Chương 134: Playtime

Ch134 Playtime I agree to stay the night, and am led down into the Wang Family Mansion. Everyone else heads off to their separate chambers or courtyards within the estate, and others leave the peak entirely. The palace is so enormous that everyone has their own isolated halls, with numerous amenities. My spiritual senses do not travel far. There are soundproofing arrays and pure qi defensive arrays throughout every room. They're all powered by the massive tier 2 spiritual vein in the center of this mountain.

I'm granted access to almost a dozen rooms, many lounge areas, libraries, art rooms, a kitchen, and a large inground heated bath. There are mortal servants in every public hall waiting for orders. I accept freshly brewed high-grade spiritual tea and take a long hot bath, but politely refuse the maid servants offering to follow me into my private bedroom. Instead, I rest in solitude on the largest and most comfortable bed I've seen in this world.

The dim light of the crescent moon peeks in through the stained glass windows overhead, but I do not fully activate the privacy array, to enjoy the night. The qi gathering formation in the room, however, I crank up to full capacity, focusing it all toward me. The pure qi in this mansion is extremely strong… I can see the white particles floating in the air wherever I look. Every breath I take, qi naturally enters my body and saturates my meridians.

It's far more energy than a perfect grade tier 1 vein, it feels like 3 or 4 veins worth of qi flows through the air. However, my spiritual senses pick up that this potent flow is not exactly natural. The formations and arrays in this room are actively dispersing and augmenting the extremely dense qi from a tier 2 vein into a palatable mist for a qi refiner like myself. Small wisps of the natural veins energy slips through, but it acts much differently.

The denser qi doesn't drift toward me in the forming cyclone, and even when it touches my skin, I'm unable to muster up enough internal force to bring it into my body. It feels just like the pressure coming off foundational crystals… I pull one of the dense white crystals from my storage to compare, and attempt to cultivate with it as I would a spirit stone. Small particles of less dense qi drift off the crystals edges, but the core density of qi inside doesn't budge.

It feels too dense, and stagnant for me to safely consume. Even my instincts that naturally crave energy dense materials, they do not emerge. For some strange reason, this denser qi is not a compatible cultivation resource. I let the crystal slip back into my storage, and push this discovery to the back of my mind. Instead, I let out a long sigh and lay back with my eyes closed. The potent air filled with lower density qi is still very satisfying. I cycle my Jade Purity Soul Scripture.

Even with a rigid bottleneck in my cultivation, channeling this much qi still invigorates my meridians, flesh, and blood. I can relax, but I cannot sleep. The battle with that late stage foundation establishment cultivator still replays in my mind. His raw power was eye-opening… even the initial stage foundation establishment cultivators fighting Lan Xin beforehand, they were monsters too. Without a perfected golden core artifact, I would have lost my life.

Everyone in the Mu and Wang Clans would have lost their lives too. With my 5th level of qi refining and a perfected mortal grade physique alone, I stand no chance against these opponents. I have some hope of progress again now that these foundational Patriarchs say they can acquire a strong enough cauldron for me, but from the way they talk about the distance from here to the capital, it's not going to arrive for quite a while. I'm still very reliant on lottery draws and upgraded artifacts.

This isn't exactly a bad thing… the tools at my disposal are a part of my strength, but deep down, it is still slightly unsettling. These thoughts ruminate as the night goes on. Eventually, I settle down and begin drifting off, but a small tug at my soul makes my eyes open again. It tugs harder, and at the same time my perception widens. Deep inside my mental space, the bronze door cracks open on its own. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

It closes just as fast, and a small white fuzzy creature falls onto my chest, staring at me with wide excited silver eyes. [Automatic Inspect Function Activated…] [Meimei] [Age: 0] [3rd Level Qi Refiner] [Mutated Metal Spiritual Root][4th Grade] [No Acquired Physique] [Innate Soul Nourishing Physique][Mid Stage - Mortal Grade] [Holds a rare innate physique that grows stronger by resonating with damaged souls. Is currently digesting a large amount of energy, requires its soul-bound host's unique cultivation technique to do so faster.] The fox trots forward, its yips echoing through the room, and stops to lick my face. It falls asleep on the underside of my neck, and a foggy cloud of its physique's soul mist starts growing to almost entirely surround me. My Jade Purity Soul Scripture starts cycling faster and more efficiently than it ever has before.

The white particles in the air merge into the wisps that spin around the outside of my soul, the soul fox in my chest becoming seamlessly added to the rejuvenating cycle. As it sleeps, I read its status. The popping sensations and increased spiritual senses make sense, but the growth speed of this fox is absurd. Just from a few hours alone with Lan Xin, this tiny spirit beast has reached the peak of the 3rd level of qi refining already, and somehow its innate physique has already risen a minor stage…

Another fact impossible to miss is its name.

