East Meet West

295- Hidden gems

After stepping deep into the bandit’s nest, it took him some time to locate their hidden treasury.

The treasury was located in a hidden room that was connected to the room in which Orochi found the supposed leader of the bandit group.

And to find the treasury, Orochi had to push away the bandit leader’s bed, because the entrance to the treasury was directly below it.

After Orochi entered the treasury, he saw tens of thousands of gold coins, pieces of jewelry, diamonds, lots of weapons, armors, ores, etc; could be seen piled up in batches. But of course, weapons, ores, armors, and all were of low quality but large in quantity, enough to make a good profit.

Then Orochi searched through the treasury and found a few good things, especially a few ‘hidden gems’ that these stupid bandits didn’t have any knowledge of. But with his ‘Observation skill,’ he can find them and know their details.

[Note: “Hidden gems” is an idiom that means something which is extremely outstanding and not many people may know about. Just to clarify and to make sure that everybody understood this.]

Orochi smiled in satisfaction with these gains.

Not to mention, he still has to check the storage rings obtained from the important people in the bandit group, and he is expecting some gains because people in important positions will surely have a private collection and in that collection surely, they will store things that are valuable.

Finally, he walked out of the cave after completely cleaning away the bandit group’s treasury.

After walking out of the cave, instead of waiting, Orochi decided to break through to the peak of the Demi-Human stage and prepare all the things and tricks he requires for his breakthrough to the Transformation realm.

But first, he still has something to do, so he approached June and spoke with her,

“Aunt June, the Spiritual Qi concentration here is very good, according to you how much strong is it?”

June answered in a flat voice,

“The spiritual qi concentration in this country is very low. And there is almost no or very little difference among the Border City, Town of Chans or any other place we visited, all these places have the same amount of Spiritual Qi concentration.”

“In simple words, if a peak Demi-Human stage person cultivates continuously for a whole month in these places, then the result is equivalent to absorbing 1 or 2 low grade energy stones or even less.”

“Of course, those with lower cultivation will have even lower results and those with higher cultivation will have better results.”

“Meanwhile, in this valley, the Spiritual Qi concentration is almost 10 times higher compared to those towns and cities.”

Hearing this, Orochi nodded and asked a few more questions.

In the Mortal Realm, it is very difficult for a cultivator to attract and absorb Spiritual Qi from the surroundings.

There are 5 stages in the Mortal realm- Awakening Stage, Beginning Stage, Refinement Stage, Evolver Stage, and the Demi-Human stage.

Till the Refinement Stage, a cultivator does not come into any contact with Spiritual Qi, because till that stage they deal with Qi, which is produced by their bodies.

And only after stepping into the Evolver Stage, do cultivators need Spiritual Qi and it needs to be combined with the Qi to wash and nourish their bodies. And after stepping into the Demi-Human stage, the amount of Spiritual qi required increases drastically.

But even after reaching the Evolver stage, it is still difficult for the cultivator’s body to attract and absorb Spiritual qi from the surroundings.

So, they can only absorb Spiritual Qi directly from the Low grade energy stones or by inhaling it into their bodies.

Even the ‘Qi compressing Formation’ is only used to extract the Spiritual Qi from the low grade energy stones and release it in an enclosed place. Such that, when a cultivator sits in the formation, they will directly inhale Spiritual Qi into their bodies or absorb it when the Spiritual Qi comes into contact with their skin. Also, the formation is used to save time, where cultivators can absorb Spiritual Qi from multiple Low grade energy stones, instead, of holding a small amount in their hands.

Hence, when the ‘Qi compressing formation’ is drawn it is made sure that the enclosed space is just big enough to fit the cultivator’s body so that the cultivator can easily inhale and absorb the Spiritual Qi extracted from the Low grade energy stones.

And when a cultivator steps into the Demi-human stage and activates their dantian, at that time they are barely able to interact and attract Spiritual qi present in the surroundings. And this ‘barely’ is also almost negligible because they can only interact and attract Spiritual qi that is present a few millimeters away from them.

Hence, the word ‘barely’ was used.

Because the Dantian has just been activated, it has very low capabilities, so it can barely play any role and help the cultivator.

But as the Dantian evolves, its power also increases, such that a peak Demi-Human stage cultivator can urge the dantian to attract and absorb Spiritual Qi present in the surrounding few inches around them.

An average cultivator with the Dantian Potential of Rank 4, is able to attract spiritual qi present in 1–2-inch surrounding him/her.

[Note/Recap: Dantian Potential of Rank 4, means those whose Golden Dantian did not even evolve a single time.]

And those with higher Dantian Potential will be able to attract and absorb Spiritual qi from a wider range.

And with Orochi’s current Dantian Potential of Rank 107, he can easily attract and absorb Spiritual qi present in a range of 1-2 meters surrounding him.

It must be known that only when a cultivator steps into the Transformation realm, can one attract and absorb spiritual qi present in a few meters range.

So, this means that in terms of Spiritual Qi absorption, Orochi’s can compete with an average Human stage cultivator.

Hence, when June said that if a Peak Demi-Human stage cultivator concentrates and tries to absorb spiritual qi from the surroundings, then in a month he/she can only get spiritual qi that is worth 1 or 2 Low grade energy stones, or it may not even reach that level.

Of course, with the ability of Orochi’s dantian, he can absorb 4-5 Low grade energy stones worth spiritual qi in a single day, and that too if he cultivates for a whole day properly and without any breaks.

That's how low the concentration of Spiritual qi in the Windy country is.

But if June’s analysis is correct and the concentration of Spiritual Qi in this valley is 10 times more than outside, then with Orochi’s speed he can absorb about 1-3 low grade energy stones worth spiritual qi in just 1 hour or so. And about 40-50 low grade energy stones worth spiritual qi in a single day.

Orochi’s cultivation is low to estimate this kind of details, hence he had to ask June to help him find a place for his cultivation because she is a Royalty realm powerhouse and she can infer things like these easily.

Although, this place is very impressive to others, but to him, this place is still a barren place and not that useful or helpful for his cultivation.... well that’s what he would have said if he did not have the ‘Spiritual Qi gathering array’ book with him.