Right now, the tunnel that Lin Wu had dug was barely the size of his body. This led to him only being able to move either up or down with little place to move sideways.

"Let's try pausing around, I dunno how packed the soil is here. If there are some empty or less dense pockets, it should be easy to make enough room without me needed to push out the soil back out." Lin Wu muttered to himself.

He thus started to push the soil around with his body and was able to expand it to about three times his body's thickness. But after that, he could not do anything even if he tried. The soil had become just too packed to be able to move.

"Guess this is all I can do. Now then, I should try to shrink so that I have even more area…" Lin Wu said before triggering the innate skill of Cellular Manipulation.

As soon as he did it though, he felt a feeling that was kind of similar to suffocation. It was as if he was being squeezed into a tight shirt or something like that.

"Dammit, I didn't expect it to be like this." Lin Wu cursed but did not stop and continued doing it.

Lin Wu reduced his size to about fifty percent less than his original size and stopped, as the suffocating feeling was getting beyond what he could handle.

~Huu~

~Huu~

~Huu~

~Huu~

~Huu~

Lin Wu took labored breaths as he took a bit of rest. He moved around a bit and found it to be much more easier than before.

'This should be enough for now.' Lin Wu thought to himself before pulling out the Host Data Window.

~Ding~

——

HOST NAME: Lin Wu

AGE: 2 years, 3 months, 20 days

LIFESPAN: 150 years

HOST SPECIES: Crimson Eyed Emerald Worm

HOST CULTIVATION: Mid stage of the Qi Refining Realm

-Spirit Qi required to upgrade = [0000/3000] units

QI STORAGE: 9628 units [wisps]

BLOODLINE: 1. Crimson Eyed Emerald Worm (System Manufactured)

2. Unknown(+2)

CULTIVATION TECHNIQUES: None

QI SKILLS: 1. Qi Amplification (Minor)

INNATE SKILLS: 1. Radiation Manipulation(minor)(Proficiency: Novice)

2. Cellular Manipulation (lesser) (Proficiency: Intermediate)

3. Cellular Crystallization (great) (Proficiency: Intermediate)

INVENTORY: Broken Spear, Broken metal plate, Beast carapace (fragment), Pink Women's underwear, Dagger

BEAST CORE: Not formed

VITAL ENERGY STORAGE: 7250 units

SYSTEM ENERGY STORAGE: 7542 units

RAW BLOODLINE DATA COLLECTED:

1. Common Grass Mouse

2. Rock Trampler Boar

3. Human

4. Unknown (+2)

5. Ash Crowned Buck

——

Lin Wu looked at the Qi storage and saw that he had more than enough spirit qi for the next upgrade, thus he decided to initiate it right away.

"System, upgrade my cultivation to the next stage." Lin Wu ordered.

~Ding~

——

UPGRADE: Consuming 3000 units of spirit qi (wisps) to upgrade the host's cultivation to the late stage of the qi refining realm. Please wait patiently.

——

As soon as the notification sounded, Lin Wu could feel the change in his body happening. He could feel spirit qi appearing out of nowhere and entering his meridians. It kept on being absorbed into them and started saturating them.

Lin Wu started feeling a bit bloated as the process got faster and faster, until when it became a bit painful.

Lin Wu gritted his teeth and held on, waiting for the process to complete. His wait lasted for another ten minutes as the pain only kept on intensifying. At the end, the pain had become as if someone was trying to break his body apart. But this level of pain lasted only a moment before the notification appeared.

~Ding~

——

UPGRADE COMPLETE: Host's cultivation raised to the late stage of the qi refining realm successfully.

NOTIFICATION: Liquid spirit qi has been unlocked.

NOTIFICATION: Host Data has been updated.

——

Lin Wu could feel the spirit qi course through him, and he felt more powerful than ever. He could also feel something different circulating within his meridians. It was like a wisp of spirit qi but more dense.

"Is that the… liquid spirit qi that system talked about?" Lin Wu muttered.

Lin Wu focused within him and could sense the liquid drop of spirit qi respond to his call. But just as he was about to control it, a warning sounded.

~Ding~

——

WARNING!: Host should not deplete the final drop of liquid spirit qi or the host will regress to the previous cultivation stage.

SUGGESTION: The host should refine the spirit qi wisps into the liquefied spirit qi as soon as possible. Doing so will reduce the risk of the host's cultivation regressing.

——

"Dang, that was close! Almost made a big mistake," Lin Wu cursed in relief.

~Phew~

'I better do as the system suggested. Though I should get to know more about the liquid spirit qi first.' Lin Wu thought.

"System, what is liquid spirit qi and how is it different from the wisps?" Lin Wu questioned.

~Ding~

——

ANSWER: The liquid spirit qi is a higher refined form of the spirit qi wisps and is about ten times more potent. Liquid spirit qi is the hallmark of a late stage qi refining realm cultivator as it is necessary for a cultivator to refine at least a single drop of it in order to truly enter that stage.

From the late stage of the qi refining realm, the cultivator can only upgrade his cultivation with liquid spirit qi, but the spirit qi wisps can still be utilized for regular use.

The conversion ratio of spirit qi for the host is 1:10, i.e. ten wisps of spirit qi can be converted and refined to one drop of liquid spirit qi. The reverse can be done as well.

——

After reading the system's explanation, Lin Wu was a bit astounded. Before he was thinking that he had a lot of spirit qi, but now that the refinement factor had come in, that very spirit qi became much less than before.

~Sigh~

"Well, seems like I just gotta grit my teeth and bear the costs." Lin Wu said in a helpless tone.

"Alright system, refine and convert all my spirit qi wisps into liquid." Lin Wu ordered with determination.