The next morning, Tang Hao awoke from his cultivation and saw that it was morning, "Wow, cultivating sure is like sleeping, it didn't feel long but it's already morning. I sure feel refreshed though, but man it smells" he thought
"Ah!" he shouted "Did I get a marrow cleansing last night? No wonder it smells, I need to take a shower and change the bed sheets" he thought internally
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After taking a shower and changing his bed sheets, Tang Hao started changing into his training gear. He then looked at himself in the mirror and said whilst smiling wryly "Wow! I didn't notice this before but, my skin is flawless like jade and as soft as a baby... I look even more like a girl then I did previously."
As he finished changing, he went downstairs for breakfast, surprising both his parents with his skin. His mother said "Wow son, I'm quite jealous of your skin, your already handsome face became even more handsome. Looks like you'll be popular with the girls."
His father said humorously "Xue er, haha don't tease our son, even without the change in his skin he would be able to get girls anywhere he goes, after all he took after me."
Su Xue replied "As if, his looks were from me, you should go take a look at a mirror."
"Alright father, mother, I took after both of you, no need to argue. I'm going to go cultivate now." Tang Hao said
"Sure thing, I'll see you in a bit to explain the cultivation stages" Tang Dong replied
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As he arrived in his room, Tang Hao sat down crossed legged in a lotus position on his bed. He then proceeded to recite the verse of the Heaven Sealing Technique
Whilst he was cultivating, within his mind, a vast and empty space appeared as he woke (in his mind). Within the darkness of the space, Tang Hao saw a small drop of water, however the drop of water was purple, the same color as his quirk.
He thought "This must be my spiritual sea, where all my qi is stored, it's quite small compared to how I imagined but I guess it's normal considering I just started cultivating."
After a while, Tang Dong came into Tang Hao's room and put his consciousness into Tang Hao's spiritual sea. Tang Hao suddenly saw his father within his spiritual sea and said "Ah!? father you scared me.. But look there's a drop of water, father do you know why it seems to be less than what the novels have said?"
Tang Dong replied "Hmm, indeed it is quite strange that your spiritual sea only contains a single drop of water, but it's quite interesting that that single drop is purple and holds a vast amount of qi comparable to someone who has cultivated to the 4th stage of the qi condensation stage. Son your a genius indeed."
"Really? Since I can hold that much qi with just a drop, once it becomes as large as a pond or greater, than I would basically have endless qi to use. Father what are the stages of cultivation?" Tang Hao asked
"Alright, the stages are as follows from the bottom to the top" He replied
Xiantian
Qi Condensation
Foundation Establishment
Core Formation
Golden Core
Nascent Soul
Spirit Severing
Ascension
Each stage has a total of 9 layers and there are bottle necks between the 3 and 4th layer and the 6th and 7th within each stage, there s also the bottleneck at the 9th layer of every stage
"Son, yesterday when u started cultivating, you absorbed all the qi within a 1 km radius and directly skipped the xiantian stage and went into the first layer Qi Condensation. Since you skipped an entire realm, you need to consolidate your cultivation so that it doesn't affect your foundation and future breakthroughs." He continued
"What!? I skipped an entire realm? For now I'll circulate the qi around my dantian before moving it around each meridian" Tang Hao shouted
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After a while, Tang Hao awoke from his cultivation and saw his father sitting in front of him.
"Father, why are you just sitting there? Don't you have to go to work?" Tang Hao asked
"It's fine, I finished all the work for the next 3 days just last night." Tang Dong replied
"Oh, but that doesn't explain why you need to sit in front of me." Tang Hao said
"Well, I don't really have anything else to do, so I guess we can cultivate together then? Right now I'm in the 4th stage of the Golden Core stage, I can defeat some ordinary cultivators at the 6th stage of the Golden Core realm, it will take a while before I can make a breakthrough" Tang Dong said
"Father your pretty strong, you can even fight people two layers above you aren't you a genius? How long did it take you to get to your level?" Tang Hao asked
"Within my clan, I was known as one of the top geniuses, it took me around 20 or so years, however I was injured a decade or so ago and couldn't make any progress, taking in only 1/100 of the qi I absorb" Tang Dong said with a stern expression
"Injured? What happened father?" Tang Hao asked worriedly
"For now just focus on consolidating your foundation, and cultivating, you won't be able to deal with it even if you knew" Tang Dong replied
"Alright then, once I get strong enough I will get revenge for you!" Tang Hao said before starting to cultivate again
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In his cultivation state, Tang Hao circulated his single drop of qi inside the dantian making a full rotation before proceeding to his meridians. Within the human body there are 8 extraordinary meridians which act as reservoirs for the circulation of qi and the 12 principle meridians that associate with the internal organs
As he goes through each of the 8 extraordinary meridians, Tang Hao discovers that his qi is slowly increasing with each rotation
After a while, Tang Hao heard his mother call him down for dinner. At the dinner table, Tang Dong noticed the increase in Tang Hao's qi. He said to his son "Hao er, your qi is substantially greater than before you can almost form a second drop soon."
"Yea, I'm not sure why, although I didn't absorb anymore qi, every time I circulated it, my qi increased slowly" Tang Hao replied
Tang Dong said "This must be your body automatically refining all the qi you absorbed yesterday, making your qi more condensed."
"Alright, it's time for dinner enough talking about cultivation" Su Xue said displeased
"Ah yea sorry mother" Tang Hao replied
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After dinner, Tang Hao went to the training room to practice the Tang Sect's arts. When it was 12am, Tang Hao went to his room to cultivate until the next morning