Chapter 5 – Starting the Cultivation Journey

As the kids were still beginning to learn, Haoran insisted they would recite the cultivation technique before they started trying to channel their Qi. Qi was the energy of this world, and practitioners used it to empower themselves, which was cultivation.

Cultivation had stages, starting from the first and growing higher with time. The higher one's stage, the stronger they'd become and the longer their life expectancy would be. Ken's goal was to enter the first stage.

"Recite the way you should channel the Qi in your body! Everyone at once!"

Haoran shouted at the students. From time to time he would peek quickly at Ken to make sure he was ok, and every time he saw him watching the kids with a curious gaze.

"First drink the Body Tempering Liquid!"

The kids shouted together the first step.

"Why?"

"To add Qi to our bodies!"

"Continue!"

"Second lay down and concentrate on channeling the Qi energy!"

"Third channel the energy from your intestine to your dantian!"

The kids continued to recite the technique in a descriptive way of where and how to channel the energy. First through the bones of the limbs, followed by the skin and the blood vessels.

After the limbs would come the torso's turn, and it followed the same sense. First, the skeleton would be refined with the Qi energy, then the skin, blood vessels, and eventually the organs. Last, came the skull and the brain.

Every step had to be followed extremely carefully and delicately since in case the energy went astray it could lead to injuries. While breaking a few bones or tearing the skin was painful, it was at least curable after a few weeks or months of healing.

However, things weren't always that simple. In case of breaking the bones, a shard could penetrate the cultivator's blood vessels and cause all kinds of complications.

The most dangerous part was refining the organs with the Qi energy. There, a deviation could easily lead to premature death. There was no need to mention the dangers of playing around with someone's brain.

For those reasons, Haoran forced the kids to memorize the contents and always made sure they remembered them, and that worked perfectly for Ken. He understood everything easily and even in the likely scenario that his parents will find babysitters after the event is over and won't take him back to class, he would remember the whole technique anyway.

He didn't know the average time needed for kids to advance, but it didn't matter; He'd just need to do it at his own pace and be done with it before turning six.

After the kids showed they still remember the technique by heart, they formed a line in front of Haoran and started approaching him one by one. Each kid would drink a cup of a liquid that Ken assumed was the Body Tempering Liquid and start channeling the energy carefully.

Haoran would make sure the first step of moving the Qi to the dantian went smoothly, and only then took a step to the side to let the kid lay down on the floor. The dantian was one's pool of Qi within the body.

Haoran moved spots every time to let each kid lay down in the spot where he drank the potion to prevent a situation in which a kid would lose their concentration while looking for a free spot.

Ken was impatient to try the technique, but he chose to wait.

'I don't know if my father would be able to sense it if I were to cultivate. The worst part is that the technique mentions you need to somehow add an external source of Qi to start the process, but not only do I have no way of putting my hands on the liquid, but I'm also unsure whether my body can survive drinking it.'

Ken was analyzing his situation again and thought about how to plan his future. Just by hearing the technique and watching the kids execute it, he thought of a couple of things that made no sense.

'I'm sure there are better ways and routes to channel the energy in my body. Another problem is that some of them won't fit well in my case as a baby since my body is undeveloped. I believe it will work in my favor since the refining process should be much less hurtful this way and everything is better when you do it at the beginning instead of patching up in the end.'

He decided to give the technique a try anyway and check if he could trace other ways to get Qi into his body. He planned to start cultivating the next time his parents would leave him alone with the outer disciples.

'I don't know whether the outer disciples can sense when someone cultivates nearby, but the chances they can't are much higher than those that an inner elder can't.'

He wondered for a moment why they let kids start practicing only that late and quickly came up with 2 possible answers.

'Either it's safe to drink the liquid only around that age, or they don't trust younger kids with such a risky technique. Younger kids might easily divert their attention and kill themselves by releasing their control over the Qi in their bodies. Or it might be both of those reasons.'

It seemed reasonable so he decided to keep planning for the near future.

'If the problem is not being able to ingest the liquid before turning 12, then my short journey is over before it even started. If the problem is their attention span, then it should be doable.'

The lesson ended a few hours later, and the kids made small progress in their cultivation journey. Ken estimated by the way the technique worked that they would need to go through this process for at least 2 years, and every moment of it would be painful.

The next day, to Ken's dismay, the event wasn't over, and his father brought him to the kids' lesson again. This time he only paid half attention and spent most of his time sleeping. He already remembered everything, and he could get nothing by watching the kids again.

On the fourth day, Ken was finally left in the hands of 2 female outer disciples, and he got his chance to try his hand at cultivation. Haoran was a bit disappointed at the lack of reaction of his son, as he was used to getting love from him all the time. However, he could only suck it up and go to teach the kids.

"See? He understands now that you aren't that special. Soon enough he will ask for my presence all the time."

Ken's mom said with a smug smile. She didn't know she was probably right, but for the wrong reasons. Ken decided to learn everything he could, and alchemy was included.

The girls made sure to feed him, clean him, and tuck him inside the blanket, and then started their conversation. After 4 months, they were already used to not having to keep an eye constantly on Ken, since he never made any problems.

As soon as the girls left him to sleep, he closed his eyes and tried to sense any Qi energy inside him as described in the manual. He already made a few changes in the manual that he deemed safe and necessary for his body, and planned on testing a few other changes after seeing the situation first.

'According to body scans of babies I've seen in my previous world, those adjustments should be fine.'

Even though his understanding ability was extraordinary, he wanted to be as careful as possible when altering something as risky as a cultivation manual that could result in his death with a single mistake.

'What is this? This is amazing! There's so much Qi in my body!'

Ken said inwardly, completely amazed. His body was full of Qi, and he felt that this Qi was much more tamed than described in the manual.

'Wait, it has a familiar feeling. I understand! It must be the energy that god put inside my body to naturally boost my brain and everything else. Most of it has been probably used during my development in the womb, and those must be the leftovers meant to sustain me for a few more years and maybe even develop my body a bit further.'

But the god's leftovers weren't leftovers for a baby. The amount of energy was amazing, and even if he used it for his cultivation, he believed he wouldn't finish more than 5-10% of the total amount.

Ken started carefully moving a bit of the energy according to the improved manual he created. He chose to start with his legs first, and he could feel the Qi refining and strengthening his bones.

'it's as I thought; since my bones are still relatively soft, the pain isn't as bad as the groans of the kids made it seem.'

Ken was satisfied with the results of his free session. It was like comparing adding something from the beginning and adding it after the product was finished; if you add it at the beginning, it's much faster, easier, more convenient, and even gives better results.

If anything, he thought it was a shame he couldn't do it still in the womb!

The days passed and Ken kept constantly upgrading his technique as he kept reaching new levels of understanding about his body and the way Qi worked. Expecting to understand it completely after a single superficial glace was far-fetched, but what he was doing wasn't that far off.