He didn't know if he had been standing there for minutes or hours but considering that his grandfather hadn't said anything it shouldn't have been too long. What helped him recover from the shock was the realization that since he could only choose one cultivation technique for now then quality was king.

What was important now was actually deciding what technique he should start with, but how did you choose something like this?

After thinking about this issue for a few seconds he simply decided to start reading from the top left until he found one which he liked, or as his brothers liked to say, one that he "resonated" with.

The first technique was named "The enlightened farmer" and seemed to be a high quality technique as it was not only suitable for the first two major realms but if you achieved a major accomplishment in it then you would unlock a physique. Unfortunately this seemed to have been created more as a supplemental technique for farming as the physique would allow one to easily nurture spiritual herbs but if you didn't achieve perfection in the technique then you would be restricted to pure nature aligned plants. If this wasn't bad enough you would also have to spend your days attending plants if you wanted to progress at a reasonable rate. This technique was clearly out.

The second technique was named "A sturdy tree triumphs" and it was infinitely better. It didn't come with a physique but it would greatly strengthen your body and also allowed you to purify your Qi to a high extent. Sadly it seemed to be incomplete as the technique only reached the middle point of the second major realm and the text in it didn't mention a second volume to continue with when you had reached the end. Although this didn't mean that it was a bad technique, especially not for a beginner cultivator, but it focused to much on the basics and didn't have anything special about it which meant that it was sadly placed back in its place and then ignored by the young William.

Seeing William put aside the book quickly, upon seeing this Victor became a bit sad, but he quickly adjusted his expression to be a neutral smile.

The third technique didn't have a name and it was almost thrown down on the floor and stomped on by William, it was clearly the worst of them all. There were only two good things about it, the cultivation speed was extremely fast, even allowing a talented cultivator to reach the peak of the forth major realm in only a handful of years. The second good point was exactly that, it was suitable all the way until you reached the fifth major realm and had to create your nascent soul. The demerits on the other hand were numerous, one had to constantly nurture your body with the spiritual energy of the deep parts of a forest, if you practiced this technique you would have poor body strength and a very low Qi purity, it also had no special abilities nor did it grant any physique. But worst of all was that until you had reached a perfect mastery level with the technique you wouldn't be able to practice any other cultivation technique, it didn't help that it seemed to be despairingly complex, almost ensuring that you would be stuck at the peak of the fourth stage for decades trying to master it, and considering the low quality of it, unless you had divine luck on your side it was unlikely that you would ever be able to reach the fifth major realm with the poor foundation you were now stuck with.

William had never cultivated before but that did not mean he hadn't studied the records about cultivation that the clan had gathered on the first floor to prepare for today. He was almost a hundred percent sure that this technique was a trap prepared by his grandfather to see if he would be so blinded by the fast speed and the high realm that the technique would give you that he would ignore the numerous problems about it.

William sent a sidelong glance at his grandfather but Victor just stood to the side and observed him with a smile.

After this disappointment he almost didn't want to read the next book, but he would press on until he found a technique he was pleased with.

William continued reading the different books until the sun started to set and his stomach growled. But he had still not found a technique that resonated with him like his brothers had. The bookshelf held a deceptive large amount of books. When he first saw the two bookshelves he had started to despair from the low amount of books, but now he was fearing what would come the next few days, as after a whole day he had only managed to read a fifth of all the books on one of the bookshelves. The journey to find his cultivation technique was going to be a long one.

----------------------------------------

After spending the whole day reading Williams eight year old brain seemed to have shut down for the day and this lead to him having a hard time paying any attention during dinner as his brain was overwhelmed by everything he had read today. William barely even noticed that his father was still missing from their dinner table, apparently he was still busy trying to help the soldiers and knights organize their excursion into the forbidden forest in the clans territory.

Seeing his lack of energy his brothers all wore sympathetic expressions, they still remembered their own trials in trying to find a good cultivation technique, how they had started the day filled with energy and then without them noticing half a week had passed.

It was important to know that just because their library held an impressive amount of techniques that did not mean all of them where good, in fact most of them were quite bad. Even so it would have been a waste to simply discard those books as every single technique, even the bad ones had only managed to be developed after an immense amount of effort was put into it. They could also not follow in the higher level sects footsteps who kept the lower level techniques underground, only taking them out when some Elder wanted to research them. Doing so would just make them lose face if they ever invited a visitor to their library and they only had a handful of bookshelves filled with books while the rest of the library was simply collecting dust, at that point why even have a library? Just have a small room with the books in there. But as a prodigious clan of the kingdom how could they not have something as basic as a library to hold their techniques. This was a problem that came with being a new clan but still being famous enough that there were certain expectations from them.

