“In combat amongst cultivators, your most important asset will never be your strength, nor your skill with a weapon.”
In the yard positioned directly behind his small palace, Auslen was standing obediently in front of Cedrick. Gentle gusts of wind blew gently through his tied up golden blonde hair and thin black training robes as he listened intently to his father's speech.
“Your most important asset will always be your speed and agility!
“If your opponent cannot touch you, any attack they release towards you'll be rendered completely ineffective. Additionally, you'll have a far simpler time dealing damage to an opponent slower than yourself.
“This is why your first Martial Technique will be the Phantom Steps Martial Technique.”
Auslen nodded his head.
He understood this logic, and he also preferred this type of mindset.
Cedrick reached into his black robes and pulled out a thin, rectangular, blue jade tablet. He held up the small piece of jade before placing it into Auslen’s hands.
Auslen looked curiously at the piece of blue jade, fingers brushing along the miniature glyphs inscribed onto its glistening surface as he noticed a pronounced cooling sensation flowing underneath his fingertips.
Cedrick explained, “Hold the jade slip to your forehead meridian, and stimulate it with a strand of Profound Qi.”
Auslen did as he was told, positioning the jade slip to the middle of his forehead.
With a simple intention, a strand of Profound Qi swiftly exited his Dantian and circulated through his body before settling within his glabella meridian.
The strand of Profound Qi began to vibrate rapidly, and the energy it released exited his pores, making contact with the jade slip in his fingers.
At that moment, Auslen felt as if his head was drug deep into a pool of thoughts and images, forcing him to close his eyes in surprise.
Words, movements, and experiences entered directly into his consciousness, as if he was remembering information that he had already learned in the past.
The jarring sensation only lasted for a few more moments.
Auslen sighed deeply before he opened his eyes, observing the piece of jade in astonishment as he flipped it around with his fingers.
“This is a jade slip. It can be used by cultivators to record a large variety of information.
“Once stimulated, another cultivator can rapidly absorb that information within moments, which is far faster than reading directly from a book or scroll. They are most often used to record extensive Cultivation Methods and Martial Techniques.”
As his father spoke, Auslen stopped staring at the jade slip and closed his eyes in concentration. He began reviewing the new information in his brain as the entirety of the Phantom Steps Martial Technique was quickly arranging itself within.
Phantom Steps was a Black Tier Martial Technique, which was one step above Yellow Tier.
From the information he received, Auslen now understood that the various tiers of Martial Techniques could be broken down into clearly definable categories.
Yellow Tier Martial Techniques had one relatively simple requirement to perform.
The only requisite was to successfully circulate a strand of Profound Qi through a path of specified meridians.
Its speed had to be quick enough so that the strand of Profound Qi didn’t exhaust itself within the Dao Roots before it could finish a complete circulation.
Profound Qi exhausted itself faster in lower grade Dao Roots and slower in higher grades.
The speed of both the circulation and exhaustion of Profound Qi could also be affected by the strength of the user’s Soul Force.
With all of that said, the difficulty of Yellow Tier Martial Techniques couldn't be considered high for any cultivator.
However, the difficulty increased greatly in Black Tier.
With Yellow Tier Martial Techniques, only one strand of Profound Qi was required, and the cultivator only had to focus on circulating that strand through one meridian pathway.
However, with Black Tier Martial Techniques, the cultivator had to split his attention to several strands of Profound Qi at once, propelling them through multiple meridian pathways at the exact same time!
In addition, they had to all maintain a certain speed standard, otherwise the Profound Qi would be wasted!
Auslen started to sweat a little as he mentally counted the number of simultaneous circulation pathways required for each stage of success.
Holy shit.
To completely master the Phantom Steps Martial Technique, he would have to simultaneously circulate, at the very least, 36 strands of Profound Qi through 36 separate meridian routes!
Thirty-six circulation pathways required the synchronized operation of the complete Dao Root system. How could the human brain achieve such a feat?!
Witnessing Auslen’s faint distress, Cedrick’s eyes shone in amusement for a brief moment.
He interrupted Auslen’s apprehension and said, “I can see that you've obtained a marginally adequate understanding of Phantom Steps.
“Don’t think too far ahead for now. As long as you take it one step at a time, you'll eventually find that splitting your focus isn't as difficult as you may think.”
Auslen opened his eyes as he breathed deeply at the difficulty of cultivation.
