After three days and a painfully long night of hiking through the subway tunnels, three things happened. Their group finally reached the next station, Leon figured out how to progress his cultivation, and Marcus felt his spirit begin to stir. Without a demonic infestation to distract him, Leon’s friend managed to get a very clear picture of what was going on.

He described it as a kind of substance that seeped into his pores. From there, it was compressed towards his navel, the substance quickly disappearing inside his dantian. It was impossible to sense under normal conditions, but after killing something and getting washed out by excess life essence, Marcus could feel a surge of aura flowing into his body. Marcus theorised that once his dantian became full of this substance, the spiritual organ would be triggered awake and begin producing Qi.

Leon’s arm had been in extreme agony when he awakened. There was no way he could’ve noticed the minute changes, especially when he was on the cusp of bleeding out. Everything had been so chaotic, but now that he had a clear understanding of the process, he managed to understand something he hadn’t thought of before.

Foundation Forging, Qi, and his spirit were all intertwined. Saturating his spirit with aura had revived a part of his being that he didn’t know existed, effectively bringing it back to life. But like the body after being starved, the spirit also needed nourishment and exercise to return to full health.

Marcus’ spirit was in this state. Just like a weakened man receiving medicine to cleanse his flesh of diseases, Leon had cycled his Qi and expunged all of the impurities that were clogging up his insides. He wasn’t clear on what was so bad about those impurities, but since his body felt much better after having them removed, it was obvious that they were a problem akin to cholesterol building up in his arteries.

All of that led him to believe that there was a method to the madness that was cultivation. First, he had entered into the early Foundation Forging realm by cleansing his flesh of impurities. His mind, body, and spirit were all elevated by that change. His body was lighter, his Qi flowed a little easier here and there, and his thoughts were a bit clearer.

So if entering Foundation Forging had cleansed his mind, body, and spirit, then wouldn’t reaching the next step be related to them? Even his stats were named after those three areas.

That gave Leon all the information he needed to try cycling more Qi into his head. When he had cycled Qi to try and see the webs, he’d felt something there. Not anything physically present in his head but the same draining effect that he’d sensed when cleansing impurities. His body was naturally working with him to absorb Qi and do what it needed to do, just like it would function to heal a cut or attack a virus.

Over the last three days, Leon gradually cycled Qi to his head. It was shockingly easy. All he needed to do was breathe, his Qi flowing in and out of his dantian with every breath. Of course, Leon wasn’t one to take the back seat, especially with the threat of death looming over him and his friends. He meditated every night, keeping his head full of Qi for as long as possible. And when they hiked during the day, he dedicated as much focus as he could to pushing Qi into his upper torso, the passive cultivation working nearly as well as when he meditated.

Even then, he didn’t want to push it in case he expelled more impurities so far from a shower. If he ruined all of his clothes and was forced to waste clean drinking water on scrubbing himself clean, he would feel very guilty about harming the group. They only had ten days of drinking water and that was if they used it sparingly. He would take days off that supply alone just to clean himself.

So instead, Leon just went along and slowly cycled his Qi. The changes weren’t obvious since his mind and senses were nearly constantly enhanced by the presence of Qi in his head, but after sitting down at the end of the day and allowing the Qi to recede back into his dantian, Leon was shocked to find the tunnels so dark and gloomy. Even his visual acuity had decreased, making him wonder how he used to see anything at all without Qi.

He was also curious about the changes to his head. Infusing so much Qi into his eyes had improved them, but quantifying how much was another matter entirely. That was why Leon kept silent until they came across another demon. He marked where it was standing and waited for someone to notice it. Only after crossing about three to five metres did someone find it, their shocked exclamations a pretty good indicator.

With Qi directly enhancing his already elevated senses, Leon could see a demon more than ten to fifteen metres farther than a normal person. That was also why he had become a permanent fixture at the front, easily spotting any demons that were in front of the group well before anyone else. Three metres was already an incredible boost. To think that he had permanently enhanced his eyesight was thrilling, but to quadruple that with just the presence of Qi, Leon began to wonder about skills he could use with his eyes.

