William didn't know if he should be happy or sad knowing that his technique was called trash by his grandfather, but at least it would help him greatly at the later realms. But if the ability to communicate with nature helped him more and more the higher one cultivated and if it was that great at the fifth and sixth realms then wouldn't it be heaven defying at the seventh realm?
"Grandpa, what about the seventh realm? Won't it be super useful then?"
"Not exactly. Tell me William. What do you know about the seventh realm?"
William had to think for a minute before he realized that he didn't know much about the seventh realm he didn't even know the proper name for it. He had heard that Victor and a few of the other elders of the clan was at this realm but he had also heard that they where done cultivating, not stuck in this realm but that they were done. Considering all of this he came to the conclusion that the seventh realm was the highest realm.
"Is it the last major realm for a cultivator?"
"Halfway correct. The Seventh realm is a realm only in name, a sort of placeholder to help categories cultivators. The sixth realm, the "heavenly rebirth realm" is the last realm, at least according to most non-sect cultivators. When a cultivator completes this realm they are, as the realm states reborn into a celestial."
William had also heard the word celestial but just as he couldn't find any other information about the higher realms he also couldn't find any information about what a celestial was. But he now had an opportunity to ask about it.
"Grandpa what is a celestial?"
Hearing this question Victor seem to be taken aback before realizing that even though he was speaking about some high tier information he was still at the end of the day talking to his eight year old grandchild. The last times he had been speaking about matters like this was when educating his own disciples and that usually happened when they were at the third major realm. The truth was, "celestial" was simply a title a cultivator gained when they completed their cultivation, this was common knowledge, the seventh realm was also just called the "celestial realm". This questions about common knowledge brought him out from his current mindset. Somewhere along he had been caught in a teaching mood and had simply rambled on and on. This was a perfect opportunity to break away from such serious topics and into more normal discussions, it was also about time for their food to be served so he decided to take this opportunity.
"Hmm... I don't know if I you are ready to hear that. Maybe we should wait until you are older."
"No I'm old enough. I have understood everything you have said so you can tell me now."
William lied outright, while Victor had dumbed down his explanation so that the young William could understand the parts that were the most important to his development, on the other hand William didn't understand much of the parts that weren't simplified. Victor saw trough the lie and William knew he failed but he refused to bow down, so there they sat, Victor with a knowing smile and William with his best poker face.
The door opened at this moment.
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Adalgar had been having a great day so far. He had recently gotten his hand on a suitable movement technique from the clan library. He didn't plan on changing his current technique, he had spent way to much effort in trying to learn it in secret for him to discard it, besides he still hadn't achieved what he wanted from it, no, he was simply using the other techniques for inspiration, and it had worked marvelously, he had taken another step forwards recently and he was now close to reaching a major accomplishment in it. But he still wasn't ready so for now he was moving to the dinner room to eat with his family, the energy from the herbs and other ingredients was great for his cultivation and he needed to be at the second major realm if he wanted to perfectly mastery the movement technique.
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As he entered the room he saw his grandfather having a staring competition with his younger brother. For some reason his brother was sitting in their mothers lap, something he had refused to do since he was six years old. Amelia was sitting with her chin on top of his brothers head, as they were sitting now her golden hair fell from her head and smoothly blended in with Williams hair when it reached his head. The difference was that Amelia's hair was longer and slightly more wavy.
It was quite an interesting sight as it now looked like Williams hair had grown to reach his stomach. Adalgar wanted to laugh when he saw this but because his brother was looking serious he held himself back. He wanted to know what was going on but his mother had closed her eyes and were seemingly just enjoying hugging her child. Next he looked towards his grandfather but he simply kept his eyes locked with Williams. Looking at Victors expression didn't help solve the question of what was going on either as his grandfather was almost always seen with a smile on his face, always looking like he was enjoying whatever was going on, and today was no different as he still wore a smile on his face. If he couldn't figure out what was going on by trying to look at the situation from outside then he might as well enter the room completely and try to ask what was going on.
As he approached the table he manage to catch his grandfathers eye as Victor now broke off the staring competition to look at him. When Victor looked towards Adelgar the smile he wore seemed like it grew wider. But before Adalgar could ask what was going on he got asked something from Victor.
"Tell me something Adalgar. What does the word celestial mean to you?"
A seemingly straightforward question with an obvious answer. The problem was that it was too straightforward for his liking, any random person could answer it, so the important part should be the second part of the question, specifically, what did the word celestial mean too him. His heart shock from a sudden realization.
Did his grandfather somehow learn that he was trying to learn a movement technique so that he could escape the clan grounds to explore the city down the mountain without having bodyguards surrounding him? That should be impossible right? He had heard that there were different ranks of celestials and that his grandfather was one of the best, but surely even he couldn't keep an constant eye on the whole clan grounds while also keeping up his day to day life. Better to be careful and slow down his training. But for how to handle the issue right now he didn't know. Probably best to just give a basic answer while pretending to be ignorant of the intention behind the second part of the question. He would have to spend the dinner keeping a eye on his grandfather to make sure if he knew something or not.
"A celestial is the title given to someone having undergone the heavenly rebirth and completed their cultivation. I have heard that there are different ranks of celestial but I don't know anything about them."
"Hmm. A good answer. Did you hear him William?"
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William was shocked when he heard Adalgar's answer. Victor had propped up it like it was some sort of great secret so why was the answer so basic? Was there more to this than simply a tittle? William became more and more sure that there was more to it than just being a title. After the whole discussion about high level realms how could it end with something so simple. William soon came to the perfect answer.
His grandfather had hesitated to tell him about celestials because Victor didn't know if he was mature enough to know it, and when Adalgar gave such a basic answer, his grandfather must have thought that since Adalgar wasn't mature enough to know the secrets of celestials than he who was the younger also wasn't mature enough to know those secrets. How could their profound discussion end like this? William had to learn the secrets of the celestials.
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Harlin had spent too much energy today trying to break into the next realm without much success, but it's not like breakthroughs happened just because you wanted it to. He was too exhausted to continue so he would retire for today and continue trying tomorrow, but he still needed to eat and sleep to recover his energy so he was moving towards the dinner room now.
As Harlin entered the room he saw his two younger brothers staring at their grandfather as if trying to drill him for information. His grandfather was quite harder to read since he simply smiled most of the time he, but over the years Harlin had figured out that there was some variations to his smile depending on his mood and right now he looked like he was very pleased with himself, like a child who had successfully pranked someone.
Looking at the situation Harlin now also noticed that William was sitting in Amelia's lap, he had overlooked that at first since in his view it hadn't been that long since William spent every meal family meal on her lap. But why was he sitting there now?
As he sat down on his chair the doors were opened and the servants brought forward todays dinner. It seemed like his father and older brother was still busy planing for the kingdoms new fortress in the forest.
William tried to escape his mother's embrace when he saw the meal being presented. Unfortunately Amelia seemed like she had decided that this was how they were going to eat todays meal. William soon relented since he wouldn't be able to escape with his own strength so his energy was better spent trying to dig out the secrets of celestials from his grandfather.