“Big Brother Shen, where are we?” Xue’er looked around curiously after walking out from the tear in space.
Moments before, Shen had torn open the surrounding space in the stone chamber of their cave mansion. It was quite a fright to Xue’er. She had witnessed True Immortal stage magical beasts fight in the forest and their attacks could hardly shake the surrounding space. Yet Shen had treated it like it was made of paper!
“This is one of the unoccupied islands to the west of Sky continent. I thought I’d bring us here so we can cultivate in peace.”
Shen looked around the island with satisfaction. It was not a large island, with only a few hundred miles in diameter. They were currently on a beach on the southern part of the island. There was a large volcano located right at the centre of the island, with smoke coming out at the top, indicating that it was an active volcano.
“It’s very beautiful here…” Xue’er looked at the beach and the ocean, mesmerized.
“Yes, this is the first time I’ve seen the ocean in person.” Shen also commented. The beauty dressed in pure white under the sun with a glittering sea in the background was breathtaking. Shen stared at the sight until Xue’er turned to face him.
“Big Brother Shen? Are you ok?” Xue’er asked with a pink face.
“Ah? Ye-yeah. I’m ok, haha.”
“Let us explore the island. There might be interesting spirit herbs and rare treasures.” Shen changed the topic in a hurry.
The spiritual power was abundant on the island. There were no powerful magical beasts in the forests surrounding the volcano.
“Wait a second Big Brother Shen.” Xue’er brought out the snow fox and the red egg they had bought from the auction from her pet bag.
Little White immediately escaped from Xue’er embrace and ran off into the forest.
“Little White!” Xue’er called out.
[Don’t worry Sister Xue’er. There are a lot of spirit herbs suitable for my growth here. I will be back in a few hours.]
Xue’er could only helplessly shake her head.
“Xue’er, are eggs meant to do that?”
Shen had noticed that the egg was now pulsating and giving off a red glow. It was quite slow but steady.
“Oh? Interesting.”
Shen took the egg in hand.
[Take. Me. To. Volcano.]
“What?” Shen was surprised at the mental message from the egg.
“Xue’er, do you hear that?”
“No? What is it Big Brother Shen?”
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Shen pointed at the egg in hand. “It says to take it to the volcano.”
“Hmm, I didn’t hear anything when I was holding it, how odd…”
[Take. Me. To. Volcano.]
“Hey, I heard it again.” Shen shook the egg. “Are you talking to me?”
[Take. Me. To. Volcano.]
Whatever inside the egg seemed to be intelligent but it did not say anything other than repeating those four words.
“Xue’er for the time being, let’s take this egg to the volcano.”
“Ok, Big Brother Sh-” Xue’er paused her reply when Shen approached her and held her waist gently.
“Big Brother Shen?”
“It won’t take long.” Shen smiled and floated up while holding Xue’er slender and perfect body.
*Whoosh*
It only took a few seconds for them to cover the distance of over 100 miles. They were now floating above the volcano.
The speed caught Xue’er by surprise but she did not think it was a big deal when Shen could use his hands to tear open the space.
The pulsation of the red light on the egg sped up. It also started vibrating. Shen held Xue’er and landed on the outer lip of the volcano.
““Ah!””
The egg has actually jumped out of Shen’s hand and into the boiling magma below.
Even though Shen could have caught the egg, he decided to let it go to see what would happen. ‘It wanted to go to the volcano after all.’
“Big Brother Shen, will it be ok?”
“I don’t know but it jumped out by itself so it should be fine.”
The egg entered the magma and vanished from their sight. Shen spread out his Divine Sense and discovered that the egg was floating just under the surface of the magma.
“It seems fine. Let us go back to the beach. Xue’er has to teach me how to cultivate.”
Shen once again held Xue’er and arrived back at the beach.
“Let me make us a place to stay first.” Shen placed Xue’er down and headed into the forest.
Soon after, a small hut was built on the beach, decorated with furniture bought from Jade Leaf city.
Shen and Xue’er sat inside the hut facing each other.
“Big Brother Shen, to cultivate, you need to have a cultivation technique. It shows how to guide the spiritual power into the dantian.
In Qi Condensation stage, the spiritual power gathers and forms a gaseous state. When it becomes dense enough to form a liquid, you will have entered Foundation Building stage. Condensing it further to form a solid shape is to enter Core Formation.”
“Cultivation technique? I don’t have one of those. What cultivation technique do you use, Xue’er?”
“Hehe, Big Brother Shen, I don’t use a cultivation technique. My father doesn’t either. He is a magical beast with a saint beast bloodline and I have his bloodline so we innately know how to cultivate from birth.”
“Hmm, that makes it difficult.” Shen pondered for a bit. ‘Maybe I should go buy one in the city.’
“For now, I’ll try taking spiritual power into my dantian.”
“Big Brother Shen, father told me that cultivation techniques are actually to enable cultivators to absorb spiritual power faster. One needs a technique suited to his or her physique, otherwise the progress will be slow.”
“Ok, thanks Xue’er.”
Shen closed his eyes and started absorbing the spiritual power into his body. At the start, guiding the spiritual power to random paths only resulted in spiritual power going around in circles.
‘If I pass it through the meridians…’
Shen attempted to pass it through the large meridians into the dantian. He found that a very small amount of spiritual power managed to accumulate in the dantian.
Xue’er looked at Shen absorbed in cultivation and smiled. ‘I’ll cook something while I wait, Little White should be back soon too.’
Time passed by as Shen tried different combinations of spiritual power rotation through his meridians. Unlike a normal person, Shen had opened his meridians fully and widened them. Therefore, his cultivation speed was noticeably faster than an average cultivator.
In actuality, Shen who had compete control over the surrounding spiritual power could absorb all of it in a thousand-mile radius. But he felt it would be better to explore the best meridian path before he attempts to speed up.
Minutes passed by. Shen unceasingly explored new meridian paths, improving the rate of absorption into the dantian. After an hour, the aroma of food being cooked wafted into the hut.
“Phew…”
Shen opened his eyes. “Not bad, I could be considered a late-stage Qi Condensation cultivator now.”
If one were to look in Shen’s dantian, one could see a vast expanse of white fog. The speed at which Shen cultivated could only be described as monstrous.