After running into this problem, Qing Shan was already mentally wiped out. He had just changed his entire perception of how Qi flowed through his body with a lot of hard work, and now he had to find a way to preserve Qi in his body?
Qing Shan felt like he needed a break. This time, he was not even going to go through the trouble of keeping up the illusion of working. Qing Shan just splayed out, his head resting on the edge of the hot spring, while his whole body relaxed inside of it.
You know how your thoughts sometimes start to wander while you are relaxing? Well, Qing Shan's did the same thing. Many random thoughts slowly walked across his mind, and they were much less jumbled than thoughts usually were. It was as though there was only one thought in Qing Shan's mind at any point in time. While the thoughts were not really about anything important, Qing Shan liked how his mind just focused entirely on that one thought, until another replaced it.
Just lying there, submerged in the Primal Water, Qing Shan let his mind wander for a full day. For a full day, Qing Shan stayed in this state of being in between wakefulness and sleep. After thinking about things randomly for twenty-four hours, it was not long before Qing Shan's mind came to his current situation. He had to somehow keep the Qi inside his body, and under his control.
Many different ideas played across Qing Shan's mind, and he felt as though he would be trying out each and every one of those ideas later. Soon, Qing Shan found himself focusing on thigs that he had already thought of, and this continued.
Knowing that he had been in this state for too long, Qing Shan tried to pull himself awake. Surprisingly, it was harder than he thought. While he did manage to wake up on his second try, he had to really focusing on waking up to snap into his normal state of mind. It was like when you feel really tired in the morning, and know you have to get out of bed, but some part of your mind and your body is telling you to stay in bed and go back to sleep.
Now fully coherent once more, Qing Shan pushed his thoughts back into his Energy Channels, observing his Qi. There were a few things that he wanted to try now.
The first thing that Qing Shan wanted to try was making some sort of container out of Qi to keep the rest of it in his body. To do this, Qing Shan 'poured' Qi onto the inside of skin like it was some sort of liquid. Unfortunately, this Qi also began to escape Qing Shan's body and control.
Qing Shan was not discouraged by this. In fact, he had expected this to happen. So, Qing Shan did the same thing, but connected the shield to different parts of his Energy Channels near his Third Eye and Dantian.
Now, while it was circulating quite slowly, and was weak due to the small amount of Qi used, there was a container that held Qing Shan's Qi in his body. To see if this container worked, Qing Shan let his Qi out of the holes in his Energy Channels.
Sure enough, this Qi stayed in Qing Shan's body. Unfortunately, it was not long before he lost control of the Qi. Luckily, this was quite easy to replicate as Qing Shan just had to recirculate the Qi and expel it from his Energy Channels again to regain that same state as before, until he lost control once more.
Luckily, the container still worked, and it was not affected in any way by the passage of time. Even after another full day, it stayed functional as long as it was connected to Qing Shan's energy channels.
Keeping the container functional, Qing Shan released Qi into his body, and then immediately pulled it back into his Energy Channels. He started timing this release with his heart beat, and soon he was pumping Qi in and out pf his energy channels. While Qing Shan was thrilled to see that this worked, it was not exactly what he was looking for. He wanted to be able to have complete control over his Qi, as long as it was inside of his body. With the Qi pumping in and out, Qing Shan was always able to control it however he wanted, granted it stayed in his body. Unfortunately, this meant that he was only able to control QI throughout his body for less than half a second at a time.
Because this had worked, Qing Shan decided to try something new based off of this discovery. Like before, he pumped Qi out from his Energy Channels, and started bringing it in and out. Next, he started to do the same thing, except the opposite, with more Qi. Now, when he every time he pumped Qi in or out, new Qi would replace it. It was as though he was breathing out through his mouth, and when he went to suck in air through his mouth, he blew out his nose. While this used a lot of Qi, and was a pain to maintain, Qing Shan did manage to keep controllable Qi in his body at all times. The next difficult thing would be learning how to have uninterrupted control in his body; right now, at best he would have control that was a bit delayed every time he pumped Qi out of his Energy Channels.
After a lot of hard work, Qing Shan was not yet content. However, he felt satisfied enough to go and show off his achievements to his master.
Qing Shan exited his pocket dimension and approached his master, who wan meditating in front of his statue. As soon as he approached, Master Liu opened his eyes.
Master Liu scanned Qing Shan with his gaze, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
"I see you have made quite a bit of progress."
Qing Shan nodded, but as he was about to speak, he was interrupted.
