"Cough, cough, cough—"
He Ao picked up the glass of water beside him, chugging it down to swallow the food lodged in his throat while continuously grabbing more food from nearby.
As dawn arrived, a strand of dense energy gathered in his chest.
This was the first dawn in the Copy World during which he could cultivate. Just as he had guessed, dawn in the Copy World, like dawn in the Main World, surged with a great deal of energy.
However, unlike the Main World, the strand of energy brought by dawn in the Copy World was not so dramatically different from ordinary energy. It was roughly ten times the energy absorbed through normal breathing.
His breathing grew increasingly rapid as he continuously absorbed more energy from the surrounding void.
Energy from the food continuously gathered in He Ao's throat. As he kept swallowing food, he guided that energy toward his chest.
Energy from his muscles slowly emerged from within He Ao's body, preventing the energy in his chest from dissipating. As more and more energy gathered, the pressure inside him grew greater and greater.
He Ao felt as though his body were a powder keg on the verge of exploding, filled with pressure. Once it burst, he might be blown to pieces.
But he did not hesitate. He controlled the energy drawn from his throat and slammed it into the energy in his chest.
The two incompatible energies collided in that instant, then repelled each other, only to be squeezed back together by the energy surging from his body.
The immense pressure began spreading through He Ao's body. In an instant, his body swelled by ten percent, transforming him from a fit old man into a somewhat portly one.
His wrinkled skin stretched taut, crimson capillaries clearly visible beneath