Nuna watched, her breath catching in her throat as Kyle skillfully dispatched the wraith.
The precision of his movements was breathtaking, like a dance of steel and Qi honed by years of relentless training.
She recognized the subtle shifts in his posture, the controlled release of energy, and each action was well thought out and coordinated.
He had mastered her skill of no wasted movements.
As the wraith dissolved into dust, she couldn't help but feel a surge of pride mixed with a touch of concern.
Kyle had expended a considerable amount of Qi, his face pale, and a sheen of sweat plastered his sweat.
It was not an easy fight, far from it.
"You were incredible, I did not expect you to win, much less so quickly, once again, I underestimated your strength," she said softly, stepping closer to him. "But you pushed yourself hard."
Kyle ran a hand through his sweat-dampened black hair, a wry smile playing on his lips.
"A bit much, perhaps. Let's say I wasn't holding back. My opponent was unlike anything I've encountered before. I had to lock in."
He paused, examining the remnants of the wraith's robes. "These are intriguing. Looks like they are imbued with some Corrupted Qi. Are these useful?"
"You are right," she remarked, crouching beside him to gently touch one of the deep black silk garments. "These cannot necessarily be used for cultivation, but they have their uses."
She glanced up at Kyle, her eyes shimmering. "We should head back. I don't think you can still go on after that; you need to rest."
With a small smile, she draped her arm around Kyle's shoulders, pressing close to his side.
"I believe I heard something about 'not being done' after the quickie earlier? Perhaps we could resume our journey tomorrow once we've rested and 'replenished' our strength?"
Kyle nodded eagerly, tucking a stray lock of hair behind his ear. "Agreed. Though I must admit, I'm not sure how much longer I can wait to see what other wonders this realm has to offer."
His voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "But, I'm more eager to explore your insides tonight..."
Nuna smiled, blushing at how crude he sounded, and then she took out the talisman. As she had said, Kyle looked tired; he was spent.
They were calling it a day. It was probably already dark out on the outside, and they had not made plans to stay in the hidden realm for long.
Nuna was just about to grab onto Kyle's hand when she felt something.
The corrupted Qi in the air, it was being drawn toward Kyle, slowly, steadily, her eyes widened in horror.
Kyle felt an intense pressure building inside him, the corrupted qi threatening to overwhelm his senses and consume him entirely.
Panic seized him as he realized what was happening; the toxic energy was seeping into his body, aiming to corrupt him from the inside out.
Nuna noticed his distress and rushed to his side, her eyes widening in shock.
"Kyle! What are you doing?!" she cried out, reaching for him. "The qi here is corrupted and unstable! You can't absorb it like this!"
But even as she warned him, Kyle found himself unable to stop the flow; the corrupted energy began seeping through every meridian, every dantian, drawing him deeper into its insidious grasp with each passing second, even faster.
"I... I don't understand," he gasped, doubling over as a wave of nausea hit him. "It feels so good..."
He tried to focus, to will away the intrusion, but nothing worked. It was like the Qi was attracted to him.
The more he resisted, the more the corrupted qi seemed to pull at him, threatening to drag him under into darkness and despair.
"Kyle! Stop!" Nuna shouted, desperation in her voice as she reached for him, shaking his body in desperation, begging him to stop.
But then something extraordinary happened.
As the first wave of tainted energy reached Kyle's core, it began to shimmer and glow, almost as if it had a mind of its own.
The corrupted qi swirled around his body in a chaotic dance before being absorbed into his dantians, purified, and transformed into a pure, steady stream of Qi that flowed back into Kyle's channels.
Kyle, who felt the change first, did not know how to react. "Wait, my Core and Dantians are purifying the corrupted Qi?" He spoke out in surprise.
"What...!"
Nuna's cry died in her throat as she witnessed the impossible.
With the rate at which he was absorbing the corrupted Qi, what should have happened was his body visibly withering away, but the opposite happened.
The corrupted Qi, instead of consuming Kyle, was actively being absorbed by him, empowering him.
It writhed and twisted in a grotesque dance around his body before being drawn inexorably towards his dantians, only to vanish within, transforming into a brilliant, pulsating stream of pure Qi.
