A God in a Xianxia world

Chapter 48 - 6th Level Of Body Strengthening

After Tom got back from his first hunt in the Tainted Forest and saw Rowan off, he returned to arduously cultivating. He had actually enjoyed the change in environment by coming to Acorn town and exploring the forest, however, the experience had also reminded him that he was still at the bottom of the ladder when it came to cultivation.

Not wanting to waste his time, Tom spent the majority of his time cultivating in his room at the hotel. This time, away from Hill City, he didn't have to split his focus between cultivating and martial practice, meaning that the time he spent cultivating had noticeably increased from before.

Adam advised him to continue on with his training, claiming that it was important and that he needed to be able to defend himself, however, Tom felt that he had already achieved a decent attainment in fighting techniques and that for the time being, increasing his cultivation level was more important than increasing his skill. This was especially so, since his primary focus was to reach the peak of cultivation for a qi cultivator.

Tom was also thinking in the long term and although the practice now would help him build up solid foundations, he knew that as he cultivated through the different realms of cultivation, his insights into and ability to manipulate qi would prove more important than the swordplay and close quarters combat techniques he was currently learning. Besides, he was able to pick it up remarkably quickly and reckoned that there would be plenty of time later to improve upon his current ability.

However, just because Tom spent the majority of his time cultivating alone in his room, it didn't mean that he didn't get out at times. He, of course, had to maintain his body properly and this resulted in him frequently dining with Adam and the others at local eating establishments.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Tom learned of many things that been happening by spending time with Adam and the others. For instance, just three days after he had returned from his first qi beast hunt in the Tainted Forest, a shrivelled up body with a blue discolouration to it was found in a back alley. It seemed that the mimic Tom and the others had discovered while they were in the forest had made its way into town and started preying on people.

Tom remembered when he had first heard of this that both Adam and Avery chastised him that this was the reason he ought not to travel down dark alleys at night. In fact, all of the guys had a bit of a laugh about that. Tom however, came to the realisation that unexpected things like these truly do occur and are not always one off occurrences. He made a mental note that from now on he should stay more attentive and vigilant of his surroundings. It wouldn't do if someone or something tried to sneak up on him again.

Another interesting to happen, just two days after this, was that Adam managed to break through from the 3rd level of qi expansion into the 4th level. The 4th level was the first big barrier to cultivators in the realm of qi expansion and the fact that he had broken through had a significant effect on the amount of qi Adam could store in his body.

Besides what it would mean for his combat ability, being able to fight for longer and use more powerful qi techniques, it was an especially big step for Adam considering that he was actually able to work his way through the cultivation stages relatively quickly and only tended to get stuck at the major barriers. Since he was now at the 4th level of qi expansion, there was a high chance he would be able to quickly and smoothly advance to the 6th level.

As the days passed by, Tom continued cultivating, infusing qi into every part of his body. The cultivating resources Rowan had given him, before she left, worked quite well. They weren't nearly as good as the qi stones his father had once given him; however, they were still far better than the low quality cultivation resources that the clan had allocated him. Those were so low quality and poorly made that only the poorest and most desperate of people would purchase them. The materials Rowan had given him however, were the proper things; resources that were frequently purchased by many cultivators.