This Technique is only Black Tier. How difficult are the Earth and Heaven Tier Martial Techniques?
He nodded his head with a adorable smile to Cedrick and said, “I understand, Father.”
Cedrick nodded as he continued, “The Phantom Steps Martial Technique, as well as every other Martial Technique, is divided into three stages of success.
“The first is the Minor Success Stage.
“Second is the Major Success Stage.
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“And third is the Mastery Stage.”
Cedrick walked towards Auslen as he spoke, “For now, you'll focus on working your way to the Minor Success Stage. Now that you know the circulation pathways, I'll allow you to feel them in action.
“Close your eyes and try not to resist.”
While Auslen closed his eyes once more, Cedrick kneeled down in front of Auslen and placed his hand on Auslen’s chest.
Auslen could feel his three strands of Profound Qi slowly snaking their way out of his Dantian without his permission.
Somehow, Cedrick took direct control of Auslen’s Profound Qi!
Auslen focused internally as one strand began to circulate slowly within the meridians in his back, while the other two strands were making parallel circulations through complicated pathways in his arms and down to his legs.
Changes began to occur in Auslen’s senses. He could feel his back and legs vibrating rhythmically.
Eventually the strands began to drastically accelerate.
In just a few moments, they were circulating through the three routes so fast, the strands did not seem to be moving at all. It was as if there were three unbelievably long Profound Qi strands that connected from end to end, sitting stagnant within his Dao Roots.
In this moment, Auslen felt several times lighter, as if a single step would send him shooting like a bullet into the sky.
Then, Cedrick gradually slowed the strands of Profound Qi to comprehensible speeds. Then, he guided them back into Auslen’s Dantian as he spoke.
“Now that you've truly experienced the correct circulation routes, you should have a much easier time practicing the Phantom Steps Martial Technique.
"I'll give you two hours of solitary practice time. In three, make your way to the Main Palace. I'll be waiting for you in the Weapons and Armaments Hall.”
As soon as he spoke his last word, his figure vanished, leaving behind a small gust of wind that glided across Auslen’s skin and hair as it rippled outwards.
Seeing his father’s disappearance, Auslen retracted his gaze and began focusing on the residual sensations that remained within his meridians.
When his father was guiding his Profound Qi, he could almost taste a seemingly important sense of enlightenment. Even now, that stifled feeling of eluded comprehension was like a piece of food lodged in between his front teeth.
Attempting to capture that sensation, Auslen focused on one strand of Profound Qi, leading it outside of his Dantian before beginning to circulate it through the meridians in his right arm and into his right leg.
The feeling was very seamless, and his control over the Profound Qi strand was nearly effortless as the strand winded and twirled along the pathway.
Once he felt comfortable with one, he decided to try and circulate an additional strand.
As he slowly mobilized the second strand of Profound Qi through the opposite arm and leg, he began to sweat with exertion as he quickly alternated his attention between the two strands.
After nearly five minutes of struggle, he was finally able to maintain a workable, nearly stable, dual Profound Qi circulation route.
However, he couldn't even successfully guide the third strand of Profound Qi outside of his Dantian before his previous two circulating routes fell apart, causing the two strands of Qi to dim by half as they made their way somewhat limply back into his Dantian.
Breathing hard in exasperation, due to the failed circulation that sapped much of his energy, Auslen was forced to salvage his presently nebulous balance while thinking through his immediate dilemma.
It was simply impossible to split the consciousness into multiple sections, at least not through the ordinary means he was familiar with! Other children from this world may be unaware of this, but this was common knowledge back on Earth.
Even if someone could theoretically accomplish multiple actions at once, it was only due to the fact that their awareness was jumping to each action at very quick speeds.
Even with his powerful soul, it would be very difficult to forcefully guide several strands of Profound Qi through such complicated pathways at the same time.
Sure, if it was only three strands of Profound Qi, he would eventually reach the Minor Success Stage. However, what about the Major Success Stage’s twelve strands? Or, the Mastery Stage’s thirty-six strands?
Moving Profound Qi isn’t like moving my arms and legs, of which I can operate simultaneously without thinking. The only reason even that is possible is because they are all connected to my —
Suddenly, the stifling feeling was gone.
Auslen had finally understood. He shouldn't have been thinking of operating them individually but all at once, as one unit!
For example, a human could operate each of their arms, legs, fingers, and toes without any effort. However, that wasn't because humans were consciously thinking about moving each arm, leg, finger, and toe at a time.
