SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100 Chapter 688: Six Months Before Dawn

Chapter 688: Six Months Before Dawn

Mid Qi Refinement came nine days after Leon began sustained cultivation with the revised circulation.

He felt the change developing well before it settled.

The energy he refined remained within the native structure more readily. Successive cycles strengthened what the previous ones had established, and the small corrections he still made no longer consumed most of his concentration.

His Primordial Void Heart supplied the mana. The Scripture carried it through the nine affinity branches and back through the neutral route, while the condensate provided the reserve needed to continue.

Leon ate, rested, checked his results, and returned to the mat.

On the ninth day, the structure held a greater volume without reverting when he reduced the intake.

[Cultivation: Mid Qi Refinement]

He opened his eyes and smiled at the empty flat.

Then he tested it.

Two junctions needed adjustment under the increased flow. He lowered the output, compared their responses, and corrected the imbalance before continuing.

The work occupied an afternoon.

That pleased him almost as much as the breakthrough. He understood why the corrections helped now. He was no longer trying combinations and hoping the next one happened to feel better.

The fourth month ended with three reservoirs empty.

Leon kept the containers beside the array so he could see exactly what he had spent. Research had consumed a substantial amount, and the cultivation sessions were drawing more as his capacity grew.

He considered the four unopened reservoirs at the far end of the row, then turned his attention back to the one currently connected.

There was no point saving fuel by refusing to use it for the purpose he had bought it.

Late Qi Refinement took most of the fifth month.

As the volume rose, the returning currents pressed harder against the margins he had left between them. He spent several days refining the transition through the common route, then checked the result while moving.

The first test passed. The second revealed a tendency to overcorrect after a sudden draw on Lightning.

He fixed that before increasing the intake again.

Eventually, he began recognizing the changes before he needed to consult the figures. He could feel a current arriving too sharply or a junction taking longer to settle. The numbers remained useful, but they confirmed what his body was teaching him.

[Cultivation: Late Qi Refinement]

Leon read the notification with a cup in his hand.

He had been waiting for it. Even so, he set the cup down, checked the circulation, and read it again.

By the end of that month, four reservoirs stood empty.

The sixth month demanded more patience.

He had designed the Scripture’s first stage to carry the whole of Qi Refinement. Reaching its upper limit forced him to verify that the common route could support the volume the branches were now returning.

The neutral section needed to accommodate that growth while remaining neutral.

Several easy adjustments favored one affinity enough to make the others less stable later in the cycle. Leon rejected them, even when the immediate improvement was tempting.

He remembered Ji examining his early work, asking what would happen when he built more upon it.

He wanted to have a better answer than

The fifth reservoir emptied during the work.

He opened the sixth.

The final change arrived quietly while he was circulating at a familiar, steady input. The refined energy settled throughout the native structure, and the next cycle passed without the small loss of stability he had been correcting.

Leon maintained it.

He lowered the intake, then increased it gradually. The circulation held.

[Cultivation: Peak Qi Refinement]

He sat with the message in front of him.

His old strength remained where it had always been. He had not suddenly become powerful because a new cultivation framework had finally reached its first realm’s peak.

But the Scripture had worked.

He had taken an idea, built a route for it, corrected what failed, and cultivated through an entire native realm using something of his own making.

Leon laughed under his breath.

He wished the others were there to hear it, then reminded himself that he could go and tell them as soon as he finished checking.

The remaining days went into consolidation and practical tests. He used the rest of the sixth reservoir, maintaining the new cultivation while moving and employing familiar abilities at controlled output.

The result remained stable.

At the end of six subjective months, six reservoirs were empty and four were still sealed.

Foundation Establishment would require the next stage of the Scripture. He had notes and questions concerning it, but he left those closed.

He had earned breakfast first.

A little over four hours had passed outside.

Leon returned through the passage into his secured room in Moonfall. The sky beyond the shutters was still dark.

For a moment, he stood beside the same chair he had left earlier that night.

His notes had filled another book. He had worn through a brush, revised the circulation repeatedly, and spent weeks thinking about individual junctions.

Outside, the inn had barely finished sleeping.

He washed, changed, and found Ira awake in the adjoining room.

She looked up from the windowsill.

"Well?"

"Peak Qi Refinement."

Ira’s feet came off the sill.

"Already?"

"Six months for me."

She considered that, then stood and gave him a quick, firm hug.

"Sit down. I’m getting the others."

They ate in private before dawn, with the shutters closed and the wards active. Someone in the kitchen had begun preparing congee, and Vyra had persuaded them to send up a pot along with fish, pickled vegetables, and tea.

Leon discovered that he was hungry enough to stop talking halfway through his explanation.

Seraphine pushed the fish closer.

"Eat. You can tell us afterward."

He did, then described the Earth branch, the changed returns, and the embarrassing walk to the cistern.

Ira laughed at that part.

"You should have called me. I’d have made you stand up much earlier."

"You’d have thrown something."

"Probably."

Seraphine was more interested in the testing.

"I’ve noticed a hesitation when I bring the newer circulation into one of my sword sequences," she said. "Only during the transition. It settles when I repeat the form slowly."

"That might be worth comparing at different output," Leon replied. "It may have nothing to do with what I found, but I can show you how I recorded it."

"I’d like that."

Vyra asked how much condensate remained.

"Four reservoirs," he said. "Six used, including the research."

She nodded. "Then you have something left when you begin the next stage."

"And time to decide how to use it," Leon said.

That led them into their own preparations.

Seraphine wanted to study materials that would support lightning and light together through Golden Core condensation. She had no intention of selecting something merely because it strengthened one affinity impressively.

Ira’s concern was endurance under heat.

"I can supply the flame," she said. "What I need is a structure that will hold up when I use it properly."

"So look at what tolerates the intensity," Vyra said, "before buying something that adds more."

Ira pointed her spoon at her. "Yes. That."

Vyra wanted to examine resources suited to sustained external control. A material praised for one explosive release might offer little to someone holding and adjusting flame over a wide area.

Loriel listened while turning her cup.

"I want living material I can cultivate," she said when Leon asked. "Something compatible with my path that survives in conditions I can maintain. A rare herb is useful, but I’d rather establish a reliable source than keep searching for replacements."

"That sounds like more work," Ira said.

"It is."

Loriel smiled as though that was part of the appeal.

Leon listened to them compare possibilities. None had a complete answer yet, and none sounded content to let the next breakthrough happen merely because a manual listed the steps.

He wanted to help them find what suited them.

For now, they had somewhere to return to, libraries to consult, and a garden Loriel was already asking after.

"We’ll leave for the Palace today," Leon said.

Vyra reached for the teapot.

"After breakfast."

He held out his cup.

"After breakfast."