Chapter 5: Spirit Manipulation

Chapter 5: Spirit Manipulation

It had been 7 days since the System had been completely integrated with Shawn, meaning he had been cultivating for a week now. In this time, Shawn's life had been uneventful. He woke up, had breakfast, cultivated for a few hours, had lunch, played video games till dinner, had dinner, then cultivated for a few hours again before going to bed. According to the System, he would've needed 10 days to reach the 9th level of Body Tempering Realm if he cultivated for 6 hours every day. However, Shawn didn't want to take any risks. So, to be safe he cultivated 8 hours per day. At his current pace, he should be able to reach Revolving Core Realm within 3 to 5 months if everything goes well. On this seemingly uneventful day, as Shawn was immersed in cultivation, the System's monochrome voice rang out in his head,

[Spirit Qi +1

Spirit Qi +1

Spirit Qi +1

.........

Spirit Qi +1

Total Spirit Qi: 50,000/50,000

Ding!

You have met the requirements to

break through, Host. You can now breakthrough to the 9th level of Body

Tempering Realm.]

As soon as he felt his Dantian become full of spirit qi, Shawn pushed through. After a while, he finally broke through to the last level of Body Tempering Realm.

"Hah. It took some time, but I made it. Now I can finally start refining Cosmic Qi and get one step closer to Zestria. It is only a matter of time before the great Shawn begins his journey in a world of legends and fantasies! Hahhhahha." Shawn couldn't help but laugh at the thought of stepping into Zestria as he felt the refreshing feeling of being bathed in spirit qi, indicating his successful breakthrough. Unfortunately, it seems the System didn't quite agree with his declaration,

[Negative, Host. You first have to reach the peak of Level 9 Body Tempering Realm before you can start reading Cosmic Qi. That alone would take a few days. That is not considering how long refining each Celestial Meridian would take.]

Reminded of the treacherous path ahead of him, Shawn finally calmed down and sulked,

"You didn't have to ruin my mood, you know? You cold-hearted machine. I knew cultivation would be boring but not THIS boring.*Sigh*..."

Shawn sighed at the tedious days ahead of him. "By the way, is it just me or am I absorbing qi, faster than usual?"

[Negative, Host. It is not your imagination. By cultivating the Cosmic Qi Refining Scripture, you are consistently increasing your affinity towards spiritual energy. Thus increasing your absorption rate. Initially, you could absorb about 25 wisps of spiritual qi every minute. Now, you can absorb about 40 wisps, every minute.]

"Oh... That makes sense. I'll probably reach the peak in 5 days or so at my current pace. Now then, it's been a while since I checked my status, 'System Interface!'. Since Shawn found the phrase 'System Interface' to be too long and boring, he decided to name it 'Status'. The most Cliché name for a profile there ever was.

[**System Interface**

Cultivation Level: Body Tempering: Level-1

Spiritual Qi: 0/100,000

Qi Refinement Rate: 40 wisps per minute

Constitution:Transcendent Human Physique (Heaven-Rank)

**Techniques:**

1. Celestial Breath-Breath-Cosmic Qi Refining Scripture:Initial Mastery

**Quests:**

1. Revolving Core Realm(Click to see

details. ]

Shawn needed 100,000 wisps of Qi to reach the peak of Body Tempering Realm. After that, he would have to condense 36 Celestial Meridians before he could step into the Foundation Establishment Realm. The System also decided to add a new feature,

'Qi Refinement Rate'.

"Hey, System." Suddenly, Shawn called out.

[Yes, Host. How may I help you?]

"Can we do something else? Cultivation has become too tedious. I know I have a deadline, but taking a small break shouldn't affect my pace too much, right?" Shawn had become tired of just sitting and doing nothing for the past 7 days. Though, it is not surprising considering he's a hot-blooded young man. I

Rather, it would be weird if he could cultivate day and night without any problems.

[Certainly, Host. However, rather than doing nothing, I believe the best use of your time would be to learn some battle skills beforehand.] The System could understand Shawn's plight and so, offered him a way out.

"Sweeeet~! Now you're talking. So, what are you going to teach me? Infernal Firestorm Spell? Great Flood Technique? Thunder Dragon Fist? Hurry, I am too excited to wait." Even though Shawn had been cultivating for a week, he had yet to learn any spells, skills or martial techniques. So it wasn't surprising that he would be so excited. However, it seems that our young hero wasn't quite ready to learn such powerful techniques.

[Apologies, Host. But you lack the basics to cast even a basic Fireball, let alone Infernal Firestorm.]

"What!? Oh, come on! I can't even learn Fireballs and Water Bullets. Tch. Fine, what are these 'basics' you're talking about?"

[The key to casting any spell or martial technique lies in one basic skill. That is Spirit Qi Manipulation or Spirit Manipulation. It is the skill of freely controlling the Spiritual Qi both inside and outside your body. After learning Spirit Manipulation, one can also master other primary abilities such as Spirit Infusion, Spirit Amplification, Spirit Arrow, Spirit Shield etc. All these are related to the manipulation of Spirit Qi. Therefore, to learn any skill or technique, Host must first be able to freely manipulate your spirit. Then, you must learn all the basic skills stated above before you start casting attributed spells.]

"Hah... That will take ages~ But I suppose you must be patient if you want to climb the stairs of Immortality. Let's get started, System. I'm gonna ace Spirit Manipulation in a day." Even though Shawn was bummed out, he didn't lose heart. Just because he couldn't summon a thunder dragon now didn't mean he couldn't do so in the future.

