Chapter 11 - Cultivation 101

Li Lang still remembered the moment when he had asked Elder Nong if there was any method to get around the limit of Qi one could absorb each session, imposed by aptitude. The elder had closed his eyes and took a pregnant pause, looking towards the sky above before replying."Cultivation is more difficult than climbing up Mount Tai. Each and every step is taken with blood, sweat, and tears, but the higher you go, the more steep it gets. You must also progress quickly lest you run out of time. If you need assistance at the start line already, how far could you possibly go?"Seeing Li Lang's unconvinced expression, the young elder shook his head and continued."If you must know, there are no established methods to break past one's natural limit. While some employ the use of various pills to address this issue, they all come with serious drawbacks and an exorbitantly high price. The famous Ascension Pill is one such pill. While it allows one to breeze through cultivation realms, one won't be able to exert strength as befitting of their cultivation or progress by themselves without further using pills of even higher quality than the previous.""I see…"The young elder pitifully stared back at the large-headed boy as they silently continued their journey. He wasn't trying to discourage him, but the ways of the world were too cruel and he believed it would be better for the child to give up his unrealistic ambitions early on.Li Lang finished reminiscing about the lesson he had with the elder and prepared himself for another attempt. With a clear image of the strange sensation of Qi fresh in his mind, he began to suck in the ambient Qi as he had done in his memories.The surrounding Qi slowly but surely entered his body through five different points. With the energy flowing through him, he began the next step of using the Qi to dig out a space for it within his body. He began with his fingers, and the dull pain intensified the more he forced Qi into himself.The pain persisted for as long as Li Lang cultivatedThis…is taking so long. Hmm, Elder Nong said to use my imagination, so maybe I can make it faster if I use other imagery.Li Lang began imagining himself as a black hole, dragging all the ambient Qi toward him. It once again started at a slow trickle, but then rapidly grew into a quick stream.It worked! But it's not going any faster if my body can't hold it. It'll just spill out!He adjusted his mindset and had the Qi within him transform into a high-powered laser. He then directed the laser to bore through the space he intended to hold the Qi. There was no pain from the burning laser or anything, but the dull pain persisted.Like that, he cultivated until he soon felt a sharp pain running through his body.Li Lang had always been a hard worker, but if you looked at it from another angle, it also meant he was a stubborn person. That meant he was immensely frustrated when he had to stop so soon. He forced himself to rein in his feelings and swiftly entered Ruby's artifact space.Each person's recovery time before they could cultivate again was different. The elder had told him it would normally take half a day, but was safer to take a full day's rest. It wasn't uncommon for people who worked too hard to suddenly die. Hearing that, Li Lang wanted to find the exact amount of time it took for him to recover to maximize his gains.He took a blood sample from himself and placed it into the auto-analyzer. He would repeat this every hour. While his first sample took an hour to analyze, the following samples took much shorter as the machine simply had to spot the difference.The test showed that his cells were stressed to the point they were destabilized, but were recovering.Once the sun rose, he began trying to absorb a sliver of Qi into himself again, testing if the sharp pain persisted. Then he analyzed his condition in his lab. He did this nonstop, skipping any meals until the discomfort from absorbing Qi ceased."Roughly eleven hours…" He wrote down his results on his usual computer in the lab. "The elder said a typical cultivator with grade one aptitude would at least take an entire month to break into the first stage of the Energy Gathering realm."He tried to make his implants run the calculation for him out of habit, but quickly smacked himself when he realized he didn't have such conveniences anymore."Twice a day for thirty days is sixty cultivation sessions. If I can find a way to shorten this somehow, my speed could drastically increase. However, recklessly doing so may come with the risk of overdosing on Qi and dying."I need to investigate how overdose works if I want to continue. For now, I'll cultivate twice a day.After a whole night without rest, Li Lang's stomach instantly grumbled when he finally settled down. He exited his room and found a seat down in the restaurant area on the first floor to make use of the meal that was included with his lodging.The young lady, who wasn't much older than Li Lang, immediately approached when he sat down."From room 207, correct? I'll bring you your breakfast right away, but what would you like to drink?""Water is fine."The young girl nodded and walked back into the kitchen. She came back within a few minutes with a bowl of