017 Cultivation technique

"That was amazing, wasn't it?" Liam said excitedly to Ralph and Aria.

"Don't get to exited. Everyone who's not a friend is an enemy in the cultivation world. Don't be happy that an enemy got stronger." Ralph said.

"You're always so dark, cheer up a bit. Not everything is life or death." Liam said as he was in a very good mood.

"Aria, me and Liam are going to check out the quest board since we're new here. Want to come along?" Ralph said to Aria.

"Really? No one really likes to hang around me if I don't fight for their team of faction." Aria said, a bit surprised that the two boys did not mind having her with them, when she didn't provide any sort of value.

The three, friends, started heading their way towards the quest boards that were located in another valley.

"We don't have a lot of options." Ralph looked a bit depressed.

"Cleaning around the sect. For first and second human realm cultivators only. ten credits a week. Manual labor by demand. 10 credits per week for third human realm. 25 credits per week for fourth human realm. 50 credits per week for fifth human realm. Hunting monsters in the sect's perimeter forests. 1 credit for first level beast core. 2 credits for second level beast core. 3 credits for third level beast core. 5 credits for fourth level beast core. 10 credits for fifth level beast core." Liam read out loud all of their options. Two options. Manual labor or beast hunting.

"These are more like jobs than quests. They just want us to work, make them money." Ralph said.

"We should hunt beasts, right? If I am able to kill just one fourth level beast a day, I will be earning 10 more credits than I will with the manual labor. I can kill more than one in a whole day." Liam was almost set on what he would do.

"Don't decide so quickly. It takes a team of four to five cultivators at the fourth human realm to safely kill a fourth level beast. That's because the beast body as well as their qi is at the fourth human realm. If you want more profits and take a smaller team, you are risking death." Ralph put Liam back in to reality.

"The real problem is most likely finding the beasts. I can imagine how the fifth human realm cultivators sweep the forest every so often. just to get a few extra credits. " Ralph quickly discarded Liam's whole plan.

Aria who was standing to the side was amazed by how much Ralph knew. "You are so wise." Aria said to him as she blushed a little.

Liam hadn't noticed it up until know, as he didn't know if it was normal or not, but Ralph knew a lot of things. Whenever Liam had some sort of question, from simple things that anyone should know, to more questionable topics. Ralph always had at least some sort of viable answer.

"How do you know so much?" Liam asked Ralph.

"Oh, I was just very interested in sects when I was younger. I wanted to be a sect leader. My knowledge only stretches so far." Ralph said and Liam did not know if he was being humble. His knowledge was not only on sects, Liam almost felt like he knew everything.

"So manual labor it is?" Liam asked Ralph for confirmation.

"Yes. It seems like we're starting tomorrow from 12 to 4. After classes and on the weekends, we work from 8 to 4, because we don't have classes. The rest of our free time we cultivate to become stronger. That's life at the sect.

"How will you cultivate. You can't but a cultivation technique. All of your income will be taken by that Riley guy from the Golden eagles. I will earn it eventually, I think it's smarter we use my credits to buy you a cultivation technique, then we can both earn to buy mine." Liam proposed a plan to Ralph.

"Don't worry about me. I already have a cultivation technique. I was keeping myself at the third human realm on purpose, remember? I have no need for that anymore. I will breakthrough tonight. Thank you for the offer, you're very kind brother." Ralph said to Liam.

"Brother?"

"We're brothers now." Ralph said to Liam as they started to head back with Aria.

"What is your element by the way." Liam asked Ralph.

"You know that is a very rude question. Knowing your opponent's element is a huge advantage." Ralph said sternly.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know." Liam said as he felt a bit bad.

Ralph burst out in laughter. "Didn't I just say we're brothers. Plus, that only really matters with the special elements. Mine is fire, what about yours." Ralph said.

"Water and you Aria, if you don't mind of course." Liam said.

"Metal, Molly here is also metal." Aria said, it seemed she often made her soul pet the center of any conversation, and she put it in front of her, for some reason.

"Soul pets always have the same element as their masters." Ralph added.

When they got back and Liam entered his own room to lay and relax a bit, he heard a familiar voice in his head.

"Hey kid, you've got it wrong." The hooded man from his sea of soul finally said something to him again. Before Liam could ask him anything the man said. "Your element isn't as simple as the basic water."

"What?" Liam couldn't really believe the hooded man. He could see the dark blue qi particles gravitate towards him, when he was in Coralopolis. They clearly came from the water.

The hooded man did not reply as he was deep in thought.

"He did say his cultivation technique was called spirit of the North Sea. If he is one of them." The hooded man's voice was shaking. "I can't get him angry at me."

"Your element is called the deep-sea element. Very similar to the water element but it's qi is a lot denser from the pressure in the deep sea. Also, that means it is a lot more rare and harder to cultivate in." The hooded man finally composed himself and told Liam.

"Does that mean I can't use the cultivation technique at the spirit hall?" Liam was feeling a bit depressed. He didn't know how to get stronger now.

"You can, but you don't need to. Use what I have taught you before. Do you see the rare dark blue particle that gets near you, always gravitates towards your body? You have somehow managed to develop a passive cultivation technique, if we want to speed it up, you have to focus. Look at the particles gravitating towards you, imagine a string pulling on them from them to you. Now focus and expand the range of those strings. every qi particle of the deep-sea element is yours." The hooded man seems incredibly talented in helping Liam learn new techniques, as Liam got the hang of it pretty quickly.

He was able to focus and expand the range from 1 meter to 3 meters in just an hour. Just as he was getting bored and planned to take a walk to ease his boredom, Ralph entered his room.

"The qi density is too low here. I read that in the training valley there are cultivation areas that focus on specific elements. The qi density there is as good as the top 10 000 house in the outer court peak. Want to come along?" Ralph asked Liam.

"Of course. That's just what I needed." Liam couldn't believe the timing. As even with his increased range, his cultivation was going really slowly. He had only gathered 7 drops and 6 of them were from the automatic collection in the days he spent with Ralph in the city.

Liam and Ralph made their way over to the training valley. Liam, yet again, couldn't believe the magnitude of the whole thing.

"All of this is just a part of the sect!?" Liam couldn't believe it. To Say it was huge, was an understatement. It had whole areas with live volcanos, a huge lake, that Liam thought was a sea. On the other side there were Rocky Mountains and mountains made of metal that breached the sky. Not to mention the forest with trees going half a kilometer in the sky.

Liam was very excited and went next to the lake that had a considerably more amount of deep-sea element qi particles. Ralph went somewhere in the volcano area, but they agreed to meet up at midnight so they can go back together.

"Kid, do you still have the herb from the cave." The hooded man spoke to Liam.

"Yea, It has never left me, why do you ask?" Liam said back, as it was very weird for the man to speak so much. He only spoke before when he wanted something from Liam, but Liam couldn't guess what he wanted this time.

"I have a surprise for you when you accumulate you maximum of 50 drops. " The man sounded very creepy and Liam did not know what to expect. None the less he continued cultivating away.

"At this rate I'll have fifty drops by the end of the week." Liam thought before he focused on his cultivation.