Shen Wang chomped down Enchanted Golden Apple, one after another.
"Hungry..."
"Soooo hungry!"
In just a few minutes, he had eaten over thirty-six or so Enchanted Golden Apples.
30 minutes ago.....
Shen's eyelids twiched as an unbearable, intense stench assaulted his nose.
As he gradually woke up, memories prior to his fainting, flooded his brain.
Vital Lotus Body!
He had successfully condensed the Vital Lotus Body.
Although it almost completely depleted his cultivation pill reserves, it was worth it!
Cultivating a Vital Lotus Body would otherwise take at least 10 years or so, normally!
But.....
Shen felt something warm touching his naked body.
Once Shen realised his situation, he couldn't hold back the disgust and immidiately started puking.
His entire cultivation adobe was filled with empty pill boxes and piles and piles of his own shit!
Shen didn't even open his mouth to mutter anything, fearing that a nugget would accidently enter his mouth.
Inventory!
Inventory!
Inventory!
As if it were a reflex, Shen started to immidiately chug all the filth and empty boxes into his inventory.
And thus began a thirty minute cleaning session after which Shen immidiately took a bath!
Fast forward to a few minutes later, Shen found himself starved and started to eat Enchanted Goldlen Apples.
"Finally, all the immidiate problems have been dealt with!"
Shen thought as he started to inspect his own body.
Vital Lotus Body had been successfully condensed!
What did it imply?
"This means that my entire body has been reconstructed."
"If I were to phrase it in another way, this body is now imbued with my spiritual qi and thus I can say that this body is effectively mine!"
The body's defect had vanished and Shen's mind and body had completely integrated together.
The problem with his reflexes had vanished.
In fact, his reflexes had become sharper than ever!
"So, this is what it feels like to be a cultivator," Shen reviewed as he closed his eyelids and started to focus on his five senses.
His senses ranging from skin, eyes, nose, ears and tounge had all become deeper and deeper.
"So this is the Vital Lotus Body," After finished his inspection, Shen came up with a few initial estimated.
Firstly, his body had naturally become stronger and his senses keener.
Secondly, his body had become nine times more condensed.
This meant that he had gained 9 times more weight than before, even though the volume of his body remained the same.
Third, his appetite had increased nine-folds compared to before.
Fourth, the conduction of spiritual qi throughout his body had become 9 times more smoother than before.
This meant that his meridians and body could now circulate spiritual qi faster.
Lastly, his body's cultivation had increased!
Shen had stepped into the 7th realm of Qi Condensation!
Shen immidiately sat in a crossed legged position and started to introspect.
"Qi Condensation is the first step into the cultivation for all the cultivators"
"Qi Condensation realm encompasses 10 different stages of cultivation, in which each stage has their own unique requirements to reach"
1) Bone Marrow Tempering Meridian
2) Blood Nourishing Meridian
3) Internal Organ Meridian
4) Limb Tempering Meridian
5) Tendon Strengthening Meridian
6) Bone Rebirth Meridian
7) Muscle Tempering Meridian
8) Void Channel Meridian
9) Nexus Mind Meridian
10) Integrated Meridian
"Now then, thinking about their names, Upto satge 7 of Qi Condensation which is called the Muscle Tempering Meridian, one needs to temper their body and incite the meridians dominant there."
This wasn't just baseless assumption, combining the memories that Shen had inerited and through his own experiences in cultivation, Shen had started to understand the basics of cultivation.
"So, every creature has meridians present in them."
"Meridians are the channels from which qi flows"
"However, these countless meridians that are present in our bodies are dominant, we don't create them, we awaken them!"
"Thus, each cultivation art isn't actually different, they all relay the essense of awakening a meridian and using them."
"However, there are some fundamental meridians which every cultivator needs to awaken in their body"
"This is where the first seven Qi Condensation realms' true meaning lies."
"First, a cultivator awakens their Bone Marrow's Meridian. This helps them to awaken their Blood Marrow's Meridian"
"Now, since, blood flows through the entire body, this helps in awakening the Internal Organ Meridian"
"Then the limbs, tendons, bones and finally muscles!"
"Thus, In a way a Qi Condensation cultivator's initial goal is to make their entire body a conductor of Spiritual Qi!"
This was like a spark of inspiration being lit in gunpowder which exploded into a continuous explosions of understanding in Shen's mind.
He already had a vague understanding cultivation stemming from none other than the fantasy novels that he had read on Earth.
After absorbing this body's memories, Shen had also gain a fair share of understanding of cultivation regarding Qi Condensation.
