William was currently fully focused on cultivating. It had currently been five days since he received guidance from nature in how to improve his technique but it had stopped after guiding him an additional three times, on time for each day with no guidance the last two days. He didn't know why but his grandfather theorized that this chapter of the technique just couldn't be improved any more, something they could test when he broke into the next minor realm and had to move to chapter 2. William was conflicted in how to feel when he learned that the whispers could return soon, and soon it would be as he was currently at the peak stage of his current realm. The improvements had largely been focused on the speed of cultivation progression rather than the strength and Qi enhancing properties of the technique. His grandfather had said that the technique probably couldn't grow further in the enhancing department, but William had his own theory about that, he thought that the guidance focused on speed because he wanted to reach the third minor realm quickly. But he hadn't told his anyone about his ambition so they couldn't know. Besides, if his grandfather learned about his plan then he would surely get scolded. In Williams mind it didn't matter that he was focused on speed right now since he would have to practice the clans sword technique when he entered the "Dantian cleansing realm" which would improve his body, and he would eventually practice a technique that improved his Qi quality anyways so there was no need to focus on such things right now.
William was quite disappointed by today's training since he hadn't reached a breakthrough, but he was sure that he would reach the next realm tomorrow.
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When William entered the dinner room he was surprised by his grandfather and mother congratulating him.
"Congratulations William. How does the "Meridian cleansing realm" feel?"
"Good work sweetie! Your a little genius aren't you?"
William didn't understand a thing. Did he reach a breakthrough while washing his body after training?
Victor who saw Williams face laughed a little before starting to explain.
"What? Did you think that there would be a tribulation that you needed to overcome?"
William's mood was a mix of joy from being told that he had reached the next realm and embarrassment from being laughed at, of course he didn't think he would have to overcome a tribulation but he certainly thought he would feel it if he reached the next realm.
"No! I know that only cultivators of the third major realm face tribulations.... But I didn't feel like I had a breakthrough."
Victor laughed a bit before explaining things and asking a question.
"Don't worry, it's only at the second major realm when you have to worry about 'walls' and breakthroughs. That being said, what stage do you think you're at right now?"
When William saw how Victor smiled he felt like this was a trap question, luckily William had actually had time to study this before. Normally when one entered a new realm they would start at the initial stage, the only exception to this was the second minor realm. The first minor realm broke the barriers to the meridians by guiding Qi into them, but wouldn't it be a waste if the Qi just dissipated after entering the meridians? So the Qi that was in the meridians was then used to clean the meridians and the connection between them and the rest of the body. Of course the focus of the first minor realm was still breaking the barriers but most techniques nowadays could multitask enough that when one entered the second realm the cultivator could be in the early stage instead of the initial one. Since William knew this and seeing how his grandfather had asked such a thing could it be that he had gone even further?
"Am I in the middle stage!?"
Victor on the other hand became dumbfounded when he heard the answer. He had thought that since William didn't know about breakthroughs than he shouldn't know about how most user skipped the initial stage, even if he knew, Victor believed he would think that he entered the early stage.
Amelia was the one who answered while Victor was confused how his grandson had seen through him.
"Yes sweetie. It looks like you have just entered the middle stage. Congratulations, your father is going to be very shocked when he comes out of seclusion."
Hearing his mothers words while also seeing his grandfather being shocked from his answer he felt on top of the world.
The dinner was served after Aaric and Adalgar had sat down at the table. When William wondered where Harlin was he got told by Aaric that Harlin was currently breaking through to the next realm and wouldn't stop his training before midnight.
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When William entered the room to eat breakfast he saw that he was the last one there. After saying good morning and such the breakfast was quickly served. Breakfast was sausage mixed with herbs, some salad and a soup that also had herbs in it that would help resist the cold, not that it was cold enough that anyone but William needed that.
Harlin patted Williams head before he left to deepen his insight into his new realm. As he was now in the last minor realm of the "Qi condensing realm" the time he needed to cultivate for to progress had increased by a large amount and so the time they could see each other would shrink, even if they still ate with each other everyday.
