Desire for Strength (1)

That morning, William had broken the routine, dragging Elias out to the outer disciple area instead of doing the usual exercise.

Waiting for them were the usual gang, who had immediately bowed down with utmost respect upon noticing Elias.

"Please teach us!"

"..."

Understandably confused, the fourth prince turned to William while pointing at his friends' antics.

"They said they want to get stronger."

"Then follow the instructors' words and train hard..."

"Well, I mean, you've helped me with my training when even instructor Robert didn't know what to do. I thought... maybe you know some hints to help them as well?"

"...This and that is a different story."

William clapped his hands, and then bowed down as well.

"Please! I'm begging you!"

"We're begging you!"

Seeing six kids at the verge of kowtowing, Elias began to grow irritated. He let out a tired sigh.

"You guys have no pride... fine. Get me a secluded area."

"T-thank you!"

The bunch quickly scrambled out, scouting a potential area for their 'secret training'. Meanwhile, William...

"Thanks, man! I'll get you more oranges... err, no, pears, later!"

"No, wait, don't steal fruits anymore!"

Seriously, that granny gardener would be skinning this kid alive if he continued!

---

The group had decided to use a relatively small training ground at the far corner of the outer disciple area. It was quite a distance to travel, but at the same time, not many people bothered to use it unless other training grounds were already occupied.

The lousy, barely maintained condition of the training ground was a bit... unfit for a serious training, but they wouldn't be there for long anyway, so it was acceptable.

Aside from finding a secluded ground, Elias also ordered the kids to find a bucket of water, a wooden block, a small knife, and a pile of dirt. He also had a small bonfire started. After that, they arranged these five things in a circle.

"What's this?" Sean asked, curiosity apparent in his eyes.

Elias just smiled as a reply.

"Are you guys familiar with the five elements?"

"I've heard it from my father," Gilbert raised his hand. "Fire, water, earth, wood, and metal, right? Ah-"

He realized that those items were representatives of the elements!

"Hmmhm," Elias nodded. "It is an important concept in geomancy, but also applicable to cultivation. Every practitioners are different, but the attributes they have strong affinity with will affect their cultivation in one way or another. That would be the first thing that we should check."

He pointed at the center of the circle.

"Each of you will sit over here and gather qi. We'll know your attribute from there."

"Then, I'll try first."

Volunteering as tribute, Gilbert sat cross-legged at the middle. He began to gather qi in the air.

He went on for a full minute until Elias suddenly stopped him.

"That's enough. You have affinity to both earth and metal element."

"Eh?"

'How can you tell?' everyone stared at Elias with that question hanging on their face.

"Look closely at the objects."

If they did observe meticulously, the pile of dirt had a tiny bit shaved off at the top, while the knife's blade had a spot of rust on its surface. Just a very small difference, but it signified that the element was affected by Gilbert's meditation.

Ah, but then-

"Yes, detecting someone's elemental affinity is an easy thing to do."

Elias confirmed their suspicion

In fact, some villages even used this method early on for their children. As for the sects in the continent, they used more elaborate artifacts to get a more accurate readings.

"So I'm leaning toward two elements, is that bad?" Gilbert pondered.

"On the contrary. The more elements you're close to, the less pure your cultivation will be. For example, sects like Blazing Sun sect has a very specific requirement for their disciples. They could only have affinity to three elements or less, and one of them have to be fire. Only those with pure fire element can be their core disciples."

Two elements were actually sign of great talent.

When Gilbert heard about it, he was overjoyed! He'd resigned to live with average talent, but it turned out that life still held surprises for him!

The others quickly followed suit, taking turns meditating in the circle.

The swordswoman, Cecily, had ended with four elements: earth, metal, water, and wood.

Surprisingly, both spear-users had three elements, although differing in one. The chubby one, Duncan, got earth, metal, and fire, while the taller one, Mace, got earth, metal, and water.

"My turn then!"

Sean sat in the circle, praying hard that he'd also get two elements like Gilbert. As he began to gather qi, however, the objects didn't show any changes at all.

"Attributeless," Elias remarked.

When he heard that, Sean was horrified.

"D-does that mean I'm no good?"

Elias shook his head.

"It just means that you're not affiliated with any elements in particular. There's not much difference elsewhere."

"Ah, phew..."

Good, that means it wasn't a problem!

Finally, everyone turned their attention to William, the one who'd reached the farthest in cultivation among their group.

"C'mon bro, show us which element you're good at!" Sean pushed him into the circle.

"Fine. Prepare to be amazed!"

He said jokingly, and then started to meditate.

However... the same thing happened. Out of all the five objects, not one of them showed any sign of change even after he meditated for a full minute.

Thus, Elias declared, "attributeless."

"Hah, we're the same, bro!" Sean slung his arm around William's neck, putting him in a mock headlock.

He was actually glad. William was by far the strongest among them. Since they were both attributeless, didn't that mean he had the potential to be like William one day?

"Alright, now that we've discovered our elements, what do they have to do with our cultivation?"

"Usually, none. However, since you guys want to get strong faster... you can begin cultivating in accordance to your respective elements."

Elias gestured at Gilbert to come closer. He then pointed at the kid's dantian location.

