Hey Jeffy, thanks for trying out the game!
You can try reaching for higher mortal realms (Corporeal Yang) to get bigger multipliers before ascending.
When you have your soul splits/forks cultivating (not on an expedition) then they also increase the Qi gathering.
Use the pills you craft also to get a timed boost.
You can also take part in the vow, to gain aptitude (vow of haste).
Finally, clicking on the avatar also increases the Qi output rate by 30% + 70% with the breathing technique
At one point you will however hit a curve where the only solution is time or an auto clicker to speed things up (currently it takes roughly 28h to reach second step aka end game)