“It just… it just keeps flowing into me! I can’t believe how much there is…”

P-phrasing, Terra!

“…what?” I’m just… I’m just gonna let that one go and pretend it didn’t happen. Definitely the right choice. Just focus on what we’re doing and keep your mind out of the gutter, buddy!

…moving on, I don’t really see a problem here, do you?

The steady influx of Qi slowed gradually to a halt. What had already been pulled in was purified through the complex pattern I was helping Terra guide it in, then further by passing it through her blood, allowing her Beast aspects to refine a small bit more from it. The ‘impurities’, namely the elemental flavor of the Qi, were stripped, leaving pure Mundane Qi behind. This was then gathered into her growing pseudo-Dantian.

Why a pseudo-Dantian? Well, once fully formed, the Dantian would not expand. Only the quality and density of the Qi would improve overall capacity. So, for now, rather than forming Meridians, we were focusing on improving her capacity. There was an eventual limit. Her body would only allow for so much improvement. It was though, an integrated process. We were pushing out the physical impurities in her body with highly pure Qi, which in turn allowed her Beast blood to more efficiently refine the Qi, improving the quality even more…

It had barely been a day of cultivating on and off and we’d likely quintupled her prior base capacity. There would be a sticky yellow-brown sludge coating Terra’s skin. Emphasis on would. Naturally I felt that she was gross enough on the outside, so I shunted that shit to a more purpose made system. It hadn’t really become noticeable yet. The amounts were extremely small and I’d contained it. It was going to be time to deal with it now.

“No problem. I just need to stretch some.” The ease with which Terra rose startled her, but she made no specific comment, instead moving into some stretches. That, naturally, was when my little fiddling reared its head.

The squelching gurgle from Terra’s lower abdomen was not one for the faint of heart, I’ll tell you that!

Neither… neither was the results of the next two hours of… depositing. I didn’t know that you could see plants die in real time like that! Who knew!? That must be some crazy toxic sh- stuff!

Though it was a necessary evil, Terra was understandably miffed at having to relocate her camp by nearly two miles before we were truly downwind.

“This is going to stand out like crazy if someone is searching the area! What were you thinking!”

Mostly that you need to be ridiculously powerful so we can survive?

“I… well, that’s true, I guess. Still! We should plan ahead!”

I didn’t know it would be so bad alright?!

“Just something to keep in mind for the next time!”

That you are so upbeat about their being a ‘next time’ is so horrifying…

“It shouldn’t be. Yes, that was a horrific couple of hours I’ll only hope to some day remove from my memories with a hot needle, and yet I feel amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so good, even when I was an entire realm higher in my cultivation.” As if to show off how strong she felt, Terra flexed. An act which, when fully clothed, only looked ridiculous. Sure, I wasn’t watching from the outside, technically, and yes I could actually feel how amazing she felt, but knowing it looked ridiculous was almost as bad as observing said ridiculosity.

Fine, fine. Just stop with the silly posing. At the current rate you’re going, we will probably be able to increase your base capacity another five to ten times before the returns are negligible. Then we can- what’s wrong? She was trembling. Fear and concern radiated from her mind. A cold sweat traced a trail down the small of her back.

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“F-five… to ten times?”

Yeah. Maybe a bit more if we spent like, a few months on it or something. I imagine there are people out there who spend years or decades on just this step, but we don’t got that kind of time girly. We’ve got to move on past these baby steps and start truly on the path of Body Cultivation, plus building some proper Meridians…

“Wait. Uh. Pill? I can’t believe after several days I never asked your name. You know mine and I just didn’t think about it.”

Gross, don’t call me Pill. That would be like calling you Beast-Human Hybrid instead of Terra.

“What do I call you then?”

I dunno. I don’t remember a name. How about Phil? Phil the Pill.

“That’s just hideous. What about a Dao name? Master Spherical Purity?”

Pffft! Oh god you’re serious… let’s just shelve this for now and circle back in a bit. What’s got you so freaked out?

“It’s just that… and I’ll admit I’ve never been around any truly gifted Cultivators to my knowledge… I’m still in the Qi Gathering realm, technically, and I’ve already expanded my Qi capacity more than any of the Sect disciples who were hunting me.”

Your point?

“That this is even possible is absurd, but now another five to ten times?” Running an hand through her hair, Terra plopped down with a sigh. The freshly rebuilt campsite flickered with the light of the small fire. Due to the whole wasted time, Terra hadn’t even gotten a chance to forage for a proper meal. I felt bad about that. Particularly since her body was just trying to soak up the nutrients and calories. She was mostly running on the dopamine high of cramming massive amounts of pure Qi into her flesh and shoving out all the bad stuff. Like the ultimate juice cleanse.

It wasn’t a substitute for good food and recovery time. If anything it meant she was going to need to massively up her intake and at a very high quality.

“Forget hunting me to get to you, I’m going to be like, the ultimate Furnace. More Qi capacity than a half dozen typical Cultivators?”

There’s got to be plenty of them who practice the same kind of thing. At the current rate, I think we can power level you to the peak of Foundation Establishment within a few months.

“A few months?! There isn’t enough Qi in this area to accomplish that! Not by half!”

That’s why we’re going to kill two, maybe three birds with one stone and keep going deeper into the Wilds. Deeper means more Qi, more Qi means higher quality resources!

“The Qi I get. Also it will potentially help evade discovery, since only high realm Cultivators would dare go much deeper than we’ve gotten. I’m starting to believe you about erasing our presence. I’m shocked that we haven’t encountered basically any Beasts so far. What do we need resources for? Are you an alchemist? Going to make yourself a little pill family?”

This one was either a keeper or I was going to have to hide the body in a dumpster somewhere.

Meh, might as well work with what you got, right?

Because as I’ve mentioned, girly, we’re going to start working on Body Cultivation.

“We’re going to make herb baths and stuff? I heard its… painful.”

Forget that hocus pocus. We just need nutrition. Better quality food resources, to support building up this bod of yours. Time to take a deep breath. Don’t just say what comes to mind. She’s already going to take the hook. Don’t mess it up… don’t- Plus you’ll be so freaking bulked guys are gonna be too terrified to want you as a Furnace! Oops. Fuuuuuuu-

Well, the next several days were quiet ones. At least she didn’t stop cultivating. I might have pushed the purging process along a little roughly out of annoyance after the second day of cold shoulder treatment. Enough so that I legitimately felt bad. Mostly for the trees that were being mass murdered by the results.

Eventually, we broke the silence, with like, my twentieth attempt at an apology.

I’m sorry, Terra. I really am. Think of me as a really knowledgeable baby, alright? I’ve got like, zero memories. That means all I really have is cultivation and snark, OK? Because snark, and puns, are intrinsic, while politeness and social skills have to be learned.

Terra let out a long suffering sigh.

“…apology accepted. But I’m not going to call you Phil.”

OK, what do you suggest then? And no weirdo ‘Daoist Name’, you hear?

“I still think Master Spherical Purity is a good name!”

I think that weirdo talking squirrel planted some strange thoughts in your mind back when we met..

“Fine, don’t take my awesome suggestion, but I’m not calling you Phil the Pill either!”

Hmmm. Oddly threatening… why would you- THE SQUIRREL IS BACK!