Neither truly physical nor spiritual, it holds itself in the crevices that overlap both realms. Its nature more of a bridge to the two than anything else. It was an independent energy in itself, yet it could be created by either of these realms. Its movement brought strength, and its very presence altered reality.

When brought into a new area, it does not adapt to suit that environment. Instead, the opposite tends to happen.

The environment adapts to suit it.

And why would it not? The sheer benefits that can be wrought on any being capable of utilizing qi is simply mind-boggling to actually think about. The improvements to the physique, the disregard of realities laws, and even the simple journey to achieve that power are all powerful things.

This is why when that journey is constantly undermined by one's lack of talent, it can be rather disheartening. It seems almost as if the universe is against you and wishes you nothing but failure.

That specific context does not apply in my case, but nonetheless, the frustration was there.

I was in the 20th year of my self-imposed cultivation journey, and only now was I attempting to shatter the entrance of the 2nd stage. I made the fatal mistake of believing that once I moved past refinement, things would more quickly.

That idea was quickly disproven. Breaking into the 1st stage after the refinement of my body had taken only 2 years. This is no doubt still a long time, but it's nothing compared to the 11 years of cultivation to break through to the 2nd stage.

This is in Malum years, not Earth years.

I could only comfort myself with the knowledge that I still had my divine powers.

So here I was 20 years into my journey, attempting to break into the 2nd stage. As I sat in a meditative position, I turned my attention inwards to my meridians. There I could sense the constant energetic flow of qi through my body, like blood flowing.

To break through to the 2nd stage, I needed to establish an area called the inner realm. Which, according to Arnaud, was a central area in which qi would be forced into to create a space where qi would be housed. The specifics of it were unclear, but that was the method that had been created by Alexis.

The first stage only required the creation of meridians after the final refinement, which had been easy. The only reason it took so long was that I decided to optimize mine to suit me specifically.

I had simply gathered as much qi as possible with my powers before forcing that qi into making my meridians. I had only managed to survive by locking up space, so my qi had no other option but to form the meridians.

In fact, while my meridians were still unstable, I had to keep my body locked in space so that I wouldn't be ripped apart from within.

In the end, it was worth it. The boost in power had been insane. I had gone from superhuman to ridiculously powerful. It's a shame that most of that power would not transfer over to earth.

There still hadn't been any alteration to what I could do with my divine powers, but what I could do with qi had definitely changed. My qi sense had expanded beyond belief. Whereas before, I could barely sense qi within my surrounding, now my qi sense stretched for miles.

My control had gone to shit, but the sheer increase in raw strength and power had been intoxicating. That, in combination with me successfully replicating the explosive punches of Arnaud, had me reeling in joy.

This is probably the reason it's taking so long to move on to the next stage. I was definitely to blame, but 20 years? That's a bit much, ain't it?

You can't blame a man for being ambitious. It's go hard or go home, right?

Though I must admit that boredom played a significant role in my decision.

In addition to the fact that I wasn't particularly good at cultivation in general, I also had a much larger bucket to fill.

This is why you shouldn't follow every random whim you have.

The length of my cultivation also wasn't a natural barrier. The reason it was taking so long was because I wanted an inner realm that matched my meridians.

The perfect balance for meridian to the inner realm level is ten times the qi. Which isn't an easy feat.

When you account for the continent's worth of qi that had been used in my process, it begins to make sense why this task was taking so long.

The amount of qi I needed to gather to make an inner realm was more than my reach of divine powers.

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When I had burst into the first stage, I used the maximum reach that my powers would allow to gather qi. However, since my divine powers hadn't increased in strength during that process, that meant that I had to take a much slower approach to this whole process.

Plus, if I wanted the best entrance into the second realm, I had to refine my meridians to the maximum amount my body would allow for in the 1st stage.

Which had also been a solid ten times. That was a process that had taken 3 years.

Perfection is not an easy path.

Once that had been done, I'd had taken a couple years to figure out a method to hold qi without it seeping out too quickly.

I had initially tried to create an object that held the qi and had almost succeeded until I realized that the qi that would make the inner realm had to be held within the body for a certain period of time. That period lasted for years.

That's when I realized why the limitation of my objects not working on me existed. Within my body, my creation wouldn't perform its purpose.

So my second solution had been to improvise with William's method. That had ended up with me slaughtering millions of powerful beasts to create a core capable of holding that much qi. It had, of course, been compressed down to be able to fit in my body.

