"Who do you think that was?" Adam asked in a still dazed tone. He was still recovering from being stunned by the mysterious girl's beauty and aura.
"No idea, but I don't think she belongs to any of the Four Great Sects. She doesn't match the description of any of the Four Great Sect's powerful cultivators, and I have a feeling that she might be even stronger than any of them," John replied.
The girl had easily stopped his attacks in midair, as if she was freezing them in time. Only his Divine Reaping Scythe was able to pierce her defenses, but even then, she was able to slow it down and easily dodge it. John was sure that none of the Four Great Sect disciples were capable of doing such a thing, at least not to the level that girl had shown.
However, she had shown no Ill will towards John, and so he decided to ignore her.
"Let's stop here," John suddenly said as he turned to enter a nearby building.
The building was dilapidated and half ruined, but would serve as a sufficient shelter in the meantime. John and Adam entered the building, and just like all the others, it was mostly empty except for ruined furniture.
John made sure the area was clear before he sat down on the ground.
"Make yourself busy for now. I'm going to be cultivating in the meantime," John said to Adam as he sat down. The pill the girl had given him appeared in his hands, glowing with a golden luster.
The potency of the pill still shocked John, as he was sure even his sect did not have such a high quality pill for Qi Condensation Cultivators to use. He sent his divine sense into the pill once more, thoroughly inspecting it and making sure that there was nothing wrong with it.
John confirmed that the pill was safe to consume, and calmed his mind as he entered a meditative state. His essence dantian was brimming with energy, ready to break through to the next realm. His liquid Qi had congealed into such a dense state that it was almost solid, but it was still a bit shy of the energy required to break through. The pill was exactly what he needed at the moment.
His multitude of recent battles had increased his comprehensions regarding his essence Qi to a level that a bottleneck would not be an issue.
John popped the pill in his mouth and swallowed it. The moment the pill hit his stomach, an incredibly potent and vibrant energy spread all throughout his body. John focused his mind on the task ahead, and began to guide the rampaging energy back towards his dantian.
While the energy spreading throughout his body would help it level up a bit, that was mostly a waste, as it was best served entering the dantian and pushing it through to the Core Formation Realm.
Vibrant pill Qi continued to spread into his body from the dissolving pill, at which point John utilized his own Qi to guide the pill's energy towards his dantian. Slowly but surely, the pill Qi entered his own dantian, rapidly growing it in size.
His dantian started out the size of a large marble, but quickly kept expanding, nearly reaching the size of an apple.
Boom!
John sent a wave of his own Qi to surround and crush against his dantian, compressing it into a smaller size. His dantian was compressed to the size of a large marble again, and John could feel the density of his dantian thicken. John could also feel an incredibly profound medicinal property within the pills Qi remove any impurities from his dantian, strengthening his foundation to an incredible degree.
'Again!'
The pills vibrant Qi was once again guided from his body into his dantian, growing it to a larger size once more.
Boom!
John used the full power of his own Qi to compress his dantian back down to its original size. This time, the compression took more energy and was harder to complete, but John was once again able to successfully compress it.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Muffled booms continued to ring out within John's body, stunning Adam senseless.
"He's already on his eighth dantian compression. Just how much of a monster is he?" Adam mumbled out loud as he watched John in an awestruck manner.
When ascending to the Core Formation Realm, the cultivator would have to use their Qi to compress their dantian, eventually compressing the dantian from a thick liquid state into a solid core.
The more compressions that took place, the more solid the core would be, and the firmer its foundation would be. With a more solid and firm dantian core, a cultivator could unleash more powerful Qi with a higher quality than those with less compressions.
Establishing a firm and potent dantian core was an incredibly important step in cultivation, and was considered the first real test of cultivation talent. Only those who compressed their dantian's enough times would be able to stand at the peak of the cultivation world.
Compression count was based on one factor, the talent of the cultivator. The amount of Qi a cultivator had, as well as its quality and power for compressing the dantian were both based on the talent of the cultivator.
While having an incredible pill like the Core Foundation Pill helped slightly, it was ultimately up to the cultivator themselves to utilize the pill to its full effect.
If an average cultivator consumed the pill, they would still run out of Qi quite quickly, only achieving a few compressions despite the amazing qualities of the pill.
It was typically regarded that an average cultivator could achieve one to two compressions before they reached their limit, either running out of Qi, or not having powerful enough Qi to continue the compressions. Above average cultivators reached three to four compressions, while incredibly gifted cultivators reached five to six compressions.
From what Adam knew, absolute geniuses that stood at the peak of the cultivation world reached seven or eight compressions, while heavenly prodigies reached nine or ten compressions. Adam had never heard of anyone getting nine or ten compressions, as it was generally believed to be the limit. However, there were some legends of amazing cultivators in the distant past achieving such goals, and each one became a hegemon of the cultivation world.
John's foundation was incredibly solid, due to the valuable pills he had eaten so far, the Primordial Extermination Lightning Cultivation technique raising his dantian to a new level of profundity, as well as the Undying Vitality Fruit he had consumed.
