Minutes went by and Luan remained like statue on his bed. It was difficult to know whether he was breathing unless one goes close enough.
Though he had said that producing inner strength and drawing in qi from his surroundings wouldn't be an issue, completing it with his weak body proved otherwise.
Luan's spirit root was like a blocked faucet.
The more he tried to draw qi into his body through the faucet, the more agony he caused to his body. He had almost coughed blood a few times but he held on.
Luan wasn't sure whether cultivators could smell the scent of blood easily, but from his experience in Sorja, most cultivators were like beasts that could even taste the scent of blood from afar.
If he didn't want to draw the attention of the elders back to his room, he'll have to hold on.
As for inner strength, it is a form of will power. An energy born from the condensed form of one's will. Though his body was extremely weak at the moment, it was at the best state to produce inner strength.
The weaker his body was, the easier it would be for him to cultivate his inner strength. Though it had its limits.
Even with his experience, the inner strength he produce wasn't even enough to help him stand properly for a few seconds.
Moreover, he couldn't let his inner strength through his meridians yet, not until he's able to resuscitate the weakened meridians with qi.
With his breathing technique, Luan held on.
About an hour passed when a wisp of qi slowly swam through the weakened meridians.
Like foam that's just been introduced to the sea, his meridians quickly absorbed that wisp of qi.
Luan didn't even get the chance to condense the qi yet.
He was surprised.
It was as if his meridians have been waiting for this.
Normally, before the Foundation Building stage, while forming a qi core, one would have to use their spirit root to absorb qi into their body, then distribute the qi through the meridians for refinement. And like the roots of a tree, the spirit root is connected to the body's meridians.
One grand circle of refinement is enough to condense a wisp of qi to form the core.
Nonetheless, comfortable feelings ran through Luan's body to the point where he almost moaned.
Time went on and then he drew in a second wisp, and the same thing happened. This continued until his meridians opened up a bit.
By the time he was able to draw qi into his spirit root, unbeknownst to him, his skin had a bit more life to them.
With the qi in place, Luan mobilized his inner strength, also adjusting his breathing form to better control his inner strength.
Within his spirit root was a wisp of multicolored light, floating like feather, and from the corners of his spirit root came thin clouds.
The moment the two energies touched, a powerful reaction jerked Luan, forcing him to vomit blood. The qi and his inner strength out rightly rejected each other.
Before Luan could process what had just happened, the crystal pearl in his chest moved.
It rotated once, and like a tornado, it swept up every inner strength and qi that Luan was able to gather.
But it didn't stop there.
The rotated again, draining Luan of the little blood essence he had left in him.
His eyes opened wide in shock and fear.
He had forgotten to account for this foreign object. From the get go, Luan did expect that there would be some kind of rejection from the two energies.
However, he was ready to counter it.
He let them collide in the first place just so he could evaluate the level of resistance it would require to keep them in place.
Now, all of this was being swept up by the crystal pearl.
As if that wasn't enough, the pearl began gathering qi from his surroundings.
It began with a slow shifts, drawing in several wisps of qi into Luan, subsequently nourishing his meridians and spirit root before sucking it dry.
As for the inner strength he had gathered, as long as his will hasn't been depleted, his body would continue producing more. But at the moment, the crystal pearl was absorbing more than his will was producing.
A small hurricane of qi formed over Luan's head.
This is too much of a commotion!
All he could do at the moment was complain, he couldn't move an inch at the moment. It was as if the crystal pearl had seized his body too.
The hurricane continued growing before suddenly disappearing.
With its absence, everything seemed to calm down.
Luan gasped for air.
That was terrifying.
Just when he thought everything had settled, he felt the crystal pearl move in reverse.
Just a single rotation, produced a deep blue, thick drop of qi… no, it was more than that. This qi possessed a large quantity of his inner strength.
He could tell.
The quality of this qi was beyond anything Luan had ever seen. It looked like a drop of water, however, the energy contained within this drop of water was immense.
Even when he was a mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivator, the qi he had condensed then was nothing like this.
Like a drop of rain, this thick mixture of qi and inner strength fell onto his spirit root.
Silence…
Luan's world seized to exist for second before a burst of light revived him. His entire body was shroud in a serene light that radiated qi.
Every part of his body that had deteriorated over the years began to heal at a rapid pace. At the same time, his qi cultivation began to restore itself.
In a few seconds he stepped into the Qi Condensation stage. And then it took another 10 seconds for him to become a legit early-stage Qi Condensation cultivator.
With another dozen seconds gone, he recovered back to the mid-stage of the Qi Condensation stage.
But it didn't stop there, a qi core suddenly condensed in his abdomen, absorbing the energy from the crystal pearl, refining it.
Luan's aura suddenly rose to the late-stage Qi Condensation stage, but it didn't stop there. His cultivation was pushed to the peak of the Qi Condensation stage.
Despite all of this, his aura was still rising.
No, I can't let this continue like this. I might miss my chance to properly build my technique if I breakthrough to the next stage.
With that thought in mind, Luan began suppressing the energy from the crystal pearl. Using his will to produce more inner strength, Luan tried pushing the energy back to the crystal pearl.
Unlike the first time his inner strength came in contact with qi, there was no rejection upon contact, rather, it seemed to have worked as everything started to slow down.
Just when Luan thought he was successful, his qi core started to show signs of breaking.
Fine cracks like spider webs swam around the new formed core.
All it withstood was a second and the qi core shattered. However, contrary to what Luan thought would happen if his core shattered, his qi didn't dissipate nor did his cultivation level drop.
If anything, it stabilized his level for him.
As though the crystal pearl had a mind of its own, it broke past Luan suppression and quickly gathered the shards of his broken core before mending it.
After doing that, everything seemed to have settled down.
The crystal pearl went silent, and Luan's core stabilized, giving him the aura of a cultivator at the peak of the Qi Condensation stage.
Luan didn't have the time to cross check all that had just transpired in his body. He could already sense a lot of people rushing towards his room.
His cultivation had caused a commotion in the manor.
Before long, Luan opened his eyes and smiled sheepishly. Both Romain and Liana had already rushed into his room with worry written on their faces.
When they saw him smiling, their worry morphed into questions. But the moment they felt the aura coming of him, their questions morphed into shock.
Before they could even say a word, several elders of the family appeared in the room. Belan was amongst them.
They too experienced the stages of emotions that Romain and Liana went through.
Seeing their faces, Luan didn't want to explain what had happened to them. If said that he attempted creating a new cultivation path, they would put him on lock down for such suicidal acts.
Not only that, his every movement would be supervised from that moment on. He didn't want that at all.
Nobody likes to be watched.
"I guess… I've always had a good talent for cultivation." Luan said, jokingly.
But nobody found it funny.