54: breakthrough

“Alright, everyone gather around,” he said, standing before the Villagers who had come to learn reading and writing.

“Today, we’re changing topics. I’ve been teaching you how to read and write for over a month now. This time, I’m going to teach you how to cultivate with Qi,” he said.

The Villagers were a bit confused about what Qi cultivation was, but they remembered that their God had taught them before, so they sat quietly and listened to him.

“Cultivation is divided into two types: Body Cultivation and Qi Cultivation. What you are practicing is Body Cultivation,” he lectured the Villagers on cultivation knowledge for over an hour.

He had no cultivation techniques to teach, so he promised to get them some as soon as possible. He needed to replenish his energy. After teaching the Villagers for the day, he ate some fruit and then teleported to another island to look after the farm.

He brought back some fruit and the bird carcasses he ate that day, ate the meal they prepared, and then walked home to farm.

More than half a month passed, and Mr. Ning had greatly improved the situation of the Villagers. He purchased three cultivation technique knowledge sets, in the form of textbooks, which could be distributed to the Villagers.

One was for people with abundant Yin, one for people with abundant Yang, and one for people with insufficient Yang, costing him several hundred million energy in total.

He accumulated energy for another ten-odd days, then spent another several hundred million of his own energy to expand his Dimensional Storage Space to seventy-five kilograms.

“Finally, I have enough storage space to accommodate my body,” he thought.

His body was also much stronger than in the first few days. He could run back and forth between his home and the village effortlessly, and punching a tree didn’t hurt, just felt a little numb.

He wasn't sure if it was Body Cultivation or Qi Cultivation that had this effect on him, but he was happy to be stronger and didn't complain.

“I'll be able to feel it very soon,” he thought. He could feel the bottleneck he encountered in his cultivation process, and he knew he would break through very soon.

So, he began to cultivate.

For the first few hours, he had almost nothing. The Qi in his body surged violently and couldn't coalesce at all, so he could only sit there and cultivate the technique.

However, after a few hours, he felt his body begin to become unstable. The Qi in his body suddenly flowed harmoniously, pushing along his meridians. As the Qi flowed along his body, a small amount of black, viscous substance began to seep out of his body.

After his body was covered in this black substance, he felt his body rumble.

The sound was very faint, but he heard it. Suddenly, the surging Qi around his body stopped flowing and fell dormant again, even though he was clearly cultivating.

“I broke through?” He was a little surprised at first. But when he felt a clear increase in power, he started to laugh. “Hahaha, I broke through,” he shrieked. He looked at his hands, wanting to see how strong he was, but then he noticed black goo on them.

“What is this?” He was puzzled at first. But when he moved it slightly, he realized it was the impurities expelled from his body, just as it was said to happen during cultivation.

“Wait a minute,” he thought again about what was said in that massive amount of information and was surprised by what he had missed.

“So, I’m only at the first layer of Qi Condensation? This is truly the official start of my cultivation path.” He felt a little excited in his heart, but then he smelled himself, and all emotion vanished.

“Ugh. Best go wash up.” He almost ran to the beach and used Telepathy to draw water from a little further out to wash himself. As he did so, he noticed Hyesi and a few Villagers a little further out in the sea, also washing something.

“I’ve never seen them bathe,” he thought, walking over to ask what was happening.

“Hyesi, what’s going on?” he asked.

“Oh, Inikaka. I don’t know what’s happening, but the Villagers have been covered in impurities these past few days, so we came here to wash them off,” Hyesi replied.

“Excuse me, how long have you been covered in impurities?” Ning asked.

“Well… about 10 days ago, I started feeling dirty all over. When I woke up at night, I was covered in filth and had to go wash. After that, my mother, the chief, Grandma Hasini, and a few others all woke up covered in filth every night.”

“Tonight, three people came at once, so we brought them here to bathe them,” Hyesi said.

Ning was shocked. He didn't like where this conversation was going, but even so, he asked the question he feared most. “Hyesi, how long do you cultivate each night?” he asked.

Hyesi thought for a few seconds and replied, “About 2 hours each night.”

“Sometimes I sleep more if I’m in a trance, but most of the time it’s 2 hours. I have to sleep, so I can’t do it all night,” he said.

“What do you know about the Villagers?” Ning asked.

“It should be the same,” Hyesi said.

“Damn it.” Ning cursed, “I cultivate day and night and barely broke through. He broke through after cultivating only two hours a day for twenty days? Is this fair?”

Then he thought of something else and felt a little desperate, “Oh God, is my cultivation really that bad, that it takes me fifteen times longer than this kid?”