Li Lang continued to sit inside Ruby’s artifact space as he reviewed the data he had collected today regarding Tang Yulian’s breakthrough.

From what Sima Xue said, Foundation Establishment cultivators concentrate their Qi into their dantian in their navel area. This dantian is filled with a denser type of Qi compared with Energy Gatherers. It’s as if one was in a gaseous state while the other was in a liquid state. The different states had different properties.

All that compressing in the navel region allowed it to qualitatively change state somehow.

Li Lang began to dwell on the mechanics behind the Energy Gathering realm. As the name implied, throughout a practitioner’s entire journey through this realm, they focused on gathering Qi. In order to gather more, the cultivator condensed the energy. At the pinnacle, one would condense their energy so much that their Qi underwent a qualitative change.

“If that was the case when a cultivator failed in their breakthrough, it means their Qi went out of control and went wild,” Li Lang muttered.

“You mean explode, master?” Ruby chimed in.

“That’s right…Violently too.”

Having internalized this new information, Li Lang couldn’t help but return to reality to examine his Foundation Pill. He had received it from Tai Xilun. It was what prevented cultivators from facing the fatal consequences of failing their breakthrough.

Staring at it, Li Lang wondered how it worked. He remembered that Sima Xue noted that it formed a protective layer over the navel region where the Qi gathered during a breakthrough.

The urge to have Ruby analyze it was strong, but it would require his cultivation to be in the next major realm to analyze it. He also only had one for himself, and he would need it for his breakthrough. There was no telling when or how he could attain another one.

So it must be able to manage the flow of Qi. Instead of it all violently being expelled at once, it will allow the Qi to slowly fizzle out. I need to investigate further about this new state of Qi, too.

The new findings made Li Lang face new challenges. If he wanted to experiment around with this new idea, he would need to be able to evoke this qualitative change somehow. That required a higher cultivation than he currently had.

It was a cultivator’s degree of control of their Qi that allowed them to continually compress their Qi. Li Lang needed more training to strengthen this Qi ‘muscle’ before that was possible. However, it didn’t stop him from trying to find other ways to artificially create this higher state of Qi.

In order to artificially compress it, the easiest way would be to crush it from all directions. The force to be able to do that requires a great deal of training, but other things in the world can interact with Qi as well. If I can find a container and materials that repel Qi, it should work out somehow.

Li Lang’s plans would once again require a Qi battery of some sort. He could only bear with it for now. Once he returned to the outside world, he swore the next thing he would do was to find these kinds of materials.

It didn’t take long for Li Lang to record the research documentation within Ruby.

He then proceeded to perform his daily cultivation session to let his mind rest. His usual routine consisted of gathering Qi, and then practicing all his techniques. Currently, in his arsenal, he had four of them. They were Earthbound Step, Ironhide Art, Skysoar Kick, and Veiling Shroud.

As much as he would like to practice all of them within a day, he didn’t have the time. He could only focus on one each day.

However, during today’s training, he felt his Qi stir. Having broken through several times by now, Li Lang immediately noticed the telltale signs of an imminent breakthrough. This made him quickly resume the lotus position and resumed cultivating.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He felt like his body was bloated, like a container that was about to burst. It wasn’t painful, but there was pressure trying to escape his body. Instead of giving in, he gritted his teeth as he employed his full might to gather more Qi. It went without saying that it went against the flow and would require more force.

He used his usual method, imagining a giant black hole sucking up all the ambient energy.

His body was enveloped in a layer of Qi. It may seem stable to an external spectator, but this Qi was constantly going in and out of his body.

Deep breaths and relax.

It wasn’t long before Li Lang’s hard work paid off. The pressure disappeared all at once. A surge of strength filled his body as his hands shot up to the sky.

Li Lang had stepped into the sixth stage of Energy Gathering!

This new level was also the last of the middle stages of Energy Gatherers. His next breakthrough would lead him into the late stages of the realm. It was a given it wouldn’t be easy to take that next step.

Long Yi had been stuck in this same stage for some time. There was a reason why people made the distinction between middle-stages and upper-stages. Bottlenecks were present between these cultivation stages. If one were able to overcome these bottlenecks, they would be adequately rewarded for their efforts.

From the lower stages to the middle stages, a cultivator would gain the ability to externally manipulate Qi with things in their contact. As for the late stages, a cultivator would gain the ability to control Qi even at a distance away.

This opened many new possibilities pertaining to Qi arts for cultivators.

Previously, they would lose control of their Qi after it no longer made contact with them. It was akin to throwing a ball. Once out of the hands, it was out of their control.

In the late stages, one could still exercise control of the ball in the middle of its trajectory or even after impact.

It went without saying that meant the bottleneck would once again be related to a cultivator’s control of their Qi. Thanks to Long Yi’s struggles, Li Lang already had a head start regarding that.

Once his breakthrough finished, Li Lang glanced down at himself and sighed. He didn’t celebrate right away, as he knew he now had to delay his plans. The plan was to research his new heavenly fire and alchemy skills to prepare for the trials.

Now, with his breakthrough, he would need to take some time to adjust to his new realm. He must learn his strength again in order to be able to exert precise control.

Li Lang did precisely that for the next few days. Thankfully, the trial realm didn’t deduct any points in the meantime.

With his new abilities readjusted, he was ready to resume his study of alchemy. Li Lang didn’t hesitate to begin his experimentation with his new Primordial Star Fire. He began testing its ability to unevenly heat something.

What surprised Li Lang the most was its ability to stop the transfer of heat from the objects it burned. This directly defied the second law of thermodynamics as he knew it. The heat was supposed to naturally flow from a region of higher temperature to a region of lower temperature. The heavenly flame somehow was able to bypass that entirely to the area it was burning.

In fact, when Li Lang tested how extreme it could go, he found that it even allowed for parts of an object to remain at room temperature, while the other section reached upwards of three thousand degrees Celsius.

This defiance of thermodynamics ceased as soon as the heavenly fire stopped burning

Nevertheless, Li Lang drooled at the new possibilities.

It meant the Primordial Star Fire had nearly a hundred percent energy efficiency. One could create new alloys and materials or employ them in medical applications. It would target cells to destroy if the practitioner had enough control. It could even revolutionize cooking with perfect temperature control.

Its significance made Li Lang redouble his efforts in practicing with his new flames. He did so by delving straight into refining pills.

He went over the mass-production method he had previously employed with no issue. In fact, there was less burden on him as the flames stayed consistent as he desired.

The complicated parts came next.

Li Lang made full use of Ruby’s artifact space and began experimenting with different ways to heat the materials. His control wasn’t nearly at the molecular level yet. He could perhaps divide the flame into three different temperatures at most, at a size of around one centimeter in diameter.

Even with his new advantage, it didn’t instantly bring his mass-production method to parity with the traditional methods. He believed if given enough time, he could produce average-quality pills instead of subpar with this new ability. The traditional methods still reigned supreme in the quality department.

Even with the control of the flames, the traditional method could just utilize the material more effectively. As a tradeoff, the success rate was much lower. As his next trial involved refining a top-quality pill, his next step was naturally to explore the uses of his new flames in the traditional method.

These endeavors would occupy him for weeks.

A month after Tang Yulian’s breakthrough, Li Lang finally stepped into the alchemy trial once more.