After cleaning up the filth and changing into another set of elegant clothes, Finlay sat down once again and assumed a dignified expression. As he was preparing to inspect the new state of his body after entering the Qi condensation realm, his nose twitched a little and he sniffed a couple of times. He tried to trace the smell and found that it was coming from the floor.

“Dammit! How much do I have to clean the same place?!”

Finlay was growing depressed with the routine event after each breakthrough. He always knew that this was a normal process everyone had to go through and he was under the impression that it gets less and less annoying each time he had to deal with it, but contrary to his expectations, he was only growing more and more depressed and bothered by this process that is akin to somebody taking a dump in his dessert. The process of breaking through a realm and vastly improving his body’s capabilities was supposed to be a joyous and extremely pleasing feeling, yet it was ruined by this unavoidable, sticky situation each time.

After cleaning up the space again and adding some fragrant odour in the room, he finally felt satisfied with the smell of the room. He once again sat down and went back to the notification.

*Ding*

Congratulations on successfully reaching the Qi condensation realm.

Restriction Unlocked on skill : Analyse (Grade E+ –> Grade D-)

You can now identify additional item types; New features unlocked.

The cheat like skill, Analyse, finally reached a threshold and was upgraded to D- grade.

“The ‘additional information’ is as vague as ever…”

Despite his muttering, he knew the system doesn’t lie and these words can only mean some new things to discover. So, he took out random items to check their descriptions. Unfortunately, there were no significant changes. There was occasionally marginally more information about certain things but nothing drastic.

“That’s weird. How could a major upgrade from E to D be such a minor change.”

After some thinking, he could only come to the conclusion that perhaps the level of items he could appraise increased. He didn’t have any valuable, high tier materials or items and hence didn’t bother checking it on them. He still felt there was probably more to it, but being in seclusion and not permitted to roam around outside meant he didn’t have much of a choice but to wait.

With that matter set aside, FInlay took some time to notice the changes in his body from entering the Qi condensation realm before he could continue his cultivation. His Qi capacity is the biggest change. It easily increased over twice the amount he already had and this was mainly because at level 1 of Qi condensation realm, his Qi sea’s space is pitifully small. Even his meridians’ total volume was almost the same size as his Qi sea. As it expands at higher levels, his Qi capacity would only go up exponentially as well.

Next, he noticed a marked increase in his vitality as well due to the abundant Qi circulating in his body. Even though his physical body didn’t actually grow much stronger, his vitality did. Similarly, he tiered at much the same rate as before this. He then tried to make a batch of Harmonising pills to see how the effects were and he noticed that he now had much better ability to concentrate continuously and also the increased Qi and its control made his success rate improve slightly again.

Finlay spent a day testing out his body to establish a baseline for it so that he would have something to compare to as he advances. Next, Finlay decided to continue cultivation for now, he would strike while the iron is still hot. He had no other Qi providing pills however. Not even the mighty Zifu Grand Elder, Fang Tu could have imagined for Finlay to use up all 5 of them in less than 2 days of cultivation. If they found out such a fact, they would be shocked. Even using all 5 in these 2 months inside such a Qi rich environment is already considered pretty extravagant.

Finlay simply drew the Qi from his surroundings to continue cultivating. The amount of concentration and mental energy one consumes could also be considered a quality of the cultivation technique. As a top tier technique, the Origin Mantra, is naturally very efficient both in terms of how effective it is and how soothing it is on one’s mind. It allows even early level cultivators in the QI condensation realm to last much longer between breaks. This meant that Finlay was soon lost in the process of cultivation.

The process naturally couldn’t compare to how fast it was when he had the aid of the pills. And as he approached the threshold of the level 1 and level 2, he felt like things were slightly slowing down. Finlay frowned and stopped cultivation for a bit. He deliberated for a bit before he found an idea. He took a handful of Harmonising pills made by stuffing large amounts of his Origin Qi into them and swallowed them. He then quickly focused on absorbing the Qi from the surroundings.

He waited till the Harmonising pills started to dissolve in his stomach and release the stored Qi. While this process was much less effective than using the appropriate Qi supplying pills, it was still some what effective. It was also incredibly wasteful of the resources. Each of the successful batch of these potent harmonising pills consumed a large quantity of Alchemical ingredients due to the small rate of success, let alone the time and effort wasted. Still, It didn’t take too many of the pills before FInlay managed to break through to the second level of QI condensation.

This time, there was no impurities extraction and he was wholeheartedly able to experience the joy of growing stronger through cultivation. In fact, he immediately decided that he would celebrate by cultivating a bit more. He took a break before that though and briefly noted the changes. The Qi sea size easily doubled in size, vastly increasing his Qi capacity. Apart from this, the other changes were pretty minor. It seemed like only major breakthroughs or perhaps at least going from early to mid or mid to late stages would provide any appreciable boosts to the other aspects of him apart from the Qi capacity and meridian size and strength.

