7 Qi Condensation

It was just before supper by the time Du Cha Ming made it to the residence hall. The campus was quite large, and he had a long wait at the front desk before obtaining his room key. Every room required a jade slip to enter, and his room was the five hundred and twelfth. Third grade or lower talents needed to share rooms while fourth grade or higher talents were allowed their own courtyards, so Cha Ming was not talented enough to enjoy this luxury. Despite this disadvantage, he considered himself quite fortunate to have free room and board. If not for the academy, he truly didn't know how he would have been able to feed himself.

He didn't immediately go to his new room but instead made his way to the dining hall, where had had promised to meet Hong Xin. Supper was served over a long period of time, so only fifty or so students loitered around while talking and eating. Cha Ming immediately spotted a shy girl poking at the cold food on her plate. An impish grin appeared on his face as he avoided her line of sight and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Boo!"

Instant regret appeared on Cha Ming's face as Hong Xin let out a bloodcurdling scream, attracting the attention of dozens of nearby students. These students shot them awkward glances, which caused Hong Xin's face to turn beet red.

"Cha Ming, I waited so long, and you only show up now! I'm going to tell Second Brother that you've been bullying me, and he'll come beat you up!" A cute, pouting expression was painted all over her crimson face.

"Ha-ha, Xin Er , I'm sure you missed me and my devilish good looks! Here, you can have this dumpling if you don't tell Brother Xun about this."

In truth, he was less scared of Brother Xun and much more scared of Uncle Hong. Uncle Hong had a very impressive aura and was extremely protective of his only daughter. Xin Er cast him a suspicious glance but chose to eat the last remaining dumpling regardless, appeasing her fleeting rage.

Cha Ming sighed in relief as he excused himself to get another helping. He returned in a few minutes with a plate full of food and two glasses of pomelo juice, one of which he placed in front of Hong Xin.

"Xin Er, I'll be locking myself up to learn my new cultivation technique starting tonight. I've been told by Elder Ling that the cultivation technique I've chosen is very difficult, and I only have five days to learn it before my illusory scroll disappears."

He had originally intended to spend a few days with Xin Er so they could familiarize themselves with campus, but his time was currently too precious.

"I understand. I should do the same as well. You're so lucky. I've only been given three days to practice my Gentle Flame dance technique. If I can't practice it successfully I'll be forced to give up and learn a new technique." She thought for a bit as if connecting the dots. "Wow, you get a whole five days with yours? Which dual-element technique did you decide to practice?" Her previously disappointed expression had been replaced with pure excitement.

"This… I didn't pick a dual-element technique," said Cha Ming, embarrassed.

"Wow, so you got a whole five days with a single-element technique? So lucky!" Not a hint of jealousy was reflected in her beautiful eyes.

"Actually… I'm cultivating a five-element technique. The Lesser Five Elements cultivation technique."

Xin Er's face filled with pure shock, and a few nearby forks were dropped as some older students were overcome with surprise. They had clearly heard about the technique and its origins, as well as the difficulty of the technique. The surprise only lasted for a few seconds, as they quickly recovered and continued eating.

"I didn't know that was even a possibility. Elder Brother is so impressive!"

Her expression was now one of pure admiration. The girl really didn't know how to hold back her emotions.

They finished eating at a relaxed pace, after which both Cha Ming and Xin Er spent an hour chatting and headed to the cultivation pavilion.

--

The cultivation pavilion was a veritable palace. Its pure alabaster walls were adorned with carvings of immortals fighting ferocious demons. The palace stood in stark contrast to the gaudy treasure pavilion, with not a single golden adornment on its walls. The two characters for "cultivation" were engraved into the front arch, and the characters seemed to imbue each person who walked through the empty arch with a sense of calmness and tranquility.

There were no guards at the front of the arch, and everyone could enter and exit the pavilion as they pleased. Violence was strictly forbidden; this was enforced by a guardian elder who meditated on each floor. Lucky students could sometimes catch them when they weren't cultivating and receive guidance.