Not only that, but John's natural cultivation talent was also immense, as was revealed during the Mist Creation Tournament. Despite not having eaten any valuable pills or the Undying Vitality Fruit yet, John showed an essence power above some of the higher cultivation youths, a feat which was completely shocking.
Boom!
A ninth compression sounded out from John's body, once again shocking Adam senseless.
"Nine, just what…" Adam couldn't even finish his sentence, as he was stunned completely silent.
Silence filled the room for quite some time as Adam studied John closely. John was gritting his teeth from the exertion of all those compressions, and sweat had drenched his robes completely.
John's face was quite pale, showing that he was reaching the end of his limits. After recovering his breath, John grit his teeth incredibly hard and surged forward for the last hurdle. His last remaining essence Qi exploded outwards, pressing against the expanding dantian core.
The struggle continued for quite some time, as John gave it his all to compress the dantian one last time. Adam held his breath during the process, as he noticed John was at the last stage of his internal fight.
Each compression took more energy than the last, making each step forward incredibly difficult.
'One….more…..time!'
John pushed out every last bit of essence Qi towards his dantian in one final bid to compress it. His Qi slammed against his core, pressing against it with all his might.
Suddenly...
Boom!
A muffled echo sounded out within John's body one last time, as John completely ran out of essence Qi. His breathing was heavy, and his face completely drenched in sweat.
Adam's expression was completely stunned, as he struggled to comprehend what he had just witnessed. He knew John was talented, but ten dantian compressions was almost unheard of. In fact, Adam had never heard of anyone accomplishing it, and it was mostly relegated to the realm of myths.
"T-Ten compressions. What..." Adam mumbled out loud, unable to control himself. He took quite some time to gather his wits, at which point a large smile broke out on his face. He stood up quickly and began to stride over to John.
"Congrat-" He called out, but quickly became silent as he noticed something was off.
John was completely out of essence Qi, but was still seated in a meditative position with his eyes closed.
"What...what is he doi-"
Boom!
Another muffled sound rang out within John's body. Adam instantly fell to his knees in stunned disbelief.
"What--what is going on? How is this possible?" Adam couldn't comprehend what was going on, as he had never heard of such a thing.
"Eleven compres-"
Boom!
Another muffled sound rang out, interrupting Adam once more. He closed his mouth as he stared at John in a daze, unsure of what to think anymore.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Four more booms rang out over the next few minutes, stunning Adam completely. He stopped trying to comprehend the monster he was seeing before him.
After running out of essence Qi, John had decided to test if his body Qi would work. To his elation, his body Qi was able to successfully compress his essence dantian, pushing him over the natural limit of ten compressions.
His body Qi was constantly replenished by the beast blood essence in his palace realm as he utilized it to compress his dantian nonstop. He had achieved five additional compressions in this manner, but had finally run into a barrier.
John grit his teeth as he utilized his full body Qi power to compress his dantian, but was unable to do so anymore. Despite having enough body Qi for the process, his essence dantian had reached such a compressed state that his body Qi was no longer powerful enough to compress it.
No matter how much body Qi he used, John was unable to compress his essence dantian any further. He continued to try for some time, but eventually came to the conclusion that this was his limit.
However, fifteen dantian compressions was an unheard of level, and John was more than happy to have accomplished it.
'I guess this is where it ends-'
John's thoughts were interrupted as a mysterious energy suddenly welled up inside him, shocking him greatly. His brief confusion suddenly turned to comprehension as John recognized the energy.
'It's the mysterious energy I felt when I was younger!'
The mysterious energy welling up inside John was the energy he felt during his life and death battle with the Dark Spotted Panther, as well as the Night Wolf.
Both times he had been on the absolute verge of death, and both times he had felt this mysterious energy well up inside him. He had not felt it since fighting the Night Wolf however, and had almost completely forgotten about it. He had no idea how to draw it out by his command, and so thinking about it was mostly useless.
He could tell that it was completely unrelated to either his Celestial Lightning Script or Immortal Asura Body, but could not pinpoint what the source of the power was. It was surging out with immense power once more, filling John's body with an incredibly potent and vibrant energy.
John didn't hesitate at all, and guided the mysterious energy to work alongside his body Qi to once more compress his dantian.
Boom!
More pill Qi was instantly drawn into his dantian, at which point he used his newfound well of Qi to compress down on it once more.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Four more booms echoed out from within John's body over the next ten minutes, before the mysterious energy faded away and silence once again filled the room. John collapsed on the floor, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.
His essence Qi was completely exhausted, and his body Qi reserves were halved. John spent the next few minutes recovering his breath before he finally recovered enough strength to sit up. A large smile appeared on his face as he inspected his newly formed dantian.
The dantian was a dark golden color, with a hint of red due to using his body Qi, and was completely solid. There were twenty thin blue lines circling around the dantian, indicating that it had been compressed twenty times.
It brimmed with vibrant energy, filling John's body with incredible power. He was about to continue inspecting it, when a voice from within the room broke his concentration.
"What….the…..fuck!"