Chapter 7: Small leads to Big

The sun rose into the sky, bringing forth the Fire Qi as the moon descend with the Ice Qi. The city bustled with people, setting up shops and cultivators leaving the city to go hunt demonic beasts for their cores. The city gate opens and the travellers swarm in hoping to get lucky in the Agora market.

In a certain courtyard of the Crimson clan, Ignis was still sleeping soundly after being exhausted from yesterday. Upon hearing the bird’s chirping, Ignis’s eyes slowly open and he sat up while rubbing his eyes before letting out a yawn.

“Huh? Where did this blanket come from?” Ignis lifts the blanket that was over him and Solace.

Ignis ponders and then came into realisation, “Ah… it was probably grandfather.”

He then notices Solace next to him, who is still sleeping. “Hmm? Solace wake up it’s already morning.” Ignis places his palm on Solace and pats him.

Solace lets out a small growl as he ponders at the surroundings and yawns as if he wants to sleep more.

“Haha. Did you not sleep enough?” Ignis teases as he lifts Solace into his arms. He then walks back into his house to get dress for the day and had breakfast. The Crimson Clan emphasised on independence so even though Ignis is one of the young masters of the clan, he doesn’t have maids to serve him, so he would have to do the chores himself.

This is so that cultivators of the clan aren’t spoiled and at the same time, it would decrease the risk of having spies as there are less people in the clan. However, the most important point is so that the cultivators could mature faster so that the clan can depends on them.

After cleaning himself up with water, Ignis sits down at the centre of his house and begins to sense the Qi around him once more.

“Phew. Let us try this again.” Ignis closes his eyes and Solace can be found sleeping cosily next to him.

Like before, he manages to sense all the foundation Qi and eventually he focuses on the Fire element. He lets out a breath to calm himself down, and he then starts to operate his senses, however, he chose to not force the Qi like what he did yesterday. He manages to figure out that instead, he needs to invite the Qi into his body and attracting the Qi rather than forcing it.

It’s almost as if the Qi in the world has a consciousness and if force against its will it would start to resist and fights back. However, to say that Qi has a consciousness would be incorrect, this is simply because if they do then they would have become an Elemental Soul. To be exact, Qi has instinct and would act on that instinct. If the cultivator is friendly to the Qi and is compatible, it would then follow to the commands of the cultivator.

After being comprehending this yesterday, Ignis commences his attempt to attract the Qi once more. He begins to use his thoughts to appear friendly with the Qi in the air. As if they understand what his intention are, they began to follow his instruction. After a few hours, he manages to lead the energy to move towards his body. As the Qi came closer to his body, he starts to feel the temperature rise up and became even hotter than normal. Ignis starts to sweat as the Qi slowly come closer.

Once the Qi came into contact with his skin, he groans in surprise as his eyes starts to tremble. The Qi however, dissipates once it touches Ignis’s skin however in doing so cause Ignis to feel the pain of a burn as his skins became sizzling hot and it starts to sting.

“Why is this happening?” Even after countless attempts, the same reaction kept repeating, leaving Ignis no choice other than to be frustrated. His whole body was now searing hot and Ignis has taken off his shirt. If it gets any hotter it might leave Ignis skinless, it's stressing his body. However, while this process is painful and strenuous to his body it was in fact beneficial as it was strengthening his skin. If Ignis can overcome this ordeal his skin would become tough and resilient.

After hours of labourious practicing, Ignis stands up in irritation and rustle his hair. He then decided to take a break and went to his courtyard to relax however before he could take another step. The sky started to rain, starting will small droplets. Ignis’s clothes started to became wet as the small droplets penetrated his clothing. Steam starts to form from Ignis as the water touches Ignis’s heated body. Small wet part of his clothes then connected together forming a bigger part causing Ignis whole clothing to be drenched in water when the bigger part connects.

However, Ignis stood still with his eyes open widely because he was astonished as if a grenade explode in his mind. He immediately returns to his house and rather than changing clothes he promptly sat down in his usual spot.

Ignis begin to concentrate once more and began to sense the Qi in the air. Then began to once again draw in the Qi however this time he did it in a smaller proportion. Rather than completely dissipating some Qi started to enter the body however majority of it still dissipated. The painful feeling increases when compared to before however this time Ignis didn’t even wince.

