A person's meridian was connected to one's dantian in their navel area. A dantian revealed itself after one entered the Saint realm, but until then, it was always hidden, shrouded even from a person's own spiritual sense.
The meridians came out from either side of the dantian, each route separating into 8 different major routes at once.
Each of these routes was the Spiritual roots in one's body.
Alex realized that if he pushed his Qi out from dantian, it would have to go through one of the 7 different routes, which would give an aspect to his Qi.
Going through the Fire Spiritual Root would give him Fire Qi, and going through Water Spiritual root would give him Water Qi.
The final meridian had no spiritual root and was thus simply a normal meridian that could help pass Qi through. People with this type of meridian could never enter the Meridian Tempering realm where their Spiritual roots would be tempered and thus they were unable to continue on with their cultivation journey.
Alex continued learning more and more about one's spiritual roots. After all, that was the beginning of the pathway that defined a technique.
He tried using Flame Mastery Scripture to create a water ball again. This time, he understood what had happened.
Since using the technique forced the Qi out of the Fire spiritual roots, his Qi could never turn to water even if he intended it.
No matter how important one's Intent was when using a technique, the pathways were equally just as important.
He tried using the same technique, but by sending Qi through the water roots, but it didn't take him long to realize that each of the Spiritual roots had its own shape, and using one technique while using another pathway just wasn't possible.
"So I intend to use a technique, then the Qi comes out through the spiritual roots on either side. The Qi then splits off to 4 different major meridians belonging to that root?" Alex wondered.
He checked the other spiritual roots and they all split off into 4 different pathways before separating further to become a thousand different pathways that moved throughout one's body.
'Why four?' Alex wondered, but there were no answers for him at the moment.
Alex continued going through the Ancient Battlefield, making a name for himself that even he hadn't realized yet.
A few days later, the bells rang once more, calling for everyone who wanted to leave to leave.
This time around, Alex was going to go. He had learned wherever he could, and wherever he had not was simply too dangerous because of how strong the aura was.
So, it was time to leave. Besides, if his calculations were correct, the Dao mountain was going to open up very soon.
Alex walked back towards the gate along with Pearl, but before he could reach anywhere, a group of people suddenly appeared in front of him.
They pulled out their weapons at once and stood in his way.
Alex paused for a second and continued on. "I'm sorry if you wanted to spar. I'm afraid I can't indulge you on it today," he said.
"Aww! Come on man, we are leaving today. This will be our last spar. We just want to spar with you before we go," one of the men said.
Alex smiled when he heard that. Some of these men had continued to come and try to fight him and had continuously had their butts handed to them by Alex.
They were all around Saint Condensation 5 to Saint Condensation 7th realm, so they were angry for losing at first.
However, when they started realizing that Alex was holding back during their sparring, they started to be more respectful and developed a friendlier attitude.
"Lucky for you then, I'm leaving as well," Alex said.
"Oh, you're leaving? Where will you go?" one of the women asked.
"The Dao mountain," Alex said. "I need to finalize what I've learned here."
"Woah! Are you planning on learning another Dao?" someone else asked.
Alex smiled, but no one could see his expression.
"So… can we not spar?" another person asked. "The gates will open tomorrow, so we have quite a bit of time."
Alex sighed. "Alright, sure." He pulled out his True rank sword and used it to fight the 7 people in front of him… all at once.
Alex didn't even need to use his Sword Aura when he fought them. Just his Sword Qi alone was strong enough. Even his normal Qi was overkill in most instances.
However, perhaps the most problematic part of Alex's fighting style was the way he weaved in and out of combat by teleporting around.
Alex didn't even need shadows to teleport. He could now be anywhere at any time. Although, he did find it a little annoying that the Saints were acutely aware of his position just moments after his teleportation.
No matter how much he teleported, he couldn't hide from their senses at all. As such, they weren't caught off guard as much as True realm cultivators would in the same scenario.
Still, Alex fought the people. Sometimes he would teleport in, sometimes he would teleport the others out.
His fighting style was chaotic, to say the least. Sometimes, he would even drop on all four, losing his sword, and start fighting like a beast.
The Saints were horrified at how good he was at fighting like a beast. If he wasn't walking on 2 legs just moments before, they would have assumed he was a beast using illusions to appear as a human.
Alex pulled no stop in this fight as he used his sword, his fists, his claws, and even his whip which he had ignored for a while.
The only thing Alex didn't use was his blood aura. He wasn't sure if anyone in this continent had cultivated a blood aura or not, so he didn't want to be the first person to show it and thus become a person of a target for everyone to learn from.
The moment someone showed any signs of knowing Blood Aura, he would begin using it openly. For now, all he did was train with it.
After a few hours of combat, the group all gave up one by one even all 7 together, they couldn't force Alex to make any mistakes or hit him with skills that he didn't simply dodge or brush off.
Pearl walked up to Alex and jumped onto his shoulders. He meowed once, letting them know that they should be leaving soon as the gates would be opening.
So, after an hour of rest, the group of 9 walked together towards the gate where thousands of people were standing around to leave.
People noticed the man in the white mask with the white cat next to him and made way for him to leave.
Alex was surprised that they all knew him already. A few people came up to talk to him, and he indulged them in their queries and curiosities.
Many told him to visit their sects or clans or organizations where they could talk about Dao in peace.
Alex didn't make any promises.
Finally, after a few hours, the gates of the Ancient Battlefield opened up, and one by one, everyone walked out.
