When Chen Zhen walked into the shack he saw Shanggu Julong sitting at the table with a contemplative look on his face. Shanggu Julong looked up as Chen Zhen walked in, he sent his spiritual sense into Chen Zhen's body. He saw that Chen Zhen had broken through but the energy in his body seemed a lot less then he expected it to be.

"You said you would answer questions for me as long as they were concerning my cultivation. I have a couple question for you if your ok with me asking right now?", Chen Zhen asked in a very respectful tone of voice. He didn't want to give Shanggu Julong an reason to reject him right now, he really needed information immediately.

"Sure what do you have on your mind?", Shanggu Julong was curious to see were Chen Zhen mind was heading when it came to his cultivation. This would allow him to see where he could best use his knowledge to help Chen Zhen progress.

"My first question concerns my body. The energy I take in seems to nourish not only my body, but my mind and soul also. How do I continue to progress smoothly without it taking too long as I get stronger?", Chen Zhen asked.

"It's very good that you have already understood that as you get stronger it will take continuously more and more energy to keep progressing. But before I an answer your question I must ask you a few questions of my own. What do you mean exactly when you say that the energy nourishes not only your body, but your mind and soul also?", Shanggu Julong responded.

"Well the energy that enters my body strengthens my muscles, skin, and meridians. Part of that energy enters my mind making my thoughts clearer, and my memories easier to retrieve. As far as my soul goes, it helps with the other two souls that share this body of mine." Chen Zhen didn't mention about his clone in his sea of consciousness, because he felt that this was his own matter that he shouldn't share with anyone just yet until he understood more.

Shanggu Julong pondered what Chen Zhen told him for a little bit before letting out a light sigh.

"What you are experiencing is not normal for average cultivators. Under normal circ.u.mstances when a cultivator first begins cultivating all the energy they take in only enhances their body preparing them to be able to hold large amounts of energy. As your body becomes stronger your dantian will increase in size to hold more energy in your body. The more you can increase the size of your dantian the better your foundation will be. After the body enhancement stage is the liquid core formation stage. In the liquid core formation stage you learn to convert the gaseous energy inside of your dantian into a liquid state. This change in state of your energy condenses your energy and gives you much more power in a smaller amount. After you enter the liquid core stage your dantian will stay the same size, so you can now see the importance of having as large as possible dantian by the time you reach this stage.

In your case because your energy is separating into three parts and enhancing different parts of your body its not putting enough energy into enlarging your dantian. The only way we can change this is to overload your dantian almost to the point of it shattering before your breakthrough to the next level each time before you enter the liquid core stage. I can help, you to do this and I will watch over your future advancements to ensure your safety. But this will require a lot from you. You will have to endure excruciating pain every time you break through. It will put you in harms way, but no pain no gain. If you can endure thru this you will not only come out physically, but mentally stronger also. Your dantian will be twice the size of normal cultivators by the time you enter the liquid core stage, giving you a drastic advantage over other cultivators."

Chen Zhen looked inside himself and saw his extremely small dantian. He knew that if he was going to survive in this world he would need any advantage he could get. Chen Zhen knew himself well, he wasn't the kind of man who could take large amounts of pain. He was torn between wanting to agree and worrying whether he could actually survive it each time.

[It's ok just tell him you agree. I will help you to endure the pain. My mentality is much stronger than yours. You will have to endure for as long as you can, and then I will take over from there. You will have to learn to be stronger so you we will use this as a way to help train you.], the clone told Chen Zhen while he was trying to figure out what to do.

"You can really do that? If you can do that why don't you just endure all of it?", Chen Zhen asked excited that there was a safe solution.

[Because this world needs you to be mentally strong to make it back to your family. You will experience pain. Are you willing to give up on being with your family again just because you weren't mentally strong enough? Remember I am here to help you but in the end it is your responsibility to do the work.], the clone said rolling its eyes at Chen Zhen.

Chen Zhen mentally nodded to the clone knowing it was correct. He couldn't be lazy and constantly looking for shortcuts. He had to put in the work to make himself stronger, besides that nothing else mattered.

"Ok, I will do as you say.", Chen Zhen said to Shanggu Julong as he came out of his revelry.

"Since you have made your decision then w will have to change our routine. I wasn't going to have you much but exercise and slowly take in energy to help you progress but now your going to have to take in twice as much energy then I expected. I will leave to get you some spiritual beast meat to eat. Starting tomorrow you will be working three times as hard as you did today. I need you to be completely open and honest with me about the changes happening in your body, so I can adjust any part of the training regimen to better accommodate your needs. Get some rest because tomorrow will be a very busy day for you.", Shanggu Julong said with an excited smile on his face.

Things with Chen Zhen were getting beyond his control, but now that they had a starting point to work from Shanggu Julong felt himself relax. He could still help train Chen Zhen properly. He knew Chen Zhen had no clue how much pain he was going to be in soon, but as long as he made it thru this ordeal he would be more powerful then any cultivator Shanggu Julong knew, including himself when he was at Chen Zhen level. With excitement growing in his heart Shanggu Julong left to hunt some spirit beast.