He also made sure to keep most of his Qi in case they were attacked. It was a smart precaution but he didn’t need to be concerned. Only one of the riflemen had died from the spider attack, and while there were still humanoid demons trundling through the subway, the numbers were always low enough that one rifleman could handle it on their own.

Besides Marcus, the other four surviving riflemen also levelled up and gained access to their status. They had done so after the spider incident. Over the three day hike, four more people activated their status thanks to killing the humanoid demons wandering around. None, however, had gained access to Qi besides Leon.

They hadn’t even felt their spirit coming awake like Marcus.

That all happened in the last three days, but now that they were resting at the next station, Leon could make a solid attempt at reaching the middle stage of the Foundation Forging realm. Sadly, many demon birds were flying around up above, forcing them to keep hiking to the next station. With nowhere to go for the next day, Leon went to the staff bathroom to shower while Dominic and Eric discussed which direction to go through the subway next.

Leon turned the tap on and adjusted the temperature, finding the perfect mix to scald the impurities away. Sadly, there was no shower chair. Instead of returning to his plastic throne, Leon was forced to remain standing like some kind of peasant.

He calmed his mind and began to cycle his Qi, only unlike before, he pushed it all around his body instead of just his head. Nothing unexpected happened. Leon hoped that he could expunge more impurities, but it seemed that was a fluke rather than the result of something he consciously did. With that out of the way, He inhaled and pushed as much Qi as was comfortable into his head. It took longer than he would have liked, but with each cycle, his supply began to visibly dwindle as a tingling sensation built in his head.

It felt like there was an electric current running through his brain. He didn’t know if that was good or not, but since he didn’t feel any pain, he ventured that it wasn’t bad. The tingling built up with each cycle, growing from a mild buzz into a lightning storm within the confines of his skull.

For a split second, Leon thought he was going to shoot lightning out of his eyes if he opened them. He hesitated as he thought about stopping for now. Letting his mind settle might’ve been the smart move, but since he wasn’t experiencing any adverse symptoms, he decided to keep going.

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A wave of Qi rushed up his torso and into his head. Leon cycled as hard as he could, feeling a little dizzy as he continued to exhale. Finally, something broke inside his brain from the rush of Qi. A wave of electricity ran down all of his nerves, making him tense up so hard that he couldn’t move at all. Lightning flooded throughout his body, zapping every cell in its path until his entire body went numb.

Leon collapsed to the floor in agony. As the numbness began to fade, real sensations came back to the forefront of his mind. And worst of all, they were much more complex and deep than he had ever experienced before, almost as if a new set of nerves had appeared inside his flesh. Leon’s muscle fibres ached, there were curving lines burned into his nerves, and his head ached like his brain cells were tearing themselves apart before recombining into new patterns.

The next thing Leon knew, he was closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep. He tried to fight it. Tried to push through the exhaustion and keep from holding everyone back, but no matter how hard he focused, his mind shut down on its own.

***

“It’s bigger now, don’t you think?” A whisper of Marcus’ voice rang out beside Leon, stirring his consciousness.

“Yeah, I guess,” Olivia replied, humming under her breath. “I think it feels a little thicker in my hand. Definitely harder.”

“See, I told you! Grab a handful and see what you think, Mila.”

Leon sat up faster than he ever had before, his head whipping towards the source of the noise. His brain made sense of what it was seeing in milliseconds. It was so fast that Leon became disoriented from the slow reactions of his body. His muscles could no longer keep up with how quickly his balance corrected itself, his upper body wobbling as his brain tried to correct the corrections to his posture.

“Whoa, are you alright buddy?” Alex said, grabbing a hold of his arm. “You scared us for a second there.”

Leon nodded, chuckling at the amusing scene laid out before him. His friends were resting alone in a backroom of the subway, sitting on their sleeping bags while a gas stove cooked some kind of broth. Marcus was flexing his bicep while Olivia felt him up.

He was obviously feeling strong after igniting his life essence.

Mila sighed in relief as she dived into his arms once more. “Thank God you’re okay.”

“What? Did something happen?”

Olivia laughed at that. “You happened, dummy. We thought you’d given yourself an aneurysm. There was no way for us to check, leaving us to sit here and wait for you to die in the middle of the night.”

