Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

Bathed in the red and orange glow of the setting sun, I played with my new money pouch. The tiny Spirit Stone Shards were jingling delightfully inside it. Enough money to last me a month if I spent it sparingly.

I took out one of the tiny white Spirit Shards and held it between my fingers in the dimming yellow light. It was barely bigger than a grain of rice, yet contained such value. Each of them was precisely the same as the others, eight exactly the same and perfectly straight sides of an elongated octahedron.

What was a Spirit Stone anyway? Or a Spirit Shard in this case. A simple white crystal? I didn’t think so. Holding the piece in my palm I focused on it. As my consciousness sank into it, all was immediately revealed. Inside was Qi, extremely pure Qi.

I tried to nudge it into action, and it was surprisingly easy. Curious, I pulled out a strand of it without any resistance. But! As soon as it left the containment of the crystal, I had to hold myself back from gasping loudly. It was so dense, so pure, so… powerful!

It was just a tiny strand of Qi, but at the same time, it was so damn difficult to keep it contained! My mind strained under the pressure of this Qi. Only containing a tiny little bit was a monumental task, and I was failing at it spectacularly!

I could see the Qi begin to sublimate and dissipate despite my best efforts as its purity became lesser, and its density declined as well while its volume increased. Soon enough it no longer felt solid, but instead like a deflated balloon a week after a party.

And yet, when I was finally able to contain what was left with my mind alone, the Qi still felt purer, stronger, and better than my own. I tried to absorb it, and immediately I felt my Soul calling for it. I had to do nothing except let it go, and it was consumed like it was the most delicious meal ever.

No refinement was required, no compression, nothing! My Soul felt as if it released a satisfied sigh, and I just sat on the ground, enjoying the experience.

A while later, I opened my eyes once more and looked at the Spirit Stone Shard in my hand. It looked the same brilliantly white as ever and in pristine condition. But, as I compared it to another, the difference was clear. The used piece of crystal was a slightly darker shade of dazzling whiteness, and it also didn’t feel right as I looked at it. It felt incomplete. That’s because it was.

I stored away the Spirit Shards and went back on the road, keeping the used one tightly in my hand.

What I have just discovered left me with countless questions. It most likely wasn’t a secret that Spirit Stones contained extremely high-grade Qi, no, that was probably why they were even used as currency in the first place.

Energy. What better thing to use to trade stuff than pure magical energy? There had to be a way to fill these Aether crystals with this extremely pure Qi, probably by Cultivators in much higher Realms. At least, that was my best guess. I had no chance of doing it, I knew that much, and I bet even those in Nascent Soul couldn’t do it. There wasn’t that much of the Soul strength difference between us.

Golden Core Realm perhaps, or possibly even higher? I didn’t know what came after that. Not like I needed to anyway, as I was still far from it.

I came back to my house with my mind full of questions and conjectures. If it wasn’t for Spirit Accumulation Ream upgrading my thinking capacity, my brain would surely be fried already.

So, if I had to summarize my guesses…

Spirit Shards contained extremely high-grade Qi that could be directly used for Cultivation, with no preparation required. However, that was only for those that could keep the Qi from decaying into lower forms, most likely only for those in Nascent Soul and above, otherwise, they would lose too much when extracting it.

Then again… Even they would probably lose quite a bit of energy. So, maybe Golden Core and above? Could be… Hard to tell.

Now, the next question… Could this Qi make stronger constructs? A weapon for example, or armor? That was something I really wanted to know, and there was only one way to find out.

I extracted another strand of Qi and let it decay into a lower form. I had no chance of shaping it when it was at its full power, heck, I couldn’t even hold it together. There was no point in even trying.

Some of it escaped my grasp, but this time I was ready and had a good bit of it left, and it was definitely a higher grade than my Spirit Accumulation Qi.

With great effort I changed its form, the tiny strand of Qi straightened and I shaped it into a cylinder and then compressed it as much as I could until it formed a long needle. It was as simple as I could make it, and even then it was nearly above my capability.

Drops of sweat fell off my brow as I focused 110% of my attention on the pure magical construct in my hand. It seemed stable. I took a deep breath and then thrust it forward and stabbed into a wall.

There was resistance, but the needle sunk into the solid stone for at least a centimeter. In ecstasy, I pushed harder, excited to see how far it could go. But, as I exerted more strength, my concentration wavered for a split second, and the needle broke, immediately dissipating into the surrounding air.

[Damn it...]

I collapsed back on the bed. That was exhausting! But I managed to confirm one thing. Higher grades of Qi could indeed make the magical constructs increasingly solid. I could just imagine what some Elders could do with their powers.

Could they make weapons so strong and indestructible that the edge of a blade could be one atom thick? Or even less than that? They could then easily slice through any material as if it wasn’t even there, right? A scary thought to be sure.

As I lay on my bed and stared at the ceiling, I was gasping for air. This entire day was exhausting, especially the last few hours… but man, it was worth it!

If anyone asked me if I would do it again despite knowing the strain on my mind… Heck yeah, I would! Advanced Cultivation knowledge FTW!

