"Do you have anything to help me, System?" I gritted my teeth as I asked the question. "If so, then right now's a perfect time."
"Um... as I was saying, your approach to the Blood Element is wrong. It's not about controlling your blood, it's about controlling the virus that's coursing through your veins. If you cultivate by focusing on the virus in your bloodstreams, you could make another core but this time, it's of the Blood Element."
"And what do I need to-"
"Treat the zomb- er, I mean, rabid human virus as Qi and cultivate it just like how you condensed your Qi when you were still in your subconscious! Quick! We don't have much time!"
"As if! You could just leave me when I die, right?" I asked her. I was inclined to think that such was the case.
"No, there's a high chance that I'll die with you and that'd be the end for the two of us!"
"Alright, alright, I know that." I agonizingly let out while I forced myself to sit down cross-legged as I attempted to cultivate.
Inhale. Exhale.
The first and foremost, textbook thing to do while cultivating was ease your breathing and I didn't spare any second doing it. I concentrated on using my mind and willpower, trying to ignore the skull-shattering pain that pounded my head. And as sure as me being a Sect Master, I started to feel the energy of the virus in my bloodstream!
Well, that wasn't a good metaphor but either way, I felt like the pain on my head subsided a little bit or it was just my adrenaline kicking in. Because of that, I was able to focus on gathering those virus Qi right where my condensed Qi was and after a few minutes, a sizable chunk developed right in front of my condensed Qi.
But just like any other martial arts and element techniques, cultivating it would reach a point where your cultivation barely moved at all. And after gathering a fist-sized condensed virus Qi, I reached that point.
Beads of sweat trickled on my forehead as the headaches intensified once again. Still, I kept on cultivating. I could feel my power rising as my headache aggravated. It was a nice yet painful feeling, and I could tell that I'm awakening into something I shouldn't suppose to be awakening.
"You're almost there, Yongrui! Don't give up!" The System egged me on as if I wasn't doing what it just stated.
"Just... shut up, for now, System," I said in my mind as calmly as I could.
The condensing virus Qi was getting agitated the more I gathered it. In just a few seconds, the virus Qi that I gathered stirred up like a storm in my belly and it was trying to swallow my Core.
"No, you're not doing that!" I clenched my teeth as I concentrated even more. There were only three major virus Qi spots scattered all over my body and I quickly pulled it in the vortex that is my condensed virus Qi. It was almost done so I decided to shut off everything and just focus on cultivating. If I get successful, that would make me have two Qi Cores and although I was just in the spirit realm, I could estimate that my raw power output would be twice compared to a cultivator who reached the spirit realm.
That's why I can't mess it up now.
It was getting so hard to suppress my screams so in the last spurt of gathering the virus Qi, I screamed my lungs out.
As I did so, I peed my pants. It was weird but I peed my pants and for a moment, I was relieved that no one saw me. If I'd been with Lin Xian and Yu Sying at this point in time, I'd have embarrassed myself and wished that I die. Fortunately, I decided to head out! Fortunately...
The agitated virus Qi core that I gathered finally calmed down after I gathered the three remaining major virus Qi spots all over my body. It didn't take long for me to condense my virus Qi Core but it sure was hard. If I could rate it, I'd say it was just as painful when I broke through the eighth layer of the Dao Realm— the highest realm I attained when I was still Sect Master.
I'm just glad it was all over and I managed to not die, for some reason.
"Yongrui, that's because you were able to control the virus in your body. If you continue to cultivate that, your Blood Element would level up and your resistance to the virus would improve!"
"So I just need to cultivate it all the time and I won't get infected if ever I was bitten by a rabid human? Sounds like a sweet deal to me." I responded with a huge grin on my face.
If there was one thing I'm good at, it's cultivation. I've always been sub-par in all aspects of my life that cultivating is the only thing I"m good at. In fact, I'm quite confident that without my talent in cultivation, I would've turned into a complete loser already.
Well, as if I wasn't one.
Straining myself in the conquest to form my Virus Qi Core, I lost track of time and the progress was so slow I was getting bored. But that's one of the main things in cultivation that you should overcome: getting bored.
Honestly, though, this was the first time I've ever cultivated two Cores at once. I probably had the thought of doing this in the past but no one really tried it so I didn't bother risking it. After all, the drawbacks of going through new cultivations that no one had discovered yet can be as bad as going back to square one, losing your progress altogether
As for my current situation, it didn't apply since I didn't have much choice. If I don't go through this, there's a high percentage that I would turn into a rabid human. That's why, notwithstanding the risks, I went through the painful process of cultivating another Core that I didn't know even existed.
If this is not crazy then I don't know what is.