where did the slow progress go ?

the sun was going to set down soon but the sect city was still bustling as usual . some disciples were returning home from missions while some were going out now . the usual stalls were lined and a market had formed near the entrance gate . meanwhile ken was waking up on the fluffy bed inside his flat .. cough ... working place . he had completed refining all the materials 3 hours ago and was recovering his mental power through one of the most good methods which was of course sleep .

ken after advancing to the peak of 6 th level can easily divide his consciousness in 6 or 7 parts but he decided to leisurely divide it into 5 and refine the pills with his usual method of not using a cauldron. well when the disciples who clean the pill refining rooms for some points come inside his room when ken is gone , the following day he can answer that he had a habit of cleaning the waste himself after finishing refining pills . as for the intact formations inside the cauldron, nobody would ask about them at least in next 20 days so ken wasn't going to think about the excuse now .

this time the herbs were of very good quality so the number of pills ken refined everytime were 20 to 23 of course all were top grade pills . as for those he had to deliberately refine of low grade , those were a total of 25 sets = 294 pills . normally the number of blood qi pills one can refine from a set of ingredients would be 7 to 15 as fifteen being the top grade of course for other pill refiners . so Ken's 290 pills were already an above average evaluation as the successful attempts will be 25 for others . those pills were mostly 4 th grade and some were of 5th grade so the quality was above average too because normal refiners would exhaust their mental power in the later refining proceeses and mostly rely on experience for good quality of pills .

" hey suman ! I'm sending the pills now , please count them yourself. I'm too tired now after refining pills all day .. fake yawn " this was of course ken sending a voice message through the communication formation on his room jade card . there were also formations on the alchemist bagel like normal protection formation , message formation etc as Ken was confirming those when taking a break from refining pills .

then a space portal opened and ken simply tossed the white jade bottles with red caps on them tightly sealing the pills inside . suman was a professional so ken didnt think she would contact him now as technically his work hours had finished an hour ago and he could use the room freely now . so of course it was time to chow down some top grade blood qi pills now . ken was the best aware of the fact that all the pills will be refined completely without wasting any essence so he was looking forward to how much he would progress in cultivation this time .

even though all the pills were tier 1 pills but the sheer number was more than 3000 and all were top grade . he was aware that after advancing in realms his progress would slow down because energy requirement had increased too much when compared to the last time when he advanced easily after eating the qi nourishing pills . but still the anticipation was great and ken tossed 5 pills inside his mouth straight because his organs were now too strong compared to before .

the pills were filled with vitality so Ken's vitality may increase somewhat permanently after perfectly absorbing more than 3000 top grade pills . of course his vitality now was already too great and sword wounds with some sword qi would heal in an instant. he hadn't tested with sword qi before but normal artifacts of tier 1 cannot even scratch him and even tier 2 only managed to pierce his skin slightly when he tested after reaching the 6 th level . of course he had borrowed weapons belonging to others secretly for a while when they were sparring bare handed in the practice arena of outer city .

the pills immediately dissolved after touching his tongue and a heavy essence would travel down because the vitality was much inside the top grade pills . as expected the hungry dragon absorbed all the 5 pils and barely a cycle was successful . so ken ate 10 next time then 20 , 30 , 40... pills till all of them were gone and ken was in deep mediation because he had to circulate the essence according to the devouring dragon art everytime he consumed the pills . so he was only aware of his rise in cultivation when he opened his eyes after more than 20 minutes later after the pills were completely absorbed by him .

" holy shit ! "

ken couldn't help but exclaim loud as this progress was too good . he had expected to at least teach the middle of 9 the level so he wasn't surprised that he had advanced till only a bit away from peak qi condensation realm . the most shocking fact for him was the increase in strenght and his body glowing with pale light . the increase in his strenght was somewhat more than his expectations. but this light was obviously the shine of his skin which indicated the ridiculous increase in his vitality. even gray scales were starting to grow on his back even though they were only scattered yet and a few cm long . these were of course his dragon scales which he would awaken fully scaled body after reaching the 9 th level of foundation establishment realm.

ken quickly focused his mind on the scales and they retreated inside his body like never appeared and the light was gone with them . but Ken's skin and muscles were much tougher and the colour was much better than before .

the scales were of course going to appear as his body is slowly transforming into that of a dragon . but the scales were supposed to grow fully on his back when he reached the 2nd level of foundation realm . the only explanation of them now starting to appear would be that his body's vitality reached to the level of at least early 1st level of foundation realm right now and he hadn't even broken through to foundation establishment realm yet .

but anyway progressing fast was happy news so the easygoing ken soon forgot about this matter and genuinely felt happy. but what the hell happened to slow progress that was anticipated according to ken ? ...