Cathulhu Online, MUNYA!

Chapter 183 – Cat Dad's Painful Cultivation Session

<strong>Qi Circulation</strong>

This skill is the bread and butter of cultivators. It gives an alternate option to use spirit stones or a similar energy source. Moreover, Qi Circulation can yield more benefits than the default cultivation feature.

By inhaling Qi in the air or absorbing Qi from a Qi source through a body part, a cultivator can expand their Qi capacity or replenish their lost Qi. In addition, storing Qi in muscle fibers, blood cells, and blood vessels can permanently increase a cultivator's status attributes.

<strong>Skill Type:</strong> Active, Cultivation Method

<strong>Rarity:</strong> Common

<strong>Cost:</strong> 1 Mana per Second

<strong>Effects (1):</strong> After you complete one hundred small laps of Qi circulation, you can choose one of the following effects;

- Permanently increase max Life Qi by 1.

- Restore Life Qi by 10.

<strong>Effects (2):</strong> After you complete one hundred full laps of Qi circulation, you can choose one of the following effects;

- Permanently increase STR by 1.

- Permanently increase DEX by 1.

- Permanently increase AGI by 1.

- Permanently increase VIT by 1.

- Permanently increase max Life Qi by 10.

- Restore Life Qi by 100.

.

Xiaomao slowly opened his eyes and looked at his empty tentacles. He revealed a bitter smile as it took him a long time to complete one hundred full laps of Qi circulation and learn the skill.

Manual cultivation was arduous, mundane, and time-consuming. Just now, Xiaomao manually commanded strands of invisible energy through his brain, heart, kidney, stomach, and dantian, which were located inside Xiaomao's big catopus head. Then, he moved the Qi strand to the tip of a tentacle and moved back to the five organs to complete one small lap.

Because of Xiaomao's weird anatomy, he had to complete eight small laps to let the strand of Qi move through all his tentacle arms to complete one full lap. Then, that strand of Qi was directed to the dantian, which was a small soft orb next to his heart.

Dantian was a magical organ in cultivation worlds. It had no physical form as it was created by compressing Qi into an invisible orb. There was even a rumor that when a cultivator cultivated enough, they created a small universe inside their dantian.

The dantian orb inside Xiaomao's body became active. It beat and throbbed as if it was the second heart, pushing Qi strands inside the dantian orb to follow the same circulation pathway, running to complete another full lap automatically.

100 Qi strands circled around Xiaomao's body for another full lap before they rested at the dantian, becoming one with the orb. In addition, dead cells, bacteria, and toxic fluids were excreted from the dantian. Fortunately, his body quickly ejected them out through his pores, dirtying his fur.

"Hmm?"

Xiaomao had expected the Qi strands to keep circulating through his body, but they suddenly stopped. He tilted his head in confusion.

"My Qi stops moving, munya. Also, I think I smell like poop."

Undine glanced at Xiaomao, "Good. I see that you finally complete the basics. Don't worry about the impurity waste on you since it's a normal occurrence for new cultivators. Now, bring out another spirit stone and complete at least 5,000 full laps."

"F-Five thousand full laps, munya?! WHY?!"

"What you did just now was a tutorial. Now, this is a real lesson. Until you complete at least 5,000 full laps, you can't go anywhere. If you can't complete 5,000 laps by consuming only one spirit stone, I'll make you redo everything from scratch!"

"..."

Xiaomao looked at his remaining spirit stones and gulped. Each stone contained about 10,000 strands of Life Qi, and one full lap only required one strand. In the perfect world, Xiaomao could potentially gain 100 permanent attribute stats with one spirit stone, which was more than what Xiaomao obtained by consuming the spirit stone directly!

However, manually cultivating took time, skill, and patience. One small mistake could disperse the Qi strand in his body and waste the chance. Earlier, Xiaomao wasted so many Qi strands during practices – Only 100 Qi strands made it through the full laps while the other 9900 strands were wasted.

It felt the same as completing 100 wire loop games out of 10,000 attempts! The cultivation difficulty was beyond Xiaomao's imagination.

Xiaomao looked behind him. The boys were still struggling, and they had already wasted their first spirit stone. Although Xiaomao couldn't tell how far they progressed, from their sweaty and pale faces, he guessed that they hadn't completed 50 full laps yet.

Xiaomao brought out another spirit stone. He also opened the cultivation menu and checked the automatic cultivation button, which was available to Xiaomao for a long time, but he never used it.

This feature offered a convenient way to cultivate. If Xiaomao pressed it, he would have fallen asleep, and his game character would have collected and circulated Qi strands in the air automatically until Xiaomao woke up.

However, the auto-mode required six hours of cultivation to fully use a spirit stone instead of an hour in the manual mode. Also, the gain would be randomized between 10 and 50 stat points while the manual mode depended heavily on the player's skills.

Xiaomao let out a long sigh. He thought about the future when his character's level surpassed 1,000. At that stage, cultivation resources would contain more Qi strands than this, and it would take ages to consume them.

When Xiaomao started calculating how long it would take him to consume an Essence Core by cultivating manually, Undine coughed and brought him back to his senses.

