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He absorbed more or less about 10-20% of his total spiritual qi within half a day because of the spiritual herb. He left the rest of the day for refining the spiritual qi absorbed and getting rid of the impurities.
After another 12 hours, he successfully made the remaining 12% that were light in terms of spiritual qi completely his!
Within just a day, his total spiritual qi has increased by 12%! Cultivation that could have taken him 200+ hours to absorb now took him just about 20 hours! He was more than elated!
He opened his eyes briefly to take a fasting pill and to take and absorb another ten-year old spiritual herb into his dantian.
Tian Ye repeated this life cycle and in the blink of an eye, a week passed.
His spiritual qi has reached its peak, why did he know? There was resistance, as if the spiritual qi within his dantian was restricted from expanding further.
His dantian, couldn't even be considered as 10% full, yet there was already a resistance, he finally knew what cultivators from novels faced when they say that they face a bottleneck.
He couldn't help but chuckle as he thought, 'Interesting… So this is how bottlenecks work.'
Sitting in a cross-legged position without moving a single bit within a week, only absorbing spiritual qi was quite a monotonous boring task to Tian Ye despite the fulfilling feeling of getting stronger.
It was only at this moment that he once again felt excited.
In his previous life, there were also phases like this when he worked to fulfill his dream. In the beginning, he was extremely motivated, in the next few days, he was only a little excited, and in the coming days, it became torturous.
There would be days that he would be extremely motivated but those times are rare. If he doesn't work even on days that he isn't motivated, what would his work amount to?
When chasing after dreams, he learned that it wasn't the motivation that was important but the dedication and persistence to commit when one really wants to quit.
Do you see results? Yes? Continue. No? Continue. Do you feel it's painful? Yes? Continue. No? Continue.
The irony that most people don't realize is that these people who achieved everything weren't because they were simply talented but because they just wanted it more than other people. No matter how painful it is to continue in the path to get what he/she wants, they will continue to walk it just to see the sight they dreamt of.
Maybe they were talented but who says that they are more talented than you when you didn't even try and just watched them in envy?
Unlike them, most people will give up after facing a little pain, but these people are different, they will continue because they dreamt and will see it to the end.
This was more so for Tian Ye's case. When he was on earth, progress in the path of making dreams a reality is not that visible but in a cultivation world where you yearn for strength and want to become a stronger cultivator, you see results everyday.
The spiritual qi within his dantian, even without resources, he could feel, increasing everyday.
If he just persisted and absorbed spiritual qi everyday, sooner or later, his breakthrough was guaranteed.
Opening his eyes for a moment, he saw that the bag that was originally filled with 10 ten-year old spiritual herbs, only 3 were left.
Although there were only 3 left, Tian Ye was quite satisfied with his current progress and didn't thirst for more resources this month.
No matter how good something is for someone, too much is always bad.
After absorbing this last herb and breaking through to the 2nd layer, he decided to put off absorbing spiritual herbs for now and start absorbing spiritual qi naturally from heaven and earth for a while to stabilize the spiritual qi in his dantian.
Swallowing another fasting pill, he quickly grabbed one of the remaining 3 spiritual herbs and began absorbing spiritual qi within it.
As he absorbed the spiritual qi within, he couldn't help but frown, 'This is…'
The spiritual qi within his dantian that was being restricted into a small orb by an invisible force was still being suppressed but the spiritual qi within was increasing.
As he absorbed spiritual qi within the small orb, the invisible force suppressing the spiritual qi within was slowly stretching out similar to that of a stretchable sealed plastic being filled with water, and slowly bursting out.
Due to him being more adept in absorbing spiritual qi, his qi absorption from the spiritual herb was several times faster than before, and as he saw the small orb filling at an insane speed, he slowed down his qi absorption from the spiritual herbs.
This was because Tian Ye thought of the analogy of filling the stretchable sealed plastic being filled with water.
What would happen if it was filled too fast by a strong water release and pressure?
That's right, it would burst out, and Tian Ye concluded that this might damage his dantian, so he slowed down his qi absorption. This time, the small orb was still filling up but it wasn't like before that it was being filled at a terrifying pace.
At this speed, Tian Ye still has breathing room to observe the changes, and to prepare for the outburst of the spiritual qi from the small orb restriction.
After absorbing qi at a stable rate for 1 whole hour, the small orb, after expanding for quite a bit, now showed cracks around it like glass breaking.
'This is…' Tian Ye thought in wonder as to what would happen. Would it all burst out?
In another hour, the cracks appeared more and more in the small orb like a strong earthquake destroying the surface of the earth at frightening pace.
Tian Ye braced himself and manipulated the little spiritual qi circulating throughout his spiritual veins, and roots protecting them from being injured by the possible explosion of the small orb restriction within his dantian.
In another hour, the cracks spread all over, the small orb restriction on the burst of explosion, Tian Ye began to focus his attention to protecting his veins and roots from the result of the possible explosion.
Spiritual qi began to leak from small orb restriction, one small hole, two small holes… it began to increase like a domino effect and soon, the glass broke and as if a dam had been destroyed, the spiritual qi inside burst out throughout his dantian.
Boom!
Like a bomb exploding, the spiritual qi within the small orb splattered all over his dantian, and found itself in a larger orb restriction.
He gritted his teeth in pain as it felt like a bomb exploded in his stomach. He calmed himself down and began to relax his entire body, circulating the spiritual qi all over his body, as he did, more spiritual qi began to circulate throughout his body, making his body even stronger.
Despite the small orb bursting, the spiritual qi's explosion from within was not as explosive as Tian Ye initially expected. It was the correct choice for him to slow down the spiritual qi absorption or else he might have been heavily injured from it.
The spiritual qi in his dantian began to stabilize as well and gather in the center, stabilizing just like when he entered the 1st layer of Qi Refinement Realm.
He didn't know what it was, but it felt like a natural instinct of the human body of the cultivation world rather than guiding it.
Although spiritual qi had to be guided when absorbed from the outside and into the body, it felt like the dantian had a natural instinct when it comes to the spiritual qi within, controlling it naturally as if it was a part of it.
It made sense when you consider that the spiritual qi within the body was a part of the body just like the spiritual pores, veins, roots, and the dantian.
Beyond all these, 4 old men, 1 who looked to be in his middle-aged years dumbfounded, stared at the youth breaking through to the 2nd Layer of Qi Refinement Realm.
The old man who looked to be in his middle-aged years suddenly bragged, "See this? This is my disciple, 2nd Elder."
Obviously, this was Han Yi, as for the three elders, they were the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th elders.
The 4th elder gritted his teeth and broke all decorum as he complained loudly yet silently in order to not disturb the young man stabilizing his foundations, "This is obviously my disciple! You have to compensate me for stealing my disciple, 1st Elder!"
"What do you mean your disciple? It's obviously mine! If anyone is to compensate who, it would be me that needs to be compensated!" The 3rd Elder followed, his saliva splattering all over the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Elder.
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