One Last System

There was no wave of energy that overflew through Mia's system the second the massive array formation came to life.

Instead, a steady flow of energy splashed all over Mia's body, supplying her body with an ample amount of spiritual force to push her cultivation forward.

'It's... different?' Mia thought, surprised by how strange this formation acted.

Instead of just helping to gather the energy and stop it from diffusing outside of the array, the formations did something to the energy.

Instead of rushing in like a violent wave, the mana now turned into a steady stream, constantly supplying Mia's flesh with the same amount of energy second after second.

It was as if all the usual roughness of energy had disappeared.

'Is this how this formation works?' Mia thought, struggling to move her head even a little now that he body was basking in nearly endless amounts of energy.

Pop.

It started just like that.

Normally, when one was on the fifth stage of cultivation, they would have to diligently guide their mana through their body, looking for weaknesses that the energy could breach.

As this was a slow and gradual process, the term "opening one's meridians" was thus coined, giving birth to the official name of the fifth stage of cultivation.

But in Mia's case, she didn't guide shit.

The second the flow of energy forced its way into her body, it simply washed off over any imperfection, either clogging it shut or forcing it fully open, extending the flow of Mia's spiritual power.

'What's going on?' Mia thought, desperate to calm down and take the reins of her own cultivation, currently rushing about in the crazy attempt at growth.

The steady flow of spiritual power was addicting. On the one hand, Mia wanted to free herself from it to regain the freedom of her actions, but on the other hand...

The constant flow of the calm energy was hard to refuse.

Pop, pop, pop.

The blockades on Mia's cultivation vanished without a trace one by one as her power surged up.

It was as if her body finally found the kind of energy that it was happy to gobble up and absorb, as opposed to the usual struggle to force the new energy into the already overfilled limits of her flesh!

POP!

Mia's growth exploded once again. The rushing mana simply washed over the bottleneck of the stage, forcefully carrying Mia's level along with on the trip.

But even when she managed to break through... nothing changed.

There was no usual change of perception that would follow one's breakthrough. Still stuck in the same limbo as before, Mia started to soak in the energy at an unprecedented rate.

'What's going on?!' Mia panicked a little when her power continued to surge, building up the inner momentum necessary to break through once again!

'No!' the girl screamed out inwardly.

Reaching the seventh stage so soon? As great as it would be, doing so would only cause a lot of problems. Rather than becoming a star disciple, Mia would only condemn herself into suspicion by advancing too quickly!

'To think that those lessons Arganar gave us would turn out useful in this way,' Mia thought when a sudden moment of calmness dawned upon her.

She only knew anything about the fifth and sixth stages because of the lectures that Arganar would occasionally conduct over the past week. And while she had a pretty good understanding of the unlocking meridians stage, all she knew about the next level were rumors and half-truths!

'Body reinforcement, was it?' Mia thought in a moment of clarity before her mind once again had to focus on assimilating the energy. 'What should I do, now?' Mia inwardly screamed out, unsure of what she would do with the insane amounts of energy flowing inside her.

Mia was eager to cultivate in her new stage... But something was stopping her. It felt as if a massive burden was placed on her body, stopping her from fully advancing no matter how much energy she would absorb.

Her hair started to raise a little when static appeared all over her body. For one more moment, Mia was squeezed between the incoming energy and the wall that she faced...

Small lightning appeared over her head, only to skit through to her heart and disappear.

And in an instant, the wall disappeared, allowing Mia to freely advance.

Now that the wall limiting her growth was gone, Mia soaked in the mana like crazy. The rate of her absorption was simply impossible to achieve with how the spiritual energy usually was. Yet, in just a few moments, Mia could feel that she was actually...

'I'm nearing another breakthrough?!' Mia thought, stunned by the realization.

So she did the next most rational thing... and forced herself to step out of the formation.

"Aaah..." Mia instantly bent in half, resting her hands against her knees.

Now that she had moved out of the formation, the weight of her own power overwhelmed her. Her body still needed to readjust the ratios of power necessary to move around.

Normally, one would take a long time to approach the bottleneck. Then they would spend even longer trying to break through it.

The time people would usually spend on the process would allow their bodies the time necessary to get used to the new burden of energy on it. But in Mia's case, everything happened way too quickly, putting Mia's body near the limit of what it could safely handle.

'I'm soo tired,' Mia complained, struggling to gather her thoughts.

"Why did you step out?" the Elder asked, looking at Mia with curiosity written all over his face. "You could easily advance again. It should somewhat lessen the symptoms," he added, looking at the girl with concern in his eyes.

"I only heard a little about the stage I am in right now," Mia replied as she continued to take heavy breaths to stabilize the state of her own body. "I judged it would be stupid to recklessly push ahead when I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do," she added, smoothly lying about her real reasons.

'Sure, it would be a nice thing to advance even further,' she thought as she filled her lungs with fresh air, 'but I don't think I would be able to face the consequences,' she decided as she started to release the air back into the world.

The formation master glanced over at the same cores that he inserted in the formation before. Their shine was almost the same as it was before, indicating just how small was the push that the girl needed to advance.

'Judging from the usage, she would only stall at the eight-stage,' the man thought, squinting his eyes a little as he turned completely silent, refusing to comment on Mia's response.

'Just what is his goal?' Mia thought again as she glanced over at the Elder's face.

The man was deep in his thoughts, clearly analyzing some sort of scenario.

But as tired as the girl was, there was still one more thing that she needed to do.

"Elder, I know this might sound rude when asking for it so late," Mia stared, troubled to speak over how tired she was. "But would it be possible to split the effects of this formation throughout the entire field instead of centralizing it all in one place?"