Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 282: Chapter 282. Meridian Points

Amon returned to his routine. When he was outside on missions, he cultivated his divine cultivation. When he was back at the Royal Academy, he cultivated his infernal cultivation.

Near the end of the first year of Junior class, the theory class finally taught them about the meridian points. The one who taught the subject was the regular theory class tutor, Tao Su.

”Some of you may have probably known what a meridian point is, but I will explain to those who don’t. You can imagine the meridian points as a series of gates where aether passes through when they are circulating your body. Whenever we perform an art, we force aether to move throughout our body in correlation with our energy core. Cultivation arts direct the outside aether into the energy core. As for other arts, they extract the aether from the energy core and turn it into powerful forces. In both cases, the aether flows like rivers throughout our bodies and passes through several nodes. These nodes are the meridian points. For normal cultivators, the positions of these meridian points are always the same.”

Tao Su unfurled a large piece of paper onto the teaching board. It showed a drawing of a human. The drawing showed many lines going around the human body, with large dots marking where these lines intersected.

Amon studied the drawing. He noticed that sixty percent of the meridian points were at the same locations as the pressure points.

One student raised his hand to ask a question. ”Tutor, you mentioned these are the meridian points of a normal cultivator. Are there not normal ones?”

”We will get into that later,” Tao Su answered. He resumed his lecture, ”You will do well to memorize the positions of these meridian points. It can greatly help you in various situations. For beginners such as you, the most you can utilize these meridian points is on your own bodies. The most common use of these meridian points for beginners is to use them to stop bleeding.”

Amon had seen the seniors doing that. Though he could do the same by controlling his aether, it took time. When the seniors used the meridian point technique, the effect was instant.

”You do it by concentrating your aether onto your finger,” Tao Su explained by lifting his finger. ”But it’s not just a simple focusing of aether, you must control the focused aether and make them swirl as well. Imagine a tiny sphere spinning rapidly at the tip of your finger. You then thrust this finger into the spot where the meridian point is located.”

Tao Su displayed by touching his pointing finger on one of the large dots in the drawing.

”The swirling aether you injected will interact with the meridian point. It will disrupt it enough and shut it off momentarily. I asked you to imagine these meridian points as gates, didn’t I? Now imagine the gates are closed due to your actions. The aether can’t flow through. If you do these to the meridian points around your wound, it will not only block the aether flow but will also freeze the blood circulation around that wound and stop the bleeding.”

”But if our aether flow is blocked, then we can’t properly use our arts,” said the same student who asked a question before.

”Yes, it is a double-edged sword. Now, imagine doing the same to your enemy. If you can poke their meridian points, you can stop them from momentarily using their art. More advanced techniques can even paralyze them completely. However, this is easier said than done. Beginners like you should only focus on applying meridian point techniques to yourself. If you make a mistake when trying to poke your opponent’s meridian points, you will open yourself to retaliation.

”That is because your poke must be extremely precise. Even if you are off by a fraction, the meridian points won’t be affected. Do you think you have that kind of accuracy against a moving opponent? Not to mention, if your opponent is using defensive art, the focused aether in your finger won’t be able to get through to affect the meridian points. So, forget about ever using this technique against an opponent until you are extremely good at it.”

Tao Su paused for a while to let his words sink in. He had seen plenty of students who had just started learning this technique go around trying to poke their opponents’ meridian points. It didn’t end well for them. He stressed this point in his lecture so the current students didn’t make the same mistake.

He resumed, ”Aside from using your aether to disrupt the meridian points, you can also use it to stimulate it. This is achieved by controlling the spinning direction of the focused aether on your finger. To disrupt the meridian points, you need the spin to go clockwise. To stimulate, the spinning is counterclockwise.

”When you poke a counterclockwise focused aether into a meridian point, it will stimulate instead of disrupting the meridian point. Imagine a gate expanding in size. More aether will be able to flow through, increasing the energy it generates.

”This enhancing technique is also not suitable for beginners. Firstly, not only do you have to be precise, but the degree of control needed is also very strict. If your aether spins too slowly, your meridian points won’t be affected. If it is too fast, it might expand out of control and end up disrupting the meridian points instead.

”Secondly, you need to know which meridian points to poke to acquire a proper strengthening. If you simply want to strengthen your physical body in general, you can target these points.”

Tao Su pointed at several dots in the drawing that were colored golden, different than the other dots.

”But if you want to strengthen a particular art, you will need to target the meridian points utilized by the art. Since every art is different, the meridian points they use are also different. Hence, in the same case as using this technique on your opponent, please also refrain from using the enhancing technique in real combat until you are an expert in meridian point techniques.”

Another student lifted his hand and asked, ”Tutor, can meridian point techniques be used on a spirit beast?”

”It can,” Tao Su answered. ”In fact, from now on, the theory class will spare one day every week to cover the meridian points of a spirit beast. Each week will discuss different spirit beasts. Please understand that there are too many spirit beasts in this world. We can’t cover all of them. Even for some known spirit beasts, we are still unsure about the anatomy of their meridian points, so we will only discuss the most common beasts, which cultivators already studied and mapped out their meridian points. As for spirit beasts with meridian points you don’t know, do not try to use the technique on them. You will just get yourself in trouble.

”Now, circling back to the first question. The one about normal cultivators. Just so you know, there are ways to reposition your meridian points.”

A murmur started among the students after the information.

’Reposition...? This means memorizing the meridian point locations is useless against such a cultivator,’ Amon thought.

After the murmur died down, Tao Su resumed, ”Those who have studied and practiced meridian points to an advanced level, can readjust the meridian points around their bodies. In this way, those with the standard knowledge of meridian point location won’t be able to affect them with meridian point techniques.

”So, always be careful if you are fighting against opponents who display expertise in using meridian point techniques. They may have already readjusted their meridian points. To be safe, refrain from using meridian point techniques on an opponent altogether if you are unsure. Just focus on using the technique on yourself.

”If you are ready to begin practicing this technique, you can proceed to the practice building. The teachers there will show you how to control your aether and apply this technique.”

Several students started moving out after the prompt. Some went to ask Tao Su more questions. The rest remained in their seats, either chatting among themselves or contemplating the lecture.

Amon followed the students who left the room. They all went to the practice building to start learning the technique.

As he walked with the crowd, he sensed someone attempting to grab his arm. He moved the arm away, ready to give the assailant a backhand slap, before realizing it was Tuang Yin.

”I still can’t ambush you,” she said.

”What do you want?” Amon asked crudely.

”What do you mean what do I want? I should ask you that question!” Tuang Yin returned. ”Why do I get the feeling you are avoiding me? We haven’t hung out these past two months.”

”I am busy.”

”You are always busy. That I know, but you no longer let me tag along. You don’t even let me accompany you when you are home. You always make excuses. You are more distant than before. Are you dumping me?”

”I never think our relationship is anything special,” Amon said.

”That is mean! Is it because of that thing at the Grimwich Village?” Tuang Yin asked.

”Keep your voice down,” Amon stated.

”I told you already. You don’t have to worry about that. You can trust me.”

Amon was indeed avoiding her. Not because he didn’t trust her. If he didn’t, she wouldn’t be still alive. The reason was that he couldn’t trust himself to get more attached. He needed to stop whatever this was before it developed any further.