Chapter 22: A Late Breakthrough...[NEW]

Going to my room after saying goodbye to the other residence, I sit down on my bed and sigh.

*sigh*"Here goes nothing... literally..."

It has been 6 years since the last time I broke through. This deviated from the normal by about 2 years. Which to some doesn't seem that bad, but to me who has broken through consistently after 4 years for the past 14 years, it is a big deal. I had noticed that the Qi in the air around my house had gotten thin over the past few years had been getting progressively thinner which had concerned me. Had the Qi started to dry up? Had I used too much? Did god not prepare for the long haul and just left me here in a half baked situation?

shaking off those fears and what if's because it is not the David Braveheart way start to meditate. surprisingly the Qi here is more abundant! but why?

Not stressing over it, I continue to cultivate and gather that last Qi I need for my breakthrough. After only a few minutes I am able to gather that last Qi from the environment and bring it into my dantian. Immediately I start to condense the Qi not wanting to miss the opportunity! With the sound of breaking glass, I shatter past my last stage and enter the 4th stage.

I feel... I feel... well, honestly I don't feel much different. The only feeling I truly get is a sense of accomplishment and relief. It had been so long since the last time I broke through and to finally accomplish it again felt wonderful.

Thinking about what just happened and what I felt from the environment I start to wonder. Why is there more Qi here than at my house? I have been cultivating just fine at home for so long. So why did a problem only appear in the last few years?

"Well, it's quite simple if you truly think about it." (???)

"WHO THE FUCK IS IN MY HEAD?!?"

"...think about it for like 2 seconds before you go screaming(mentally) at me. Who is the only one who could possibly know about your cultivation?" (???)

"god? why are you in my head?"

"Well, honestly I was bored and I have 20-minute Queues from leaving too many games so I was checking on you and noticed you finally broke through. Well anyway to get back to your question the answer is quite simple. you're an idiot." (God)

" Skipping past the part where you play League of Legends and the fact that you leave enough games to get 20-minute queues. Let's get into the fact that you just called me an idiot for no reason and didn't even answer the question."

"Yes, well, the simple answer is. You used up the Qi in the area around your house temporarily. So, of course, you couldn't breakthrough! there was nothing there to use!"

"Well, what about my body? why can't I breakthrough there either?"

"It's for the same reason! Although the 2 techniques are separate, they still make up the whole. Meaning that you can't body cultivate if you don't Qi cultivate. but, if you wanted you could only Qi cultivate. If you want to be weak but long-lived of course. anyways that last part is off-topic. My point is, you can not progress your body past your Qi stage because you need the condensed Qi in your dantian to open the gates."

"I guess that makes sense. But why did you put so little Qi in the air? it will make it hard to progress continuously in one area."

"The truth of the matter is that I did not put the Qi in the air just for you. The Qi in the air is the same energy that the other supers use for their powers."

"??? what?"

"When a child of this world is born there is a small chance, a very small chance they will have a natural affinity for the Qi in the air. Then depending on genetics and a roll of the dice their power will be "selected" or developed. The reason that the people around you are not cultivators though is simple biology. They are in essence a different type of "mutant" human than you. So their bodies will absorb the energy when they are children, fill up, and then through hard work, they have the opportunity to strengthen their power to a certain extent. Think of it like they are only ever to enter the first gate of your cultivation but for their own powers. But most of them have limits to the extent they can grow in strength. The only notable exception in your life currently is Titan or Owen as you called him."

"oh, ok, why is he an exception?"

"Well, his power is the closest to the first gate in the world. His power without going deep into detail is the first stage but a little different. The difference comes in when we are talking about him becoming impervious to the damage he has taken before. The first stage doesn't allow you to do this but you will get a major defense upgrade later on that will put you beyond what he could get to."

" So to sum it up, The reason I was stuck for 2 additional years is because I didn't go and cultivate outside of my house for a long time and dried up the Qi around it? are you sure you weren't holding me back for some stupid reason like you 'want me to go make friends and get a girlfriend' or something stupid like that?"

"Wha... how dare you accuse me of something like that! That sounds like something a first-time author would come up with if he needed to explain why his main character was not at a higher stage after such a long time and the only thing he could come up with at the time is some stupid reason like that!"

*sigh of relief* "That's good! I'm sure if it was something like that it would turn off a lot of readers and the author himself wouldn't like it either. Which would, of course, cause the author to go back and erase the event from history like it never happened."

*haha* "Yeah, that would be embarrassing, but good thing nothing like that ever happened. Well, anyway good luck with your body cultivation! it seems my queue is almost over. Until next time!"

... That was an interesting conversation. I just wanted to know why I was stuck for 2 additional years and I ended up learning about how supers get their powers. It seems like a good trade in my book. Anyways back to my body cultivation now.

Using the Qi in my body I start to cultivate like normal, which means in a lot of pain. Circulating the Qi around my body I start the search for the 4th gate and after a few moments, I find it. It seems the 4th gate is located in my left hand, my dominant hand. Attacking the gate relentlessly I start to feel a splintering throughout my hand. It feels like someone is taking a hammer to my hand and trying to splinter the bones like chicken bones. It is very painful, mind-bendingly so. But it is a welcome feeling. This feeling, while it may be painful, shows me I am making progress and that is all that matters. After some time in which it felt like the man with the hammer got bored of a little hammer and progressively got bigger hammers to him me with I finally brake the gate down!

Finally after so long I have made it past the 4th gate! ecstatic I think about testing my new breakthroughs but then I look at the clock. It is currently midnight. which means I will be awake in 5 hours for my morning run. Deciding to test things out then when it is so early that no one is awake and the fact that normal classes don't start for another 2 days I'm sure I won't be caught throwing some punches.