Deep in Will's mental space a sigh could be heard, the system, not wanting to accept the truth, finally accepted the truth. This universe they were in, wasn't the universe he and the princess came from.
There were many signs that were pretty obvious, but he didn't want to believe what he was finding, some of the signs included when he connected to the Heavenly Net, it wasn't what he was used to and was far behind compared to what he knew, additionally he was unable to contact old friends to make the system functions more well rounded, he was hoping to allow Will to gather greater gains than poking around blindly to make contacts.
After all, it's up to Will whether or not they can return to their home. Another sign was when he tried to send out Qi and faced the rejection of the universe. Luckily with his experience and cultivation realm, adjusting to mana wasn't a big deal, although there are some kinks that need to be worked out. Although it's a different universe, he is still a god, this doesn't hinder him even slightly.
During this moment Will started his first attempt at cultivating Qi, while trying to avoid alerting the laws of the universe, and the powerful entity that ruined Qi cultivation in the past.
While he went into a deep meditative state, a change started to happen in his mental space…
In the depths of Will's mental space, the same location the system sighed from before, you could see the princess floating in the depths of his mental space.
The surroundings rippled as golden symbols started to appear around the princess, glowing brightly as some of the Qi in Will's body started to flow through them.
These are one of the reasons the princess has remained in place and in a coma since Will's arrival to this world. As soon as the slightest amount of Qi flowed through these symbols, a reaction occurred and several of the symbols started to fade.
The golden symbols needed Qi in order to activate, and because of the creation of the system, plus the merging of the butler as an AI replacement, the symbols became linked to Will.
Being the reason why they didn't activate in the past when the butler tested his Qi in this world, the fading symbols was because of a certain condition.
These symbols once activated will go into a hibernation mode, in this mode the symbols are "off" but still manage to function as they are meant to without consuming as much power. In this state, they cannot be deactivated.
Once they are turned "on" the process of deactivation starts automatically, although the process is pretty slow.
The symbols that were fading appeared as if they'd take years to go away, fortunately, time passes faster in the mental space than outside, so time literally passed in the blink of an eye.
After several hours passed, several hours being seconds outside, the golden symbols that were fading faded to the point that they were faint silver, as if they would vanish any second. The rest of the symbols flashed in an even more intense gold as they went back into hibernation. It appeared that the ones that were fading, will only vanish the next time around.
Throughout all that happened, the princess stirred briefly, her eyelids twitched as some parts of her body twitched also, the twitching ceased when the symbols went back to hibernation, leaving a system staring intently at the princess as emotions could be felt in the vicinity of varying degrees.
"The princess is starting to awaken! Sadly, it is up to Will if the princess is able to leave this universe when she awakens, that's if he is even able to manipulate space to leave in the first place..."
The system spoke excitedly as he thought of the princesses' awakening, than quickly turned depressed as he remembered that Will might not necessarily want to leave, even if he could.
(AN: There are conditions that have to be met in order for the princess to get back to her universe, and it includes Will going there himself. Not a spoiler, it will be mentioned at one point, just to clear up confusion)
Outside, years have passed. During this time, Will gained more and more knowledge of this world. Also, with the techniques he inherited from his blood, and the help of the system, Will found a way to convert mana into Qi. (Though this process shocked him, because he was still slightly disbelieving of the stone tablets)
He could have simply absorbed the scare left over Qi in the air, which still remains even after the entity changed the laws of the universe.
Unfortunately, that would have alerted the previously mentioned entity, which wouldn't be good for Will.
Fortunately, he found out how to turn mana into Qi, which had to be done the moment before all the mana escapes his body.
That way he can cultivate Qi without triggering too many unwanted events.
Unfortunately, he has to deal with a dark cloud hovering in the sky above his location when he cultivates, it's as if the heavenly tribulation is expressing it's impatience and need to strike him. The build up of Qi can be sensed by the heavens, but the intensity isn't sensed so heavenly tribulation cannot strike because growing intensity is a sign of Qi cultivation. Fortunately Will's method doesn't reveal intensity, only the presence of more qi than usual can be detected. Which results in the lingering tribulation cloud when he cultivates…