This was a shameful topic in their clan, and one their clan spent quite some effort in trying to fix. Their uncle was almost constantly exploring some ruins, trying to dig up lost artifacts and techniques in them, their grandfather had also levied his authority within the kingdom to gather valuable techniques before retiring from his position. Infact ,without their efforts the library would have been truly shameful.

----------------------------------------

A new day, a new effort. Today William was not filled with as much energy and so he followed the regular schedule of being waked up by a servant and being helped getting dressed before following them to eat breakfast. Like most days, he was the last to enter the chamber.

While last nights dinner had been spent in an exhausted state this breakfast was instead spent planning how to maximize his efficiency during the day. He was completely wrapped in his own thoughts to the point that he missed the fact that his oldest brother was not present for breakfast.

----------------------------------------

William and Victor was greeted by a library attendant upon entering the library. A Young man with brown eyes, an attractive face and black hair tied up in a ponytail which reached his shoulders.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Seeing him William was surprised for a moment since the caretakers of the library kept to themselves unless you started the interaction. This was when his grandfather told him he had to leave.

"Sorry William, I have to leave and help your father and brother. There were a change in plans, the kingdoms army have been ordered to build an outpost on the edge of the forbidden area of the Suh forest. So I will leave you in the hands of Amin here."

William upon hearing this was disappointed but he couldn't be selfish and try to keep him here when he was needed elsewhere. Besides the only real reason he followed him was to keep him from picking any faulty or dumb cultivation technique that would hinder him in the future and any experienced adult could do the that. On the positive side, a library attendant who spent their days working in the library would probably know more about the different techniques in the library compared to his grandfather who had completed his cultivation and would now only enter it when helping someone else.

After saying goodbye to his grandfather he followed Amin up the stairs to the second floor, but unlike yesterday when he simply stood between two bookshelf and kept reading them, today he was taken to a private room.

The private room had three massive bookshelves standing against the walls and one slightly smaller standing against the wall with the entrance in it, this one only being smaller then the others to not block the door. In the middle was a wooden desk with drawers built into it on the left aside of, there were some papers on it and a comfortable chair next to it. At the roof was a single crystal keeping the whole room bright enough to read without straining your eyes.

This was a setup to ensure that one could read the whole day without being disturbed. If one didn't mind the slight claustrophobic feeling as well as the isolation then it would be perfect.

Amin guided William to the table before explaining more

"This room has been filled with all your suitable cultivation techniques and on the table there is a list of all the cultivation techniques and a short description about them, they are sorted into different grades starting from the inferior-level spiritual grade and ending at the highest grade we currently have available for you, low-level ethereal grade. There are tools made for taking notes inside the drawers. I will serve you lunch when it's ready so you can focus completely on studying the different techniques and the task of choosing a suitable technique. I will be just outside if you have any questions, make sure to get me when you have decided your cultivation technique."

"Alright, thank you."

William was slightly overwhelmed by the formal aura exuding from Among, only being able to respond with a thank you.

Hearing this Amin seem to think his job done for now as he gave a slight bow before leaving William alone.

William hadn't noticed it before but when he sat down he realized how isolating the room truly was, there wasn't even any way to figure out what time of day it was.

"...."

Checking the list he saw that there were some names of different cultivation techniques with a line across for some reason. It wasn't before he checked the third paper with these that he understood that these were the books he had read yesterday. Looking up he saw that all of these books had been moved to the bookshelf on the left side.

Seeing how he could take notes now he took out some paper and started to make three lists. One for this techniques he would never use, another for this he would think about and the last for his favorites, the last list was disheartening empty.

----------------------------------------

Two days passed like this, reading about the techniques before deciding if they were worth the effort, those he liked or the higher grade one he found were inspected further before he decided what list they would end up on. This continued until the afternoon of the third day, there were now six papers on the desk. Three of the papers were filled to the brim with different scrawled on names, if an empath were to hold these three papers they would be able to feel the pure hatred that some names on these lists had been written with. These were the discarded techniques.