“Haha, finally! A progress. Solace there is finally progress.” Ignis grins as his eyes closed tightly like a crescent moon. His adrenaline overcame his pain and he went through the process without noticing that it caused more burden as the Fire Qi try to enter his body. He then picks up Solace and in doing so woke it up.

The reason for the Qi to dissipate when it reaches the body is simply because the mortal human body is simply unfit to absorb the body. Instead cultivators must try to squeeze in small amount of Qi and once doing so and repeated, the body would get use to the process of Qi entering the body allowing. Once the body is use to, cultivators can absorb in larger amount of Qi. Due this reason, there is a large disparity between an average cultivator that cultivated for 50 years and one cultivated for a measly 10 years.

The body of a cultivator that has cultivated for 50 years would have qualitative change after so long and can no longer be called a mortal human body. Even if the cultivator does not advance Absorption Realm and has not activate their Dantian their body would not simply be a mortal body. It would be transformed to a Semi-Cultivator body, this is because they have yet to become true Qi cultivator but their body have already evolved due to adapting to the Qi and going through the strenuous process.

Even though Ignis has not yet manage to absorb the Qi into his body, this progress has lifts his mood. He only stops once the sun set, dusk came and the Ice Qi emerged. The rain had stopped hours ago, when Ignis was still cultivating.

“OH NO.” Ignis shouts as he rushes to his backyard, where he finds the clothes that were hang up this morning, are now wet. Ignis sigh heavily and then left his backyard and return to his courtyard again. After a while, he lies down on the slightly wet grasses, combining with the temperature of the night, it was pleasantly cool for Ignis.

Solace came out of Ignis’s house and sits next to Ignis as they look up to the sky appreciating the beauty of a stellar night. However, shortly Ignis heard the rumble of his and Solace’s stomach. He exchanges glance with Solace and shows an apologetic and awkward expression.

“I’m sorry Solace, I completely forgot about lunch and dinner.” Ignis wryly grins as he scratches the back of his head.

Solace gave a small growl in protest and then walks into the house. After a while he brings out some apples and peaches.

Then as the night continue, Ignis and Solace begins to eat the fruits as they watch the stars and once again slept comfortably which gave a serene atmosphere to the peaceful night.

…

The night left quietly and the morning came with a bang as the citizens began their daily life.

The following days for Ignis repeated like normal; wake up, eat, clean up, cultivate, eat dinner then sleep outside. It’s become a habit for Ignis and on the 10th day of his cultivation something changed. He went through the labourious process so much that it has become normal and it doesn’t affect his concentration anymore.

Ignis slowly open his eyes as he was sitting on the floor, his eyes reveal his excitement as it turns out after 10 day of attempting to attract the Qi into his body, a wisp of the Qi has managed to enter. Once it entered his body it dissipates and was absorbs into the muscle and bone of the body.

At this moment, Ignis whole body twitches as the Qi is absorbed into the muscle and bone and he scream out in pain. The feeling isn’t like anything Ignis has felt before, it was like countless ants biting his bones and muscles. Fortunately for Ignis, it only lasted for a short time and the Qi absorbed was in a small proportion.

The effect on Ignis’s body was minuscule due to the Qi absorb was just a wisp however this small step was huge to Ignis whose effort paid off. Ignis breath in relief as the pain subsided. On his face a grin that was so wide form up to the point his mouth corner was close to his ears. Abruptly, he picks up Solace and starts to squish him with his hugs.

After a while, Ignis finally calms down and realised something.

“Oh right, grandma Alyssa told me to visit grandpa once I managed to absorb in Qi. Hmm, I’ll just go tomorrow” Ignis store the thought into the back of his mind and starts to absorb the Qi once more. Similar to before, he manages to absorb a wisp of Qi which would dissipate in his body and be absorbed by the bones and muscle. Ignis’s eyebrows start to twitch again as the pain emerge yet once more and the feeling of being eaten from the inside appeared. After every cycle of absorbing Qi, Ignis has to stop for few moments so that the pain subsides.

Ignis continues the process until night came and slept outside with Solace become a habit as if they couldn’t sleep inside the house anymore.