Chapter 9: Breakthrough

'3 days? All I need is one!' Eric was filled with joy upon reading the Quest details, even more so after he saw the reward.

Pills were extremely useful for cultivators. They could increase the amount of Qi they have stored inside them, they could instantly heal them, they could increase the chances of breakthroughs and they could be used as poison; including even more purposes.

As versatile and useful as pills were, it wasn't that easy to obtain them. To create a successful pill, an alchemist requires materials such as herbs, beast cores and precious stones; a furnace with proper heat and distribution of flames; a certain level of skill and experience in creating pills; and even after that there wasn't a 100% chance of pills being made.

An Apprentice Qi Pill was a pill with a very high density of Qi which was extremely helpful for cultivators at the Spirit Apprentice Realm, as it would fill their dantian with qi.

In simple terms, it would act as a substitute for cultivation and directly start filling the dantian with Qi upon ingesting it. Depending on the quality of the pill, the effects can be slightly better or worse but the margin isn't that big.

Seeing that he had quite a lot more Qi Gathering herbs left, Eric immediately started cultivating again. The weariness he felt had completely left his body once he read the quest details; what instead filled his body now was greed, greed for the pill.

Once he had finished another round of cultivation, it was time for dinner.

At the dinner table, Eric was curious so he asked his dad a question that he had in his mind since long ago.

"Dad, why exactly is it that people only practice one or two paths of cultivation; and those who practice all three don't make it far."

Since he received the Communication Skills Menu, this thought had constantly been bothering him.

Blake was a bit surprised as to why his son asked this but he assumed it was for choosing which paths to cultivate and proceeded to answer.

"Most people don't have the required talent for cultivation all three paths and even if they have the talent, they may not have the willpower or resources for it. If someone cultivated all three paths, the stress and pressure is many times more than people who cultivate one and two paths.

At the earlier stages of cultivation it would not be that noticeable, but once you get to higher realms, this pressure exponentially increases and it would be near impossible to withstand. Similar to how the pressure on the cultivator is thrice, so are the amount of resources and effort required.

With all these variables collectively considered, it doesn't make sense for one person to cultivate all three paths."

Eric was not really surprised hearing this since he already knew this, so he proceeded with his next question.

"In the past, did people cultivate all three paths at the same time?"

He had a speculation that there was some sort of a lost method to cultivate the soul, body and mind simultaneously, but at this moment in time nobody has it. The way the Scam System described the three paths never really mentioned that they were to be cultivated exclusively.

After seeing how the three communication skills were all attributed to each of the three paths; and the method to increase them was to increase the respective type of cultivation, Eric was starting to believe that they are meant to be cultivated all together instead of only focusing on one or two.

This world was a game and in this game the Scam System's information was way more official than that of the people aka the NPCs; he naturally took a hunch from the system way more seriously than what the people said.

He felt like he had some sort of insider information from the developers' side while playing a video game; just that this time it was way more important and large scale than any other games he had played back on Earth.

Even though what he had was only a small hunch, it could become a big discovery later on, so Eric decided not talk about this anymore.

If he somehow ended up leaking the possibility that the three paths could be cultivated simultaneously, it would cause a big uproar in the entire cultivation world which he was not nearly strong enough to handle at the moment.

His dad looked at him for a while then tried to assure him.

"Don't worry. If you are not sure which path or paths to cultivate, you will know your talent once you reach the Spirit Apprentice Realm and insert your Qi into an Aptitude Crystal. Aptitude Crystals measure your talent and compatibility with a certain path and as soon as you breakthrough, I will buy them for you and you can then choose what to do from there."

Blake's reason for why Eric was asking him about this topic was completely off, but since he was trying to help his son, Eric didn't bother correcting him and thanked him instead.

'It would be better if nobody knew of this little project of mine, not even my parents.'

Eric thought to himself as he left for his room.

He had decided to slowly, but surely; uncover this mystery regarding the three types of cultivation. That, however, was a very long term plan which he couldn't really do anything about at the moment. Right now, the thing he had to focus on was getting to the Spirit Apprentice realm.

Later that night, Eric started to feel his dantian fill up. It was not quite there yet, but he could occasionally feel the Qi hit the boundary of his dantian. He was even closer to breaking through; and with the amount of Qi Gathering herbs left, he was sure to succeed the next day.

The next morning, after his physical exercise and long run, Eric came home almost exhausted and after relaxing in the bath for a bit, he quickly gobbled up his breakfast and then immediately got to cultivating. He was excited to break through to the Spirit Apprentice Realm and become a real cultivator; something he would have never expected he would be a week ago.

He took off his shirt and tossed it to the side of his bed. His body was not muscular yer, but he was starting to develop some muscles. His breathing was fast and uneven due to his excitement, so he decided to calm himself down. Eric checked his inventory and saw that he still had 15 Qi Gathering herbs left and took one out. He immediately ate the herb and got into the meditative posture with his hands close to the dantian.

He first steadied his breathing and calmed himself down. Once he was in a normal state once again, he started cultivating quietly. As minutes passed, Eric could feel the collisions of his Qi and the boundary of his dantian becoming more frequent.

After about half an hour, he felt as if he had reached the maximum capacity of Qi in his dantian. The collisions had stopped; instead the Qi fully occupied the entire space of his dantian and was constantly in contact with its edges.

'This is it! This is the moment I've been waiting for since yesterday night!' Eric was starting to get excited, but regained his composure in an instant.

While cultivating, especially when one is about to make a breakthrough, such distractions could be disastrous and even cause death. After coming to this world and actually having a clear purpose for once, death was definitely not an option for Eric.

He took a few deep breaths and forced Qi into his Dantian. For a moment, he felt as if his Dantian had exploded. However, right after that, he could feel his entire being permeate with energy. His dantian had expanded and the Qi in it had expanded throughout its whole area once again.

Eric opened his eyes and evaluated the changes he noticed. He was no longer fatigued or exhausted anymore and felt a new power inside him which he had never felt before. He felt full of energy… full of Qi.

His strength had drastically increased since before and so did his ability to sense Qi and his surroundings, his five senses, his body's condition, his fatigue and every aspect of his being had been healed and uplifted.

Unlike all his other body parts, his dantian was once again empty. It had expanded a lot after the breakthrough and he felt that he could absorb way more Qi this time without filling his dantian up, compared to before he broke through.

Eric jumped up from his bed, and got up. At last, he was a real cultivator.

Interrupting his moment of joy, a 'ding' notification from the Scam System rang through Eric's ears.