Lu breathed. Inwards, and bare wisps of qi entered his lungs. Compared to the ridiculous hyper-density of the other world’s ki, the energy inside him now felt insubstantial, almost imaginary. Outwards, and the qi flowed away, back into the outside air. Apart from his spiritual stomach, his body was completely void of energy.

I missed this. It feels like it’s been longer than it has. Growing his consumption was similar to cultivation in some theoretical regards, but in practise the two activities felt completely different. Lu kept meditating, drawing qi in and out with his breaths. Just getting a feel for it again. It’s so light. Could a warrior even survive here, with so little energy? He manipulated the qi with his sense, pushing it around and forming a whirlpool. He held it for a minute, before letting it collapse. If my spiritual sense is weaker than it was, it’s not by much. I should be able to succeed without trouble.

Cutting out his demon had been an… Intense and emotional experience. But in terms of injuries, he wasn’t doing too badly; it was like the difference between leaving an infected limb to fester, and amputating it. Yes, his soul was weaker now, likely permanently – but it was that unnatural strength that had caused problems in the first place, so he wasn’t exactly concerned.

He took out a spirit stone from his robes. It was a good one, large and smooth, and represented the entirety of his remaining funds. He had been carrying it for some time. He had even had it when facing the demon, though the spiritual damage had accumulated too fast for him to try breaking through inside the space. I assumed I’d be able to save the bits of me that enjoyed progressing in my cultivation, but I ran out of time. Does that mean they’re just gone, now? He was a little anxious to learn the answer.

But now wasn’t the time for anxiety. Lu closed his eyes and focussed. The first step, gaining awareness, was completed near instantly; the crystal shone brightly in his sense’s eyes, composed of qi thousands of times denser than the open air.

So he moved immediately to the second step, and began drawing the qi into his body. It lost most of its solidity as he pulled it out of the stone, returning to vapour, but there was more than enough to form his foundation. Maybe enough to get me to second realm, if I’m careful and efficient. He continued drawing, until there was a swirling cloud of qi filling his chest.

That was when something startled him, and he almost lost hold of his breath. His spiritual stomach was brushed by the lower edge of the cloud, and the ki construct trembled. It spurted space-flavoured ki out, and where the two energies mixed the qi was destroyed.

Lu hurriedly pulled them apart, cursing in his head. Damn, that was a good amount of qi I just lost. He eyed his stomach. It had settled down, but he had a feeling that if it was touched by qi again it would cause even more trouble the second time. That’s annoying. I’ll have to keep extra-tight control of the qi to keep it from moving too low. Worse, he would have less room to form the spiritual void he needed.

Well… Nothing to do about it for now. He was on a strict time limit. I’ll just have to muddle through! He drew more qi into his body to replace what had been destroyed, and held it tightly inside his ribcage. He concentrated, a sheen of sweat developing on his forehead, and hollowed out a space inside the cloud.

Bigger, come on, a bit bigger… His heart beat in his ears, his breath rapidly running out, the urge to exhale the stale air – and the qi with it – building. That’s about as good as I can make it. He let the void collapse, and qi rushed into the centre of the resulting implosion.

There was a lurching, hitching sensation in the flesh of his chest, and Lu’s expression became triumphant. Under his sternum was a small crystal, not dissimilar to its parent still in his hand. Yes! I’m a proper cultivator again! He felt the urge to jump up and celebrate, but he merely smiled as he examined his foundation. It was smaller than the head of a pin, more like a grain of sand than anything. It was also asymmetrical, and had an ugly mottled texture.

But still, Lu kept smiling, even as his lungs screamed out for air. Reluctantly he exhaled, and the remaining swirls of vaporous qi that hadn’t condensed were expelled. Not the most efficient breakthrough, but it could have gone a lot worse. I got it on my first try! Yes, an extremely favourable performance.