Then there were one and a half papers, these were the ones that were good but didn't manage to spark his interest in any way, in fact most of these were just different variations of basic techniques that focused on strengthening the body or the purity of Qi, or the rare ones who managed to do both. While most of them didn't have anything special about them they were still overall decent techniques.

The last paper was the most the most cherished paper, but also the most infuriating one for William. This list only held four names on it. This was simply a tragedy! So many different techniques but only four of them were interesting, well that was a lie, only three of them were interesting, he had been forced by his conscience to add the last one on the list.

The first on the list was named "A devious rose". A name more suitable for a lady cultivator compared to a young master of a clan famous for its Swordsmanship. This technique had a high purity of Qi, but best of all was the ability and physique one unlocked. After reaching major accomplishment in it you would be able to start to freely manipulate even peak-level spiritual grade poisons. After perfecting it one would be immune to any poison under the mid-level mystic grade poisons and you could even generate high-level spiritual grade poisons inside your own body. This technique was suitable to the middle of the forth major realm, the core formation realm and if you were lucky you would be able to attain the rare poison alignment after cultivating it to that realm and also perfecting it.

The second was slightly worse. It was called "A shadow in the forest". This technique strengthen the users body a good amount and also made the practitioner have a decently pure Qi. It also came with the ability to blend in with the forest if you achieved even just a minor accomplishment in it, and if you perfected it then you would also get the second ability of allowing you to partially merge with the forest and move throughout it like a specter. It was simply speaking a movement technique weaved into a cultivation technique, a take two for the price of one. It also allowed one cultivate to the peak of the third major realm, the spiritual root nurturing realm. But the reason it was second on the list was simply because according to the notes about it, the clan had the second volume of this technique which would further strengthen it and also allow the user to cultivate further with it. The note didn't say to what realm the second volume would allow you to cultivate but presumably it would at least allow you to cultivate to the peak of the fifth major realm, the nascent soul realm.

The third was called "A murky swamp" whoever created this one was deceptively straightforward. This one had the highest purity of Qi out of them all it would also allow you to learn and utilize illusion techniques and also set up some basic illusion formations. It would also if perfected allow the user gain the water alignment and if they were lucky they could also get the mist alignment. It was the one who allowed for the furthest cultivation development, until the middle of the fifth major realm. The only reason it was third was purely because William didn't have much interest in illusions.

While not the best techniques in the world they were all undoubtedly great techniques, something that a newly established clan had absolutely no right to own. They were something that a powerful sect would carefully guard and would be an unparalleled treasure in any middle sized sect.

All of this made the last technique stand out like a sore thumb.

The last technique on the list was called "Heart of the forest". It gave the user a average boost in body strength and a average Qi purity. It was suitable to cultivate with until the peak of the second major realm and if you achieved a major accomplishment in it then it would allow the user to sense plants, additionally if you perfected it and meditated in a forest you would be able to communicate with the surrounding forest. The book didn't specify to what degree you would be able to communicate with the forest but considering how these techniques usually bragged about their abilities while this book was seemingly embarrassed over this ability this was already a red sign but combined with the low overall grade of the technique it was clear that you shouldn't hold any expectations from it.

Worst of all was the fact that this sort of ability was highly valued by the clan simply because they lived near a forest that held a forbidden zone in it. This had lead to the clan trading and researching techniques to allow one to communicate with their surrounding nature, this in turn lead to the clan having several high grade utility techniques that were better than the ability given by the "Heart of the forest".

So why was this technique here? It was simply because William had "resonated" with this cultivation technique. Resonated happened when ones soul was "in synch" with something, if one were to compare it to relationships then it would be akin to a soulmate, a perfect match. This allowed them to push it further and gain even more from it.

He could of course lie to his family and say that he hadn't resonated with any technique and simply choose one of the other techniques. But his conscience wouldn't allow him to do that, his grandfather had never ordered him to do anything, there was of course one exception. Ever since William started preparing to cultivate his grandfather had always said that if he ever "resonated" with something that he should take it and learn it, and if he couldn't for some reason take it or learn it then he should come and report the issue to his grandfather. It didn't help that all his brothers had "resonated" with their cultivation technique.

The combination of Williams conscious and refusal to be outdone and left behind by his brothers made him choose "Heart of the forest".

Every step towards the door felt heavy but he would stand by his choice, even if his heart broke and tears now crawled down his face.