19. Breaking the Limit

Kai went to the secret realm and found a place for meditation. He sat down and started absorbing the Qi in the air. His speed was very slow since he was still not able to use the willpower to absorb the Qi.

But in this realm, all he had to do was gather or absorb. So, Kai can make up the talent gap by hard working. He also had an eternal breathing ability that let him cultivate all the time, so he should be able to reach the peak in one or two months.

After that, Kai had a very boring schedule ahead of him. It is a day full of meditation, and other than some necessary things, he basically sat in the same position for almost one month, and now he has reached the peak of this realm.

Now his Dantian looks good; before absorbing the Qi, it was like an empty desert with nothing; but now it looks like an ocean full of vitality.

'It was time for me to break through the limit of this realm,' thought Kai. He already had a chance to break the limit, but he did not do that and waited until he reached the peak.

Everybody has a single chance to break the limit of Dantian in this realm. A person can even try to break the limit a second or third time, but the stability of Dantian will decrease, and the chances of breaking through to the higher realm will also decrease. So, no one will do such a stupid thing.

Now Kai is gathering all the Qi in his Dantian to break the limit. 

"Let's do it. It is now or never." Kai cheered himself and controlled the Qi to hit the barrier. It was an invisible barrier that existed at the edge of Dantian, and he was trying to break it.

Kai used his control over Qi to gather them in a single place and form something like a sphere; then, using that, he hit the boundary of Dantian. The limit did not break, but he continued hitting until it broke.

After the ninth hit, the barrier broke, and the space inside the Dantian also expanded. It expanded until it reached a hundred and eleven meters.

"I think I have become a lot stronger now." Kai felt the changes in his body; it was like a heavy burden lifted from him. The control over his Qi also increased a lot; it is very smooth compared to before breaking the limit. 

Even though Kai can control his Qi very well, it always feels like forcing the Qi; but now, the feeling has disappeared and it feels very natural for him, just like using his hands. His physical strength also increased a lot because of it.

Now, Kai is ready to break through the Qi Sea realm. The Qi Sea realm cannot be said to be an actual realm; it was more like a state. Kai only needed to transform the gaseous Qi into liquid Qi. This process is very easy as long as one has good control over their Qi.

Kai already had good control over his Qi, but after breaking the limit, his control over them also increased.

'Maybe I can reach the peak in one week.' Kai thought, happily.

Then Kai started compressing his Qi at a single point, and after that, he compressed the Qi again and again until it became a single drop. After recovering the used energy, he repeated the process and had another drop of Qi.

The entire Dantian space needs to be filled with the Qi Sea to reach its peak and to break through the foundational establishment realm. The process of compressing and converting is easy, but the recovery of Qi takes a lot of time.

Here, talent plays a very important role. A person with stronger talent will recover faster than others because it is related to the absorption of Qi, and they will have a natural advantage.

But Kai had [Eternal Breathing] talent, his body would automatically replenish the depleted Qi. Also, even during the compression process, the Qi in his body will replenish, as he was breathing the whole time.

As Kai had expected, he reached the peak of the Qi Sea realm in just a week. It was a very easy realm for him, who had high control over his Qi.

The next step is to break through the foundation establishment realm, but Kai needs to adjust the condition to peak before breaking through.

After relaxing for two days, it was time for Kai to break through. The foundation establishment is divided into nine layers, and it is also the most important realm in cultivation.

The layer of division is based on the number of times of refining the Qi. If a cultivator refines his Qi sea three times, then he is in the third layer; if he refines it four times, he is in the fourth layer. A person can also advance to the next realm after a single layer, but only a fool would do such a thing.

The number of layers will play a crucial role in awakening talent in the supernatural realm. The higher the number of layers, the stronger the awakened talent. But it is only one of the factors that determine the strength of awakened talent; the other factor is the purity of Qi. 

For this reason, Kai only cultivated inside the secret realm. Since their secret realm is one of the oldest secret realms, the Qi found here is extremely pure, and through refining, he can further eliminate the impurities and make it even purer. This is also the reason he did not use any medicines for the development of the body at an early stage.

As a biology student from his previous life, he knew there was no perfect medicine in the world. There is nothing perfect, not even the Emperor. There may be higher-level cultivation, but he did not know about it. So, he did not even use medicine for his recovery and let his body recover the energy on its own.

The first three layers are called mortal foundations, and the next three layers are called divine foundations. The seventh layer is called the saint foundation, the eighth layer is called the supreme foundation, and the final ninth layer is called the heavenly foundation. 

His goal is to surpass the limit and set a transcendent foundation. Then Kai started refining the entire 111-meter Qi Sea.

He won't be able to use any shortcuts in this realm to cultivate faster, but he wants to stay in the foundation establishment realm for a long time since it helps him achieve a stronger foundation.

The first three layers took him three months to achieve, and the next layers will take a longer time. That was only because he had Eternal Breathing talent; if he did not have that talent, it might take a longer time.

The refining of the next three layers took him six months. The time directly doubled, and the difficulty of refining also became a little harder. Now Kai has a divine foundation, and it was time for him to break it into a saint foundation.

After nearly one and a half months, he finally achieved the Saint Foundation. It was not that hard because of his strong soul, and he is very confident in achieving a heavenly foundation since all aspects have reached their peak in every realm. 

The only thing that concerns him is breaking the limit.

"Can I make my Qi 100 % pure ?" It was the question that has bugged Kai ever since he started cultivating in this realm. For the saint foundation, his purity should be around 76 % and every layer increases the purity by 10 percent, so in the heavenly foundation, his purity should be 96 %. So Kai needs to break the limit for the remaining four percent.

Then Kai started refining his foundation again, and this time it took him 2 months to complete. The purity increased to 86 % in the supreme foundation, and it still does not place a burden on his body.

The heavenly foundation took him 3 months to complete, and this realm was not as easy as he thought. But his purity of Qi reached 96 %.

Now he needs to increase the purity of Qi by further refining it. Then Kai tried refining the Qi again to reach the 10th layer.

But he encountered a bottleneck and felt like facing the same wall as the previous barrier. Kai kept hitting it without success for a long time, and after six full months, he finally reached the 10th layer.

But before he could enjoy the happiness of breaking the limit, he got some surprise news from the heavenly dao. 

The name of the 10th layer is called Heaven-Defying Foundation, and the purity of Qi is 97%. The reason this layer is called heaven-defying is because the existence of this realm defies the rules of heaven. A cultivator who has a heaven-defying foundation can defy the heavens when they become a powerhouse. So the heavens will assign a trial for them to prove their worthiness in this realm, and the trial will be anything, and it can even start anytime.

But that is not the only news Kai got from the Heavenly Dao, there is an 11th layer, and it is called the Taboo Foundation. The purity of Qi is 98 percent. The trial for this layer is even harder than before.

Then the final 12th layer is called the perfect foundation, and the purity of Qi is 99 percent. This will be the hardest trial, and there may be a chance that the cultivator needs to face heaven themselves.