Finally

Two young men stood on the side of a highway, surveying their surroundings. One wore a grey tee-shirt with jeans, and he stood with his hands in his pockets, as if waiting for something. The other stood in a red tank top with basketball shorts, his hands behind his head as he paced back and forth, clearly eager to do something. "Split up, check for places with high energy density or people, and report back to here before sunset. If you see anyone powerful, immediately retreat and give your report early," another young man in dark grey sweats and a black shirt was crouched on top of a streetlight, giving instructions to the previous two.

This group was obviously James, Whit, and Alex. James figured that with His friends at either the 7th or 8th bone fusion stage respectively, they should be fast enough to escape most common threats without any danger. Knowing that they'd be safe, James planned to send them out to scout any settlements that were established by the invaders. If they reported any establishments that were too close to their hideout, then James would plan to have some "friendly discussions" with them on why it would be in their best interest to leave.

"You know, i'd very much appreciate it if we found a solution to our whole 'overflowing energy' predicament that we're in at the moment," Conor spoke through metaphorically gritted teeth. James' body was still constantly riddled with pain from the sixty lightning streaks that could no longer be contained in his dantian.

James simply dropped to the ground and summoned a ball of lightning in his hand. "Presumably, the only way to deal with this would be to increase my cultivation base to expand my dantian and strengthen my body, however..." James stared intently at the ball of lightning, prying into all of its secrets. How it moved, its energy signature, its power, its cycle of attraction and repulsion of charges. This continued for multiple hours on end with no changes.

However, as the sun passed the midway point in the sky, something interesting happened. Ever since the Storm Dragon engraved the Seal of Infinite Thunder into James' dantian, the actual runes had far since faded. Interestingly enough, upon constant observation of the lightning created with the help of this seal a single stroke of the many runes lit up once more in James' dantian. Upon the runes' partial appearance, all of the lightning in James' body calmed back down, as if it was being tamed, and gathered itself neatly into James' core.

"I told you studying the Seal of Infinite Thunder would have its benefits," James thought to 'himself'.

"Yeah that's great and all but would it seriously kill you to just break into the qi gathering realm already?!" Conor was clearly annoyed by James' excessive foundation building. He could understand fully tempering his body, but sixty thunder streaks was what the dragon said they should have by the middle of the qi gathering realms, and the dragon wouldn't have underestimated them.

"Who said I wasn't going to breakthrough today?" James didn't wait for an answer as he sat down and focused on the energy in his surroundings. It was drawn from the air and into his body, it flowed through his meridians and nourished his entire being. The constant influx of energy started to build up pressure inside of his body, however, his extremely sturdy body was nowhere near its limit. It now dawned upon James why one should temper their body as much as possible before breaking through. The process was harder, but if breaking into the first stage required as much energy as a normal cultivator took to break into the fourth stage, wouldn't that mean that people breaking into the first stage and fourth stage have relatively the same energy capacity?

James continued gorging on the energy in the air for almost a full hour, until finally... Chik! The outside of his skin, meridians, and dantian all cracked and started shedding like an old snake skin, under which they all started to grow anew and become more powerful. After about fifteen minutes, the transformation was complete, and James found that an orange plasmatic energy now coursed through his meridian system and body housing the lightning streaks that could now flow freely through his meridians without causing damage.

"That orange stuff should be our standard dragon type qi that we cultivate with our main cultivation method. Its progress is completely independent from our lightning streaks, but it can mix with their energy to make a powerful concoction," Conor gave his analysis, sounding almost like an encyclopedia. The draconic energy on its own was considered pretty good when compared to other cultivators at the first stage, after all, this cultivation technique could be considered top notch even without the integration of the lightning streaks.

However, as soon as James' physical transformation stopped, another began.

For a long time, it felt like James' consciousness was on the verge of evolving into something greater, and now, it was time. A much less tangible energy started to proliferate from his pineal gland before enveloping his entire being. His consciousness had broken straight through to the middle of the qi gathering realm!

Foggy clouds flowed out from the gaps in between his clothes, billowing out to create a smokescreen around him. This was how his consciousness energy physically manifested himself, and he could immediately see some good uses for it.

His evolved consciousness granted him much sharper senses, as if he was already using a lightning streak in his brain. He was also able to sense the energy in his surroundings with much more ease.

"Phew... I wonder how strong we are at our full capacity right now," James sighed in relaxation and started waiting once more for his friends to get back. It was only a few hours from sunset, so they were bound to be back soon...

Well, maybe sooner than expected. Alex appeared in the distance, traveling full speed towards the highway. "Looks like we have some interesting news to hear," Conor mused.

With a flash of purple light, James met his companion halfway. "What happened? Are you hurt?" he scanned Alex's body for any sign of injuries.

Alex replied between his gasps "No... I'm fine but... There's a village about 40 miles... south-southwest from here," After finally spitting it out, he sat down on the floor to catch his breath better. After finding the village, he had sprinted all the way back. Even with a strong tempered body it wasn't easy.

James looked over his friends shoulder, "Were you followed?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure that you're sure?" James spoke with a chuckle this time.

"Yes i'm sure! Why do you keep asking?" Alex was getting annoyed now. What was this guy laughing about?

"Because i followed you here," He felt a light tap on his shoulder, and he turned around to see a young woman in a blue dress with green hair and orange eyes. He scampered backwards and got into a combat stance.

"Relax, if she had malicious intentions, you wouldn't have made it back." Contrary to his words James' expression was now very serious. This woman was at the much higher cultivation than him, maybe at the third or fourth stage of qi gathering. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, but he could tell from his sense of danger that this mysterious girl had a body just as strong as his. If it came down to a fight, it wouldn't be easy.

"You're the one who needs to relax, I'm not here to fight, but I have plenty of questions," She stuck her hand out, "Shen Ziran, pleased to meet your acquaintance!"