Sect Leader's Rise to the top!

Kai and his disciples left the area after he had given Mei Lee the Lee family deeds back. The sun was just starting to rise when they arrived home. Kai gave his disciples a few pointers and answered their questions on their cultivation then let them off to their rooms.

Kai had felt that Mina was close to breaking through to the 2nd Stage of Qi-Condensation. But thanks to the artificial seal set by [Sub-Core Manual], Mina had been unable to breakthrough. Kai told her to focus on today's battle as inspiration which helped Mina breakthrough, however in reality, Kai had simply lifted the cap on her cultivation. He now allowed all of his disciples to reach the 4th Stage of Qi-condensation.

Kai himself was still only on the 6th Stage of Qi-Condensation, so he wanted to keep them at least two stages beneath him at all times.

"I've read through the mad man's diary on Qi and from what I can see, I should be able to apply the same principles to my own cultivation. I just need some materials first...", Kai said to himself as he walked down to the basement. He hadn't gotten much sleep lately, but his body required minimal amounts of sleep at this point. In fact, internal cultivators rarely slept and actually spent the majority of their lives in meditative states while trying to break through to higher stages of cultivation.

Kai pulled the Chimera journal out of his storage space and placed it on the table. The journal had detailed how he could transfer Qi between objects safely and without wastage. However, Kai had come up with an ingenious plan to try applying the concept to his breakthroughs. He would become the vessel of Qi storage mentioned in the journal.

"But before I try it on myself, let's do some tests on objects first. Better safe than sorry." Kai said as he picked up a random knife.

[Knife] [Grade-1] [6 Qi]

"Ok, let's try turning this into a [Grade-2] knife!", Kai thought as he injected some Qi into the knife. However, just at the point where it felt that the knife would be destroyed, Kai quickly changed the rotation of his Qi as described in the journal. Instead of the knife shattering, it began to glow slightly.

This occurred for a few seconds, then the knife shared to shake violently again. This prompted Kai to readjust his Qi input and rotation again. This cycle of rotations and infusions went on for about a minute until Kai felt that the knife could no longer hold anymore Qi.

Kai stopped his Qi infusion and observed the knife again.

[Knife] [Grade-1] [42 Qi]

"The materials are terrible so it won't go higher than this, but this proves the theory to be correct. Using this method, I can safely and permanently infuse Qi into objects without destroying them!".

Kai looked at the knife and noticed that it seemed sharper and slightly firmer than before. This change wasn't obvious but Kai was able to tell thanks to his enhanced senses.

Kai kept trying this with random objects around the basement until he ran out of Qi. He came up with two limits. First, he seemed to be unable to upgrade items past their current grade. Kai didn't know if this was a universal fact since he didn't have higher quality items, but the most he could do was enhance [Grade-1] items to [99 Qi]. The second limit was on how much Qi he could transfer. At most, Kai could only move 1 Qi every 10 seconds into an item. Any more than this, the process would become unstable, destroying the item immediately.

Kai sat down in the middle of the room and focused on his core. He felt it slowly absorbing the surrounding Qi to replenish his spent reserves. His body was absorbing Qi using the method from his [Tempest Dragon's Law] to pull the Qi into his core.

Kai observed how the Qi would enter his core for hours until it filled completely. He took a deep breath and prepared himself mentally. The last time he tried to break through, he felt like he was close to death, however, Kai felt confident this time

"Circulate!..." Kai thought as forced a sliver of Qi into his already full core. His core seemed ready to go unstable but then Kai rotated the Qi using the new technique which he now called the Chimera method. His core immediately settled down and even started to give off a small, warm glow. After a few minutes, the rotating Qi wanted to go violent again, however, Kai simply changed directions and adjusted the flow to stabilize it again. Slowly but surely, the additional Qi dispersed into Kai's body during which time Kai felt no discomfort or pain. After a few hours of this, all the Qi had been absorbed into Kai's body and his Core had grown slightly bigger.

"Is it over?..."Kai thought as he opened his eyes and was immediately met with a system notification.

[Congratulations, the host has broken through to the 7th Stage of Qi-Condensation!]

Kai was overjoyed and quickly checked his status to confirm.

==[Status]==>

[Name]: Kai (No Last name)

[Age]: 14 [Life expectancy = 50 years]

[Internal Cultivation Level]: 7th Stage of Qi-Condensation

[Body Grade]: [Mortal Grade-5]

[Health]: 120 /120

[Qi]: 0 /800

[Qi Gather Rate]: [1 Qi / 10 minutes]

[Status]: Healthy

"Amazing...this breakthrough was completely different from those before. There was almost no resistance this time!". Kai was overjoyed by this result. If this method worked for higher stages, then Kai wouldn't have to worry about the dangers of breakthroughs anymore.

"I don't know how breakthroughs work in the Foundation Establishment stage or higher stages than that, but for Qi-Condensation, I have no more worries!". Kai wanted to immediately breakthrough to the peak of Qi-Condensation, but his Qi reserves were depleted again.

"Let's calm down and take it slow. There is no need for me to rush. I need to focus on building a firm foundation for my future cultivation after all".

Kai didn't know what kind of manuals he would get in the future, but he knew that a firm foundation now would be necessary for the future.

Kai stood up and could feel the Qi in the surrounding a lot more clearly. He could also differentiate the Wind-Qi in the air from the regular Qi with ease unlike before. Kai pulled a small portion of Wind-Qi towards him and absorbed it. The Qi coursed through his body, giving him a feeling of euphoria while also gifting him a lot more Qi than when he absorbed regular Qi.

"This kind of power really is addictive...." Kai thought with a smile on his face.