Chapter 28: Testing Waters

Since coming to this new universe and starting this journey, Cain had experienced many different sensations of power. And each and everyone one of them always felt incredible, as if he was walking on sunshine.

However, no moment from the past could compare to how he's currently feeling.

At this moment, Cain knew he had completely transformed. Not only in his body but also in his mind!

Everything about his mind felt like it was broadened and amplified by a hundred times. As a result, Cain felt far wiser, calmer, and more clear within his mind.

Compared to himself just a day ago, it was a monumental difference.

This all had to do with the fact that Cain now has a fully developed Qi Sense. With a Qi Sense, Cain could now rely on this to perceive things far away from him rather than relying on the sensation from his Soul Sense.

With just a thought, Cain could expand his Qi Sense for several miles.

Within his mind, he could visualize nearly everything. To the trees, bushes, and even the slightest speck of dirt on the ground.

If there was any other living being around, Cain would also be able to clearly detect them. Furthermore, he could directly detect their cultivation level, provided that they weren't tremendously more powerful than him.

Alongside this monumental change within his mind, Cain's body had also experienced a significant transformation.

Down in the lower part of his stomach, both his dantian and Qi Sea finally formed.

The dantian is a combination effort of Cain stimulating every drop of Spirit Qi within his Qi Veins and then focusing all of this energy towards a single point in his body.

Because his body has already been temper and infused to its fullest, Spirit Qi automatically performed the dantian transformation process.

Usually, this would be a slow and painful process for any cultivator. Even geniuses among geniuses would experience some level of difficulty creating a dantian space.

However, like many things for Cain, he barely had any problem. The most he felt was the usual incredible feeling of absolute power.

And once his dantian space was formed, Cain had then formed his Qi Sea.

This process went even quicker than the dantian creation.

All Cain needed to do was pull out the most profound form of Spirit Qi within his Qi Veins and circulate it inside his dantian space.

As he performed this process, the Spirit Qi from the air quickly shot into him, boosting his creation speed significantly. When everything was finally said and done with it, Cain was left with a gray energy Qi Sea.

Cain wasn't and still isn't sure what to entirely make of his gray energy Qi Sea.

From what Kali explained to him, most cultivator's Qi Sea would simply be a bright blue color. Only if a cultivator has a specific talent with another form of energy affinity would their Qi Sea's color change.

Thinking back on everything, Cain knows he never practices with any other form of energy.

The only thing he believed could count was the Chaos Energy from his Chaotic Emerald. However, Cain knows while he can seize and control Chaos Energy, he wasn't actually absorbing it into his body.

Even with mastery control, Cain wasn't at the stage where he could directly embed himself with an abundance of Chaos Energy.

In the end, Cain just had to assume his unique Qi Sea was related to something else special about himself that he wasn't aware of yet.

For now, he had no way of knowing what it could possibly be. But Cain was ultimately assured his Qi Sea is absurdly powerful.

After all, just at the fourth level, he could easily match the power of a blood essence seventh level cultivator.

With his cultivation now at the peak stage, only a fine line away from Nascent Formation, Cain could only wonder how much his combat prowess grew.

At least, he's confident no other Spirit Opening cultivator can be his match.

Although, as he gained this boastful thought, his gaze subconsciously landed Kali, who was right beside him.

They still didn't spar yet, but now they were at the same cultivation level.

For a moment, Cain briefly wonders if Kali would promptly try to challenge him when she opens her eyes.

Just like him, she was also in a similar boat with level skipping combat prowess. Cain wouldn't be surprised if she also considered herself unbeatable at this level.

And right as Cain rummaged on these thoughts, Kali had finally swung her eyes open.

A broad smile, full of pride, excitement, and battle intent, graced her lips. Almost like Cain, rays of dazzling blue light spewed from her eyes upon awakening. Although Kali's blue lights were far dimmer than Cain's.

Immediately when she awoke, Kali stretched her arms high into the air, cracking out any leftover kinks. Her joints quite literally popped with power, nearly sounding identical to inflated balloons popping open.

"Ahhh~! Now, this! This is power! I mean, it's only just a few short levels, but I feel like a completely changed woman. Now I'm far more confident in seeing whatever these woods have to offer us. What says you, brother?"

