"All right, that's enough speeches for today, I think it's time to turn the stage over to our guest of honor."

Realizing that the bishop had decided to give him the floor, Elder Zanord got up from the table and made his way to the pulpit.

During this short journey, he reflected on what he had to say. Bishop Ardul had persuaded him to give a lecture to a closed circle of especially devoted temple donors. But now Vareus Zanord was at a loss.

He could not give away anything particularly useful, since such information affected the interests of the sect. And he could face severe consequences if he said too much.

On the other hand, if he were to confine himself to the well-known platitudes, he could undermine the reputation of the sect in the city. But that was a trifle, what he was truly afraid of was disappointing Bishop Ardul, the most influential person on this side of the River Orn.

"Greetings to all gathered here. I am proud that this humble tournament organized by our sect has gathered so many brave young men and women. I'm sure great achievements await each of you on the path of cultivation."

The tournament participants and clan heads listened attentively to the elder. No one cared about his greeting and fake praise. A formality that did not do any good. They were all eager to hear the lecture for which the bishop had broken the long tradition of public speaking. They hoped to hear something of real value.

"The Venerable Bishop has asked me to act as your mentor this evening. I don't know any of you, so it will be difficult for me to give any specific advice. So we'll proceed as follows. I'll tell you how to form the three seals, and then I'll answer 3 questions from the clan heads and 3 questions from the tournament participants. I hope that's fine with everyone."

When he finished he turned first to the table where the honored clan heads and the bishop were sitting. Hoping to see the latter's approval. But the Bishop was absorbed in the contents of his plate and seemed not to hear Vareus' words. Feeling uncomfortable, he turned his gaze to the young men sitting a few feet away from him. 16 pairs of young eyes were full of anticipation and curiosity. Their enthusiasm gave Vareus a little encouragement and he began his lecture.

"As you all know the Emperor's complete legacy consists of 81 sigils.

Every citizen of the empire has access to 27 basic sigils. Which allow you to form three prismatic seals."

Pausing for a moment, Elder Zanord looked around at the clan heads sitting around the table.

"And yet, even among the heads of the honored clans, only two were able to form all three. The rest were unable to advance beyond the second seal."

The Iron Fist Sect Elder's words made almost all of the clan heads feel ashamed. At the same time, Velin and Yuver Tesal, both of whom had formed the third seal, were enjoying the feeling of superiority over the other clan leaders.

Elder Zanord shifted his gaze to the young men sitting in front of him.

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"I see that there are many among you who have not only formed the second seal at such a young age, but have advanced noticeably further, memorizing over 20 sigils. And you probably think that reaching the third step will be a mere trifle for you, a matter of a couple of years. But I'm afraid you're mistaken. Forming the third seal requires more qi than the first and second seals combined.

So it's not so important how fast you form the sigils. First of all, you must increase the supply of qi in your dantian. And this cannot be done without regularly practicing qi gathering techniques.

Don't forget that wielding a sword makes you a swordsman, and using sigils makes you a spellcaster. It is only by constantly practicing qi gathering techniques that makes you a cultivator. Unfortunately, many people forget this and stop cultivating after reaching a certain point."

Finishing his sentence, he turned towards the clan heads again.

"Many of you couldn't even memorize the 27 basic sigils. This is also due to a lack of qi. In order to memorize a sigil. You must recreate the magical pattern in your dantian using spiritual energy like ink. And if your ink runs out before the sigil is complete, all progress will be ruined and you will have to start over. It's a familiar situation, isn't it? The whole point is that the more sigils you have, the more qi each new sigil requires. And so by stopping developing your qi pool, and constantly cultivating, you've ruined your chance to form a third seal and reach the third rank. Although for some of you, there's still more to come."

The elder's last words made some of the clan leaders hesitate.

"But I'm sure this information wasn't a revelation to you. Well, let's get to the real valuable knowledge. The seal formation.

There are many factors that affect the success of seal formation. I will not list them all, most of them are extremely trivial. But there is one that few people take into account.

In the pursuit of combat power, many people try to learn elemental sigils such as fire, water, lightning, soil and ice as early as possible. And use them in your first seal. And you may think that this is no big deal, but that's only because the first seal is very easy to form. By the time you get to the third seal and you don't have a choice of which sigils you want to use for it, that's where you run into trouble.

The thing is that many of the sigils conflict with each other. Like fire and water, wood and iron, eagle and snake. The list goes on and on. The point is that the more conflicting sigils in your seal, the more difficult it will be for you to form and maintain it in your dantian. The higher the level of the seal, the more it's stability will be affected by how the sigils combine.

At the same time, if your seal is made up of sygils that complement each other, it will make the process of creating a seal a little easier.

For example, the sigils of water, wind, and lightning, when put together, reinforce each other and make the seal more harmonious and stable."

For most of those present, the information that sigils can conflict with each other was not new. But the fact that by choosing the right sigils one can strengthen the seal made everyone think.

This knowledge would definitely be an important element in the training of future generations of honored families.

"Remember, no matter how fast you form seals or memorize the 27 basic sigils. You should focus on cultivating qi gathering techniques first. And remember that you must not skip meditation. Living a mundane life you rarely expend your qi and you have no need to restore it. So immersed in your daily concerns you may go days or even weeks without returning to meditation. But because of this, your meridians may begin to degenerate and the effectiveness of qi gathering techniques will decrease for you."

Seeing that all the guests present in the hall were immersed in their own thoughts, Elder Zanord decided that his mission was over. Even such superficial knowledge was enough to impress the local elites.

"Well, you may now ask your questions. I think we'll start with the older generation, if no one minds."