qi to inspect peoples health and meridians.
So Qi made a new plan to aim for opening his meridian in 3 months more inline with his fathers expectation. Doing this by only cultivating with the spirit stone every third day and increasing his mortal grade skills of "basic meditation" and "reading and writing".
He also found out most cultivators don't max out these skills. As once they have the ability to open up the Status they feel working on these skills instead of actually opening up the meridians; and racing to cultivation is a waste of time.
But as Qi learned from his break throughs in these basic skills they have a qualitive change to spirit! however others didn't seem to know this as for most people it only improved there spirit by 1 enough to get them to the ability for status. So why was it so much more for him? Each achievement seemed to bring him 2 or 3 unless it was a percentage? With his high starting stat a percentage would have a larger increase.
Of course the amount of peas his father fed him his spirit was bound to be pushed up regardless.
With these thoughts in mind he progressed well and opened up his first meridian 3 months later.
[ Name: Bao Qi ]
[Martial ] 1 Meridian
[ Attributes Panel]
Strength 6.4
Agility 6.2
Constitution 6.7
Spirit 41
[Skills Panel]
Basic meditation (mortal) 534/1000 small success
Reading and writing (mortal) 522/2000 great success
Poison Resistance (mortal) 134/200 intermediate
Forging (mortal) 8/100 entry level
[Talents]
Spirit root - 4th class (22/100)
Parallel processing 55/100 entry level
With his increase in stats Qi wondered if it would speed up his bodies growth and get him closer to being allowed to use the forge sooner rather than later. As simply helping other apprentices didn't seem to give him experience often.
Either way he had an good idea of how to progress in the near future with out coming across as a monster at opening his meridians. With this he shared the news with his father who was undoubtedly excited by the news feeling his son was a prodigy.
They had a calibration Feast with much cheap rat meat and a extra large helping of peas forced on Qi. After all his Father still felt this was the best way forward for his son to have a strong base when he finally joined the spirit refinement realm.