It's been hours since Emil had gone back home.

At this point he was up and awake, deeply engrossed in his studies.

Apparently, for the Red stage alone, cultivation techniques didn't differ much in nature.

All they needed to do was absorb mana from the atmosphere. The speed and efficiency at which they did so determined the technique's Rank.

Emil dished out the newly purchased cultivation technique and started reading its instructions once he was done with the study book.

"Two Cycle Breathing technique, take a deep breath and pause midway through for five seconds and do it again once you're three fourths of the way through.

Upon taking the complete breath, keep it in for 2 seconds and exhale rapidly in six successions.

For the second cycle, breath in and out rapidly three times in a row before taking a deep breath."

That was it for the active cultivation variation.

The passive cultivation only required him to do the first cycle.

Emil tried the active cultivation first.

He spent about an hour trying to get the hangs of it.

After an hour, he started seeing results as mana entered his body along with each breath.

About ten minutes later, Emil opened his eyes, shocked.

"No way. I must've gotten the technique wrong."

He shook his head, dismissing his own thoughts.

The he tried again.

Ten minutes later, he opened his eyes with the same results.

"That can't be it?"

Another ten minutes, and another ten minutes.

He continued this process for an entire hour to confirm his doubts.

Still in disbelief, he started using only the first cycle to cultivate passively.

The results left him with even more questions.

He drew a few conclusions from his short experiment.

The active cultivation method of the two cycle breathing technique was much different from his nameless technique.

The rate at which he absorbed Mana was slower, way slower, it couldn't even compare. Because of said reason, it didn't take as heavy a toll on his body, allowing him to cultivate for an hour straight before hitting his limits.

But even then, the increment in mana was marginal compared to his 20 minutes of nameless technique cultivation.

Another thing was how he barely felt any pain even after exhausting himself through the method.

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Maybe it was because Emil's pain tolerance was high, but it was still nothing compared to the pressure the nameless technique put him under.

It could be because the technique he had was a tame one, or maybe that was how all breathing techniques worked. He had no way of telling beside referring to the book.

After flipping through it for a while, he found the relevant information.

Cultivating actively was indeed not supposed to be too painful for Knights.

Their core and bodies were put under stress which generated uncomfortable degrees of pain, but that's as far as it went. It wasn't supposed to torture its user like the nameless breathing technique did.

The next thing he noticed was regarding passive cultivation.

As his books mentioned, it was technically a watered down version of its active variation.

His body wasn't put under any stress but similarly, he didn't receive much cultivation base.

What surprised him was the fact that he more or less didn't feel his cultivation base increase at all.

The increments were supposed to be small yes, but not to this degree.

If he cultivated passively at this rate, it would take perhaps more than half a year for him to break through to the second order alone!

This speed wasn't quick at all, even for someone of his talents.

Either his talents were too low, something was wrong with the cultivation technique, or he needed ridiculous amounts of mana for each breakthrough. Much more than other magicians.

The first and second options were possible, but the third one was more likely.

The final thing Emil noticed was the difference between the nameless technique and the two cycle technique.

It was impossible.

Something like the nameless technique shouldn't work, not technically, not practically, not under any condition.

It was physiologically impossible.

Which only left him with one conclusion.

It wasn't about the technique. It was about him.

The technique wasn't special, in fact it wasn't even a technique. It just told him to take a really deep breath.

There must've been something different about his vessel which made cultivation possible through this method.

As such, he stopped trying to look for an answer to his passive cultivation dilemma within ordinary books and techniques.

He had to look for the answer within himself.

How did he cultivate exactly?

Emil took a deep breath and started seeing for himself, this time paying more attention to details than ever.

Emil exhaled deeply when the cycle was over.

He took yet another breath and completed another cycle.

He could still do it one more time.

Five more minutes passed before Emil hit his limits and exhaled.

Sprawled on the ground and panting like a dog, his mind spun at maximum capacity as he looked for an answer.

And an answer he did find.

The only purpose taking a deep breath served was sucking in the mana.

The reason he was able to suck in mana so easily to begin with was because he willed it.

He had free control of taking in mana with his every breath, all he needed to do was will it.

Similarly, if his conjecture was correct, all he need to do was decrease the volume he inhaled by a few dozen times or so, and he'd be able to cultivate passively.

An ability like having free control over the atmosphere's mana was unheard of, at least in the red stage.

Questions could be left for later, he needed answers right now.

Emil gathered himself and sat down again.

He was gonna attempt passive cultivation.

He took a normal breath, inhaling some amount of mana in the process.

*Cough*

He started coughing blood after a couple minutes.

Despite his efforts to keep the mana intake as low as possible, he still overestimated his capacity and inhaled too much.

Repeating the same mistake could be critical to him, so he tried inhaling as little mana as possible.

'it works!'

To Emil's pleasure, the method worked and he absorbed only a small amount of mana.

But it was too small, it technically had no effects on him.

What he had to do was increase the volume little by little until he found a sweet spot where he could refine mana with every breath without it being too little or too much.

An hour or so passed in this experiment, but it was eventually successful.

Opening his eyes with a grin almost ripping his mouth into two halves, he jumped from his spot and started cheering.

"Fuck Yeaaaaah, that's the shit baby. That's the shit!"

He was one step closer to his goals. He could cultivate 24/7 now. He was getting stronger every second he spent existing, nothing could bring greater joy to him than that.

*Growl*

It was already nighttime at this point and his stomach was growling.

After checking the time Emil headed outside to grab dinner.