Vi Condensation Stage (1)

"Hi," the zombie outlaw said.

"What are you doing here?" I said.

"Oh, you know, trying to get from one location to another location. Normal train stuff," he said, looking a little nervous.

"Is that all?" I said.

"Yeah, that's it. Look man, I'm sorry I shot you. I'm just trying to get home in one piece. We didn't get any money, and now I have to show my face at home empty-handed, but I have to show my face at home. I can't have my wife and my daughter think I abandoned them," he said.

"Really?" I said.

"No! I don't have a family anymore. They're all dead. Now it's just me and my crew. But still. I don't want to fight. Can you just let me go home?" He said with his hands clasped together, pleading.

"Fine," I said. "But if you rob this train, I'll kill you. Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it. No robbing. Please just leave me alone," he said.

"Ok," I said. "Come on, Victoria."

We made our way to our private booth and played cards until we arrived at the station. There wasn't any commotion and no one got robbed.

As soon as I knocked on the door, it opened. Elder Ravenkin looked at us and said, "Did you get the stuff?"

"Yes, but there's more," I said. "I need to get stronger fast. The dragons are losing control of their portals, and I need to get strong enough to enter one in a week, maybe two at the most. Oh, and in order to get access to the portals, I have to fight all of their warriors at the same time and win." I handed over the book, amulet, and key to him.

"Good. Thanks for getting these," he said as he handed the book, the amulet, and the key back to me. "They're yours now. Take good care of them. The book has a technique in it that you can start learning right away. The amulet won't activate until you reach a certain point in your training and the key opens something."

"Ok. None of that was vague or confusing at all," I said. I put the items in my pockets. Except the amulet. I hung that over my neck.

"If you want to get stronger fast and be ready in time, you'll need to cultivate properly. You are technically already in the Vi Condensation Stage, but due to a lack of proper instruction, you haven't been able to condense your Vi," Ravenkin said.

'What the heck, system?' I thought.

[You never asked]

'I never had to ask before.'

[Well now you do. Get over it]

'Ok, meanie.'

"Dylan, you come with me. Victoria, I need you to handle something for me." He handed Victoria a folded piece of paper. She opened it up and looked at it. "I need to go, honey. I'll see you in a bit," she said. Then she disappeared.

'My girlfriend just turned into air.'

[Are you getting separation anxiety already? This early? Bro]

'No. I don't have emotions. I'm a stone wall. Also, bro? Are you experimenting with slang now?'

[Yes. I want to be a person too. Not just a system in someone else's head]

'Well, you're not allowed. Get over it.'

[Ok, meanie]

Ravenkin and I walked through his huge mansion. We passed many rooms and halls until we came to what looked like a yoga studio. It had a wooden floor with yoga mats spaced out evenly across it.

"Sit," he said, indicating one of the mats.

I sat down and got into the lotus position, and he sat across from me.

"The Vi Condensation Stage starts at the Vampire Lord minor realm. There are fifteen levels of the Vi Condensation Stage. From now on, I will refer to the minor realm ranking terms when I'm talking about accumulated life essence. I will refer to the levels of the Vi Condensation Stage when I'm talking about the sequential steps of learning to manipulate Vi within the body," he said.

"Beyond the Vi Condensation Stage there is the Blood Foundation Establishment Stage and the Crimson Core Formation Stage. We need to get you to the peak of the Crimson Core Formation Stage if you want to be able to single handedly fight the monsters in any of the dragons' portals. Their portals are the most dangerous because they are considered the strongest sect. And overall that's true for one simple reason.

"They are alive and we are not. They are able to cultivate their own life essence, which they call their inner fire. We must siphon life essence from external sources because we are undead and don't have inherent internal life energy.

"It is far harder for us to reach the same cultivation levels as them because we need vast quantities of life essence to not only maintain our existence but also to advance in our cultivation. Another reason is because dragons have existed far longer than vampires."

"How long have vampires existed for?" I asked.

"We don't know exactly, but the first historically known reference to vampires is a text written in Old Russian in 1047 A.D. (This is true). So we can assume that vampires didn't exist long before that. I would say at most a hundred years before then. Whereas dragons have existed for millennia," he said.

"They've had far longer to cultivate and have thus reached greater heights in cultivation overall than us vampires. It's as simple as that. That said, with your talents, you should be able to surpass all of them in a very short period of time. Which is why I'm instructing you."

