Deep within the Great Wildlands Forest, underneath a waterfall that stretched on for thousands of meters, Azmond was seen meditating while all the Qi within many miles swarmed toward him in great amounts.
'Let's try condensing my cultivation base now,' Azmond thought to himself as he attempted to condense his entire cultivation base down to the beginning of the 1st Stage of the Quantum Qi Condensation Realm.
....
After the third attempt, he finally managed to begin condensing his cultivation base.
And after two days of cultivating in Azmond's pain-intensive way, he was finally able to condense his cultivation back down to the beginning of the 1st Stage of the Quantum Qi Condensation Realm
Furthermore, after another four days of cultivating, he managed to get his cultivation base back up to the peak of the 1st Stage.
.....
It looks like I managed to do it correctly! However, that just means that it's time to do it again!' Azmond thought with a thrilled smile.
He then repeated the process...
.....
This time he managed to condense his cultivation base within a day and a half instead of two days, and he was able to cultivate back up to the peak of the 1st stage of Quantum Qi Condensation within three and a half days.
'That is the Second Cultivation Base Condensation completed! My power has more than quadrupled since I was at the beginning of the 1st stage of Quantum Qi Condensation, with no Condensation cycles done!' Azmond thought.
"It seems that instead of the quantity of my cultivation base increasing, it's rather the quality of my Qi that's increasing with each realm condensation cycle," he began with a contemplative expression.
'In addition, it's a quality increase that subsequently increases my damage output with the same amount of energy used!' He thought to himself before he continued to condense his cultivation base for the third time.
.....
It took Azmond a little under a day to condense his cultivation base back down to the beginning of the 1st Stage of Quantum Qi Condensation for his Third Cultivation Base Condensing Cycle—something that made absolutely no sense...
Normally it would only get harder for Divine Qi Condensation cultivators to condense their cultivation bases for the second time, and even harder for their third and fourth times, and yet... Azmond's condensing cycles were only getting easier and easier the higher he went.
It was almost like he was... adapting?
Azmond was adapting to something that shouldn't even be possible to adapt to, and yet he was living proof of said adaptation!
It was yet another impossible feat that he had accomplished without even knowing it...
...
He proceeded to cultivate back up to the peak of the 1st Stage of the Quantum Qi Condensation Realm within three days.
He followed up by condensing his cultivation base back down for the fourth time within 16 hours and cultivated back up to the peak within two and a half days.
.....
Azmond went on to condense his cultivation base for the fifth time within 12 hours...
He then cultivated back up to the peak within 2 days.
He had also applied his faster way of cultivating by stimulating the Qi in the air with his own Qi while condensing his cultivation base as well. The only difference being that instead of the 'usual', he made the Qi inside of his body explode in on itself while condensing to speed up the process.
It was an even more dangerous way of cultivating than when Azmond was just exploding the Qi in the air with his own Qi.
And it was due to such brazen actions that he was constantly bleeding out of all orifices as he was condensing his cultivation base down...
The only thing saving him from dying was his insane healing speed.
.....
It had been almost 20 days since Azmond had started to condense his cultivation base down, and the result of those 20 days of painful cultivation was Azmond's Fifth Condensing Cycle being completed.
'That makes the 5th time I've gone through condensing and re-cultivating back up to the peak of the 1st Stage of Quantum Qi Condensation,' he thought.
'However, my reward for such intense training is that my power is at least 40 times stronger than it was before!'
He finished his inner monologue on a high note before his elated expression died down as he thought, 'But it isn't enough... The most I can fight against is an average person at the Peak of The Early-Golden Core Realm with just my energy alone, and I might be able to fight someone who just entered the Middle-Golden Core Realm if I use my Peak Early-Golden Core Realm Body strength and skills at full capacity...'
His thoughts were followed by a solemn look forming on his face as he clenched his fists and felt the power coursing through them.
OOOM!
Explosive levels of strength traveled through his veins as a low, static sound was produced when he loosened his grip.
"However, that's far from enough! The Goblin King is at least at the very peak of the Golden Core Realm, if not half a step into the Nascent Soul Realm! Hell, he might even already be in the Nascent Soul Realm...' He thought with a grave look on his face.
Nonetheless, his apprehension was soon overwhelmed by an immense level of resolve as he thought, '...I just need to cultivate more! I refuse to believe that some green piggy will stay ahead of me forever!'
...
After reaffirming his will, he continued to condense his cultivation base down for the sixth time and re-cultivate it back up to the peak of the 1st stage of Quantum Qi Condensation...
That milestone was followed by the 7th condensing cycle... the 8th... the 9th.. the 10th... the 11th—until he reached the 12th Cultivation Base condensing cycle.
Upon achieving the 12th condensation cycle, he started to feel something changing.
'Something' was changing as he continued to condense his cultivation base back down for the 12th time.
...
