Chapter 103: Exploring Concepts
Li Lang continued to sit inside Ruby’s artifact space as he reviewed the data he had collected today regarding Tang Yulian’s breakthrough.
From what Sima Xue said, Foundation Establishment cultivators concentrate their Qi into their dantian in their navel area. This dantian is filled with a denser type of Qi compared with Energy Gatherers. It’s as if one was in a gaseous state while the other was in a liquid state. The different states had different properties.
All that compressing in the navel region allowed it to qualitatively change state somehow.
Li Lang began to dwell on the mechanics behind the Energy Gathering realm. As the name implied, throughout a practitioner’s entire journey through this realm, they focused on gathering Qi. In order to gather more, the cultivator condensed the energy. At the pinnacle, one would condense their energy so much that their Qi underwent a qualitative change.
“If that was the case when a cultivator failed in their breakthrough, it means their Qi went out of control and went wild,” Li Lang muttered.
“You mean explode, master?” Ruby chimed in.
“That’s right…Violently too.”
Having internalized this new information, Li Lang couldn’t help but return to reality to examine his Foundation Pill. He had received it from Tai Xilun. It was what prevented cultivators from facing the fatal consequences of failing their breakthrough.
Staring at it, Li Lang wondered how it worked. He remembered that Sima Xue noted that it formed a protective layer over the navel region where the Qi gathered during a breakthrough.
The urge to have Ruby analyze it was strong, but it would require his cultivation to be in the next major realm to analyze it. He also only had one for himself, and he would need it for his breakthrough. There was no telling when or how he could attain another one.
So it must be able to manage the flow of Qi. Instead of it all violently being expelled at once, it will allow the Qi to slowly fizzle out. I need to investigate further about this new state of Qi, too.
The new findings made Li Lang face new challenges. If he wanted to experiment around with this new idea, he would need to be able to evoke this qualitative change somehow. That required a higher cultivation than he currently had.