It was only for the holding processes so, the souls of the beasts had been eliminated. This was to make sure my cultivation speed wasn't slowed down any further.

While William's technique was interesting, I dreaded how much longer it would take to cultivate.

And like that, another 3 years had slipped past.

The technique I created still wasn't perfect. In fact, qi leaked out of it.

The cores of the beast had been too permeable. Unlike meridians, the core's didn't stabilize after creation.

Whatever their condition during their initial creation was how they would be stuck until advancement.

Not that I planned to advance with the core. Knowing my luck, that would add another couple of centuries to this whole process.

Not something I was currently willing to do.

The remaining years had been a balance of slowly absorbing qi in a manner that wouldn't destroy the core yet wasn't too slow since qi was leaking out.

Honestly, it was the easiest part of this whole process, but it was so tedious.

Cultivation, in general, is just a very tedious and trying art.

So back to the current me, I had gathered enough energy to create the realm.

It was time to attempt this breakthrough.

I took a deep breath in and relaxed my mind. As my focus turned within, I felt the bubbling and the pressure exerted by the qi. Like an unstable bomb, any error could lead to unwanted consequences.

My meridians were tight, and the qi that flowed within was ferocious. The qi flowed from meridians to my core and out again. It was a mad prisoner looking for any opportunity to escape and cause mayhem.

I could feel the core starting to become unstable. A couple more months and cultivation wouldn't be a possibility.

The balance was delicate, but it was now or never.

This process, like many others of its kind, had to be done in an instant. Otherwise, I would be risking destruction from within.

I could avoid that by locking space, but the pain I experienced the first time was still not something I wanted to repeat again.

Nonetheless, I marched onwards. In a second, I locked my body in space. In the very next, I began to compress all the qi within it.

The sound emitted was like the groaning of the earth as tectonic plates crashed against each other. A shockwave rippled through my qi and attempted to rebuff my efforts.

Like erupting volcanos, qi was constantly being blasted out in an attempt to release a bit of the pressure being exerted.

To no avail, of course, my grip on my qi was iron tight.

As the battle continued, I felt the outside world begin to shake. While my qi was being held within, the shockwaves were not.

My surprise at that distracted me, but soon after, my attention was pulled back.

I had nearly lost control in that minuscule instant of distraction.

What happened outside didn't matter. What mattered was getting through this damned process.

I continued to push down on the qi. My goal was to have it be smaller than a single strand of hair. Only then could I continue on the process.

As I continued to pressure the qi, the amount of retaliation only continued to escalate. In fact, the sheer amount of struggle was beyond what I'd expected. My grip on space was actually being contested due to the sheer amount of it.

My grip wasn't weakening in the slightest, and a simple tightening of it was enough for me not to feel the pressure. But just the simple fact that I'd felt anything at all was impressive in itself.

As I continued on, the shockwaves died off, but their death was the birth of pain.

Every inch of my body, from head to toes, roared in pain. It took everything I had not to pass out. A task that became harder as the pain continued to build up.

It was like being stabbed in the balls by a searing hot branding iron, but your whole body was as sensitive as your balls.

Then my meridians tried to tear themselves apart from the pressure.

Why did I ever decide to make them out of a continent's worth of qi?

I held on through the pain, but I wasn't beginning to wish I wouldn't.

As I continued on my pain-filled path, the pressure and pain only kept on rising. The shockwaves returned and redoubled their efforts. But little by little, the ball of qi got smaller and smaller.

Its form began to waver between the material and immaterial. Until the point in which I got it to a small as a singular piece of hair. Insataenously the pain and pressure were gone.

The struggle had lasted too long for my liking, but now I had emerged victorious. That was all I cared about. Even though the most challenging phase was over, the process wasn't over.

I managed to force my qi into a singular space. Due to its high concentration, it was able to exert pressure on the material and immaterial simultaneously. That was needed for the final process. Once again, I focused within.

A singular strand of qi was extended from my new inner realm to my brain.

The brain was the nexus used by the soul to control the body. The completion of this phase was to connect heaven and earth, as they say.

As the connection was completed, I felt my body shudder in ecstasy and newfound energy.

I felt invincible.

My mind was quickly drawn to the newfound realm within me. It was the border between my body and my soul. As I watched, it began to fill up with qi, like a pot being filled with water.

It was a vast ocean of blue and green churning as it was cycled through my realm to the meridians.

It was at this point that I heard a voice in my mind. Unfortunately, I didn't understand what was said as all the pain and exhaustion came crashing down and took me off into sleep.