11 Shea and Carla Visit

Once Louis reached the dining room, Shea beckoned him over. She turned around and left the room with Carla. Amelia was setting the table. She looked at Shea and Carla leaving, then had a puppy dog face as she faced Louis. Louis sighed and shook his head as he ran after Shea.

They ran to the treehouse on the other side of the garden, it was their secret hideout. Well, as secret as one could really make within their own garden. Carla climbed the tree at record speed, leaving Shea at the base and allowing Louis to catch up.

"What you call me for, sis?" Louis asked, panting. Strong as he may be, he was four years younger than Shea and three layers lower than her. "You should have come yesterday, if you wanted to play."

Shea shook her head. "Can't play today. Mother made me cultivate the entire day to prepare for the U-10 tournament."

"The U-10 tournament? Didn't you do that last year? What's there to worry about?"

"I called in sick last year." Shea said, clapping her hands. "But I can't do that again, since this is my last chance. Mother wants me to win, so I need help." She started climbing the ladder.

"So why is Carla coming along?"

"Well, you might as well help her too, since she is joining too."

"But she's two years younger than you."

"She skipped two grades, with Amelia." Shea said, puffing her cheeks. "They only let me skip one grade. So she is in grade 3, where they take part in the tournament too. We are going to Moonling County to do the first test and it'll take three months."

"Oh. When you leave?"

"In 10 days. So you gotta help us get stronger by then, so we don't lose."

"10 days. What do you expect to accomplish in 10 days?"

"Reach the second realm." Shea said, nonchalantly.

Louis climbed up the ladder then smacked Shea on her head. "You only have been cultivating for three years. You haven't reached the peak of the ninth layer. How do you expect to reach the second realm?"

"Nope. I'm at the peak now." Shea held out her hand and, although slight, the qi within her meridians poured out of her hands. "Help, help me." Shea said, rolling around the treehouse floor.

Carla was poking Shea was a leader stick, a giant stick made by Shea, for Shea, used by Shea. Whenever she had, only she could talk, though Carla and Amelia often used it to poke Shea whenever they got it.

Louis opened a book from the cabinet against the tree trunk. It had the cultivation technique that Shea and Carla cultivated recorded within it: Aquamarine. It was a technique purely strengthened one's spirit and elemental affinity for the first three realms, then focused on healing for the next six realms. Unlike the Nine Revolution Spirit-Body technique, which had many applications and specializations, those who cultivated Aquamarine would always have a weak body for their realm, however, their longevity and youthfulness would be much longer than normal.

Luckily, the requirements for breaking through to the second realm were much simpler, a certain water affinity and soul strength was required to be reached, then all the lower dantian just needed to be open to reach the second realm. The former two requirements were long achieved by Shea, over the last three years while opening the lower dantian simply needed time.

Louis placed the book back on the shelf. "You two should start cultivating using the orb, I'll fix the array to help you break through." Louis walked to the other side of the treehouse, which had three planks of wood covering an array. It was a much smaller array than the one Louis made yesterday, but it only needed to gather water elemental qi within the area, to make it fit for cultivating. There was a bigger array surrounding the tree house so Shea and Carla could stay within it without suffocating, and another elemental array on the other side for the wind element, for Amelia and Louis. All of these were crafted by Louis as well.

While the Water Element Gathering Array was good for cultivating, it wasn't as good as a Water Qi Pocket Array. Still, since the Water Element Gathering Array was the foundation of the Water Qi Pocket Array, it only required the addition of a few more lines and some runes to complete it, unlike the array he had to built from scratch. Within 10 minutes, he was finished and called Shea over.

"Sis, sit in the circle." Louis said, as he was inscribing a few more seals for extra protection. "Getting into the second realm for you won't necessarily be easy, but you have been preparing for all your life. You wouldn't let should a small hurdle stop you, will you?"

"Now way." Shea said, closing both hands into fists. "I can do this."

"Alright. In order for you to read the second realm, you need to open your lower dantian." Louis touched an inch under her navel. "The lower dantian is right here. You circulate your qi through it everyday, but it never collects within, since it's not open."

"So I just open it then?"

"No, it's like a river right now, but you need to make it a lake, an ocean, for it to collect the qi. Remember the small little canals and streams of qi that would leave your meridians as it passed through the lower dantian?"

