Inside the cultivation room, Wu Guang was sitted down with his eyes closed. Qi was circulating slowly inside his body without using techniques. This was a sign that the 4th level was completed, his meridians were actually changing the absorbed qi and converting it into his own. Actually, the 4th level was the first possible wall that a cultivator had to overcome or stop cultivating, after all, not everyone could assimilate the Earth and Heaven's qi and make it their own.
The essence of breaking to the 5th level was to use the converted qi on his inner organs. Thus tempering and adapting them to qi, specifically granting them the ability to use qi for healing. This breakthrough was not considered hard to reach, but it was also one of the most painful ones. Normally, cultivators tried to do it organ by organ and taking a long pause between the sessions, so they could rest and prepare themselves for the pain.
Wu Guang did not intend to follow this route, he only considered the path of tempering them all at the same time. From a pure cultivation perspective, this was indeed quicker and would net a better result.
Also, he considered that as he was following complete cultivation set right from zero, parts of the body strengthening technique in place of controlling the process manually could be used. This would not only also get him better results overall, but also he would evade the danger that common cultivators faced if they lost control over the qi or faint because of the pain.
He first meditated for a while, then when he opened his eyes, they were full of determination. He slowly breathed and closing his eyes again activated the circulation technique. He willed the qi inside his system to start circulating quicker until it reached the ideal speed. When this was done, he willed the qi to converge near the liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. Slowly breathing and preparing his consciousness to resist the extreme pain he will suffer next, he willed the qi into the organs while internally reciting the relevant strengthening one's body part of the set. Moments later, he gritted his teeth resisting a pain even worse than the one he had imagined. With his mind free, he fully activated his consciousness to suppress the pain, and only then his quick breathing and pale face started returning to normal.
Several hours Wu Guang stood up after spitting several mouthfuls of black and foul-smelling blood. He scanned his body and was surprised to see that the unnamed body strengthening technique from the set managed to not only cover the internal organs with a qi barrier but also integrated them fully with their corresponding meridians. This was a sign that he reached the 5th level peak in one go.
Seeing this, in his mind, he started weighing the option of stopping there or continuing after recovering his qi. In the end, he decided for the latter, his thoughts being along the lines "I have to reach the 6th level peak before the entrance tests. But when we leave the tower, only heavens know where I would be able to find a cultivation room of this level, or if nothing will keep me from cultivating. Plus if I reach the level before, I will be able to use the time to learn more about the plane. I can't forget that my main goal, for now, is discovering where is the astral gate"
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When he reached this decision, ignoring that it was time for dinner and that he was already inside the room for several hours, he slowly sat down and gathered qi. Then he circulated it several times until it fully integrated with the qi that could be called his personal one.
The 6th level was actually almost the same as the 5th, with the difference that this time the bones of the body would be purified and strengthened. This was the last level of the intermediate Body realm, and by completing it, a cultivator had created his initial foundations.
Wu Guang followed the same system as the last time, using the respective part of the unnamed body strengthening technique. He was prepared for the pain beforehand, so it took him only a brief moment to suppress it when it appeared. The process of reaching the 6th level was completed just by the start of the purification, but the peak, which was the completion of the process for all the bones in the body took Wu Guang almost twenty hours.
One would think that when he finished he should be exhausted, but it was actually the contrary. He did not feel any physical tiredness, although his consciousness was weakened seriously by the constant usage. Normally, one would replenish it by resting or by using some special techniques or resources, but for Wu Guang, both were impossible as his consciousness was too strong for his current cultivation and not really a part of his current body. So reaching the peak of the 6th level, he could not continue even if he wanted, he had to let his consciousness slowly recover naturally for several days. Also, he had taken into account that the 7th level was the tempering of the muscles, and he would need several medicines and a martial technique for it.
When he exited the cultivation room, grabbing his change of clothes he descended to the bath.
The pool was demolished and the entrance of the tunnel was sealed with an iron trap door. There were no guards, but several glowing talismans on the door were seen, seemingly to act as a reinforcement to it and an alarm if someone tried to breakthrough. Until the remodeling of the room, it would continue to be used as a bath, but now without the luxury pool.
He quickly washed with cold water from one of the barrels, and after dressing up went to grab something to eat from the kitchen. Chef Ji provided him with almost a full meal after a brief moment, and only asked why he didn't come to eat the day before.
He responded with the truth, and after Chef Ji heard the word cultivation, she only nodded and added some more meat to his plate.
After eating, he was thinking about what to do for the rest of the time in the city while sitting and reading a book about the surrounding region. Old Rui came about the time he was finishing the book and passed him a small letter.
The letter was from Zhi Kang, the head administrator of the city and his distant relative.
It was short and only invited him to dinner into a restaurant near the Lord's Manor called the 'Golden Boar'. The time was nearing, so Wu Guang spent some moments thinking about it. In the end, he decided to go. And so after telling Ji Yong of his destination, left the tower.