*Ding*

Congratulations on successfully reaching the Qi condensation realm level 2.

Restriction Unlocked on skill : Analyse (Grade D- –> Grade D-)

Just going from the mid stage of level 1 to breathing through the threshold of level 2 took him an entire 5 days without the right pills. Finlay was already seeing another headache from another Drug problem looming ahead. He could only console himself that this speed is still considered unreal by others and he could only take things slow. In fact, if Senior Kang had known about his thoughts, he would curse him out for being too greedy. Finlay on the other hand, simply felt that this was only natural with his ridiculous advantages.

After sufficient rest, Finlay threw himself back into more cultivation. He constantly pushed and compressed more and more Qi in his Dantian, expanding it slowly step by step. The milky Qi clouds also grew denser and larger. This time, he cultivated, slept for a couple hours and continued his efforts, for another entire week before he reached more than half way through level 2.

He was satisfied with this progress considering he stopped using harmonising pills from the heart ache, once he calculated the amount of money he had wasted from just that 1 break through. He was thinking of taking another break before going back to it.

“Hehehe! This is too fun! I don’t even feel very bored either. In fact, I feel almost refreshed. *Tsk* I can see how some might get addicted to this feeling.”

With a happy smile, Finlay was about to go back to it, but froze realising something.

‘Perhaps, this is too fast? Reaching 2 and half levels in just 2 weeks is too fast in terms of normal people. Even 2 and half in 2 months should be considered incredibly fast at the level of this area. Should I slow down a bit?’

Too much of a good thing might become poisonous and too high a profile could prove disastrous when one doesn’t have enough backing. After noticing this problem, Finlay decided to halt his cultivation for now. Even though this was the ideal place for his cultivation and he might not be able to get such a valuable opportunity in the near future, it’s still not impossible to do it outside. It might be a bit slower but having less attention is probably the wiser choice right now, considering the incredible amount of high profile attention on him already. Besides, he felt like if things got tight, he could just rely on his alchemy to make some money and use them to purchase the required cultivation resources like pills and spirit stones.

With his mind made up, he decided to focus on his other skills like Alchemy for the remaining 5 weeks or so of his time in this Qi rich cultivation room. Whenever he was bored from studying Alchemy, he would pick up the various books and manuals to read through them, his interest in the field of formations was especially piqued during this period and he would often find himself being reluctant to switch back into the grind of Alchemy. When he was exhausted of his Qi, he would simply pick up his sword or spear to casually practise them or try out one of the moves or attacks he had comprehended from the various books and manuals. When both his body and mind is exhausted, he simply meditated, slept or just roamed about in the nature outside to recover.

In this way, the next 4 weeks passed. On this day, his grin in Alchemy had reached a threshold. His success rate in process of making the most potent Harmonising pills possible reached over 35% and he vaguely felt like he had reached a threshold where he felt like even with increased cultivation and there by the increased Qi he could infuse in to the pills, he could still maintain the success rate at a similar level with the help of the increased QI control. This is because his proficiency in Alchemy was approaching a level where he could make more use out of more control over the Qi.

But he could not stop it yet. The system still hasn’t acknowledged his proficiency and offered the much awaited basics of Alchemy skill. He felt it was close though, as long as he persisted a bit further, he was sure he would reach the threshold. Today, he threw himself madly at the process, after each attempt, he wrote down his experience, every observation and speculation in to a book. Finally, after almost exhausting his QI multiple times, he was rewarded with a familiar sound from the system. Overjoyed, he even stopped the cooking batch midway to read the message.

*Ding*

For your meagre efforts in the field of Alchemy, you’ve earned a skill : Dabbling in Alchemy (Grade F-)

Finlay nearly choked at the contents of the message and the name of the skill he earned. He had put so much time and effort into the single field of Alchemy ever since he had entered the valley and discovered the hidden Alchemy recipe in the hunting zone. He had probably spent twice as much time practising alchemy when compared to the rest of all the fields combined, with the exception of Cultivation and he was still only hoping for a simple skill like Basics of Alchemy. Instead, he was presented with an almost insulting message and a skill name that suggested an even worse level than what he meant to earn.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He could only curse at the system and the one who was responsible for the system design, the god, Jinn.

“This stupid ass system, it is definitely cursing and mocking at my efforts, Damn you! I will show you one day, you bastard!...”

After cursing out his anger and frustration from the past few days of intense efforts, Finlay finally calmed down. He couldn’t help but grow suspicious at Jinn for perhaps messing with him through this way, but he pushed that thought aside. He felt like he wasn’t such a person even if someone deliberately was doing this. Besides, giving a worse skill just to play a prank did not seem like they type of thing he would do. With that aside, he wanted to check the description of the skill and hence, clicked on it.