"Ok, how do we start?" I said.

"Well, the first step is to acquire minor realms of life essence beyond Vampire Lord that can be used to perform the necessary steps of the Vi Condensation Stage. Since you are in the Vampire Marquis minor realm, you have already completed that step," he said.

"The first level of the Vi Condensation Stage is called Nexus Awakening. All you do is meditate until you can sense at least one of the Nexus points in the body. Nexus points store and transport Vi to different parts of the body. It's like a circulatory or lymphatic system, but for Vi."

"Oh, I can already do that. I've already sensed and filled all my Nexus points with liquid life essence. The system guided me through it," I said.

"Really? Has the system guided you through any other stages of cultivation?" he said.

"Yeah. I also have a lifeblood crystal and I can extract abilities from other monsters," I said.

"That's unexpected. Your cultivation base is all over the place. You've basically completed the early stages of the Vi Condensation Stage major realm, the Blood Foundation Establishment major realm, the Crimson Core Formation major realm, and a small portion of the Undead Soul major realm," he said.

'System, why is my cultivation base imbalanced?'

[I just gave you what you wanted. You didn't ask for a balanced base. You wanted people to not steal your life essence, greater strength in combat, and the ability to overcome differences in strength. I gave you that with the lifeblood crystal, activated Nexus points, and abilities from other creatures]

'Honestly, that's fair. Carry on.' I said. That is what I wanted. I needed to remind myself that the system could read my mind. And acts on it, apparently.

"Ok, if I've already done the first level, what's the second one?" I said.

"Let's do a test first. I want to be able to show you the benefits of your training so it doesn't feel like you're just spinning your wheels," he said.

He got up and walked over to a machine in the corner of the room. It had a soft cushioned bullseye target on it. I assumed it was a punching machine.

"This machine will measure the force of your punches. I want you to hit it once now and then once after the second level of Vi Condensation," Elder Ravenkin said.

"Ok, here I go," I said.

I lined up with the machine and got into position to perform a cross punch with my right hand. I did this because the cross is the most powerful punch in boxing, meaning it generates the most force.

Although, I suppose any type of punch would do, since we were measuring how much my punch strength increased from cultivation rather than total power.

After getting in position, I breathed calmly, focused, and punched the target. My punch generated an extremely loud sound from the machine. The machine tilted back from the punch and slammed back down onto the ground, kicking up dust into the air and cracking the floorboards.

"50,000 lbs of force, or 22,680 kg. Not bad," he said.

"Thanks. How much can you do?" I said.

"Uh, we don't want to measure how much I can do. I have a much larger machine set up in the back of the mansion to measure my punches. If I punched this machine, it would crash through several walls and shoot out of the side of the mansion," he said, laughing.

"Oh. Something to look forward to I guess," I said. I had no doubt that I would reach his level someday. It was more a matter of whether I could get stronger fast enough to be ready for the fight with the dragons.

"Ok, now I want you to concentrate on a single Nexus point and imagine setting the liquid life essence within it on fire. Not literally on fire, but imagine the life essence transforming into a more volatile and powerful form, similar to fire. This form of energy is called Vitalus or Vi for short," he said.

When he said the word 'Vitalus' it triggered my memory of receiving the Vitalus pills from the announcer at the Outer Sect Disciple exam. I pulled out the pill bottle and said, "Will these help?"

He looked at the bottle and his eyes lit up, "Yes those will help, but if you want to use them, we'll have to use an accelerated process where I guide you through level 2 to level 7 of the Vi Condensation Stage all in one quick go. The reason for this is that those pills will turn all of the liquid life essence in your Nexus points into Vi very quickly, and you'll need to guide, stabilize, and connect the Vi in your Nexus points in very quick succession or you will be severely injured."

"Hmm. Do I need to do it the fast way if I want to be ready in time?" I said, weighing the risks.

"It would help a lot. We don't know if you'll be ready in time even with using an expedited method," he said.

"Ok, I'll do it," I said. I emptied the bottle of pills into my mouth and downed it with a mini water bottle I had in my pocket since the show I played right before Victoria turned me.

"I didn't say do it now! I was going to rehearse the steps with you!" he said, panicking.

Suddenly, my whole body felt like it was on fire. My skin felt like it was melting off, and my eyes were going to pop out of my head. "Oh sh*t! F*ck it, we'll do it live!"