Typhon sat cross-legged on the floor with his shirt off. Carmine had informed him that a large amount of exertion was required to form a magic circle and that he would sweat profusely. But before he could even begin with the magic core, he still had to deal with the shattered remains of his old magic circle. He was planning to use his meridians to carefully extract and feed the shards of mana to his dantian, refining it into Qi and letting the impurities be absorbed into his body. Usually, absorbing the impurities would be detrimental. Still, this body was already so full that adding a few more wouldn't make much difference, as they would all be purged once Typhon had money and could purchase materials to start body refining.
"Do you think it will be painful?"
Carmine asked, biting her lip in worry.
"Probably, but everything worth doing is at least a little painful."
Typhon shrugged her concern off.
"Now, it's important not to disrupt me when I'm doing this. Even if I start screaming out in pain, you must remain idle and stop anyone from entering the room. This could backfire badly if I'm distracted during the refining process."
Carmine nodded.
"I understand."
Taking a deep breath, Typhon cupped his hands around his stomach like he was holding a ball.
"I will now begin."
Using his mental realm, he looked inwards and located the first shard of the shattered magic circle. Using his Qi as a tether, he brought the shard closer to the connecting lines of his meridians, using it as an anchor for his Qi so that he wouldn't lose the shard. Slowly he brought it down to the red ball located at his stomach, which was his dantian. It flickered hungrily as it sensed a large shard of Qi approaching it, trying to grasp and consume it, but Typhon's grip on the shard was firmer.
Observing his dantian for the first time since the first time at the hospital, he saw that his cultivation efforts in the hospital had nearly completely filled his dantian of Qi, signifying he was nearly ready to break through. It was likely that he would be forced to break through during the absorption of the shards, which could be catastrophic. Yet, they were short on time, so some risks had to be taken. Typhon carefully inserted the shard into his dantian and began breaking it down into usable Qi and useless impurities.
He felt the impurities seep deep into his flesh and bone, causing extreme pain, but Typhon held back his screams of agony and kept dragging shards from around his heart and depositing them in his dantian. At the last shard, he realised that if he didn't break through, he would enter Qi reflux, and his meridians would be shattered. So, as the final shard entered into the turbulent sea of Qi that made up his dantian, Typhon decided to begin breaking through to the next realm of cultivation.
He would be progressing from the innate level to the initiate level, changing his dantains colour from red to orange. This breakthrough was often done at 10 years old if a child was trained in the ways of cultivation from birth and even those who entered sects, once they became of age at 15, quickly ascended from the innate rank. Typhon was now only going through this step at age 18, but speed wasn't a concern of Typhon's, as he had climbed the ranks of cultivation before and knew that raising your understanding of your main techniques was more critical at this level of cultivation.
Breaking through was a complex process that required a lot of concentration; even at such a low level, it would take Typhon's full attention to do correctly. Having a large mental realm did help by lowering the time it took to break through, but it did not reduce the amount of concentration needed. It was like filling a barrel with water with a funnel, where the barrel was the concentration needed to break through, and the funnel was your mental realm. A bigger funnel would lower the time needed to fill the barrel but wouldn't reduce the amount of water the barrel could hold.
Typhon's dantian began violently shaking as he started the breakthrough process. He began moving his Qi through his meridians, filling them with refined Qi. Once his meridians were full, he began using them to refine the Qi comprised of his dantian. Slowly, spots of the violent red dantian became calmer, and a brilliant orange colour shone through. After a gruelling three hours, Typhon's dantian subsided, and now in his stomach sat a calm orange core. The final shard had been absorbed during his breakthrough, so Typhon's job was done. Deactivating his mental realm, his vision returned to the real world.
His body was covered in sweat, and his long hair was drenched and stuck to his face. Carmine had remained by the door, watching the breakthrough process with a worried look. Now that she saw Typhon's eye open and his breathing normalise, she rushed over to him with a towel and bottle of water she had prepared earlier. She forced the bottle of water into his hand.
"Here, drink."
She then began wiping down his back with the towel to clean it of the sweat and grime that stuck to him. Typhon drank without hesitation, feeling the cool sensation of the water rush down his throat, revitalising him from the exhaustion he felt moments ago.
