Cultivation begins

It was night of the same day that Fan Yan forged a tool that could be used by low level cultivators back where he was from. Fan Yan planned to begin cultivation tonight, so he could avoid disturbances and the like. Fan Yan sat on the floor in a meditative pose, and began to breath. As he breathed, his body began to breathe in spiritual energy which was present in the air. As the energy, Qi, entered his body, he began circling it through out his body while envisioning the art he wishes to practice. The art was simple, but it had useage in strengthining the body so it could handle the strain of more powerful techniques. 

As the qi was circulated, Fan Yans body went through a change, both physically and mentally. For his body began to secrete impurities and his mind became even sharper than before. His skin and bones began to become noticeably more tough to those of a spiritual nature. As he circulated for many hourse, his senses began to expand to a noticeable farther distance than they normally would. He could extend them to the forest nearby, being able to sense beasts that were a few kilometers away. He also noticed a peculiar amount of energy beginning to gather there as well. He then ended his cultivation after a cycle finished and began to look towards the forest. 

'Is a spiritual beast being born?' thought Fan Yan as he noticed how qi seemed to be flowing and concentrating in that area. A spiritual beast only formed from regions that were dense in qi. Sometimes, animals were blessed by the heavens and could cultivate qi like humans and were known often as enlightened beasts as well. The fact qi was flowing to that specific are means it was an enlightened beast. 'Judging by the qi level, it seems to be around qi condensation stage, about were I am at. It seems to be only 3 levels above me but it is manageable if I am smart' thought Fan Yan. He then exited his room and using his newfound strength, he arrived at the forest in less than a minute.

This increase in speed was due to practicing the cultivation art of basic body reinforcement. While it was a smaller technique, its benefits for the lower and later levels where enormous if it was used to set up a good base for future power. There was another similar art known as Soul enforcement that enforced the soul and the spiritual body that housed it, but Fan Yan laments that he does not know much of it and cannot cultivate it due to lack of knowledge. Fan Yan than takes another good look in the forest and notices the dense qi in the air, which was not common for places like this but it isn't out of the realm of possibility, atleast from his world anyway, especially when enlightened beasts are in the equation. 

Fan Yan then entered the forest, covering his body using the external qi in the area to form a defense in case of attacks. It was technique that was taught to novices in certain academies as the first technique taught to them in class, usually as part of the daoist magic course. Those with lower amounts of qi can manipulate its external version and use it like a barrier around ones body. It was named as 'Aura Skin' and was a useful technique. Fan Yan wandered through the forest, making sure of his surroundings, keeping his qi at his beck and call so spells maybe cast as needed. As he neared the source of the huge amount of qi, he noticed animals of an abnormal nature. Rabbits with glowing red aura and sharp teeth, a monkey with a huge build, and a large caterpillar beast. 

'Spiritual beasts, but they seem unstable in their power so it is recent and a byproduct of the larger one it seems' thought Fan Yan as he began to transform his qi into a spell which was shot from his hands, rendering their heads seperated from their bodies in a near instant. 'Well, that was a let down' Fan Yan thought as he then layed their bodies down on the ground and admired the clean cut the technique made. The technique was similar to the glowing blades made by the sword from earlier and was the technique array imbued onto it. Fan Yan then entered the clearing and saw a sight that felt unfathomable. It was a fox which was dressed in sagely robes. Its fur was a bright, gleaming orange and had a shine to it unlike a normal fox. 

"Human, who are you to intrude here?" asked the fox towards Fan Yan as he descended from his meditative space. "I noticed an influx of qi and wanted to make sure there wasn't any danger" said Fan Yan. The fox looked at Fan Yan and could not discern any trickery from the youth in front of him. He then noticed the bodies of the beast outside. "May I asked why you slayed those beasts, they were guarding me" said the Fox who suddenly realized that maybe this human who might be a threat. He readied his qi for anycase of attack. "Well, they looked dangerous so I took them out" said Fan Yan whose train of thought could not be considered wrong. He often hunted beasts in his former world as it was a common way to obtain materials for cultivation. 

The fox did not respond to Fan Yans words and instead fired off a blast at qi, pumping enough power in order to kill him off instantly. Fan Yan then dodged this blast and weaved hand seals with his hands along with an incantation that was a string of words all clumped together. After word, flames began to manifest and weave around the fox, though the flames were not that strong compared to his former life, which the flames could over tower mountains at a certain level of strength. Using his ingenuity though and his imagination as a crafts man, he began to form a net to entrapt the beast. The fox was not going to wait for him to be ensnared and quickly tried to mold his qi into a counter attack. However, the fox was not quick enough and did not know a technique to protect himself against the flaming net, and was quickly ensnared. While he was at stage four of qi condensation, he could only hold off so much of the flames for so long. 

Fan Yan knew this and began to recast the incantation, harnessin more qi from his body which was quickly gonna tire himself out as he was a low level know, a fact he seemed to forget in the heat of battle but pushed through anyway by harnessing some qi in the air to offset some he was using from his own resevoire. The flames power then covered the fox and his life was quickly snuffed out. His qi which was still in his body began to coagulate into a core which Fan Yan quickly grabbed. 'Atleast this netted me a core' thought Fan Yan as he then dragged the beasts to his house, hoping to harness their meat for qi enhancing meals.