Advancing To The Qi Gathering Realm

A pair of eyes slowly opened; that was the only thing Alex saw before his consciousness faded away.

....

Alex slowly opened his eyes, unaware of his surroundings. After a few moments of recalling the prior events, Alex quickly came to his wits and tried to stand up as fast as possible.

"Gah!" Alex cried out in pain. His bones felt as if they were shattered, and his muscles felt as if they were on fire.

"How long was I out for?"

Realizing he could barely move, Alex carefully spent the next few minutes struggling to sit up. After managing to get into a seated position, Alex breathed out heavily and turned his head to the side.

Ten yards in front of him was the Night Tiger, its head separated from the rest of its body. Alex stared at the tiger for a long time, his thoughts reliving the battle he had with the tiger over and over.

"I got extremely lucky this time," thought Alex as he continued to think about the battle.

"Had I not had that surge of energy, I would have had no choice but to flee. And if the tiger hadn't underestimated me at the final moment, at best my attack would have gravely injured it but not killed it."

Alex kept thinking about the battle, about where he could have improved and where he faltered.

"After realizing the energy surge within me was leaving my body, I got distracted and almost died from the tiger attack. I suppose getting distracted in battle, no matter the reason, is a sure way to die. I still have much to learn," thought Alex as a smile slowly crept on his face.

Although he had almost died, Alex was able to kill a Qi Gathering level beast while at the Body Refinement realm. As far as Alex was aware, this feat was unheard of.

"Not only did I manage to kill the tiger, but I also learned yet another valuable lesson regarding battle. This journey was definitely the right decision," thought Alex.

"Just what is that energy though? I felt it when I almost died to the Dark Panther, and I felt it again during this fight. I've never heard of anything like this happening to any of the other clan members."

Every time his life was on the line, Alex felt a surge of energy overcome him, granting him with power beyond his current level. Alex continued to try to think of what the energy was but was unable to come to a definite conclusion.

When he returned home that day, he asked the system about that energy, only to be met with silence. The system told him that he would know when the time was right.

Alex took a Wound Healing Pill out of his storage ring and popped one into his mouth. He spent a full day focusing on healing his body before he fell asleep. Waking up the next morning, Alex once again popped another healing pill into his mouth and focused on recovering.

After another half-day of healing, Alex was finally able to stand up. Alex walked over to the Night Tiger, admiring his foe before storing it in his storage ring, at which point he walked over to the Qi Essence Sunflower and sat in front of it.

Breathing in and out deeply, Alex could feel a stronger resonance with the surrounding Qi than he had ever felt before.

"Amazing!" Alex exclaimed.

[You can definitely reach the Qi Gathering Realm with that.] The system abruptly spoke in his head.

"That's what I'm hoping for," Alex responded.

He focused on drawing the surrounding Qi into his body. This process was at least several times faster than before. Not only that, the quality of Qi being drawn into his body was higher than before.

[+50]

[+50]

[+50]

Alex slowly slipped into a meditative trance as he focused on cultivating.

Ten days passed by before...

"Boom!"

A slight, muffled boom emanated from within Alex's body. Alex slowly opened his eyes, with a look of pure delight on his face.

[The host has reached the Qi Gathering Realm.]

"Qi Gathering!" exclaimed Alex in pure excitement.

"Hahaha, I'm finally a Qi Gathering realm cultivator!" Alex couldn't stop screaming out in joy. He had finally stepped into the true realm of cultivators. While Body Refinement was considered a realm, one was only considered a true cultivator once one could control Qi.

Just as Alex was about to get up, he felt a surge of energy wash over him. This energy was unlike anything he had felt before. Alex felt as if the energy was from the heavens themselves; a destructive energy that could not be defied or profaned.

The energy eventually coalesced in his newly created dantian, at which point it started to condense.

"Gah!"

Alex let out a muffled grunt. He felt as if his dantian was splitting in half. Just as he thought he would pass out from the pain, the pain vanished, and the energy left him as if it were never there.

