Rise of the Alchemy God

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Once Ethan fully recovered, he followed his previous plan.

That is, to continue becoming stronger.

According to his calculations, it would take him more than a month to reach the peak of this stage, but only if he continued refining pills without pause the whole time,

something he wouldn't be able to do since he also had to give enough time for his cultivation to stabilize his foundations.

Not to mention the usual small things he did daily.

His occasional training with Bai Yu continued, with various improvements in combat techniques and the use of his Dragon Gaze.

He had also found different ways to incorporate his combat abilities with his Blue Lotus Flame, which was still at the same level, but nonetheless effective if used well.

Finding a way to level it up was difficult since obtaining another rare flame was out of the question, and he could only hope that the system would offer him some missions to acquire one.

The more he progressed and tried to fill his current gaps, the more he noticed new areas to pay attention to.

For example, his special physique had several advantages, which he wouldn't be able to exploit unless he improved it.

As he leveled up, so did his physique, but there were other things it could do that Ethan couldn't currently take advantage of.

For instance, the ability to manage more than one type of rare flame.

According to Bai Yu, the god of alchemy, in the past, he wielded as many as 10 different types of rare flames, thanks to this special physique.

This was a significant advantage in terms of both alchemical skills and combat abilities.

More importantly, it seemed that the physique would strengthen even more as he acquired more rare flames.

Knowing all this, Ethan could only sigh in disappointment, as he understood very well that he had no idea how to find others at the moment.

Thus, with regret, he could only set the matter aside for now and focus on what he could improve at present.

At this moment, he was sitting on the wooden platform with a conical roof in his minor dimension, and he was cultivating the Qi he had acquired through pill refinement.

Before breaking through to the next levels of this stage, he had to ensure that the Qi he had obtained was used to strengthen his core, and only then could he refine more.

This process at this stage was crucial because if he failed to do so, he risked overloading his core, which could lead to becoming a vegetable in the best case, or dying in the worst case.

Therefore, even Ethan, who had a special physique and a bloodline of dragons, dared not take unnecessary risks or rush his cultivation.

Sitting in a meditative posture, he inhaled and exhaled silently at a calm and measured rhythm.

While from the outside it might seem that he was simply cultivating in peace, internally a completely different process was taking place.

Ethan's Dantian, which was full to the brim with refined Qi in liquid form, was now undergoing a remolding process.

This process consisted, in simple terms, of pressurizing the Dantian from the inside and gradually expanding it to a certain extent, while eliminating the natural elasticity of its walls, making it harder both internally and externally.

All of this occurred through a fundamental technique that every cultivator at this stage of their journey had to learn,

Namely, the technique of Qi crystallization.

The liquid Qi collected in the Dantian was made to flow out of it through several channels connected to it, and once it reached there, it was compressed through specialized meridians that increased its density by at least two or three times, making it thicker.

Once this was done, it was sent back into the Dantian, and over time, more would be produced until the internal pressure generated would force the Dantian to expand.

Given the initial elastic nature of the Dantian, it would increase in size gradually, like a balloon being inflated.

This phase of the remolding process was crucial and very delicate, as if the cultivator was distracted or failed to regulate the intensity at which it was expanded, they risked damaging it.

The Dantian couldn't be inflated at will, but it had to be done only to a certain extent, allowing the condensed Qi inside to be worked with and crystallized.

All this process had to occur in stages, and each one was very delicate, requiring several sessions for each level.

It wouldn't be wrong to say that from this stage onward, most cultivators secluded themselves and cultivated behind closed doors.

Until one successfully surpassed each level, the risk that something could go wrong during cultivation was high.

After all, it only took a small distraction to ruin entire days of work.

It was like a chain reaction.

If you made even a single mistake, you had to repeat everything from the level you had reached.

Usually, it took an immense amount of time even for each section of cultivation, and cultivators often informed their sect in advance about their absence. But for Ethan, who had his smaller dimension with accelerated time, this process for each level could be completed in just a few hours in the outside world.

[Congratulations, you have reached level 3 of the Dantian Expansion stage.]

After spending almost two days going through all the steps and constructing his first network of crystallized Qi that would strengthen the inner walls of his Dantian, Ethan finally opened his eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

"Haa, it seems I can't just skip every step with the help of the system," he thought with regret.

For normal cultivators, there were two tasks to complete.

One was the collection and refinement of Qi into liquid Qi, followed by the subsequent phase of crystallization.

For Ethan, however, the first part was mostly handled by the system, which provided him with infinite amounts of Qi as long as he produced pills, and he only had to perform the second part, which was crystallizing the Qi and strengthening the walls of his Dantian.

The process itself was complicated due to its delicacy, and mentally exhausting as one had to pay maximum attention, but overall it was still rewarding.

Ethan knew that with each level, the time required would only increase, and he understood that there was nothing he could do about it.

He could only be grateful that the total time was greatly reduced compared to normal cultivators.

That said, once he finished cultivating, he exited his smaller dimension and took a quick shower to remove the sweat that had accumulated.

Once he refreshed himself, he left his residence.

Without hesitation, he jumped down from the high mountain hill where he resided.

The mountains in this area were generally about 1,200 meters tall, with some being taller and others slightly shorter.

From this height, if a person jumped freely, it would take about 15 seconds to reach the ground.

Just enough time to savor the sensation of falling and decide whether to go to the afterlife or postpone it for another time.

Ethan showed no emotion as he continued to fall downwards at high speed,

and just as he was a little over one hundred meters from the ground, he enveloped his body in a thin white aura and decelerated until he reached the ground, landing lightly like a feather.

Ethan had used his Qi manifestation to slow down the speed of his fall.

Being only at the beginning of this stage, he still had a long way to go before he could manifest a solid surface on which to support his body and glide suspended in the air.

So for now, this was the maximum he could do.

Which was sufficient.

He used little tricks like this throughout his day to constantly train his control over manifested Qi, and given the results, he could say that this method was working wonders.

Without wasting any time, he dashed forward towards the City of the Sun.

He usually tended to stay in his residence, but today he couldn't do that.

This was the first day of the selection for participation in the Imperial Alchemy Tournament.

Given the number of people who tried to participate each year, the selection typically took a minimum of two to three days to complete.

And this was just the beginning.

The tournament would start three months from now, but preparations were made in advance to prevent any eventualities.

Like a gust of wind, Ethan traveled the entire route from the sect to the Sun City at a moderate speed, without ever slowing down.

In less than 30 minutes he had already arrived near the capital of the kingdom and had already put on his suit for the occasion.

He hadn't changed earlier for safety reasons, as if someone had seen him already dressed when leaving the sect, he would risk being recognized later.

Therefore, during his journey to this point, he took a moment to change clothes and to put on the mask that Da Shu had provided him.

With the mask matching the black color of his clothes, Ethan finally entered the city and headed towards the location where the selection would take place.