Connor Witt was glancing greedily at the sphere. The pure-purple sphere is gradually absorbing Qi that is floating around it. Initially, the sphere was about the size of a fist, but right now, it is already larger than the soccer ball!
Right now was the most crucial moment in the whole plan. He needed to swallow and absorb the whole sphere! Connor inhaled deeply, concentrated, and swallowed the purple sphere after it.
It looked like a snake was trying to swallow an egg, but a young scientist quickly absorbed the sphere itself. The most challenging part was absorbing the energy inside his dantian.
An abundant stream of energy rushed through Connor's meridians, significantly heating his body. He used all his willpower to route an immense amount of Qi into his dantian, desperately trying not to lose even an ounce of energy. This process became easier with time because the more Qi was in his dantian, the more energy would be attracted through magnetic force. This phenomenon gradually eased the process of cultivating. Slowly, a sphere inside his dantian came to the initial size, one that was before the blizzard encounter.
It meant that he absorbed all of the energy wasted on creating and compressing the spheres, and now, he can finally advance further. Connor continued to absorb energy, now the sphere in his dantian was about 70% the size of his dantian, but Connor couldn't afford to rest and continued to absorb the energy.
The size of his sphere increased to 75%......
80%............
85%..............
90%..............
95%...............
99%................
It feels like a massive ball inside his stomach that was on the edge of tearing his insides apart if it only will be a little larger. Connor clenched his fists and continued to absorb the energy inside him. The important thing was that Qi inside him was highly compressed, so if it would explode inside him, Connor wasn't sure if his body could withstand such an amount of Qi. But when this thought appeared in Connor's mind, it was already too late.
Connor directed a tiny piece of Qi inside his stomach, and then he felt that his body started to absorb purple energy around him.
"What???"
Connor was ready that a sphere inside him would explode, but he wasn't ready for this! He didn't even know that his body could absorb Qi without his permission!
The wild energy from around rushed through his meridians to his dantian, compressing the sphere inside him even further. Connor realized everything at that moment.
"Of course... The Qi explosion is caused by fast compression and removal of the pressure right after!"
It was like if you compress and air at a rapid rate and then immediately remove the pressure, the strong wind will be created by the extension of air!
"What if I use it?"
Connor came up with the idea of using the Qi that was compressing the sphere to create an even larger sphere inside him.
He immediately tried to use Qi collected by his body to add some energy into his sphere, and it worked! If pushed a little further, the Qi, with the help of which his body created a pressure, was absorbed! But that's not the only good news, the absorption rate increased! His body is currently absorbing more energy than earlier! That meant Connor could use that Qi and feed his sphere with it even further. The amount of Qi would be enough!
Immediately, the young scientist continued to add Qi to the ball inside his dantian. The sphere was vibrating at a breakneck speed because, at the same time, it was compressing and extending. It looked like a fight between the compression force and the extension force. Earlier, Connor needed to maintain both extension and compression in order to increase his cultivation properly. Right now, everything Connor needed to do was provide Qi to his dantian and nurture sphere with it. His body would do the compression work for him!
Slowly, Connor got used to this compression-extension competition, and the sphere inside him stopped rapidly vibrating and began to increase steadily. Gradually, it regained size and once again became equal to the size of the dantian.
Connor felt that he couldn't add more Qi to the sphere when this happened! If earlier, the ball inside him actively absorbed energy in itself. Now he couldn't make the ball bigger! A moment later, he noticed that the sphere couldn't be compressed anymore either!
After he noticed it, his body ceased to absorb the energy, and the pressure vanished.
"Huh...." Connor sighed with relief
" And now wha....."
The energy ball of Qi inside him exploded! When the compression chains vanished, the ball momentarily started to extend itself, but there wasn't any place in dantian! So the Qi rushed right through Connor's meridians, energy filled them immediately, and the energy was still expanding! When there was no place inside the meridians, Qi had only two paths for itself, deeper inside or outside the body! When Connor realized it, he tried to hold all his energy inside himself, but there was so much Qi that he couldn't hold all of it! A small portion of Qi leaked, but it was enough to reverse the direction in which air flew in this blizzard! The amount of energy was insane!
-What is this???
Alrick and all the people from the expedition group immediately noticed the loud sound near them, and when they looked in its direction, they were shocked!
-Is this kid breaking through the first stage???
Everyone was in such deep confusion that they couldn't believe what they saw. Alrick was the first to regain focus.