"Meimei…" I murmur, and the tiny fox's ears twitch in its slumber. This little fox is a baby girl, it's a fitting name, but… there's only one person who could have named it. I watch the fox sleep calmly for hours and enjoy the passive cultivation speed boost it brings me. She finally wakes up once the white mist cloud shrinks back down and her physique stabilizes. Meimei yawns, uncurls, and stretches awake, then starts running around the massive bed, yipping and egging me on to join.

I never planned to actually sleep tonight, but this isn't what I had in mind. This might be the first innocent playful encounter I've ever had in this world. Everything and everyone else has some kind of hidden motive, or secret innate power lurking that puts my subconscious on edge. I let out a long sigh, then start chasing the tiny newborn fox around the bed until she tires out. It takes over an hour, but the fox finally curls up by my chest again, and I look into its bright silver eyes.

It acts like any other normal animal. There is a warm strength coursing through it now, equivalent to at least an average 5th or 6th level qi refiner. However, it does not share the same human-like intelligence that Little Red does. That fire toad's eyes are full of depth, and he can send me waves of intent that translate almost perfectly into coherent thoughts. This fox, it only transmits raw joy and curiosity through our bond. Now, I feel it growing slightly hungry.

I pull out a few spirit fruits and various high-grade pills. The little fox sniffs each one and promptly ignores them.

"Well that's one thing you have in common with that toad, you two sure are picky eaters…" I joke while scratching her head and sifting through my system storage. I pull out a few small silver shards of metal next, and droplets of drool form on the little fox's mouth. The moment these soul metal fragments hit my chest, Meimei starts chewing on the closest one. These are the remaining fragments I stowed away from the Phantom Lord at the end of the war.

Along with the two inferior grade tier 2 knives I acquired from its corpse, there hasn't been any use for this loot. Considering that Illusory Demon's grey body was digested to grant this little fox its innate physique, it makes sense that they would both have an affinity to soul metal. Technically, these shards could be classified as tier 2 materials, but in a matter of an hour, they're chewed to dust and completely absorbed. Meimei rests again with a satisfied grin and naps it off.

Another cloud of mist grows around her, and our souls are linked once again to speed up and stabilize the process. This time she doesn't wake up quickly, many hours pass. I watch the little creature sleep for the rest of the night, but my mind does begin to wander again. In such a silent and concentrated environment, I begin watching every particle of qi and wisp of soul that travels back and forth through our bond.

It makes our soul contract even stronger, and I can even feel each shard of metal being digested and turned into its internal energy. The tiny fox's physique grows stronger at an almost unbelievable rate, and as easily as breathing. It allows her single metal spirit root to expand and channel qi from our surroundings into her dantian walls with ease, and the mid stage qi refining bottleneck pops open without much resistance. The soul fox reaches the 4th level of qi refining.

Pulses of qi and soul wisps come out of the tiny fox, and its bones grow denser. The silky white fur grows thicker too, but she doesn't grow more than a few centimeters in size. It is mostly an internal raw strength increase. My spiritual senses grow outward with this change, hitting just about 60 meters in every direction. Meimei does not even wake up; she simply stirs in her sleep with a satisfied smile and continues refining the metal until the sun begins to rise.

With an increase in my spiritual senses, and so much raw qi in the air, I can focus far more easily while cultivating. My attention deep dives into the walls of my dantian, and the 5 spiritual roots tethered to it that have seemingly reached their upper saturation limits. I assumed this 5th level of qi refinement was a permanent cap until I could find a way to increase their potential grade. This isn't the case. My fire root is slightly more inflamed than the other four.

Every hour or so that passes, the faintest saturation of this bright red spirit root progresses. It's barely noticeable, but it allows me to see the bottleneck that was unsensible to me before. It's like tiny hairline fractures are appearing in a crystal-clear glass window that was too transparent to notice at all until now. My eyes widen, and the jolt of emotion wakes Meimei from her slumber. She yawns and rolls over, then looks at me with a tilted, questioning expression.

Then, she starts running around the bed again, egging me on to play. I slowly stand up to play with this little fox again, and imagery of her very recent breakthrough replays in my mind. I begin to compare it to the breakthrough into the 12th level of qi refinement that I witnessed from Lan Xin. In the system secret itself, it said that her roots were not matured enough to handle this breakthrough naturally. A smile forms on my face as a simple thought comes to mind.

I wonder what it would feel like if I practiced a similar technique to fire control with my other four roots.