Chapter 8: Spirit Amplification III
As the Sun hung high in the sky, Shawn reached home. He had a filling breakfast and headed up to his room.
"There's no one here to disturb us, now. Let's continue my training, System. I can feel it. I am so close to getting it." Shawn was excited about learning his new technique. The reason he went out to the fields was to test and familiarise his new strength. But since he got too engaged in training, he completely forgot about it. He could only return at dawn the next day to do what he had forgotten.
Shawn took 5 wisps and started to move them around his body, he stopped as he reached his hand. This time, with undivided concentration, he expanded the wisps of Qi to cover his fist. In no time he reached his knuckles and moved on to the fingers. As soon as he reached halfway down to the fingertips, he stopped. Shawn took a deep breath to focus and continued. His eyes wide, breath stuck in his throat and he didn't even dare to gulp, afraid that he might lose focus. Time passed as the blanket of Qi slowly moved towards the fingertips. Finally, after hundreds of tries, Shawn managed to wrap his entire fist in Qi.
"HELL YEAH! I DID IT!" Shawn rejoined his success. However
'Whoosh~' With an almost inaudible sound of wind flowing, the Qi dissipated into the atmosphere.
"Shit! I celebrated too early." Unfortunately, the boy's control over his Qi wasn't good enough to keep the Qi gathered while celebrating. Fortunately, the young cultivator's will was strong enough to not get demotivated after a failure. "No matter. If I can do it once, I can do it again. Hey, System do I have to always keep a steady focus on my Qi to keep the technique activated?"
[Not if you have profound command over the Qi in your body.]
"How long will that take?" Shawn didn't want to have to keep most of his concentration on a technique to cast it. Especially, during a fight.
[It completely depends on you. Some might take their entire lives to reach a high level of control. Again, some can achieve it within a day.]
"Thank you for answering nothing, System. Really appreciate it."
[Most welcome, Host]
Shawn didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the System's lack of humour. Shaking his head, he again focused on Spirit Amplification. Soon, he was able to imbue his right fist with Qi. Not knowing what to do now, he looked to the System for help." What do I do now?"
[Normally, you would need to punch in any direction at a solid object to gauge your strength. But since you don't want to destroy your house, the best course of action would be to increase your mastery over the technique. You can do it in 2 ways. Either reduce the time taken to amplify your right fist, or try to amplify another limb. I suggest the former before going for the latter, as the more experience you gather with one limb, the easier it will be to imbue Qi to the others]
"Alright. I'll repeat the technique over and over till I'm able to use it in an instant." Shawn understood the logic behind the System's words. He let go of the Qi and started the cycle of Spirit Manipulation again. Soon, he amplified his right fist again. Amplify, let go, restart, Amplify and repeat. Hours passed by as he kept repeating this cycle. At first, he didn't notice any evident changes, but after a hundred tries, Shawn realised he took considerably less time to imbue his fist with Qi. On his first attempt, it took nearly a minute after the Qi reached his hand. But now, it took about 50 seconds or so. He stopped and let it sink in. Excited at his progress, Shawn continued to train with newfound resolve. But just as he was about to resume,
'Grrr~' Shawn's stomach growled in hunger. Evidently, the boy was hungry after his intense training session. "I think I will have something to eat before we continue. Just as he was about to go down, Jeanne's soothing voice reached his ears, "Lunch is ready, Shawn. Hurry up and come down. I've made your favourite dish." Shawn was surprised as he didn't notice it was already noon. Obviously, because he was too immersed in training to notice the passage of time. Delighted at the surprise, Shawn made his way downstairs and he announced, "Coming, Mom. I'm famished."
"What do you mean you're famished? What did you do the entire day cooped up in your room?" Jeanne looked at him with scrutiny. Shawn chuckled nervously and tried to divert the topic, "Don't sweat the details. Ahh~. You made chicken curry today!" Shawn said before diving into his food. He gobbled up so fast that Jeanne couldn't help but stare in awe. "Seconds, please!"
"Alright, alright. Just eat slowly or you'll choke." Jeanne said before refilling his plate with more curry and rice. However, Shawn didn't seem to hear anything as he gobbled down with twice the speed. He was finished before Jeanne could fill a plate for herself.
"It was the best curry ever, Mom. I'm going back to my room." Saying this, he rushed upstairs. Jeanne looked surprised at how her child could eat so much so fast. Unfortunately for her, only the System knew that her no longer a mortal.
As soon as he entered his room, he resumed training. Shawn decided to practice Spirit Amplification till Dinnerm after which, he'll cultivate at night before sleeping for 2 hours. With his current body, he'll be fine as long as he sleeps properly just once a week.
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A/N: Good day, readers. This is my first Webnovel, so there are bound to be mistakes and some areas might feel lacking. I hope you guys will inform me about any oversights as well as help me increase the quality of my work. I am open to any advice, ideas or suggestions.