stew and quietly placed down his order.Li Lang didn't mind the lack of choice and didn't hesitate to sate his hunger. While his body took care of sustenance, his mind was busy with other matters.I'm curious about how Qi overdose works, but I need to come up with a hypothesis that I can test… I don't really know much about Qi at all. Is it wise to base my guesses on my previous knowledge?For the next ten days, Li Lang mindlessly cultivated, ate, slept, and checked in on the results of the auto-analyzer during the time in between.The various plants he had examined all provided a trove of information, but none of them proved particularly useful to his current situation. However, he was satisfied with expanding his database of knowledge, though. Who knew when it would prove useful?On the tenth day, he halted his routine once his hypothesis had taken shape. However, an obstacle stood in his way. The scientific method he was familiar with wasn't perfect. One crucial thing he needed to do was to experiment. To progress, he would need to perform countless experiments to gather as much data as possible to test his new hypothesis.The main problem was that cultivation involved humans. While Li Lang had ample experience performing human experimentation, he had trouble coming up with a way for his child self to attain subjects.As a former biodefense specialist in service to the Federation of Man, he simply had to put in the request and his colossal government organization would source the subjects he needed without him having to lift a finger. He hadn't a single experience in searching for willing volunteers himself, nor was it possible for the current him to capture vicious criminals in some of the more dangerous experiments used."Ruby." He grasped the red stone tightly and placed it against his forehead."Yes, master?""I can't bring living beings into your artifact space, right?""That's correct.""How about parts of them? Like hair or blood?""Those you can. It'll just be like any other material. However, their condition won't deteriorate like in the real world."Even with the lowered requirement, Li Lang still couldn't think of a way to find volunteers to help with his experiments. Especially if he wanted obedient people who would listen to his instructions.Faced with this dilemma, Li Lang began to rethink his strategy.Maybe I should focus on other aspects that don't involve human experimentation first. The elder had mentioned pill refining, so maybe I should try starting from there first and use that to build wealth to incentivize people to my plans. The only issue is getting started in such an esoteric subject.On the tenth morning, since he had arrived in Xiang Yang, Li Lang set off from his inn for the first time.He had asked the innkeeper for directions and they had pointed the way to the Alchemist Guild near the center of the city.It was quite far from where his lodging was and it took his short legs a whole hour until he arrived at the core part of the city. The moment he set foot there, it was apparent that the core part of town was different, catering to the wealthy.There were numerous stores catering to cultivators, selling artifacts, talismans, pill furnaces, and much more. As a result, numerous cultivators were seen around the area.With Li Lang's daily cultivation, his sensitivity to Qi had improved and he could tell the cultivators in his vicinity were giving off an immense amount of Qi.Many normal citizens were low-level cultivators, as it wasn't hard to get started and had many benefits. Just being in the first stage of the Energy Gathering realm was said to give them a few extra years of lifespan.However, just because cultivators were plentiful didn't mean powerful cultivators were plentiful. That was why Li Lang found it surprising that there were so many strong presences nearby.He soon found himself standing before an enormous complex that stood over ten stories tall. It was one of the tallest buildings he had seen upon setting foot in the city, and the large resplendent gate at the front only heightened the sense of grandeur of the scene before Li Lang.There were crowds of people going in and out of the tall gates, and Li Lang took a short moment to compose himself before delving into the flow of the crowd.Entering the spacious lobby, he could see several counters with lines of people in front of them. He glanced around at the signs and joined one for the information desk. While he waited, he surveyed the different kinds of people here and the architecture of the gigantic wooden pillars that were painted a vibrant red.This place doesn't seem easy to build with the absence of construction equipment. I wonder if there are cultivators specialized in architecture.The receptionists at each counter seemed experienced and diligently addressed each visitor with speed and clarity. The lines moved swiftly and within an incense stick's worth of time; it was soon Li Lang's turn.The little boy, with a larger head than normal, sauntered forward to the curiosity of all the onlookers, but the receptionist still greeted him with a smile."How can I help you, young master?""I would like to learn alchemy. How do I apply as an apprentice?"The lady instantly directed him with a troubled look."Umm…"