14 Nine Sun Yang Emperor technique

Amber and Louis went to dinner hand-in-hand. Dinner was outdoors, much like the initial gathering. It was essentially a banquet, with large circular tables scattered throughout the garden. Many candles were placed onto the tables and the entirety of the place was lit up with six foot tall torches.

Both Amber's and Louis' parents were sitting at the center table, along with Brian and his three other wives, at least, that's what Louis assumed given the situation. Elaine sat sandwiched between Brian and Melissa while two other woman sat next to Brian on his other side. Besides them, there were three other couples, including Amber's parents, who sat beside Melissa.

Louis was about to go up when Amber dragged him to his sisters outside the banquet. The table was lower, and the seats were much more befitting a kid, allowing his legs touch the ground as he sat. Yet, there were new faces at this table too. Shea, Carla and Amelia sat next together, so Louis and Amber sat next to them. Yet, there were five new faces: two male and three female.

"This is Nia, the daughter of second mother." Shea said, standing up as she brought Nia over. "She's six years old."

Nia had brown hair and bright blue pupils. She had bright brown freckles covering her face. She was a couple inches taller, but their eyes never met, despite the fact she was looking to the ground. Her behind her back. She wore a white dress that went well past her knees but didn't reach her feet.

"Nice to meet you, Nia." Louis said, holding out his hand. "I'm Louis, the son of fourth mother."

"Nice to meet you." Nia whispered, as she quickly ran to her seat.

"I'm Jack, son of third mother." A boy sitting at the table. "Nine years old." He held out his hand in front of the girl sitting next to him. "This is Cecilia, my fiancee. Nine years old."

"I'm Calvin, son of third mother." The boy beside Jack said. "Seven years old." Copying his older brother, he held out his hand in front of the girl sitting beside him. "This is Tina, my fiancee. Seven years old."

"Louis, son of fourth mother." Louis said. He raised his right hand, his fingers interlocked with Amber. "This is my fiancee, Amber. Five years old."

If Louis recalled correctly, third mother was from the fire elemental branch of the family, having long red hair, freckles and a body renown throughout Allyn County. The blood of the Allyn family flowed through her veins, but that was before Michael married Aqua, the high elf. Instead, the blood of Pyro, the high elf, flowed through their veins, giving them the dominion over fire, instead of the water that the Allyn family was renown. She was a silent and calculative person according to the rumors, unlike many with the fire element who were highly emotional and passionate.

Jack and Calvin inherited their mother's fiery red hair and freckles, but their father's eyes. That was where their similarities ended. Jack allowed his hair to grow out into a mane while Calvin's hair was short in a crew cut. Jack's facial features were sharper while Calvin still had a baby face.

Cecilia had brown eyes and long brown hair that reached down past her shoulders. She wore a soft blue dress. She was taller was Jack, though she looked at neither Jack or Calvin, but at Nia, who had just returned to her seat beside Cecilia. She was talking and poking Nia, ignoring everything else.

Tina had blue eyes and blue hair, a few shades lighter than Shea and Carla. She was bigger than Carla in both height and width. She wore a dark green dress. Unlike Cecilia, her eyes focused solely on Calvin, though Calvin didn't seem to notice nor talk with her, as he quickly returned to eating after introducing himself.

Dinner was a small bean burger, a vegetable soup and a couple of orange slices. Dessert was a banana smoothie. The meal had gone quietly, with Cecilia and Shea talking the most. Cecilia kept trying to get an answer from Nia or was simply toying with her while Shea acted like a lynchpin, preventing the dinner from taking an awkward silence. Jack spent much of the meal either eating or staring at Louis, making him feel uncomfortable, but Louis ignored it nonetheless. Amber ate her dinner quietly and quickly and excused herself once she finished. Louis and Amelia left with her.

The manor had three floors, though the second and third floors were primarily rooms. Amber brought them to their room, on the second floor, within the manor. On the door, the words Amber and Louis were written on a piece of paper hung by a string. Amelia threatened to tear down the note and replace Amber's name with her own.

The room was large, with a king sized bed against the left wall. The giant window with a great view of the garden outside and could be opened to reach the balcony. There were a few chairs and potted plants. However, the bathroom was not in the room but down at the furthest end of the hall. There were two sofas and a coffee table as well as bookshelves containing both books and games.

