Before she could finish her tirade, Zhi Yi suddenly stopped, staring at the intended target. The ambient energy in the dungeon, already thick normally, was visibly swarming around Li Gong, who was deep in concentration.

A cultivation breakthrough was easy to recognize, and while Zhi Yi was still angry at the boy’s thick-headedness, she knew better than to interrupt the growth of someone who was proving himself a help to the village.

Meanwhile, in Li Gong’s mind, a fierce battle raged. He had spent years at the peak of the Qi Cultivation stage, but no more. His level of energy was decent, a few times greater than that of a normal person, but his core just rudimentary, and control even worse. He probably would have been compared to a demonic cultivator-beast by some talented core disciple of a great sect. But now, with this battle, his thoughts were cleared. He realized that cultivation is more than just sucking in as much energy as possible- True power comes also from being able to manipulate it properly, being in control of one’s own core.

Concentrating deeply within himself, Li Gong analyzed in his mind’s eye his cultivation base. It was like a pond, full of shallow, thin water, without much substance to it. He had tried many times before to slowly press it together into the Foundation stage, but had never gotten anywhere. But now, he tries doing it like the battle. The same way he flowed around the monster’s axe ‘till the moment to strike, in control of his own body, Li Gong starts the flow in his own Dantian, setting the pool of Qi to spin like a whirlpool- slowly, but surely, adding more pressure, more torque with each rotation, he continues, spinning the whirlpool faster and faster, circulating his Qi until... until... now!

As the Qi spins, at the right moment, he seizes it with an effort of will, taking the entire cultivation base and pushing, condensing all of it in a single, decisive moment, into a structure a fraction of the size, but with even greater power, as he steps into the Foundation Building stage.

With deep, rhythmic breaths, Li Gong feels how the rate at which he gathers Qi has increased, what was a trickle before now more like a stream, as energy is condensed and injected into his much more solid foundation. He opens his eyes, taking in the impressed faces of his fellow villagers, then breaks out into a toothy smile. “I did it!”

———Dungeon’s POV———

Lana looks positively shocked. I can’t say I’m not, either, but a crystal isn’t very good at displaying emotions.

That energy-gathering technique there doing is... frankly terrifying. Judging by the sheer difference in the amount of power being absorbed between that fighting guy who just ‘levelled up’ or something, and the people that seem closest in power, it seems to increase exponentially, and, well... that doesn’t bode well at all.

I turn my mental perception back to the fairy, who’s still muttering to herself, transmitting: “What’s going on?”

She looks back with an excited, almost manic expression on her face. “This is amazing! A kind of technique I’ve never seen before!”

“You see, back in my world, power was a slow and steady thing. You gain it over the course of your whole life, by just breathing, eating, and possibly defeating other magical creatures. The rate growth of that growth never changed too significantly.”

“But here, they... they operate on a completely different paradigm. Their approach to their cores is... instead of just storing energy there, they make it into something else altogether. By sacrificing a large amount of the energy that they initially have, and putting it into their own core for the purpose of gathering even more power, they start out with less power than a wizard from my world of the same experience would have, initially, but when their technique really starts to kick in, the growth rate... I can barely imagine it.”

Huh. So it’s like one of those incremental games, that you click a thing in order to get an auto clicker, that clicks so you get even more upgrades, so you can get even more clicks and more upgrades that click even more... Yeah.

‘But aren’t you worried they’ll destroy our dungeon once they get going?’, I ask her.

“What? No! They should know that it’s our expansion that’s leaving all that loose energy for them to absorb so easy, and also- with them growing so powerful, you’ll also get a massive amount of Life Energy from them, so we can go crazy improving the dungeon!”

...Yeah, now that sounds a lot better!

———•———•———•———

A full seven hours after having entered, the expedition returned to the village. Li Gong’s breakthrough aside, after a full shift of cultivating in the dungeon, the agreement was that everyone involved felt a moderate growth- nothing dramatic, but they were definitely more vigorous now than before. They were hovering at around a fifth of the way into the Qi Gathering stage- a very small step in the grand scheme of things, but a massive leap for just a single day’s worth of cultivation. Of course, it would slow down after a while, with a variety of factors taking their toll, but for now, the people were extremely statisfied, returning to the village.

The mood was that of anticipation and excitement- everyone felt and hoped that, in the coming months, their small village would grow into a true sect, and worked their part in this. So, as they returned, more plans were drawn.