Zhen couldn't just focus on his stats. His eyes scanned his surroundings with caution, worried that he might run into wild beasts since he was currently inside a vast forest.
Fortunately, as far as he could tell, there were no signs of danger.
He only saw small birds flying around, some even building nests.
The good thing was, the forest floor was mostly open grassland with few obstacles.
Zhen walked toward a tree and sat down with his back leaning against it.
He closed his eyes, trying to absorb the Qi in his surroundings.
By simply imagining the body absorbing Qi, the body would naturally begin to do so.
The speed and amount of Qi absorbed depended on one's scripture and how deeply they understood it.
Without Scripture, it is still possible to do so, but very slowly or even unsuccessfully.
Scripture is the main foundation of cultivation, determining whether a person can continue to progress further.
Buzz!
Zhen suddenly felt as if his body was being doused in water, and that water then seeped into every pore of his body.
If it had been real water, he might have felt uncomfortable, but it wasn't. It wasn't water at all, and so it didn't bother him.
On the contrary, it brought him a deeply soothing sensation. His body instantly felt so refreshed that he thought he could live without food or sleep.
"Zhen, Zhen!" Before he could enjoy the sensation any longer, Tang Xin's voice echoed in his head, causing his eyes to snap open.
[Qi: 59/1000]
Zhen instinctively looked at his Qi, shocked to find it had already reached 59—even though it had been less than a minute since he started absorbing it.
'Looks like these scriptures are really helpful,' he thought.
"What is it?" he then responded to Tang Xin.
The girl had pressed a special button on her Virtual Glasses that allowed her voice to be sent directly to him.
And he only needed to press the same button in his status window to send his reply, which would be heard through her glasses' speaker.
"Are you in the game already? How does it feel?" Tang Xin's voice echoed again.
"Yes, I'm in. It's great," Zhen replied, finding it difficult to explain what had just happened.
"Hahaha, of course it is… By the way, where did you spawn?"
"In a really big forest…"
"Do the trees reach the clouds?"
"Yeah…"
"That's the Sacred Cloud Forest, a territory of the Sacred Cloud Sect. If you walk in any direction, you'll eventually find a path and run into other players heading to the nearest town. From there, you can register as an outer disciple of the Sacred Cloud Sect. You'll get scriptures and techniques once you sign up. Most people from Shenzhen and nearby cities spawn there. You should hurry or you'll run into wild beasts—they'll start appearing around 4 p.m. and stay till morning."
Zhen wasn't sure what to think after hearing everything Tang Xin had said.
Becoming an outer disciple of the Sacred Cloud Sect just to get scriptures and techniques?
He wondered if the girl had already forgotten all the nonsense she told him just to convince him to play this game.
If she remembered, she should at least have asked him something.
"I'll go later. I want to do something else first," Zhen replied.
He was too lazy to move and wanted to continue his cultivation.
"What do you want to do?" asked Tang Xin.
Zhen didn't answer. He simply closed his eyes again, ignoring Tang Xin's continued calls.
The Qi absorption in his body resumed, and he could feel more and more Qi gathering inside him.
After a few minutes, the Qi flow suddenly stopped.
He quickly opened his eyes to check his Qi.
[Qi: 1000/1000]
Seeing the number, he could only be amazed.
He then felt the Qi he had absorbed flow through all his veins, merging with them until they glowed faintly from within his body.
BOOM!
His body suddenly released a shockwave, blasting the surrounding grass from the ground along with their roots.
DING!
(You have broken through to the First Stage of the Qi Master Realm. You gained 10 System Points!)
[Name: Xia Zhen]
[Cultivation: First Stage of Qi Master Realm]
[Qi: 0/2000]
[System Points: 10]
"So this is what it feels like!"
Upon reaching the First Stage of cultivation, Zhen immediately felt the power coursing through his body, and he could even release the Qi outward.
It gathered above his palm like tiny snowflakes.
Moments later, a portion of the Qi—about 9%—changed color to dark red, radiating wild energy, and a faint, terrifying roar echoed from it.
That was Dragon Qi.
Thanks to his understanding of the Eternal Dragon Scripture, he could transform his Qi into Dragon Qi—far more powerful due to its destructive nature.
As for the powers of time and space, they didn't take the form of Qi, but of control.
He had only grasped 1% of the Time Control Scripture. That wasn't enough to manipulate time yet, as time was one of the hardest forces to control.
As for the Space Dao Scripture, he had understood it up to 3%.
Faintly, he could feel a real connection to the space around him.
"It's possible," he said as space in front of him suddenly shifted, shrinking in a way that turned ten meters into just one.
'Time and space truly are mysterious forces… No wonder they only exist as scriptures,' Zhen thought.
From both scriptures, he understood that space and time didn't have techniques—they could only be controlled through comprehension.
"Still… I can become a dragon," Zhen muttered as he looked at his right hand, which had begun to change. Dark red scales, seemingly made of steel, appeared.
This was the Eternal Dragon Body, but he could only transform 9% of his body for now.
Zhen could feel an overwhelming power in his right hand as it turned into a dragon's claw.
He suspected that if he punched his left hand with it, his left hand would explode instantly.
"More!" Zhen wasn't satisfied just yet.
He closed his eyes again and resumed absorbing Qi from the surroundings.
With his 9% understanding of the Eternal Dragon Scripture, he believed he could cultivate smoothly all the way to the Ninth Stage of the Qi Master Realm.
Of course, it would take longer with each breakthrough, as higher stages required more Qi.
Still, Zhen only needed a little over ten minutes to gather 2,000 Qi and another fifteen minutes for 3,000 more.
DING!
(You have broken through to the Second Stage of the Qi Master Realm. You gained 10 System Points!)
(You have broken through to the Third Stage of the Qi Master Realm. You gained 10 System Points!)
[Name: Xia Zhen]
[Cultivation: Third Stage of Qi Master Realm]
[Qi: 0/4000]
[System Points: 30]