Positioning himself, Wang Lei took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, trying to relax every part of his body. He needed to be calm and loose—this wasn't something he could do with tension holding him back. He was about to attempt controlling his mana flow, just like how blood moves through the body.
If he was too stiff, the flow might go wild, and that could make the cracks in the vessel even worse.
"Alright… I'm ready," he whispered to himself.
Now that everything was set, it was time to begin.
The breathing technique itself was simple.
Inhale normally, then exhale forcefully through the nose. Each exhale tensed his abdominal muscles, pushing pressure through his core and helping blood move through his body. Thirty rounds—that's all it took to complete one cycle.
With surprising ease, Wang Lei had already finished a full cycle.
Well, Father did force me to do this every single night before bed… no wonder it became a habit, although I wasn't able to do it for the past few days become of the state of the situation right now, he thought with a small grin.
After just one cycle, he could already feel the heat inside him starting to settle down. It caught him off guard. "Whoa… it's actually working," he muttered in surprise.
Wang Lei was quietly celebrating in his mind when a soft chime rang near his ear.
A notification? What now? he wondered. Curiosity tugged at him, but he couldn't afford to lose focus. His eyes remained shut—he needed all his concentration to keep the cycle steady.
Disrupting it now could have serious consequences.
I'll check it after I'm done. Just need to focus and finish this first.
And so, Wang Lei continued the breathing technique. Thanks to his deep familiarity with the method, he managed to complete thirty full cycles in just ten minutes.
As he finished the final exhale, he slowly opened his eyes. A strange sensation washed over him, like his entire body had been rebooted.
He raised both hands and stared at them, confusion written all over his face.
"What is this…?" he muttered.
His hands were faintly glowing—barely noticeable, but definitely there. A soft blue light shimmered along his skin, as if mana was now flowing through him like blood.
Everything felt… lighter. Warmer. Stronger.
And for the first time, the searing heat inside him had completely vanished.
"Is this the result of completely healing the Mana Core?" Wang Lei wondered aloud, eyes still locked on his glowing hands.
During each complete circulation, he had sensed it clearly—the faint cracks on the Mana Core slowly fading, one by one. Like a shattered glass being pieced back together, the core had begun to mend itself.
Maybe… it started recovering the moment I calmed the mana inside me, when it no longer had to overflow, he thought. There's no pressure, no chaos—just a steady, controlled flow.
It made sense to him now. The mana wasn't his enemy. It was just wild, uncontained, like a flood without a dam.
"All this time… I just needed to give it a path to flow," he muttered, a slight smile creeping onto his lips.
Then he suddenly remembered.
"The notification!"
Now that his focus had returned, he focused his gaze to the floating screen in front of him, curious to see what reward or update had arrived while he was stabilizing his mana.
[Conditions have been met. You have obtained the skill >Mana Control<.]
"…A skill?" Wang Lei raised an eyebrow. "What's this about?"
"Status," he said aloud.
Another screen appeared in front of him.
---
[Name: Wang Lei]
[LV. 7]
[Health: 280/280]
[Stamina: 50/50]
[Mana: 80/???] (Ancient True Immortal's Qi Circulation Technique)
[Strength: 20] [Agility: 6 (20+)] [Defense: 28] [Stamina: 5] [Magic: 7] [Mana: 8]
[Status Points: 12]
Skills:
[Ore Consumption]
...
[Mana Sense LV.1 (First Order)] (Combinable)
[Description: Capable of sensing the mana within the surrounding.]
[Mana Control LV.2 (First Order)] (Combinable)
[Description: Capable of partially controlling mana.]
---
"…Huh?" Wang Lei blinked, unable to hide his confusion.
"When did my status become such a mess?" he muttered, staring at the screen with furrowed brows. "I don't understand a single thing here…" He groaned, rubbing his temples in frustration.
"Haah…" He let out a long, tired sigh. "Let's take this one step at a time."
"First, what's up with my mana? The amount didn't change, but now the capacity is just… question marks?"
He squinted at the strange symbols on the screen. "Is this because of that 'Ancient True Immortal's Qi Circulation Technique' thing?"
"The only circulation technique I used was the one my father taught me… though I never knew its name," Wang Lei muttered, rubbing his chin.
He stared at the screen again.
"Could it be this long, cringy xianxia-sounding name?" He paused. "Seriously? Ancient True Immortal's Qi Circulation? That sounds like something ripped straight out of a cheap cultivation novel…"
"In the first place, why is it called Qi Circulation? Or... is that just another word for mana circulation?" Wang Lei furrowed his brows in confusion. "But this technique was originally to improve blood flow… my old man literally made me do it to stay healthy."
