"Let’s return then, it’s already close to seven in the evening," Yi Chen told Qin Yao while looking up at the sky that had darkened a little.
"Mhm," Qin Yao, who had been busy staring at Feng Min’s retreating figure, nodded, and the two started walking alongside each other.
"Did you enjoy your time with Miss Min?" Yi Chen asked with a teasing smile on his face.
Seeing Yi Chen like this, Qin Yao avoided meeting his eye and said while scratching the side of his face, "Well...It wasn’t bad."
He was clearly embarrassed to admit that he greatly enjoyed his time with Feng Min.
"I see, that’s good enough for now," Yi Chen didn’t probe any further, seeing his reaction and shifted the topic. Some things needed space to develop.
The two of them soon reached the residence, and after they were done with dinner and the follow-up tasks, they bid each other good night and went to their rooms.
"Now that my comprehension percentage has breached thirty-five per cent, I should try creating that fire ring as an attempt," Yi Chen muttered to himself.
He wanted to give it a try in the afternoon, but feeling that it would be better to do so at night, where the chances of him being disturbed were low, he had postponed it to now.
The next moment, he sat cross-legged on the ground and closed his eyes.
However, instead of controlling his innate Qi, he used his new understanding of the Crimson Fire Arts to control the Spiritual Qi around him.
Instead of absorbing the Fire Qi through his meridians, which would automatically separate the Fire Qi because of his spirit root’s pull, he needed to externally separate Fire Qi from the Spiritual Qi present around him and use it to form that ring of fire.
In the former, he had his meridians and spirit root to help in the Qi’s circulation. However, in the latter, he had nothing but his comprehension.
Therefore, it was easier said than done.
The creases that had formed on Yi Chen’s forehead deepened with time as he soon realised the difficulty of the task, and after meaninglessly struggling for an hour, he finally chose to give up.
"I can neither see nor touch it, so how can I separate it with just my will!" Yi Chen exclaimed in irritation.
At the same time, he repeated Elder Lei’s words in his mind.
’To affect nature by oneself, one needs to accept oneself as nature first...yea what the fuck does that even mean?’
Yi Chen snorted in irritation. He was also a little angry at himself for wasting a precious hour, and without dilly-dallying any further, he took out his spirit stones and, after laying them around, began cultivating.
As for when he would attempt to form that fire ring again? He chose not think about it and let it rest in the farthest corner of his mind.
’I’m not sleeping until I have refined three more meridians today!’ he exclaimed in his mind while tightly pressing his eyes to absorb Qi faster from those Spirit stones.
Refining four meridians was his daily limit. Beyond that, if he tried to refine meridians longer, he would feel an aching pain in his head symbolising that he had overtaxed himself.
It was only at half past three in the morning that Yi Chen called it a night and went to sleep.
The next day after waking up, Yi Chen followed the regular schedule of attending Elder Lei’s lessons, practising his swordsmanship, helping with housework and cultivating.
With the house supplies all stocked up in his ring, he didn’t need to go out of the residence for every small thing, and as a result was able to fully cultivate from late afternoon to late night.
It was the same with Qin Yao, who started seeing Yi Chen as a source of inspiration during this period and followed his training regimen.
Time passed, and it was soon the tenth day since Yi Chen had arrived at Elder Lei’s residence.
The moon was high in the sky, and Yi Chen was currently sitting inside his room with his eyes tightly shut.
Night passed peacefully, and it was only two hours after midnight that Yi Chen opened his eyes. An excited gaze was evident in his eyes as he glanced at the status panel in front of him.
=== Godly Cultivator System ===
Name: Yi Chen
Age: 18 years
Strength: 140 -> 150
Spiritual Qi: 0 / 34 -> 0 / 90 [Recovery Time: 20 days]
Cultivation: Second Level of [Meridian Refinement Stage]
Qi Nature: Fire
Innate Ability: Eye of Truth Lv1 [Progress: 920 / 100,000 EXP]
[Cultivation Arsenal]
=========== End ===========
"I’ve finally entered the second level!" Yi Chen clenched his fists in excitement and exclaimed.
However, he didn’t rejoice for long as there was still something he wanted to try before calling it a night.
Taking out nine new spirit stones, he placed them around him and began filling up his Qi pool.
During these few days of cultivation, he had come to an understanding that one low-grade spirit stone has enough Qi to fill his Qi pool by ten points.
So now that his Qi pool’s capacity has reached ninety points, it would take him 9 stones in one session to fill his Qi pool to the brim.
’It’s good that my rate of absorption has increased now that the total number of my refined meridians has increased to forty. If not, then things would have become quite tedious...’
He thought before shifting his focus back to what he was doing.
When the time was nearing three in the morning, he finally got up from his spot and rushed outside towards the courtyard.
Not wanting to wake Qin Yao, he ensured that his steps were as light as physically possible.
A few moments later, Yi Chen was standing in the courtyard and was firmly holding onto his sword’s grip with his eyes closed.
In front of him, there was a wooden dummy that he used to practice.