Breakthrough

The very next second Shaan appeared into the familiar apocalyptic world.

He appeared in the same abandoned building from where he teleported last time.

"Hmm, so it seems the place of teleportation between these different worlds is fixed at a particular point."

"From now on while jumping between worlds, I must choose a safe place for teleportation."

Shaan made a strong determination in his heart.

"That team of Sabrina, Alice, Mark etc must still be in the city centre, it's better to avoid their eyes and test my hypothesis on the outskirts of the city."

"Hehe, my dear zombies, here I come."

In excitement, Shaan rushed to the periphery of the desolate city. 

Soon he found a group of zombies.

There were about 50 zombies just wandering aimlessly, probably trying to find a source of life to feed upon.

From the makeshift backpack on her back, he took out the artifact he had bought with borrowed money- Ever Tying Rope.

With just one command, the ever-tying rope started enlarging and rushed to the group of zombies, the next moment it encircled the group before tying and squeezing all the zombies into a narrow circle, isolating and suppressing their actions altogether. 

From a slight distance, Shaan holding the other end of the rope felt elated with the artifact's work.

"This is good, I can't let those zombies bite me, I still don't have the cure for the virus. With this ever-tying rope, these zombies are just like dragging some lifeless puppets for me."

A wide smile bloomed upon Shaan's face.

After making sure the zombies were trapped by the artifact, holding the other end of the rope, he dragged all the zombies to another secluded building.

This building was quite tall and had about 20 floors.

Shaan chose the highest floor as her temporary base camp. 

He took out all the things from his makeshift backpack.

It contained some cheap ready-made formation flags, some offensive and defensive talismans, two days of food, a big broken piece of a mirror, and the milky zombie nucleus he obtained earlier.

He looked at the first-order zombie nucleus he had obtained from Sabrina's group previously by exchanging a loaf of bread.

It was time to verify his thoughts, he didn't have to worry about his body exploding as he already had a lot of food to mitigate the zombie nucleus's side effects. 

Without hesitation, he ate the zombie nucleus and started chewing, the taste was bitter but chewable.

Closing his eyes, Shaan gulped down the nucleus in one go. As soon as the zombie nucleus entered his stomach, it instantly dissolved giving off a pure form of energy.

The unfamiliar energy quickly started integrating into his physique, it started running violently between his meridians and half-open dantian.

Shaan blindly followed Sabrina's instructions regarding swallowing the nucleus forgetting the other person was not from the cultivation world having no concept of things like dantian and Qi Gathering.

"Nooo!"

"If my meridians and dantian are damaged, then how will I practise cultivation?"

With the previous body's painstaking efforts over the years, Shaan's dantian was already half opened, and as long it was completely opened, Shaan would immediately step into Qi Gathering First Stage.

Taken aback by the sudden situation, Shaan with no option left, hastily started practising the default general cultivation manual of her sect Eternal Palace.

This was something provided openly to all the people belonging to the sect.

Perhaps it was Shaan's sheer unwillingness or his relentless craziness, the Gods had mercy on him.

As soon as he started practising the general cultivation manual, the unfamiliar energy which was rampaging wild in his body started to calm down. Slowly and steadily, it was automatically guided into his half-opened dantian bringing about an unprecedented change.

Instead of the usual Qi, Shaan's dantian started filling with the pure energy released by the zombie nucleus. 

And at that time, the long-awaited change finally happened!

Shaan's dantian completely opened, and he could feel a newfound surge in her strength.

Compared to before, he could feel an enormous amount of energy circulating inside her body, like a dam waiting to burst open.

Taking a deep breath, he calmed down his agitated emotion.

With a deep emotion, he gently opened her closed eyes, his lips arched into a wide grin.

"Hahaha!"

"Is this what it feels like to enter the first Qi Gathering stage?"

The barrier separating normal martial artists and regular cultivators is shallow but one of the hardest to cross. 

"At last, this Shaan Singh has embarked on his Immortal Cultivation Road!"

His eyes were filled with tears, before his death, back on earth, he used to spend his leisure time reading those cultivation novels always feeling envious, now finally it was his turn.

His road from Earth to Heaven had officially started!

But he knew it was still not the time for celebration, there were other important things still waiting for him to take care of. 

From his supplies, he took out half of the ready-made formation flags and used them to arrange a small blood-refining pool. 

Then with the remaining formation flags, he laid out a small isolation barrier to prevent the things being refined from escaping. 

 Keeping one zombie for further research and experiments, with an excited expression, he threw all the zombies into the newly formed refining pool.

Instantaneously, cries and shrieks of the various zombies were heard as their bodies and bones started dissolving.

Soon the small refining pool Shaan had arranged turned to the colour of dark red and started giving off a creepy and gloomy vibe.

"Phew, all of this is so tiring!"

Shaan wiped off the small beads of sweat that formed over her forehead.

"Now, it's the time to make or break!"

"Let me recall those taboo practices I have learned in the Research Podium."

Closing his eyes, Shaan started recalling all the four forbidden practices she was lucky to read in the sect's warehouse.

[The Way to the Underworld for body refining!]

[The Path to Eternal Damnation for soul cultivation!]

[Resentment Mirror details for making a strong weapon.]

[Undead Monarach for raising dead zombies as corpse slaves that will obediently act as her little assistants completing all her trivial tasks.]