"Don't overthink. Usually, we directly consume cultivation resources to save time, but we cultivate Qi and Essence from the environment. Also, this is a basic cultivation method to get you to familiarize yourself with the cultivation world. There are millions of better cultivation methods out there, so you won't be using this technique for long."

"But why are you making us cultivate with this method, munya?"

"Without the basics and practices, how will you cultivate when you find the right cultivation sweet spots? What if you accidentally find a natural cave with thick Qi that you can seclude-cultivate inside? How will you make use of the fortuitous encounter at hand? Also, before you use an advanced cultivation technique, you need to master the hardest and simplest cultivation method first before you try the so-called EASY BUT COMPLICATED methods later on."

Xiaomao nodded and acknowledged the necessity of practicing. He changed the subject, "So, which method are you using, munya?"

"It's a derived version of our lady's personal cultivation method. You won't be able to use it since it's not suitable for the non-mermaid race."

"I see, munya."

Xiaomao thought of Mu-Nyang and Mir. He wondered if they had a cultivation method for a cathulhu or a catopus.

.

Three hours later

The retainers all got their cultivator class after they had completed the 100 full laps. They returned the spirit stones and waited for their master to finish cultivating. As their talent was not comparable to Xiaomao, they didn't dare to use another spirit stone to cultivate.

Meanwhile, Xiaomao took it slow and used only one spirit stone to practice. He threaded the Qi strands carefully as if they were fragile eggs in a basket, moving them through his blood vessels and muscle fibers to all parts of his body.

After cultivating for a while, the process started to become painful. His muscle contracted and spasmed randomly. Whenever a strand of Qi moved through his heart and brain, Xiaomao felt like a thousand needles went through his body parts.

Xiaomao's face was pale, and his fur was covered in dark stains. His head tilted left and right as if he became unstable.

"…"

John couldn't hold it anymore. He brought out his cane. However, Undine flickered her fingers and knocked the cane away.

"First rule of guardians and retainers – Never interfere, interrupt, help, touch, or distract your master when he is cultivating. This rule isn't that important for immortals like me, but your master is a beginner at this. Instead of healing him, you could have distracted him and caused the Qi inside your master's body to explode. DO.NOT.DO.THAT.AGAIN!"

John's face was ashen. He lowered his head to apologize.

Fortunately, Xiaomao finished circulating the last strand of Qi and finished the 7,500th full lap. Out of 10,000 attempts, he still failed 25% of the time.

DING

<You have completed your first manual Qi Circulation Session for the first time.>

<You have completed 7,500 full laps and 60,000 small laps.>

<Please choose your rewards from the list. (75 times)>

<One STR.>

<One DEX.>

<One AGI.>

<One VIT.>

<Ten Max Life Qi.>

<Restore 100 Life Qi.>

<Please choose your rewards from the list. (600 times)>

<One Max Life Qi.>

<Restore 10 Life Qi.>

Xiaomao deeply exhaled. He looked at his subordinates.

"Can someone carry me to the lake down there, munya? I need to take a bath ASAP. I can't stand my odor right now."

"…"

John, who wore a white priest robe, ignored the dirt and grime on Xiaomao's body. He carried him in his arm and rushed to the lake on the lower floor.

Andrew, James, and Peter stood up, wanting to follow John and Xiaomao. However, Undine snapped her fingers and tied them to the cushions.

"None of you have gone through a REAL cultivation session yet. Pick up a spirit stone and try again. This time, do it slower than your master and complete at least 5,000 full laps!"

Andrew, James, and Peter's expressions turned dark. They looked at John, protesting Undine with their eyes.

Undine revealed a rare smirk, "He will get his session done later. You worry about yourself, first."

The boys raised their eyebrows and looked at each other. Then, they grinned and resumed cultivating.

.

In the lake, John carefully bathed his master and groomed him. Xiaomao purred and panted, having a complicated emotion.

The bath was nice, but he was so exhausted. He wanted to move, but his entire body was cramped.

"Isn't cultivation supposed to be refreshing and addictive, munya? Why was it so torturous?" Complained Xiaomao.

John bitterly smiled. He understood what Xiaomao meant as he had the same idea. Unfortunately, he couldn't talk.

While John was cleaning Xiaomao's fur with a clean towel, Xiaomao allocated his rewards.

DING

<You have restored 13,500 Life Qi.>

Instead of choosing permanent stats, Xiaomao restored his Life Qi. After all, it had been stuck at zero for a long time.

After restoring his Life Qi, it became 13,500 / 29,059. It was half full.

He glanced at his status menu and grumbled, realizing that he required another session to restore his Life Qi to the fullest. Then, he opened the miscellaneous menu and checked the calendar.

"Time sure flies."

Xiaomao didn't notice how fast time flew by. There were a few days left before the first cross-world tournament began.

While Xiaomao was in deep thought, John finished cleaning Xiaomao and brought him back to the boss's room.

By the time John and Xiaomao returned, Undine already changed their cushions as they were too dirty. John put Xiaomao down and got back to his seat, looking at his colleagues in confusion.

Undine flickered a spirit stone to John and gestured him to cultivation for another session. The latter's face paled, but he did it anyway.

Xiaomao took a sip of a regular potion. He stared at Undine, remembering the unfinished tasks at hand.

"Senior, can I ask you for a favor, munya?"

"What is it?"

"Can you help me register a guild?"