The rooms were lent out to the students on a first-come, first-served basis. The cultivation pavilion had nine floors, one for each of the nine levels in qi condensation. A student could enter any floor for which they met the cultivation level requirement and claim a room. The rooms would stay allocated to them until they left the pavilion.

Cha Ming and Xin Er chose a pair of rooms in a remote corner of the first floor. They both took their bronze identity medallions and placed them on pedestals outside the room. The pedestals were protected by a shield that would not allow anyone but the occupant to retrieve the medallion inside. These medallions would glow brightly outside the door to indicate that the rooms were occupied.

The cultivation room was very plain. It contained a bed, a meditation cushion, a water pitcher, a toilet, and a bowl filled with dried fruits and nuts. Cha Ming was thirsty, so he poured himself a glass of water only to see the clear pitcher refill itself before his eyes. The bowl of dried fruits and nuts would likely also refill itself. According to the supervising elder at the entrance, these items were used to facilitate closed-door seclusion for first-year disciples who still needed to eat and drink very often. This mortal need would slowly disappear over time as their cultivation increased.

Finally, Cha Ming took out the bronze scroll and started to read it. The scroll was bronze on the outside but white on the inside. The writing was in black, green, red, yellow, silver, and blue ink. It was very different than what he had originally imagined. He thought back to what he had learned so far.

Qi condensation was the first step in cultivation. In the qi condensation stage, a cultivator absorbed qi from Heaven and Earth. Once enough of this qi was accumulated, the cultivator would be able to condense a single drop of qi, after which he would reach the first level of qi condensation. The cultivator would continue to accumulate qi as he advanced his level as a qi condensation cultivator. Once he accumulated enough qi, he would be able to establish his foundation and become a true expert.

Most cultivators in Green Leaf City were qi condensation cultivators, while elder-level figures were foundation-establishment cultivators. Any major powers in the city had at least one foundation-establishment expert. Of course, this was only the exposed strength of each major power. Each major power would want to keep some hidden cards to deter other forces from eyeing their possessions.

This was all a matter for the future, and Cha Ming was more concerned about reaching the first level of qi condensation in five days. He sat on his bed and started the first step, sensing the qi of Heaven and Earth. He had already experienced this feeling before, when Uncle Hong had circulated his innate qi, so it did not take long for him to sense it. Sensing it, however, was different from having it seep into your body. That was the next step.

Cha Ming tried continuously for the next two days with no progress. On the third day, he was finally able to absorb the qi he sensed. The qi was of five colors, one for each of the five elements. This was one of the reasons why it took him so long to begin absorbing the qi. With his level of talent, a half day would have been enough to start absorbing a single element, but this would have thrown his qi out of balance. The qi he had just absorbed formed a five-colored cloud which floated in his dantian or energy center.

Once the first bit of qi was introduced into his dantian, it wasn't long before he filled it to its maximum capacity, after which he compressed it further still. Now the only way to continue absorbing qi would be to condense it into a drop. Upon reaching this step, he finally realized that he hadn't understood something in the scroll, which prevented him from completing this step. He could only continue and attempt to comprehend by trial and error, and his efforts persisted for another two days.

--

It was the last day remaining with the scroll. Cha Ming finished a quick meal before he opened the scroll again, trying to comprehend the last piece of the puzzle. As he stared at it, he pondered the reasons for his repeated failures while trying to condense his qi. Every time he had tried to condense the five-colored cloud, it would quickly collapse. The collapse seemed to happen because each type of qi, while reinforcing the next in the cycle, would also restrain the one that came after. Once a tiny bit of qi was destroyed, the balance became worse and worse, and there was not enough qi remaining to condense.

