With the continuous infusion of inner qi into the palm-sized, blue jade-like stone, the purity of his internal energy kept being tempered, and it had taken the form of mist.
It would require just some time before he could manage to convert it into Zhen Qi, a major characteristic of 9th rank. But he was still far off from there.
On the 9th rank inner Qi starts to turn into liquid and the stage is subdivided too, the first division is based on the complete transformation of inner Qi to Zhen Qi while the rest focus on other aspects and is brought together allowing one to step into the next stage.
His mind was already wandering but he still managed to calm himself down.
Looking at the beast that seemed more patient than him, he could not help but praise it secretly. But at the same time, he was thinking of how to deal with it quickly to avoid attracting the other beasts and being surrounded.
The transformation of inner Qi was not his main concern, but rather, the fact that he had to descend into the water to practice under pressure and see the impact it has on his strength. Had it been another option, he probably would not have chosen this kind of path that seemed to lead him into pain.
Without wasting time, he sunk again, and this time he was sure he could stay under for more than ten minutes. But the situation might change with the practice underwater since the pressure from all sides and the cold would hinder him, but if he persisted in such an environment then his benefits can be imagined.
As he descended, he seemed to have experienced this before and did not panic, and also realized that more cold energy from the water, was indeed being infused into his body and instead of freezing him, it allowed the speed at which he was producing inner Qi to accelerate.
It was indeed his only weakness at the moment, as the inner Qi in his body seemed deficient, and the cold water somehow helped with that, but he did not bother finding out why until he arrived at the very bottom of the pool.
After landing, he sat down crosslegged and withstood the pressure, this was indeed effective and in less than five minutes he could not hold on and was forced to the surface. Even the time he was supposed to spend in the water decreased, after doing this repeatedly, he discovered that his entire body was aching, but the inner Qi in his body had doubled.
For close to Six hours he kept doing this and when his body had adapted somewhat, he started to practice the foundation martial art he created for this level.
It was only a pure boxing technique, that allowed him to increase the strength of the body and it was surprisingly, effective.
Close to another four hours and he could not continue, as his limb body floated on the cold pool surface.
The blue stone was also being held in the hand, continuing to purify inner Qi, and in the process it allowed him to alleviate some of the pain that came along with it.
"Even with the help of the blue stone, it seems that it is impossible to step into rank 7. The only thing that can happen is my inner Qi increase in quality and quantity, even gaining a treasure can not help me breakthrough this threshold. So it is best to continue just strengthening my foundation. As for Xiaohe let her worry a little bit more."
If he were to know that outside the cave even with the roars that happened from time to time, Xiaohe was dozing off and not in the slightest even woken up by their noises, he would explode. Worry! That was probably what was on her mind, but it concerned the meal she should be having when she woke up.
****
Not only were the impurities in the body being expelled faster, but the purification of inner Qi also was very fast.
At the same time, he seemed to feel that the movement of inner Qi was not following some path as he assumed but rather seemed to travel through the skin, bones, and even muscles, expelling what should be expelled.
He also realized that the more pure the Qi the faster the speed at which impurities from the body were being discharged.
"It seems that the process of martial arts practice has not even started. The human body is indeed mysterious."He could feel it, his body needed him to do a lot before he could benefit from his practice.
To gain lifespan extension, he needed to have a clear route that the energy in the body followed.
His perception of the body seemed to also not exist, and he could only operate with instincts.
This is true for all other practitioners at the entry stage unless they are born with a strong soul or spirit.
Other issues usually exist, but without those advantages, one has to follow the path, and for humans, it is not possible to have stronger bloodlines like those divine beasts from birth unless the parents reached a certain stage.
That stage is way high even though Situ's parents have yet to border it, no it is accurate to say no one in the human race has achieved it yet, and thus the reason humans are considered the weakest of all races.
Bloodline power can not be passed on, from parents of all human races and thus starting point of all of them seems the same.
But some things such as intelligence at birth can not be included since it is innate, and thus the reason Situ like all the other children were born mortal and had no difference from children born from mortal parents.
The only thing that matters in this world is the ability to comprehend scriptures and create martial arts suiting oneself.
In that way, comprehension is important for anyone.
He had an advantage of that, but his craftiness comes from his previous life.
The reason he treats Xiaohe well and was happy to have parents is his status as an orphan in his previous life.
Throwing everything aside, his mind benefited greatly from being a chess player in his previous life and to reach the state he was at, off course he had read some Taoist scriptures available on Earth at the time.
The knowledge there enlightened him and also gave him a chance to gain access to older chess players.
What he did not understand was cranes by him due to his photographic memory that he still seemed to have.
In this world, it has been enhanced and he dies not minding this advantage at all.
It was also the reason he was able to grasp the scriptures faster than even his father.
The scriptures are very useful for the current cultivation technique he used and to improve on it, he would have to even access more in the future.
He had other plans on his mind, and this region in the forest seemed more like a huge hurdle he had to overcome to accomplish them.