-Support the barriers! Don't get distracted! This kid is entering the body refining realm! When he is finished, we will protect him, so remain focused!
The group couldn't afford to watch Connor's cultivation. They needed to support their barriers!
Meanwhile, Connor was experiencing a rebirth-like feeling. Although some of his energy leaked outside, most were directed inside! The Qi nourished his inner organs, muscles, bones, nerves, circulatory system, and even brain!
His heart pumped an immense amount of blood with every beat. The blood was denser and heavier than before. His inner organs easily consumed all of this new blood. His muscles were stronger and flexible than ever before! And besides that, all of his body parts could provide Qi now! It was a qualitative and quantitative change at the same time!
"So, that's the feeling of cultivation. It's pretty good."
After his initial excitement, he remembered why he decided to cultivate in the first place.
"I need to check the range and size of my barrier."
He stretched his arm, and some of the remaining Qi flew out of his body and created a barrier that was a size of a fist, the barrier itself floated around 3 meters from him.
"Good, but not enough"
He felt that he could increase the size of the barrier to the needed one when he accumulated enough energy inside him, but he wouldn't be able to maintain it on larger distances, so he continued to cultivate!
"That's only the first step of body refining realm. I can go further!"
Connor created another sphere, which started to absorb the Qi. After some time, Connor swallowed and absorbed it. The process was significantly easier than the last time. His body itself had become the conduit for Qi, so he wasn't struggling with the absorption process. After absorbing the first sphere, he created another four! But now, they were all capable of attracting Qi. With the new cultivation stage, the efficiency of his method quadrupled!
After some time, Connor swallowed the spheres. At first, he only swallowed two spheres because he thought that it would be too much for him to swallow all four at the same time. When he had done that, he could feel that the amount of Qi was pretty much comfortable for him, so he quickly swallowed another two spheres. It appears that the next explosion requires more energy than before, but it is logical after you think about it because your body now could contain more energy, so Connor has to consume not one sphere like before, but four. The difference was quite vast.
After the Qi from the spheres was accumulated inside his dantian and transformed into a highly-compressed sphere, the breakthrough process started again. Again his body started to absorb the energy around him rapidly. The speed was even faster than the last time!
Connor has gone through the same process of compressing-extending the sphere again, and as expected, the explosion happened right after the moment Connor couldn't pour Qi anymore inside the ball!
-He is going through a breakthrough again?? Why is the Qi even stronger than before???
Alrick, along with other people from the group, was shocked again! The Qi from Connor's cultivation even redirected some of the wind from the barriers!
"Stage two, not bad"
His body once again improved, now it was only a qualitative change because it already could conduct Qi, but still, the change was dramatic!
Connor rechecked the range, and it was 5 meters now. He set a goal for himself to reach 10 meters. He could cover everyone in the group with the barrier with that range. If everything went as planned, he would need to cultivate to stage four of the body refinement realm. It was entirely possible with such a large amount of Qi around him, but the question was time. The Qi inside the expedition's group dantians was diminishing every second!
"Alright, let's go!"
Connor repeated all the processes once again. He only changed the number of spheres that absorbed Qi to increase his speed. And after some time, the Qi inside him exploded again!
He once again raised his cultivation level. Now it was stage three body refining realm!
-What the hell?!
Alrick, along with other people from the group, was now shocked the third time in a row. What was this crazy kid doing? They would react more if they weren't on the verge of death because of their fading Qi!
Connor knew that he hadn't much time left, so he immediately started the process all over again, once again changing only the number of spheres. Connor calculated that he needed an incredible amount of 12 spheres for stage four! The spheres were levitating in the line, with small distances between them. It was done to prevent the sphere from stealing Qi from each other and at the same time cover the largest possible area.
Aside from that, the process was the same.
While absorbing, Connor glanced at the expedition group and noticed that they were already exhausted, and their barriers started to fade.
"Don't you dare to give up! Hold for a little longer!"
Not long after that thought, his body started to absorb energy once again. He was as close as ever to stage four!
"Just a little faster!"
Connor tried to cultivate as fast as possible, only to save those people! Right now, he wasn't even thinking about why he needed to save them. He was just cultivating!
And finally, an enormous amount of Qi erupted from the body of a boy, once again redirecting the wind from the blizzard! Giving a group of people room to breathe and rest for a moment, but it wasn't the most important thing! The most important thing was that he could create a barrier on a ten meters range! He finally achieved what he had struggled for so hard! A wide smile appeared on Connor's face.
"Good work guys, you can rest now, I'll save you"