Chapter 11 - Explosion?
~Ding~
COMMAND ACCEPTED: Upgrading Host's cultivation
Lin Wu's vision went black, and he awakened after some time. He was once again feeling heavy and felt as if something extra was placed on him. He had already experienced this before thus knew that it was just the system taking its time. He kept on lying on the ground and waited for the notification to arrive.
~Ding~
NOTIFICATION: Upgrade process complete, please check the relevant window.
'Finally.' Lin Wu inwardly spoke.
"Host Data." Lin Wu commanded.
~Ding~
——————————————————————————————————
HOST NAME: Lin Wu
AGE: 1 month, 3 days
LIFESPAN: 2 months
HOST SPECIES: Common Mud Worm (enhanced) [Adult]
HOST CULTIVATION: Fifth stage of the Body tempering Realm
-Vital energy required to upgrade = [000/600] units
QI STORAGE: Unavailable [Insufficient cultivation]
BLOODLINE: None
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUES: None
QI SKILLS: None
INVENTORY: Empty
BEAST CORE: Not formed
VITAL ENERGY STORAGE: 102 units
SYSTEM ENERGY STORAGE: 20 units
RAW BLOODLINE DATA COLLECTED:
1. Common Grass Mouse
2. Rock Trampler Boar
—————————————————————————————————
Lin Wu checked the entire window and saw that everything was as he expected it would be. He had successfully entered the Fifth stage of the Body tempering Realm.
"Only three more to go and I can become a cultivator." Lin WU said to himself.
'I don't have much time left anyway, there are only 27 days left before my lifespan would end.' Lin Wu reminded himself.
There was a big challenge in front of him now. Lin Wu now needed to eat the corpse of the man in front of him. While the corpse had started decaying and was releasing a foul stench, that smell was actually appetizing to Lin Wu. He hated that he likeed it so much, but knew that he couldn't do much.
"It's just this body's physiology. I gotta eat it or I may not survive." Lin Wu spoke to himself.
He crawled up to the dead man's arm and took a bite. He could straight away feel the difference in his strength. His bite force had increased again, and he could even move faster than before. Just one bite and he had already cut through the skin.
Lin Wu felt the savory taste of human flesh spreading in his mouth. It felt delicious to him on a physical level and revolting mentally. He didn't know of his psychological state and didn't want to know either. He just kept eating till he realized that he had eaten the entire arm of the dead man. Right now, only bones were left behind. All the muscles, veins, and tendons had been eaten clean off.
"That… was rather… Delicious!" Lin Wu exclaimed as he felt the energy stir within his body.
The flesh of the man seemed to have a different quality than that of the Rock Trampler Boar.
"Why is there such a large difference in the qualities? Is it because the other was a boar and had a lower cultivation?" Lin Wu wondered to himself.
He now wanted to see the difference between the energy obtained from the human's flesh and the boar's flesh. He had decided that if he got little energy from the flesh, he would just abandon it and only eat beasts in the future. While the human flesh tasted better to him, it still irked him on the moral level. Being a former human just interfered in his thought process and conflicted with his body's desires.
"Host Data." Lin Wu commanded.
~Ding~
——————————————————————————————————
HOST NAME: Lin Wu
AGE: 1 month, 3 days
LIFESPAN: 2 months
HOST SPECIES: Common Mud Worm (enhanced) [Adult]
HOST CULTIVATION: Fifth stage of the Body tempering Realm
-Vital energy required to upgrade = [000/600] units
QI STORAGE: Unavailable [Insufficient cultivation](expand)
BLOODLINE: None 𝙛𝘳𝒆𝒆𝒘e𝗯n𝗼𝘷𝚎𝚕.𝒄૦𝓶
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUES: None
QI SKILLS: None
INVENTORY: Empty
BEAST CORE: Not formed
VITAL ENERGY STORAGE: 178 units
SYSTEM ENERGY STORAGE: 20 units
RAW BLOODLINE DATA COLLECTED:
1. Common Grass Mouse
2. Rock Trampler Boar
—————————————————————————————————
'Huh? It's actually lower than the boar. Then why does it feel like I have more energy within me?' Lin Wu wondered.
"System, what's the difference that I feel right now? Why is the energy increase in Vital energy storage so less, yet I feel as if I have more energy?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
—————————————————————————————————
ANSWER: The extra energy the host is feeling is Spirit Qi and not Vital energy. The host cannot utilize it yet, thus it is hidden. If the host wants to check it, he can expand the Qi storage section.
——————————————————————————————---——
Lin Wu looked up and saw that he had actually missed something. There was an extra term added at the Qi storage section, it said expand.
"Expand." He commanded.
~Ding~
—————————————————————————————————
QI STORAGE: Unavailable [Insufficient cultivation]
- Reserved Spirit Qi: 156 units [wisps]
—————————————————————————————————
"Wha-what? I have reserve spirit qi?" Lin Wu spoke out loud with surprise, even though no sound actually came out of his mouth.
