7 Breaking Through To Qi Condensation
In the depths of an unusually active cavern within the Great Wildland Forest, a scared 10-meter-long White Wolf and an 8-year-old-looking boy—with looks that could make even a rock say, 'Awww! How Cute!!'—were situated.
"So I have been transformed into some sort of Gigolo boy now, huh?" The Little Prince started questioning his very existence but soon regained his focus when he remembered his goal of acquiring absolute power.
"Welp, it is what it is," he began with a nonchalant demeanor. "There's no point in dwelling on something so pointless, especially when I can be spending my time gaining more power right now, hahaha!" The young prince laughed like a madman, the only difference being that the whole world could hear his insanity now.
His laughter continued until he remembered something quite important that he had to do first…
"Wait just a second Me! I have a fully functioning body now with arms and legs that I can use. So that means I can test out my power now, right?? Right?!?" He questioned with a thrilled look on his face.
And it didn't take long before he understood the answer to that question as he looked in a certain direction of the deep cavern.
"How exciting!! Let's test my newfound power on that wall that kept hitting me in the face earlier!"
The young prince's eyes darted over to an unsuspecting wall that was beaten and battered not even a few minutes ago!
'What The Hell Did I Do To You?!? You Crazy Bastard!!' The wall spat back.
.......
"Alright now, how do I punch properly? I never was much of a street fighter in my past life, so I have no clue how to go about acquiring proper form when throwing a punch," he asked himself with a contemplative expression.
The young prince had really only used his sword to practice back on his home planet. And even then, there weren't many situations where he had to use his sword to fend off any hooligans and such.
So when it came to punching with proper technique, he was utterly clueless...
But he figured he might as well give it a go and see how it goes.
"Hmm... maybe if I just pull my arm back like so, take a right step forward like this, and then punch forward with all the strength in my right arm like this then..."
Following such a series of body movements...
WHISTLE!
BOoOOooOOOooOMM!
As soon as the Little Prince threw his first punch in this New World of his, aimed at a wall that didn't recall offending such a monster, the wall and everything in a 30-meter straight line just…
Disappeared…
There was no suspense, no silence before the storm.
The wall just disappeared with a loud whistling sound and an extremely loud bang at the end as the force from the Little Prince's fist collided with something extremely tough.
"Holy shit! That was pretty damn cool if I do say so myself!" The Young Prince shouted while standing like a kid who found a new toy to play with; a haughty look plastered on his face.
"Well, I already know I can go pretty damn fast, and now I know I have the destructive force of a huge railgun, so I think that concludes testing out my new strength, right?"
His question was answered by his subconscious before his attention was brought back to what it always returned to.
"Time to get back to cultivating then," he muttered.
"Although this strength is beyond anything I could have achieved in my past life, it's still not enough for me," he declared with clenched fists before he continued, "I want to reach heights that no one ever has or ever will reach; I refuse to settle until the day I perish or achieve absolute invincibility!"
HONG!
The world itself seemed to resonate with the determined words spoken by the young prince!
"That is my sole goal in this new life of mine," he began with a resolute expression. "Even if I die, I will just come back to life to achieve that goal!"
His proclamation to the world was soon followed up by him saying, "But since I would prefer not to die so soon, I better continue cultivating..."
.......
The Little Prince went back to cultivating without a moment's rest to even support the idea of taking a break.
However, in actuality, the little prince just didn't want to admit that he only knew how to cultivate...
The Young Prince achieved the 11th refinement for every minor stage of the Body Refinement Realm after he emerged from the cocoon; now he was starting to approach the 12th refinement round, and he wouldn't stop until he reached a point where he couldn't continue any further!
*****
"How long was I out this time?" A young, handsome boy asked aloud.
The eyes of the young boy slowly opened up all the way before a goofy look formed on his face as he said, "Let's see... add the 3, subtract the 8, carry the 9, and we get a grand total of a year and a half!"
Following his 'accurate' scrutiny of the passing of time, he uttered, "A year and a half to reach the 1000th refinement cycle of the body refinement realm... Did I take it a little too far, I wonder??"
"Hmm…" He thought over the matter for a second.
However, such thinking ended in complete denial, as he said, "Nah~ there's nothing wrong with aiming for a perfect foundation." He began with a few cursory glances around the large cavern. "Although I do wonder where the Big White Puppy went off to this time...? She said something about finding a less scary home, whatever that means."
