Seeing the pale expression on Slughorn's face, Harry knew that it must have been something terrible. Worriedly, he asked Slughorn what was wrong.
"That flower was an Exquisite Pure Magnolia. It is well-known for its beauty, and is mostly a decorative plant. But, it has a little-known use – when in contact with poison, it will immediately crumble and turn to ash. In other words, there is a poison in your body."
"What?" Harry exclaimed. "I was poisoned?"
"Not quite. The situation is more complicated than that."
"Speak clearly, Horace," the Exalted Cat snapped.
"Very well," the Alchemist heaved a sigh. "It is not that you were poisoned. Rather, Lily was."
"What?"
"A very sinister, very nasty type of poison. I do not have the words to express how vile it is. It is called the Fetal Crippling Poison, and does exactly what the name suggests."
Fetal Crippling Poison…
"Yes," Slughorn said, noticing the look on Harry's face. "A pregnant woman is poisoned. The poison lays dormant in the mother's body, not affecting her at all. Perhaps Lily didn't even know she was poisoned. The poison merges with the fetus, and when the baby is born, it will be born with a set of restricted meridians, making it very difficult for it to cultivate and absorb Qi. Your mother was most likely poisoned after you were conceived - if you were conceived afterwards, you would have died in infancy."
Harry involuntarily shuddered.
"What else do you know about the poison?" the cat asked.
"I don't think you will like what you are about to hear."
"Just tell us."
"Very well. The poison is unique, very unique, and also very horrible. It clogs the meridians, and whenever a new meridian is opened, the body will be wracked with pain. It is said that the pain of opening one of the last three meridians is so great that one will beg to die. Further…"
"Further what?"
"For the first 20 years of the cultivator's life, the poison is dormant and only resides in the meridians. It only acts up when the cultivator opens each meridian, as a form of self-defense. But after 20 years, the poison will become active, and the cultivator will suffer constant, unbearable agony for the rest of their life. Everyone inflicted with this poison has committed suicide before the age of 21."
As the words slipped out Slughorn's mouth, Harry felt like he had been doused with cold water.
When he turned 20, his life would be as good as over. He was 17 now, nearly 18, so didn't that mean he only had two years left?
"B-but," he stammered, "I didn't feel that sort of pain when I opened the Lung or Heart Meridian. There was some pain, but just a bit. Or when I started opening the Heart Protector Meridian."
"The pain when opening the first three meridians is very slight," Slughorn explained. "When you open the 4th and beyond, you will start to feel it."
"How do we get it out?" the cat asked.
Slughorn shook his head. "I do not know. This poison doesn't exist in the Scarlet Phoenix Empire. The book I have was written by a famous doctor on the continent, yet he knew no method of doing so. However, he had two theories."
"What are they?"
"Again, this is just speculation. The first is to burn the poison with an intense heat – it will destroy the poison for sure, but the temperature would be so high that it would also kill the cultivator, or at the very least, cripple his meridians. So that's out of the question."
"The second theory is based on how the poison operates. The poison initially clogs all nine meridians. When the Lung Meridian is opened, the poison is cleared from the Lung Meridian, and only clogs the unopened eight. However, the poison in the Lung Meridian doesn't disappear, rather, it spreads itself among the other meridians, making each meridian harder to open than the last, and also more painful."
"When Harry opened his Lung Meridian, the poison in there was moved into the Heart Meridian. And when Harry opened his Heart Meridian, the poison there was moved into the Heart Protector Meridian. You get the idea, it travels through the body, always staying a step ahead of the cultivator. The theory is that after all nine meridians are opened, the poison, having nowhere to go, should be expelled from the body."
Harry and the cat nodded. That explanation was logical.
"So, if I open all of my meridians, and get to the 9th level of the Body Tempering Realm, the poison will go away?"
"As I said, that is just speculation. The reasoning is sound, but no one knows for sure, since no one inflicted with this poison has ever managed to reach the 9th level of the Body Tempering Realm. The pain of doing so is simply too immense, and when you begin opening the 9th meridian, the poison will retaliate and wreak havoc in the body. Besides, this matter is far more concerning than just your cultivation!"
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it! Who is despicable enough to poison a fetus? Could you bring yourself to do it? Surely an upright individual would shudder at the very idea. The fetus has done no wrong, it is the most defenseless and innocent existence in the world. Yet Lily did something, or was involved in something, that resulted in this form of retaliation."