As he pondered, he continued to stare at the scroll. He stared at the red until it turned green. His eyes focused on the green until it turned to blue, then to silver, then to yellow, and finally the color changed back to red. His eyes followed this for hours, slowly moving in a circle. On the 120th hour since the scroll was formed, the scroll disappeared. A look of understanding appeared in Cha Ming's eyes, and he no longer needed the scroll for reference.

Inside his dantian, the five-colored mist slowly moved. Instead of condensing, he first separated the mist into five parts. This separation took a full day. Once the mists were fully segregated, he then started to compress them. All five mists shrank about five times until their reached a critical point.

At this point, the edges of each group of mist began to erode. The silver mist began converting to blue mist and attacking the green mist. Cha Ming responded by separating the green and silver mists and feeding the yellow mist to replenish the silver mist. The yellow mist tried to attack the blue mist, so he separated them and supplemented the red mist by converting it to yellow mist. This cycle continued between the five colors. They moved in a circle to maintain balance while the center was kept void, preventing the different elements from attacking each other. He continued like this for another twelve hours, after which an equilibrium took place and the process became second nature.

With this equilibrium in place, Cha Ming began to exert more pressure on the different mist groups. Once the balance was upset, he corrected it. He continued this cycle of compression and correction a total of eleven times. The volume was compressed by half each time, reducing the volume by two thousand and forty-eight times. On the twelfth compression, a black drop of liquid finally condensed, and another, then another, until a total of five drops had condensed. The group of five black drops then separated again into a five-colored liquid swirl. He'd succeeded! He was officially a qi condensation cultivator!

Cha Ming's elation over his success was short-lived, however. Just as he had broken through, a feeling of nausea overcame him. A black, fishy-smelling film now covered his skin. A portion of the impurities he had accumulated over the first fifteen years of his life was forced out of his body, announcing his rebirth on the path of cultivation. He quickly washed off using the unlimited supply of water in his room and put on a new set of robes, robes that seemed to have been there the whole time. The academy was obviously experienced in this regard, not minding the expense of new clothes over the possibility of distressing students in mid-cultivation.

For the next three days, he continued to accumulate the liquid drops of qi until he had three of each colored drop. After all, he didn't want to be left with the bare minimum. Coincidentally, fifteen drops of qi turned out to be the maximum amount one could have at the first level of qi condensation.

--

Eight days had passed since Cha Ming began his seclusion. While he had subsisted on rations the entire time, he was craving a proper relaxed meal. He had also locked himself away without speaking for eight days and would need a bit of time adjusting. When he emerged, the melodious sounds of chirping birds seemed incredibly loud in comparison to the deathly quiet of his cultivation chamber. He made his way directly to the dining hall, feeling the light chill that came every night with the setting sun.

As he finished grabbing a plate of food, he noticed that Xin Er and Brother Hong Xun were happily eating their supper. A bright smile appeared on Xin's face once she saw Cha Ming. The smile was rapidly replaced by a sulking look, evidence that she still remembered his antics from eight days prior. Hong Xun smiled at his sister's rare expression and noticed that something was different about Cha Ming.

"Congratulations on reaching the first level of qi condensation!" said Xun. He was quite relieved to find out that Cha Ming had been successful in his seclusion. His sister had succeeded in her cultivation on the second day, and when Xun inquired on Cha Ming's whereabouts, he was shocked when he learned that he had been attempting to cultivate the Lesser Five Elements cultivation technique. He had heard a description of it in his introductory classes. Approximately one person attempted it every ten years.

Xun was in his second year, and he had reached the fourth level of qi condensation. While this level was not particularly impressive, it was above average for students in their second year, with most students reaching the third level by that point in time. Only the top ten percent of third-grade students would reach the fifth level. The effort between stages doubled each time.

As a grade-three talent, reaching the fifth grade of qi condensation by the end of the second year was normal. Reaching the peak of qi condensation in five years was a little out of reach, though, and forget foundation establishment. Without cultivation resources, a grade-three talent would take fourteen years to reach that level. A grade-four talent would take seven years. The only ones who could reach foundation establishment in the five-year limit were fifth-grade talents. They could do this by cultivating normally without assistance. Of course, such a situation happened. Who would dare neglect a fifth-grade talent?