"Yeah. You told me to ignore it."

"Well, it's time we look at it again. We are going to widen those small canals and streams until they all connect and create a giant lake." Louis said. "The first nine layers gradually strengthened them so they can expand, but you still need to take that final step to create it." Louis thought for a moment. "Just think of pushing each of the small streams and canals until it hits the dantian wall, then push the walls of the canals and streams so they hit the dantian wall too, then the lake will naturally form."

"Got it."

"Then I'll activate the formation, you can deactivate like you normally do when you are done. Don't rush and try to complete it all at once, the first day is the slowest."

"Alright."

Carla was on the other side of the treehouse, without an array. She was using the clay orb that Louis had crafted for her. While she didn't need it anymore to cultivate, it still would provide her a tiny bit of a boost until she reached the third realm, albeit slowly. Once Louis approached, she opened her eyes.

"What's sister doing?" Carla asked.

"She's getting stronger, she's about to become much stronger."

"Poohey. I haven't beaten her yet." Carla squinted as she drew closer to Louis, getting into his face. "Amelia is stronger than me too, you cheater."

"I only help you and Shea when you two come over, so it's fair." Louis said, flicking her forehead. "How has music and dancing been going?"

"It's so hard. Mother made me dance from breakfast until dinner." Carla said, tearing up. "And today she said if I don't train all day, I have to dance all day tomorrow."

"I can only make an array for you, to train like normal. It'll be faster than training than the orb, but if you come back next weekend, I'll give you something real good that will help you, alright?"

Single element qi gathering arrays were all similar, with exception of the type of qi that they collect, which is mainly influenced by the qi used to operate it. To change a predominantly wind element array into a water one, however, required some of the foundational lines to be changed.

After completing the array, he left it up to Carla to do the rest.

Louis laid down on the bed in the treehouse. It was a bed made for an adult, which was more than enough for the four of them to relax on, when they weren't cultivating. Too many things had happened in the past few days. His sisters letting his secret slip was only a matter of time, so he never blamed it for him. But his mother and Elaine accepted him much better than he anticipated, pooling together silver for him to practice alchemy and array formations without questioning him. He probably didn't have to deal with Alexander anymore, but his father, Brian, was someone troublesome. An utterly shameless man, but he held a lot of political power and Louis was in no shape to contest him nor did he have many avenues of success leaving home.

Louis was simply too young and too weak, with no money nor property to his name. He was more disappointed with Brian, or perhaps he was naive, wanting a caring father. His mother wasn't the favorite concubine of his father this time around, but a woman neglected and caught within politics. This must have been the situation his former self's siblings must have experienced. His missed his wife, his daughters, his apprentices and his mother. He missed someone who he could talk on the same wavelength with, without the fear of hiding himself or having to simplify, choose or edit his words before he spoke them.

Furthermore, all three of his sisters would be leaving him soon for Moonling County to continue their studies. This would be the longest they would ever leave him since he had met them. He sighed and put those thoughts away. They weren't getting him anywhere.

He tried opening his upper dantian again, at least trying to see the situation inside, but he was rejected, heartlessly. His middle dantian now had a small fire, burning almost a quarter of the essence of life within it. It was hotter and bigger, and it would continue as he grown older and stronger. His lower dantian was closed. Unlike Aquamarine, it wouldn't open until he was breaking through to the third realm, since he wasn't a mage but a cultivator, a person who focused on body and mind. Although it was closed, however, it simply meant he couldn't access the qi within it, the lake had already formed, filled with primordial qi, like the finest feast for a starving man, within sight but out of reach. His soul can take a peek once in a while, but not for long and looking at it only upset him.

Louis shook his head and stood up, walking over to Shea. A dense layer of water, not much weaker than the purity and amount of qi he used to concoct pills with, surrounded her, creating a mist hiding her figure. Her soul, body and qi were all stable, so there wasn't anything to worry about, so he walked back to Carla. Carla was smiling with tears in her eyes as she whispered "faster, faster, stronger, stronger" but she was still cultivating properly. He sat down watching, not wanting to cultivate but too worried to leave or sleep.

Although neither Shea and Carla broke through today, they did make significant progress when they stopped for dinner.