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10 - Cultivation

"What do you mean?", Jian Li said. She was stunned by how Jian Ye casually asked her to break the rope tightly bound around her legs.

"I want you to try and break these ropes. Use the pure inner energy of your muscles and the power of your mind. Don't think about anything except breaking these ropes."

"But how?" Jian Li was gradually losing hope as she felt the strength of the rope.

"Concentrate. Focus. Visualize yourself breaking out of the rope, feel your muscles flexing, and feel the raw power coursing through your body. Feel every strand of rope biting into your flesh as you try to break it apart.", Jian Ye calmly said, as if what she was saying was completely reasonable.

Either way, Jian Li did not want to disappoint her elder sister so she felt like she had to try her hardest no matter what. She closed her eyes and began to visualize herself breaking free of the ropes.

Jian Li flexed every muscle in her body, and she felt herself wriggling, trying to force herself free of the ropes that bound her. She opened her eyes and stared at the ropes as she felt like the knot had loosened. The rope did not break, but she could see it was slightly frayed.

"I can see the frayed parts of the rope! I can actually get out of this?", she thought to herself.

"Don't speed yourself up, stay calm and focused. You can do it."

She closed her eyes again, breathing steadily as she calmed herself down once more. She paused for a moment before suddenly jerking her knees forward, breaking the rope that bound them. She was free.

"See? What did I tell you?", Jian Ye said unsurprised.

"I did it!" Jian Li had never felt this strong in her previous body, so it felt exhilarating to be able to do that at 7 years old. She wondered what her limit would be when she got older.

"Well done! Are you ready to try something harder? Try breaking these."

Saying this, Jian Ye wasted no time and put a pair of metal handcuffs on her hands.

"Now focus, and try to break those."

Jian Li closed her eyes and concentrated again, trying to muster up the strength to break the handcuffs. She immediately felt dumb for trying as her wrists felt like they were on the verge of breaking. Jian Li sighed in defeat as she gave up.

"Everyone has a certain level of energy inside they can control, and it flows through them in a network known as the meridians.

If you learn to control that energy, you can do all kinds of things, like using Art for things like speed healing, slow the ageing process, improve your strength and so on.

Each person's cultivation level of the spirit and the body is different, ranging from barely any internal or external energy flow at all, to an energy flow so strong it might as well be considered godly." Jian Ye lectured as her fingertips started to glow silvery white.

Jian Ye lightly tapped the handcuffs with one of her fingers as they quickly dissolved into nothing.

"Right now, you are barely at the Mortal level in body cultivation and barely Earth level in soul cultivation. You can barely use your soul for anything though so we'll just say you are at the middle stages of the Mortal realm."

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"And what level are you at?", Jian Li said as she watched the holy glow recede from Jian Ye's fingers.

"I just reached the Heaven realm in body cultivation. And if you are wondering, the man from yesterday was at Earth level."

"And what's the highest level?"

"There is no highest level Li, the only limit that exists is the limit that you set for yourself. That being said, the highest level that I know of is the Sage level. Those that reach it are legendary figures that call the shots in Aihan and even our country of Alushan barely has had any over the years.", Jian Ye patiently explained.

Jian Li was slightly shocked. The evil wizard from before was almost at the same stage as her?

Was everyone in this world able to do awful things like he did whenever they felt like it? Just the thought of it made her insides crawl.

"Listen to me Li. You are only 7 years old but being at the Earth level at your young age is uncommon. However, don't get arrogant. Even though it's uncommon, it's not impossible. In fact-, "

"I know." Jian Li knew she had not done anything to deserve her cultivation, so it was hard for her to feel any sense of accomplishment and pride from hearing about how high it was.

And even if she had reached the Earth level, she knew she still had a lot more to go before she reached her sister's level. She was in her early thirties, there was no way Jian Li could quickly catch up to someone like her.

"Good, brother Wen will assist you with your soul cultivation and our family Art and I'll mainly help with your body cultivation and combat techniques." Jian Ye said.

"What's the difference between soul and body cultivation?" Jian Li asked curiously. She felt like she kind of understood it but had to get it clarified.

"The soul has to do with the energy flowing and circulating through your body, increasing its energy, externalizing your energy and such, while the body is just that, increasing your body's raw abilities. Your main focus should be soul cultivation since you have shown some talent in it, but it's beneficial to work on body cultivation as well."

"You should start your cultivation by meditating though. Do the same thing as you did earlier but this time, focus on the meridians around your body and just feel the energy flowing through them, try to get a sense of their rhythm and after that, try to make the energy flow smoother, faster and stronger. Meditating is beneficial to both the soul and body, but you have a slight advantage getting into it seeing as your soul is already at Earth level." Jian Ye explained while sitting down cross-legged again. Jian Li followed her lead.

As Jian Li sat down, she closed her eyes and began focusing on breathing. She found her rhythm as she continued to breathe and clear her thoughts. After a moment or two, she opened her eyes again to see that Jian Ye was gone.

Jian Li was now in a different but familiar-looking space. The place she was at still had the bottomless crystal clear water from before. But this time, instead of being stuck halfway inside the water, she sat on top of the water like it was solid ground. This was the exact same space she was at before she got reincarnated.

The man from before was absent though.

Jian Li stood up and walked around the giant lake for a couple of minutes, but nothing happened.

She was lost on how she got in there in the first place but thought that she might as well take in the scenery. The bright light was shining everywhere and the sky that she previously fell from still had white clouds.

"I came here because I meditated, so maybe I'll get back if I just sit down and do the same,", Jian Li thought to herself. As she sat down to meditate for a while longer, the atmosphere shifted and she felt like she was in a different place again.

"Your first meditation lasted for half an hour. Impressive,", Jian Li heard and as she opened her eyes, her eldest sister stood in front of her with a slight blue glow from the stone around her.

"Everybody has a different mind space they enter when truly entering meditation so I hope that yours was enjoyable. You could say that you visited the reflection of your soul", Jian Ye said.

"I know all of this is a lot to take in for one day, but we've got a lot to work on till we send you and Chen over to Banmian in a couple of years. Please tell me if you get overwhelmed." she cautioned as she saw Jian Li clench her hands.

Instead of feeling overwhelmed, however, Jian Li felt like her resolve was strengthened further. This was her chance to make sure that the things that occurred that day would never happen again. She would never allow something like that to ever happen again.