Kyle's aura shifted, radiating an unexpected, overwhelming wave of strength and clarity. His skin shone in an ethereal sheen of Qi.
"What…!" she stammered, utterly bewildered. "How is this possible?"
Nuna stared in disbelief, her hand still outstretched towards Kyle. "What... what just happened?" she stammered, her eyes wide with shock.
Kyle blinked, suddenly feeling clearer-headed than ever before.
The dizziness and nausea faded away, replaced by an intense sense of vitality and power coursing through his veins.
He took a deep breath, marveling at the immediate changes happening within his body.
"I think..." he said slowly, "I think my core is purifying the corrupted qi on its own. It's incredible! The more I absorb, the stronger I feel."
He turned to Nuna, excitement bubbling up inside him. "I'm about to break through..."
Nuna stood frozen, still processing the incredible scene she had just witnessed. "Okay, I'll watch over you," she breathed. "
Kyle wasted no time; he sat down on the ground and began cultivating hard and fast, pouring all of his focus and energy into strengthening his Dantians and integrating the purified Qi into his body.
Baddum...Baddum...Baddum...
His core pulsed rhythmically, like a second heart in his solar plexus.
Cold.
Still.
But now... something else.
His brow twitched.
There, on the edge of his perception, he felt it.
Corrupted Qi energy.
All around him, like a soft mist laced into the very air.
It clung to the terrain, seeped into the earth, and hummed beneath his feet. He hadn't noticed it before, not truly.
But now, it was clear.
Qi was everywhere. Qi was everything. Qi was life. It was in the very fabric of reality.
Taking a slow breath, Kyle focused on the sphere, the silent core inside him. His very own unique core.
"Draw it in," he thought."Push it away."
'This is it, my chance to break through!'
With each passing moment, he felt himself growing stronger, more powerful, as he tapped into more and more of the rich corrupted Qi.
"Haaaaa!"
He was getting drunk in its density. It threatened to overwhelm; he was like a cup overflowing with water, but he knew this was what a breakthrough felt like.
Like breaking a dam. His breakthrough to the foundation establishment realm began.
Nuna watched Kyle's transformation unfold; she could only marvel at the incredible speed and intensity of his progress.
It was as if the cursed energy was tailor-made to resonate with his very being, granting him abilities that defied comprehension.
And then—
Baddum...
A pulse echoed from deep within him.
He didn't see it, but he felt it, like a tremor through his bones. A wave pushing outward. Subtle, suppressive.
Stillness returned.
Kyle clenched his jaw, pressing further. His mind locked onto the connection, that string he had touched. The core responded, thudding again beneath his skin.
Baddum!
Another pulse.
This time, the world around him responded in kind.
The corrupted Qi around him, ethereal, hazy, it quivered.
And then, it dispersed.
A ripple moved outward in a slow, widening radius. Like a pond rejecting oil, the Qi peeled back, unraveling in silent streams.
The ripple produced shimmering curtains, waves, or arcs of color across the landscape on his feet and the air around his body.
Like an aurora borealis, the shimmering waves spread outwards.
Kyle remained still, eyes closed, unaware of the spectacle unfolding around him.
His breathing deepened.
"More."
He pushed again, threading his will into the core, demanding it. Drawing from it.
BADDUM!!!
This pulse was stronger. Deeper. As though the earth beneath him responded in kind. The air grew heavier. The atmosphere warped, not violently, but deliberately.
The very fabric of reality continued to disband around him, a widening circle of clarity in a sea of haze.
His body worked on overdrive, relentlessly absorbing corrupted Qi, purifying it, and compressing it into his core, chasing that breakthrough to the next realm.
In no time at all, his capacity filled, and his body began overflowing with pure Qi. The longer he held on, the clearer the space around him became, free of that ever-present corrupted Qi.
His body was like a filter. And his capacity was filled. So the pure Qi flowed unhindered from his body now into the air.
Kyle didn't stop.
He couldn't.
There was more. He knew it.
He kept pushing, forcefully willing the core to expand further. Reach deeper. And it did, rippling through him, through the air, through the world.
RRRRRIP!
A loud, clear, aggressive tear echoed in the fabric of reality.
The world noticed, and then it responded.
The skies in their immediate vicinity darkened, from a red color, to a dark eerie black, like the precipice before a strom.