“You know… I’m kind of starting to wonder whether it was the right decision to go with the Path of the Spirit first.”
With his eyes closed, Arthur took in a few calming breaths before sending his senses outside his internal world. Being greeted by the sight of gray yet again after briefly opening his eyes, the young man soon closed it once more as he gradually began to tune his mind out towards his surroundings.
“Huuu…” Letting out long exhales every once in a while to calm himself, Arthur attempted to focus his attention towards the ambient qi in the surroundings, something he needed to form a connection with if he wanted to take the first step onto the Path of the Spirit.
Every once in a while, he would sense something more tangible lingering in the air, feeling a hint of excitement as it seemed to be within his grasp. Yet, just as quickly as the feeling appeared, that sensation quickly disappeared as well, leaving Arthur tuning his mind out even more as he attempted to try and catch that feeling yet again.
For what seemed to be half an hour, Arthur had caught onto this feeling over a dozen times. Unfortunately, none of those elicited the formation of a connection, even during those times where the sensation was more than palpable.
With a resigned sigh, the young man soon returned his senses back into his internal world, his expression glum as he looked at Sisa. “Still no progress in forming that connection. Is it really so difficult to do something like that?”
“For some, it is,” replied Sisa as she tried to console him. “There are many beings in the cosmos born with an abysmal aptitude for cultivation to the point that it would take them months to form that first connection.”
At those words, Arthur let out a wry chuckle. “You know, I’m starting to think that I’m one of the beings.”
“You’re not,” said Sisa as she figuratively shook her head. “Sure, your cultivation aptitude is only slightly better than average in the grand scheme of things, but that still makes you leagues better than those guys.”
“Are you talking about my Aptitude stat?” Arthur looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Because if you are, I don’t feel like that extra 0.18 is doing anything.”
Sisa let out an exasperated sigh as she figuratively nodded at his question. “Belittle that extra aptitude all you want, but it’ll eventually show its effects once you continue putting in the effort. Heck, I don’t even get why you’re already complaining. It hasn’t even been an entire day since you started trying to form a connection with the ambient qi.”
“That may be the case, but I’ve been going at this for over half a day already. I’m really wondering at this point whether I’m just trying to sense something for naught,” replied Arthur, sighing as he briefly thought back to the beginning of this session.
After Sisa suggested that Arthur should take his first steps on the path of cultivation, she began to explain the information the young man had received from the system in greater detail. In short, all Arthur needed to do was to form a connection with the qi in the surroundings and he would automatically enter the 1st Stage of Qi Sensing.
With that, he proceeded to go through the various steps Sisa told him to do, such as focusing his attention outward and trying to grasp a special feeling that would allow him to form a connection. However, just like his recent attempt, the closest he got to forming a connection was obtaining a palpable sensation at some point.
And that had already taken him an hour of intense focus.
Continuing to stay optimistic after his first attempt, Sisa then suggested that he should acquaint himself more with the feeling of qi first through [Qi Transmutation] before attempting to form a connection once more.
Keeping her words in mind, the young man then proceeded to activate the skill, gradually ignoring the constant pain that washed over him during the process. At some point, he had forgotten that he had activated the skill in the first place, instead focusing on the various characteristics that made the cloud of qi above the orb qi.
After the qi had turned into yet another smattering of bluish dust, Arthur then attempted to try and form a connection with the qi once more, slightly surprised that the suggestion actually had an effect. For the entire hour he had tried forming a connection, Arthur noticed that he had grasped the feeling of something tangible more often than in the previous attempt. Though he was not anywhere near to forming a connection with the ambient qi yet, the increase in progress prompted the young man to formulate a new plan.
Before he attempted to try and sense the ambient qi, he would activate [Qi Transmutation] first to get a better sense of the qi’s characteristics.
And so, Arthur had spent more or less 16 more hours after that discovery, activating [Qi Transmutation] eight more times as he attempted to form a connection after every session. Yet, just like how his first attempt had gone, he was still nowhere near forming a connection whatsoever. The only difference was the fact that the tangible feeling had appeared far more often than before.
Letting out a low sigh, the young man stared at the pile of bluish dust in front of the pedestal as he slowly gathered his thoughts. ‘At least using [Qi Transmutation] over and over again wasn’t all that useless.’
Having activated [Qi Transmutation] repeatedly to the point his Qi stat read 0, Arthur had gathered more than enough Spirit Slag to exchange for a single Ascension Point. Thinking about how he would have to wait for almost 20 hours to get a single point of qi again, the young man began to calculate how long it would take him to amass enough Spirit Slag to afford another upgrade, feeling a tinge of regret for using it so haphazardly.
‘Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained,’ muttered Arthur to himself as he shrugged, psyching himself up as he let out a long exhale. At the same time, Sisa’s advice on cultivation began to echo in his mind, reminding himself once more that proceeding through the path of cultivation was ultimately a test of patience and willpower.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Gradually removing all of the negative thoughts in his mind, the young man eventually decided to take a stab at trying to form a connection once again, feeling like he had more than familiarized himself with the nuances of qi after having emptied out his qi with [Qi Transmutation]. Giving his emotions time to become tranquil, Arthur soon focused his senses outward, closing his eyes as he sensed all of the tangible feelings that passed by him.
