Dual threads
Taking a piece to his mouth, Ling Xu had to chew with effort as it was still very hard even though it softened after being cooked.
Enjoying the flavor from the meat, he felt his body suddenly become stimulated once the first piece of meat was completely swallowed down.
"I didn't expect the beast's meat to have this effect, I should cultivate after eating all of it."
After half an hour he left the plate with nothing left. Ling Xu felt his body burning with the tonic effect from the meat and he immediately started cultivating.
…
This refining lasted until it was three in the morning.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 4th stage of Blood Qi (38%)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 2%), Existence Shadow Will (4,87%)
[Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), White Heavy Strike (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade)
"The speed slowed down a lot after entering the fourth stage, it feels so difficult to refine the organs. Not only do I need a lot of blood qi to help refining them but I have to be very delicate with it or I might cause an internal injury."
He said as he realized the difficulty of refining his body from the fourth stage onwards. The organs are very delicate and Ling Xu had to be more careful while circulating his blood qi.
While before it barely took him half an hour to complete and enter the peak of the third stage, now Ling Xu had to refine his organs for several hours to complete almost twenty percent of the fourth stage.
"At least the progress can be felt, not only my skin but my internal organs have become stronger than before."
He felt inside his body and realized that although the progress was slower than before, it was worth it.
…
A few days passed and Ling Xu maintained a routine of having breakfast, going out for a long walk and then enjoying the taste of the beast's meat. Afterwards he would enter meditation and start refining his organs for several hours.
Now he was in the middle of breaking through to the fifth stage of Blood Qi.
Circulating his blood qi as the Basic Blood Circulation technique guided, Ling Xu felt his organs absorbing it continuously. After a few more minutes his organs suddenly started bursting with energy as he felt he had advanced to the fifth stage of Blood Qi.
"This feels very different from when I advanced in the previous stages and my muscles became stronger, I feel as if my resistance has increased and even my skin has become harder."
Ling Xu took out the small dagger he had almost no use for and tried to slowly press against his skin.
Not feeling like he was hurting himself he slowly increase his strength on the dagger until he saw a cut.
"Although I can't completely resist low grade weapons, unless I receive the full blow from someone in my current stage I won't have a problem blocking them with my bare hand."
Ling Xu decided to enjoy the rest of the day as he had broken through after waking up, feeling eager as he knew that he was about to advance and he couldn't wait until it was night time.
The rest of the day was the same as ever as Ling Xu took a walk outside. He even tested his endurance as he started running at full speed in the street.
Ling Xu run as fast as many cars after having surpassed the limits of the human body since he entered the second stage of Blood Qi.
Still, there were some that he couldn't follow as they were going way over the speed limit of 80 kilometers per hour.
After running for an hour Ling Xu stopped to rest as he had reached his limit, several people looked at him afraid or shocked at his speed as they started to move away from him.
Now that almost a week had passed, people had started to come out of their houses as they couldn't live without food and water, so the majority of Chengdu's citizens resumed their work.
It was quite difficult as there were several cases of fighting, but the government made some arrangements and punished those who started the fight in cases where they caused harm to others.
Ling Xu didn't care about that as he had left his part time job in a store, having enough money to sustain himself for the next year.
If he stayed with his job he would have been able to sustain himself for another year but he knew that in such a long time many things would change and right now his top priority was to become strong and advance in his realm.
…
Two days passed and Ling Xu was cultivating normally as he got accustomed to for the last week since he got out of the tutorial.
He was becoming more proficient in refining his organs with delicacy as his refining speed started to increase once again.
About to end the time he set himself for cultivation, Ling Xu felt something.
"Is it what I think it is?"
He calmed his breathing when a stream of energy started to enter his body, Ling Xu remembered what happened after he had completely let go the last time so he stopped trying to control his body and he felt as it followed its own rhythm.
Between Ling Xu's eyes, the golden energy was entering and completely bathing his body as his refining speed was increasing.
Not only was his realm progressing but his mastery of the Basic Blood Circulation technique started advancing too.
This continued for a complete hour as Ling Xu came back to his senses once again.
He felt the path between his eyes close and the energy that came out of it slowly decrease until there was no more.
"Incredible, I thought it would take me another week to enter the sixth stage of Blood Qi but after the path between my eyes opened once again I only needed one hour to do so. Now I know that this ability needs time to activate, I just need to wait."
Ling Xu then took out his small dagger and tested the toughness of his skin once again.
He became excited as he got a small mark that could barely be called a cut after using his whole strength. Now, unless he was attacked by someone above his realm or with a higher grade weapon, Ling Xu felt confident that he wouldn't be hurt.
