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A single empty bottle of water gave new hope for Ryu, once he realized that in order to take a new bottle, he would have to take one from his ring and that he had already done so moments before, without even noticing, despite his obvious lack of dantian.

Eager to try another time, Ryu moved his hand trying to force another bottle out of the ring, and it got out the way it should if he had his dantian working perfectly fine. Ryu had never been so happy with something as simple as using a spacial ring before. Even when he was a child and got one for the first time, his happiness wasn't so intense because wearing a ring was normal for him, as it was for any other cultivator

Once the bottle appeared out of nowhere in his hands, Ryu grabbed another bottle, then he pulled out a sword, and a coin, and continued to pick things up and put them back one after the other, trying to confirm that it wasn't happening by accident. Ryu was so focused on his ring that he ended up forgetting about Bucky and his water, only remembering that when the ferret jumped into his hands to make him stop.

"Ah. Sorry, Bucky, here is your water." Ryu said, opening a bottle and putting it on the ground.

Awakened from a nightmare, Ryu was much calmer now that he had gained proof that his qi was still working somehow. So, for some explanation, he turned to the only tool that could provide him with answers, the system.

->meditation state detected.

->Dantian achieved maximum capacity.

->Harmony with qi established.

->All requisites to Body Expansion detected.

->Do you wish to perform the Body Expansion? > Yes > No

->Meditation ended. 17.000 essence acquired.

->Starting with technique, please proceed with extreme caution exactly as the guide.

->Body Expansion:

First step> Swirl qi around dantian. ( Remember to always keep the dantian completely full during the entire process.)

Second step> ...

->Heavy damage detected. Starting repair process.

->No dantian found.

->Damage is beyond repair.

->Guiding qi to opening channels.

->Forcing connection of body and qi.

->Conection established.

->Congratulations. Body Expansion achieved.

"What did I do to myself?" Ryu said slowly, putting both hands to his face as he stared at the messages in utter disbelief.

In reckless action, Ryu ended up performing a technique he had never heard of without reading the steps he should take or the dangers of performing it. In fact, he didn't even know what that technique actually did and whether it would be helpful for him.

When an energy emerged from his soul and started the Body Expansion technique, Ryu thought it was another way to cultivate, something caused by the Inversion of Heaven and Earth cultivation manual in his system. But it turns out that it was something very different and much more dangerous.

Luckily, even without reading the guide, Ryu unwittingly acted as the technician's guide instructed, which ended up making things work out in the end. But everything could have gone very wrong if he had made a single mistake, like interrupting the qi cycle before his dantian started to deform.

As everything worked out somehow, there was nothing to complain about, leaving only one learning lesson to learn: not to act so recklessly in the future. However, a question of paramount importance still remained unanswered: "What does Body Expansion mean anyway?" Ryu asked himself out loud.

Although the system provided a complete guide to achieving the so-called body expansion, it did not explain the result, what benefits it would bring to the cultivator, and, of course, its drawbacks, as there is no perfect technique without recoil. This type of information is extremely important since anyone wants to discover that their technique has a flaw in the middle of a fight.

Since there was no explanation on the Body Expansion power, Ryu had to conduct his own research to discover what had changed.

To do this, Ryu stood up with his staff in his hand and swung it using a move according to his martial art style.

The result was what it should be; every time he executed a move with the wooden weapon, an element of nature followed the staff, sometimes it was fire, another wind, or water or earth, just as before. Still, for the sake of testing, Ryu used the vanishing raindrop steps, and another time, the skill performed flawlessly.

Although everything was working normally, the result did not please Ryu, as he found no increase in power, neither in techniques nor in the functioning of his body. However, this lack of change was just a problem in Ryu's perception, who always had a low perception of qi, because if someone with great experience had seen his movements, he would have noticed something unusual, and at the same time surprising.

This is because each of his abilities was not triggered by the qi stored inside his body as commonly happens, which is expected since Ryu no longer had a dantian to store qi, but rather the qi came directly from the surrounding nature. Therefore, his body now did not need to store qi like other people have to do; he is able to extract the inert qi from nature and use it directly in his techniques.

Annoyed at not discovering what had changed, Ryu temporarily gave up trying as his body was still compromised, and he wasn't feeling good to continue conducting the experiments. So he returned to camp to share a big dinner with Bucky and then fell asleep exhausted.

...

When Ryu woke up the next day, the sun had not yet risen, but his body was in much better condition after a good night's sleep and food. Bucky, lying at his feet, lifted its head after Ryu started to get up from their shared camp bed.

It wasn't in Ryu's plans to wake up so early, but since he fell asleep just an hour after the sun went down, his sleep cycle was fully fulfilled, which suited Ryu, who had plans for the day.

When Ryu sat down to cultivate, he planned to do it for just one night, then he would go back to the mines and put his plan into action. However, he ended up wasting more than a day in it.

If Ryu was alone, there would be no reason to worry about how much time he had wasted, but he wasn't alone, and he had to infiltrate the city to see if Nura was okay or if he was in danger. So he couldn't afford to stay any longer, for the longer he waited, the greater the danger.

Perhaps all the worry was unnecessary, and Nura was perfectly safe, hiding in Grace's inn, waiting for the storm to pass. But, it's better to be sure than assume things in this case. So, Ryu returned to the mine with Bucky clutching at his back.

By the time Ryu reached the mine, the sun was already breaking over the horizon, bringing day and light. Meanwhile, in the mines, the slaves were already lined up in front of the tents, preparing to enter for another day breaking stones.