5 Chapter 5 - Qi Gathering Realm
The very next day Luan woke up early as he couldn't wait to reach the qi gathering realm.
Not surprisingly, Kai was awake before luan as he understood what was happening and he couldn't sleep. After all the birth of a qi realm cultivator was something he had never seen before in his life.
Luan slowly moved towards Kai and gave him 40 pills. He wanted Kai to reach the same realm as him. As he wouldn't be able to take Kai with him if he wasn't strong enough. Although Kai was startled, he accepted the pills quickly.
Training of a beast was somewhat similar to a human. The pills even worked for them the same way it did for humans. Although nobody would give a random beast pills to increase their cultivation unless it was their own. Even then, that was rare, the reason was that if the beast decided to go on a rampage, they could have a hard time stopping it.
Because of that, they don't have any pills for their growth and needed to reach the upper realms on their own after fighting with other beasts.
For Kai, before he met luan he never took too many risks and hunted weaker opponents. So his cultivation never grew significantly. But now, it was something he would do daily.
Now Kai could take down a beast in the same minor realm as him with ease if not one minor realm above.
As for Luan, he was able to take beast 2 minor realm above him, as he learned all of their patterns.
"Alright. Now that's out of the way, I'll start consuming the pills too"
As Luan said that, he went to the branch of a big tree to use the pills.
He sat in a crossed leg position and started meditating. After some minutes when he was calmed down, he ate a bone tempering pill.
The process of advancing forward in foundation establishment realm was easy. A person would have to eat a tempering pill of their corresponding minor realm and use it's energy to damage the body part and recover it.
At first, it would look similar to the breathing technique of the forgotten sect. But it was not, far from it.
The pill simultaneously gave a damaging effect and a healing effect in the body. When a body part is damaged, the consumer of the pill can use it's healing effect to heal the part quickly. Thus, using pills was a faster process than fighting and recovering with the body's natural healing.
'System start the process' Luan said calmly as the pill was now inside his stomach.
「Understood. Starting to absorb every bit of energy coming from the swallowed pill.」
For any person whether they are a immortal or a mortal, they couldn't absorb 100% benifits of any pill they consume. This happens because the body becomes resistant to it after a while and it becomes harder to use the full potential of the pills.
That was the case for everyone, except Luan as he had the system with him. But to get that effect, he would need a slightly higher time in absorbing.
The pill was starting to become hot inside his stomach. It wasn't that painful and Luan could feel the miraculous effects it had.
After a few hours, he finished the pill and ate another. He did this without stopping for two days straight and rested for 5 hours. And repeated the cycle.
•••
After 1 month...
*Breathing*
*Exhaling*
Ding
「The individual Luan has successfully reached the "Qi Gathering realm"」
「He can now call the helper whenever he wants」
「Additionally, the soul aging skill of the scythe has been unlocked. A fraction of its original power has been reached.」
「The limit on the scythe has been removed. It can now be evolved」
...
As system sent all of these message, Luan exhausted the pill in his stomach and opened his eyes. He had some more pills left but he wouldn't need then anymore. As for his appearance, his average body had become just a little bit muscular and his height was just a little taller for a 10 year old.
He looked at his surroundings to look for something, but what he say was completely different than he had expected. The beast had white fur just like Kai, but it was much bigger. It almost reached 6 feet.
"So your look completely changed huh? " Luan spoke as he looked at the beast.
"Growl!"
As soon as he saw luan, Kai let out a friendly growl. Luan got up from his seat, but he slipped.
"Whoa"
Although he didn't fall as he grabbed the branch quickly. He saw what was below him. It was oil and it spread all over where luan was sitting.
He expected his body to release the impurities but not to this extent. He was obviously a little surprised.
"Anyway I should do what I wanted all this time"
Luan spoke as he began looking down. He wanted to jump down just like he did when he met Kai. But with even more force. He wanted to see how much damage he could take.
Thud Sweep!
He forced himself down the branch and hit the ground. He didn't take any damage.
"Haha."
Luan wanted to get out of the forest as soon as possible. The sole reason was that he couldn't fight with the beast anymore as they were too weak for him.
He started sprinting forward as he noticed something.
'I feel light' Luan thought as the corners of his mouth slid upwards.
He was obviously happy with his progress.
After a few minutes, Luan sat on the ground and started collecting the surrounding qi inside his dantian. He needed qi to use the soul aging skill.
When Luan first collected the qi when he was in foundation establishment, it greatly damaged his body. But now, he felt as if he were drinking water. Watching him, Kai also decided to do the same.
With every breath, he felt like he got stronger. After some time when his dantian was full, he didn't waste any time and checked his fighting power.
"I need to do alot of things but first... "
He moved closer to a boulder that was 7 feet huge and smacked his fist onto it with every strength he could muster.
*Boom*
Crack!
A loud noise was made by the impact and all the birds in a 50 meter radius flew away terrified of it
Where once stood a boulder there were now only smaller pieces could be seen. If one didn't know there was a boulder there, they could be completely fooled that those smaller rocks were moved there by someone.
