036 Preparing For The Expedition

By now, Liam had practiced all the little parts leading into the movement skill. He was able to ride the wave along the water and create smaller short-term waves to move each of his legs. Now he only needed to combine the two movements and ride two separate waves.

First, he began by forming a small wave at the heel of his back foot, as it started moving and got in line with his other foot, Liam created a small wave bellow it as well. Now he was gently gliding on the water.

"If I wanted to turn right." Liam thought as he removed the wave under his right foot and created a one going slightly right, then he removed his foot from the one that went forward, and without stopping his movement, he had successfully changed direction.

"I did it!" Liam exclaimed. "But that was pretty slow, I won't be able to dodge an attack if it takes me that long to change direction. When I master this technique, I will be able to move around as if I am skating on the ground, constantly moving from one foot to the other." Liam was getting excited, the only thing left was to practice and practice until he was basically riding waves as if they were rollerblades.

Eventually, the effects of the pristine tiger eye pill ran out. Liam ate another one and continued practicing, for only practicing for a few hours until the moon got high up in the sky, Liam got pretty good.

It was effective a cool way to travel, it would definitely take up a lot more qi when he did it on the ground and had to completely form his own waves, but it would still be worth it.

"There is only a week left before the soul pet expedition and it seems everyone is preparing for it. Sitting at home, diligently cultivating in their own room. Aria and Peter are on the verge of breaking through to the fifth human realm and I can see that Ralph is also trying to get as close to the sixth human realm before the soul pet expedition. To remain in the top of our generation, we have to advance to the inner court after this expedition, otherwise we will only be left behind in the dust." Liam was talking to himself while walking back towards his home on outer peak.

He was right, everywhere along outer peak, everyone was cultivating in their room, even the top cultivators like Owen, Kyle and Riley were cultivating. They had the qi gathering formation for their respective elements, that's why they were already at the peak of the fifth human realm. In just three months from the joining of everyone in the sect, except Liam and Ralph who joined two months later. The most talented cultivators advanced to inner court disciples, and from the looks of it, there is going to be close to one thousand cultivators advancing in the mystical turtle sect.

"The mystical turtle sect really is the biggest and highest ranked sect in the southern continent. All the talents gather here. In other sects, it would be amazing if more than 10 disciples advanced to the sixth human realm after only 3 months of being here. It really is on another level." Liam was remembering what he heard from other disciples around his sect. They were, understandably, very proud.

Once Liam got home, he heard Ralph and Peter discussing something.

"We're both cultivators of the fire element, the golden eagle's faction won't be taking any of our credits this week, we will have enough to buy a basic qi gathering formation for the fire element." Ralph was trying to convince Peter.

"But only one of us can use it at a time, and I would much rather use these credits to buy more materials for pills." Peter said.

"Peter, this is an investment. With the formation, you would be spending much less time cultivating to achieve the same result. Then you'll have more free time to spend on alchemy. There is no need to think about this. And classes are also canceled for the next week, this is our chance to get to the sixth human realm." Ralph continued trying to convince Peter, and Liam had to say, he was almost convinced to give Ralph money for the formation.

"Okay, you have a point, let's do it." Peter said, now he was also excited, he had never imagined reaching the sixth human realm. His plan was to reach the fifth human realm, master alchemy and support his family after the sect two years are over.

The fifth human realm was a limit for many cultivators, they just didn't have the aptitude to advance further. Breaching the fifth human realm meant that you now had a place in the world, you could get a job anywhere and you would be well of.

"Aria, what about you." Liam asked her, as she wouldn't have a qi gathering formation.

"Don't worry about me. All I ever do is cultivate, I don't practice martial techniques for fighting, nor do I perform alchemy or forging. I have enough time to cultivate so I don't need such a formation. It's more about what you're going to do." Aria smiled at Liam. It was apparent how much she had eased up around her friends. From the shy and timid girl, that was too embarrassed to look them in the eye while speaking, she had grown into an amazing free-spirited girl, always optimistic and looking out for those close to her.

"I'll figure something out." Liam smiled and patted her head before he went inside his own room.

"It's so close, I have to reach the peak of the fifth human realm by the time the expedition starts." Liam thought to himself. Without any formation to help him gather qi, it was a pretty hopeless task. If it was so easy to cultivate and advance, everyone was going to be in the king realms by now.

Liam looked into his sea of soul, the now combined deep water qi and darkness qi, that had formed one blob of murky spirit water. Liam looked at te 130 or so drops worth of murky spirit water.

"Why is it so clear?" Liam thought. "When I broke through, it was really like a black swamp, but now it only looks as if a drop of ink has fallen inside.

"You have only gathered water qi for the past week. No darkness qi would clear up the qi in your see of soul." The hooded man said.

"Is that bad? How do I gather darkness qi?" Liam asked, not sure what the hooded man meant.

"I have figured it out, I know you can naturally see the energy of the world, it's qi. It speaks to you. Otherwise, there was no way you would have found the cave where my body laid, when no one could for hundreds of years. There is no way you could have mastered the technique I have you and found the corresponding current when we were fleeing Coralopolis. And lastly, there is no way you could have learnt all of those techniques just by watching someone perform them in a fight a few times. There is a reason martial technique books exist." The hooded man revealed his thoughts, ones that he had been thinking, but been unsure of from the start. But now, he was sure.

Liam remained quiet, as he didn't know what that meant.

"You can see the qi traveling through everyone's body, you say exactly how Kyle used his qi to create the lava arch and you only needed to replicate it with your amazing qi control. No ordinary person could do that, everything leads to them." The hooded man continued, he sounded like one of those freaks that spoke of the end of the world.

Liam continued to remain silent and assess the situation, he wanted to let the hooded man finish.

"The hundred water spirit body and the ability to "talk" with the qi of this world. You are one of them." The hooded man said with his eyes wide open, it was the second time Liam had seen the man's violet-colored eyes.

"What does that mean?" Liam was confused. "One of who?" Liam asked the hooded man.

"Maybe you still don't know, one day, when the day comes, you will know." He spoke. then his hood fell to cover his whole face again and the man completely changed character.

"You can see that there is no darkness qi around here, you won't be able to reach the sixth human realm without it." The hooded man's character had now completely turned back to normal; Liam had no idea what he was talking about before. He had the hundred water spirit body and could see the qi flowing around, but he could never speak to it. How could someone possibly speak to energy?

"What did you mean, I'm one of them. Who are they?" Liam asked.