I didn’t remember falling asleep, it just happened suddenly. But as I awoke the following day, and my mind was refreshed, I realized another crucial thing.

Since magic became more efficient the higher the Realms went, that meant the same pitiful amount of Qi could be stretched a lot further. And then as Qi became more concentrated and went up in quality, that meant a much smaller amount could achieve the same result… right?

In other words, if a Mortal needed 10 Qi for a single spell, his Spirit Accumulation self could later do the same magic for just 1 Qi, perhaps even less. And since the quality of his Qi probably increased even further in the Nascent Soul and Golden Core Realm, he could achieve the same effect with but a fraction of a point of Qi. Even if the amount of Qi in his body never changed, which was unlikely for as far as I could tell, he could still use 100 or 1.000 times more magic.

As wild beasts grew and became stronger, the Qi their cores could store quickly increased. So, after a human began Body Cultivation, that was most likely when he could begin changing his cells to contain more Qi as well. It made sense. How else could they become stronger if not by passively holding onto more of this mystical magic power?

I never noticed it much since I had such ridiculously large Qi stores, but my energy levels never dipped below 90% ever since I began my Cultivation. Even flying around felt insanely easy compared to just a few months prior. Except when I Cultivated, of course, there I used up nearly all of my Qi, but even then it refilled extremely quickly. Another odd fact.

I dare to say that my recovery speed was faster than many, if not all Nascent Soul Senior Disciples. I could not confirm it, but it was my educated guess based on the amount of time they need to recover, which was counted in hours, when Cultivating. And meditation speed up Qi absorption, so yeah…

My Soul was odd indeed.

But why speculate when I could probably just ask and get the correct answer?

I made my way towards the only pair of Inner Disciples I knew, Ren Kong and his girl, Lilly. To be fair, I didn’t even know if they were married or just lovers, but that didn’t matter. They were in the Sect for decades already, so they were bound to know some answers.

When I came to the pill shop, I had to wait in line as a few customers were already there. I didn’t come for pills, but even then, I was curious about what they were dealing with.

“Here you go, five Minor Soul-Locking Pills. Make sure to use them carefully.”

“Thanks, Lilly, you are a lifesaver!” The Disciple handed over a fistful of Spirit Shards and Lilly counted them before storing them away with a smile.

After him came another man and handed over a small bundle of herbs and a pile of Spirit Shards.

“For the Beastly Blood Pills, please.” He spoke quietly.

“Oh, you finally gathered them all?” Lilly asked as she examined the herbs. “These are all really good quality!”

“Yes, it took me a while.” The guy’s expression was grim like he was experiencing some hard problems, but even then his mood couldn’t help but improve as he was talking with the girl. He even showed a little smile.

“Good! You can come back in a week to get them.”

“Thank you.” He performed a cupped fist and bow combo and then went away. I could hear him sigh loudly as he walked past me. As I wondered what the hell he was going through, it already became my turn.

“Next!”

[Hey, Lilly! You make pills to order?] I posed a question that interested me to Lilly even though that wasn’t why I was there.

“What? Oh, Gerald!” She greeted me enthusiastically. “Yes, we can make whatever pills people like, up to a certain point, of course. They just have to provide the herbs and a small fee if it's some rare concoction. It’s cheaper for them and less of a pain for us when sourcing ingredients.” She looked at me mischievously. “I also got some pills that accelerate growth if you are interested.”

[Lilly!] Damn it, woman, don’t mock me! I made the mistake of once mentioning the fact that my size bothered me and then I got this woman, who looked like a young gal, teasing me. Damn this Cultivation that makes you look decades younger! And damn my child-like body!

“Hee-hee!” He covered her mouth as she giggled at me. “What are you here for then?”

I mentally sighed and calmed my emotions. I came with a purpose! [Is Senior Brother Ren here?]

Lilly shook her head. “I’m afraid not. You will probably find him at one of the arenas sparring with some of his friends. Or in a bar drinking. If it’s the latter tell him that I need his help.” She winked at me at the last part. I simply nodded.

I wanted to say that I understood the last part, but honestly, I had no idea. Maybe I was imagining things?

A bunch of dirty thoughts ran through my head, with one that bugged me since the beginning. For example, how do they do it? Senior Ren Kong was such a massive specimen of a man, nearly twice the size of Lilly. So if everything on his body was in proportion to his massive stature…

Yup, not even going there. Distraction demons begone!

I made my way through the sect, visiting many plazas where Disciples did their mock battles. I would have loved to stay and watch them perform their Martial Arts, but I had a giant to find.

Luckily it wasn’t too hard to do so. The man stood out in a crowd no matter how you looked at it. Senior Ren Kong only kept his pants and boots while he exercised, revealing his huge back and chest muscles to the world.

His arms already looked thick under his clothes, but seeing them in the sun like that, they looked like tree trunks of decades-old oak trees, with twisting veins the size of earthworms under his skin.

Two Disciples placed a massive metal plate onto a stand and tied it down with thick chains. At the first glance, the metal plate was about 15 centimeters thick and I was wondering what the heck they were doing, all the way until Senior Ren took the all too familiar stance.