Chapter 7: Starting Cultivation

It was the afternoon of February 14, 2010. The sun was warm as Luan and Ingrid headed back to the hotel.

'There are only 4 months left and I need to prepare for the worst until then. This time, I will help my mother and sister!' Luan thought determinedly.

Arriving at the suite, there was something else that Luan needed to buy, but it wasn't something that he could easily find at any store. He once again had to call his mother.

"Son, do you need anything? Have you changed your mind and decided to come home?" His mother's voice echoed when he answered.

"It's not about that, Mom. I need something that I can't buy myself, so I called you." Luan said respectfully.

"Oh?" His mother was surprised by his way of speaking. Soon after, she smiled and asked, "What would it be? If it is something that is within my reach, I promise to acquire it."

"Mm. It would be 1 red diamond of at least 1 carat and 10 white diamonds of 1 carat each." Luan said hurriedly, "Mom, I know this can cost a lot, but I promise that soon I will get the money back. I understand if you can't do this now."

"Mmm..." His mother's voice sounded thoughtful. "It's not that it's too expensive for me and it's not impossible for me to get it. But can you tell me what you need this for, Luan?"

"First of all, it isn't something illegal. Second, it's complicated to explain this without being in person. If possible, I want to explain it better when we meet, but over the phone..." Many things were easier to show than to speak about. Luan knew that even if he explained, it would still be difficult to convince his mother.

"Okay, I'm going to trust you. Give me your current address and I'll get someone to deliver these things for you tomorrow. " said his mother.

"Thank you, mom! I love you!" Luan said happily.

"Humph! Only at such times as this do you say you love me? I'm hanging up now; call me if you need anything," she said.

"Yes, bye mom," Luan said and they hung up.

*

The next morning, his mother proved to be quite influential and willing to help him as soon as possible. At his door, one of his mother's most trusted employees came to deliver the diamonds and soon went away.

Luan took the diamonds and then went to the suite's gym and started preparing a matrix using his own blood to draw it meticulously.

After finishing the design with his blood, Luan placed all ten white diamonds around the matrix, forming a pentagram. He then placed the red diamond at the center. With that done, he needed Ingrid's help to stand on the opposite side of the matrix and recite a mantra with him to activate the matrix.

Ingrid was a highly intelligent woman and because of that she was able to memorize the entire mantra in a very short time. When they started to recite the mantra, countless lights appeared. She was particularly delighted with what was going on, but she was wise enough not to break her concentration.

When the gym room was completely surrounded and isolated by the matrix, the multicolored lights started to disappear as if they had never existed. Only then did Luan sigh with relief. Ingrid was a little weaker and fell on her butt on the floor, panting. She had used too much of her Qi and was very worn out.

Luan had to admit that it was the right choice to tell her about cultivation and let her stay to train with him. Without her, it would have been difficult for him to be able to activate this matrix. Now it would be much quicker for him and Ingrid to absorb both Yin and Yang Qi from Heaven and Earth.

According to Luan's calculations, this matrix would last for a maximum of 30 days and their cultivation speed would increase by 10x or even more. It still needed to be tested, but either way, it was already very good for the few resources he had.

"Sit on the floor. I will recite to you a body technique for your cultivation," Luan told her.

"Okay." Ingrid nodded and sat on the floor in the lotus position since she thought it was the right way to do it.

"You don't need to sit like that," Luan said. "Whatever, it can be that way too. Pay close attention to what I'm going to recite! It is not difficult to memorize, but you should not miss a word. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Ingrid nodded seriously.

"The technique's name is 'Queen Cobra's Body.'" After saying the name of the technique, Luan started to recite the technique.

The words came out of Luan's mouth as a mantra. They were difficult words, but not impossible to memorize, and after being raised by the cultivation, her memory had become superior to what it was before.

It took almost twenty minutes for Luan to recite the mantra twice. Ingrid managed to remember the first time, but Luan recited it the second time to make sure she didn't miss a word.

"What do you think, Ingrid?" Luan asked. "Did you manage to memorize everything?"

"Yes, I am confident that I have memorized every word." Ingrid nodded.

"Okay, now I'm going to teach you the movements that are used before meditating." Luan explained, "These movements are necessary to be able to strengthen the body."

Seeing that Ingrid stood up and looked at him seriously, Luan said, "Pay attention and try to copy the movements that I will show."

"Yes." Ingrid looked at him with determination.

There were a total of 36 movements. They were all difficult and tiring, but as Ingrid was no longer an ordinary human, she managed to last and continued to imitate the movements shown by Luan.

"Okay, you're better than I imagined. Keep repeating these movements in sequence, no matter how long it takes. The longer you put up with it, the better the effect will be," Luan said.

"I will do my best!" Determination flashed in Ingrid's eyes while she did the training.

Luan nodded with satisfaction and engaged in making the movements of his technique. Unlike Ingrid's technique, the technique "Divine Spiritual Body" consisted of 48 movements, and they were even more difficult.

*Whoosh!*

At the beginning, Luan moved slowly, but each time he repeated the movements, the speed increased, reaching a point where the sound of the air being torn by his movements echoed throughout the room. Ingrid saw this and was surprised as she started to understand that it was good to increase the speed, but she wasn't sure if it was the right time for her to do this since Luan didn't say anything to her.

Undecided, she chose to continue at the same pace. Even if she was going to increase the speed a little, it wouldn't be as surprising as what Luan was doing.

When an hour and a half passed, Luan was already dripping sweat, his body heated up to the point of vapor rising up from it.

'This is my limit at the moment...' Although dissatisfied, he knew he was back at the beginning; he couldn't demand too much from himself and end up getting hurt.

Luan sat on the floor with his legs crossed, and in his mind he started to recite the mantra of his body technique.

On the other hand, Ingrid, who was not making her movements very fast, was not yet tired although she has sweated a lot. She just looked at Luan a little while training, but soon focused on completing her moves.

Ingrid held on for almost three hours. She sat down and started to perform the mantra of the technique and absorbed the Qi from Heaven and Earth, filling her body in the places she'd just trained. Ingrid could feel every cell in her body being filled and strengthened. It was a fantastic sensation, albeit a little painful at times.

It was also at that moment that a flash of light emitted from Luan's body, creating a small pillar of golden light.

'I moved on to Corporal Foundation - Middle Stage!' Although happy with this, Luan knew it still wasn't enough.

In the beginning, it was always easier to achieve a breakthrough, especially using the matrix.

'It looks like something big just happened...' Although she had her eyes closed, Ingrid guessed that Luan was different.

Ingrid may have spent more time using body movements and some may even think that she would have a faster progression, however, this thought would be illogical since although Luan stayed only an hour and a half, he was doing it several times faster than her, performing even more than she was capable, almost perfectly.

Furthermore, although not much, the body technique with which Luan cultivated was superior to the one that Ingrid was using.

{Edited by: Azurtha}