Capabilities and Limitations

In the morning, Qing Shan immediately entered the Primal Pocket Dimension. He checked on Sky Bane, and sure enough, the weapon was in pristine condition. Looking over it, Qing Shan was amazed how could not find any real faults other than a bit of obvious shaking on the runes. Having to draw them with his finger made it hard to steady his hand. Luckily, they worked just fine. Besides, the rune messed up the most was a durability rune, and he had put a ton of those on Sky Bane anyways.

Qing Shan moved Sky Bane into the Spring of Time, still amazed at how the weapon was not touched by the liquid at all.

'Now it is time to finally focus on getting used to my new capabilities!'

With the only thoughts on his mind having been about Sky Bane the past two days, Qing Shan had not yet taken the time to familiarize himself with his new body. He only knew about what could already feel.

The first thing that Qing Shan tested was something that he had noticed before. This was that he needed to circulate his Qi manually. This would naturally make it take longer for his Chimera Cultivation Technique to have a large effect on his body. However, having his circulation be something that was not passive could easily be a good thing for him. As shown with his runic Forging, he had limited access to fire and wind Qi attributes as long as he did not circulate his Qi. Also, Qing Shan would not have to worry about overloading his body with Qi. Actually, because he pretty much had unlimited access to Qi of each of the four main attributes, the problem was mostly negated. With that in mind, the only real downside was that he would only have a limited amount of Qi to work with during battle.

After pondering up to this point, Qing Shan decided to see how he moved around when he was focusing on enhancing his limbs. He had already gotten somewhat used to the passive enhanced state that he was in, and that state didn't use up any of his Qi. Since he had full control of the Qi inside of his body, he could move it around so that the enhancement in his body was stronger in some places than others. Because the Qi in his body followed his nerves, every part of his body was connected with Qi. So, in theory, Qing Shan just needed to move the Qi along these nerves and gather it in another place.

To start testing this theory, Qing Shan carefully moved all but the bare minimum amount of Qi from his arms into his legs. After the breakthrough, he found that it was quite discomforting to have no Qi present at any point in his body. So, Qing Shan only left a thin layer of Qi coating the nerves in his arms. With all of the Qi from Qing Shan's arms collected in his legs, Qing Shan jumped.

*Whoosh*

Qing Shan accelerated so fast that wind whistled in his ears. He easily jumped five times as high as he could when using his second Qi loop before his breakthrough.

Qing Shan kept trying to move the Qi back into his arms, then quickly back to his legs, but found that it took a whole second to move the Qi from one limb to another like that.

'So this isn't something that I can rely one, huh.'

Qing Shan moved around a bit with his body enhanced, and even went so far as to pick up Sky Bane and practice a little with it. He tried to use the time in between attacks to move his Qi, but this made him slow down a bit too much. He could move the Qi while moving his body, but it required concentration, and balance. Losing a great amount of strength in one part of your body and feeling a sudden influx of strength in another part is not something that is easy to dal with during battle.

After moving around and getting used to the movement of his Qi in his body the best he could, Qing Shan put Sky Bane back down. He had already taken up a lot of time getting acclimated, and he would continue to explore his new capabilities after he got back from his shift at the Smith's Respite.

Luckily, his shift went smoothly, and Qing Shan was able to finish up his shift without any problems. He returned to his dorm at seven thirty. Tang Hua had let him out half and hour early.

Now, it was time for Qing Shan to dive into this next thing blind. He was going to try expelling Qi from his body! In a way, Qing Shan had inadvertently practices with this a little. When carving runes with Qi, he did end up expelling Qi from his body. However, Qing Shan expected that controlling that Qi beyond his body would be entirely different. At the very least, it would take much more concentration. For the Pure Qi, That did not actually come from Qing Shan's body, and was literally just caught in his finger before being expelled. As for his fire and wind Qi that he managed to expel, Qing Shan had made Qi tubes for those attributes to pass through.

To start, Qing Shan decided to focus on something small. So, he just tried to pull away the Qi barrier on his skin. Since it was made to block the Qi from moving into his body, it definitely would have an impact on Qi moving out of it, right?

Unfortunately, Qing Shan quickly discovered that the Qi barrier could not be removed completely. As it had already become a part of his body, he could no longer shrink or expand it. It had been infused with his body, and the only away around that was to make a tube like he did for his middle fingers.

Qing Shan did not want to limit himself like that. So, instead of trying to move the barrier so that Qi would flow out, he tried to bypass the barrier. He had created it himself during his breakthrough, and designed it to black Qi from entering his body. He had not thought anything about keeping Qi inside of his body. For Qing Shan, the Qi field that fused with his skin was basically like a shield to use against Qi-based attacks.

'How about I try treating it like the Qi inside my body! My skin is of course a part of my body, so it should work.'

Qing Shan focused on the nerves that had the most contact with his skin, the ones on his wrists and hands. Qing Shan then moved a large amount of the Qi into his nerves, and spread it equally around his body. While the Qi field still existed within his skin, it was much weaker now!

