After pying five rounds of chess with Beldum, I set it up to start day trading using my account before making my way into my cultivation room through the TV propped up against the couch. I felt bad leaving it alone and seriously considered adding the second one. But once it had a project before it, its personality seemed to take a more driven direction. Focusing solely on calcuting and finding the right time to invest and sell. I told myself "It’d be fine for a couple hours." as I passed through the screen.

  Once inside, the bloody armband on my right wrist was dissolved into a gaseous form as I had my Bloodborn return to sleep in my unoccupied dantain before sitting down on the rge cushion, taking one of the bone-forging pills from one of the bottles nearby.

  Now that I had a cultivation art in the Lost Immortal Sutra, I wanted to see if there were any oddities. Considering it was from a different path than what I have been messing with so far, there's bound to be some sort of oddity.

  The energy that once pooled up now flowed in an odd pattern throughout my body following my circutory system. Out from my dantain down into my right leg, then up towards my heart and right arm, to my head and then down to my left arm, finally to my left leg and back to my dantain completing the loop. Leaving out the strange way it snaked through my other organs for simplicity, it was strange, as it moves all on its own.

  Altering this flow was simple: I adjusted the path towards my stomach to meet the pill that I swallowed. The energy wrapped around the pill slowly eating it away as the reaction changed the resulting Ki into a different form. Moving this altered Ki towards the desired location, while I cannot stop the flow, slowing it down to a snail’s pace before speeding it up and spinning it around the desired bones was also rather simple. Gritting my teeth, the penetrating sensation of needles dug in as I started working on my ribs again.

  I continued tempering my rips until the altered Ki ran out. Then I took another pill, and another, and another…

  I had noticed earlier that even after sleeping, it still had Ki. More so, I was full. Normally I was rarely full unless I had taken a pill, after sleeping for 6-8 hours it normally decreased by at least half. Then there was the Tempering Pills, usually, I would bottom out in one or two and need to restore before continuing but now - it seems that when the Lost Immortal Sutra cycled energy, it was actively generating more Ki, then was burnt off. How this worked was beyond me.

  I can’t tell if I’m the one making it or if I’m pulling in the Ki around me. If it’s the dder, it probably shouldn’t work in the real world but seeing as I was able to wake up with full Ki, I am somehow able to produce it now. I guess that's the benefit of having a technique.

  Though I have to admit, I have no idea how any of this is supposed to work. Reading through various comics is only going to get me so far. I can probably brute force it, but I will need to spend some time in a cultivation world if I want to go beyond the first level or two.

  In the meantime, I could try out other stuff. I need to see if there’s a way for me to get Mana and use magic. Alternatively, maybe something like a Mana battery?

  But if I went to another world, I don’t know if I’ll be able to use it. Won't it stop functioning in certain worlds? Like how my Ki sealed itself while upgrading the Porygon. I can just choose not to go to these worlds but there’s always a possibility of something happening.

  I could try other powers. Since my blood still worked given its semi-biological origins, what else could I try?

  Psionics? Being able to move things with my mind, always sounded handy.

  If memory serves, it’s something that awakens from Ki training in more than a few stories. It might also be one of the ways to externalize Ki? I could also see if Beldum could teach me something but, even though it’s a psychic-type Pokemon, it doesn’t learn any psychic-type moves until it evolves.

  Maybe, I can try an item to jump-start the process?

  *Thump* With an influx of energy, I felt another of my ribs finish. With that, I had finished the two that were close st time and an additional pair, giving me six tempered ribs in total. “Haa~” Letting out a sigh of relief I was finally able to rex. Standing up to stretch after spending the st couple of hours tempering my bones I felt several spots in my back crack. “HAA!”

  On that thought, “How did moves work?” I've seen the Porygon use Conversion but nothing else. I don't think Beldum's magnetism counts as a move, and with the evolutions, the Porygon were bound to have learned a new one or two. Then there's the game logic: They can only know four moves. I wonder if that's changed. I should ask when they finish the operating system.

  My eyes drew towards the wooden floor and the bottle beside the Tempering Pills. The Ki replenishment pills I had started using had now gone unused and unneeded this time.

  Taking one from the bottle, it was time to confirm my suspicions. As the pill broke down in my stomach, it turned into energy and was drawn to my dantain. However, unlike the rest, it started to pool. “That confirms it.” The 'Basic Ki' I received from pills was different from 'Primordial Energy', as the pill finished dissolving, the excess energy was released, while some of the stored Ki within my dantian started to convert, following the flow.

  Did that mean I have three unique types of Ki now? Basic, Blood, and Primordial? If Primordial Energy is different than basic Ki, what is it? My body felt heavy as I sat back down and started to meditate while I cycled Ki.