He let his breath stabilise for a few minutes, letting the rush pass. Then, he got back to meditating – the hard part was over, so now he just needed to see to the busywork. That small, ugly crystal doesn’t fit my handsome self. I’ll have to build it up, until it’s a large, perfect sphere! He dropped into the familiar rhythm of drawing in qi, forming a spiritual whirlpool, then compacting the qi into his dantian. Cultivating in the first realm was quick – in fact, it was lightning-fast in comparison to the third realm. His tiny sand-like dantian couldn’t handle much qi at all per cycle, so his breaths were quick, basically indistinguishable from normal breathing. The spirit stone shrank minute by minute as his dantian grew, becoming rounder and lightening in colour.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Technically a dantian’s appearance didn’t matter; whether it was symmetrical or asymmetrical did nothing to impact its ability to store qi, nor did its colour or texture. But since he could influence its form, why not make it beautiful? So Lu molded it into a perfect sphere, polished and palest yellow like fresh buttercream. As the crystal grew, small tendrils sprouted out from it – not crystalline, but still composed of solidified qi; the beginnings of a spiritual circulatory system that would nourish his body. When his spiritual veins encompassed his whole self, he would be considered at the peak of the first realm, ready to ascend to the second.

This right here, the proper formation of spiritual veins, was the step that had flummoxed him for a decade. …Well, for a number of years until he had quietly given up. Each person’s body was subtly different, and so there was no set path towards success. There were guides and instructions that would take one most of the way, certainly, but those last few steps needed to be crossed alone. But Lu knew the exact pattern now, had figured it out in a flash of inspiration while healing himself after a savage training session. Ah, that was before Bull and I properly became friends. He was an angry man back then – well, I suppose he’s still somewhat angry now. But not to me!

The spirit stone continued to shrink as he used it up growing his spiritual veins. This is much more elegant than carving out ki channels. No pain at all, and when I’m done my body will become stronger naturally. And I won’t need to eat nearly as much! While his appetite had diminished some from his most ravenous state, right after he had formed his stomach, he was still eating almost twice as much as a mortal should. He knew this for a fact, since the local village had restaurants that sold boxed meals for easy transport; he needed to eat six of them a day to quell his hunger, while the standard daily amount had been three. It was an ongoing annoyance, especially since he was trying to keep it a secret to avoid embarrassment. At least, I hope I won’t have to eat as much. It’s presently my biggest expense, and one I can’t just ignore.

The veins grew, coiling along the inside of his chest out to his neck and shoulders. But when he sent his qi downwards, he ran into a problem; his spiritual stomach. When his veins got close, the thing would enter an agitated state and expel ki. Oh dear, does that mean..?

If he didn’t completely saturate his body properly, then he wouldn’t be able to progress to second realm. His dantian couldn’t grow larger without limit; at a certain point the qi needed to circulate properly or his cultivation would collapse. Don’t panic. You don’t even know if this is a real problem – maybe the ki will settle down if I keep exposing my stomach to qi, let it build up a tolerance. I’ll finish as much of my circulation as I can, and then… See if I need a more drastic solution. There’s no need to rush, I’m back home and out of danger – so I have plenty of time to experiment.

I can complete outer sect missions just fine even at just the first realm, since I have consumption to fall back on. I’m not going to starve. In fact, my monthly stipend should keep up with my necessities on its own. I’ll be fine.

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By the time he called it a night, the spirit stone had sublimated down to the size of a fingernail. He had to take some rather inefficient detours when building his spiritual veins, which meant he would be relying on environmental qi for the latter half of first realm, assuming he didn’t bolster his supplies with some missions. Actually, am I even allowed to leave the area? My body is filled with otherworldly energies that the sect is trying to keep hidden, so…

So missions outside the sect were probably not something he could rely on. Ah, I probably should have asked about this earlier. Before I started visiting the village, even. There was a chance that unorthodox cultivators would be snooping around in the near future; people would figure out they were hiding something eventually, even if they had no idea what. And if they decided to snatch up a disciple with a strange energy in his body…

Nope! Let’s ah, not think about that. Being kidnapped by blind physical forces was bad enough, I don’t want to imagine what wicked unorthodox outlaws would do to me. Perhaps it would be better if he didn’t leave the sect for a while.

But then, how will I make spirit stones? His face became thoughtful. Maybe I can try to reproduce some of the technologies of the other world? I was going to wait until I could enchant everything myself, but given my current situation that might take a while. He rolled the diminished spirit stone between his fingers, pondering. Then he secured it in his locked drawer.

Yes, I think that’s the best move for now. He nodded to himself. Tomorrow I’ll procure some drawing supplies, and start sketching out designs. Sulphur had been an endless font of mechanical wisdom, and Lu had taken note of a fair chunk of everything the man said. He couldn’t build an engine from scratch – but if he worked on it for a month or two?

He rubbed his hands together. I’ll be rolling in spirit stones in no time!