6 Progress

Closing his eyes as he returned to opening up even more of his acupoints, Shi Li went ahead and attuned himself to the qi in his surroundings once more, taking a couple minutes to do so before he had control over the qi once again. With that, he then redirected the qi he had control over towards an acupoint beside the first acupoint he had opened.

Surprisingly, while he was controlling the outside qi to enter his body and gradually open his second acupoint, the qi inside the first acupoint also made its way to where the second acupoint was, slightly increasing the speed at which the acupoint was being opened. At first, Shi Li was slightly shocked that something like this was happening, but after thinking about it for a bit, he then remembered that the cultivation technique's effect was to increase the person's cultivation speed.

Even though the increase in speed right now wasn't anything substantial, once he had reached the peak of the Acupoint Breaking Realm, he was certain that he would eventually match the speed of someone with Wood-level aptitude in the same realm, but without his Imperfect Meridians hindering him.

With that in mind, he focused all of his concentration towards carving out a space for the qi that would settle in his body on the second acupoint, only to notice that as time passed, the efficacy of the qi opening his acupoints gradually decreased. At first, he did not notice it at all as the qi from the first acupoint was helping out. Though, with a couple of hours now being invested into opening the second acupoint, it was now apparent that he was indeed slowing down, but he wasn't sure why.

Fortunately, the answer to his question would finally reveal itself as he reached the four-hour mark into opening up his second acupoint, forcing him to stop cultivating as he felt his body curl from the strong pangs of hunger emanating from his stomach. Indeed, for people like him who weren't too deep into their path of cultivation, hunger was an element that hampered them from operating at their full potential.

With the great pangs of hunger affecting his body, Shi Li could not help but let out a moan of pain as he placed his hands over his stomach, wanting to quell the pain that he felt. However, as if it had a mind of its own, a few more waves radiated throughout the body, debilitating him to the point that he had to crawl his way to the door.

Thankfully, by the time he had reached the door, the pangs of hunger had finally died down to a point where it was bearable. Gradually, Shi Li stood up from the floor as he was planning to head to the clan kitchen, wanting to grab some food to satiate the hunger that was plaguing his stomach. But surprisingly, just as he was about to open the door, someone else from the other side opened up the door, prompting him to take a few steps back as he muttered in surprise, "Mom?"

"Sorry, son. I forgot to tell one of the servants to bring you some food a few hours ago. Sadly, he was also made busy by the feast that was held by the—" As if she was oblivious to what Shi Li said, Shi Languang opened the door as she carried an amount of food that would normally be hard for even Shi Li to eat all of, apologizing in the meantime. Eventually, she noticed that her son was staring at her, only for her to notice that her son was looking at the large amount of food she brought, constantly salivating.

Seeing that her son hadn't changed, Shi Languang could not help but let out a light chuckle as she plopped the food on the floor and opened it for Shi Li and her to chow down on. Grabbing a few bowls and some utensils from a certain part of Shi Li's room, she then gave part of it to Shi Li as she told him to eat.

Nodding in response as he said his thanks, he then grabbed an amount of food that slightly surprised Shi Languang. After all, before this, she hadn't even seen her son eat this much food before. However, after looking at her son for a bit, she noticed that there was something different about him. Although she was certain that the thing she sensed was definitely new, she was unsure as to whether it was coming from her son. With that in mind, she asked him as she grabbed a bit of food for herself, "Son…did you…make a breakthrough?"

"I wouldn't really call it a breakthrough, mother," Shi Li said in response as he continued to munch on his food. Taking a sip of water, he then continued with a light smile, "However, I guess you can say I made progress. Look."

After saying that, he then tried to control the small amount of qi that was in the acupoint he had opened, circulating it throughout his body, albeit at a very slow manner due to the pitiful amount of qi he had. Nevertheless, a surprised yet happy expression could be seen on Shi Languang's face as she exclaimed, "You've reached the 1st Stage of Acupoint Breaking?"

"I've only opened one acupoint so fa—" Just before he could finish explaining his progress to his mom, Shi Languang leaned in and gave her son a big hug as she was truly happy that her son had managed to make progress. "My son has finally made progress in cultivation! My son is finally a cultivator!"

At first, Shi Li wanted to explain that he wasn't a true cultivator yet as he hadn't opened enough acupoints for his qi to be of any substance, but in the end, he eventually gave in to his mother as he nodded in agreement, telling her, "Yes, yes. Your son is indeed a cultivator. I'll make sure to not let you down."

…

Eventually, after about an hour or so, all of the food that Shi Languang brought for the two of them had been completely eaten, with most of it going towards Shi Li. After all, it was the first time he had experienced such a level of hunger. Just as he was about to ask his mother if he could obtain more food to eat, which would aid him in his cultivation, Shi Languang looked at her son and told him, "You don't have to worry about that, son. I'll make sure that you don't have to be hungry. You just have to focus on cultivation. After all, your mother is a chef in the clan kitchen! Hahaha!"

After telling her son to not worry about her for a bit more, Shi Languang eventually left the room, knowing very well that her son was going to continue focusing on his cultivation, knowing very well how hard it was for her son to cultivate. Naturally, Shi Li made a promise in his mind that he would eventually repay everything that his mother had done for him and return tenfold, perhaps even a hundredfold.

With that, he cleaned up the room before closing his eyes to attune himself to the qi in the surroundings, wanting to continue opening the second acupoint. At this point, it was around halfway open, just like the first acupoint before he started cultivating. Naturally, it took around the same time for him to open up the second acupoint, being fueled by the food that was given to him by his mother.

However, rather than continuing to cultivate and aim to open up the third acupoint, he instead went to bed, feeling a great amount of mental strain as he opened his eyes after opening up the second acupoint. In any case, he was satisfied that he had made even a bit of progress in his cultivation.

By the time he had woken up, the sun was around halfway to reaching the peak, prompting him to open his eyes and do some light stretching. Sometime later, his stomach started to rumble, only for his eyes to fixate on a small box that was placed near the door that led to the outside. Opening it up was an amount of food far greater than what he had been given yesterday by the servant, inwardly thanking his mom as he ate half of it, saving half for later once he got hungry.

After that, he continued to cultivate, aiming to achieve the peak of the 1st Stage of Acupoint Breaking, only stopping whenever he was hungry. While he was cultivating, he thought about other things while continuing to open his acupoints, thinking about ways for him to speed up his rate of cultivation that would allow him to match someone without his Imperfect Meridians. Eventually, he had come to the conclusion that cultivation pills would be able to help him out, however he did not have the money for such pills, so he thought about asking his mother for money once he had achieved his goal.

And with that, over a week had passed since Shi Li had begun his new life in the town of Sanshan. With the sun at its peak, a small pop resounded throughout the insides of Shi Li's body as the small wave of qi he had amassed so far had receded back into their respective acupoints. With a light smile on his face, he filled up this newly opened acupoint with qi as he exclaimed with glee, "Finally! I've opened up 30 acupoints! I've finally achieved the peak of the 1st Stage!"