"Further, this poison is not from the Scarlet Phoenix Empire. There is no way for anyone in our empire to get their hands on it. Even considering the entire continent, it is very rare. This means Lily had enemies, both powerful and evil."
"All these years, I thought Lily's enemies were after Lily. Just earlier today, I said it was unlikely they were after you. But the presence of this poison proves me wrong – for some reason, Lily's enemies were after you, even though you weren't even born."
Harry felt like he was sinking into despair. How could his life be so miserable? He had only barely escaped from the Dursleys, and now there was someone else who wanted his life?
Judging from Slughorn's look and tone, these enemies were far more powerful than the Dursleys.
"How strong are they?" he asked. "Are they in the Qi Absorption Realm?"
Harry had never met anyone of the Qi Absorption Realm. In the Crystal Mine City, no one had ever passed the Body Tempering Realm and reached the Qi Absorption Realm. However, he knew that such a cultivator could crush Vernon Dursley as easily as Vernon had crushed him.
The Exalted Cat snorted.
"Do not underestimated your enemies," it warned him.
So, above even the Qi Absorption Realm?
How was he supposed preserve his life?
"Why?" he choked. "Why do they want me dead?"
"Harry, I know it must be difficult for you. But, look on the bright side. First of all, you are in no immediate danger. The only people who know that you're here are the three of us. And second, the existence of this poison means that they are unlikely to come after you."
"Why?"
"Because, when those bastards poisoned your mother, they expected you to die within 20 years. Most likely they have already written you off as dead, as no one has survived this poison before. If we can expel it from your body, then you should be safe."
Slowly, Harry stopped shivering and looked up. Slughorn's reasoning had merit, he supposed.
"But that's impossible," Harry muttered. "I can't open all 9 meridians in the next two years. I mean, it took two years to just open my first two meridians."
The easiest meridian to open was the Lung Meridian. The second easiest was the Heart Meridian. Naturally, the hardest to open was the 9th meridian. If he had so much trouble with his first two, how would he open the next seven?
The three of them sat in an uneasy silence, until Slughorn spoke up.
"Well, I may have some good news for you," he said.
"Good news?" Harry perked up.
"Well, maybe. Let me explain first. There are two anomalies with your body. One is that Qi flows extremely slowly in your unopened meridians – we know this is due to the Fetal Crippling Poison."
Harry nodded.
"The second anomaly is your refining speed. The pill that you had this morning, the one the cat gave you, do you know what it was?"
"No," he replied.
"It was an Earth Grade pill – Ordinary Grade corresponds to the Body Tempering Realm, and Earth Grade corresponds to the Qi Absorption Realm."
Harry was shocked. No wonder the pill had healed his injuries in just a matter of minutes – it was a pill meant for Qi Absorption Realm cultivators! If Slughorn and the cat could easily hand out these pills, did that mean they were at the Qi Absorption Realm?
"Harry, I'll give you another guess. How long would it take a cultivator of the low-level Body Tempering Realm to refine that pill? Specifically, it was middle-quality Earth Grade."
"I don't know, fifteen hours?"
He had spent around 15 minutes, and apparently his refining speed was much faster than normal. So he made a wide guess.
"Wrong again," the cat said. "More like five days."
"Really?" Harry asked with his mouth wide open.
"Yes. I was prepared to wait in the clearing for five days until you finished. How could I imagine that you'd be done in 15 minutes?"
Harry now understood why the Exalted Cat had looked at him with that dumbfounded expression.
"So, is this also because of the poison?"
"I believe they're unrelated. The Fetal Crippling Poison makes it difficult to open meridians, but doesn't cause you to refine Qi at a faster speed. I have a different theory, a very bold theory, though at the same time, there are many other explanations. Perhaps it is simply a quirk of your body, or perhaps it is an unknown side effect of poison. Or perhaps it is something else entirely."
"What do you know about Magic Spirits?" Slughorn asked, throwing out a non-sequitur.
"The basics, I guess? Just what everyone knows."
Magic Spirits were an existence that resided in every cultivator's body. They could take an infinite number of forms, and represented a quality of the cultivator. Many Magic Spirits were some sort of animal, but weapon and item spirits were also common. Some spirits took the form of natural objects, like plants, metals, or fire. It was said that after a cultivator reached a high enough level of cultivation, they could fuse with their spirit, which would grant them additional abilities and cultivation techniques.
"And you know about the ranking system?" Slughorn asked.
"Of course," Harry nodded.
The quality of a cultivator's spirit was directly related to their talent and potential. Those with better spirits had faster cultivation speeds, better affinity towards some cultivation techniques, and higher battle prowess. Some spirits could even grant special abilities to their users.