And finally, after condensing his Vital Lotus Body himself, he had started to grasp the profound basics of cultivation.
"Good! Good! Good!"
"Thus, once I successfully condensed my Vital Lotus Body, I had already reached the peak of Muscle Tempering Meridian realm!"
"Although, it's a pity that I didn't reach the peak of Qi Condensation realm itself..."
"But...., thinking about it. It's actually quite natural, According to the name of the 8th minor realm, that is, Void Channel Meridian, I need to awaken a spiritual meridian."
"This is different from the meridians of my body, this meridian lies in my mind"
"Thus, for the 8th and the 9th realm of Qi Condensation Realm, I need to awaked the two basic meridians of my mind."
Shen pondered his situation and decided to gather more information before resuming his cultivation.
"After all, if something went wrong, my brain would split open and I would die from my injuries!"
Shen sighed, he was a mortal after all.
He would die from such a large physical injury....
physical injury.....
physical injury?
"Hahahahha!!!! Why did I only remember this now," Shen immidiately burst into a maniacal laughter as he gained a simple inspiration!
Hearing this lough laugh, Flood immidiately got shocked and hid himself somewhere in the house.
"Physical injury? hehe!!! Sure, it'll be fatal as long as I'm in survival mode."
Immidiately, Shen's fingers sprinted towards the air and started to type something.
/gamemode creative
Last thing that Shen was going to die from were "physical injuries".
"Hehe, time to exaust the remaining pill reserves," Shen's mind immidiately ventured into his inventory.
Aside from the floating feces and empty pill boxes.
There were still quite a few hundred pill boxes, alchemy books and reciepies, cauldrons and myriad spiritual resources were floating in the blank space.
Allthough Shen had already exausted all of the pills which could affect his body, he still had a few hundred pills which focused on the mind.
Thus, it was time again!
Pill! Pill! Pill!
Shen sat down crossed legged again and began cultivating like a maniac.
Thousands of strands of spiritual qi from hundreds of pills were dumped into Shen's mouth.
Gusts of qi began to blow as Shen's qi started to bombard his mind.
Shen's head started to ache as blood started to sprew from his eyes, nose and ears.
According to Shen's memories, af long as he spent enough qi to nourish his mind, his Void Channel Meridian and Nexus Channel Meridian would successfully awaken.
There was to expertise in the control of the qi that was nourishing Shen's mind.
The efficiency was extremely low.
To explain in better, imagine a humoungous field of thousands of kilometers of area.
In this field there are two seeds called Void Channel Meridian and Nexus Channel Meridian that need "water" for to nourish themselves and awaken.
But Shen didn't know where the seeds were, so he started to flood the entire area with water so that the seeds could get the water.
Similarly, he was eating pills after pills to nourish his mind without worrying about any backlash as he was already in creative mode, any physical damage would be ineffective on his body.
Normally, he wouldn't dare to think about doing this, even a single of such pill was worth about 500 Merit Points, it would take the disciples at least a month of hardwork to exchange for it.
But Shen was using a couple hundreds to "cultivate".
He was just blatantly wasting away the pills without using them effectively.
This was the cultivation of the rich!
And thus, after a few hours later.....
BOOOOOMM!
8th realm of Void Channel Meridian!
Unlocked.
Eat Pill!
Pill! Pill! Pill!
Fasting Pill!
Mind Nourishing Pill!
Mind Sootheing Pill!
Whatever Mind Pill!
Eat! Eat! Eat!
Waste! Waste! Waste!
Pill! Pill! Pill!
The continous cycle of eating pills continued.
However, this time Shen decided to shit directly into the inventory to utilise his time better.
Floof, who was confused just decided to wander around the house, not bothering with this maniac of a master.
And so, 7 days later...
Realm Nine, Nexus Mind Meridian!
"That should be enough for now," Satisfied, Shen finally stood up from his meditation and started to store away all of the pill boxes away into his inventory.
Shen finally came out of his abode, only to be greeted by the smelly stench of pigs.
Shen's good mood was already wasted seeing so much filthy feces of pigs.
"tsk tsk, I need to do something about this, my neighbourhood is full of shit!"
However unbeknownst to Shen, he had just averted a disaster.
The thousands of pills that he had consumed had created an intense medicinal smell all around his body.
Thus, in a way, the pig feces helped him cover the medicinal stench of thousands of pills from the elders who were searching for the pill thief.
Naturally, Shen was oblivious to this and started to ponder what do next.
"Now then, should I start learning from the alchemy inheritance of the Outer Sect or should I take up a mission to go out of the Sect and explore the world outside?" Shen pondered.