Kali had already taken to her feet while she talked. She repeatedly clenched down on her palm, causing vague swirls of Spirit Qi to gather around her.

Matching Kali's burst of excitement, Cain also stood right up. He began making similar motions as Kali while telling her, "For sure, this is the very best I felt in a long while. Really, whatever in these woods is going to need to hit us hard to give any semblance of challenge."

"Yep. We sure are powerful…."

As Kali trailed her words off, a sudden idea sprang into her mind. Her eyes brightly lit up, and she then tossed a fervent look over at Cain.

"Say! Why don't we do a little test run now? Let's see just how much a causal blast of Spirit Qi from us can do to these walls."

"Hmmm….alright. It's also a good way to stretch our bones a bit." Cain only had a split second of hesitation before agreeing.

His only reason for briefly hesitating was the inevitable difference between him and Kali's prowess.

But immediately, when he thought of this, Cain discarded any unnecessary thoughts.

They are both grandchildren of Dragon Gods. No matter what they engaged in, Cain felt it would only be unworthy to not put forth his best effort.

At that moment, the atmosphere between Cain and Kali subtly changed.

Since they both were in agreement, the sibling duo didn't need to waste any more words.

In an instant, they simultaneously stretched their arms forward, gathering a causal amount of Spirit Qi at the center of their palms. The air around Cain and Kali quickly turned heavy as their dense energy surged.

Then, at speeds that would leave some cultivation experts surprised, a ball of Spirit Qi formed at Cain and Kali's palms.

At the same time, a beam of Spirit Qi burst forth from the sibling duo's palms.

The Spirit Qi beams soared at monstrous speeds while also causing intense friction in the airwaves just from its heavily dense power.

In an instant, Cain and Kali's attack simultaneously struck the cave's wall.

'Bang!'

The whole cave was violently shaken to its very foundation!

Staglameties tore out of the roof, spiderweb cracks split the ground and walls all at the same time.

At the center of the sudden destruction, Cain and Kali stood positively fine. They both were only intently focused on their display of power.

And when gazing at their results, Cain was naturally calm while Kali also appeared to be tranquil.

"I see. So even in a causal attack, yours was far more powerful, Cain." Kali spoke honest words of praise.

Just from their causal attack, Cain had actually split open an entire section of the cave's wall, creating a large hole that led to the outside world.

While with Kali, she couldn't entirely penetrate through the cave but did cause a decent enough size to form in the wall.

Despite how powerful their attacks seemingly was, Cain was satisfied with not outright destroying the whole cave.

If this was his previous world, Cain was absolutely assured that an attack even weaker than the ones he and Kali unleashed would decimate any cave to bits and pieces.

However, in a cultivation universe, nature is, of course, far more powerful.

With various forms of energy permanently running through the air, this just means everything was fortified to a standard that couldn't be compared to normal Earth standards.

So with a result like this, Cain could already tell he and Kali were extremely powerful.

No other peak Spirit Opening cultivator could leave this big of a dent unless they're using their absolute full power.

The only concerning thing that Cain couldn't get out of his head at this moment was Kali's reaction.

Compared to her bundling excitement from before, her reaction to her results seems far more subdued.

Gazing over to Kali, Cain saw that she was still intently focusing on their display of power. Although, her expression was still this seemingly calm mask.

From this, any other person wouldn't think much over her reaction.

But Cain couldn't get rid of a queer gut feeling. Keeping his tone entirely calm, Cain then said, "Well then, without even fighting, we can already tell we surpassed any other peak Spirit Opening cultivator. Though, I'm still itching for a fight. We've been cooped up for far too long; let's get back on out there. If I recall from the map, we should be around that Kong Clan."

"Hm, alright!"

Without any warning, Kali's expression immediately brightened. It nearly took Cain off guard from how sudden it was.

But Kali gave Cain no time to think that over as she continues to say,

"And since we're close to the Kong Clan, those Liang Tribe guys should be near. So, hopefully, we can have a more intriguing time because I can just smell that fights are on the horizon."

"Right….well then, let's go."

Cain could only shake his head a bit with a slightly wry smile. He shuffled this moment down in his mind for later and then focused on the present.

Right then, eager smirks flashed on both Cain and Kali's faces. Feeling entirely invigorated, the sibling duo quickly strolled out of the cave.