Rick let the thigh roast itself while he played with a purple, small ball in his hand. It was the beast core. From Shi Rong's memories, there were several tier of beast core, and the purple colored ones could be considered to be the best of them. Purple, blue, golden and the last one was white. They are found inside a Spirit Beasts' body.
The Cores are generally either sold for money, used to craft magical items, or consumed by a cultivator to boost their cultivation. There is a large amount of life energy in them that it could help boost your cultivation.
'No, don't concert it yet. Since it is a purple core, then it should be worth a lot.' Rick contemplated and decided to keep it. A top grade beast core should be worth something, right?
Rick opened his shop and purchased a kilogram of salt. The four were main product of the system, and there were other sub products, so basically, he could buy anything from his previous world. That was how the system was named, following that pattern, when the system leaves Rick, or if Rick dies, the last world he was in will become the origin of the system's product.
He pinch some of it and slowly scattered it on to the roasted meat. Fragrance from the meat wafted and spread throughout the surroundings. Rick's throat started to go dry and patiently waited for the right time. Oil from the fat dripped one by one, finally, Rick removed the delicious looking thigh from the fire and placed it on top of a tree trunk table that he just made.
He gently sliced the tender juicy meat and immediately swallowed a piece. His eyes shone and continued slicing the meat piece by piece.
"So good!" This was the most delicious food that he had in a long time. If this had been cooked by a great chef, then what would the taste be like? Earth shaking? Heaven rending?
"The people in this world eat delicious food everyday?!" Rick was full with envy. Compared to what he was eating today, the food he ate from his previous life could be considered dog food. Should I just spend my life here hunting? Thinking about it, the idea wasn't really bad.
Suddenly, Rick felt a warm feeling spread throughout his stomach. he hurriedly touched to feel it but there was not any changes of temperature on his tummy.
"Could this be what they call spiritual energy? There's only one way to find out!" Rick sat cross legged and closed his eyes. He recalled the breathing technique that Shi Rong previously used. He laid each of his hand to each lap and started to focus.
With enough focus, he should be able to 'see' what was going on inside his body. Rick focused, because he haven't really done something like this before, it was kinda hard to do so. It took him several minutes to learn that what he was doing was sleeping, and not meditating. It was embarrassing.
Minutes later, his vision changed. Although his eyes were closed, he could see a complete image of him. It looked like an x-ray vision, but what he was seeing were not bones, but his meridians. His meridians seemed to be dead, as it had no color like in the memory of Shi Rong.It was then that he noticed, bellow his stomach, was a small glowing sphere, the size of a marble, and all of his meridians were connected to it.
'This should be what they call the dantian.' It seems that his dantian was ignited by the bear's meat that he had just eaten, and that was. It proved that the bear was really top of his class. Inside the marble sized dantian, the spiritual energy seemed wanting to break free. But there seemed to be a very tough wall that it couldn't breakthrough.
He could feel a control over his dantian started experimenting on what to do. With his will, he tried to calm the rampaging energy, and the method seemed to worked as their restless movement started to calm down.
Rick got out from his meditation and started thinking of alternatives while recalling the memories of Shi Rong.
"Could it be that it wasn't full enough? Looks like I have to fill it up." Sitting cross legged beside the fire, he meditated and tried to sense or feel what they call the spiritual energy. Since he already got the sense of what he was looking for, it only took him minutes to finally able to sense the spiritual energy.
He could not physically feel it, but it felt like it. Spiritual energy was everywhere, it was like swimming in the clouds, but Rick could also sense that there were place were it was thick and place were it was thin. Since the spiritual energy in his spot was not that bad, he did not move.
In the academy that Shi Rong attended, there was a thing called Spirit Gathering Formation. It works as an attractive force for the SE (Spiritual Energy) that was why, inside the academy grounds was one of the best place to cultivate.
It was possible to make a smaller version of the Spirit Gathering Formation, unfortunately, when SE started to run out, the academy made it forbidden, you would need to have merits before you can have a manual of it. Even those who got a manual was banned from sharing it to other, or else they will be executed.
...
Sensing the SE was only the first step, then absorbing it would be second. But since his meridians were closed, he would have to absorb it through his orifice. Or just inhale it. It was then that he was reminded of the beast core.
Rick mentally tapped on the marble like beast core in his inventory. Without hesitation, he put it in his mouth and swallowed.
Crack! Crack!
Sounds of cracking came out of from his stomach. Bang! The beast core exploded and all of the energies inside the core was released. His inside felt like a a volcano, any moments later and it would probably explode.
Urgh! Bwak, caught off guard, Rick did not react on time and spat a mouthful of blood. It seemed that his internal organs were not able to bear with the force and he got wounded.
'Injuries detected, initiating Automatic Body Repair. 10 minutes until full recovery.' Jessie's voice echoed in his head as Rick tried to control the rampaging energy in his stomach. Hearing the notification, he was relieved and immediately entered meditation.
