larger. However, while he had a larger volume he had to convert, he was able to leverage the parallel processing to reduce the remaining work. I.e., he had a lot of converted Qi already.

Unfortunately, a connected Linking Meridian did him no good. He at least needed to connect now his Right Foot or Right Hand Meridian to the Yang Linking Meridian. So he concentrated on condensing the Spiritual Qi in his Dantian.

Another day passed and perhaps because he was no longer tunneling, he was able to quickly feel the rumbling in his Dantian. The cascade lead to the liquid in his Dantian shrinking and solidifying into a bead of Spiritual Qi. This was actually when he was at his most vulnerable. His Dantian was effectively empty and he had no access to Spiritual Qi. It would only be when he advanced to a Martial Disciple that he would gain the ability to process solid Spiritual Qi.

He had to bring over some Yuan Qi to open up a new liquid Dantian core around his solid Dantian pearl. Wait a minute, why couldn't he have opened up his original Dantian with Yuan Qi? If every child could monitor their Yuan Qi, why couldn't they form a Dantian without outside help?

He started to lose track of his process, the new Dantian core was creaking. He focused on it. Soon he was able to bring in Spiritual Qi to bond with the Yuan Qi to start filling in his new Dantian. It looked like it was effectively four times larger than a first layer Martial Refiner. A normal second layer wold only have a twice as large Dantian. His initial effort and then refining the Meridian had lead to a massive reserve compared to other cultivators. Yes, it would take longer to fill, but that also meant it would take longer to drain, he had more power.

He was also pretty sure that his condensed Dantian pearl was larger and denser than normal. He started off with a larger base and he effectively refined his Spiritual Qi down twice. Once he coalesced all of his 10 Dantian pearls to advance to a Martial Disciple, he should not only have a larger reserve of Qi, but have a more powerful Qi.

Arthur was pretty sure he had both increased his life span and his strength. He couldn't check either - no mirror and he got the feeling it was not a good idea to initiate violence in this valley.

He was quite happy he was able to go beyond what the Comprehensive Transmission of Auric Ether technique detailed. Some of it was guess work, but most of it was learning to combine the modern Martial underpinnings with the Ancient method.

Chapter 11: The Forest of Despair, or Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it is off to adventure I go

Once he finally stabilized his Dantian, he started the background efforts again. His focus was on the new Spiritual Qi tunnel he was constructing between the Yang Linking Meridian and his Right Hand Meridian. The Yang Linking Meridian was used to link in Meridians on the right side of his body and the Yin Linking Meridian hooked up the left side.

If he knew Spiritual techniques, the Yang connections would help with using Spiritual Qi to enhance the body. Likewise the Yin connections helped with enhancing mental powers. His goal was to see if he could use Spiritual Qi to enhance his fist - one of his childhood heroes had been Iron Fist. He could still vividly recall Danny Rand striking his iconic pose.

A month later, he had been on this world for six months and had yet to have an adventure. But he had just connected his Right Hand Meridian and broken through the second level of Martial Refiner. He had roughly six times the power of a first level Martial Refiner. His strength should