Kenja’s first step into his cave was filled with anticipation and nervousness.

After any sect disciple achieved a new record or completed a challenge, the sect’s enchantments and deceased phantasms worked together to reward all the disciples with a celebratory amount of Qi delivered directly to their caves.

Because he had visited a couple of different caves a few hours ago using some of the rented keystones, he knew the awarded Qi was a sizable amount, but he still experienced the same difficulties in cultivating as he had in his own cave several days ago.

The only reason he held out any hope it would be different this time was due to the fact that the one who personally defeated the record/challenge would get significantly more Qi than the rest of the sect. Additionally, he had received innumerable acknowledgements from those ghost seniors which would give his cave a significant boost as well.

After factoring in all the spirit stones he had just purchased, Kenja could not stop himself from becoming hopeful. If all this was still insufficient for him to cultivate, he had no clue what else he could do.

Kenja noticed the change in the air before the cave door closed completely.

As if he was moving through water, he could feel a natural Qi flow gently past his legs and body as he walked deeper into his room. A comfortable, grassy smell combined with a watery freshness filled his nose and mouth while the usually dark cave seemed much brighter and more vivid than before.

The Qi in the room was greater, much greater, around a dozen magnitudes greater than the other caves he had visited.

Kenja was struck with an urge to jump and test whether the thick Qi would slow his descent to the ground.

…

Kenja jumped.

Unfortunately, his falling speed was the same, but he still let out a chuckle.

“What are you jumping around all giddy for? I spent all my time and ingredients for this…this meager amount? There’s not enough here to blow my nose with!”

Kenja rolled his eyes.

“You can’t blow your nose with Qi.” Although it was obvious one could not blow one’s nose with an intangible object, Kenja still stated this fact in an attempt to defend the helpful pillars from his unwarranted criticism.

“Not with this amount, you can’t,” Snail flippantly snorted.

Kenja ignored him and sat down in the center of his room. Without reaching for Sakura or motioning to Snail, he relaxed his body, closed his eyes and cleared his mind.

He took a deep breath.

Qi inundated his meridians. He could already feel something was different.

Before, his body was like a bucket filled with holes, and the water would empty out of the glass faster than he could take a sip from it. Now, as if the cup was completely submerged in water, Qi naturally flowed out of and into the holes, but at a slower, more manageable pace, giving him enough time to circulate the energy through his meridians.

It was a fantastical feeling.

He concentrated deeply to process the Qi throughout his meridians, still losing a majority of it in the process, until a small fraction emptied into his dantian.

The beads of sweat dotting his face and an intense furrow over his brow drew a sharp contrast with his candid grin.

“Ah, has disciple achieved some success this time?”

Sakura lightly patted him in a way to cheer him on.

Kenja was too focused on the task to respond, slowly feeling out the Qi that reached his dantian. As he tirelessly circulated the world’s energy that engulfed him, he could vaguely grasp a misty sensation filling his dantian, condensing more and more with each circulation.

Body Tempering focused on tempering one’s body and activating one’s meridians for the first time, enabling them to absorb and process Qi before sending it to the unlocked dantian.

Qi Flourishing concentrated on the absorption and processing of that Qi, slowly accumulating it into one’s dantian until it reached a saturation point.

After gathering enough Qi and habituating one’s meridians to its flow, one would sense a faint mist composed of energy occupying their dantian.

This entity was what cultivators referred to as the ‘Fog’.

Once a cultivator perceived his Fog, he could be considered past the halfway mark of the Qi Flourishing realm.

Because Kenja’s interactions with the Qi within his body had been brief up to this point, he could not properly ascertain his condition until now, let alone the thin Fog that had formed in his dantian.

An incense stick of time passed, and Kenja’s body was drenched with sweat.

It took 120% of his concentration to guide a fraction of the excess Qi through his meridians and into his middle dantian, yet he did not stop as a feeling of fulfillment swelled with the intensifying foggy sensation in his dantian.

Three long, arduous, nigh-hopeless years!

And now, forgoing all assistance from Snail, Sakura, special pills, spirit stones, supplements, or even the Heavens themselves, he was cultivating!!

All on his own!!!

Kenja might have shed tears if Snail and Sakura were not present in the room…and if he was not fearful that once he stopped, he would never manage to do it again.

With each revolution, he could roughly identify the spots where a large portion of his Qi leaked out, and he drove his Qi more carefully through those sections, cutting the loss by a small margin and increasing the amount that reached his dantian each time by a minuscule amount. While this small improvement required a significant amount more effort and concentration on his end for meager gains, Kenja did not mind. Farming an extra grain of rice everyday would eventually lead to an extra bale after a few years.

