Years

Because he was still afraid of the intelligent supernatural creature that might visit the village, Ace decided to not spread his method immediately. Moreover, the people in the village were illiterate and needed to learn about many concepts before they could even try setting foot in the Realm he was.

A few days after his breakthrough, his 'old mana' was completely replaced by the new purer mana. The most visible effect was that his body was growing stronger and faster. And the invisible effect was that his soul power was increasing rapidly as well.

Moreover, his reserve of mana tripled in compression to before the breakthrough, an enormous sudden jump. His body didn't even feel out of balance because of that, probably because it changed the way the energies balanced each other.

He quietly absorbed the knowledge gathered by the system and slowly formed plans to move forward, but they all needed to be tested.

The first plan was to "open" more meridians, to enable his mana to reach even deeper in his body. However, the downside was that it was extremely time-consuming. Ace was optimistic about this plan.

The second plan was to try and engrave an instinct into his mana, to make it flow in the meridians more easily. However, it was still unknown if it was possible to engrave an instinct in it.

The third plan was to try and infiltrate his mana in his consciousness palace, which was similar to the energy core but was located in the middle of the brain.

The consciousness palace was where the soul resided and where his thoughts interacted with his brain.

The system never mentioned it before because it was afraid that Ace would have crooked ideas with his weak soul power. But because his soul was considerably stronger than before, it was courageous enough to mention it.

By infiltrating the consciousness sea, his mana could directly come in contact with his soul and hopefully nourish it much faster, thus growing his soul power faster as well.

Of the three methods, the third was the most dangerous, the second was the most cost-effective, and the first was the one that Ace was more optimistic about.

He cleverly decided to try the second method first and after about a month of effort... he gave up, the mana didn't react at all, and the system was sure the method was useless.

Ace didn't like the third method and decided to try the first method... first.

Each of the main meridians beside the governing meridian was connected to four auxiliary meridians. Although they weren't as big, they still covered a large area.

In total, there were 32 auxiliary meridians that he needed to open by engraving 32 instincts in his soul power.

Because the auxiliary meridians were smaller than the main meridians, each instinct took just two weeks to get engraved.

It took him about 448 days to get finished.

While he opened more meridians for his mana to circulate, his body and soul also got a lot stronger, and his reserves of mana almost doubled in quantity.

His skin was growing more beautiful instead of getting rougher with the harsh reality, which made him gain another nickname, "Pretty Boy."

Ace's deep dark eyes and long pitch-black hair made others feel as if he wasn't of that world, but a ghost wandering the earth.

After all, the people of that village all had brown hair and green or blue eyes. So it was natural for weird rumors to be made up by children and stupid people.

After all the auxiliary meridians were opened, Ace felt his speed of absorbing spiritual energy was much higher than when they were still not opened.

[It seems that mana has a natural ability to attract spiritual energy. I only felt it after the host began to engrave the instincts related to the auxiliary meridians.]

"Wait. If I open all meridians, wouldn't I be doomed then?" Ace frowned, "It costs me soul power and biological energy to refine more mana. If it happens at all times... I will die!"

[Host, try to will your mana to stop attracting spiritual energy. Since it inherited many characteristics from soul power, perhaps the host can make it stop.]

Ace focused and tried and it was indeed like that, the system confirmed that the rate he absorbed spiritual energy returned back to normal.

"What a relief," Ace sighed deeply, "Every step I tread is full of dangers, I'm afraid I will eventually die without even knowing why."

[It's actually a good thing that Mana has this ability. Perhaps, in the future, the host will be able to actively use mana to absorb more spiritual energy, it would probably be much more efficient than when using soul power since mana possesses a higher affinity to it.]

"Let's leave it for the future and continue doing the basics," Ace shook his head.

Each auxiliary meridian was connected to another five smaller meridians that he called "supplementary meridians." From those, dozens of smaller meridians derived.

In total, there were 160 supplementary meridians. Ace's luck was that they were considerably smaller than the auxiliary meridians, and it took him only a week to open one meridian.

It still took him about three whole years to get finished! Yes, three years! Ace was feeling a growing despair when he thought about the numerous meridians remaining.

When the last supplementary meridian was opened, Ace took a deep breath and checked his body and soul. He was overall two times stronger than three years before.

It wasn't slow, since it was natural for it to be more difficult as he advanced. Both his body and soul required more of his efforts to get stronger as time passed.

He had enough strength and resilience to punch and easily devastate the trunks of some trees without hurting himself. He could run as fast as a cheetah as well, it was incredible for a modern man like him.

