I crudely willed one of the glaciers to start moving. With my guidance, it lumbered like a drowsy giant across the chaotic surface of the water, slowly moving across it like a giant, spike-headed slug that eventually collided with another glacier. A burst of sound, then the two massive blocks of ice broke apart, the pieces started floating, bobbing up and down as the waves pushed them away from each other.

Willing one of the broken pieces to move had been as hard as doing with the glacier but I eventually managed to push it right next to another piece that I was simultaneously pushing. They both met and I made them stay together, with the invisible force that I'm using to control them, the two pieces started spinning against each other, chipping away at their icy shells with every passing second. I willed it to stop and I felt actual strain start to push against my brain but I continued until I felt the ice stop breaking.

Progress. That's good. Encouraged by what I'd just done, I started to mentally control the glaciers to see if I can merge them together. A few hours of doing that eventually yielded results in the form of a small part of the two pieces of ice sticking to each other and creating a bridge between the two of them. It broke apart after a single spin but it was progress regardless.

I continued doing it until I felt my ability to control the glaciers become stronger.

I mentally controlled more and more of the pieces of glaciers until I got close to my limit and using the remaining mental capacity that lets me control them; I made the glaciers spin against each other while also trying to stick them together. I ended up with this cronenberg of a chunk of ice after a while, with little odds and pieces sticking out of the larger body. Even with it just being simple ice, it was obvious that the parts that stick out clearly came from another piece and they looked as if they were forced there against their will.

Not at all discouraged by what I've just made, I continued mixing and mashing the ice together with most of my mental might while the extra 25% or so I gave to the effort of controlling the large glaciers and I got a good estimate of my current mental strength when I did- Okay, so, it's moving a bit faster than before. Nice!

Yep, compared to the quite frankly, glacial pace of my push when I first started, I am now able to move the large islands of ice with a good amount of speed. They were still slow, yes, but at least they're now visibly moving when I push them. Pretty good progress if you ask me.

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Doing nothing but mixing ice together for god knows how long took its toll on me at some point and again, I got stressed but inevitably thought better of it. I got patient every time something like that happened and it's not like I can help it, I can't do anything about it other than accepting it and at this point, I'm pretty accepting about most things thanks to my only option.

With enough patience to get tortured to hell and back and come out fine, I continued on with my progress until I can move the glaciers at good speeds and mix them without making it obvious that that's what happened. By this point, I started making progress because the only thing that's stopping me is time.

I stared up with my metaphorical head, wondering just how much time passed in the real world. It's not one of those bullshit sped up time moments is it? I felt my metaphorical lips frown at the thought of that. I hope- well, I guess I hope so. Xie Wen and the little girl is still out there.

A thought about abandoned dogs in a shelter waiting for an owner overlapped with a little girl in the middle of a deadly war popped inside my head and a rare moment of inspiration flickered inside my head and I spent the next few days focused on growing stronger.

After who knows how long, I managed to make more progress; I stared at the whirlpool, it's not visible but the thing is taking in Qi and sending them to... somewhere. It's odd, I followed where the whirlpool ended in and I came out blank, it's like the bottom of the ocean didn't exist. I tried really hard to feel the bottom too but nothing.

Well, whatever. I pushed my consciousness out of the ocean and went back to making my own personal antartica. The massive island made only of ice is the result of me mixing and combining glaciers, which I started doing after I could influence them and do anything more than give a light push whenever I try to do something.

The island right now is pretty big, around a small country or so. For vanity and sanity's sake, I also started creating little igloos around the place. No one's living in em, but seeing all those creatures outside that gym gave me a faint hope that maybe one day, something will.

I placed more whirlpools around the place, they're not doing anything that important and seem content to suck in the rich Qi around my spirit sea and since I can create them, I'm leaning on the fact that they're beneficial so I created more of them.

The process of me creating whirlpools, enlargening the island of ice, and then practicing with my Qi control continued for days on end until something broke the comfortable familiarity-

It was a whole, pure blue with edges of silver, I don't know where it led but something tells me I'd wake up when I go through it.

So I did.