He scratched his head, looking back at the screen.
"And what's up with those question marks? Why not just show me the real values? What are you trying to hide?"
Wang Lei, unable to take the uncertainty any longer, activated his newly gained skill—Mana Sense—and focused inward, aiming to observe the condition of his Mana Core.
A moment later, his eyes widened slightly.
"This is…" he muttered, his voice mixed with confusion and a dawning realization. He continued staring inward for a few seconds before exhaling a slow breath.
"No wonder…" he said softly. "It's just too big…"
The size of his Mana Core had expanded so drastically, the system itself couldn't quantify it anymore—hence the question marks.
"This…" Wang Lei muttered, his brows furrowed in disbelief. "But it was just overflowing with mana minutes ago..."
He clenched his fists, struggling to make sense of it.
"How could it suddenly grow so big that my current mana is now just a drop inside of it?"
The image of the broken, overflowing core was still fresh in his mind—and now, that same container had expanded to a size so vast his mana barely filled a fraction of it. The shift was too drastic.
"…Did that breathing technique… no, that circulation technique somehow force it to evolve?" he muttered, still staring into the emptiness of his expanded core.
"Or… was this its real form all along, and it was just compressed and unstable before?"
"I… I don't know…" Wang Lei muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. His eyes, wide with shock, reflected the gigantic spherical container inside him—now able to hold a vast ocean where once it was only a cup.
His breath grew shaky. "What the hell is happening to me…?"
This wasn't just about mana anymore. Something inside him had changed, drastically. And it was far beyond anything he understood.
Wang Lei took a deep breath and slowly released it. Calm down… I'm clearly just getting agitated.
He steadied his thoughts. The only thing that changed was my mana capacity—not the amount of mana I currently have. That means even if I can hold a vast ocean of mana inside me, my actual mana is just a small drop in comparison.
He paused, thinking it over again.
But isn't that… a good thing?
His lips curled into a small grin. With this kind of capacity, my mana is virtually endless. I just need to fill it up—and once I do…
"I can get even stronger." His voice was steady now, filled with determination.
"And the way to hastily fill it up is just right in front of me…" Wang Lei turned his head slightly, eyes locking onto the sky-blue ore behind him. His gaze burned with desire to devour every last bit of it.
"Oops…" He quickly wiped the drool from his lips, chuckling awkwardly. "I have another concerning thing to think about."
His eyes shifted to the status screen floating in front of him. Two unfamiliar skills had appeared—ones he didn't even realize he had obtained.
"I see, Mana Control and Mana Sense, huh?"
Wang Lei nodded slowly, connecting the dots. "I must've gotten Mana Control while I was circulating the mana inside me… Even if I didn't do it directly, I was still guiding its flow."
He rubbed his chin in thought. "Makes sense… I was practically steering it through my body like blood. So it counts as control, huh?"
"As for Mana Sense, I don't remember seeing a floating screen about it…" Wang Lei muttered, scratching the side of his head.
"Well… if I have to guess, it must've been at that time…" He paused, thinking back to the white ant's screech echoing through the cave.
"That moment… yeah. I suddenly felt a hot wave rush through my body for a split second." He narrowed his eyes, piecing it together. "That must've been it, right? Maybe it awakened when my senses were on high alert…"
"It was thanks to that skill that I was able to solve the mana overflow problem. If I didn't have it, I wouldn't have even known what killed me…" Wang Lei muttered with a sigh of relief.
He shifted his attention back to the status screen. "Now, there's also new stuff etched beside the skills… hmm... First… Order?"
His brow furrowed as he stared at the unfamiliar term. "What's this? Is it like… a grading system for skills?" He tilted his head slightly, still unsure. "I can't even tell if 'First Order' means it's the strongest, or if it's, like, the weakest rank…"
"And there's also this Combinable thing? Does that mean these two skills can be combined?" Wang Lei muttered, his eyes lighting up with curiosity.
Without thinking too much, he pointed his finger at the floating screen and tapped on the word Combinable.
The screen flickered for a moment, and then—
[Condition has not been met. Combination of two skills has failed.]
"Oh… so there's some kind of requirement for it?" Wang Lei scratched his head, a bit disappointed. "That's a bummer."
As he scrolled through his status screen, checking if anything else had changed, he suddenly noticed something strange—
The sky-blue mist a few meters ahead began to shift unnaturally.
It was near the edge of where the poisonous green mist started.
His eyes narrowed.
He heard the sharp clattering of footsteps growing louder and closer.
Slowly, the sky-blue mist began to swirl and disperse, revealing what had been hidden within.
"That's… the white ant?!"