"Thanks."
Typhon managed to get out between gulps of water. Carmine didn't stop wiping down his back as she replied.
"It's no problem. You let out some worrying screams during the whole process but no one came by to check it out so I think we're in the clear. Do you still want to form your magic circle today? We can always take a bit of time to rest."
Typhon shook his head.
"No, I need as much time as possible. Mentally, I'm fine so I can concentrate. I will force my body to keep up."
Carmine felt like retorting but couldn't refute that they were short on time. Two weeks to get to a level of respectable combat was short, especially since Typhon had never used magic before.
"Okay, let me prepare the runes for the magic circle you'll be forming your circle in."
Carmine put the towel to one side and pulled out a blue stick of chalk. She began drawing a circle around Typhon and detailing specific parts of the circle with more complex shapes. It took her around 10 minutes to complete to circle, which was a complex mix of basic geometric shapes and several varieties of pictographic letters that Typhon recognised as runes. Carmine put the chalk back into her bag and sat outside the circle facing Typhon.
"So, the process is relatively simple, even if it is taxing. I will activate the circle with my own mana upon then you will begin to feel mana on your own. What you have to do is focus on the mana you sense and draw it in. Without a circle, mana defaults to collecting in the heart and from there, you will have to forge it into a circle."
"Forge it? How do I do that?"
"It's different for everyone. The circle I just drew will guide you during the process and the runes I inscribed will do the heavy lifting. The most important thing to remember is that you have to complete the circle in one go, you can't stop and start so take your time before you start messing with the mana in your heart."
"Okay, I'm sure I'll figure it out. Lets start."
Carmine nodded and placed her hand on the outside of the circle. A blue light shone from her palm, causing the circle to glow in the same radiant blue colour coming from Carmine's hand. As the circle began to glow brighter, Typhon felt a tingle coming from his chest. Now activating his mental realm, he slowly saw a clump of unfamiliar energy building in his heart. It was a translucent ball with shining specks of blue dotted throughout.
'So that's what mana looks like... how interesting.'
Not wanting to waste time, he began probing the ball of mana with his mental realm, trying to figure out how to shape it into the circle it needed to become. Suddenly from behind him, a voice rang out.
"Need a hand?"
Typhon's mental focus spun around to see a sea green shade in his mental realm. Few beings in existence could breach someone's mental realm in a non-destructive manner, and all of them were great beings in heaven. Yet even if this being was as great as a god, this was an invasion of privacy and seen as rude, so Typhon didn't show any deference to the being when he spoke.
"Who are you?"
"Not important right now and will be revealed at a later date. For now, please accept my apologies for our meeting like this and allow me to help you form your circle."
"Why should I trust you with something so critical? I don't even know who you are."
The shade flickered briefly, losing some of its opacity.
"We are running out of time, if you want answers, become a 3rd circle mage quicker. Now let me help you."
Seeing that time was of the essence and that he would get no answers, Typhon decided to trust his instinct and let the shade help.
"Fine, let us do this."
"Good, now raise your hand a splay your hand out. Command the mana and bend it to your will. You are an emperor and a dragon; even the very forces of the world will bend to your will."
It didn't surprise him that the shade knew his past life's deeds, making a mental note to ask it once he reached the 3rd circle and followed its instructions. He raised his arm and splayed his hand out.
"YIELD!"
His booming voice filled his mental realm, forcing even the shade to flicker in response. It was as if nothing who heard his command could stand in defiance. As if submitting to his will, the mana began straightening out and forming a circle around his heart. A few brief moments passed as the mana slowly snaked around his heart. Eventually, the two ends of the mana met and fused, completing the circle. A blue pulse shot forth and rippled through Typhon's body. Now seeing that the circle was completed successfully, the shade began to fade away.
"I will see you soon, Dragon Emperor."
Typhon didn't bother dignifying the shade with a response and simply deactivated his mental realm. He opened his eye and locked eyes with Carmine.
"So... did you do it?"
Typhon gave a satisfied smile.
"Yes. Yes I did."