[Basic Body Reinforcement with Qi - 800Qi. Enhances your physical abilities. All attacks deal extra 10 Damage (calculated after all multipliers) and all damage received reduced by 10 (after all multipliers). Effective for a full day]

It wasn’t hard to learn the Soulbound Storage and Basic Body Reinforcement techniques, since Mingwei had learned these very same techniques back in his old world. So, he had a wealth of memories to tap on.

He was alone, back in his room in the 388th block. He would be moved out in a month or so, once the Elders conduct the Outer Disciples appointment ceremony. It was likely all 3 star disciples would be upgraded to Outer disciples.

“Brother Mingwei.” A voice from the door.

“Yes?” Mingwei turned and saw another fellow 388th batch disciple. He couldn’t remember his name, though.

“Could you give me some pointers on how to break through to 3-stars? I had asked the Elders, but the Elders are too busy to guide me.”

Mingwei looked, and thought about it for a moment. He nodded. “Sure. Come.” At this point, he was too embarrassed to ask his name, though his past lives were all extremely thick-skinned and would have asked his name.

“Uh... can I show you how I cultivate?” He sat, and he cultivated. Within 30 minutes, Mingwei just asked him to stop.

“There’s no problems with your cultivation method. You seem to be gathering sufficient Qi.”

“Ah. Then why did I fail when I tried to break through? The Elders said something about structures and weight distribution. I don’t understand any of it!”

Mingwei had a feeling he had a comprehension problem. “Could you explain how core, and how did you build your layer?”

He had succeeded in building his 1st layer, so... a structural problem? A design issue? The junior disciple then explained about his 2nd layer, about the large pillars that stretched outwards, and how it collapsed.

“I think your 2nd layer is too big.” MIngwei nodded. He had the wealth of experience of how big each layer was, as such it collapsed. But, why couldn’t it succeed?

“OH?!”

“Each layer is approximately slightly more than twice as far from the core, and it sounds like your pillar stretched about more than that distance. So the pillars were too thin, and the layer was too spread out. And sounds like you didn’t create new... pillars?”

“Eh?”

The junior disciple seemed to have an epiphany.

“But thank you for your pointer, brother Mingwei!” The junior disciple did the usual salute and left.

Yet, the exchange made Mingwei pause. Was it even true that the cores had to be of a certain size? What if there was a way to create super-large layers? Or perhaps some other world had a way of creating multiple cores?

Never mind, now was not the time. He’d have time to ponder such matters once he reached higher realms of cultivation, since it would take forever to cultivate. So, he redirected his focus back to the Darkbeast Steel Qi Cauldron from Elder Qing. It’s damaged.

He knew that, of course. He examined it, and thought about how to fix it. There are many possible ways, he could find a furnace hot enough to melt the steel and reforge it, but that would probably be the last resort, since there would be wasted metal, and some of the benefits might be permanently lost. Next, would be to somehow clean and patch it back, but that would require materials that he did not have at the moment.

Maybe, maybe... well, he could check out the inner and outer disciple storeroom once he got promoted!

He had 6 pills left, but he decided to use them once he found a clear stretch of time.

Qi Gathering

4,250/1,800,000 (425 a day)

150 from Qi Cauldron 45 from Cultivation Method 30 from Qi Brush 200 from Qi formation

Soulbound Items

2 out of 3 slots used

Beastbone Qi Brush - 4 star

Forging - adds one additional rune for small items. Two for medium items. Three for large items.

Forging - Qi usage per Rune reduced by 20%

Qi gathering increased by 30 Qi per day

Darkbeast Steel Qi Cauldron (Damaged) -

5 star (damaged - 3 star).

Increased Qi storage by 1,500.

Increased Qi Gathering by 150 per day. Alchemy - Supports 2nd refinement.

Forging - Supports 2nd enhancement

Now that he is properly 3-stars, there are probably some sect activities and duties. But they’ll normally announce that on the day he was made an Outer Disciple.