Chapter 17: Cultivation realms

Dialogue "sample"

Thoughts 'Sample'

Techniques [sample]

Author notes -sample-

Chapter 17

Cultivation realms

There was only one week left before Siegfried had to go to the Magus Academy.

It's been one month and two weeks since his rebirth and his workout routine have paid off quite well. He went from massively overweight to just slightly chubby. If He keeps up the same routine, He should be back in perfect shape in less than two months.

Siegfried walked to his room and sat down in a lotus position. Then, He began to cultivate using the Revolving Phoenix technique.

Inside his soul realm was the small phoenix floating in the air. She hasn't woken up since the day she showed him her memories and gave him that technique. He had no idea how long it would take her to recover long enough to speak again. Whatever she did to cross into this world almost killed her.

Beneath the phoenix was a small pond of red water. Leaving aside the size, the water inside was very peculiar. It was composed of a smooth red color but instead, it was filled with many particles of different shades of red and orange that shone brightly. Those were high-purity yang energy particles.

Two weeks prior, Siegfried had completed the first big stage of body cultivation: body strengthening and entered the second stage: Energy gathering.

The third stage would be the 'spiritual vein opening'. The human body contains 64 spiritual veins capable of channeling and moving elemental energy through the body. Only nine of those are opened at birth. The rest have to be opened during this cultivation stage. The number of spiritual veins one can open will be determined by factors like natural talent or the quality of the cultivation technique.

The more you open, the easier you will be able to channel elemental energy and the more power you will be able to output with your moves.

The last known stage is core formation. This was considered the peak of his era and it was the realm that He previously reached.

During this stage, one must take all the elemental energy collected inside their body and condense it into a solid spherical core.

There are rumored to be higher realms. His parents brought some story books from the Great Yang continent that tell stories and legends about warriors capable of flying through the sky with their will alone and destroying entire mountains with a single move.

Those feats would only be accomplishable if one were to reach a much higher realm.

The cultivation technique passed down by the Phoenix only contains instructions up to the core formation realm. Considering the amazing origins of this technique is very likely that is incomplete.

Siegfried dare not to guess why would the Phoenix give him an incomplete technique, maybe it was a way to test him. That is something He will have to ask the next chance He has.

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During the afternoon, Siegfried went to the training grounds. The guards had already grown used to his presence there so they didn't bat an eye.

The leader of the household knights approached Siegfried to greet him.

"Milord" Ser Douglas gave a bow. "Your dedication to training is an inspiration to us, soldiers."

He gave the Young knight a look. Siegfried would admit that He was positively impressed with Ser Douglas, He was a very disciplined and loyal knight.

"Tell me, Ser Douglas. Would you like a spar today?"

Douglas was surprised by the offer. They had seen their Young lord training on the grounds every day for over a month. Most of the time, He would just do some generic physical training like running or lifting weights but in rare instances, they saw him doing weapon training.

Siegfried's weapon of choice was an odd one for them. A long spear. The signature weapon in Aglioso Statate was the long sword. It was the only weapon that knights trained in and most warriors in the State aspire to become knights one day so it was very rare to see people training in different weapons.

They didn't have any long spears in the manor, so the local smith had to create one for Siegfried when He made the request. It was a very simple design but well constructed. High-quality wood and a reinforced steel blade at the tip.

But the most surprising thing for them was not, their Lord's weapon of choice but the fact that He seemed to be already capable of using it with some finesse.

They didn't understand how could that be possible since no one in the Lancaster household could have taught him the art of the spear. But they knew better than to question their young Lord.

"Of course, Milord. It would be my honor to spar with you." Answered the knight.

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They moved to one of the empty arenas and prepared themselves. One of the other knights had offered to act as referee.

"Go ahead, Milord" Ser Douglas offered him the first move as a sign of respect.

'Let's see how far I can go at my current level.'

He adopted a charging posture with a low gravity center. He then circulated what little yang energy He could through his body and especially his legs.

"First stance: Point break!" He felt a wave of pain from the sudden stress but still managed to move fast enough to surprise an experienced knight.

Ser Douglas rose his shield to block the attack, but it wasn't that simple. Siegfried First Stance was fast but its most dangerous feature was the penetrating power.

The tip of the spear went through the shield and stabbed Douglas's arm. The wound was shallow since Siegfried was not able to emit the full power of that move yet. However, it was enough to force Douglas to lower the shield.

Siegfried took advantage of this, He removed the spear from the shield and stabbed again.

Douglas went to deflect the attack with his sword but didn't expect it to be faint.

Siegfried retrieved his spear, letting Douglas's sword pass before stabbing again, aiming for the knight's neck.

Siegfried placed the tip of his spear at Douglas's unprotected neck.

"Yield?"

"I-I yield, Milord. That was very impressive."

"I just got you by surprise. In a longer fight, I would lose ten times out of ten. Go get that wound checked, Sir Douglas."

Siegfried then turned to look at all of the guards and knights who were watching the spat.

"Who wants to go next?"