Hostage
Ignoring the unconscious goblin, Sora moved over to the corpse of the dead goblin and started cutting. An hour quickly passed, and the hostage goblin still hadn't woken up.
Sora held another gray crystal; it seemed that the dead goblin had given him another gray life soul.
"Status."
<[Sora Jin]
(Race: Human, Locked, Locked)
(Age: 15)
(Physique: Zen Physique)
(Bloodline: Locked)
(Dantian Foundation: White, 3/4 Gray)
(Rank: Qi Gathering 1)
(Qi required for breakthrough: 0/100)
(Skills: Air purification, Qi Meditation, Zen creation)>
"Since this guy is taking a while to wake up, I should try and fully upgrade my dantian foundation. I'm already really close to upgrading it to gray; I wonder what kind of effects it will have."
Focusing on the gray life soul, Sora made it dissolve into the air and created yet another Qi cloud. Activating Qi mediation, Sora started absorbing the Qi in the air and filling his dantian.
Compressing the Qi stored in his dantian, Sora created another Qi droplet colored light gray. After about an hour and a half, Sora had finished fusing and had officially upgraded his dantian.
"Congratulations on upgrading your dantian foundation! Your new talent pinnacle is Qi Condensing 1!"
"New talent pinnacle... I guess I was kind of correct; the dantian foundation does indeed seem quite important."
"I'm guessing Qi Condensing is the realm above Qi gathering; maybe that means every dantian foundation upgrade brings my talent up a realm?"
"Wow, I really am a genius to find this technique accidentally."
Looking around, Sora noticed the Qi cloud he had created previously had dispersed.
There seemed to be some differences in the Qi clouds Sora had created. He noted that the gray Qi clouds he had made were of better quality than the white Qi clouds, but there were differences even within the gray Qi cloud category.
The first gray Qi cloud he had created using the chimpanzee-like creature's life soul lasted longer than the Qi cloud made using the goblin's life soul.
"I think the life soul's color is the same as the dantian foundation or talent. This would explain the difference in Qi quality between the Qi clouds."
"Assuming that then most likely the cultivation level of the creature determines the length of time the Qi cloud remains active."
Looking back toward the captive and seeing that it still hadn't woken up, Sora, not wanting to waste time, went back to upgrading his dantian foundation.
Immediately, however, Sora noticed a big difference. While starting the absorption process, the beautiful feeling he had felt before increased. It was like his meridians were screaming with joy, enjoying the Qi even more thoroughly than previously.
When the initial wave of Qi made it to the dantian, he was filled with energy, almost like he'd drank multiple cups of coffee in a short span. After a while of enjoying this immaculate feeling, Sora eventually experienced a piercing pain, indicating that the dantian had reached its limits.
It took a while longer than before, about 10 minutes, to reach the piercing pain. Ignoring that for now, he started compressing the Qi cloud he had gathered in his dantian into another Qi droplet.
The Qi droplet had a gray shade to it and contained a lot more energy than past Qi droplets; it felt like that one droplet could split a tree in half just by falling from the sky. Just imagining a raincloud filled with rain droplets of equal energy to this one made Sora shiver at the potential destructiveness.
Making it float, Sora moved it over towards one of the walls of his dantian and restarted the whole fusing process all over again.
There didn't seem to be a difference in time spent fusing. It seemed that the fusing process between talent realms seemed the same, as it only took around an hour and a half till the entire gray Qi droplet had been fused with his dantian.
"Status."
<[Sora Jin]
(Race: Human, Locked, Locked)
(Age: 15)
(Physique: Zen Physique)
(Bloodline: Locked)
(Dantian Foundation: Gray, 1/4 blue)
(Rank: Qi Gathering 1)
(Qi required for breakthrough: 0/100)
(Skills: Air purification, Qi Meditation, Zen creation)>
"1/4 blue, I wonder how many times I'll have to upgrade my foundation till I've reached the pinnacle of talent..."
Looking over to the hostage he had kidnapped earlier, he realized it had regained its consciousness and was looking at him with a look of confusion.
"Maybe I scared the little guy a little too much."
Moving over to it, Sora opened his mouth.
"Do you know where the nearest human village is?"
Looking at the goblin with a hopeful expression, he was really hoping to get some information out of this little scoundrel.
At first, it didn't seem like the little guy understood, but after a moment of contemplating, the little guy nodded his head up and down.
Surprised, Sora didn't actually think the goblin could understand him; he thought it better to try than not. The little goblin turned his attention away from Sora and stared in one direction, clearly wanting Sora to head that way.
Not entirely trusting of the guy, Sora left the make-shift bindings on him, headed down the tree, and decided to head toward the direction with the goblin in tow.
Walking along, Sora glanced at the goblin following behind him every now and then. Surprisingly he kept a neutral look on his face the entire time. It didn't seem like the little guy was lying or luring him into a trap; Sora was starting to take a liking to this little guy.
He seemed to be quite intelligent; realizing it couldn't defeat Sora, it resorted to using its information to try and keep itself alive. Almost resembling slightly human in its intellect.
Having walked for a few hours, Sora suddenly heard noises from the direction of nearby bushes. Multiple voices not of human origin seemed to be heading in his direction.
Readying himself, he activated his Zen Creation skill and made another dagger, grabbing it with his right hand and hiding it behind his back.