However, it was still a little insufficient to compete with some monsters and wild beasts. He had to grow stronger to guarantee his safety in the long term.

He counted and knew the number of the smaller meridians waiting to be opened... About two thousand smaller meridians, he decided to not name them out of frustration.

But the system gave them a fitting name, extra meridians.

After he began, he discovered that it took him two days to refine a single extra meridian. But even so, it would take him a little more than ten years to get finished! He would be a complete middle-aged man by then, and only if he survived until the time!

The system sensed his distress and tried to comfort him.

[Host, your expected natural life span already hit the hundred mark after so much nourishing from your mana. As you grow stronger, you might get an even longer life span.

[Not only that, but your body won't age as much as a normal human even if your life span approaches the end. At most, you will look like a healthy old man who is full of strength and wits.

[Even after ten years, the host's body won't look older at all, if that is what worries you.]

"What! You never mentioned it before!" Ace was overjoyed but then noticed the sarcasm in the system's words, "Are you mocking me? That's a first!"

[...]

"Ahem, I'm happy that I don't need to worry about my life span, I will simply focus on getting the job done."

That year, the village head died of old age and the new village head tried to arrange a marriage between his daughter and Ace, who refused without hesitation.

Out of frustration, the village head wanted Ace to go and hunt small animals outside the ravine, a dangerous job that only a few dared to do. Most of the villagers depended on the river at the bottom of the ravine for food, the river was mostly an underground one and a strange edible fish was always abundant there.

Ace was too lazy to quarrel and agreed since he didn't want to part ways with that village just yet.

He would then hunt a few animals every week and give them to the villagers for free, it was easy for him and he didn't need to venture too far away from the ravine. With his strength and agility, some small animals had no chance of escaping from his clutches.

By doing that, many villagers developed a good impression of him and began to ask the village head to stop what he was doing.

The village head felt pressured and after a few months stopped ordering Ace to hunt outside the ravine.

Ten years was a long time for people in that world, where living until fifty was a considerably long life. Many strange diseases were fatal to older people but harmless to the young.

After ten years passed, the villagers seemed to come to a consensus: Ace would die a single man and didn't want to marry anyone because he had some sort of trauma or problem.

Ace ignored the rumor and just did as usual... until the day came. On a fateful morning, when the sun just rose from the horizon, the last meridian... was opened.

"Ten years... passed by quickly..." Ace muttered with a faint smile, his heart was tranquil.

He could feel that after the last meridian was opened, a magical change began to take place in his soul power... All the instincts he once engraved showed a tendency to fuse, something he and the system always thought was impossible.

Although it was possible to alternate or erase instincts engraved in the soul power, the system never knew it was possible to fuse them.

Although Ace didn't know why it was happening, he didn't panic. He only felt tranquility and as if it was a matter of course for something unexpected to happen.

After all, his state of mind had been tempered by the long years in that world, it was normal for him to mature.

When all the instincts were completely fused into a single one, he felt a change in his perception, as if he could control all his meridians and the flow of his energies in them at will.

His level of control over his power skyrocketed and he felt he could use soul power and mana much more exquisitely than before.

But that wasn't the end of the breakthrough, he felt a familiar feeling again from the depths of his being. His body and soul were evolving at a rapid pace.

He felt like a barrier was covering his life, blocking him from advancing. He didn't know what it was but knew he had to pierce it. He focused and his mana violently circulated throughout his body, the barrier was instantly pierced.

He felt ethereal, all his thoughts vanished from his mind. It was like his mind was traveling inside his body, sensing all changes at the same time, seeing all things.

Without him noticing, a huge amount of spiritual energy began to be absorbed by his body and was automatically refined into mana. But instead of getting depleted, his soul power and biological energy began to rise as well.

All sorts of impurities began to be excreted through his pores, some were red and some were black.

His bone marrow and blood began to transform as well, and his biological energy began to evolve into a new energy with similar but more powerful properties.

When Ace finally awakened from that state, he first noticed the impurities covering him and then sensed a new... sense. He could sense things beyond his body, without touching or even seeing them.

The coverage of that new sense was small, only thirty centimeters away from his body, but it was enough to shock him.

[Congratulations on your breakthrough and the awakening of your soul sense, host.]

"Soul sense? So it already has a name, huh?"

[Disappointed?]

"Just a little bit, but it also means that I'm evolving in the right direction?"

[Do you want me to transfer the data gathered right now?]

"Wait! I want to discover a few things by myself, don't give me a spoiler!" Ace said with a grin.