Heaven Awaits in Hell

A week passed.

Zion's familiarity with Qi continued to increase.

Qi could be imagined as an invisible mist. This mist, when it enters Zion's body, is guided to a place under his belly button.

This place is where the Qi gets stored and could be imagined as a cup.

When the mist enters this cup, most of it gets pushed back up and exits Zion's body when he exhales. The part of the mist which didn't get pushed back converts into water and stays in the cup.

Similarly, the Qi was now present in liquid form inside Zion's body.

However, even after a week of religious practice, the amount of Qi within Zion was only one per cent of that cup's capacity.

"This doesn't make sense," Zion muttered in frustration.

From the information he had, this process shouldn't be so slow. A normal person should take only two months to fill the Qi in their body. Which meant that in a month, one should be halfway there.

However, with the rate at which the Qi was being stored in Zion's body, it would take him more than a year just to reach the halfway point.

"Am I doing something wrong?" Zion went through the instructions for practising the Qi Building Level for the fourth time this week, but the result was the same.

He was unable to pinpoint just what the problem was.

This realisation didn't make him give up, but instead he started forcing himself to absorb Qi for longer.

'If it's slow, then I'll make it fast! Now that I have a clear path ahead, how can I give up?' Zion thought with determination.

Three hours used to be his limit, but now with each passing day, Zion was forcing himself to break past it.

A month quietly passed.

Zion's internal Qi continued to increase slowly and now had reached five per cent capacity.

Although low but it was enough for Zion to try out a move he couldn't quite remove from his mind.

Early in the morning, when almost nobody was awake, Zion's figure silently approached a tree a few meters away from his home.

Its girth was just enough for a grown man to fully wrap his arms around it.

Standing in front of the tree, Zion first took a very deep breath and closed his eyes. In his mind, the memory of the man in red robes appeared.

Zion thought back to every detail he could remember from that brief memory. The way the man stood, the way he breathed, the way he attacked.

The things which he was unable to notice before started becoming clearer to him. All of a sudden, it felt as if he became one with the person in the image for a couple of seconds, and everything became crystal clear to him.

'So that's how…' Zion muttered in enlightenment. He didn't know why or how it happened, but he was not going to waste this golden opportunity.

The next moment, Zion took the fighting stance similar to the one the man had taken and did what the man had done.

'Raise it as you breathe in and emit as you breathe out…'

Zion took a deep breath. The Qi resting inside him stirred and started rising. It felt as if the Qi had become one of his limbs, which he could freely control, and so he moved it.

By the time Zion had filled his lungs, his Qi was already accumulating over his right hand.

However, because of how little Qi Zion had inside him, it only appeared as a faint reddish layer around his hand.

Zion wasn't disappointed with this result but instead grew excited. As he breathed out, the next moment his fist punched the tree's trunk with all its might.

Tud!

"Argh!" Zion wanted to shout in pain, but managed to suppress it with a painful groan.

He gazed at his aching hand, which was trembling from the pain. He tried opening and closing his fist and finally sighed when he realised that nothing was broken.

'Did I do any damage?' His gaze was immediately directed towards the tree's trunk.

Zion's eyes widened in amazement. There was a centimetre deep dent which was the same shape as his fist on the tree's trunk.

"Yes!" Zion clenched his fists tightly and cheered for himself.

Even though it couldn't be compared to the red-robed man's punch but Zion knew that this achievement of his already surpassed what a normal human could do.

If any of the villagers attempted something similar, then they would have crushed their bones, and the trunk would have barely shown any denting.

"Who's there?!" Zion's shout had alerted the nearby people.

Not wanting to engage with them and spoil his mood, Zion immediately rushed back to his home under the cover of the morning mist.

At home, he finally analysed everything.

While it was true that his earlier punch was the most powerful in the whole village, it was also true that he could use it only once.

Zion tried to feel the inner Qi inside his body, and just like he had guessed. It was all empty.

This sobered Zion up. He was still a long way from fulfilling his goal, but he was all the more determined to do it.

'I had finally seen a glimpse of the future I want. How could I quit now?' Zion thought and eliminated all the little doubts in his mind.

The next moment, the first rays of the sun passed through his windows and fell on the wooden floor.

Seeing this, Zion soon busied himself with his daily schedule.

Another uneventful month passed. It had been four months since Zion had started this journey.

After finishing his morning training and freshening up, Zion soon left his house.

There were flower decorations hung alongside the main path, and everyone Zion passed by was in a good mood today.

It was clear today was a special occasion. Everyone in the village knew about it, and so did Zion.

"I've heard that the hunters have discovered a new site and are planning to hunt a large game today," An old man was discussing with his other friends outside a tea stall.

"You're right. My son is also going on the hunt with the bride's father. He said that they plan to hunt a wolf king and give it as a betrothal gift to the village head tonight," Another old man added.

Zion acted as if he didn't hear them and kept walking. Soon, he reached his fields located near the centre of the village and began with his morning inspection.