He spent the next 20 days mostly cultivating. The good thing about a formation is that it generally increased the Qi concentration in the area, and all one needed to do is to remain in it.

He could create a bigger Qi formation, but the materials, and symbols, and the Qi required to activate a larger formation would increase. Not something he could do without a proper Qi core.

This beginning level is usually extremely challenging, because one has to constantly shape the Qi specks, yet at that stage, most can’t even sense the Qi specks, what more manipulate them. But, for one who has the memories of so many cultivators who are intimately familiar with Qi, he knew exactly what to look for, and what to do.

In Mingwei’s case, it’s like a racing driver going to a new, unfamiliar track. He may be unfamiliar with the terrain, but he’s already extremely familiar with the mechanics!

So, finally, the core was done. It’s formed from a latticework of triangular pyramids, with about twenty pillars from the core, and then a round circular shell. When the final piece was done, he could sense it, the Qi Core had formed!

Now, he could finally access the Qi cultivation interface!

It’s presented in the shape of a massive ring, and there are numbers on it, representing the various information that it had.

Qi Cultivated

0/???

Qi Storage

0/100

Core Endurance/Toughness

100/100

Qi Output Limit

20/per move

Quickly, Mingwei noticed the absence of the Qi active recovery abilities, and his storage and endurance was lower than his Old World’s equivalent. But, it had a higher Qi Output limit, that meant they could release more Qi at one go. In a straight fight, a similarly ranked cultivator with the same skills would have an equal chance of winning or losing, because true, they were tougher, and had higher endurance, but the new world cultivators would do more damage on average.

Fights should be faster.

“I see you’ve already developed a core.” Mingjian said. It was time for lunch so Mingwei had just stepped out of his room.

“Ah. Good afternoon, elder brother. How’d you know, brother?” Mingwei was genuinely curious.

“I could sense Qi flowing differently around you.”

“You can?”

“You can’t?” Mingjian looked at him, curiously. “It’s just a matter of opening your meridians to pick up the flow, no?”

Mingwei did that, and strangely, his brother was right. It’s as if he could vaguely perceive Qi movements around everything. This ability shouldn’t have come so early! Was this an advantage of having a rigid core, hence the pillars are more sensitive to vibrations, unlike his old world’s methods of a ‘dampener’ or ‘floating circle’, where these Qi vibrations are mixed with everything else?

He noticed a vague layer of Qi that gathered in his room. A common description back home was that Qi is like dust, it is small, ever present and gets everywhere. But his brother didn’t say a word, and walked away.

Now that he realised the ability to ‘see’ Qi is unlocked so much earlier, he had to be even more careful! He quickly went back to his room, and gently disabled the formation.