......
The Young Prince gained a new ability a few months into his year-and-a-half-long cultivation session; he gained an ability that the Divine Devil Arts Scripture called the 'Spiritual Sense' or 'Divine Sense'.
The 'Divine Sense' was an ability that enabled the user to see every little thing around him for a certain distance outward.
Furthermore, along with it came the ability to communicate directly into the mind of any being the user wished, as long as the being receiving the message allowed it, of course.
So the young prince was capable of directly communicating with the big white puppy!
He wanted to name the big white puppy that had been with him all this time, but every time the young prince brought it up, the white puppy would get scared and start to run away.
He never could figure out why the big white wolfy was so scared of him, but such a topic brought another thing that had been on his mind for a while. 'Speaking of names, I should probably get one for myself, huh? Since my shitty, pigsty parents in this life decided to abandon me before naming me and all that,' he thought to himself with a vexed look on his face.
'Tch! I get pissed off every time I remember those assholes! Whatever... I will decide on a name for myself later; there's no reason to rush the subject now when I have no one to talk to anyway.'
After deciding to set aside the 'naming himself' topic for later, he turned his lonely expression around the hallow cavern interior.
It wasn't like he really minded not having anyone to talk to when he had a way to gain more power, but it would've been nice to see something other than the gray and dreary walls of a cave all day...
But now that he was on the subject of his mundane life, why don't we talk about his day-to-day schedule in the new world he found himself in?
......
The young prince was a very simple being: wake up --> cultivate --> talk to Big White Puppy for a while when she comes by --> sleep for an hour.
Rinse and repeat.
It may seem like an extremely boring way to live, but he didn't particularly mind it. As long as he was getting stronger, he didn't really mind such a schedule.
.......
Anyway, back on the matter concerning the 'Divine Sense'.
You are only able to use your divine sense when you have achieved at least the First Stage of Foundation Establishment.
Now this was where things really got weird, as the young prince's divine sense had a radius of 100 meters!
It was a feat that made absolutely no sense considering that the Young Prince hadn't even stepped into the Qi Condensation stage yet...
He made impossible feats seem like they were normal and treated them like things that any average Joe should be able to accomplish as well.
......
The Young Prince had been cultivating for a total of 1 year and 9 months, which also corresponded to his age.
He awoke 2 months prior to his 1 and a half year-long cultivation session as well. That was when he reached the peak of the 100th refinement cycle of the Body Refinement Realm.
He underwent a transformation when he attempted to break through to the 101st refinement cycle, just like when he broke through to the 11th refinement cycle, which made his already perfect face even more perfect, and it gave him the body of a 9-10-year-old.
It seemed like every multiplication of 10 refinement cycles gave the body another transformation and reformation, with every transformation being 10 times more painful than the last transformation!
.......
"Now I just need to reach the peak of the 1000th refinement cycle and proceed to break through to the Qi refinement Realm," he began with a small smile. "Let's get back to it then..."
Following his announcement, he resumed his cultivation session as he attempted to do something that should've been impossible...
.......
It took the young prince half a day to reach the very peak of the 1000th refinement cycle.
That was when he attempted to break through into the Qi refinement realm.
The young prince was very curious about what would happen when someone broke through to the Qi refinement realm with 1000 refinement cycles on their belt.
He could practically taste the new level of power he would acquire after breaking through!
Little did he know that he was about to attempt something that was never before seen in the entire history of Asterion or even the world's beyond Asterion!
Nonetheless, it was likely he wouldn't care, even if he knew.
His way of thinking was like this:
'Hmm? So what? So what if nobody on this planet has ever done this before? There are other planets and wider worlds out there, aren't there? I'm sure someone has done exactly what I'm doing now on one of them.'
'And even if they haven't, there is always something higher, always something further to reach for...'
'So even if no one on this planet or even this universe has done what I am doing now...'
'So What…?'
'There's no way in hell that not a single being in existence has done something similar! I'm not special. everyone else on this planet is just too ordinary if they can't do the same.'
.......
He had a very harsh way of thinking, but that was just who he was—he would tell it as it was, directly to your face.
He doesn't care how special you think you are; he doesn't care how special you think he is.
The young prince believes there's always something higher.
He believed that if you think you have reached the top, then you just haven't pushed the lid open far enough to see a new top above that.
