While sitting on the ground, Cloud's ragged breathing exacerbate the pain of his wound.
But he cannot stop his breathing, so he can only grimace in pain while holding his side with his hand.
After enduring a few minutes that felt like hell, Cloud's breathing finally stabilized.
The pain on his side became more bearable because of it but he cannot move too much, still.
Since he have to rest and cannot move for the time being, Cloud review his his previous battle in his mind.
At first, it was a sudden event that came before him. Even though he didn't expect this at all, Cloud think that he should've been more prepared.
He had never came across anything that was completely unexpected like this. Cloud is usually prepares for things beforehand.
Usually, there was only some slightly unexpected things that would happen. Things that would interest or surprised Cloud.
But he have never been put in a situation where things would shock him. The only thing that came close to that is only the beast tide at Hope Village.
But even then, Cloud has time to prepare himself back then.
Today, he suddenly fell and was forced to fight two spirit beasts at once. Worse yet, he had to start the battle while his sight is impaired.
Everyone would be confused and doesn't know what to do if they suddenly have to face such a situation.
But in the world of cultivator, such an event would happen all the time.
Cloud understand this because he had read countless novels of cultivator's worlds and even wrote many with his own hands.
But the reason that this is the case is not because the novels are so. It's because there are many dangerous and magical things in the cultivation world.
Cultivators are also constantly have to explore the world and meet many people to temper themselves and further understand the world.
That's how a cultivator can survive and improve further on their path to the peak.
Otherwise if they don't do any of that and just cultivate is seclusion all the time, they might've improve their cultivation but they would be like a wild beasts that grew and live in a zoo.
Those kinds of people, if they were put in the wild, they would only become food for the wild beasts that have temper and grow themselves in the wild.
There won't be any comparison at all. Cultivators that grew in the wild would easily slaughter others in the same realm that have never been outside.
It won't even be a fight. It would've been a one sided slaughter.
So while thinking of this, Cloud once again hardened the resolve in his heart.
It is the path that Cloud chose and would die on. Anything that stand on his path, he would move them all. Whether it would be through a peaceful approach, or whether he would need to force them to move.
After hardening his resolve like this, Cloud feels that something is happening inside his body.
His five elements qi is starting to become active. It moves around his meridian in waves.
Wherever the wave of qi passed, the meridian would expand further.
Cloud quickly enter a meditative state and focus on the changes of the qi inside his meridian.
He sense the surging wild qi and follow it so that he can quickly react and suppress it if something unwanted were to happen.
But he didn't stop what's happening. Cloud doesn't really know what exactly is happening either but he feels that this is a good thing.
The feeling is somewhat similar to when he broke through to the Qi Gathering Realm before.
But there are also things that feels different so Cloud cannot be sure. He doesn't think that he has accumulated enough qi for the next breakthrough.
In fact, it should still be far away for Cloud to reach the threshold of Qi Gathering Realm Stage Two.
But something is definitely happening inside his body. Cloud can distinctly feels it.
The changes of his meridian, the surging qi that caused it. Something that felt marvel is happening to him.
But Cloud doesn't know yet what changes this would bring him. Or whether or not this event would change anything at all.
But that doesn't matter for him at the moment. All his focus is on the changes happening inside him.
Cloud continues to monitor the changes in detail. He never let his focus be disturbed.
After going around the whole meridian in his body, the surging qi starts to gradually calm down.
It then start to disperse and spread around the meridian in the body evenly.
Only then did Cloud slowly open his eyes.
When he look around, nothing much has changed. It appears that what happened inside his body didn't happen for long.
Cloud quickly feel his body to check if anything happens at all.
Nothing seems to happen when he check his physical body.
His injuries still hurt, his strength doesn't seem to increase, nothing out of the ordinary seems to happen.
Then Cloud close his eyes again to check his qi and meridian.
His qi seems to be the same. It doesn't seem to change in quantity nor quality.
But his meridian is different. It has expanded beyond how it used to be. But the expansion this time is not like the expansion when Cloud broke through to the Qi Gathering Realm.
At that time, the expansion felt more forced. That's why Cloud needs to rest for a few days to let his meridian recover.
But this time is completely different. The expansion feels gentle. It didn't feel forced and it seems to be happening naturally.