World of the strong

He'd done it. After so long he had finally broken through to the next realm! Power surged through his body and just like a drug the feeling was addicting. 'Thank you... thank you so much!' He thanked the system sincerely. Tears formed in his eyes as the emotion of what just happened hit him.

He who had been bullied for so long had finally started his journey to the top, and to think it all started in such a dreary place as this. To think he would gain such a fortuitous encounter and be able to breakthrough directly to 2nd stage of Qi gathering! It was truly an unparalled ability.

His exploration was cut short by a loud bang on the door. "You there, stop banging your causing a ruckus your so weak yet you dare to make such a noise?!" The guard sneered and walked away.

'Just you wait I won't be weak for long' Alex muttered in his heart, but until then he had to work hard to make sure he could prtoect himself and with that thought he returned to cultivating. It wasn't long before he started to break through the realms again managing to reach peak of the 9th Qi gathering realm in just a few days!

Such talent surely didn't exist anywhere in the sect as the sect leader was only in the 7th martial general realm which was the third major spirit realm. In this world there were 2 types of cultivators! Those who cultivated their Qi were called spirit cultivators and those who cultivated their bodies were called body cultivators! Body cultivation was very unpopular though as despite it's power it was also very painful to cultivate.

The realms for spirit cultivators were Qi gathering, Martial warrior, Martial general, Martial leader, Nascent soul and Soul ocean. Some people believed their were higher ranks but nobody had ever achieved them.

It was then that the system notified him with it's signature *ding* "Host congratulations on reaching peak 9th Qi gathering! As a reward you gained the Thunder clap stance, this stance allows you to draw your sword as fast as lightning causing a sound like a thunder clap to blow away your enemies! "

Alex couldn't believe it he actually gained something so good so easily, but then it hit him, to perform such a feat would surely require a good level in body refining to have the strength to use the skill. 'Such a shame, but I can't be disheartened! A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step I will use this as motivation to gain more strength.'

With these words from his tongue he promised himself

'I will survive in this world of the strong!'

It was then he decided to consume one of the pills to ensure that he woukd break through to martial warrior with ease and give him a strong foundation. Putting the pill in his mouth he felt it melt as he breathed in the medicinal fragrance.

Due to his strong constitution he could feel the diffrence in the atmosphere as his high affinity with lightning started passively absorbing the large amounts of ambient lightning qi in the air he started cultivating again, but this time with a diffrence. Instead of just letting the qi flow around his body and into his dantian he actually pushed it all together to refine it into a dense ball of qi.

The qi was refined into a smaller and smaller space until eventually an incredibely small but pure ball of qi was formed in his dantian. Refining the qi into a compressed state was the sign of breaking through to the matial warrior realm!

But he didn't stop there sensing his breakthrough he made the impromtu decision to progress his body as well. The cultivation manual he recieved also covered the method of body refining through lightning hitting his body tempering it aswell as expelling his mortal impurities.

He breathed in as he used his qi like a beacon, calling the storm towards his location as if he had angered the heavens themselves. The sky darkened further and lightning started striking him. It first broke through the sealing then hit him directly causing a ridicoulous amount of pain.

This time however he needed to stay conscious because if he didn't he wouldn't be able to protect his body from the violent strikes wehich would surely kill him! He let the strikes hit his body again and again while using his qi to minimise the damage.

Black goo slowly started to seep out of his body however there was a suprisingly small amount, this shocked Alex as he believed his low talent was due to all the impurities in his body.

"Host this is because when you recieved the True Lightning body the ruthless nature of the high level constisution immideately destroyed the impurites whereas this weaker lightning can only force them to move away"

'Hmm so it is like this then, that was good luck as these impurities really smell awful' although he said this he didn't really mind as either way expelling or destroying them meant he would have a higher talent when cultivating as the qi would be able to move through his veins and past all the acupoints easier.

'It seems my luck really has no end' he thought as the lightning in the sky started weakening. His body was now at the 4th stage of the body refining realm which was one minor realm away from the peak of body refining realm. He now had enough strength to chop small tress with his barehands!