48: Condensing Qi

"Alright, I'll be out for a few hours and will return by Night, okay?" Ning asked Hyesi.

"As you wish, Inikaka," Hyesi complied without question.

There were no insects or animals on the island, so Ning was relatively safe for now. He walked into the temple, which was his home, and sat down on the soft floor inside.

"Before I do anything, System, please answer a few questions.

First, does everything I do now consume the body's energy?" he asked.

<No. Your body is separate from you. So no matter what it does or what happens to it, you will not be affected>

"I see. What about absorbing energy? Am I absorbing energy from my own body?" he asked. He still remembered all the horrible fates the wolves and birds faced when he first unlocked his parasitic ability. He wanted to know if he was doing the same thing now.

<No. This is the body you created. You cannot absorb energy from a body you created yourself>

"Oh," Ning was surprised by the answer. "Then can I get extra energy from food and other things?" he asked.

<If your body doesn't need the energy, and there is no energy cap, you can freely absorb it without worry>

"When I have no cap, huh. I guess I should start absorbing a little less than the cap so I can absorb extra energy," he thought.

He asked again, "You said before that my physical body would die if it wasn't inhabited, right?"

<Yes, if you do not inhabit your human body, it will enter a sleep mode, sleeping indefinitely, constantly losing energy until death> "That's a bit morbid. Is there any way to keep it from dying when I leave?" he asked.

<There are two ways>

<First, you can store your body in Cross-dimensional Storage where time is stopped, preventing it from losing any energy>

<Second, you can cultivate to a high enough realm that your body can survive without needing energy>

"Ah, yes. I can do that. I don't think I'll remember it though. Thank you, System. Let me see, do I have any other questions?" he wondered. "I can't think of any right now. Never mind, if I think of any, I'll ask later. For now, let's begin cultivating."

"So, I'll try to feel my first strand of Qi first, right?" he thought, recalling the information taught to him in the cultivation basics. "I need to follow my cultivation method and try to feel the Qi around me, right?"

He closed his eyes, compressing his physical body's senses to their limit, and began to follow the instructions of the cultivation technique. With a spiritual root, one could immediately begin cultivating the technique without worry, which was exactly what he planned to do the moment he felt a trace of Qi. However, if he couldn't feel the Qi, it wouldn't work at all.

Ning ignored his senses as much as possible, trying to perceive Qi. However, as an energy body, even with his eyes and ears closed, he could see and hear everything around him. So, he sat there for an hour, trying to feel Qi, but failed every time.

He truly had no talent for cultivation, but fortunately, he now had a spiritual root, so even if it took him tens of millions of years, it wouldn't stop him from continuing to cultivate.

After a few more hours, he finally felt the Qi. It felt like a tiny, invisible speck of light that only his body could see, floating in the air. He slowly pulled at the Qi with his will, drawing it towards his body.

As the true Qi entered his body, he shivered, then immediately calmed down. He had now entered the Qi Condensation Realm and embarked on the path of a cultivator.

Now that he had absorbed his first strand of true Qi, he could begin to perform the cultivation technique. He absorbed the true Qi and began to circulate it within his body, allowing his body to adapt to the true Qi while slowly absorbing more and more true Qi from the environment.

Today's cultivation was over, so he tried to absorb as much true Qi as possible before Night fell, without worrying about it being stolen. There wasn't much true Qi to begin with. He opened his eyes and finally stopped cultivating.

He moved his fingers and felt something different, feeling that his strength was greater now than when he first started cultivating.

"Is my cultivation speed appropriate?" he wondered. He closed his eyes and tried to feel inside his body again, and he did find Qi. He just didn't know how far he could cultivate with this amount of Qi. He didn't even know if such a small amount of Qi was good or bad.

‘I should improve my cultivation knowledge as soon as possible,' he thought.

It was late, and he walked back to the village, but strange things happened. First, he felt his steps become lighter, which wasn't the case when he first arrived. Second, he could swear that, through his body, he could almost see the forest and distinguish the trees in the Night.

He looked at the sky; the Night sky was overcast. But he could still see the outlines of some trees. "Is this the result of my cultivation?" he wondered. "I don't know how much cultivating this body will do for me," he thought.

He slowly walked back to the village. The Villagers had already lit a fire, with meat roasting over it. When the Villagers saw him coming, they immediately called him to the center of the fire and gave him a large piece of meat.

He looked at the food, and his mouth began to water. "How long has it been since I last ate?" he wondered. He hadn't even kept track of the time, but he knew it had been a long time.

He thought no more and took a bite of the food, eating all the soft, juicy meat off the bone. He tried to suppress the tears in his eyes, thinking:

"I'm glad I decided to be a person again."