Blizzard was approaching the large expedition group, it was some distance away right now, but it wouldn't take long for snow clouds to reach them.
Connor felt like a tiny goat in front of a hoard of wolves. Despite all of his knowledge, he was a small child who wasn't capable of withstanding a natural disaster of such extent. He was terrified, extremely terrified.
He was a little child, that's true, but he wasn't alone right now. He didn't need to do everything on his own.
-Prepare for the blizzard! Stand in the formation! Remember your training! Don't panic! We'll overcome this without losses if everyone does their job correctly!
Alrick was shouting commands and encouraging people at the same time. As a leader, he has to take responsibility in such extreme situations. The people in the group hastily stand in arrow-like formation, with the flat side of the arrow facing the blizzard and the tip of the arrowhead facing to the opposite. Expeditors in the front were standing with their arms stretched out, while others supported their backs. A red-haired man was standing at the end of the formation to see what was going and give commands if needed. The formation was almost complete.
After Connor saw this, he was partially relieved. It was always calming when people knew what they were doing, especially in a situation like this.
-Connor! Stand as close to me as you can!
Alrick shouted, staring at a scared young boy with a serious glance.
-O... Okay
As Connor stood near Alrick, the formation was completed. The blizzard was already near them, only around 20 seconds left before they collided with a large, fast, and deadly cloud of snow. And precisely the second before it, they heard a shout.
-RAISE YOUR BARRIERS!!!
Alrick's voice spread across the group. After hearing it, people in front created purple, transparent, and thick walls made of Qi. The expeditors at the avant-garde made one huge barrier from the ten small barriers, which saved all the group from the raging blizzard.
-Good! Keep going! Backline, be ready to replace the frontline at any time! Get your Qi ready!
Commands were heard, people at the avant-garde were struggling not to let the blizzard pass their barriers, while the backline was preparing their Qi to replace people at the frontline immediately. It still was an extremely stressful situation, so no one from the group felt relieved, but the sparkling eyes of the young scientist pierced through the formation and stoped at the Qi barrier.
Those people somehow managed to create a way to block physical objects with Qi! Connor already knew that Qi could interact with anything in this world. Even such abstract concepts as "Laws" were deeply connected to the Qi, so it was pretty much obvious that Qi could do such a simple thing to block something, but he saw that for the first time! Questions appeared in his mind like bubbles in boiling water! How do they do it? Is there are different methods or just one? Could Qi only block something? Maybe it could even deflect it? What is the structure of the barrier? Wait, structure?
-Yes..... The structure, of course, structure....
Alrick heard the muttering of Connor but didn't pay attention because he needed to command everyone and didn't have even an ounce of time to get distracted.
Meanwhile, a little science freak was in the middle of the great discovery.
"Of course! I just need to structurize and condense the purple energy! It literary would be a wall if can accomplish that." He settled the course of action, but some of the questions remained.
"How that structure will look like....."
He thought for a while, and when he finally found an answer, he felt like it was one of the most obvious things. Hexagons! The structure of the barrier will have a lot of hexagons joint with each other. Why must it be exactly hexagons? Because carbon molecular structure looked like tons of layers of connected hexagons. Why must it be exactly carbon? Because diamonds were made of carbon, and diamonds are the most durable thing in the world! Well, maybe, in this world, diamonds weren't at the top of durability across all materials, but it didn't matter because the hexagonal structure itself proved that it was the best! He just needed to utilize it properly.
After some thinking, Connor stretched out his arms and concentrated energy between his palms. Along with that, he tried to make the structure look exactly like he wanted. It was tons of layers of hexagons in his imagination. After a short time and some struggle, a tiny barrier appeared in the hands of Connor. It was very small, but opposite to the barriers used by people in the frontline. It wasn't transparent! So that meant it was way more durable and condensed than the one raised at the avant-garde. He observed his barrier for some time, and the first thing he noticed was the enormous energy consumption of the barrier. It was smaller than his palm, but also it was extremely durable, so even creating such a small piece of a barrier cost a lot of Qi. It wasn't quite energy-efficient. The second thing that he noticed was that he couldn't create a barrier at a distance longer than one meter. He just couldn't manipulate his Qi that didn't float near him. Suddenly, Connor heard a deep voice.
-What is it between your hands?
It was Alrick.
-It is a barrier.
-I can see that. How did you do that?
It seems that the group adjusted to the environment somehow, and Alrick didn't need to explain every action anymore, so he finally noticed Connor's experiments.
-I looked at the barriers people raised at the front line, and I tried to copy it.
-How did you... Ah, never mind, I'll ask later. Hey! Replace the man in front of you! Don't be distracted from the mission!
Alrick continued to give commands to ensure the expedition's survival. At the same time, Connor started to absorb the energy around him more actively, just in case something happened and he needed some Qi.
Connor was good with his results at the moment. Right now, he just figured out the principle of how to block physical objects with the Qi and the most straightforward use of it - barriers. When he is in a more comfortable environment, he will think of some more creative and not-so-obvious ways to use that discovery, but for now, he will just cultivate and wait for this blizzard to end.
The time slowly went by. The expedition group was still fighting with the snow and the wind. The compressed ball of Qi inside Connor's dantian was slowly expanding. Right now, the volume of the ball was equal to around 70% of the overall volume of his dantian, so his first Qi explosion, a.k.a the first stage of the body refining realm, was closer than ever.
Connor would like just to cultivate until the blizzard is over, but as always, it didn't happen.
The speed of snow particles and their amount gradually increased, while the group's Qi was decreasing at a much faster rate. Alrick clenched his fists and muttered.
-Shit...
Connor heard this, and by the reaction of a tall man, he could tell that the situation wasn't good at all. He pretended not to understand what was wrong and said with a naive and fearful tone.
- Is everything going to be okay?
Alrick, judging by his face, wanted to say something rude, but he restrained himself and calmly answered.
-I don't know. If the blizzard doesn't end soon, people will run out of Qi, and we won't be in a good situation.
-So, we will die?
A tall man looked at the child with a serious and depressive face and said.
-Most likely.
Connor didn't show or say it, but right now, he is feeling complete and uttermost horror. He, as always, started to think about how to survive, his barrier could potentially save him, but it was still too small to save anyone. Besides that, even if he had enough energy, he couldn't save the others because of the range of the barriers, and without them, Connor couldn't leave that snow wasteland. He could gain Qi by cultivating, but he didn't know how to increase his cast range. Connor couldn't find an answer by himself, so he asked Alrick.
-How can I increase the range of my techniques?
-What?
-How can I increase the range of my techniques???
-Um..... if you don't have any special methods, only by increasing your cultivation.
-Understood.
That was excellent news. It meant that everything he had to do was to cultivate. Still, there was a problem. Connor needed to raise his cultivation fast, very fast, expedition members don't have much time left, but it would take a very long time before he could raise his cultivation level even by one at his current tempo. He needed to come up with a method to cultivate rapidly.
And as always, the answer was right in front of him. He just didn't see it before.
There was a Qi in the air. He knew it. Qi could fasten up the air. He knew it too. But he didn't know before that fast air could move Qi! And he was in the middle of raging wind, which propelled the Qi to the extreme speed! So the only thing he needed was to catch this Qi and absorb it!
-I know how to survive.
-What?
Alrick thought that he just had an audible hallucination, but it was nothing compared to what he heard next.
-I am going to cultivate inside this blizzard.