The Second Stage

Looking at the prompt he had received from the system, Bell could not help but recall the information he had received from the Crimson Soul Manual before, wanting to make sure that he knew the steps to breaking through to a higher stage very well. Fortunately, the Crimson Soul Manual explained the breakthrough process for cultivators at the Qi Sensing Realm very well.

According to what the Crimson Soul Manual told him, to break through to the next stage of the Qi Sensing Realm, Bell would have to rearrange the qi wisps he had already formed to circle around the next qi wisp he was going to form, basically forming a wheel of qi wisps rotating another qi wisp. Once he reached the maximum amount of qi wisps for someone at the 2nd Stage of the Qi Sensing Realm, which was 20, he would then have two circles, with each circle having 10 qi wisps each.

Seeing as how the breakthrough process was simple, and how the system didn't seem like it would give Bell the option to not proceed any further in the path of cultivation, he decided to just go on with it, making sure to fill both his qi wisps, as well as his body with qi.

Unlike before, where the maximum capacity for his Qi stat would increase by 100 points for every qi wisp he forms, it now increased by 200 points, which meant that he now had to amass 1200 points of qi to form the 11th qi wisp. Nevertheless, Bell wasn't discouraged to amass qi, savoring the feeling of cultivation each and every second he could do so.

With the power of [Strengthened Qi Root] and his Crimson Soul Manual, it took him around two and a half hours to fill up both his Qi stat and his True Qi stat to their maximum limits. With that, he now felt like he had to put all of this energy towards something or else he would explode. And so…he did.

Whoosh!

Just like before when he was condensing qi wisps, he allowed all of the qi he had accumulated to condense at a more open spot inside his body. Though, unlike before, the qi wisps he had already formed soon circled around the qi wisp that was about to form, with Bell making sure to control the rotation of these qi wisps with his thoughts.

Naturally, having to do two things at once was quite hard for Bell, who couldn't even do tasks properly in his previous life. Nevertheless, he figuratively gritted his teeth and endured the strain multitasking brought to his brain, making sure that the formation of the 11th wisp, as well as the circling of the previous 10 qi wisps would go well.

Thankfully, after what seemed to be 5 minutes of excruciating mental pain for Bell, the 11th qi wisp was finally formed as a gush of qi from the surroundings soon entered Bell's body, slightly enhancing the purity of his qi, as well as enhancing the efficacy of his qi.

Ding!

At the very moment he finished his breakthrough to the 2nd Stage of the Qi Sensing Realm, the system sent out a few notifications, notifications that Bell instantly opened once he had the mental leeway to do so.

Soon, a small holographic screen appeared in front of his field of vision, filled to the brim with small text that Bell assiduously read. Once he was finished reading all of the notifications, he could not help but let out a light chuckle as he inwardly muttered, 'Although I previously hated the fact that words I uttered from before had come true, I'm very glad this one did.'

[You have broken through to the 2nd Stage of the Qi Sensing Realm!]

[Your constitution multiplier has now increased to 1.2x.]

[You have unlocked the ability to upgrade your Qi Root.]

As he closed the small screen that contained his notifications, he soon commanded the system to bring up the prompt that allowed him to upgrade his Qi Root. Unsurprisingly, it did not take long for another small screen to appear in front of his field of vision. Though, unlike the previous ones, this screen did not contain much text on it. Nevertheless, Bell could not help but let out a sigh of relief as he looked at the amount of Impure Blood Energy he needed to upgrade it.

________

[Qi Root]

Grade: Two-Branch (Mortal)

Rate of Absorption: 2 qi/min.

Upgrade Cost: 300 Impure Blood Energy

________

"And I thought I would need another 500 Impure Blood Energy to upgrade the Qi Root," Bell muttered to himself, double checking the amount he currently had with the system in the process. "Then again, I'm quite curious as to how this price would scale up as I continue to upgrade my Qi Root."

Seeing as how he still had 400 points or so of Impure Blood Energy left unused, Bell unhesitatingly commanded the system to allocate 300 points towards upgrading his Qi Root to the next grade.

Whoosh!

Without any warning whatsoever, a large amount of qi in the surroundings soon condensed around him once more, though not at the same level as when he had just unlocked cultivation for the first time. Nevertheless, the amount of qi that had condensed around him this time slightly surprised Sixth Void, who was still silently absorbing energy all this time.

'Is he making a breakthrough?' Sixth Void thought to himself as he had missed the moment when Bell was making his breakthrough to the next stage of the Qi Sensing Realm. Although he was slightly surprised that Bell was breaking to the next stage of the first realm the very next day he had just started cultivating, recalling how he had a cultivation technique and a few other special secrets thanks to his bloodline, it was not so much of a shock.

As for Bell, the qi that condensed around him soon entered through the dot on his forehead, hastily making its way to the Qi Root that was near his brain. Unexpectedly, the qi soon gushed into the Qi Root like a raging torrent, making Bell yell out in pain.

Seeing as to how Bell was screaming out in pain as qi entered his body, Sixth Void tilted his head slightly as he muttered, "I guess his cultivation technique sacrifices pain for more power with each passing stage."

Of course, that was entirely untrue.

While Bell was enduring the pain he felt from the massive influx of qi, he focused his attention towards his Qi Root, which had another small branch gradually growing on an unoccupied part of the Qi Root. Fortunately, this pain only lasted for a couple more minutes before finally disappearing. His Two-Branch Mortal Qi Root had now been upgraded to a Three-Branch Mortal Qi Root.