"Your metal element is greatly enhanced by your earth element, so it's better to focus on that. Imagine the qi coursing your meridian to move at a faster rate. Faster, until they cut as sharp as a blade. Give it a try."

Gilbert tried to circulate his qi as instructed. Albeit faint, he could feel that this technique allowed him to refine stronger qi than usual. If he continued...

"As for you," Elias pointed at Duncan, "for three elements, it's better to use the one at the start of the chain, so focus on your fire element. Your circulation should be done in explosive, short-term burst. Move quickly, then stop, then move again. Keep this up until you can gather more in one go compared to the usual, steady circulation."

The other spear-user, Mace, was to the contrary. He was to focus on earth element, with slow, steady flow that moves large amount of qi at once. This technique would also strengthen the capacity of his meridian at the same time.

With four elements, Cecily would have less benefit from this kind of focused cultivation. Nevertheless, Elias had instructed her to follow the same method as Gilbert. While she wouldn't advance as fast, at the very least her refinement would result in better quality.

"What about us attributeless, then?" Sean inquired, eager to get some kind of godlike cultivation method.

However, Elias just had to smash his hope down to the ground.

"Continue as usual. Attributeless people cultivate more-or-less like people with five elements."

That was, the current cultivation method handed by the instructors, just circulate qi stably by your own pace.

Sean dropped down on his knees, feeling that life was unfair...

"Your Majesty-"

"Elias is fine."

"Ah, uh..." Gilbert stumbled on his tongue, not sure whether it would be a good idea to call a royalty by name. When he glanced at William, the guy's just gave him a light nod.

...Fine. If his head fell, so be it.

"Err, Elias, Sir, why didn't the instructor tell us about his method? I could tell that this method of cultivation is more effective than the ones they gave us."

"Because it's useless in qi condensation stage."

Cultivating quickly wasn't always the best way to approach things. Sometimes, creating a quality foundation was important too. As Robert had told William before, in qi condensation stage, it was imperative that disciples didn't just expand their sea of qi but also learn how to control it to a finer degree.

This control would be required when breaking through to foundation establishment stage. It wasn't something that cultivation techniques could impart. Disciples had to feel this control slowly from everyday use.

"That's why, aside from gathering qi, have this boy teach you qi control," Elias pointed at William with his thumb. The latter just smiled wryly.

The other reason why instructors in royal academy didn't check for a disciple's elements, was because they operated differently from sects.

Sects taught their disciples very specific techniques privy to their sects. The early cultivation periods were mere preparation to learn those techniques in the future, and most disciples would end up more or less the same, just with differences in cultivation level.

However, the royal academy allowed disciples to shape their cultivation according to their talents. That was why they had less stringent requirement than sects. Elemental affinity test was just a tool to discover the more efficient path for disciples to take, not to weed out unsuitable recruits. As such, early cultivation in the royal academy was taught as broadly as possible, prioritizing choices over efficiency.

"Besides, a lot of disciples are already doing this kind of stuff, especially those from noble families. You just don't know since cultivation method can't be easily seen through."

Aside from innate talent, that could explain why noble children advanced so quickly!

"Dang... we're really left behind, aren't we?" Gilbert lamented.

"I told you, don't just look at ranks," Elias sighed.

Perhaps, it couldn't be helped for these ignorant kids. Cultivation level was too important for them to dismiss. Perhaps that mindset couldn't be changed so easily.

Anyway,

"Let's move on to the next topic. Cultivation pills."

With those words as a sign, William came over to his side and pulled out a pouch. Inside were five round pills. Their surface was rugged and painted black, while the smell was of various distinct herbs.

"You got five? We only got two each," Sean took out a similarly-designed pouch, although the size was way smaller.

"That's the difference between inner disciple and outer disciple. The quality of the pills is also somewhat different," Cecily commented bitterly.

Aside from facilities, the disciples in the royal academy were also provided with pills according to their cultivation stages. At elementary stage, they were given body tempering pills. At qi condensation stage, qi refinement pills. There were various other pills as well with differing qualities, special-tailored to address a disciple's need.

However, one common theme with all of them was: relying too much on them would mess up your cultivation. Unless it was absolutely necessary, a disciple shouldn't take more than what was allocated by their masters.

"These qi refinement pills can help you increase the quality of your qi, but if you consumed too much, it might end up breaking your sea of qi apart. So, be careful."

The kids gulped upon hearing Elias's warning.

"But, well... if we can get the highest-quality pills, you'll be able to take as much as you want."

"Eh? Why?"

"I think I have an idea," Gilbert remarked. "It's about the impurity in the pills or something... the higher the quality, the purer the pills become, and the side-effect would be less noticed."

"Correct," Elias nodded. "Right now, the academy can only afford low-quality pills for their outer disciples. If you want to be able to consume more, you'll need higher-quality ones, like William's."

"So... should we become inner disciples?" Sean said.

"That's one way to do it. For now, just continue cultivating like I've told you."

The group quickly searched for a nice corner to meditate, wanting to find out how much their new cultivation method would improve them. Meanwhile, Elias brought William to another corner, away from their range of hearing.

"What is it? Something that they can't know?"

"To get higher-quality pills, I've got an idea. But it'll have to rely on your effort."

Seeing that fox-like smile, William suddenly had a bad premonition.

"What do you say about getting closer to the Elders?"