"Sis, cultivate on the bed. I'll teach Amber a new technique." Louis said, sitting on a couch, beside Amber.

"No, you spent all day with her already." Amelia said, sitting on the couch beside him. "Teach me a new technique too."

Louis gently hit her on the head. "I already taught you the technique. Each person only gets one. I'll help you once you breakthrough to the seventh layer. Do you want to be weaker than Carla?"

Amelia shook her head. "Fine. I'll do it, but you better promise." Amelia said, running to the bed without expecting an answer.

Louis sighed. "Alright," Louis said, looking at Amber. "You understand the main points of the technique, right?"

Amber nodded. "Stronger soul, capture flames, then make a sun."

Louis scrunched his brows. While that was the gist of it, the Nine Sun Yang Emperor technique was perhaps the technique with one of the harshest conditions to even reach the first realm. Putting gender bias aside, the technique required each cultivator to have some type of fire or yang related body. However, that was just a prerequisite. The harder part was using the soul to condense the flame within one's body into their lower dantian, hence the upper dantian must be opened first. One had to increase their soul strength from a young age in order to make this work and the upper dantian was unlike the lower dantian. Opening the lower dantian incorrectly meant becoming crippled at worst, but opening the upper dantian incorrectly meant instant death.

Luckily, the increase of the soul required to open the upper dantian was only difficult for those who have never trained their soul. Amber had been using his modified orb since she was one and perhaps used it just a little less than he had, so her soul was plenty strong. He just needed to create some pills to facilitate its growth and help her open her upper dantian.

Still, he struggled to explain the importance of the soul to a child. Forget her, the average adult had little understanding how the soul works. It wouldn't be until the sixth realm, where the soul condenses a nucleus, that understanding would increase and become turn from abstractions into something more tangible.

"That's incorrect." Louis said. "Do you know what a stronger soul means?"

Amber shook her head.

Louis racked his head for an example, preferably one related to fire. Something like a container for the fire, like a container made of spirit to contain the fire, like a spirit threshold to contain the fire. No, that was still abstract. He only recognized the spirit threshold when he broke through to the third realm and finally could use his soul to control his body, which was his threshold at the time. Something simpler would be like a container to hold water.

Louis grabbed the glass of water on the coffee table. "Alright, pretend this glass of water is your soul and the water in the glass is fire."

"The water cannot be a fire though." Amber said, interrupting.

Louis frowned. Was this still too theoretical? While she was correct in the literal sense, the abstract thoughts left a lot to be desired.

"Let's try something else. Put your hands over the cup." Louis said, putting his hands on her back. He poured a bit of his qi into Amber's body. "Now follow the light within your body and move your qi."

His qi eventually guided her qi to her hands and showed her how to emit her qi, which subsequently burnt the water.

"There. That's a cup of flaming water." Louis said. "Can you imagine a cup of fire now?"

Amber nodded repeatedly, more shocked and stoked about this newfound flame. Though not excited enough to keep her hands right above it, so she moved them away.

Louis moved back to his original seat and grabbed the cup. "Think of your soul like the glass and it holds the cup of fire. See how the fire stays within the glass, burning?" Louis brought his right hand to the rim of the cup and poured some of his wind element into it. The fire bursted into life and rocketed into a tower of flame nearly five inches high and the glass started to vibrate from the qi. "See how the cup isn't strong enough to hold the fire?" He put out the flames before the flames would shatter it. "If your soul isn't strong enough, you can't control the fire. Do you understand?"

"Will that happen to me?" Amber said, shivering.

Louis sighed, then hugged her. Perhaps his example induced too much fear. Hopefully she wouldn't take it too poorly. "Of course not. I'll be here to help you and we still have to get married, right?" He patted her back. "Deep, slow breaths."

When she finally calmed down, Louis said, "Use the orb and practice like you normally do. When my sisters leave and I'm done concocting pills for them, I'll make something to help you, alright?"

He started to meditate. His qi was in an even worse state than before and his stomach threatened to implode if food wasn't delivered to it. Sadly, there was only water here, so he took a few sips of water, to dampen his tongue, before he started to meditate. It would be slower without the array, but he could deal with it. He couldn't imagine getting any resources to concoct pills at this point in time, especially since his sisters would be leaving in a week.

When his qi was finally restored, Amelia and Amber were sleeping on the king size bed. Louis snuck into the other side of the bed before passing out.