The passage led Theon underground, into a room unlike any he had seen before. Its walls were lined with towering bookshelves. At the far end, massive screens hummed with data, receiving constant streams of information. Ren, watching Theon closely, raised an eyebrow, hoping for a reaction.
Ren threw his hands up in mock surrender. "Nothing, huh? Not even a glimmer of awe? Tough crowd." He sighed dramatically, but a hint of a challenge lingered in his eyes. Theon offered a faint, almost imperceptible smile – a flicker of the practiced facade – before his gaze swept back over the room, an unreadable depth in his dark eyes.
"Anyway." Ren continued, waving off his own theatrics, "just focus on the first bookshelf on the right and leave the rest alone. I trust you'll choose the right cultivation technique from what I've collected here. This is a chance to learn and refine your own tastes. Good luck."
Without further words, Ren left Theon alone in the chamber as he retreated back up the passageway, the bookshelf sliding closed behind him.
The silence was comforting, broken only by the faint hum of the screens. The air carried the scent of aged paper, laced with the faint ozone emitted by the technology in the room. Theon stood in the center for a moment, feeling the weight of responsibility. Ren had entrusted him with an important task—to choose his own path forward.
He walked to the first bookshelf on the right and began to scan the titles. Each book and scroll seemed to whisper secrets of power and knowledge, their spines gleaming under the soft, ambient light. Theon reached out and pulled a few volumes, reading the summaries on the back covers.
"Celestial Dragon Method... Spirit Synchronisation Mantra… Heavens Synergy Technique... Void Whisperer's Embrace..." Each name was more imposing than the last, promising unparalleled strength and wisdom. Yet, with each page turned, each scroll unrolled, a familiar weariness settled over him.
Upon a closer inspection of the technique each turned out nothing more than make-up on a pig. Each technique had a name more glamorous than the last and yet each time Theon flicked through the method he couldn't help but sigh in frustration.
Even with his nascent understanding of 'Lu', he could discern the clumsy attempts at grandiosity, the disingenuous promises thinly veiled behind flowery prose. These weren't profound paths to power; they were the desperate legacies of cultivators who had yearned for renown but achieved only mediocrity, hoping to deceive fools with their embellished failures. A flicker of genuine confusion crossed Theon's mind. Why would Ren, with his meticulous standards, hoard such dross in a hidden library?
Hours flowed like seconds as Theon immersed himself in the books and scrolls adorning the walls of the room.
Theon exited the passageway, exhausted in every sense of the word.
Theon had quickly found out that once he discarded all of the "fake" techniques, all of the techniques left had an example Lu flow within their scrolls. And so by going through techniques for hours on end, Theon had all but exhausted almost all of the Lu within his meridians. This layered with the comprehension that Theon had to do to understand the techniques and their intricacies while taking into account all other techniques that came before them to truly choose the best one…. It was a tall task to say the least.
But here he stood. A scroll in hand.
"Did you find something worthwhile?" Ren asked.
Theon nodded, holding up the scroll. "The [True Neutral Balance Discipline]."
Ren's eyebrows raised in surprise and approval. "An interesting choice. It's a technique that requires a great deal of precision and concentration. The technique itself will not get you very far but the foundation that it sets is extremely potent."
[True Neutral Balance Discipline] had two levels.
The first level was the most basic sequence any technique would have, the circulation of the Lu within the whole body in a specific pattern. Practitioners would draw in neutral Lu from the atmosphere and then circulate it around their body in a specific pattern, with the nuances of each technique lying in these variations. Each technique would have a different path for circulation and therefore a different part emphasized and developed by the technique.
[True Neutral Balance Discipline], however, stood apart. Unlike other techniques, which often prioritized raw flow over precision, simply directing Lu to a general area, this method required meticulous control. It required Lu to travel along every inch of the meridians, ensuring complete coverage. No section was overlooked; every surface had to be touched and refined by the circulating energy.
This was precisely why Theon had chosen it. All it required was that the Lu was spread across all available meridians.
Most conventional methods gave a predetermined flow through the natural meridians and well that was a problem…. Theon's meridians had strayed from the organic and "normal" path.
The conventional descriptions and paths for Lu to flow wouldn't apply to him an organic, standardized meridian structure, guiding Lu from one fixed point to another. This would completely make him forego his extra meridian paths. If he blindly followed traditional methods, his extra channels would be left dormant, completely overlooking his possible advantage, or worse could destabilize him.
Still, Theon did not have a shred of regret for forcefully expanding his meridian network because as the next step showed, harmony and symmetry was an overwhelmingly important part of the meridians that could not be sacrificed.
The second level required the user to simultaneously cultivate two alternate paths of Lu that mirrored each other inside the meridians.
Meridians were ethereal pathways woven throughout the body: the living lattice that channeled and controlled Lu, much like the nervous system conducted electrical impulses. The meridians began at the brain stem and contained down until the neck. At the neck they split, one stream went downwards towards the stomach and another went through the arm. Then the one in the stomach continued all the way until the feet. This was then mirrored on both the left and right side of the body.
For cultivators, maintaining this symmetry was vital. Any imbalance in the flow of Lu risked destabilizing the entire system, leading to inefficiencies, erratic energy, or worse.
This was where [True Neutral Balance Discipline] excelled. It demanded flawless precision, splitting neutral Lu into two harmonized streams that advanced in perfect synchronicity—each mirroring the other as they traveled along their respective meridians. Balance wasn't just a principle here; it was the foundation. And for Theon's newly founded meridians, this balance was exactly what he needed.
For the second day in a row, Theon's body crumpled onto his bed, exhaustion claiming him the instant he touched the sheets. As consciousness faded, his final thoughts drifted to the words scrawled across those talent assessment papers.