Day 10 now…almost nothing worth mentioning this day. I felt their presences closely watching me, egg-to-face. My parents won’t go away for some reason, as if they’re expecting…something…is it that I am about to hatch or something? I do not feel any instinctual urge to leave yet, nor do I feel any discomfort in here though…My knowledge of my current race is so nonexistent at the moment…

Since it seems I will be watched for the rest of the day, I decided to practice sensing and manipulating external mana, this time not just the in the air, but also in inorganic matter like rocks or those absurdly mana-rich crystals (the mana in those crystals are rich and pure as hell, which makes me wonder why my parents never harvest them) as efficiently and stealthily as I can…faaar away from their detection radius…

My result from my training this day, I significantly improved my mana manipulation to be decent, but not ideal. For example I can control the mana without any problems, but only simple commands like directing them, meaning I cannot weave the mana in any complex fashion at the moment. My senses in mana improved as well since I can feel…something else in the air besides mana. It is different from mana, but also similar…like a distant cousin of it…is this the infamous Qi? I tried controlling them, and unexpectedly the ‘qi’ is very easy to control, way easier to control than mana like the Qi is at a certain tune that accepts all forms of alien influence…which I can’t wait to try out at a later time. I also cannot control the mana in the rocks of the caves, but those cave crystals…I feel like I can absorb them for some reason since they felt very…clean, and ‘digestible’.

Then comes sleepy time, but I now know what to try out tomorrow. However, before I slept, I felt a jolt…an internal shock of something…an slight, growing desire to be free…I believe it means I am ready to hatch soon...since the I do not feel any need to pop out right now at the moment. And then I fell asleep without warning…

Now day 11, I again groggily woke up and checked my surroundings of presences, which they are not here at the moment. Fast and alert, I quickly executed my new training plans in case they come back. First I tried to force the Qi in the air to my egg-body, in the hopes of absorbing it into my system and strengthen me even more, heh heh heh……wow, I feel like I am now under the influence of the dark side judging from all my excitement ha ha…

I faced some trouble though…it is a bit difficult to absorb the Qi in the air for some reason….as my crystal egg shell…*struggles to absorb qi*…just…*struggles to absorb qi*…won’t…*struggling VERY hard*…ACCEPT IT!! GRahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

…Did I just roared…despite not being born yet…? Wow, I really am ready to hatch soon, huh? Anyway back to the task at hand, I am having a lot of trouble absorbing the Qi in the air…so now pondering for a while, like ten minutes or so…a clever epiphany came to mind…very, very clever indeed…muahaha…I am really coming over the dark side for having evil thoughts huh? What changed? Hmmm….reexamining my body all over again…I feel…more emotional now than before…ahhhh, I see…I was a bit too young too have any decent capacity for emotions yet until now, which explains my sudden irritated outbursts and mischievous thoughts…and why I feel no parental love for my parents, only instinctual fear and professional curiosity. Meaning, my capacity for emotions is maturing more and more over time. I might have to learn how to control myself better, but it should not be a problem since I already know how to do that when I was still human, so I just need to practice self-control in the future.

Anyway, back to the point, I found a clever way to absorb the Qi, I just have to ‘trick the lock’. I am now experimenting to see if I can extract and absorb the energy from one of the mana crystals closest to me long-range style. The mana in those crystals are very condensed and pure, which makes them so much easier to control than the mana in the air, although at the cost of more effort to move them, but no matter. And at the same time, I am condensing and refining the Qi in the air to make them more pure and help save some time in the process by doing so, in order for me to absorb them both. Using my arms (I can already move my arms days before at day one, but I had no need to use them and want to challenge myself in the task until now) to help maintain and exercise control over the mana and Qi, planning to mix them together in a certain way. Incidentally, I sort of…’ripped’ the crystal out of its socket during the extraction process…which left me baffled…I mean I ‘telekinetically’ ripped the crystal out of the cave ground…I did not know I can do that yet…wow, I am officially a force user now hahaha…the telekinesis probably took effect because the crystal is a solid matter and has noticeable mass, which can be physically touched.

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Anyways, I now moved the crystal chunk towards me to help quicken the extraction process by bringing it closer to my range of influence. The crystal seems to shrink the more mana I extract, so by the time I finished the extraction process, the crystal shrunk to oblivion, no longer here. I stopped condensing the Qi in the air as well, and proceeded my plan to ‘trick the lock’. The process is simple, yet hard to accomplish without mastering the necessary basics. I just need to coat the highly condensed and pure Qi with the equally rich and pure mana, and absorb them both. I tried mixing them before, but they are like magnets repelling each other, so I went with coaxing instead.

I formed the mana-Qi mixture into the shape of a spear, and directed it towards me, in high expectations. And….it is working…IT’S WORKING!!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA….ha….*ahem* note to self, practice self-control as soon as possible after hatching…I then resumed to absorb both the mana and Qi into my egg-body past the shell barrier.

Now then…where should I move the Qi…hmmm…never thought I get this far…I decided to experiment once again, absorbing the Qi into certain parts my body, hoping they will ‘click’ somewhere with the help of my senses…After several trials, I tried to move the Qi into my mana pool, only to face no reaction whatsoever, so becoming impatient, I decide to…eat the mana and Qi, hoping my body's natural system will give me some reference on where to start.

Although it is not expected, eating the mana and Qi worked, though a little too well. I felt a sudden pain in my gut, then the pain spread throughout my being. Aghh, it seems my body is changing, at my mental expense in reaction to my reckless act as the mana and Qi burns throughout my system, even flowing through my bones, for some goddamn reason…!...Roaring in pain and agony for some time, the pain was starting to lessen, but not much.

*Some more time later*

After hours of suffering, I realize it is almost sleepy time, so before then I tried to analyze what happened to my body during the painful process. With the limited time I have, I found that the Qi is in…what the hell…I feel a…void…right near my mana pool in my stomach. I think that is where my ‘dantian’ as the Chinese wuxia novels say, but I feel no organs there to contain the Qi, I am sure of it. I do not feel any form of solid matter containing the void as…as if it is almost nonexistent...

Before I can contemplate on the matter further…my tyrannical instincts knocked me out as scheduled…