“Sorry,” Leon winced, vowing to never let a breakthrough incapacitate him again. “I was so tired I just closed my eyes and that was it. I’ll try to warn someone next time I do something like that.”

“Instead of trying to warn someone,” Mila said, reaching down to pinch his waist. “Just don’t do the stupid thing in the first-”

Leon casually twisted out of the way and grabbed Mila’s hand before she could pinch him. Marcus and Olivia giggled at their playful game, but Leon was inwardly shocked. He didn’t even realise that he was moving before he had Mila’s hand in his grasp. And that wasn’t even mentioning how his brain picked up on her intentions. There was a slight lilt in her voice and her pinky finger pressed a little bit harder on his shoulder as she prepared to lean over him.

Those tiny details had allowed him to figure out what she was trying to do.

Leon had completely forgotten about reaching the middle stage of Foundation Forging. He was so concerned about worrying his friends and how they would react that he completely forgot about the changes to his mind. His brain worked so much better now that he twisted out of the way without even realising he’d moved.

Opening up his status, however, Leon only became more confused.

Status

Name: Leon Hartwell

Stage: Early Foundation Forging

Race: [Mortal] Human

Level: 6

Titles: Prodigy, First Step, Inspired, Executioner IV.

Mind: 2.95

Body: 3.11

Spirit: 1.81

Skills

Qi Burst

It hadn’t changed? Leon pushed more Qi up into his head but didn’t feel any of it disappear. He cycled his Qi a few more times and got the same result, his slightly recovered supply remaining untouched. If he was still in the same realm, did that mean he hadn’t broken through to the middle stage of Foundation Forging?

“I made a minor breakthrough in my cultivation but my status hasn’t updated,” Leon said, looking at his friends for ideas. “Even pushing Qi into my head doesn’t work anymore, meaning I’ve done something but I can’t tell what.”

“Your mind has stopped accepting your Qi?” Mila said, looking up at him.

“Yeah, no matter how much I push into my brain-. Ah, I’m so stupid.”

“What?” Marcus said, leaning closer. “Did you figure something out?”

Leon nodded. “I was pushing Qi into my brain in hopes of upgrading all of my cognitive abilities, but that isn’t everything related to the mind, right? It’s the centre of it all, obviously, but there are other parts involved.”

Leon confirmed the hypothesis by cycling his slightly recovered Qi throughout his body. Nothing stuck out to him at first, but after three rotations, he felt a slight drain. His Qi was being sucked out everywhere. Every part of his body except his brain was drawing on his Qi.

“What the hell is going on? My Qi is being absorbed everywhere, not just in my head.”

About twenty minutes later, Leon and his friends ended the discussion no closer to an answer. There were certainly a few hypotheses, but without more Qi, he couldn’t confirm them anytime soon. For example, he could require another round of impurity cleansing to enter into the middle stage, or the rest of his body could be too weak now compared to his brain, meaning he had to feed it more Qi to make himself whole again.

Balance was certainly a popular concept in many mythologies, ranging from Buddhism to even Taoism where the ideas relating to cultivation were derived. It made sense that he might have to balance himself out to continue through the middle stage, which should be related to the body. In the end, they stopped discussing it when they ran out of ideas.

“Can you control your Qi yet?” Leon said to Marcus, a bowl of beef stew in one hand and a spoon in the other. “Or is it still just building up?”

“Still building up. Ugh, I want to shoot lightning bolts already.”

Olivia shook her head. “Like a child wanting to open his Christmas presents early.”

“What Christmas presents give you superpowers, huh?”

“Anyway,” Leon said, distracting the bickering pair. “I’m looking forward to when you awaken your spirit.”

“So am I. When it finally happens, we’ll have to do some dual cultivation so that you can teach me how to get a tight hold on my Qi.”

Mila choked on her stew.

“Are you okay?” Leon patted her back, knowing that she had read a few cultivation novels. A lot of his hunches were based on what she had discussed with him in the past. “Is there some weird meaning related to two guys dual cultivating?”

Mila burst into laughter. “Nothing. Just don’t mention dual cultivation again, alright guys?”