"What's happening", a slightly out of breath Aimy asked Irene who was looking at her surroundings with narrowed eyes.
"Is it an earthquake? Do you think this place is collapsing?" Aimy fired.
"No, it's most likely Seth."
"Seth, he's been gone for a whole day, is he okay?" Aimy's worry-filled voice asked.
"Let's go check, but be careful, there are heavy qi fluctuations. I warned Seth about the qi here, hopefully, hasn't made some mistake." Irene said as she carefully moved in the direction of the fluctuations.
Aimy wasted no time to follow after her, the both of them speeding through the cave, and then not up to a minute later they slowed down and stared at the scene a distance away from them.
"He's absorbing the qi, why is he doing that, he'll kill himself" Aimy hysterically cried out.
"What should we do," Aimy asked, but all she got was a snort from her sister.
"Watch closely, can't you see he's also breaking through."
"Huh" Aimy, dumbly muttered, her panic washing off as she closely observed the situation before them.
A few meters ahead of them lay Seth, sitting crossed among a bunch of crystals, both his hands placed around a particularly big one, and then around him, qi churned and coiled.
The qi was thick and from time to time shielded Seth's figure from Irene and Aimy's gaze, and with each passing second the wall began getting thicker and more real.
"Will he be alright?" Aimy asked," The breakthrough will help lessen the injuries from the qi right?"
"I don't Know Aimy but I hope so."
…..
While the sister worried about Seth, the man himself was currently living in bliss.
All Seth had done was begin aggressively absorbing energy from the crystals, relentlessly filling his soul with this sweet essence, and as time went by he could feel his soul getting stronger.
Seth felt like he could suddenly breathe lighter, he felt his mind lighten, but it wasn't because a heavy weight had been taken off his mind, rather, his mind had instead gotten stronger and could now carry whatever weight with less effort.
Seth was still sifting through these feelings trying to understand them when he felt a tug from both outside and within.
It was like two forces were trying to pull him apart, but then before he could understand this new development, it faded away as his dantian roared to life and began spinning within him automatically absorbing qi.
Seth remembered Irene's warning and tried to control it, but that was not to be as his dantian seem to develop a mind of its own.
It spend several minutes absorbing qi, and then without warning, the inside of Seth's dantian detonated, and immediately his intake of qi multiplied by several times and a storm of it began forming around him.
Now Seth's dantian absorbed qi without stop, but it was not the only one as Seth felt his soul automatically join the fun. As Seth's soul absorbed qi, so did it absorb the green energy from the crystal.
Currently, Seth had lost count of how long this had been going on, with his breakthrough being unromantic, he had left the job to his body and no could only sit with his eyes closed.
Minutes went by and then suddenly the storm of qi which had formed a thick wall around Seth began dissipating, falling apart, and flowing back into the surrounding.
With a certain peace and serenity, Seth opened his eyes and let out a deep breath, a smile on his face.
"Man I missed this feeling" Seth muttered, and accompanying his words, a powerful force swept out of him, attempting to survey the entirety of the cave, but to Seth's shock he found the about 5 km range of his new spirit sense inadequate.
"What do the two of you want" Seth suddenly his eyes closed and head steady.
"Your breakthrough caused a commotion so we came to check if you were alright," Irene said from his left, looking Seth up and down.
"At the moment, Seth's spirit sense was still on full blast, settling on several areas of the cave announcing to the world its nature as spirit sense and ending any doubt one had about his previous cultivation level.
"I'm fine, you can leave."
Hearing Seth's words and his dismissal put a sad expression on Irene's face but as she turned to move she couldn't help but look back.
"You absorbed the chaotic qi, were you injured."
"No," Seth replied.
"Ehm that's good, don't forget to use your qi stones to consolidate your cultivation. Do you have enough qi stones?"
"I have enough qi stones and I'll keep your warning in mind." Seth calmly replied.
Irene's eyes darted around like she wanted to say something more, but then her shoulders sagged.
"Okay," Iren replied as she walked away pulling a reluctant Aimy with her.
With his spirit sense still active, Seth felt Irene leave, a breath leaving his lip as he pushed away his complicated thoughts about her.
Seth could feel his body wanting for more breakthroughs like it was starving.
Despite the breakthrough, Seth's soul was far from healed and though he wanted to continue its healing, he controlled his impulse and went to his soul space.
Making no stop, Seth appeared in the cottage, standing right in front of Alexia's scowling face.
"How are you," Seth asked.
"Fine" she answered with a scowl, turning her face away from him.
Before leaving, Seth had confined her to the cottage, fearing that she would do something risky, but then against what risky act could she commit while in his soul space.
This was Alexia's argument, once which Seth couldn't defend against, but in the end, he had decided to be a tyrant and go about declaring his rules.
Seth spent some time cajoling Alexia before returning to the real world once more, a smile on his face as he flexed about his dantian, feeling the little gaseous qi in it.
Now that he was a 1st stage gas general cultivator, while he went about healings his soul, Seth figured he could also see how much he could increase his cultivation.