The goal of the Energy Refinement Realm is to gather and compress spiritual energy inside of your dantian.
To break through into this realm from the Body Refinement Realm you need to first absorb spiritual energy from the surroundings.
Instead of pushing it through your flesh, blood or organs like you would have done in the Body Refinement Realm, you need to instead circulate it through your meridians around your whole body.
After circulating the energy for one round, the energy will have become ‚yours' and you can absorb it into your dantian.
The dantian is located around your stomach area about three fingers below your navel. It doesn't really exist in a purely physical way. You can't see it inside your body but it exists there. It can only be touched by spiritual energy, not by your flesh.
To break through into this realm you simply need to have a small amount of spiritual energy inside your dantian. But you aren't really any more powerful than you were in the Body Refinement Realm.
A person only truly arrives in the Energy Gathering Realm once they've filled their entire dantian with spiritual energy and can use this energy to strengthen their attacks.
The dantian has the same diameter for every single cultivator. It's about 1 meter. The way to increase your strength in this realm is by compressing energy and then filling your dantian with spiritual energy again.
The Energy Gathering Realm is divided into 12 official and 3 unofficial realms. From the first to the fourth realm you need to increase your energy by 1 unit in each realm. One unit here refers to the amount of energy you held when you first filled your dantian. This means in the first stage you will have 1 unit of energy and in the 4th stage you will have 4.
To increase the amount of energy you can hold you need to compress the energy that's already inside your dantian to make room for new energy. This means that not only will you have more energy with each breakthrough, even its quality will increase substantially.
To break through into the 5th stage you now need to double your energy. This means it will increase from 4 to 8 units. In the consecutive stages up until the 8th you will need to add 8 units of energy every minor realm for a total of 32 in the 8th stage.
To break through to the 9th stage you once again need to double your energy for a total of 64 units. Then you need to add that amount in every realm until the 12th where you will have 256 units of energy.
If you have reached this far, then you're at the peak of the Energy Refinement Realm. You can either choose to break through to the Foundation Building Realm or advance another minor realm.
To advance into the 13th stage you need to have reached Platinum Refinement in the Body refinement realm. If you choose to break through into this realm you need to double your energy again. You will then hold 1024 units of energy.
To break through to the 14th stage you need to have reached diamond Refinement and need to triple your energy until you have 3072 units.
The last possible stage is the 15th, which you will only be able to reach if you have achieved Jade Refinement. Here you need to increase your energy by four times until you have 12288 units of energy. This is the absolute peak of the Energy Refinement realm and you will now need to break through into the Foundation Establishment.
But this didn't matter for Kael at the moment since he simply wanted to break through into the first stage.
After trying to attract spiritual energy for the first time since he achieved his new constitution, he realized that the energy practically loved him. All the energy within a 100 meter radius instantly rushed towards him and waited to be absorbed.
Kael didn't need this much at the moment though, so he simply absorbed as much as he estimated it would take to fill his dantian.
When he circulated the energy through his meridians he noted that it didn't bring him any trouble at all. It was completely smooth.
In this way Kael quickly refined the energy to make it his own and stored it inside his dantian without any problems whatsoever.
After just 1 minute he smoothly broke through and absorbed the rest of the energy for an hour until he eventually reached the peak of the first stage.
Feeling the energy inside his body Kael was extremely content. For some reason he felt like this energy had a special attribute compared to the energy outside. But at the moment he didn't know what benefit this attribute brought.
Feeling the power coursing through him when he circulated his energy, Kael felt like he could decimate even Superman from his past life. Even though this was just an illusion that came with his increase in strength in the moment, it wouldn't be too far until he could win against any superhero from Marvel or DC.
Wanting to know how strong he actually was, Kael called up his status screen.
[Host: Kael ?]
[Realm: Energy Refinement. 1st Stage (completion)]
[Energy: 100%]
[Estimated Combat Strength: Mid Foundation Establishment]
[Cultivation Techniques: Human body refinement manual, ???(Low Spirit)]
[Combat Techniques: Quick Gale Technique (Limit-Break), Explosive Fist (Limit-Break)]
[Special Abilities: Existence Shift (Peak Emperor), Void and Chaos Spiritual Energy (Peak Emperor Grade)]
[Bloodline: None
Constitution: Emperor Chaotic Void Physique (Peak Emperor Grade)
Soul: Chaoitc Void Soul ( @€&#%?*!)]
[Talents:
Cultivation Talent: High Immortal - Grade
Body Refinement: High Immortal - Grade
Soul Cultivation: @€&#%?*!- Grade
Comprehension: Infinite Comprehension, @€&#%?*!-Grade]
[Affinities: Chaos (@€&#%?*! Grad), Void (@€&#%?*!-Grade)]
[Special Talents:
Alchemy: B-Grade
@€&#%?*!: Gradeless]
‚The only thing that really changed is my combat strength and Realm. Oh and I also gained a new special ability, system show me the description of this ability please.'
[Void and Chaos spiritual energy]
[Grade: Peak Emperor]
[An ability granted by the Emperor Chaotic Void Body. It allows you to freely attach either Chaos or Void attributes to your spiritual energy. The Chaos attribute will increase the healing factor of your energy and the power of element-related abilities you cast (like fire, space, lightning). The void attribute will enhance the destructive properties of your spiritual energy by a large amount and partly banish anything your techniques hit into the void.]
This technique granted Kael a huge versatility when fighting. Not only could he focus on destruction but it could also increase the power of all his techniques.
It seems like he would gain one special ability for each major realm he broke through in the future. Since those abilities are related to two supreme laws they will probably always be extremely strong.
But at the moment Kael couldn't really use his new ability to its full potential. To do that he will need some new combat techniques that are fitting for his elements.
And the best place to gain them will be at a large sect.
„Let's go already. It's time to leave this damn cave after a full year in seclusion." Kael said to Karl.
„Well it's not like we were waiting for me. You chose to break through here."
Kael sighed and chose to not say anything, instead he just walked towards the exit of the cave. It seems like he will never be able to catch a break with this annoying little raccoon by his side.
Finally the human-raccoon duo left the cave after spending an entire year inside. Well Kael did. Karl was in the form of an egg most of the time after all and only hatched a few hours ago.
But in this way they walked side by side towards their next adventure.