The Nature Of Cultivation

Alex followed his father out the backyard and to the small martial training area that his parent house had there. It was quite smaller than the main training areas of the clan, but was quite suitable for two people to train.

The training area was a round raised platform that was forty feet in diameter. A small walkway circled around the training platform.

A small stream surrounded the walkway, with flowers and medical plants of all sorts growing on the banks of the stream.

Lucas walked up onto the raised platform and walked to the center, before calmly sitting down in a meditative position. Alex followed his father's lead and sat opposite him, mimicking his seated posture.

Breathing in and out deeply a few times, Lucas sat there for quite some time before speaking out to Alex "Have you been successful in feeling the Qi in the air during your meditations?"

Alex, who was breathing in and out deeply in a similar manner as his father stopped for a second before responding "I don't know. I've only been in the Body Refinement realm for a week or so now. When I sit down to cultivate, I could feel the Qi inside my body but not outside but I think I feel something, but I can't be sure.

Sometimes I'll fall into a trance and realize my skin will start to tingle, like something is crawling over it, but other than that I haven't really felt anything."

Lucas looked at his son, a slight smile on his face as he responded "That tingle you're feeling is the surrounding Qi responding to you, almost like a summoning. Although you yourself weren't aware of it because your still weak, that's the first sign that you've begun to feel the Qi in the air. Most people take a few months to get to that stage, so you feeling the Qi only a week in is a very good thing."

Lucas paused for a while before continuing, "Your 'summoning' of Qi draws it to you, but you were unsure of what to do next, and that's why it felt like a tingle. You brought the Qi to your body, but then it just danced along your skin as it had nowhere else to go."

"After strengthening the body with the Qi the next step once you learn to summon the surrounding natural Qi is to draw it into your body, through your meridians, and into the area that your dantian will form. This step will also take a bit of time as you learn which parts of your body allow for this transfer of Qi from your skin to your dantian, but if you keep trying at it, you'll get the hang of it before long."

"Once you learn to draw Qi into your body, you must guide it to the exact location your dantian will form. This location is three fingers below your navel, and two fingers back. After repeating this process continuously, the Qi you have collected there will start to coalesce, and once you have stored enough Qi in this location, a point will naturally come when it condenses and converts into a dantian."

Lucas paused a while, letting his son soak in the information he had just imparted before continuing, "When you suddenly feel a surge of power flowing into your body from your dantian, that is the point that you will know you have successfully stepped into the Qi Gathering realm."

A resolute look flashed across Alex face at the mention of the Qi Gathering realm.

Lucas noticed this, but didn't say anything as he let Alex continue to digest the information he had given. After processing everything his father had said, Alex calmed down and started to focus on his surroundings.

Breathing out calmly, Alex focused his mind and slowly forgot about his surroundings, his father, and even himself. Emptiness filled Alex mind as he instinctively started to guide the surrounding Qi to his body.

A shocked look appeared on Lucas face as he watched Alex in front of him. "Is this a joke? He went into a fully meditative state just like that?" Lucas said nothing as he watched Alex cultivate. With his cultivation realm of Foundation, Barden could see the surrounding Qi slowly drift towards Alex, eventually stopping at this skin and swirling all around. Before long however, the Qi started to disappear.

The shock on Lucas face grew even more apparent as he muttered "He's absorbing Qi already? How heaven defying is my son? First he falls into a full meditative state which is something a cultivator can only pray for, and will be lucky to achieve a few times in their life, and then he starts absorbing Qi the same day as learning how to do so?"

Alex sat in that state for several hours before slowly opening his tranquil eyes. He took a few seconds to come to his senses before analyzing his body.

"Dad, I feel it. I finally feel some Qi where my dantian will form!" Alex called out to his father ecstatically.

"But I couldn't direct the Qi to it, do you know why?"

"Haha, of course you will not be able to direct the Qi to your dantian, you need first to reach the Body Refinement realm 9th stage, only then you will have the chance to condense a dantian." Lucas replied with a smile then he continued.