"God, so destructive" Luan spoke as a smile creeped out of his mouth. "I like it."
"System, show me our stats"
Name: Luan
Race: Human
Cultivation: Qi Gathering 1
Hp: 120
Agility: 105
Int: 100
Strength: 125
Name: Kai
Race: Wolf beast
Cultivation: Qi Gathering 1
Hp: 105
Agility: 110
Int: 50
Strength: 100
...
Luan went to the town again to ask the people where he could take a bath, because nobody likes staying dirty, especially luan.
Luan went to the old man who had always been a polite person and asked for directions.
"Oh, a lake? Go straight to the North for 5 kms and then you can see it"
"Yes, thank you" Luan bowed down and started going his way.
"Ah, wait a second! " The old man said at the sudden realization of something.
Luan stopped and looked at him again, not knowing why he called for him.
"Are you going to join the 10 flowers sect too? I just realized that you've gotten alot stronger than last time you came here"
Luan was listening closely as the old person spoke.
"What is this sect? " Luan said as he looked at him.
"Wait, you don't know? You're an interesting person" Old man continued, "That sect is the biggest sect in the world, with over 5 thousand disciples under them, with every person having immense talent and power."
"Oh? "
The person told him everything he knew about the sect and luan's interest only grew greater.
The sect helped students learn anything they want, from alchemy to runes to weapon crafting. It could help him reach new realms quickly if he decided to join. Most importantly, the sect was located in the higher kingdom. Under any normal circumstances, nobody from the lower kingdom could get into the higher kingdom as it was the rule made by their emperor. And the only way of getting into the kingdom was to join a sect or belong from a great family.
But what he didn't like was that it could potentially limit the things he could do. As he was a person of free will, he didn't like someone ordering him around at all.
Luan told the old man he would think about this and said it was the last time they would meet. The person told him the direction of the sect before saying goodbye.
'"I have 30 days for the admission so I should think before that"
When Luan was going to the lake, a sudden realisation hit him. he remembered the messages system spoke of while he was meditating.
When the system spoke those messages, Luan was in a deep concentration. Through he still heard them.
"My scythe unlocked the evolutionary factor? System tell me what's going on"
Ding
「After you reached the qi gathering realm, the limit on the scythe was removed, you can now increase its destructive power via Evolution」
"I see. Then how can I evolve it? "
「Feeding the weapon with as many souls as possible. Every soul will increase its strength little by little」
"What's the final grade of this weapon? " Luan asked as he was curious about the power it holds. The destructive power of a weapon was decided by its grade, the higher the grade, the better the weapon in absolute destruction.
「None」
When Luan heard those words, he was taken a back.
This could be a game changer for him in the future, as he will have to kill significant amount of beings, who were monsters and of course, humans. This meant that his scythe could become the absolute weapon in existence with enough souls.
...
When he arrived at the pool, he took a bath in the lake and cleaned the oil out of him.
The lake was small and forest covered the area so no one could see him.
After an hour, he got out of it and wore his new clothes.
"Now I feel much better" Said Luan as he made a satisfied face.
"I guess we should stay here for a few days and plan things out. We also need to get used to this realm too"
He looked at Kai who was resting in the shade and said, "Wanna spar? No killing and I'll use my weapon"
Kai looked at him and quickly got up into an attack pose.
He dashed towards Luan with his claws ready to attack.
"Come on now, don't take me off guard" Said luan as he dodged the attacks.
"Although your speed is incredible, I'm not too far behind"
Luan stepped back every time Kai's attack was about to reach him.
He used his scythe for this fight as he wanted to get some amount of proficiency on his weapon.
Swing
He swang the scythe on Kai's Leg indicating he wanted to cut it off.
Kai reacted barely in time to jumped a few meters away from it.
"Grr"
They were both warming up but it seems like now was the time to get serious!
Kai moved in zig zag motion to make confusion and got quite close to Luan.
!!!
When he got closer, Luan unleashed his secret skill.
Killing intent.
Whoosh
Kai was frozen in place, terrified of the catastrophe in front of him.
Using the opportunity, Luan stepped to his side and jumped above him.
He moved his scythe to his throat. It was the perfect angle that could behead Kai.
But when it it looked Kai could not dodge, he stopped immediately.
"You saw that skill? It was my killing intent. I acquired it in the forest fighting the beasts. " Said luan smiling at Kai.
"Sorry for scaring you" Luan said in a apologetic tone.
Killing intent is simply excluding intention of the user, and having it affect their opponent, and everyone around them, up to the point of paralysing them with fear.
It can be obtained by fighting opponents stronger than them or showing extreme emotions.
Although Kai didn't had killing intent, he was close to getting one for himself.
The duel was a quick one but it left taught Kai many things he was lacking.
...
After the spar, Kai went to bring in some food for the two, and Luan was alone.
"Now, should I call the helper? "