"What is this feeling?" Azmond asked himself with a quizzical look on his face.
'It feels kind of like what it did when I was breaking through the 11th refinement cycle during the Body Refinement Realm,' he thought.
'On that note, it's almost exactly like what I felt when I was breaking through the 11th refinement cycle, the 101st refinement cycle, and then the 1000th refinement cycle as well,' he added.
"But regardless of the peculiarities, I feel like my body will transform into something better if I complete the 12th Cultivation Base Condensing Cycle before breaking through into the 2nd Stage of Quantum Qi Condensation!" Azmond spoke to himself with an excited smile.
"Let's get to it then!" He exclaimed.
....
Azmond continued to cultivate in his insane way till he condensed and re-cultivated back up to the peak of the 1st Stage for the 12th time.
When he reached the peak of the first stage of the Quantum Qi Condensation Realm, he felt like he had achieved the most perfect foundation possible!
...
'My foundation has definitely reached the peak of perfection! I should now try to breakthrough to the 2nd stage of Quantum Qi Condensation to see what that feeling I had earlier was all about.'
Azmond's thoughts faded out as he attempted to break through to the 2nd Stage of Quantum Qi Condensation with a pained look on his face.
It took a total of 2 days for Azmond's breakthrough into the 2nd stage of Quantum Qi Condensation to begin.
After reaching a sufficient point, the abundant Qi surrounding the large waterfall he was cultivating under started to swarm towards him in incalculable amounts!
It was an out-of-this-world sight to see all the brilliantly colored Qi in the air surrounding Azmond like they were awaiting the birth of their god.
Such a sight was not one that many would be able to witness in this world...
.......
WHOOSH! SWISH!
The sound of the Qi in the air fluttering toward Azmond was heard as he approached the tipping point of his breakthrough.
.....
A day later.
Azmond's breakthrough went without a hitch as he officially broke through into the 2nd stage of Quantum Qi Condensation!
However, he was not even aware of his own breakthrough, as he was currently within a galaxy-shaped cocoon going through another transformation.
......
2 days later.
CRUMBLE!
A boy around 13 years old with long raven black hair and beautiful sapphire-like eyes emerged from within the galaxy-shaped cocoon, as the entire cocoon disappeared into nothingness.
The boy in question had features so divine that even the gods would spit out blood in envy!
.....
'This keeps on happening to me, huh?' Azmond thought to himself with a bewildered look as he stared at his now slightly bigger hands. 'I wonder what changed inside my body? But more importantly, I wonder how much my power has increased...?'
His smile grew a little as he scanned the inside of his body with his divine sense.
And what he saw surprised him...
'Oh? I now have 2000 Qi cyclones, with half of them being a foot in diameter and the other half being an inch in diameter,' Azmond thought with a wide grin as he looked at the larger and smaller Qi cyclones that surrounded his Dantian, like planets orbiting a star.
After a few seconds of appreciating such a wondrous sight, he wasted no more time, as he started to cultivate again to increase the size of his Qi cyclones.
.....
He spent a little over a week getting all of his Qi cyclones to 2 feet in diameter, which was only possible due to his increase in cultivation realm, which improved his 'acceptable limit' to 2 feet for each Qi cyclone.
'My energy storage has increased by a total of 4 times after getting all of my Qi cyclones to 2 feet in diameter, which is far better when compared to the version of me at the Quantum Qi Condensation 1st stage with only 1000 Qi cyclones one foot in diameter,' Azmond thought with a satisfied smile.
Following a small moment of reveling, he looked at the exact power output increase he gained from breaking through.
The increase astounded him to say the least, as he was now capable of causing 200 times more damage than he could when still at the beginning of the 1st stage of Quantum Qi Condensation with no condensing cycles completed.
'I should now be able to level a small mountain range without breaking a sweat!' He thought with an expectant gaze as he checked on his physical power increase as well.
....
"My physique is now in the same league as a Late-Golden Core Cultivator's Body! I should even be close to equaling a cultivator in the Peak Late-Golden Realm with both my physical strength and energy output combined!" Azmond exclaimed.
"I might even be able to take on someone who's half a step into the Peak-Golden Core Realm with my technique proficiencies added into the mix!" He added with a satisfied look on his face.
....
To further elaborate on the discrepancies between realms of power, let's put it into perspective.
For an exaggerated point, the difference between each minor realm after the Core Formation Realm was like the difference between Heaven and Earth.
Extending on that note, it might seem like a 200-fold increase in power was a lot, but in reality, it was only enough for Azmond to leapfrog one minor stage in the Golden Core Realm...
But regardless of that information, such a feat was still an impossible accomplishment for someone in the Qi Condensation Realm to achieve, and yet... he did just that.
.....
"Now that I understand my own strength, it's time to go back to cultivating! The 2nd stage of Quantum Qi Condensation is far from enough to satisfy me!' Azmond thought with a power-hungry smirk.