As Nalser kept on training he quickly rose through the stages. However, he knew very well, that it had very little to do with himself because Shaon had prepared for him the most optimal training conditions. The best environment alongside the best elixirs for certain stages, coupled with basically a step by step detailed instruction. If he couldn’t progress fast, then there would be something wrong. All he had to do there was sit and endure.

With a month, he rose from the 3 Stage to the 6 stage. In the Qi Gathering Stages were in total 3 bottlenecks. First from the 2 to the 3 stage to learn to infuse Qi. From 6 to the 7 stage to learn how to project Qi outside of the body. The last bottleneck was in the very end, the condensation of the first Qi Kindling. Now that, he had hit his first real bottleneck, he went to consult the book again.

The book’s answer to the question was extremely simple, “Imagine your Qi as a part of your body. For example, make it take the form of a hand and try to lift up a pebble in front of you.” As Nalser read that, he truly felt that he was stupid. Actually most of the answers in the book were extremely simple and simplified. However, no matter he thought about it, he for some reason always tried to overcomplicate things.

What he didn’t know was that, that was because he hadn’t yet understood the essence of Qi. He was forcefully raised from a mortal into a person on the 3 Stage of Qi Gathering. Usually for a mortal to turn into a practitioner, they first have to get an understanding of Qi and the successfully step into the first level of Qi Gathering if they can understand it and gather a bit of it. However, since Nalser had skipped this part, he had a harder time with everything to do with Qi.

Gathering it and accumulating it was easy, you only had to follow the Cultivation Arts method and you were set. However, to use it usefully was far more difficult. Since Nalser didn’t have a proper understanding of the Qi, his progress stagnated. He couldn’t gather any more Qi to nourish his body with, so there was no point in tempering in his body either at the moment. With not knowing what to do about that, he subconsciously went to the Library. Inside, he read the book again from the start to end but that didn’t help.

Just as he was sitting there pondering, Librarian came to clean up the desk. Nalser had an idea, so he immediately asked Librarian, “Hey, Librarian, in your opinion, what is Qi?” The Librarian’s head twitched for a second as his hand that was picking up a book halted. He looked towards Nalser and said, “Qi is the energy of the world that makes up everything living. It is used to nourish the body to bring out the bodies maximum potential.” Hearing that, Nalser just sighed and cast his head down. What he got from Librarian was a classic text book definition. Just as he was about to dismiss Librarian, he saw a light flash by Librarians wooden eyes as he continued, “However, the Qi is something that can only be understood by examining it closely. What you understand is different from what someone else understands. If Master is having problems understanding Qi, I suggest sitting down and carefully examining the effects of the Qi Master has.” With that, he left.

Nalser, just looked at blankly the departing figure of Librarian. His mind however, was just wondering, “What was that last sentence. His eyes flashed, that I am sure of. Maybe he has birthed a sliver of independent consciousness?” As he was wondering that, he glimpsed at Librarians departing figure for one last time before throwing it to the back of his mind. He decided that it may be the best to do as he told him and just sit down and closely examine the Qi inside him.

Since his need for food, wasn’t as big as when he was a mortal, being without any food for a few days was no problem to him. He decided to meditate and feel the differences in his Qi. A few days passed but Nalser brow was increasingly furrowed. He had been sitting in the same position, in the same place for the past 5 days. However, he still couldn’t understand Qi at all. He had no choice but to temporarily give up on this and take a break.

When he stood up to stretch, he remembered that he hadn’t done is family martial art exercises in quite a while now. Thinking about them, he turned a bit melancholic, he had been learning these martial arts for as long as he could remember. His Grandfather was very strict in the training and there were times that he wouldn’t sleep at all at night just because he couldn’t get the timing for a punch down. Nalser remembered the times for a bit and then let out a deep breath. He took his usual fighting pose and wholeheartedly started doing his routine exercises.

As he was immersed in both his memories and doing his routine training, he didn’t notice how his Qi started gathering at his limbs. It followed the simple pattern. If he punched, it would gather at the hands, if he kicked, at the legs. Suddenly as he threw a punch like any other, a sonic boom could heard. This sudden boom, made Nalser mind clear again as he started recalling how it happened. As he sat there and complemented on what just happened, at the shadow of a building a few puppets had gathered.