"You were a little slow compared to Xin Er. She broke through to the first level six days ago," Xun said quite proudly.

Cha Ming looked over, shocked. "Aiya! Sister Xin is truly talented! I only broke through three days ago due to luck. I barely managed to comprehend the technique five days after I received the technique scroll, just as it was disappearing. I would have been in trouble if I had not succeeded then." Cha Ming shook his head self-deprecatingly.

"Brother Cha Ming, your talent is pretty good. You have such a complicated cultivation technique," Xin Er said enthusiastically with a gloating expression. "I've heard from Second Brother that fifteen people have tried that technique in the past hundred years at Green Leaf Academy. Three of them succeeded, and all the others had to move on to a different cultivation technique," Xin whispered.

Despite her reassuring words, she was clearly trying to boost her own ego by appearing modest. Most people in her talent bracket would take the full three days to master a cultivation technique, and she took two, indicating she had high comprehension skills.

They continued to eat while chatting away. Their entire evening was free, and now that Cha Ming was done with his seclusion, he could start attending lectures. Due to the tendency of cultivators to seclude themselves, the lectures were loosely arranged. The lectures would continue for eight hours every day and last a week, effectively forming lecture blocks. They would then repeat the lecture if the minimum number of students were in attendance. If not enough students were present, they would hold a one-week recess and try again until no students fell through the net.

A minimum of four courses were required in their first year as a foundation, and the remainder of the five years was filled with electives. Xin Er had already started her first block today, since it was the start of a new week. Cha Ming would need to wait another six days before the start of the next block.

"Brother Cha Ming, have you gotten your Green Leaf jade yet?" asked Xun. Seeing Cha Ming shake his head, he continued. "You likely don't know about this yet, as you haven't attended classes. Since you can't attend classes for six days, I'll fill you in. On the first day of classes, each student can collect a Green Leaf jade from the campus office. These jades have a very important function—to store and spend contribution points for each student. With the exception of each starting cultivation technique, other techniques like battle techniques can only be traded for contribution points.

"There are a few ways to accumulate contribution points. First, third-grade talents start with one thousand contribution points, fourth-grade talents start with five thousand, and fifth-grade talents start with twenty thousand contribution points. From then on, each student must accumulate these points with actual merits. The most common way is through simple duties like cooking and cleaning, though this is extremely slow. After all, your time is much more valuable. This kind of task is only suited for the least gifted and most cowardly students, so no need to look at this option. Another way to earn points is by participating in a monthly exchange and win matches against students at your own cultivation level. For each consecutive match won, you get a corresponding number of points. Special events also award points.

"That leaves two remaining ways to earn points. The first way is to venture out in the woods, which requires a minimum of the third level of qi condensation. Various tasks are posted on a board with corresponding rewards. These tasks typically involve fighting spirit beasts for valuable materials, collecting herbs, mining ores, etc. Most students rely on this method to obtain contribution points, and these methods can be completed in groups, with the points split amongst the group members. The students can also choose to sell these materials for spirit stones privately in Green Leaf City.

"Finally, a student can become an apprentice in a profession. Each profession has simple tasks that can be performed by the less-skilled students, saving senior students, teachers, and elders quite a bit of effort. They will reward you with contribution points for services, and they can typically sell their completed wares for a tidy profit."

Cha Ming now understood how the academy worked much more clearly. On the outside, the academy had been founded for the common good of the people. It functioned a lot more like a business and recruitment agency. The students would earn contribution points by making money for the academy while talented students were also rewarded, and this helped them in their cultivation to facilitate their recruitment in the outside world. Some also chose to stay with the academy.

The world here functioned a lot like the world in his past life.