In a large hall in the Jade Pagoda Sect, there was a huge circular stone table with thirteen chairs. However, only five of them were occupied. Great Elder Shi with his coal-black skin and shoulder length white hair, the demure looking veiled female cultivator known as Great Elder Lin, the robust young man with tattoos visible all over his skin, a young boy who looked like he was in his teens but had a powerful presence about him and a hook nosed scar faced old man were the five people in attendance. The robust tattooed young man had a look of irritation on his face as he addressed everyone present.
“Really? Only four of you are present? Brother Zhu along with a few others is still out, but I expected at least seven of us to meet here. Discovering a talented seed is a stroke of good fortune for the sect.”
“Its not that important really. We had quite a few of these mystic manifestations in the past century. I just came to give face to you senior brother.” said the hook nosed said dismissively.
“It really isn't that big deal, otherwise brother Ley would have attended to snatch this junior for his Thunder Palace.” agreed the young looking teenager.
Being reminded about the absence of the Great Elder of the Thunder Palace had caused the mood of the tattooed young man to worsen. Great Elder Shi conveniently cleared his throat to get everyone's attention as he replied.
“The junior in question who caused this particular mystic manifestation is precisely the newest disciple of Brother Zhu. Brother Ley must have surely investigated this phenomena and found out the identity of the junior. I trust that brother Ley wouldn't attempt to poach a disciple from Brother Zhu.”
Hearing this revelation, both the tattooed robust young man and the young teenager had ashen looks on their faces but were able to suppress their emotions. The tattooed young man sighed in resignation as he addressed the Great Elders of the jade Pagoda Sect present.
“Brother Shi, considering the circumstances you must have investigated thoroughly Do enlighten us.”
“Fellow Brothers and Sisters. This mystic manifestation was caused by an inner disciple named Fang Hao, who is the newest disciple of Brother Zhu, when he used the Primal Thunder Scripture to breakthrough and establish his Foundation. After using my spiritual sense to scan him, I conclude that he must have awakened a variant dantian.”
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“Perhaps it could be the Indigo Lightning Constitution? The mystic manifestation would support it.” Great Elder Lin stated her opinion.
“While the mystic manifestation is similar to the partial awakening of the Indigo Lightning Constitution, the junior's body didn't reveal the relevant characteristics of that Innate Constitution. I only noticed variation in his dantian region. It is not one I am aware of.” replied Great Elder Shi.
“Encountering an unknown variation is not that strange, really. The heavens are vast and there myriad unknowns we are not aware of. Still considering the nature of the mystic manifestation, he would have been a good seed for the Thunder Palace if not for Brother Zhu's foresight.” said the hook-nosed scar-faced old man.
“Speaking of good seeds, how is the little genius Qin Lee doing with the Sword Palace?” inquired the tattooed young man, shifting the conversation topic away from Great Elder Zhu and his disciple.
The hook-nosed scar-faced old man was beaming unrestrained as he said.
“Not bad. Not bad at all. Junior Lee has just stepped into the late stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm. He should step into Core Formation within a decade or so.”
Meanwhile Fang Hao had refrained from spending more of his skill points. He instead was entertaining the idea of attempting to evolve the Fire Serpent Spell. Whenever he was tired of brainstorming, he would focus on grinding his Primal Thunder Reinforcement Spell. He felt a little pissed being confined in the courtyard and not allowed to fly, but he wasn't dumb enough to act contrary to the Great Elder's Instructions.
Fang Hao could sustain the Primal Thunder Reinforcement for around half an hour at maximum output. If he lowered the power of the spell enough, he could sustain it for much longer. Both the effectiveness and duration of the spell was much higher when compared to Aura Infusion in is Qi Condensation days which he could barely maintain for five minutes or so before running out of steam. After almost half an hour of zipping around like a turbocharged hyperactive squirrel in the court yard, Fang Hao was taking a break to recover his Qi.
'Even though the Great Elder said a short while, I think I will be kept here until the hub-hub due to my breakthrough dies down. While I didn't expect to broadcast my breakthrough to the whole sect, this taught me a valuable lesson. If I am not in a well guarded and reliable zone where I can afford such displays, I should refrain from experimenting with Cultivation Techniques and simply level up with xp. Compared to the huge show here the time I broke through as an Expert Mortal Body Refiner (Foundation Establishment Equivalent) by killing some greedy murdering disciples, all I felt was some amount of itching and rapid-fire heartbeats. So much more convenient just to kill stuff and level up.'
'In Qi Condensation it would take me around six hours of meditation to fully regenerate Qi. Now in Foundation Establishment, I can regenerate fully depleted Qi in a couple of hours max even without meditation. With meditation, this speed will increase several times over.'
If he circulated his Qi and chanted the mnemonics to hasten his Qi regeneration, it would take him a little under half an hour to regenerate his Qi. While Fang Hao was impressed with his speed of Qi regeneration, he simply attributed it to his Cultivation Base and didn't think too much about it. If he had stuck to the Primal Thunder Scripture without modifying it, his Qi regeneration during idling/meditating would have been multiple times slower. And even then it would have been considered pretty decent among new Foundation Establishment Disciples. If other Foundation Establishment Cultivators were aware that the Fatty's Qi regeneration while simply idling was comparable to their Qi regeneration rates while they meditated, they would have turned green with envy.