Progress (2)

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Another day had passed, with Matthew quietly, no, loudly training as his fists slammed into the bamboo, breaking them with no effort at all.

Pah~ Pah~ Pah~ Crack~

It was the beginning of the sixth day, where he had finally reached the peak of the 9th stage of Martial Mortal.

All Matthew needed to do now was accumulate enough energy so when he does get involved in a fight, he'll have a smooth breakthrough afterward.

During this time, Matthew had already made a few notes about how energy works in this world.

For now, he had listed four major types of energy.

They would be called external energy, internal energy, cultivation energy, and natural energy.

First up, External energy.

It's a type of energy where most cultivators use for attacks and pressuring others with their aura. Out of the other four, this one has the most applications as it affects the real world the most. Using one's energy from their core to attack another person, usually in the form of some sort of energy attack, aura, barrier, or shields.

Next, Internal energy.

For some, this could be mistaken for cultivation energy, however, this type of energy can also be used as an attack from cultivators and other energy users. People using this type of energy are usually those who use their mind and soul for attacks, either to scan a person's mind, dominate their soul, etc.

Then, we have cultivation energy.

This type of energy is essential for everyone. It's how these cultivators become stronger. It's a whole different type of energy absorbed for their cores to process and turn into usable energies for people to breakthrough and strengthen external and internal energy.

Last but not least, Natural energy.

Well, it might not be the last, but from Matthew's experience, this might be the last major type of energy. This energy resides everywhere, from the greenest of places to the most desolate places. It makes up the whole world, which is why certain beasts and ancient structures might still exist today. However, this is just a hypothesis from the strange energy around Matthew, he isn't able to confirm anything yet.

Each of these major energies mixed well together, as they all are able to convert into one another as long as the person had a method to do so.

It was truly a mystery... the new world that he lived in. Well, now's not the time to slack off!

Matthew's eager eyes glanced at his glowing hands. His control over his aura became basically invisible as even he couldn't sense any energy leaking. Of course, this was due to him finally digesting the ways of using {Aura Control} from his {Weak One} skill.

He also finished with the fusion of {Ancient One} and {Nature's Body} with himself, making these abilities rather than skills.

In an instant, the aura on his hand had suddenly started to spread out through his body, engulfing him in a small flame-like aura.

Matthew sensed his energy rushing and nourishing his entire body at an incredible pace.

'Another breakthrough!?'

He had been told that the next few stages after Martial Mortal would be quite close to many cultivation novels, the start of the refining stages, and the start of real cultivation.

Matthew's excitement had quickly been extinguished as he noticed something wasn't right.

The world around him had started losing color, the blue sky, the green bamboo, everything began losing color, turning only grey.

The slight breeze on his skin had stopped, he could still see that the trees and their leaves blow in his direction, yet he couldn't feel anything.

What was supposed to be a loud breakthrough, creating tremors on the ground, had all suddenly halted. It was complete silence for Matthew as his five senses started to either dull or are completely lost.

Although most of his senses have started to dull, he could tell that he had completely skipped the 10th stage and broken through the 1st stage of Body Refinement.

From what he could see, there were three small transparent orbs materializing in his body, yet they didn't seem to take up any space either. One was in his brain, one in his heart, and one that was... inside the one in his brain?

There was a small disturbance in Matthew's aura, causing him to snap out of his thoughts, 'Crap! I still need to focus on my breakthrough!'

As long as it was something that wouldn't harm him, he wouldn't ask anything until his breakthrough was done. He could still ask the system in a bit, surely they'll answer after these few days without talking to each other, right?

Matthew had no choice now, but to bet on the fact that no monsters appeared now out of the other six days and nights it could've appeared, and closed his eyes to concentrate.

Poof~

Steam started to rise from his body as if he was burning up. All of the dead layers of skin were naturally burned off and evaporated as Matthew's skin turned light pink.

Woosh~

The entire forest had responded. All of the energy from the forest began to gather at one point, right above Matthew's head.

The dense amount of natural energy took shape as a sphere, continuously becoming smaller as the wisps of energy steadily entered Matthew's body, nourishing him.

Normally, anyone with this kind of method would have their entire body be torn apart from the massive amount of pure natural energy flowing through them. With the pain of having their body slowly being ripped apart, their focus would shift from breakthrough to survival, making the process even harder!

Of course, Matthew didn't know anything about this, otherwise, he wouldn't have tried it unless absolutely necessary!

For him, all he felt was small stings of pain equivalent to being pinched all over. Uncomfortable, but bearable.

Within himself, Matthew's body worked in overdrive to rapidly absorb and convert the energy into cultivation energy and allow him several breakthroughs in a single moment!

Crack~ Boom~

A breakthrough was achieved!

2nd Stage of Body Strengthening!

3rd Stage! 4th Stage! 5th...

Crack~

The process continued for several minutes, allowing Matthew's cultivation to rise to the 1st stage of Energy Strengthening! The wisps of energy slowly died out, only giving enough for him to reach the peak of the 1st stage of Energy Strengthening.

After the sphere was completely absorbed by Matthew, a small glow shined on his chest, signaling the birth of an energy core!

The core on his head was still half completed with its transparent state, but the energy core on his chest seems to have fully materialized, becoming one with his heart.

The core was quite pronounced with its metallic silver and shiny color, completely changing the structure of Matthew's heart into a silver sphere.

The appearance core is a rare occurrence between cultivators, but not unprecedented. Most cultivators only start forming their cores at the {Core Formation Realm}, which was above the {Mind Sea} and {Soul Sea} realms.

Those with unnatural levels of talent or those with extremely developed constitutions may have a small chance of awakening their energy cores early. Most likely only being one in every one hundred matured constitution wielders.

When that happens, it fuses with their heart, making them completely different from the normal cultivators, making their energy absorption, energy output, potential, combat-related abilities, and even cultivation speed increase by ten times!

In even rarer cases, usually, one in every ten cultivators who awakened their cores early will automatically build up their foundation without needing to focus on it every day. They would even be able to consolidate their realm within the first few hours after any breakthrough after any realm they awakened this talent in.

Although everyone awakens and materializes their energy cores at the Energy Body realm, those who have awakened earlier will still have a five-times difference compared to those who awakened it regularly.

That's what was supposed to be until Matthew's {Ancient One} and {Nature's Body} abilities started to integrate with the core, changing the color from silver to pure white. It was so pure, one could argue that it was from one of the archangels with the amount of pressure it was released everywhere.

With the awakening session over, the figure of Matthew appeared once again, but, with some noticeable changes.

The only apparent change was how his physical age bumped itself up to that of an 11-year-old child, with his body becoming much muscular than before. Even his skin seemed to be clearer, there were no signs of any dryness with his light pale skin.

The rampaging aura slowly calmed down as Matthew regained control of his body. Opening his eyes, everything seemed to have come back at him, all at once...

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