This time, when Qing Shan tried to expel the Qi from his body, he did not bother focusing on a single point. The Qi field at the moment was just like a paper shield, facing off against a steel blade. It did not stand a chance. Qi overflowed beyond the Qi Field inside of Qing Shan's body. He opened his eyes, and discovered that his skin was covered in what appeared to be crackling lightning. When he used only his Third Eye to look at his body, Qing Shan found that he seemed to be coated in an indigo colored aura!

With just a bit of thought, Qing Shan easily let go of his hold on the Qi. Since his Qi field was primarily focused on keeping Qi from entering unnaturally, he had no choice but to let it go. While the shield was easily penetrated from behind, it could not be broken through up front. If that were the case, it could not be called a shield.

As Qing Shan let go of the Qi, he felt a sudden weakness inside his body, unlike he had ever felt before. It felt like the energy that kept him going had just been depleted in massive amounts. Of course, this was exactly what happened. Because Qing Shan had not focused on limiting the amount of Qi that came out of his body, almost all of the Qi in his body, besides the bare minimum in his Dantian, Qi field and nerves had left him. Luckily for him, it would not take long for him to get this Qi back thanks to the Primal Elements.

However, until Qing Shan was able to completely control expelling his Qi, it consumed far too much of his power to be used in battle.

In his weak state, Qing Shan managed to drag himself in between the Primal Fire and Primal Wind, where he quickly restored the Qi in his body. He then circulated the Qi, pumping lighting Qi back into his veins and skin.

'That, was unpleasant'

After Qing Shan restored all of his Qi reserves, he sprung back up to his feet, and moved back to the center island.

Qing Shan now needed to try one more thing. Now that he figured out how to get the Qi out of his body, he needed to be able to limit that eruption of Qi to just one hand. He also needs to limit the amount of Qi that rushes out of his body.

Qing Shan calmed himself down, before pulling Qi from the skin in his hand, and gathering that Qi into the veins in his palm and wrist. Qing Shan then launched that Qi out of his hand. Visually, Qing Shan saw the indigo aura of his lightning Qi surround his hand, and he felt sparks dancing along his palm without being injured. The aura radiated outwards for about five centimeters, but that was all.

When Qing Shan moved his hand around, he felt how weak the aura was. He was having trouble holding on to it, almost as if the Qi was trying to escape from him. Now that the Qi had left its body, the only thing holding it back was Qing Shan's grasp. Just before Qing Shan gave up his control of the aura, he touched his hand to the ground.

*Sizzle*

Qing Shan heard a faint noise as the Lightning Qi was discharged into the ground. Unfortunately, when Qing Shan looked, all he saw was a bit of scorched grass, not even five centimeters wide. In fact, the scorch was light, and seemed like the same effect as an ash on dry land.

'So, my current capabilities amount only to an ash below roaring flames…'

Although Qing Shan was glad that Liu Tiansheng had saved him, and allowed him to be able to cultivate, he began to feel the difference between him and others. Although he had a power akin to Heavenly Punishment, Divine Wrath, that was only power that would not be possible for him in hundreds of years. The most he could hope for in the near future would be an arc of lightning, and at the moment, all he could muster up was the ability to stun an opponent. Lightning Qi was no be-all end-all. It was an attribute that would only begin to shine in later levels of cultivation, and was harder to grasp control of than any common attribute. Its difficulty was most likely comparable to the greater elements, Light and Shadow.

Honestly, Qing Shan was frustrated. He had this amazingly strong power, literally flowing through his very veins, a power faster than the wind and stronger than flame. However, he was unable to make this power his.

Suddenly, Qing Shan felt some feeling deep in his gut. It was not distinctly a good or bad feeling, but it was there. It was almost akin to hope, but also had a hint of sarcasm within it. This feeling formed along with a single thought.

"Well. It may not be flashy, but it isn't bad."

'With my reaction speed and instant response time in any situation, being able to stun someone is actually amazing. If they let their guard down for a second, it will be their loss. On top of that, I can now force my body into motion with a well placed jolt. I can get physically faster, until my body moves along with my thoughts. I cannot control Lighting Qi, it is a part of nature. However, I can work with it, and rely on the things that I have a greater control of, like my reaction time and forging. I don't need another cheat to become better than everyone else. I already have this damn pocket dimension! If I am going to get revenge for the deaths of those I love, why do I need some kind of flashy trick? As long as I am strong, I have no complaints!'

*Slap*

Qing Shan slapped away his feelings of jealousy. He slapped away any entitledness that he may have gained during his journey. Qing Shan slapped away his doubts. Qing Shan slapped until all that remained was an emotional eighteen year old with a desire for revenge and friendship.

Qing Shan sat down, just staring at the sky that shouldn't exist in a mere pocket dimension. In a way, this was a form of meditation. Qing Shan calmed his body, but still kept his rage at a slow boil.

Qing Shan stayed in this calm, meditative state until morning, when he finally stood up.

*Sigh*

"What, did I expect to be able to wield a damn lightning bolt as soon as I broke through? It's only a difference of one realm."