The Ki condensation stage, the initial stage of cultivation that involves absorbing Ki from the natural world and refining it inside the body. It's a pretty boring realm actually, all you need to do is gather enough Ki until you can condensate the gas into a liquid form and enter the foundation realm.
Well... that's what most people think at least, because in this realm, there are two very important factors that will eventually decide the quality of your foundation, and those are the purity of the Ki and the refinement of the body.
In the earlier days, people refined their bodies first before they started to gather Ki, their ideology was to build the vessel first before you start to fill it. It was the golden age of the madman, they literally had to train like monsters to gain a body capable of cultivation. From running with weights for tens of miles a day to hitting each other with iron staffs to harden the skin, they even broke every single bone in their body so they would grow back stronger, including the skull!
You can only imagine how much suffering these trillions of people had endured throughout the ages by practicing these methods, but to the whole world's relief though, one day everything luckily changed...
It was close to a million years ago when there was a man so fat, that his parents simply named him 'Fat Lee', who had single-handedly changed the entire cultivation world until this very day. While the entire world was training like maniacs to strengthen the body, Fat Lee was eating chickens in the restaurant. It's not that he didn't want to train, but that he was simply too lazy to do so.
"Laziness makes efficient" Was the famous quote he often used.
Fat Lee was in fact so lazy, that he had decided to just skip the entire body strengthening and start with gathering Ki. A mistake that would normally result in a very weak foundation plus a body incapable of holding much Ki.
But in Fat Lee's case? You guessed it, things went a little different!
Because Fat Lee, besides being lazy, wasn't very smart either so he started to cultivate without knowing much about it. All he knew was that you needed to gather Ki, so that is what he did. What he didn't know though, was that you need to save the Ki into your dantian!
So what did Fat Lee do? Well, being the foodie that he was, he just refined the Ki into his stomach, something he found extremely painful by the way! But knowledgeable as he was, he assumed this was the thing the cultivators in the restaurant had spoken about.
"No pain, no gain!" That is what he accidentally overheard them say, they looked like strong and experienced cultivators discussing their training. Something about running less distance with more weight, despite the increase in pain it would still be worth the effort, one man said. "That's right! No pain, no gain!" His friend replied with a big grin on his face.
So despite the burning pain in his stomach, he gritted his teeth and kept persisting, 'No pain, no gain!' After training for an entire day and the pain had still not faded, he decided to finally call it day, never in his life before had he trained this hard! It was strange that he wasn't even hungry after a day without eating, but this would of course not hold him back from going out and getting something to eat, so he opened his eyes and was about to leave, but when he felt something wasn't right... abruptly stopped! It was only when he looked down that he finally realized what happend, because...
All the fat on his belly was gone! He could even spot some well-formed muscles he didn't even know existed!
"..."
"I'm thin again!? Haha, Fat Lee is thin again people! Hide your daughters, Thin Lee is coming to town!"
And so, thin lee was coming to town, far too happy to notice the fat on his belly might be gone, but in other places? It wasn't. After seeing all the overnight changes in his body, the people were more than curious about what happened, and Thin Lee was of course, very willing to explain, he was a genius after all, everyone should know it!
When they found out the truth it didn't take long for news to spread, and for knowledgeable cultivators coming to know about it as well, and it was then that they realized the astonishing fact that Ki was able to refine and strengthen the body!
No more running with weights! No more walking up the mountain carrying a rock! No more hitting each other with iron staffs! No more breaking bones! No more years of training before you could start and gather Ki!
The world had entered a new era!
Everyone directly started experimenting with this new way of training for their body, but they soon realized it wasn't as easy as it seemed. If they trained too short the changes weren't really noticeable, but if they trained too long they would suffer irreparable damage, and in some cases, could even die! So a balance was found, a balance that at least equaled the results of their previous training.
'But that's not the result that I am after!' Samuel thought.
It was the very reason he was laying in front of a painting with healing capabilities, and coupled with his insights and affinity with the dao this painting contains, he was certain to go far beyond that balance!
And so... he did.
With his eyes closed, he started to gather Ki for the very first time in his life and guided it towards his skin! Piece by piece, every inch of his skin was burning away whereafter it healed again and visa versa, over and over again, resulting in a continuity of excruciating pain! But slowly and surely, he felt his skin getting stronger and stronger and was taking longer to destroy. Unbeknownst to him, during this entire process, a faint silver glow began to form on his skin.
Six entire days of torture! That's how long it took before the Ki from heaven and earth was unable to destroy his skin any longer! He had succeeded! The fabled and long sought after, perfect stage of skin refinement! As far as he knew, no one in history had ever reached this stage before! How much stronger was his skin compared to others? He was sure to find out, but before doing so... There was still so much to be done!
'Time to burn some muscles!'
Streams of Ki entered the building and flowed inside his body, every fiber of every muscle got destroyed before it grew back stronger again! It was hell... but certainly worth it because over the days, his entire body was transforming! In the beginning, he had turned into an enormous and barbaric freak with huge and blown-up muscles, but after twenty-one days of torture, his entire body started decreasing in size again.
From start to end, it took thirty-five days before the Ki from heaven and earth was no longer able to do anything to his muscles! Each and every single fiber from every single muscle in his entire body was now compressed and hard as steel, and had turned him into a lean, mean, killing machine!
This power running through his veins, it felt so insane, so fucking good! He wanted to stay here and train like a monster! He wanted more of this... more of this power!
'Damn this feels good, I really want to stay and train for years, but before I do so, maybe I should meet with Sarah first. I've no idea how long I've been training either and knowing her, she's probably worried sick by now. Thinking about it, he couldn't help but smile and has to admit, it does feel good to know she cared for him.'
So after forty-one days of continuous hellish torture, the door to Samuel's training room finally opened! But when he walked out, the first thing he saw was a meditating Sarah sitting in front of him, and there was something strange about her...
'Her cheeks are reddish and that small and alluring chest is heaving up and down, faster than it usually does. If I'm not mistaken then this means that... she's aroused?' But when he looked at her mesmerizing charming blushing face and noticed the direction she was looking at, he was beginning to understand the reason why...
"S-Samuel...w-why are you naked!?" Sarah asked him all turned on while she stuttered... Here she was, sitting in the lotus position while he was standing right in front of her completely naked. And even though she knew it was improper to look at him but, she just couldn't stop herself from staring, or more accurately said... she couldn't stop staring at that thing hanging right in front of her face!
"It...
...looks so good!"