The Omnistore System

"Finally, no one's going to trace it back to us," Keyara remarked, her eyes fixed on the small craft submerging into the river.

It had been more than a day since they witnessed the blast, an event that resembled the sun descending to scorch the earth, reducing the colossal Nimbus Desire to dust.

The day had provided them with much-needed rest after expending all of their qi. It was also sufficient time to reach near their home city, Lucima. However, instead of heading directly to Lucima, they decided to stop two cities behind to dispose of the ship. Cause even if the ship were to be found, tracing it back to them would prove to be challenging.

"Did you check if there's any recording of us in there?" Keyara asked as the ship fully submerged into the river.

"I did, but there wasn't much," Viana answered as they began to leave the area. "Still, I deleted all the logs and stuff. I also destroyed some hidden devices, at least the ones I found." She continued explaining. Among the three of them, she was the only one with the expertise in such matters, owing to her sensitivity to all types of qi. While Kevin had sensitivity to just yin qi, hers extended to every type, though limited to what was near her. If it was too well hidden, she could still miss it.

For Kevin, detecting yin qi was almost second nature, able to sense it even from a hundred meters away. However, when it came to someone deliberately concealing their qi within their body, he might not detect it, even if that person were right behind him. He had witnessed this phenomenon in the past two months at the den, unable to trace Keyara's yin qi when she went into stealth mode for surprise attacks.

"How do you know about the formations and stuff?" Kevin asked, realizing that spending the last month with her had revealed her as the most knowledgeable about such matters within the Dimtia family.

"For a Qi cultivator, I should know at least this much," she replied with a proud smile. But Kevin still didn't fully understand. He knew Qi cultivators stored Qi in their bodies and used the Qi surrounding them to launch attacks, like the inferno she had unleashed on the ship. He also knew they didn't rely much on physical strength, as they used Qi for everything from running fast to blocking attacks with Qi shields, and more. Yet, there was still much about the intricacies of Qi cultivation that remained a mystery to him.

"But why? I mean, knowledge is great, but why does a Qi cultivator need to know all this?" Kevin asked, his confusion evident. Keyara smiled upon hearing his question, aware that Kevin was still relatively new to the world of cultivation despite his rapid progress.

Viana, understanding this as well, refrained from teasing him for his lack of knowledge and instead offered an explanation. "how should I explain?... let me think for bit," she began, taking a moment to gather her thoughts. "Do you know about runes?"

The black-haired boy shook his head, prompting Lidia to continue. "Okay, do you know about programming languages? You know, the ones we use to create digital stuff like smartwatches and such?"

Kevin nodded in understanding, which brought a smile to Lidia's face as she proceeded with her explanation about runes. "Well, think of runes as the programming language of the Qi around us. We can manipulate Qi using them, like this rune here is for producing water," she explained, moving her hands swiftly through the air as if writing something. Though Kevin and Keyara couldn't see anything written in the air, soon they noticed some indiscernible blue characters shimmering, followed by a small water ball materializing from them.

Kevin was visibly shocked, while Keyara smiled at his expression. He was surprised seeing her produce water but also because he understood why it takes so much time for her to prepare an attack. "So, that's why it takes so much time for you to prepare an attack?" he remarked. The rune for water production consisted of at least four lines. Kevin wondered how much time it took to prepare attacks like the ones she used.

"Yeah, and these runes are why I know about formations and other stuff. They're made using them, but I only know a little. Fire runes are my specialty; I only dabble in others to deepen my understanding and see how they interact with fire," Lidia explained. Then, with a slightly frustrated tone, she continued, "You won't know, but it's really such a pain to comprehend the runes and use them to increase our cultivations."

Kevin looked confused, not understanding Lidia's explanation. Keyara, seeing his confusion, chose to answer before he could ask. "Us body cultivators also use runes to strengthen our bodies, but we don't need to comprehend them. Our cultivations just use them on our body automatically as we channel our qi. But qi cultivators need to comprehend them."

"And how would this increase their cultivation?" Kevin asked, still puzzled.

"For us, or let's just take you for an example, you use yin qi as a dual cultivator to strengthen your body as well as yang qi, right?" she asked, and Kevin nodded as she continued. "It might be written in your cultivation to do it like that. It also explains how to do it, and you can do it like it's the most natural thing. You know why?" This time Kevin shook his head, as he had asked this question himself. As he thought cultivation might need something for him to understand, like Viana said she needed to comprehend runes, he just didn't know how they would increase cultivations, but now he also had another question.

And Keyara seemed to have answers for both of them as she continued to explain. "It's because the cultivation techniques were made like that to make them easy to practice. I don't know how, but the ones who make cultivation techniques automatically add their comprehension in it so the user doesn't have to understand it completely to use it, well at least for lower realms." She gestured at Viana, who was walking with a proud smile. "The cultivation techniques are mostly made by qi cultivators like Viana. She didn't practice from any cultivation manual; instead, she is making her own."

Now, this was another shock he got in the last days. From what both of them explained, making new cultivation techniques is hard, as they must have to study a lot, so no shock Viana knows about that stuff. But he still didn't understand how comprehending runes increases their cultivations.