Nearly a second stick of incense had passed since he had begun.

A puddle of sweat formed beneath him, but Kenja did not notice. Without relaxing his smile, he continuously and furiously drew Qi into his body over and over again without paying attention to anything else.

The abundance of Qi around him invigorated his spirit, and the addicting feeling of filling up his dantian fostered a craving within him that was hard to satisfy. He was nearing the point of saturation, and his mind and body knew what to do without being told.

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He split his concentration between his meridians and his dantian.

With each delivery of Qi, he squeezed the Fog into a smaller and more concentrated volume, providing more space for the Qi to enter. Eventually, the Fog would not shrink further, and Kenja could not force it.

Kenja grit his teeth.

His smile long gone, he no longer drew Qi into his body as he put forth his entire being on condensing the Fog.

“You’re at a critical point, but can’t finish. You’re going to need my help,” Snail told Kenja from his seat on the table. He distanced himself when he saw Kenja sweating buckets and took out some random drink from his shell to sip on as he spectated Kenja’s progress.

Snail jumped from the desk onto Kenja’s left cheek.

Kenja did not wince or refuse his help, too busy maintaining the state of his Fog in fear of relaxing for a moment and causing it to dissipate.

“Eckh. You’re so icky and wet. Gross!” Snail cursed several times as he slithered down into Kenja’s soaked robes, stopping on his chest.

“What are you doing just sitting there, wench? Your new master needs you to service him. Hurry and make your body useful,” he sneered at Sakura meaningfully.

Without replying to Snail, Sakura flew out of her scabbard and placed herself in Kenja’s open palms. She emanated a bloodthirsty, crimson glow that was directed towards Snail but did not raise a fuss due to Kenja’s precarious state of mind.

She would settle accounts with him later.

A burning sensation came from Kenja’s hands and chest that eased some of his tension. The Fog in his dantian did not compress further, but he was no longer straining as much to keep the status quo.

“Don’t stop drawing more in! Use the excess Qi to compress the Fog.”

Once again, Kenja drew more Qi into his body. With their assistance, his efficiency multiplied, and the Fog’s density escalated.

It thickened.

He compressed it.

It thickened again.

He compressed again.

Thicken!

Compress!!

The cycle repeated itself a dozen times within ten breaths until a rising heat emerged from his chest. Kenja shut his eyes tightly, pinching the flats of Sakura’s blade with his fingers, as if these actions strengthened his ability to do the same to his Fog.

The spot on his chest where Snail was attached suddenly rose to a scalding temperature. “Push it down, Kenja boy!”

Then, after one last round of compression, the Fog liquefied!

A single, solitary drop of Qi formed in the center of his dantian.

Kenja exhaled a large breath of relief as his entire body relaxed and fell backwards onto the ground. A loud, wet PLOP resounded throughout his cave as his puddle of sweat had grown large enough to encompass his entire body.

“Ugh, ew, ew, ew, ew!” Snail hurriedly crawled out from under Kenja’s robes and jumped from his reclined body to the pool of water against the back wall.

Joining him in the pool, Sakura vibrated a chuckle at Snail’s unpleasant experience, believing her opportunity to retaliate for his previous remarks would come eventually.

…

Kenja remained on the damp floor for some time, his chest rising up and down from exhaustion. He spent this time inspecting the drop of Qi in his dantian.

He felt a large amount of energy radiating from that singular drop, filling him with a feeling of immense power and strength that he found difficult to describe.

When he had absorbed the essence from the Orbs of Eventuality, he felt a large amount of power surge through his meridians and dantians, enhancing and nourishing them with their unbridled ferocity, but he was incapable of retaining that kind of energy as it served more of a temporary window to view the power within higher realms.

But this drop did not vanish or dissipate outwards!

This was the first drop of his dantian’s Sea!

The transformation from late stage Qi Flourishing to the pinnacle of Qi Flourishing involved the repeated condensation of multiple Fogs into liquid drops that aggregated together to form a Sea within one’s dantian. This Sea would grow in size as one accumulated drops over several years until one felt confident in breaking through to the next major realm, the Foundation Establishment stage.

Kenja felt a strange, probing energy brush against his face.

“Why aren’t you happy, disciple? You’ve formed the first drop of your Sea. Normally, you’d be grinning like a dummy by now.”

Kenja was glad he condensed his Fog, but he felt dejected for having to rely on external support.

“I couldn’t…”

He was at a loss for words.