  (What’s the difference between them?)

  (Basic Ki received from pills, it was difficult to control and it moves erratically… Either because of my poor control or ck of experience, and probably my current level. But it feels...Vibrant.)

  (Blood Ki, was created through my Bloodborn, after absorbing some of the Ki within my body it changes into a cold crimson form. It was easy to move because we are connected, only through my Bloodborn could I control it, it’s almost second nature. But I still feel hints from something hidden beneath the cold wisps, there was something more, something sinister.)

  (Primordial Energy…is created through the cycle of energy that now circuted through my body… the faster the cycle, the faster the generation with an eventual limit. Controlling it was easy as I shifted the path, but I still can't externalize it. It was too new to say anything about it but, it feels simir to the other two but different…)

  (I can convert Basic Ki into either Blood Ki or Primordial Ki… What about the opposite? Or into elements?)

  (Actually, what are elements? Tangible differences between states of an atom? Different forms of energy?)

  (From the stories, Ki can be converted into an element through spells, techniques, or skills. How this worked... I don't know. I can probably get skills from the phone to do it but, how does it work?)

  (In some, they have Spiritual Roots to convert Ki into a desired element; in others, it just seems to happen magically.)

  Water, Earth, Air, and Fire

  (These were the basic four from most forms of media, taken from the modern mainstream Western perception. While the East had,)

  Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water,

  (What about Lightning? Where does that fit in this mix? From cultivation stories it's a combination of these five, in others it sits next to Fire as a different state of psma.)

  (Then there's Metal, in many stories, it's specifically Gold.)

  (And the Wood element, is it just a stand-in for Life or Nature as a type of energy?)

  (Wouldn't this all depend entirely on the world I’m in at the time?)

  (Depending on the world, these Elements would change depending on the canon of the story how they function would also change. Even so, there should be some principles that remain regardless...)

  (Water. Ice. Steam.)

  This one was the easiest group, each one is an inherently different state of matter and has its own properties.

  (Air or Wind…)

  I can't really come up with anything else, maybe Lightning because ozone is charged? What would it turn into? A stronger Gale?

  (As for Fire, Psma?)

  (It makes the most sense, anything with enough heat turns into psma. But where does that leave va? It's just hot rock so it should be more connected to Earth than Fire?)

  (A combination of two or more elements?)

  (Earth, Lava, Mud?)

  (Would Mud not also count as a combination with Water?)

  (Metal.)

  (I don’t know where I'd put it, leave it next to Earth since it's rocks?)

  (If Metal counts do Magnets count as an element? Or would it be Magnetism?)

  (Then there’s Wood.)

  (Isn’t it more of a combination as well? Also, shouldn’t it count more as Nature or Life?)

  (Or are the three separate?)

  (Space and Time are often considered elements… A pair interconnected while simultaneously being separated.)

  Like...

  Light                    and       Dark,

  Life and Death.

  Positive          Hot                   Cold       Negative

  Male                 Female

  Logic                      Compassion

  Truth                   Ideals

  1                                                              0

  Yin and Yang.

  Navigating a mess of thoughts, pondering equal opposites, I found myself in a trance, at the end of it, I found myself somewhere else.

  Looking out into a strange cosmic void, “Where am I?” I asked only for the same question to echo back.

  *WHERE AM I?*

  *WHERE AM I?*

  *WHERE AM I?*

  I felt weightless as I floated, looking around this weird celestial pce, little sparkles of colored light were scattered here and there throughout the darkness. Looking down at myself I found that I was nude, holding my hand up to my eyes, it didn’t appear any different. Nothing odd, ethereal, or otherwise unnatural.

  Bringing my hands closer, moving my right thumb across my left palm I tried to ascertain sensation in this strange pce. It felt normal, but not? As I moved my arms I noticed shifting in the cosmic backdrop. The small sparkles shimmered in the distance. Holding out my left arm, I felt something shift. Moving my arm up and down the entire mass moved, the colorful sparkles that dotted the horizon swirled with my movements.

  "Are they Ki?”

  *KI*

  If the little specks were Ki, then that means, this pce is... "my Soul Sea?" I said after taking a moment trying to remember the name. The Soul Sea or Spiritual Sea were concepts I’ve read from multiple stories now. In simplest terms, it’s a mental space where all Ki is stored within the body. But at a certain point, it’s more like an inner world.

  After figuring out what this pce was, that was all of that’s fine and dandy but, “How do I get out?”

  *HOW*

  *DO*

  *I*

  *GET*

  *OUT?*

  END