Dabbling in Alchemy (Grade F-) : Rewarded for your meagre efforts in Alchemy. It boosts your success rate of any pill below Tier 3 by 5 %; Improves the control of the user over the Qi infused into the pill.

Alchemy was also divided into Tiers based on the skill required to craft the pill and how effective it was at a given level of cultivation. Tier 1 pills are those used below the Qi condensation realm or at the early stages of the Qi condensation realm. The Harmonising pill was a good example of a Tier 1 pill. A Tier 2 pill is very useful for those in the Qi condensation realm and generally provides only very minor effects to those at Foundation establishment level. A Tier 3 pill is naturally something useful for those in the Foundation establishment.

Hence, while this skill level is low grade and is of a dubious name, it’s effect was actually very decent. And on top of that, it increases the effect by 5% uniformly for all the pill formulas. Even the small auxiliary effect of increased control over Qi that was infused into pills is a very useful effect for Finlay in particular.

‘Not bad, not bad. If only I could change the name of the skill into something a little less dubious sounding, I would have been satisfied with this.’

He quickly tried out the skill as he made a batch of the Harmonising pills. The skill was activated automatically it seems. Finlay carefully observed and he concluded that it wasn’t something that relied up on his Qi and was completely undetectable. Even though it was impossible to confirm the success rate by just 1 batch of the pills, he still felt the increased control over the Qi infused into the pills in the making. In the coming days, he would also confirm the effect of increased success rate as well.

After such a major achievement, Finlay wanted to relax a bit and took the next day off. He spent the finlay week simply using up the remaining batch of the Alchemy ingredients and enjoying his time reading books and manuals as he casually practised the movement and sword arts. In particular, his interest in wielding a sword grew and outpaced his interest in the spear. This was because of how natural it self to swing a sword in his hands. He simply felt it more enjoyable and felt like it was less of a serious weapon when compared to a spear, which was only used to poke and bash an enemy in the most effective manner. A sword on the other hand felt like an extension and he could naturally make it spring and slice according to his will, he even felt like dancing at times.

At the end of these 2 months, Finlay’s strength grew by leaps and bounds and his proficiency and passion in the fields of Alchemy, Formations and sword grew as well. Not to mention the all important cultivation, he reached an impressive level 2 and a half in the Qi condensation realm. It was time for him to exit his seclusion. He packed up his things and cleaned up the place as he walked out into the garden. He was expecting someone to come provide instructions on where to go from here but as he waited for a long while, nobody seemed to show up.

As Finlay was searching around, staring at the sky, he felt a shoulder tap from one of the Elders guarding the place. He pointed towards the direction of the path coming up from down the mountain. There, he saw a lone figure slowly walking up the mountain. With Finlay’s enhanced eyesight, he could tell who it was instantly. It was the Assistant of Senior Elder Kang, probably, coming to receive FInlay. He cheerfully called out to him as he waved his hand to show him where he was.

To be continued.

Preview - System Status

Identity :

Finlay

Male

14 yrs old

–

Mortality :

Sura (Mortal)

Job :

None

Titles :

None

Cultivation : (Body cultivation)

Perfected Body Transformation stage;

Perfect Harmony of all elements;

Cultivation : (Spiritual)

Qi condensation realm Level 2; (🠕)

Origin Qi;

Skills :

The All seeing eye (Analyse) :

(Grade D- ) (🠕)

Authority granted by the first god of the world, Dinn. You can peer into the secrets of things and beings of this world as long as you know what you’re looking for. (Requires activation conditions)

Dabbling in Alchemy:

(Grade F-) (🠕)

Rewarded for your meagre efforts in Alchemy. It boosts your success rate of any pill below Tier 3 by 5 %; Improves the control of the user over the Qi infused into the pill.

Inventory space :

(Dantian space)

(Locked until Foundation Establishment)

Universal Language comprehension (Grade A+);

Mana Blast (Grade F+)

Preview - Stats

Spiritual :

Cultivation Talent :

S+ Grade (Appears as C-)

Divine Sense :

None

Law Comprehension :

S Grade

Physical :

Body Type :

Five Element body (Grade : B+(Aggregate)) (Appears as C-)

Elemental Attunements :

Metal

S- Grade

Five Element Body Type

(Dominant trait)

Earth

A Grade

Wind

C+ Grade

Fire

C Grade

Water

D Grade

Light/Darkness(Yin/Yang)

D- Grade

Lightning

F+ Grade

Other Talents :

Weapon Talents :

Sword/Bladed type

A+ Grade

Ranged

C+ Grade

Hand to Hand

C Grade

Polearms/Spear

D Grade

Soul based/Mental type

D- Grade

Qi Circuits :

(Arrays, Formations, Magical Restrictions)

B- Grade

Crafting Talent :

C+ Grade

Alchemy Talent :

D+ Grade