Chapter 55: Breakthrough(s)

"Alright, gather around," he said as he stood in front of the villagers who were here to learn how to read and write.

"Today, we are going to switch topics. I have been teaching you how to read and write for over a month now. This time, I am going to teach you how to cultivate with Qi," he said.

The villagers were a little confused as to what Qi cultivation was, but they remembered their god teaching it to them before, so they sat quietly listening to him.

"Cultivation is divided into two types, Body Cultivation, and Qi Cultivation. The one you guys train in is body cultivation… " he went on to teach the villagers about cultivation for over an hour.

He didn't have any cultivation technique to teach them, so he promised he would get them one soon. He needed energy before that. After he finished teaching the villagers for the day, he ate some fruits and teleported to the other island to look after the farm.

He returned back with some more fruits and some bird corpses for the day. He ate what they cooked and walked back to his home to cultivate.

A little over half a month had gone by and Ning had now improved the situation of the villagers by a lot. He had bought three types of cultivation technique knowledge in the form of a textbook that he could give to the villagers.

One was for people with abundant Yin Qi, one for people with abundant Yang Qi, and the other for people with none. Altogether it had cost him about a few hundred million of energy.

He gathered energy for another dozen or so more days, and had also used a few hundred million energy on himself to bring his Interdimensional Storage's capacity up to 75 kilograms.

'Finally, I have enough storage to fit my body,' he thought.

His body had also grown a lot stronger compared to the first few days. He could now run to and fro between his home and the village without breaking a sweat. He could punch a tree and not feel pain, only a bit of numbness.

He wasn't sure if it was just body cultivation or Qi cultivation that was doing this to him, but he was happy that he was getting stronger and didn't complain.

'I can feel it, anytime soon now,' he thought. He could feel a sort of bottleneck that he had reached while cultivating and he could tell that he would soon break through. So, he started cultivating.

The first few hours were barely anything. His body was teeming with Qi, so he couldn't gather anymore. Thus, he could only sit there and use his cultivation method.

After a few hours, however, he felt his body start to grow erratic. The Qi inside him was suddenly moving in a coordinated fashion and pushing along his meridians. As they moved along his body, minute particles of black goo-like substances started oozing out of his body.

Once his body was covering in this black substance, he felt his body go boom. It was incredibly tiny, but he heard it. Suddenly, the Qi that was rushing around his body stopped moving and remained dormant once more even though he was clearly cultivating.

"I broke through?" he was a little surprised at first. But once he felt the clear increase in strength he started laughing. "Hahaha, I broke through," he screamed. He looked at his hands to check how strong he was, but then he noticed the black goo on them.

'What is this?' he wondered at first. But then he moved it around a little and realized it was filth that his body had thrown out, exactly as the Cultivation knowledge had said he would.

'Wait,' he said as he remembered what was said in that vast block of information once more and was surprised at what he had missed.

"So… I'm only at the 1st Layer of Qi Condensation realm huh? This is the official beginning of my journey as a cultivator," he thought. He got a little emotional, but then he smelled himself and lost any emotion whatsoever.

"Ew. Better go wash this." He practically ran to the beach and used Telekinesis from a little further away to haul in water to wash. As he was doing so, he noticed Hyesi and a couple of villagers in the ocean a bit far away washing as well.

"I have never seen them take a bath," he thought and walked over there to ask what was happening.

"Hyesi, What is going on?" he asked.

"Oh, Inikaka. I don't know what is going, but for the last couple of days the villagers have been getting covered in filth, so we came here to wash it away," Hyesi replied.

"Sorry, you guys have been covered in filth for how long now?" Ning asked.

"Umm… it all started with me about 10 days or so ago. I woke up at night, covered in filth, and had to go wash away. After that, it was my mother, the chief, granny Hasini and a few others who woke up every night covered in filth."

"Tonight, it's 3 people at once, so we brought them here to wash them," Hyesi said.

Ning was shocked. He didn't like where this conversation was going, but even then he asked the question he feared the most. "How long do you cultivate each night, Hyesi?" he asked.

Hyesi thought for a few seconds and replied, "About 2 hours a night, I guess. Sometimes more if I get lost in a trance, but mostly just 2 hours. I have to sleep so I can't keep doing it overnight," he said.

"Any idea about the villagers?" Ning asked.

"Should be the same," said Hyesi.

'Sh*t,' Ning cursed. 'Here I am, cultivating day and night for forever, barely breaking through. Yet, he can only cultivate 2 hours a day for 20 days and already breakthrough? Where is the fairness in that?'

He then thought of something and started despairing a little, 'Oh god. Am I really that bad at cultivation that it would take me nearly 15 times as long as this kid?"