The trio's awakening went smoothly.
Welt Yang revealed a high-grade Heavenly Earth Spirit Root. Einstein and Tesla both have middle grade Spirit Roots. The former has Fire and Wood attributes. The latter has Metal and Water.
Since they have the mutually enforcing effect of the five elements, they don't have to do the "adjustments" of people with conflicting elements—fire and water, for example. It saves up a lot of time. Although, they miss out on the 'destructive' aspect of these conflicting elements.
Immortal cultivation leaves a lot of ways out for the people. My techniques do, at the very least. For every problem, there are viable solutions.
"Weird. I feel more hungry…"
"Don't blame it on cultivation."
"Of course not!"
Kiana has to pause upon realizing her loudness.
"Anyways… I feel a massage every now and then. Is it normal?"
"Hm?"
The contents of Body Cultivation techniques popped up inside my mind. I had to think hard, probably for a minute, before I opened my eyes.
"It should be fine…"
I see two reasons behind it. Her body is being repaired by her perfected 'Jing' dantian. That, or the strange reaction between honkai energy and spiritual qi. Honkai energy is destructive if taken literally. Three Cores took Kiana's entire sense of pain. In turn, it removed her need to breathe. It made tremendous changes to her body.
Spiritual qi must be removing these "disadvantages" (i.e., hidden injuries). That's the only thing I could think of now.
I heaved a sigh. The need to know more about the honkai shows up here. Only then can I safely progress immortal cultivation. Not just for me but also for others.
"You can eat more if you like."
"Okay!"
Hold on. This is quite funny.
I just hope… this can last for a long time.
*****
June 19, 2012.
More than two months had passed since Shi Tian's first visit to the Salt Lake base. The thrice a week combat simulations also served as his time to resolve the Anti-Entropy trio's doubts on the techniques. He gained more knowledge about the honkai as a result.
There weren't any huge events, either. The minor honkai eruptions around Siberia are taken as normal Mondays. Cocolia's forces are enough to clear them up.
In short, it became a rare period of stability.
"It's done."
Shi Tian rubbed his eyes. The [Xiutian Jue]'s small success allowed him to continue cultivating while sleeping. All he had to do was sleep while sitting. As long as he maintains his posture, it won't be interrupted.
When 4:00 AM struck, he woke up due to the completion of his late stage.
"More than one month earlier than planned. If my luck isn't that bad…"
In the first month, Shi Tian got a spiritual plant in the form of longgans. The other two draws resulted in a dark blue metal and an unmeltable fist-sized ice block. The longgans pushed his progress up by two weeks. The remaining two weeks were attributed to the shared progress between him and Kiana.
In the second month, he gained no spiritual plants. What he gained is a head-sized dark green ore. The most surprising gain came from ten days ago.
"A storage ring…"
Shi Tian brought the dark blue ring to his eyes. A quick scan of his spiritual consciousness revealed extremely small tadpole-like dots. What's even stranger is the dao rhyme it faintly gave.
The biggest feature of this ring was revealed after forming a connection with spiritual consciousness. It revealed an empty space the size of a small bathroom. Shi Tian placed things inside by enveloping them with his spiritual consciousness. Everything placed inside has their time 'frozen'. Humans and animals cannot be placed inside.
Nevertheless, it solved their luggage problems.
"My luck should be better today…"
Shi Tian came to the usual golden orb space. He can now bring out nine techniques a day now. Every new technique is an addition to his knowledge base. Proof of it was his Small Success in the [Cloud Seeking Steps], [Wuxing Dao Sutra], and the unused [Daluo Sword Jue].
A technique points straight to the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, if not Immortal. Even though he could not understand the 'technobabble' used in higher realms, it is a piece of cake to learn key points up to the small success.
In short, an addition of a technique to a certain field serves as nutrients for Shi Tian to comprehend his main techniques further.
Hum.
The reward took the shape of a boxed-shape glass bottle. It has several wave-like inscriptions on it. Inside is a pure golden substance.
"..."
Shi Tian is speechless. The things he gains do not have any descriptions. It is up to him to determine things.
He first returned to the real world. It is 6:00 AM in the morning. Kiana is still sound asleep on her bed.
The glass bottle rested on his hands.
"Strange. Not even spiritual consciousness can see through it?"
A hunch appeared inside his mind.
He gently uncapped the bottle's glass cap.
"Huh?!"
A strong fragrant scent came out of it. Shi Tian's best description of it is milk. Just that he hasn't seen any milk that smelled so good.
His spiritual consciousness accidentally touched the 'aura' it emitted. His mind was instantly cleared of all his thoughts.
'Oops..!'
He hastily brought back the cap. Only then did the smell stop leaking.
"What the hell…"
Shi Tian felt the operation of his spiritual qi. With all three dantians full, the next step is to raise all three of them simultaneously to their limits. A cultivator will have a vague feeling of being able to "shatter" these dantians once the peak of the Qi Refining stage is reached.
Just now, the three dantians in him grew by a considerable margin. The supposed six months for the peak stage got reduced by three to four days. That was from the smell alone!
"Second grade…"
Shi Tian welcomed his first second-grade reward.
*****
A/N: I rolled 100 on the random number generator. It proceeds to a brand new selection from 1 to 100. I got 96, hence this second-grade late stage reward.