While the energies were wrecking havoc, the Body Repair was healing them back. It the turned into a cycle that the timer never changed from 10 minutes. Rick new that he had to somehow absorb or find a way for the energy to come out from his body. But he felt that the latter was not at all possible.
He ignored the pain and focused on following the method that Shi Rong used in absorbing SE. His dantian spun and turned into a small vortex that absorbed everything that came near it. Slowly, the pain alleviated a little bit. His dantian did not stop spinning though, and it seemed to be getting faster and faster after absorbing the energy.
Although the pain was getting less and less, he was still focused, afraid that the something would go wrong. Because Shi Rong had never absorbed a single beast core, he did not know the effects. But one thing was for sure, Rick did not want to go through that pain again. He would need to be careful on what he consumes in the future, lest his body suddenly blows up.
"Motherf*cker!" Just as Rick was about to heave a sigh of relief, his dantian suddenly came to an abrupt halt. "Hey! Wake up! Why are you stopping?! Nooo, don't stop!" He started screaming slapping his stomach hoping that his dantian would move again, but his call was in vain.
As ignorant as he was, he really did not know what to do anymore. It seemed that as long as the system was repairing his body, the energy would also keep raging.
And as if replying to his cries, his dantian that stopped moving a while ago produced cracking sounds.
Bang! Another explosion echoed inside him, but he was the only one who can hear it. But this time, it did not hurt him. When Rick finally focused again, he was surprised. The dantian that was the size of a marble, earlier got bigger. It now had the size of a tennis ball. And if anyone were seeing what was happening inside him, they would also be shocked and baffled.
There are 9 stages in Qi Condensation realm, and every three levels, it was then that the dantian would expand. Yet here he was, only starting to cultivate but his dantian already expanded.
His dantian then again began to rotate but this time, the energy it was taking in was many times that of earlier. It did not take long before the rampaging energy of the beast core was absorbed by his dantian.
First level of Qi Conseation Realm, reached!
Heaving a sigh of relief, Rick stared at his dantian with a look of approval. But even though he had a newfound strength, he could not utilize it unless his meridians got cleared. The effects of the Bedevilment Pill had finally shown itself. And he also found a 'weakness' of the Automatic body repair.
Indeed, it could heal wounds, but it could not clear his meridians. He would have to slowly clear his meridians by pulverizing the impurities that clogged it, of course using the SE in his dantian. The only problem was, it would be very painful!
...
While he was resting from what happened earlier, a little girl was staring at him from behind. She wore what could be considered rags, and her face was very dirty. Her hair was messed up, anyone would know that she had never taken a bath in a very long time. But although she was in a poor state, her eyes showed the opposite.
She hid behind a tree trunk while secretly observing Rick, and it looked like she was there for a long time.
"You can come out now, I know you're there!" Rick already sensed her arrival sometime ago. He was not sure what the other party's motive was, but he knew that it was not to hurt him.
She hesitated before finally deciding to come out. When Rick saw her, he was instantly reminded of a many memories that he didn't want to recall.
As a former marine, he had been to war, he had killed people. But the one that he would commonly see were the victims of the war. Those innocent people caught up in the middle of a war. He still remembers those kids from an orphanage that his team helped. They also had the appearance like the little girl in front of him.
It would have been a great memory to remember, but because of a single IED, those innocent lives were lost. That was also the reason why he left the corps, he did not want to see something like that happen anymore.
"Why are you here? Are you lost?" asked Rick while smiling, gently. He always had a soft spots for children, and he always pampered his niece and nephews.
Seeing that the young man in front was kind, the little girl heaved a sigh of relief. She looked him in the eye and was about to say something when Rick spoke.
"What's wrong? Are you hungry? I still have a have some cooked food left." Rick still said it gently to not startle the little girl. He failed to notice the intelligent glow coming from her eyes and treating her like any other child that he met.
She nodded. Rick's smile widened, he raised his hand and rubbed her head, before she could react, Rick already withdraw his hand.
"Good girl. Now come, since you're hungry, this should be good for you." He had already seen many like this. So Rick did not force here to do anything, in a situation like this, he would let the person talk to him on their own accord.
She followed him and stood in front of the tree trunk table. She waited while Rick cut the meat in very small pieces. This time, there was a little smile on her lips.
'Jessie, could you get me a fork, please.'
'Purchase Complete.' As usual, Jessie was fast with her response. He mentally tapped on the fork and it appeared on his hand.
"Here, you can use this. Eating with a dirty hand is not good. But you have to be careful, the meat is still hot." Rick said while handing her the fork. He did not see the shock on the little girl's eyes when the fork appeared out of nowhere.
She took the fork while thinking, 'What a silly big brother'. But she did not notice herself smiling.