"This is the closest someone under the Origin Realm can come to mastering the Qi inside of their body. While it is only an imitation, it places you well above those of your level, should you learn how to use this ability properly. By the way, have you yet to notice that your Third Eye has already been filled to the level of breakthrough? It cannot breakthrough until your body and soul follow along with it."
After comprehending his master's words, Qing Shan immediately realized that what he had said was true. He had already fulfilled the mental expansion requirement for a breakthrough!
Suddenly, Qing Shan had another thought. He quickly disappeared into the pocket dimension and reappeared, three scrolls in hand. Master Liu looked fixatedly at them.
"Would those happen to be Martial Techniques, or maybe Cultivation Techniques?"
"Yes–"
"I see that the fire attribute Martial Technique is from that trial you were in, but what are these two other scrolls? I cannot analyze them from over here. Come, bring them closer."
Qing Shan handed the two scrolls from that mysterious man to his master.
"Ah ha! I see, these are the beginnings of Techniques for your Lightning attribute. Excellent! While some of the knowledge behind these is flawed, I believe that I can perfect these scrolls in not too much time! Most of the mistakes are due to the person not being able to control wind Qi, and that is my specialty; I also know much more than he does about your Lightning Qi, So I may be able to make these into excellent quality scrolls."
Qing Shan looked to his Master, who had already splayed the scrolls across the ground and was reading the runes that Qing Shan had no understanding of giddily.
"Master, since I have gained this skill, can I bind to this fire attribute martial technique?"
Still absorbed in the scrolls, Master Liu hurriedly answered.
"Yes, you will be able to learn most low level Martial Origin Techniques now that there is Qi inside of your whole body. Just remember to focus on increasing your Physical strength as well."
Master Liu immediately turned to wind after speaking taking the scrolls with him, and he disappeared into his statue.
Deciding not to worry about his master's antics, Qing Shan transported himself into the primal pocket dimension, the fire attribute scroll held firmly in his hand, which was now trembling in excitement.
Once he entered the pocket dimension, Qing Shan walked a few steps toward the Primal Fire. For some reason, it felt fitting to him to open the scroll while bathing in the aura of the same element.
Once comfortably seated, Qing Shan dripped a drop of blood on the scroll. He then opened it. Qing Shan watched in amazement as the unreadable runes inside of the scroll turned to words and pictures, written and displayed so that he would not have to difficult a time reding the technique.
After reading through the technique a few times, he gained a general understanding of what this technique was supposed to do. This technique at its highest level was supposed to give him strength one level above his own for the duration of one strike. That strike would bathe his hand in fire, and would set the opponent aflame. The technique was called Flaming Tiger Paw.
Qing Shan felt excited by the prospect of learning this ability, but he felt that the attack was too weak. He had thought that he would be getting some kind of fire whip or something cooler, like that. However, Qing Shan soon understood why this technique was nothing flashy. At the bottom of the scroll the words Martial Origin stood, with one and a half stars underneath it. This must be the power-ranking of the technique. At least that would explain why the technique did not look very powerful.
None the less, Techniques were hard to come by, and there was no limit to how many one could possess. So Qing Shan was going to learn this technique and make it useful. There was definitely nothing wrong with having an extra trick in his repertoire.
Qing Shan hunched forward, and started reading the book fervently while trying to follow along with the techniques in his mind.
The Technique involved him gathering fire attribute Qi under his palm, using the fire attribute Qi to somehow enhance his arm with that attribute, which was apparently called Elemental Enhancement, and launch the Flaming Tiger Paw forward with a punch. The instructions were a bit simplistic, and lacked any certain details of how to execute the Technique.
Qing Shan knew it would take a lot of practice, but just looking at the scroll in his hands had him burning in anticipation. Qing Shan was going to learn this scroll, but first he had to come up with a training plan for this technique.
After a few minutes of thinking, he came up with a general outline for his plan.
"Okay."
First, Qing Shan was going to resume his training where he tried to approach the Primal Fire. However, he would now try to absorb the fire attribute and spread it throughout his body. He wanted to try not changing the energy into Lightning Qi. This would help with his physical training and the control over the Qi throughout his body. Once he got used to holding fire Qi in his body, he would try to figure out this Elemental Enhancement thing, which was necessary if he wanted to be able to do this technique. Once he accomplished that, the Flaming Tiger Paw Technique should be a breeze.
A plan in mind, Qing Shan clenched his fists, feeling adrenaline rush into his body. Now that he had created a plan, all he had to do was attack it.
"Alright. Let's do this!"