Taking in a few deep breaths as he allowed the pain to subside, Bell eventually checked the prompt that allowed him to upgrade his Qi Root once more by the time the pain was already gone. Noticing that the price to upgrade the Qi Root by another grade had increased to 600 Impure Blood Energy, Bell could not help but think that the price would double every grade he upgraded his Qi Root.

Although he wouldn't have minded calculating how much Impure Blood Energy it would cost him to upgrade his Qi Root to the highest it could go in the world he was in, he was still experiencing a bit of phantom pain. Nevertheless, he knew very well that it would cost a lot of Impure Blood Energy.

Ironically, with his Qi Root now one grade higher than before, he did not hesitate to calculate the amount of qi he could absorb every minute, eventually finding out that his current absorption speed was equivalent to those who had Thirteen-Branch or Fourteen-Branch Immortal Qi Roots without any cultivation techniques. That was only one grade lower than the highest grade of Qi Root Sixth Void had ever witnessed in his life.

With his breakthrough to the next stage and the next grade of Qi Root now done, Bell went ahead and closed his sense of vision once more as he continued to absorb qi to form more qi wisps. Although his Qi Root was only upgraded to the third lowest grade there was, his absorption speed had increased by 50%, allowing him to not feel the strain of having to absorb more qi for each qi wisp compared to before.

Unsurprisingly, while Bell was engrossed in absorbing qi to form more qi wisps, Sixth Void opened his eyes to check on Bell's progress in his cultivation, only to be left speechless as he quickly found out that Bell's absorption speed had drastically increased from before. Before, he thought that Bell was getting close to upgrading his Qi Root to the Five-Branch grade. But out of nowhere, it had skipped that grade entirely and was already closing in on the Seven-Branch grade!

"I'm really curious as to how Bell is doing that," Sixth Void muttered as his greed appeared in his gaze once more. Fortunately, he reined his greed once more, remembering what he had told himself sometime before.

And so, silence soon enveloped the two once more as the two were engrossed in what they were doing. Well, to be more exact, Sixth Void was just blanking out as he passively absorbed energy. Bell was the only one engrossed since this was his first time actually cultivating.

Nevertheless, time still passed as a whole day had gone by before Bell stopped absorbing qi once more. At this point, Bell could not help but think that he had already spent about half of his life in this world absorbing qi. He had only been in this world for about four days in total, after all.

In any case, seeing the two circles of qi wisps slowly rotating over time inside his body, Bell could not help but feel a sense of contentment and achievement as he had obtained a notification from the system that he had met the necessary prerequisites to break through to the 3rd Stage of the Qi Sensing Realm.

Though he did not mind doing so to continue cultivating, he noticed that the amount of qi needed for him to form an additional qi wisp had increased once again, jumping from 200 points to 400 points! Now, he had to accumulate 3400 points of qi before he would be able to form his 21st qi wisp. With this in mind, he could not help but wonder as to how much qi he would have to accumulate before he could form his 31st, 61st, or even his 81st qi wisp.

'So that's why cultivation takes a long time in those web novels I've read,' Bell muttered inwardly as he finally felt a sense of mutual understanding with the mundane cultivators in those novels he had read. Though, unlike those mundane cultivators, he felt a sense of excitement as he felt his strength gradually increasing. Then again, it might just be because he had a way to visualize his progress.

Nevertheless, he felt like he had to try the other path of cultivation that he could trek, external cultivation. Opening his eyes, he looked at Sixth Void and asked, "Sixth Void, how do I start cultivating my body?"

"Hmm…it depends on the cultivation technique, really," Sixth Void replied after pondering in silence for a bit. "Some external cultivation techniques allow you to refine your body with the qi inside your body, while some need you to use external forces to refine your body. Although both types have their pros and cons, they more or less give you the same results."

"So, what you're telling me is that I should check my cultivation technique?" Bell asked in response, to which Sixth Void nodded in affirmation.

"Alright then." Seeing as how the answer was straightforward, Bell closed his eyes once more as he commanded the system to give him information regarding the Crimson Body Manual, the external counterpart of the Crimson Soul Manual he had been cultivating before.

Whoosh!

As he processed and organized the information he had received, he soon found out that the Crimson Body Manual, just like the Crimson Soul Manual, had certain requirements that he would need to meet if he wanted to ascend to a higher realm. Fortunately, the requirements were the same as the Crimson Soul Manual.

Regarding the process of cultivating his body, it seemed that the Crimson Soul Manual complemented the Crimson Body Manual, prompting Bell to utilize the qi wisps he had already formed to hammer his body from the inside, forging it into what the Crimson Body Manual called a Crimson Vessel.

Although he did not know what that meant, he soon found out that the requirement to breaking through to the realms of external cultivation had something to do with the compactness of his cells. If his cells were compact enough for a qi wisp to hit it and have it resound one thump, then that meant he was at the 1st Stage of the Body Forging Realm, the first realm in external cultivation. Of course, that meant two thumps for the 2nd Stage, three thumps for the 3rd Stage, and so on.

And thus, wanting to know how cultivating his body felt, Bell went ahead and did what was instructed in the Crimson Body Manual, utilizing the qi wisps he had formed to hammer his body from the inside.