"But you aleardy have crossed the last barrier to become a Qi Gathering realm. Now all you need to do is reach the 9th stage of the Body refinement realm then keep absorbing Qi up until enough Qi collects to form a dantian. Here."

A book appeared in Lucas hand, at which point he handed it over to Alex.

"What's this?" asked Alex.

"Our clan's cultivation technique" replied Lucas with a serious expression. "This is one of the clan's most guarded secrets, and is one of the reasons for our regional supremacy. You can cultivate this, but you must make sure it never falls into enemy hands."

Alex grabbed the book with a serious expression. He opened it to the first page and began reading. The book detailed how to absorb Qi from the air, which acupoints to absorb the Qi through, and which meridians to guide the Qi to the dantian. It also contained a few other methods of improving cultivation speed.

It truly is one of the greatest feelings a man can experience. Now, before long you'll become a Qi Gathering cultivator, and once you become one you'll need to know how to keep advancing your cultivation steadily." Lucas said.

"You should know, but it doesn't hurt to tell you the Qi Gathering realm is also split into 9 stages.

If you want to progress in it you will need to absorb enough Qi into your dantian, with every realm the more Qi your dantian will need as it will grow in size."

Alwx intently listened to his father as Lucas explained everything he could to Alex.

"Another thing I want to mention is that to comprehend the nature of your Qi, there are two ways to go about it. One is through meditation as you had just done, and the other is to actively use your Qi from your dantian. Using Qi from your dantian will help you understand quicker, and the best way to do so is to fight."

Lucas paused for a while before looking at his son seriously and continuing, "This brings me to why I am allowing you to go out into the world. I understand your reasoning's, and I don't disagree with them. The fastest and most natural way for you to raise your strength is to fight. I know your mother doesn't want me telling you this, but the more intense a fight, the more your life is on the line during the fight, the faster your cultivation speed will be."

A confused look once again appeared on Alex face, but as he thought about his encounter with the Dark Panther, Alex started to understand what his father was trying to say.

"When fighting with your life on the line, your body will instinctively use the Qi from your dantian in the most efficient and optimal way in order to increase your odds of survival. Even if you are not consciously aware of it at the time you are fighting, being in this state of optimal Qi usage will subconsciously allow you to understand the nature of Qi faster than if you were just to meditate instead. Also, sometimes a bottleneck will never break loose no matter how much you meditate on it, and the only way to advance is to use your Qi in fights and become accustomed to using it."

All the teachings that Alex had been listening to were slowly starting to come together, allowing Alex to understand the big picture of the nature of cultivation.

"I think I understand. Thank you so much father" Alex replied with a face full of gratitude. His cultivation before today could be described as stumbling through the dark trying to find what he was looking for, whereas now he was on an illuminated path walking straight towards his goal.

"Now, one last thing I want to mention is in regards to your soul. nobody knows about this because there are no much Core Formation realm in this continent but I will tell you, when you break through to the Core Formation, you will awaken your nascent soul and it will form naturally. The heavenly laws themselves are responsible for forming your nascent soul.

When the time to breakthrough to the Core Formation realm you will have to undergone a tribulation called the transformation only by passing this tribulation can your Core be formed after it is formed every major realm you break through as well, your soul power will strengthen."

"Your soul exists now, but is in too weak a state to interact with. Your soul is useful for many things, but most let it strengthen naturally and don't focus on improving their soul power. This is mainly due to the potency of soul attacks. Attacking with the soul is much harder than defending with it. Unless you have some extremely lucky circumstances, your soul is very hard to improve on other than passively growing stronger as your cultivation grows stronger. Only those with variant souls focus on soul power, as they have a natural birth advantage that makes it worthwhile to do so. That's everything I want to say on that."

Lucas let his son contemplate everything that he talked about for quite some time before speaking up once more, "Now that you know all this, I will allow you to set out...on one condition."

To Be Continued...