Instead, all they were considering was controlling their entire body as one moving part!
And Profound Qi, while seemingly separate from one another, was actually just as integrated with the human body as the fingers and toes. But, what connected them wasn't the muscles and ligaments, but the human awareness itself.
It was Soul Force!
Auslen’s eyes were dazed as he experienced a type of epiphany.
Without much thought from Auslen, his three strands of Profound Qi exited his Dantian simultaneously as they each began their own separate, but indistinctly connected circulation routes.
As the strands of Profound Qi began to quicken, Auslen once again noticed a slight vibrating sensation in his back and four appendages.
Auslen remembered the correct accompanying movements that were imprinted into his brain from the jade slip as he prepared his muscles to step forward.
However, just before he could take that step, the strands slowed to a halt as they dimmed nearly completely.
The strands slowly guided themselves back to Auslen’s Dantian, lacking the energy required to complete the Martial Technique even once.
Auslen was soaked in sweat and breathing harshly.
Balance utterly wasted, he sat down hard on the dewy grass, working diligently to regain control of his breathing.
Auslen could faintly sense tendrils of hunger beginning to gather within his abdomen. However, the hunger was almost completely overshadowed by his excitement of nearly reaching the Minor Success Stage!
Auslen allowed himself to fall back into the grass with a complicated sigh.
Until now, it seems that I've been greatly underestimating the importance of Soul Force.
Most young practitioners took several years to learn the most basic Yellow Tier Martial Techniques, due to the fact that their immature Soul Force made controlling Profound Qi difficult. Not to mention Black Tier Techniques, which could take decades for an ordinary practitioner to reach even the lowest stage of success.
Even Aiden, who could be considered to be quite talented, needed several years to touch that stage.
Auslen realized that, with his Soul Force, it would not take him even a week of practice before he was stably within the Minor Success Stage of the Phantom Steps Martial Technique!
Eventually, Auslen regained his calm, taking a deep breath before picking himself up to head back inside his side palace.
Once Auslen made his way through the back entrance doors, he couldn’t help but notice Vincent rushing towards him from down the hallway.
“Second Prince!”
As soon as the slightly panting Vincent arrived in front of Auslen, he hurriedly pulled out a white handkerchief and began wiping the sweat off of Auslen’s small face.
Witnessing Vincent’s somewhat frantic actions, Auslen gave the boy a faint, thankful smile.
“Thank you, Vincent! Has lunch been prepared?”
“Yes, Your Highness! Would you like to bathe first or eat first?”
Without even taking time to consider, Auslen replied, “Eat!”
Vincent softly laughed to himself before he led Auslen to the Dining Room.
Auslen glanced at Vincent’s back and thought to himself silently.
Hmm. Should I take Vincent with me to the Sect?
Auslen had truly grown comfortable having someone around that would take care of all his tedious matters, and he didn't want to give that up if he could help it.
However, because of Vincent's lackluster cultivation talent, it would be impossible for him to be accepted into the Five Profound Elements Sect as a disciple.
Actually, every servant in the Royal Palace was at least somewhat talented in regards to cultivation, for the purpose of better serving their masters as they grew stronger. Ordinary humans wouldn't be able to keep up with the needs of a cultivator.
The most significant benefits that servants received from their masters included Methods, Techniques and other auxiliary materials that would aid in their cultivation. That alone was their defining motivation for working for the Royal Family, as their talents could not allow them the opportunity to join a reputable sect.
Auslen had already asked his Father about this concern, so he understood that he was allowed to take one personal servant with him, as long as a certain price was paid.
In addition, as long as he provided Vincent with enough resources to quickly reach the 9th stage of Qi Refinement before the age of 18, he could even be accepted as a true disciple Five Profound Elements Sect!
The only issue was, could Auslen trust Vincent?
He had far too many secrets, and Vincent was bound to guess a few of them if he continued to follow by his side.
He greatly appreciated many things about Vincent, including his enthusiasm for his job, his mindfulness of Auslen’s implied boundaries, and his awareness to speak only at appropriate times.
Auslen truly didn't wish to be forced to do anything unbecoming to such a child in the instance that he, at some point, proved that he couldn't be trusted.
As Auslen continued to consider his options, Vincent innocently opened the Dining Hall doors for Auslen, his smiling face brilliant with emotion that only the young and naïve could produce.