Li Meirong left her meditative state slowly, eyes still shut as her consciousness gradually resurfaced. Feng Huang had already been waiting a while for her to return, sitting on her lap.
The turtle demoness couldn't help but notice that as soon as Li Meirong had taken control over her powers, the dimension had stabilised. The area actually seemed brighter, and even better-looking, than it had before.
The air grew thick with spiritual essence. It became an even better place for cultivating. Feng Huang figured that if she were to cultivate here for a hundred years, it would have the same effect as if she had cultivated for a thousand inside the volcano!
Meanwhile, Li Meirong was stirring awake. Feng Huang's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when she saw the newly formed heavenly aura emanating from the human girl.
All of Li Meirong's impurities and injuries had disappeared, cuts and bruises fading to nothing. Everything about her appearance and presence became enhanced. Her skin took on a healthy glow and her hair, already dark and long, became longer and darker still.
This girl was some sort of… some sort of goddess, reincarnated!
She must find a way to embrace Li Meirong's heaven defying thighs!
Li Meirong's eyelashes fluttered as she slowly woke up. The first thing she saw was Feng Huang's shimmering red eyes, staring at her in deep reverence.
Well, the turtle had done a one-hundred-eighty degree turn in personality. The looks Li Meirong had received from her before were solely of undisguised disdain.
Li Meirong kept her thoughts to herself, as she was still incredibly thankful to the turtle for her help, and grabbed Feng Huang to lift her up to eye-level.
"Thank you for guiding me. I wouldn't have been able to reach the flame without you," said Li Meirong as she gave the turtle a quick peck on the top of her head.
"Don't mention it," Feng Huang giggled nervously, bashfully covering her face with her stubby feet. "It was nothing…"
Li Meirong breathed in deeply. She felt like her senses had been heightened, and perhaps they had. She could see farther, hear better. She could notice the cracks in Feng Huang's scales as though she inspected them with a magnifying glass. Her nose could even pick up the scent of the herbs outside, in the field.
She placed the cultivation scroll back in its place, and with one arm still holding the strangely-silent Feng Huang, she walked towards the shrine's rear entrance.
This dimension had deemed her the owner, and whether it was true or false, it meant she now had access to the entirety of the multi-storey building.
Furthermore, as the blue flames were coursing through her meridians, she could feel power brimming at her fingertips. She wanted to stay longer, to research, but she needed to get out of the volcano, find Snowball, and make sure she had truly escaped Sheng Jing Wu.
Li Meirong exited the building, and walked past a nearby pond, which was filled with giant red lobsters. A curious eyebrow arched as she wondered if the dimension was reshaping itself according to her demands.
Though, it was indeed a shame it couldn't provide her with a computer…
Shortly after passing the pond, she came across an empty meadow, and her footsteps halted as she figured this would be a good place to train.
Feng Huang was placed gently on the ground, a safe distance from where Li Meirong intended to practice. She went out into the middle of the barren field, and lifted a hand high in the air. One finger pointed towards the heavens and thumb free of the fist her remaining fingers made, creating a 'gun' shape with her hand.
Following the guidance of the beginner scroll's instructions, she visualized her energy focusing on the fingertip. She guided the qi, coursing throughout her body, to condense into a single point at the tip of her finger.
A ball of fire formed at her fingertip, blazing blue and burning hot.
She concentrated harder, shaping the little flame into an arrow pointing upwards. With a tap of her thumb to the side of her finger, the flame arrow flew straight up into the sky.
"This is fairly easy!" Li Meirong announced happily, and continued to experiment with her newfound abilities.
If her fellow disciples could have heard her, they would likely have coughed up blood from the sheer anger they would have felt at her careless words.
Quite happily unaware of that little fact, Li Meirong closed her eyes, deep in concentration. She immediately envisioned herself surrounded by four impenetrable walls.
Images of square shapes and vivid colours instantly formed what she wished for.
The walls were made of the toughest substance she could possibly think of, something which might have a chance of defending against the lava's searing temperature. She covered the walls with the most indestructible, resilient titanium, and imagined an additional several layers of walls, one after the other.
The walls soon changed, and materialized physically into the shape of a rocket, one made entirely of blue flames.
When Li Meirong opened her eyes, she found herself inside a see-through rocket made of blue flames. When she sniffed the air, there was a coppery, metallic smell.
"Interesting…" she mumbled.
Feng Huang, who had been spectating the entire time, was now certain of one thing: Li Meirong was definitely not human!
'And what happened to the flames just now? They have turned into such a strange shape!' the turtle thought in alarm.
The most frightening thing Feng Huang had just come to discover, though, was that Li Meirong's cultivated energy had reached the peak of Foundation Establishment.
The not so human girl had skipped the qi condensation stage entirely!
Feng Huang truly wanted to cry. After a thousand years, she was still unable to break through the narrow barrier between the peak of qi condensation stage and the foundation establishment stage.
Every cultivator knew that harnessing internal energy was, at its most basic level, spiritual growth. Cultivation, like a mortal's life-cycle, had developmental stages. Some cultivators were never able to pass through some of those stages, and only a select few were able to gain immortality and join the ranks of the gods.
Qi Condensation was the beginner's stage. It had nine layers that must be passed through before it was possible to ascend to a higher level.
Moving through the stages required innate ability, a tremendous amount of effort, and an incredible level of good luck. It wasn't something that a cultivator could just decide to do.
After Qi Condensation came Foundation Establishment, also with nine layers, each harder to reach than the previous.
Oh, and as for Li Meirong? She had somehow hopped from nothing to the end of that second stage like it was no big deal!
"Well, I think I'm ready! Feng Huang, I'm going to leave this dimension now. Are you coming?" Li Meirong's question had the turtle snapping out of her daze. She hovered over to the strange, cheating cultivator.
"Wait a minute! You must let me join you." Feng Huang declared; her voice full of determination. She was never letting go of this golden goose!
Li Meirong looked at the sparkling turtle in contemplation, taking a moment to think on the matter.
'Master, don't!' a familiar voice rang out in her head.
A tiny, carnivorous plant hopped right out of Li Meirong's sleeve, onto the dry ground of the meadow.