Through The Nine Gates

As you might've inferred from the previous chapter, the gates are a power measurement system. They are ranked from gate one to gate nine. Each gate has nine small stages which give significant power after each small jump.

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Small Stages:

1- Foundation Consolidation

2- Energy Gathering I

3- Energy Gathering II

4- Energy Gathering III

5- Energy Compression

6- Energy Condensation I

7- Energy Condensation II

8- Energy Condensation III

9- Foundation Compression

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Small Stage Info:

Foundation Consolidation should be self explanatory. Stabilizing your foundation is important for gathering energy. You wouldn't want to make tea with a rusty kettle when you have a spotless one sitting just a little farther away from you.

Energy Gathering is also pretty self explanatory. Sing kumbaya and meditate. On a more serious note, yes, this is gathering energy, or Qi, from your surrounding environment. There's different Qi's but I'll explain those shortly.

After Energy Gathering III is Energy Compression. You solidify your energy into a blob in your core area. This will be explained more in Energy Condensation.

Energy Condensation is spreading your gathered energy throughout your body. Through your bone marrow, blood vessels, and heart, everywhere has to be nurtured with energy. To clarify, Energy Gathering is only the gathering of energy. It only affects your overall energy levels, for combat, and ability to compress a bigger energy blob. Stage one of Energy Condensation is blood. Your blood will become energized and you will feel livelier. Stage two is through the flesh. Your muscles will compact and tighten themselves making your body an impenetrable fortress. Stage three is bone tempering. Your skeleton becomes as dense as the core of a planet and you gain unimaginable strength and vitality.

For stage nine, Foundation Compression, all of your energy is stored in your core. It is in the center of your torso. All energy goes there. You essentially compress your foundation to break through into the next realm. The benefits, of course, are a higher energy capacity and the ability to further strengthen your body. Foundation Compression is extremely painful. You can only attempt it once or twice before dying. Utmost concentration is required before attempting the breakthrough into the next gate. If you fail, depending on the concentration of energy in your core, you can either die with a small bang, or take out a poor planet.

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Clarifications:

There are differences between gates. They depend on your abilities. For example, a gate level 2 compared to a gate level 3 have some differences. A level 2 won't be able to beat a level 3, in most cases, unless they have a more powerful ability that can jump entire gates.

I also suck at eastern names, so I apologize beforehand if there are any weird ones.

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HAHA! I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it!