***

It was the Sweeper, Librarian and a few others from different buildings. They all looked towards Nalser and understanding could be seen in their eyes. Librarian muttered in a wooden tone, “Seems, like my advise was useless. This guy is a natural at Qi handling and even does it subconsciously. All that is left now is for him to grasp his own Qi essence.” Everyone else present nodded. Sweeper just said in a relaxed tone, “No matter how you look at it, he is just like Master used to be. He is not suited for just sitting around and comprehending things, he needs to move his body, familiarize himself through sweat. However, it is a good thing that he hadn’t comprehended the World Qi. Otherwise, it would have become very detrimental towards his future progress.”

Librarian just glanced at Sweeper and nodded. Of the seniority, Librarian was only second, the first who birthed his own consciousness was Sweeper. He was also the first one to pass the Tribulation. Librarian just said to everyone, “Let’s go back, Sweeper is keeping an eye on him so there is nothing for us to do here. And guys remember, unless he encounters a truly deadly situation we won’t help him.”

Sweeper just glanced at the other puppets and added, “If he passes the Empyrean Tribulation, we will tell him everything of course. However, before that, try to act as if you don’t have a consciousness. If he starts relying on us too much, it would also be detrimental.” Everyone understood well what Sweeper meant. A genius was only a genius until he worked hard. Even in the Ancient Era, there had been countless geniuses who well from from grace solely due to relying on others too much. Nalser had to build himself up by his own sweat and he had to rely on himself. Only after passing the Empyrean Tribulation would he be qualified to know the truth about the End of Ancient Era.

As all the puppets went back to their respective buildings to do their own things, Sweeper picked up his broom and started sweeping again. He kept an eye on Nalser at all, so if something bad should happen, he could intervene in a second.

***

As Nalser kept practising, in another grand world, inside a giant luxurious palace were a lot of Celestial Experts gathered. They were all bowing toward the throne upon which sat a middle aged man with a very suffocating aura. Even the Celestial level experts felt suffocating just being in the room. The man opened his mouth and asked in a cold but dignified voice, “Have you found out, who the last ripple belonged to?”

As the sentence ended, one of the men in golden armour stood up and said in a respectful tone, “Your highness, the last ripple came from a minor world with the superpower having one Celestial Princess and 3 Celestial immortals, there are no others from the Celestial level. It is also a world that is unaffiliated to any power so it is safe to assume that someone found an Ancient Era experts Legacy but we have yet to determine who it was or where the person currently is.”

As he said his piece, the man in golden armour respectfully stayed there, cupping his hand. The man of the throne thought for a second and said, “Keep investigating it, We want to know who exactly that Legacy fell to and also if you find the person, if he doesn’t agree to hand over the Legacy, kill him and take it from him. Remember, we aren’t the only ones investigating this, we have to be faster than the other powers so that we can acquire the Legacy for ourselves.” As the man on the throne said his piece, everyone stood up and cupped their hands respectfully saying, “Yes, your highness.” With a wave of his hand, he dismissed everyone and only he was left in the giant throne room.

Seemingly lost in thought, he suddenly heard footsteps echo out. The man glanced towards the side and saw a young boy, around the age of 13 walking towards him. The boy had crimson red eyes and fiery red, short hair. He wore completely red daoist robes. He smiled towards the man on the throne and said, “It is rare to see you in such a desperate situation. You had 90% of your Celestial level experts combing through the area looking for a needle in an ocean.” It was obvious that the young boy was quite familiar with the man on the throne as he was talking to like a brother.

The man on the throne just sighed and shook his head, “That is the area that Phantom Demon disappeared to at the end of the Ancient Era. If someone acquires his legacy, he has the power to rally all of the Ancient Era Remnants and if he does, the Modern Era will fall.” The young man just closed his eyes and nodded his head, “That’s true. Phantom Demon was the Emperor of the Ancient Era. He is the only person in the history of the Realm to unify it completely. All the Remnants are the hardcore subordinates of Phantom Demon. If the one who acquired his Legacy should want it, he could rally all of the Ancient Era Remnants. And that would truly spell the end of all the major powers involved in the war Eons ago.”

As the two were talking in the giant palace, the same kind of a situation played out in all of the Modern Era major powers headquarters. Nalser’s appearance had caused ripples to start forming on the seemingly still lake.

***

While all the major Modern Era powers were doing their all to find Nalser, he was smiling in the Starry Island. Through continuous practise, he had gotten an exceedingly clear understanding of his Nether Flame Qi. He would just sit there and contemplate, at times he would stand up and throw a few punches or kicks and sit back down and repeat the cycle.

Suddenly, after countless cycles, he opened his eyes slowly, with a smiling expression and said in a silent voice, “So, this is what the essence of my Qi is.”