"System, didn't you say that I can only use spirit qi after becoming a cultivator? Why is it here then? And also why is the unit different?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
—————————————————————————————————
ANSWER: Normally the host would not have been able to absorb the spirit qi, but because of the presence of the system it can still be stored. Though it cannot be utilized by the host or the system until the host reaches the Qi refining realm.
The specific type of unit used to denote the quantity for spirit qi here is wisp. There are other qualities of spirit qi thus they will have different subunits.
—————————————————————————————————
Lin Wu felt a little strange after reading the answer but then got over it as it was just advantageous to him, anyway.
'Wait, if the man was killed by the Rock Trampler Boar, shouldn't it have cultivation too? Perhaps I absorbed spirit qi from it too.' Lin Wu thought.
"System, how much spirit qi did I obtain from the Rock Trampler Boar and the human corpse?" Lin WU questioned.
~Ding~
—————————————————————————————————
ANSWER: The host obtained 23 units [wisps] of spirit qi from the Rock Trampler Boar and 133 units [wisps] from the human corpse till now.
—————————————————————————————————
"That's a pretty large quantity. Eating the entire corpse should give me plenty of spirit qi, even though I can't use it right now." Lin Wu muttered.
He then returned to his task and started to eat the corpse. He kept on eating when only the bones were left. In a surprise to him, the most delicious part for him was the brain. He also felt the most amount of energy being absorbed when he ate the brain, thus discovered that it was the best part.
Lin Wu got over his revulsion of the human corpse pretty fast considering his previous condition. He did not even question it when he actually started to like it and just kept on eating. He was lost in the euphoria of the energy flowing in his body and only regained his focus when there was nothing but bones left to eat.
"Host Data"
~Ding~
——————————————————————————————————
HOST NAME: Lin Wu
AGE: 1 month, 3 days
LIFESPAN: 2 months
HOST SPECIES: Common Mud Worm (enhanced) [Adult] 𝒇r𝙚𝙚𝓌𝙚𝑏𝗻𝑜𝘷𝗲𝘭.c૦𝑚
HOST CULTIVATION: Fifth stage of the Body tempering Realm
-Vital energy required to upgrade = [000/600] units
QI STORAGE: Unavailable [Insufficient cultivation]
- Reserved Spirit Qi: 953 units [wisps]
BLOODLINE: None
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUES: None
QI SKILLS: None
INVENTORY: Empty
BEAST CORE: Not formed
VITAL ENERGY STORAGE: 591 units
SYSTEM ENERGY STORAGE: 20 units
RAW BLOODLINE DATA COLLECTED:
1. Common Grass Mouse
2. Rock Trampler Boar
3. Human
—————————————————————————————————
"Chickie Nuggies! That's a lot of spirit qi. If it's this easy getting it then cultivation is simple." Lin Wu exclaimed.
If any other cultivator were to see what Lin Wu had just accomplished, they would die with envy. The speed at which he had obtained the spirit qi was simply incomprehensible. It could only be termed as unnatural. The system's influence was much stronger than he had thought.
Lin Wu's attention was then pulled to the Vital energy and the single word that was added under the raw bloodline data. He had expected for a new entry to be added to the list after eating, but now that he saw the word 'Human' under it, he just felt strange. It was as if a strange sense of nostalgia had washed over him.
~Sigh~
Lin Wu sighed and pushed those thoughts aside. Now that he had become a worm, getting rid of his thoughts was becoming more and more necessary for him. He knew that if he didn't do that, he would probably get depressed soon. His mind soon returned to the data and his heart jumped in frustration.
"So close! Damn, I just needed 9 more units and I would have been able to upgrade to the next stage directly." Lin Wu said to himself with a little self-pity.
~Kaboom~
Suddenly Lin Wu heard the sound of a loud explosion.
"What the hell! Chickie nuggies, what was that?" He Exclaimed.
Then at that moment, he got a notification.
~Ding~
—————————————————————————————————
WARNING: Detecting high energy explosions
ISSUING EMERGENCY QUEST: Escape the radius of the explosion
REWARD: Survival
FAILURE: Death
—————————————————————————————————
Lin Wu only had one thought in his mind right now.
"F*ck"
With not even a hint of hesitation, he started crawling as fast as he could. He turned to the direction that was opposite to the location of the explosion and started moving. Due to the fear and urgency of the moment, he was acting clumsily and was tumbling.
"Chickie nuggies! I'm a worm, why am I crawling on the ground when I can just dig deep." Lin Wu scolded himself.
He turned his direction of the ground and started digging. His increase in strength showed its effect now. He disappeared in a second and went inside the ground. It was as if the soil had become water, for Lin Wu kept on moving through it while singing a song to keep himself focus.
"Dig A Tunnel Dig Dig A Tunnel
Dig A Tunnel Dig Dig A Tunnel
Dig A Tunnel Dig Dig A Tunnel
Quick before the explosions comes"