Chef in the Apocalypse

The next day, Jayce once again walked up onto the stage and stared out at the sea of people in the crowd once more. This time, the crowd looked a little thinner, due to some groups of people who hadn’t shown up to swear the Oath last night.

However, that was within his expectations. Thankfully nearly all of the supporters who he had gotten in contact with were part of the group last night who had sworn the Oath.

"Now, the real summit will begin." Jayce said smilingly.

"Over the next week or so, I will be guiding you through the steps to discard your mana and cultivate Qi. I will also teach you about Laws and ways to grow stronger by using Qi. Basically, I will be your Shifu, Sensei, Master, Leader."

"The first thing that you need to do is reach level 60 and complete your class upgrade quest. However, most of you have already completed this step already like I’ve asked."

Jayce walked around the stage as he talked, feeling rather relaxed. It was like he was a professor at a university giving a lecture to his students. Thankfully he had experience performing these steps personally, as well as imparting this knowledge onto the important people within Bastion and Hell’s Kitchen.

"Once you reach your third tier class, you will be given meridians which you will need to refine. This is where the tricky part comes in. For those of you who are not mages and do not possess the mana manipulation, you will have a harder time."

The crowd was solely focused on Jayce as he paced around, there were terms that they did not understand, however they did not interrupt him.

"Once your meridians have been refined at least two times, we will move onto the next step... Activating your Dantian." Jayce stopped in place, and turned to the crowd.

"This will remove the entire contents of your mana, replacing it with Qi."

These words caused the whole audience to go into an uproar. The shock was just too great after all.

"Lose our mana?"

"How will we use our skills then?"

"This is madness."

"Madness?" Jayce asked, tilting his head. His gaze fell on the person who had just spoken and began to circulate his Qi, causing a dreadful pressure to assault everyone in the Central Square.

"This. Is. Power."

With each annunciated word, he took a stop forward, increasing the pressure in time with every footfall.

Those in the audience, particularly in the front row, suddenly felt as if they lost the ability to breathe. The pressure was so intense that it took ten times the effort to draw air into their lungs.

Seeing the horrified expressions on their faces, Jayce decided to pull back his aura, having achieved his intended goal.

"Follow my instructions and you will possess this kind of power... But remember the Oath that you have sworn."

Jayce’s words hung over the crowd, causing them to remain silent.

"Well. How about we get our first volunteer up?" His seriousness was now gone, replaced by enthusiasm.

***

By the end of the 2nd day of the summit, nearly all of the crowd had partly refined their meridians. As he had said, the process for Mages was a lot easier thanks to the mana manipulation skill.

The reason why Jayce had been so adamant in refining their meridians before opening the Dantian was because of how violent the process was. If they were not refined, when the Dantian spewed out Qi into their meridians, there was a high chance they could be crippled from the force.

When Leah had broken through, she had experienced tremendous pain upon activating her Dantian. If it were not for Lianna who had comprehended the ability to heal with the Law of Nature, she could have lost the ability to cultivate.

Therefore, it was essential for the meridians to be refined at least two times in order to remove the possibility of being crippled. It just so happened that Jayce had managed to fully refined his own meridians before acquiring Qi.

To put it simply, it was just dumb luck that he had done so. It also just happened that he had the mana manipulation skill and was able to heal his own meridians from within, giving him the tools to be the pioneer.

After adjourning the crowd, Jayce headed back to his home which was not far away from the Central Square. To be honest, he was rather tired from speaking most of the day and paying close attention to his "students".

Since it was dusk and they hadn’t taken a break for lunch, he was starving. Opening the door into his house, he headed straight for the kitchen and began to prepare a large meal.

Lianna had been staying with her sister since last night, so he wasn’t sure if she would be coming over. The two had moved in around 3 months ago, since their relationship had been progressing rather well.

It turned out that experiencing each others past had worked wonders in that department. There was also the fact that besides Macie, Lianna was the only person who knew that he had regressed.

Therefore she was the only person that he could fully open himself up to.

Jayce’s thoughts became calm as he began to cook, relaxing into his usual rhythm. Soon enough, a smile was painted onto his face as he went through the familiar movements of slicing vegetables and washing rice.

Just as he was about to fry up some meat, he heard the door open.

"I’m home"

A sweet voice traveled to his ears, improving his mood greatly.

"Welcome home" Jayce echoed, turning his head and seeing his woman smiling back. She lent in for a kiss which he greedily accepted.

"What’s for dinner?" She asked, after somehow prying her lips away from his.

"Mongolian Beef with rice."

Lianna’s eyes lit up, "Yum! Oh, I brought some dessert."

"Dessert?" Jayce tilted his head in confusion. Usually he would make dessert from scratch, so it was weird that she would bring some home.

She nodded in response, her face turning up into a mischievous smirk.

"Me."