Chapter 9"What do you mean?", Chen Zhen asked his clone.
[Well since you left me in here since your sea of consciousness was opened I have been observing everything in this world. I have full access to all your memories and a.n.a.lytical ability. Your complete mind is available to me for my use. I"ve been pondering on everything that Shanggu Julong has been telling you, and I believe that as you circulate energy thru your body you will continue to not only strengthen your muscles, bones, nerves, organs, and meridians, you will also slowly increase the amount of energy your body can store at any given time. Right now, your dantian id full and your body has adjusted to the energy in your body enough that it will it is now ready to expand how much energy it can contain.], the clone explained.
Chen Zhen had a thoughtful expression on his face. This was very exciting to him. He was already getting stronger. Chen Zhen looked as his body feeling his new muscles and admiring the strength of his new body. Chen Zhen was the same height of six feet tall. He was never an overweight person, but he never worked out before either. He was much weaker then he is now in his old world. Chen Zhen"s life didn"t require him to him to be strong and he never found weight lifting to be an enjoyable exercise. In fact, he found weight lifter to be lunk heads to chose to solve all their problems with their fist instead of using their heads. Now that he found himself in a world full of nothing but lunk heads, the importance of his personal strength and growth of that strength was his top priority.
"Do I need to do anything?", Chen Zhen asked the clone.
[For now, we are just refining your body, I can handle things for now but as you get more powerful you will have to be more hands on. For now, just keep providing me with more energy.]
This was easy for Chen Zhen, he had already eaten half of the food on the table, so he just kept eating till all of the food was finished. Just as he was finishing the last bite of food Shanggu Julong had come back inside the shack. When Shanggu Julong saw Chen Zhen finish the food and he kept looking for more, Shanggu Julong was once again amazed at Chen Zhen"s improvement speed. Before Shanggu Julong could say anything to Chen Zhen, Chen Zhen ran past Shanggu Julong heading for the stream at the edge of the clearing.
[We are very close, but our body seems to be able to store energy on a cellular level. So we will need to absorb more energy than a normal person to advance. Fortunately we are still weak enough that simple things in this world can provide us the energy we need.] As Chen Zhen listened to the clone he made it to the stream and bent down to scoop up a handful of water.
Shanggu Julong stood in the doorway looking at Chen Zhen wondering what he was up to. Shanggu Julong sent out his spiritual sense and noticed that Chen Zhen was about to breakthrough.
"This is too soon. This guy doesn"t follow any of our worlds conventional rules at all! I have to admit that I"m at a loss as to how to proceed here. The most I will be able to do is offer him some suggestions, but mostly I"ll have to let him figure this out on his own as he progresses…..", Shanggu Julong thought to himself perplexed.
After drinking two handfuls of water Chen Zhen sat down to focus on cultivating. His dantian had completely filled with energy, but instead of it feeling like his dantian was going to break and all the energy was going to flood around his body, it felt like his dantian was suing the energy to make itself bigger. His dantian was the size of peach pit but now it was the size of a plum. Chen Zhen could feel that the energy in his body was more stable and easier to control. He felt very relaxed after his breakthrough, but something didn"t make sense to Chen Zhen. It seemed it him that he had taken in much more energy then what was present in his dantian. Even if some of the energy was used to help him breakthrough he felt that a lot of energy was missing from his body.
"Why do I feel there is a large imbalance between how much energy I"ve taken in and used, compared to what I have present in my body right now?", Chen Zhen asked his clone while he meditated.
[The energy you take in is being dispersed throughout your body evenly between you mind, body, and soul. The part that goes to your body is only one-third of the energy you take in, so what you see in your dantian is only that one-third of energy. Another one-third goes to your mind which is absorbed and used by me to help maintain your continuous cultivation, expand your mind and understanding of your body, energy, and cultivation pathways. And finally the last one-third is used to feel your soul, and the other two souls that dwell together with yours. As long as you"re only refining your body you will not need extremely large amounts of energy to progress, but the stronger you become in all aspects because you have to split it between mind, body and soul you will need twice to three times as much energy as normal cultivators to continue progressing. I would say that you next biggest problem will be finding greater amounts of energy to continue progressing quickly or your progression will slow down to a snail pace in a very short period of time. You need to learn more about this world as soon a possible, the more information I have the more of use I will be to you.]
The clone"s explanation left Chen Zhen perplexed. It seemed that every time he felt he made progress, he had to take two steps back right afterward. Chen Zhen got up and walked back toward the shack, it time he had a good chat with Shanggu Julong. Its time Chen Zhen knew more about this world he now found himself a part of.