Therefore, the myriad of spirits was ranked, starting with Rank 1. The vast majority of cultivators, something like 90%, condensed Rank 1 Magic Spirits, and the majority of the other 10% condensed Rank 2 Magic Spirits. At Crystal Mine City, everyone had a Rank 1 or 2 Magic Spirit.
Of every 1000 people, one would condense a Rank 3 Magic Spirit. And above Rank 3 was Rank 4, which were the spirits of legends. In the entire Scarlet Phoenix Empire, which was home to millions of cultivators, the number of such Magic Spirits numbered in the dozens. Above Rank 4 would be Rank 5, but those spirits didn't exist.
"Good, good. And do you know about how Magic Spirits awaken?"
Harry nodded again. How could he not? This had always been a great source of misery for him.
A Magic Spirit existed in every body, from the moment a baby was conceived. However, it would only awaken after the baby grew up and started cultivating, as they needed to be supported by Qi. Until then, there was no way to communicate with the Magic Spirit, and no way to determine its name or rank. For that reason, manifesting a Magic Spirit was like a game of chance.
Rank 1, 2, and 3 Magic Spirits awoke at the 1st level of the Body Tempering Realm. In other words, nearly every cultivator would know their spirit the moment they opened their first meridian.
Rank 4 Magic Spirits awoke at the 2nd level of the Body Tempering Realm.
At the Crystal Mine City, everyone had Rank 1 or 2 Magic Spirits. Harry had caused a minor stir in the city when he entered the 1st level of the Body Tempering Realm, and his spirit had failed to appear.
A few people believed that Harry was a one in a million genius, who had a Rank 4 Magic Spirit. However, most people cited Harry's slow cultivation speed as evidence to the contrary – everyone knew that those with Rank 4 Magic Spirits cultivated faster than everyone else. How then, could it take Harry a whole year to open his Lung Meridian?
Others, like Dudley, reacted with jealousy and fury. In retrospect, Dudley and his gang most likely targeted Harry for that very reason. Dudley had a Rank 2 Magic Spirit, the highest amongst the younger generation, and he was seen as the future leader of the city. He couldn't stand that another child, an orphan no less, had a better spirit than them.
However, it had taken Harry another year to break through the 2nd level. By then, the whispers of him being a genius had long turned into open mockery of him being trash.
When he finally broke through the 2nd level, his Magic Spirit still failed to appear. At this point, everybody realized that Harry was a Spiritless Cultivator.
A Spiritless Cultivator was a cultivator who, for some reason, could not manifest his Magic Spirit. The lack of a Magic Spirit indicated that the cultivator had no talent, as even their Magic Spirit abandoned them. Considering Harry's abysmal cultivation speed, everyone immediately labelled him as a Spiritless Cultivator. From that day on, the mockery swelled, and the few people who still associated with him, in hopes of befriending someone with a Rank 4 Magic Spirit, left him overnight.
"Harry?"
He was jolted from his reminiscing by Slughorn's voice.
"Sorry," he apologized. "Just thinking about some bad memories."
"I guess that people called you a Spiritless Cultivator before, correct?"
"Everyone did. Harry Potter, the Spiritless Orphan."
"Yes, well, ignore what those idiots think. Anyways, as you know, the higher the rank of a Magic Spirit, the more Qi is necessary to manifest it. Rank 1, 2, and 3 awaken at the 1st level, while Rank 4, 5, and 6 awaken at the 2nd level."
"Rank 5 and 6 don't exist though," Harry immediately said. That was a well-known fact.
"They do," Slughorn and the Exalted Cat said together.
Harry's head shot up. Rank 5 Magic Spirits existed?
"The higher the rank, the more talented the cultivator is. Accordingly, they need more resources to advance, but can also refine those resources faster. I myself have a Rank 4 Magic Spirit, and back when I cultivated, I noticed both of those applied to me."
Harry's head was spinning now. He didn't know what was more surprising – that Rank 5 spirits existed, that Slughorn had a rare Rank 4 spirit, or the implications of his words.
"I have seen cultivators who have Rank 5 Magic Spirits, and they indeed cultivated faster than I did. Yet, you cultivate far faster than even they do. If it weren't for the scarce resources in Crystal Mine City, there's no telling how many pills you could already have refined. Therefore, I believe that your Magic Spirit is above Rank 5. In fact, since your spirit has not appeared, I believe you have a Rank 7 Magic Spirit!"