Settling for being the strongest in an area when he knows he could go further is something he would never do!
........
"A few more minutes, and I will have officially reached the absolute limit of the Body Refinement Realm," he began with a slightly satisfied expression. "I thought there would be something beyond the 1000th refinement cycle, but I know for sure that there isn't," he added.
And it was such a line of thought that brought him down the path of recalling his experiences with cultivation in the Body Refinement Realm.
"I stopped getting stronger after the 950th refinement cycle, and my foundation was incapable of becoming any more perfect after the 969th refinement cycle."
His dry voice echoed throughout the cave before he said, "There is no foundation more perfect than the one I have right now—a foundation so perfect that it could support a universe, heh."
The Young Prince seemed quite proud of the fact that his foundation had achieved perfection in the Body Refinement Realm.
*****
*Shiver!*
"?????"
The Giant White Wolf felt a shiver go through her entire existence, even though she was thousands of miles away, as she turned her head in the direction of where she assumed the young prince was.
'Little Monster... Scary...' She thought. 'Need to run away... Faster.'
******
Meanwhile, as the Giant White Wolf, who was already very far away, started to run faster, the meditating prince was on the verge of breaking through to Qi Condensation when it finally happened—a breakthrough!
......
A second that was like any other second passed within the large cavern as a boy with black hair and blue eyes—with features so divine that even the gods would look on with envy—sat down in a lotus position at the very center of the large cavern when all of a sudden...
A droplet of water fell from a hanging stalactite with an echoing...
Drip~*
And then a loud explosion was heard not even a millisecond after that droplet of water fell.
BOOOOOOM!
An explosion of blue-ish energy so large that it enveloped the large cavern in its entirety erupted from the handsome boy sitting in the center!
WHOOSH!
Qi was flying all over the place in a stunning mirage of colors and sparks as all of it swirled toward the handsome boy in an orderly fashion.
OOOM!
The Qi started to create a large tornado of sorts inside the cavern!
"..."
Even as the boy was absorbing it all without a single drop wasted, the large tornado was only growing in size.
It kept growing until it enveloped the entire cavern!
WAAA!
And it didn't stop there, as it grew so large that it even started enveloping the forest outside of the deep cavern!
The Qi tornado destroyed everything in its path, which included the cavern that the handsome boy who summoned this natural disaster was currently breaking through in…
However, the one who was taking on the full force of such a natural disaster was surprisingly unscathed.
Nonetheless, he did end up being buried underneath hundreds of thousands of tons of rock and stone, which was evidence of just how strong and durable he became after gaining a perfect foundation!
.....
The Qi Tornado didn't just stop with just that though, as it kept on growing in size until it reached a staggering tens of miles in height!
If the young prince wasn't currently within the depths of The Great Wildlands Forest, then other lifeforms would surely have come to investigate this disturbance.
*****
Three days passed as the Qi tornado finally began to shrink in size.
The boy within the rubble was absorbing everything that came his way with all his might!
And his effort was finally beginning to bear fruit...
*****
Another two weeks passed as the Qi Tornado was completely absorbed by the handsome young boy—a young boy who was still beneath the rubble that was once a cavern.
"..."
The Young Prince had an ashen look on his face—a look that almost made it seem like he had gone through hell and back!
Taking in so much Qi at once took a huge toll on his body!
He never did make clothes for himself, for he saw no need to, but if he did, they would surely be in tatters by now.
.....
"Is it finally over...?" He muttered, his expression haggard and exhausted.
Following such a comment, he started to emerge from underneath the millions of tons of rubble he was buried under.
....
"I thought that Qi would never stop coming in; it seemed almost endless, even with my insane absorption speed," he began with a relieved smile. "However, now it is time for my favorite part, time to check on my breakthrou-"
The Young Prince was going to continue to check on his gains brought about by the breakthrough, but his mental exhaustion caught up with him first.
BANG!
He collapsed to the ground with a loud bang as he entered a state of unconsciousness.
.....
It shouldn't even be possible for a human to absorb Qi in such large amounts for such a long period of time.
It was the equivalent of drinking 10 jugs of water every hour only to empty yourself out without dying first, and then repeating that process every hour for the next 2 weeks!
Something impossible...
So naturally, the Young Prince's mind let itself go once it knew he was done with the breakthrough.