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The first minor realm had been about breaking down the barriers, but the second was about purifying his meridians with Qi to allow his body to actively use the Qi in them. But he ultimately didn't have any real Qi in his body, excluding the Qi found naturally in everything, and he still wasn't at a realm were he could move Qi with only mental commands, all of this meant that little had changed. He still had too move his body in different create movements that when linked together became patterns and drew Qi into his body. The difference now was that the previous 'pressure' that he had felt was several times stronger. William only now realized that the pressure had been Qi cleaning him from impurities that blocked them, previously he had only thought that the feeling was because his meridians were unused to having so much Qi flowing in them.
The movements were different but clearly related as William even recognized some of them from the previous realm. William quickly sank into a calm practice without thinking about much of anything.
William soon realized another difference. He could almost 'hear' the 'whispers' and the longer he trained the more clear it became, but this time there wasn't any instructions on how to improve his technique but they were instead guiding him how to perfectly move according to the technique.
When William stopped his training for the day the 'whispers' slowly faded until they stopped completely, previously they had come quickly, giving some instructions before quickly leaving, this time while fading the cohesion of the 'whispers' had disappeared and been replaced with different random sounds and meaningless words.
William could just ask his grandfather why the 'whispers' changed their behavior but William had come to realize something. Training had actually turned monotonous, it was simply unbearable continually doing the same movements over and over again. It was still something he did and his goal hadn't changed, but over the days the training had started to get more and more dull. So while he knew that the change had something to do with his new realm but this new change in the 'whispers' was still something he could analyse and think about while training since the reason "because you advanced s minor realm" wasn't good enough for him, this made him decide that he would simply not tell anyone about the change instead using it to alleviate the boredom.
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It was the second day of training in the new realm now. The whispers came to him immediately when he started training now, unfortunately, if he focused to much on the whispers than his training would slip and they would fade away.
It wasn't until the fourth day that William realized that his mindset was more important than his movements if he wanted to hear the 'whispers'. He could even lay on the ground and as long as he had a clear enough mind he could hear them, but in this state they were completely unfocused not giving him the slightest bit of guidance.
William still trained normally, he couldn't forget his original goal of surprising his father even if he sometimes thought that his current realm was enough for that. He was currently training at a rate that would make others call him a genius since in the middle of the third day the 'whispers' had changed from telling him how to better move according to the technique to telling him how to improve the technique.
Yet even if William was training, he had almost lost his motivation completely, he had decided that while he would continue training whatever realm he had when his father came back would be good enough. This lead to him not asking what stage he was at even if he could feel that most of his meridians now had been 'cleaned' and had built a good connection to his body. This connection allowed Qi to nourish and strengthen his body, something that he found out increased how long he could cultivate. At this point the 'whispers' had stopped helping him improve his technique and were now instead unfocused in what they were saying, it had become a sort of game for him, were he tried to understand or piece together something that made sense from the whispers, he had unfortunately failed so far.
William had now figured out why the whispers had changed. He believed that it was a combination of different things. The main reason why they were more constant and persisted when he trained and stopped his training respectively was because unknown to him at the time was that when he trained the second chapter he had depend his understanding and reached a minor accomplishment in it. The reason for the second change was quite obvious, the reason why the whispers were so unfocused was a combination of him not wanting any further guidance and also the second chapter being improved as much as it could be.
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After dinner was completed and William was going to go back to his room he was told by his grandfather to stay and talk with him. So now they were alone in the room simply looking at each other. After a while William couldn't bear the silence and asked what he wanted to talk about.
"Grandpa, was there something you needed me for?"
"What do you think about cultivating?"
William didn't really understand what Victor meant but he answered honestly.
"It's boring, just doing the same movements all day long."
Victor laughed when he heard the answer as if had been how he felt when he began cultivating.
"I still remember the early realms, they are as you say very boring, but they are still necessary. But don't worry, the later realms are better."
"Really, don't you have to practice the higher realms longer?"
"You will have to train in them longer but they will also be more fun as they are more specialized to you, making them more fun."
William didn't know if he believed that but he still nodded. Victor saw through him but didn't bring it up instead congratulating him before ending the conversation with a question.
"Well I won't keep you much longer. Congratulations on entering the peak of the 'Meridian cleansing realm'. Now normally I ask this question to older people but with your cultivation speed I feel the need to ask it now, don't feel pressured to answer it right now just keep it in your mind when cultivating. Why do you cultivate and what do you want to achieve by cultivating?"