However, deciding to change his approach at trying to form a connection, the young man did not actively reach out towards the sensations anymore. Instead, he allowed nature to take its course, reminding himself over and over again that cultivation was a test of patience as if it were a mantra.
Because of that, Arthur unknowingly remained in a state of intense focus past the one hour mark, continuing to allow the tangible and palpable sensations he felt to come and go. In fact, he had even begun to think about other things whilst in this state, such as how his usage of [Qi Transmutation] now differed from how he used it the very first time.
After becoming acquainted with the sensations that [Qi Transmutation] gave him, Arthur already knew what to expect whenever he used the skill. For close to an hour, he would be bombarded with the sensation of constant pain as his qi was gradually condensed into a solidified form. Though, by repeatedly using the skill many times in a row, he had gradually become used to the sensation, allowing him to focus on other things while the skill was still doing its thing.
Thinking about this, he slowly began to relate the entire process to the concept of cultivation Sisa had explained to him. After all, aside from it being a test of patience and willpower, cultivation also focused on repetition and monotony.
With repetition, he gradually got used to the sensations [Qi Transmutation] brought, allowing him to split his attention elsewhere. With repetition, he began to sense those tangible feelings far more often than the first time, showing him that the effort he had put in so far was not for naught.
Thanks to this train of thought, he gradually began to immerse himself in his current sensation, allowing the fleeting sensations to appear at least five times as often than it did during his previous attempt.
“If I could endure being in constant pain for close to an hour over and over again…” Arthur began to mutter to himself. “If I could endure alternating between constant focus and constant pain for hours on end…”
“Then shouldn’t I be capable of enduring even more than that?”
As those words left his mouth, Arthur felt that everything he had learned about cultivation so far had become clearer than ever before, causing his horizons to expand in all directions. At the same time, it felt as if something dark in his mind had been purged out, allowing his mind to enter a greater state of clarity.
During that time, the tangible sensations appeared all around the young man like a coursing river, making it seem as if a single grasp was all he needed to take that step to enter the path of cultivation. Yet surprisingly, Arthur remained indifferent to the massive change in his surroundings, continuing to immerse himself in his current state.
Eventually, more than a day had passed since Arthur had begun his current attempt. However, even if that was the case, the sensations surrounding the young man continued to bombard him more than ever as he continued to remain in his state of great mental clarity and focus.
Fortunately, after a bit more waiting, Arthur finally felt a special tugging feeling from a specific part of the coursing river surrounding him. Opening his eyes in the direction of the feeling, he willed his mind to take grasp of it, which surprisingly caused something to appear in response.
Whoosh!
For a brief moment, a strand of iridescent energy appeared before the young man’s vision, radiating an aura that faintly reminded him of his qi whenever [Qi Transmutation] was active. Though, as time passed, the aura gradually increased in intensity, eventually reminding him of the sensations that he experienced while staring at the spirit nucleus back in Purgatory.
Feeling the intangible yet all-encompassing energy wash over his body once more, the young man had a faint smile on his face as he watched the strand of iridescent energy disappear, returning his senses back to his internal world soon after.
Once there, he watched as the blue orb gave off great amounts of light through its runes, madly rotating if it had gone haywire. It was only after a few minutes had passed did the orb return to its original state, releasing a thick strand of blue light that gradually made its way to the gray land.
At the very moment this strand of light made contact with the ground, the entire landscape immediately took on a tinge of blue, bringing a bit of color to what was originally a drab sight. At the same time, the young man felt a faint hint of the all-encompassing sensation that enveloped his body earlier, causing him to crack yet another smile as a screen soon appeared in his vision.
You have successfully broken through to the 1st Stage of the Qi Sensing Realm!
Your Qi Purity stat has gone from 1.02 to 1.12.
Your Qi Regeneration stat has gone from 0.051 points per hour to 0.102 points per hour.
You have completed the quest ‘First Foray into Cultivation’.
While reading through the notifications he had just received, Sisa’s voice echoed throughout the internal world, her tone a mix of boasting and joy.
“What did I tell you?” She laughed with glee. “Told you you’d take that first step sooner or later! Heck, you did it far earlier than I expected you to! Normally, someone with your level of aptitude would take at least half a week!”
“In any case, how does it feel finally entering the path of cultivation?” asked Sisa, looking at the young man with a figurative smug grin.
“It feels… good.” Moving the screen to the side, Arthur thought about his words for a bit before letting out a slight chuckle. “I feel… stronger.”
“Though you’re not stronger in the physical sense, your production capabilities have definitely grown thanks to the breakthrough!” said Sisa as she nodded in agreement. “For one, you now take half as much time to regenerate a point of qi, which means you can now use [Qi Transmutation] twice as often!”
“Aside from that, your [Qi Transmutation] now roughly yields one more gram with every transmutation, reducing the time it takes for you to obtain another Ascension Point!” she added, making Arthur briefly wonder whether she was mocking him or sincerely telling him the benefits the breakthrough gave.
“Anyways, now that you’ve successfully entered the path of cultivation, what do you plan on doing next?”
“Hmm…” Hearing Sisa’s question, Arthur went silent for a bit before returning his attention to his screen. Bringing up his quest screen to receive his rewards, he then brought up his upgrade screen as he let out an amused chuckle.
“I guess…”
“I’ll continue cultivating, then.”