Walking in through the opening, while following behind elder Mei Yue.

Sofie and the other new disciples soon found themselves walking on a bridge, towards what Sofie presumed was the centre of the fire hall.

Leaning over the side of the bridge, Sofie could see what looked like a small lake entirely made out of lava. The temperature in here was way hotter than the hallway, making Sofie and the other new disciples start sweating profusely.

Sofie moved herself into the middle of the bridge again and started to inspect the opening they arrived at.

The platform at the centre of the lava lake was suspended mid-air, with several large chains holding up the platform. The bridge leading to the platform at the centre of the lava lake already had the new disciples sighing in amazement. Now with the simple platform held up by several giant chains of unknown metal in front of them, Sofie and the others looked both surprised and amazed.

"This here can be called the fire hall and the platform in front of you is where you will be spending the next 4 hours absorbing fire qi and cultivating." Elder Mei Yue's voice came in from the front, making several disciples swallow their own salvia, as they looked towards the platform.

Sofie, contrary to what most of the new disciples did, just looked at the lava lake with fiery eyes. Completely ignoring the platform, they were going to start cultivating fire qi at.

…

The group of new disciples walked a little further, finally making their way onto the platform hanging above the lava lake.

"All of you, find a place to sit and start cultivating. The first time you cultivate will be different, as this is your first time taking in any form of qi, you will be able to absorb it much easier. This is also the reason why you are allowed to stay at the fire hall for 4 hours. Normally, you will not be able to absorb more fire qi after that time and would have reached your limit. Any questions?" Elder Mei Yue said, as the disciples slowly sat down all over the platform.

A few senior disciples were also present, but they ignored the newcomers and continued to cultivate in silence.

"W-what is the benefit of absorbing a lot of fire qi here?" A boy who was a little older than Sofie asked shyly, as he looked at elder Mei Yue.

"The benefit is that you will be able to start off with a stronger and purer fire qi. Not needing as much time to refine it like normal lower-level fire qi. The qi gathering cultivation realm is only about that. Gathering qi inside the dantian, until you have enough to start condensing the qi, preparing to breakthrough to the meridian opening. The first major realm is simple to the extreme and only requires time to go through, if you manage to absorb enough fire qi today, you could even reach stage 6 qi gathering." Elder Mei Yue explained, as the new disciples, Sofie included, looked shocked at the information they just got.

You can reach the 6 stage of qi gathering just by cultivating 4 hours? T-this… So simple… Well it is only the first major realm. My goal is higher than that! I should aim to reach the 6 stage of qi gathering today!

Sofie thought to herself, as she sat down with determination and a goal in mind.

"Okay, you kids can start cultivating now, I will need to get the kids waiting outside to the next elemental hall. Good luck~" Elder Mei Yue cheerfully told them to start cultivating, before she left the platform. Leaving the new disciples and Sofie alone.

She would definitely reach the 6 stage of qi gathering! Sofie thought to herself, as she started cultivating according to the cultivation manual called "Fire Lord Qi".

…

Sitting down on the platform, Sofie closed her eyes and tried to feel the fire qi surrounding her according to the cultivation manual.

In the start, all she could see was darkness, but with the pa.s.sage of time, a few red dots appeared in the darkness. Lighting it up.

Sofie a.s.sumed that the red dots floating around in the darkness was the fire qi surrounding her. One of the reasons for this, was that she could almost feel the heat radiating off the small floating red dots.

Other than that, the number of red dots visible in the air grew more and more, until all of Sofie's surroundings was filled with both big and small red dots.

This confused Sofie to an extreme degree and she quickly opened her eyes. Only to see the red dots disappear, to be replaced with the platform and a few new disciples and senior disciples.

Sofie ended up becoming confused.

Why could she not see the red dots or fire qi? Maybe only when meditating and closing once eyes could you see the floating red dots?

Not finding a better explanation, Sofie once again closed her eyes, as the red dots reappeared in front of her and painted the entire world before her red once again.

Remembering what the cultivation manual "Fire Lord Qi" said about the qi gathering, Sofie started to draw the fire qi into her dantian.

What the Fire Lord Qi cultivation manual said about the qi gathering realm was quite simple. What was written in it was.

"To reach qi gathering, absorb the fire qi between heaven and earth and guide it into the dantian until nothing more can be drawn inside."

Just that… Simple and easy to understand.

Sofie did not think any further, as she tried to 'grab' the nearby fire qi and slowly started drawing it into her dantian.

…

Time pa.s.sed and Sofie, together with the other new disciples sat in silence and tried to gather as much fire qi inside their dantian, as possible.

Sofie drew more and more qi into her as time pa.s.sed and she got a hang on it. She could even see the fire qi inside of her dantian slowly building up as time pa.s.sed.

From time to time, Sofie felt like the s.p.a.ce inside her dantian expanded. Allowing her to absorb even more fire qi.

The s.p.a.ce inside my dantian most likely expands every time I breakthrough to a new stage in the qi gathering realm, this means I should be at the 5 stage! Only need to fill up my dantian before I reach the 6 stage of the qi gathering realm!

Thinking this to herself, Sofie excitedly continued to absorb the fire qi from her surroundings.

The fire qi in the surrounding sped towards her, as she tried to devour everything that looked like fire qi close to her.

…

The other new disciples and senior disciples suddenly all opened their eyes as they looked weirdly in their surroundings.

They felt like the fire qi that was just about to enter their dantian had suddenly disappeared for some reason. Almost like it ran away from them.

Trying to gather the fire qi together again before guiding it into their dantian, both the new disciples and senior disciples were heartbroken, as the lump of fire qi they gathered disappeared once again.

The senior disciples here were especially heartbroken, as it was hard for them to enter the fire hall again.

…

Sofie sat down and smiled to herself as she suddenly discovered a huge increase in the fire qi entering her dantian.

Unknown to her, she had 'stolen' the fire qi that the other disciples had worked hard to gather together.

Even if Sofie knew, she would most likely just call them stupid for gathering the fire qi together in a lump before absorbing it.

Sadly, that was how most people cultivated, as directly absorbing the fire qi without gently guiding it into the dantian was seen as dangerous. This resulted in people gathering all the qi needed for a breakthrough into a giant lump of qi, before gently guiding it inside the dantian to breakthrough.

Normally it would be impossible for someone to 'steal' other peoples fire qi, but the more tyrannical cultivation manuals would sometimes allow the cultivator complete control over the fire qi, allowing the to 'steal' from other people. Though this only worked on qi that had not been refined or absorbed yet.