[As you command, Host. But before we start, you must know that there are 2 kinds of Spirit Manipulation: Internal Manipulation and External Manipulation. For now, we will only focus on the former, as you need to reach the Revolving Core Realm before you can control Spirit Qi outside the body.]

"Umm... So basically, to cast powerful spells I need to learn the basic spells, for which I need to master the basic manipulation, but I can only practise one aspect of the basic skill because to master the basic skill, I need to be at the Revolving Core Realm, but by then I'll already enter Zestria. So I cannot properly master Spirit Manipulation before stepping into Zestria. Did I get all that?"

[Affirmative, Host. That is the gust of it]

"Well then, let's get started. What do I need to do?"

[First, you need to concentrate and feel the Spiritual Qi in your body. Then you should try to move it around your body and continue doing so until you get the hang of it.]

"Well, that sounds easy. Almost too easy. How difficult can it be to move Qi that I already refined?" Shawn confidently initiated the process of moving Qi within his body. However, before he could relish in the anticipated success, the room echoed with the loud sound of cloth tearing.

"Ahhh! My arm! Help, System. My arm feels like it's gonna rip off!" As Shawn yelled in pain about his arm, the System replied in the same indifferent voice,

[Relax, Host. It seems you have underestimated the force generated by the movement of pure Qi. Stop controlling the Qi and rest. With your current vitality, the tear in your muscles should heal in a few hours. After that, I will guide the energy through your body and demonstrate the proper way of Spirit Manipulation.]

Hearing that, Shawn ceased all movement and just stood straight. After some time, he could feel the bleeding stop and the wound closing. He decided to sleep for a while to speed up the healing process. Shawn lucked out that there was no one around to hear him scream. His dad was at work, while his mom went out to buy groceries.

6 hours later....

"Woah! That torn muscle would've taken weeks, if not months to heal. But here I am, completely healed in a mere 6 hours. Is this the power of cultivation?" By now, Shawn had already woken up and measured his injury, to be precise, the scar left by the injury. He was shocked at his body's newfound healing ability.

[You might not realize it Host, but you are strong enough to kill an average human or at least fatally wound them with a flick of your hands.]

"No way! But aren't I only at the Body Tempering Realm? Is the difference between cultivators and mortals that big?" Even though he knew he would be much stronger than normies, seeing it was another thing altogether.

[Indeed, Host. Now I will demonstrate Internal Spirit Manipulation.]

Saying that, the System started guiding Spiritual Qi through Shawn's entire body in a specific pathway. This formed a rotating cycle of Qi inside his body. However, unlike him, the System only moved a small amount of Qi every rotation, so there were no injuries.

"Haaaaahhh~" Shawn heaved a sigh of comfort as he felt and memorized the pathway of Qi. It was undoubtedly the most pleasant he had felt to date, second only to the comfort of breaking through in cultivation. Each cycle took about a minute. After a few cycles, System stopped and asked Shawn to try to do it himself.

With some fear, Shawn tried to maneuver the Qi within his body. He started with 1 wisp of Qi. It was going well until he noticed something weird. "The wisp of Qi? Where is it gone?" Somehow, the Qi he was controlling suddenly disappeared into thin air.

[Worry not, Host. The has been consumed.]

"Huh? How can it be consumed if it is in my body? I haven't used it for anything." Instead of answering his question, The System's statement confused him even more.

[Host, Spiritual Qi can be considered as nutrition for a cultivator's body. Ordinary food cannot satisfy a cultivator's energy demands. Instead, Spirit Qi is used to perform all functions of the body. It includes digestion, metabolism, recovery and more. This is also the reason that after a certain stage, cultivators don't need to eat or drink, as they can take nutrition directly from the Qi in the atmosphere. While moving the wisp of Qi through your body, you are basically supplying nutrition to your body.]

"I see. Does that mean that everyone I manipulate Qi, I'll have to sacrifice some to my body?" A look of understanding dawned on Shawn's face as he learnt the mysteries of a cultivator's body.

[Not necessarily, Host. If your control over your Spirit Qi is strong enough, you can move the Qi in your body without losing any. However, you are too far away from that level. So, it would be best if you used more Qi at the start of each rotation, but not too much as that would rip your body from jnside. From what I have seen, it would take 3 wisps of Qi to complete a single cycle.]

"Ah. That makes sense. Okay, let's start again." Shawn said before restarting the cycle from the beginning.

This time, as the System advised, Shawn moved 3 wisps of Qi through the entirety of his body. But before long, he had to stop because he dragged them through the wrong path. This repeated a few times until Dhawn was finally able to complete the first rotation. Unlike the System who only took a minute. Shawn needed more than 5 minutes just to complete one cycle. However, he wasn't sad as he knew it was expected on his first try. He strengthened his resolve and started the process again. This time, he only failed twice before succeeding. The cycle after that, he didn't need to restart as he was able to finish first try. Like this, Shawn practised Internal Spirit Manipulation, starting from noon to evening, when his parents came back. During dinner, he had to convince hs parents that he was fine and they didn't need to worry about him. After dinner, he started training the skill and continued till the first rays of dawn entered his room.

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A/N: Good day, readers. This is my first Webnovel, so there are bound to be mistakes and some areas might feel lacking. I hope you guys will inform me about any oversights as well as help me increase the quality of my work. I am open to any advice, ideas or suggestions.