A heavy weight hung over Kenja that affected the entire room. It was easy to see his dissatisfaction.

“You are overthinking things, disciple. The first drop of one’s Sea is the most difficult to form. It’s actually quite natural for others to have some guidance from a senior at this point.”

Kenja listened passively without saying anything, compelling Snail to continue, “In fact, you should take pride in what you just accomplished. Given your special constitution, even I did not believe you could perform so well on your own.”

Kenja still did not reply, but Snail could tell his somber mood was improving.

“You are full of surprises, disciple…you truly do have a knack for cultivation.”

Sakura’s dangerous crimson glow abated as she vibrated strongly in agreement with Snail. Her mood also improved with Snail cheering Kenja up.

Kenja’s eyes grew damp as a mixture of powerful emotions overwhelmed him.

Such words inexplicably moved him to the extent that he could not control his eyes.

Ever since he could remember, he had never shed a tear. He was always the one taking care of others, and even when he gained Baba, he took care of her as well. Now, with his dream to cultivate on the line, he received recognition and assurance from someone else. He was the one being cared for…

For the first time in his life, his eyelids struggled to contain the impending drops.

He covered his face with his elbow to hide his unsightly appearance.

“Pfffft, are you crying, disciple? Do you want a handkerchief to wipe your tears?” Snail mocked him.

Kenja snorted with his elbow still covering his eyes.

“No one here will think you are mute if you don’t talk, Snail.”

Sakura vibrated joyfully to voice her approval of Kenja’s words.

Snail ignored her. “Hmph, I don’t know why you’re getting so emotional. In your case, you didn’t use a pill or spirit stones to assist you. In some ways, that’s even more impressive than when others had formed their first drop. Talk about crying over nothing!”

Kenja smiled as he withdrew his elbow, wiping some of the sweat off his face and forehead in the process.

Kenja realized this snail was not always a terrible harbinger of trouble.

Usually, he was, but not always…

He then remembered the hundred pills that would be delivered to his cave and wondered whether they had arrived earlier while he was out. He should have stopped by the apothecary to ask about their progress on the way back.

A loud and rushed knocking sound came from the cave’s entrance.

Kenja furrowed his brows wondering if that was the pill delivery coming at the exact right time he thought about it. Such a coincidence would be strange, but Kenja quickly shrugged it off.

Perhaps, it was one of his sister disciples coming to warn him of Elder Kazane’s arrival.

Kenja stood up, with dripping sounds filling the room as they fell from his robes into the puddle at his feet. It was only now that Kenja realized how much he had sweat.

“Gross, gross, gross!”

Snail’s yells followed by a sizzling sound that came from the floor frightened Kenja into jumping onto a nearby stool.

The sweat puddle rapidly evaporated in front of his very eyes.

Snail, who had reappeared on the table behind him at some point, made a slurping sound through his straw as he finished the last of his drink.

“Can’t have you goin’ out like this!” He pointed his eyestalks at Kenja’s drenched robes which also dried up in a matter of seconds.

“What about this?” Kenja pointed to his face and hair that did not receive Snail’s quick-drying treatment.

“Do you want me to bathe you and clothe you, too? I’m not your handmaid, disciple,” Snail’s biting sarcasm silenced Kenja, but he did not think too much of it.

He would properly clean himself once he dealt with the visitors.

Stepping down from his stool, Kenja patted down the wrinkles in his robe and placed Sakura back in her scabbard.

The visitors knocked again, louder than before, prompting Kenja to hurry over to the door. Snail jumped directly onto Kenja’s earlobe. A classy-looking, glass container filled with clear liquid popped up in front of Kenja’s face and sprayed several puffs onto Kenja’s face, neck and clothes.

Kenja coughed, waving his hand in front of his face. “What is this?”

“Stop waving it away! You’re wasting it! This is one of my special, super-expensive perfumes. Even though I helped deal with your body’s odor, there’s a big difference between not smelling and smelling good. Since your master is returning soon, you should make yourself more presentable. Not all masters are as kind and forgiving as your Snail-sensei here,” Snail explained with seemingly innocent intentions.

Kenja stopped retreating from the perfume and stifled his coughing. While he was annoyed by the abruptness of Snail’s actions, he went along with it. At least, perfume was more agreeable than lipstick and other feminine makeup.

Also, the perfume was quite subtle, not bothering him in the least.

With this, their transformation to Hirai Hikaru was complete, so he opened the door.

Stepping outside and closing the door, Kenja heard Snail snickering in his ear, putting Kenja on guard.