The Legendary Janitor

66  Void Qi

Could it be… He wasn't at the Qi Condensing realm yet?

"Hmm, that could be the case, I don't seem to feel any Qi inside me…"

Di Tou stood still in thought for a few moments, trying to 'feel inside' of himself like he had read in many novels to see if maybe he just didn't notice the Qi?

"Oh!? I think I feel something!"

*Gurgle*

"… F*ck."

In the end, Di Tou only found that his stomach was a little bit upset from the meal he had eaten earlier.

"What am I missing?"

Thinking for a moment, Di Tou opened up the [Reflection] scroll and found it the same as he had left it earlier, all tens across the board, the only difference being that there were no longer notifications for new attribute increases, there was nothing to pay attention to there, and in the [Guidance] scroll everything was the same except the quest to reach the peak of Body Refining had been changed to reaching the peak of Qi Condensing which was at 0%…

"F*ck, am I just unable to sense this stupid f*cking Qi?"

"This laozhi doesn't believe it!"

After another five minutes of trying to sense Qi…

He still couldn't sense anything, this wasn't because he wasn't talented or because he was an idiot.

Rather the reason is rather understandable, there simply was no Qi in Di Tou's body at the moment.

He still had to activate it…

Of course, it isn't really fair to blame Di Tou for not knowing that, as the scroll was rather cryptic in how it worked for the most part, to Di Tou's great chagrin. After all, if he was just given clear cut numbers for everything he did his life would be much easier.

As for Di Tou not knowing that nothing had changed…

This can also be explained… Qi is indeed not entirely easy to sense. After all, it's been in the world around him this entire time, and Di Tou had never been able to sense it or access it.

The majority of cultivators aren't able to sense Qi on their own, with the exception of heavenly talents. This lead to the creation of various cultivation techniques and meditation methods that introduced the concept of "Qi" and helped the cultivator take in their first strand of Qi.

Alternatively, in the case of master and disciple relationships, the master would often impart the first strand of Qi to their disciples if they started their tutelage at a young age.

All in all, you can consider Qi like a new limb or organ. If one day you suddenly grew a new organ between your lungs, but it didn't cause any noticeable discomfort, would you really be aware?

It's entirely foreign ground for Di Tou, so as far as he knew, it could already be there, and he was just not realizing it.

Frustrated Di Tou yelled out, "AHHHHHHHH! What is this Qi? Is this because of the Void? Is the whole joke that it's Void Qi and I can't sen-"

The moment Di Tou said "Void Qi" a burst of information appeared in his mind and he stopped in his tracks.

Miraculously, a small swirl of energy appeared in his body. Starting in his stomach region. Although the feeling was faint, Di Tou could sense the energy swimming around his body, making rounds all around his body following his meridians.

In a trance, Di Tou stood there, simply feeling the energy swim here and there throughout his body. It was an entirely new sensation to him.

In his mind he felt like he should feel repulsed by it, after all an unknown "thing" was swimming through his body. He couldn't help but associate it with a parasite or an problem.

After all, the human body rejects foreign presences, it's a natural defense mechanism.

Imagine how you feel when a piece of seaweed is on your skin, then imagine an ant crawling all over you.

Then take it a step further and imagine it under your skin.

Disgusting right? Even if it isn't happening to you, just the thought can send crawls up your arm.

This was what was going through Di Tou's mind right now.

But, despite the the fact that Di Tou could imagine these things, and felt uncomfortable with the idea, he didn't feel disgusted. Instead, he couldn't help but physically feel aligned with the Qi swimming through his body. It almost felt like it was something that he had been missing all along. It was natural.

Wherever the Qi passed a light tingly feeling would remain for a little while before fading, but it didn't feel 'wrong', instead if felt comfortable, like he was in a sauna, or he had the AC blowing on his skin on a hot summer day.

After about thirty minutes, the Qi finished making a full round around his body and returned to where it started in his stomach region before starting again.

After just standing and feeling the Qi and following its path for another five minutes or so and confirming it was repeating the same pattern, Di Tou finally broke out of his trance.

"How..." Di Tou tried to find a word to describe what he felt, but couldn't find anything that quite described what he was feeling right now. It was a mix of excitement, hope, and yearning.

Was this what life was supposed to feel like? Was this how a human was supposed to wake up in the morning? Wishing for more? Why did it feel so foreign, so impossible? Like a silent summer dream blown away in the breeze, it was an ethereal feeling that he wanted to hold onto, if only for a moment more.

More excited about cultivation than ever before, Di Tou focused in on the information that had appeared in his mind.

The information came in fragmented bits and pieces and wasn't in the form of text or a voice or even images, but rather a set of feelings.

Following one of the feelings, Di Tou lifted his hand and gently pushed out with his palm, at which the Qi, which had been circling and at the moment was near his navel seemed to split into two, the greater portion continuing through his body at it's same leisurely pace, while the smaller segment rushed towards his palm and exited, emerging as a soft grey light that floated harmlessly from Di Tou's palm and eventually ran into the table in front of him, at which point it disappeared and the chunk of the table it ran into…