Chapter 12 - Foundation Body Second Stage

The blooming lotus on his back pressed into him as he felt his body surge with power. He sat down to begin circulating his natural qi, and he noticed that the pressure from the lotus was still on his back. As he continued to circulate his natural qi, he noticed that the amount was going down bit by bit. He realized that the lotus was consuming the natural qi in his body as he broke through to the next minor realm.

Even as he felt the natural qi leave his body, the surge of power in his body did not stop. The final drop of natural qi was absorbed by the lotus, and he felt the power that was surging through his body enter into his dantian. He began to circulate this power, and as it washed over his meridians, he felt something in his body unlock even further. Over the next few hours, he circulated this power as it started to cover all his meridians. When every meridian was filled and circulated with this power, he felt it dissipate into his body. The lotus behind him disappeared, and he was left with no natural qi in his body.

He knew that he had advanced to the Foundation Body second stage, but him losing his natural qi was a problem. One wasn't supposed to lose their natural qi when breaking through, and he couldn't absorb the natural qi of the world until the later stages of the Foundation Body realm. Without natural qi, he also wouldn't be able to practice the Looming Blossom Martial Technique. However, if you could use the Foundation Forming Pill to advance and give you natural qi, it was safe to say that he could use it to restore his natural qi as well.

Going to his room, he took out the alchemy furnace, and started to refine the pill. Unlike when he had first refined the pill, he didn't succeed on his first attempt this time around. Instead, he went through three sets of ingredients before succeeding.

Sitting in a lotus position on his cot, he swallowed the pill and started to refine it. He felt the natural qi enter his dantian, and he felt drastically less resistance circulating it into his meridians compared to the first time he refined the pill into himself. After ten minutes, all the meridians were being washed in natural qi. Thirty more minutes and all the natural qi from the pill was now refined. Continuing to circulate it, he felt the natural qi grow in power, until after a few hours it had reached the power it had been before he had broken through, and stopped.

As it was now night, Aster Wen laid down on his cot and drifted off to sleep.

The next thing that was on his to-do list was to exchange for the manual to refine the Revitalizing Pill. The Revitalizing Pill allowed one to heal their injuries in a short amount of time. If he was injured severely in the future, he would need it to recuperate. The manual held both the method to refine the pill, and the materials used in its creation. He would need to use five hundred contribution points to exchange for the manual.

This meant it would take a few days to get the contribution points if he couldn't get more than three tasks. With his break through and first movement of the Looming Blossom Martial Technique, he decided to take on a Foundation Body sixth stage monster beast. The monster beast he chose was called the Giant Spirit Ferret. Before the Soul Ascension realm, the Giant Spirit Ferret was the only monster beast to have a divine sense. In the Foundation Body realm, this ferret had the highest intelligence out of all the monster beasts. If taught from birth, it could even understand human language. The core of the monster beast was valuable to any cultivator under the Soul Ascension realm, as it allowed one to have a glimpse into divine sense and one's knowledge sea.

Aster Wen knew he would have to use a combination of attacking with the dagger and using the first movement of the Looming Blossom Martial Technique. The ferret lived midway up the mountain, making its home in caves. If left unchecked, their population could spin out of control, taking over an area the size of a town. The elders of the sect culled them every once in a while to keep them under control. This meant that there shouldn't be enough to overwhelm one person.

With that in mind, he headed up into the mountain. Outside of the cave, a ferret stood watch, and it snarled as Aster Wen drew closer. Taking out his dagger, the ferret looked at it and didn't seem to view it as much of a threat. Walking towards it, the ferret also advanced towards him. He ran towards it, and aimed his dagger at the head of the ferret. The ferret took all the force of the dagger, and more as it headbutt Aster Wen forcing him to lose grip on the dagger and be flung a few meters away. Looking at the dagger, he found that it had broken and there was only a small wound on the ferrets head.

Circulating his natural qi, he walked towards the ferret. Running towards the ferret again, he planted his feet on the ground and got into position. The ferret didn't stop running towards him as he stopped, and his palm thrust into the ferret's head as it headbutt into it. Aster Wen felt an eighth of his energy be used in the first movement, and he felt an eighth of his natural qi be absorbed by the lotus. The lotus still seemed to hold the power of all the natural qi it absorbed during his break through, and he wondered if he could retrieve it in the future. Blood started to come out of the ferrets eye sockets as it fell to the ground. Under the Body Foundation seventh stage, it seemed as though he could kill anything.