After a few seconds of being perplexed by what had just occurred, Alex began to feel something inside his dantian.

So he closed his eyes and focused on the region inside his dantian. Now that he was a Qi Gathering cultivator, he could see the inside of his dantian using the Qi he could control.

"Wh-what is that?" Alex's shocked voice sounded in the cave.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing; inside his dantian was a gleaming object that Alex had previously seen. It was the same object that the man had given him.

"What is it doing here? Wait!! This energy, I felt it before; don't tell me that the sudden energy that helped me came from that object."

Alex quickly sent his conscience inwards towards his dantian where the shiny object was located, at which point he found himself in a wide open void. The void was pure white in every direction, and in the very center of the void floated a small figure. The figure looked just like Alex, only it was ethereal and white.

"Is that me?" Alex looked inside with a confused look.

Inside the void was another miniature figure of himself, except this one, who was sitting cross-legged with closed eyes.

After a few seconds of confusion at what he was seeing, Alex thought back to what his father, Lucas, had told him.

"Is that my Nascent Soul!?" Alex exclaimed.

"But father said that when I break through to Core Formation, the heavens will naturally form my nascent soul. Then how did it form?"

Alex couldn't find the answer to his question, unable to understand how his nascent soul was formed without reaching the Core Formation Realm.

All living creatures had souls, but only upon getting approval from the heavens would the soul turn into something corporeal and real. As cultivators grew stronger, so would their souls. The soul was used for many things. Improving soul power would lead to increased comprehension speeds, stronger soul attacks, and farther divine sense ranges, and only those in the Core Formation who had passed heaven's approval could unlock their nascent soul.

"Does that mean I could use my soul?" Alex exclaimed excitedly.

Thinking of his new-found soul powers, Alex tried out his divine sense as naturally as if he was extending his own arm. Within ten yards in every direction, Alex could "see" every detail through his divine sense. From the smallest ant crawling on the ground to the Qi Essence Sunflower, Alex was aware of everything in a ten-yard radius around him.

"Amazing!" exclaimed Alex. He had never thought that divine sense would be so useful.

Standing up in excitement, Alex threw out a punch. The air rippled outward from the force of the punch.

"My attacks are at least several times stronger than before. If I had fought the Night Tiger like this from the start, I would have been completely fine," thought Alex as he continued to throw out attacks.

After throwing out dozens of punches and kicks, Alex took out his katana.

"Swish!"

Alex swung the sword around freely as if it weighed nothing. After executing a few sword moves, Alex put away the katana and took a deep breath.

"Wow, the power I can unleash with this weapon is unreal. It's at least twice as strong as the attacks when I was in the Body Refinement Realm," thought Alex as he put away the katana.

For some reason, swinging his sword made him feel content as if it were a natural extension of himself.

Alex sat back down and digested everything that had just happened.

"All the struggling so far has been worth it," said Alex with an excited expression.

"Growl!"

A growl escaped from Alex's stomach as he realized he was starving.

"Man, I'm hungry. Who knows how many days I was out for, and then on top of that, I didn't eat at all while cultivating. I'm completely famished."

Alex took out a piece of cooked meat from his storage ring and bit off a large chunk. After eating for several minutes, Alex pulled out another piece of meat and devoured that as well. Only after eating enough for an entire family did Alex stop eating with a satisfied look on his face.

After that, he looked at his status with a hint of surprise as he realized that there was a new panel added to his status screen.

[Name: Alex Dracon]

[Cultivation Level: Qi Gathering Realm Stage 1]

[Stage 2:0/1000]

[Element: Destruction]

[Bloodline: ???]

[Physique: temporarily sealed]

[Soul: Non-Dimensional]

[Techniques: (1) Non-Dimensional God Refining Technique | (1) Sword Slash | (1) Ending Fist | (1) Force Dodge]

Looking at his status screen, Alex's gaze landed on a new panel, 'Soul'.

To Be Continued...