?Chapter 28

  Too Much

  ?The camp was heavy and thick with the dispersed life force of a dozen foes.

  He fought the urge to jump for joy.

  He lost.

  “Hell Yeah!”

  The joyful cry echoed off the trees, as he jumped and pumped the air.

  “Ooo don't do that.”

  Wincing in pain, the many bleeding slices easily visible through his julienned clothes.

  The chi from the lesser goblins’ absorbed easily.

  A much needed refill, his belly topped up with some left over.

  Burning cuts slowly stitching together.

  Then Gob Cleaver's power struck.

  ?

  He immediately knew he couldn't hold it.

  This was too much.

  A volume of potent, volatile chi that threatened to rupture his fragile internal structure.

  ?

  He forced the uncontained tsunami away from his precious little nugget.

  What am I going to do with this?

  I'm NOT giving it up.

  Shaking his head, gritting his teeth, he began driving it directly into his physical structures

  His bones, muscle fibers, tendons, organs, none were spared.

  His body was forced to rapidly reinforce itself to accommodate the impossible density.

  ?The structural strain caused a profound, cellular starvation.

  Crates smashed open in a mental fog.

  Ripped open cloth bags, vision a filter of red haze, until he found dried meat and fruit.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Cramming the food into his mouth, barely chewing, frantically trying to provide the raw materials his body demanded.

  Multiple waves of absorbing, cracking and healing.

  Pain too extreme to scream.

  Things settled enough for him to stand, he scrambled up, swallowing a mouthful of half-chewed jerky.

  The energy was terrifyingly unstable, fused with his physical frame, straining for release.

  Gotta get back.

  Grabbing three waterskins as well as the sack of dried foods on his exit, ?he started a run that instantly became a desperate, uncontrolled sprint.

  Barely controlling the energy, a passenger on a runaway train, relying on sheer reflexes to keep him from slamming into trees.

  Running on pure, frantic momentum.

  Not slowing until he slammed himself into his hidden den, the cold gritty stone welcoming him home.

  He instantly dropped into a cross-legged position...

  ?And jumped back up like his ass was on fire.

  He couldn't sit still.

  Gotta move!

  There's just so much.

  Don't feel right to sit.

  He slowly and smoothly moved his body through space.

  He wouldn't call it a kata, he didn't know a kata, just a series of striking movements.

  It helped.

  Shaping the vessel, using his body, drawing the vibrating excess chi into his center, like kneading dough.

  With the external world sealed off, he focused all his will.

  Pulling the excess flow back toward his center, driving it into his overstuffed Seed.

  Focus.

  Move.

  Collect.

  Compress.

  Focus…

  ?

  The pressure was absolute.

  He kept compressing it into his center, pushing the dense ball past the limits.

  ?Cmon lil buddy, you can take it.

  It could not.

  The pressure reached a critical threshold, and with a silent, blinding, internal snap, the entire structure gave way.

  The intense volume of energy collapsed violently inward.

  The massive, volatile implosion roiled, rumbled, and pushed out a wave that pulsed through his body.

  It finally settled, not into a solid ball.

  An ever active cloud that radiated a stable, profound vibration.

  A liquid-metal-like substance suspended in the center of his being.

  The energy was contained, yet never static.

  It was constant movement.

  A perpetual vortex that felt both fluid, fast, unstoppable.

  ?A Cultivator’s Core

  Ummm… what?

  THIS must be a core?

  “This whole time I didn't even have a core?”

  ?He looked up to the uncaring heavens.

  “Screw you tutorial.”