He didn't even need to use Copper Skin Iron Bones to resist normal attacks anymore as his skin was tough enough.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 6th stage of Blood Qi (29%)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 62%), Existence Shadow Will (6,31%)
[Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), White Heavy Strike (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade)
"Amazing, even my mastery on my cultivation technique has increased. After practicing for the last few days I barely saw it increase from two to five percent. If I didn't have this ability I would have never been able to bring it this far."
Having entered the sixth stage finally, Ling Xu decided that it was time to practice the Blood Thread Transformation technique.
"I will read through the manual again in case I forgot something."
…
"Ufff…"
It took him three hours to completely read through the manual again as it was quite extensive. But as it was his second time reading it, he took less than half the time it took him to read it before as he had already understood the content.
"Fortunately I read through it again or else I would have forgot a few important steps."
Now that Ling Xu had the technique fresh in his mind he was ready to start practicing it.
Assuming the lotus position, Ling Xu's blood qi circulated as it made a wild sound. Having completed more than half the level of mastery great success and with his current blood qi capacity, you could hear it running wildly inside his body.
He calmed his breathing and focused his mind inside his body, ready to start the first step of condensing his blood qi.
Using his control over his blood qi, Ling Xu started separating it. Two string of blood qi slowly begun to differentiate as they started to move separately.
Everything seemed to progress smoothly until Ling Xu lost focus for a moment and his blood qi merged again into one stream.
Time passed and Ling Xu realized the difficulty of practicing a technique compared to the skills that didn't need any practice as they were completely learned and you could use them instinctively.
"Again."
A few hours passed and Ling Xu had finally been able to divide his focus between both threads of blood qi without any of them losing control and merging again.
The end of this step was to replicate this until all the blood qi inside his body was divided into two threads of blood qi. Doing this required the help of the heart that with its strength and pressure it would allow for the beginning division he had already made to continue until it connected with it again after completing the whole circulation of his body.
This part would need quite the consumption of his blood qi, so Ling Xu knew that this step wouldn't be completed un just a day or two.
…
After five whole days of being completely immersed in dividing his blood qi into two separate threads, Ling Xu managed to complete the first stage of the Blood Thread Transformation technique.
He had to take almost ten hours every day where he repeated the cycle of using his blood qi to help in the consumption of energy from his heart while dividing the rest of it into two separate threads, resting his heart as this action put quite the strain on it and then enhancing the speed of recovery of his blood qi by following the technique contained in his Basic Blood Circulation technique.
After all, refining his body and recovering his blood qi needed two completely different types of circulation. Fortunately, it all was contained in his cultivation technique, otherwise it would have been very difficult for Ling Xu to complete this stage after five days.
Still, this wasn't the stage of the technique that would need a large consumption of his blood qi ,as it was made of three stages and with every increase in stage the consumption of blood qi would increase exponentially.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 6th stage of Blood Qi (29%)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 62%), Existence Shadow Will (7,31%)
[Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (first stage 100%)
[Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), White Heavy Strike (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade)
"I can't believe it took so long to complete this first stage, and from the technique's explanation, the time it will take to complete the next stages will increase several times more."
Although he said it with some dissatisfaction, Ling Xu's face showed joy as he was motivated feeling the new changes that brought the completion of the first stage.
Feeling now that he had two separate streams of blood qi, Ling Xu felt his control over them increase as if one thread complemented the other.
He even started circulating his blood qi not with the intention to refine his body but to further progress in his level of mastery as he became surprised.
After a whole hour of comprehending it, Ling Xu finally saw some progress in his cultivation technique.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 6th stage of Blood Qi (29%)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 63%), Existence Shadow Will (7,31%)
[Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (first stage 100%)
[Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), White Heavy Strike (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade)
You have to know that before, after refining his organs for an entire week, Ling Xu had barely managed to progress from 2% to 5%. But now, in just one hour he managed to progress 1%.
Considering that the higher the level of mastery the more difficult it is to progress, Ling Xu's current 1% progress was equal or even higher than his progress over the first week.
So for the next day, Ling Xu set his goal to deepen his comprehension of his cultivation technique to add some variety to his routine. Afterwards he would resume on starting the second stage of the Blood Thread Transformation technique.
…
Being at the end of his second week since he returned from the tutorial, Ling Xu felt like it was becoming more and more distant and he almost doubted if it even happened.
But seeing the posts on the internet and the changes that the world was going through, he could do nothing more than accept the truth.
Fortunately, the government was well organized and every day there were less and less instances of fighting between the citizens.
Either way, Ling Xu remained almost half his day on isolated training so he didn't have that much knowledge about the situation in his own country.