[Hmph! Be careful, or they might suck you dry,] Yue Lan's voice teased lazily, though there was a faint undertone of warning.
"Haha, you don't need to worry about that," Shen Yuan replied with a confident smirk. "I'm sure my physique can handle it."
[...]
He chuckled as she fell silent, shaking his head. "What? Cat got your tongue? Anyway, enough wasting time. I need to push my sixth dantian to the Origin Core Creation Realm."
He threw around lots of High Grade Spirit Stone to fill the array before settling back onto the meditation mat, he adjusted his posture and took a deep breath.
The air around him shimmered faintly with dense Spiritual Qi, drawn from the Spirit Stones by the gathering arrays beneath him.
Every breath he took pulled in more of the concentrated essence, flooding his meridians with Qi and sending faint ripples through his sixth dantian.
"This will take quite a long while," he muttered under his breath, his eyes narrowing in focus. "I'm not short on that either way."
He closed his eyes, and his world narrowed to the flow of Qi within his body.
Each cycle through his meridians enhanced the concentration of Spatial Qi in his sixth Dantian.
The rune within pulsed faintly, rapidly transforming the surging Spiritual Qi into Spatial Qi as his cultivation base began soaring, climbing from the first level of the Body Forging Realm to the Peak Body Forging Realm in a few breaths.
Time passed in silence, each breath drawing more Qi into his body as he also utilized the Qi from the Primordial Yin stored in his Dantian.
The chamber's energy surged, responding to his relentless pace as he condensed the Spiritual Qi into dense layers within his sixth dantian. Slowly but surely, the cultivation base of his sixth dantian soared toward the Origin Core Creation Realm.
...
[You're pushing it hard, aren't you?]
Yue Lan's voice broke the silence as it had been too long during this round of cultivation.
[You don't need to rush you know, you are already cultivating way faster than normal cultivators, and with this Dual Cultivation Chamber, you will surpass all of your peers without leaving them any hope for catching up with you.]
"Rushing?" Shen Yuan smirked without opening his eyes. "This is just me being efficient."
[Efficient, huh? Sure, let's call it that,]
Shen Yuan calmed his breathing. His mind delved into the knowledge etched into the Void Transversing Manual, focusing on the first technique: Void Steps.
"This should be easy enough," he muttered, a confident smirk playing on his lips.
He envisioned the principles behind the technique, imagining the space around him bending and folding, creating a temporary bridge to his destination.
The first attempt was far from graceful. Shen Yuan gathered a thin thread of Spatial Qi, aiming to shift his position to a point a few meters ahead.
He felt the space tremble under his will, but instead of smoothly transitioning, his body jerked forward awkwardly, stopping just short of his target.
[Hahaha! That was smooth. You looked like a drunk bird trying to fly,] Yue Lan teased, her laughter echoing in his mind.
"Tsk, my spatial talent is not that high and it was my first try," Shen Yuan shot back, focusing more intently on the surrounding space.
He adjusted the flow of the Qi in his meridians. This time, he focused on compressing the space rather than forcing it to bend. Enjoy exclusive adventures from empire
On the second attempt, he felt the space around him stabilize.
The air rippled faintly, and in the blink of an eye, he moved forward, appearing precisely at his target location. Without making a single bit of sound, no unnecessary energy was wasted.
"Perfect," he muttered, a smug grin pasted on his face.
[Truly Impressive.]
Yue Lan said, though her tone still carried a hint of amusement.
[At least now you don't look like a sad drunk bird.]
He decided to ignore her, diving back into practicing the technique over and over again.
Over the next few weeks, his mastery grew. And after some time, he could use Void Steps seamlessly, moving across 2 meters of distance with precision and speed.
"Hmm... The technique is good but the range is far too limited for me. I need to increase my mastery over space to increase the limit on the distance." He muttered to himself as he realized what he was missing.
But he didn't let this stop him as he had more technique to learn, and the second technique he decided on was the Spatial Distortion.
This technique was more intricate—it required him to shift slightly out of sync with normal space, creating a state of semi-intangibility.