Benton’s spiritual senses told him that Yang Ru was close to breaking into the second minor realm. Meanwhile, Yang Xiu had switched from meditation to running around the campsite, trying to get used to her new physical improvements.
It was still short of midday, but with both of them having advanced, Benton needed to sit the kids down to discuss next steps. He figured he might as well get lunch ready even if it was a little early.
Just before the food finished cooking, he got the notification he’d been expecting.
Host’s Disciple, Yang Ru, has reached Qi Gathering – Minor Realm Two
Host is awarded one Sect Point.
Host has 54 Sect Points available.
Curious to see if Yang Ru’s slightly inferior spiritual roots impacted his qi available, Benton scanned him with his senses and found that the boy had five just like his sister.
So far, the minor difference in the siblings’ root quality wasn’t having a huge impact. Without a clock, it was difficult to determine times exactly, but each of the siblings completed a cycle in just under a half hour, though it seemed like Yang Xiu did so slightly quicker. Yang Ru had required a few more cycles than his sister to break through, but Su’s memories said that the exact number needed tended to be variable.
After congratulating the young man on his breakthrough and explaining the consolidation process, Benton called Yang Xiu over, and they all sat down to eat.
“You both breezed through the first minor realm in half the time it would have taken the average sect disciple,” Benton said once they’d finished their meal. “Well done!”
Both siblings looked pleased at the praise, though Yang Xiu’s expression was much more demonstrative than the stoic Yang Ru’s.
“Part of that speed is your heaven defying talent. Not many cultivators have the natural ability that you two possess.” Benton hesitated. He preferred not to toot his own horn, but it was important that the siblings understood the full reason for their success. “As I had told you before, there will be both advantages and disadvantages to having me as a master. We’ll get to one of those drawbacks soon, but quite frankly, the other cause of your rapid advancement is the benefit of the uniquely attuned cultivation method that I provided you, that likely no other sect could have provided you.”
“Gratitude, Senior Brother Chao,” Yang Xiu said.
Ugh. Getting their thanks wasn’t why he’d brought it up.
“What do you think of the changes to your body and spirit?” he said to her.
“Answering Senior Brother Chao’s question, the changes are good.” She tried to hide her expression, but he could tell she was disappointed.
“You were expecting more, huh?”
“No, Senior Brother Chao. Becoming a cultivator is amazing. Sensing qi, taking it into my body, experiencing definite growth. It is all I could have wanted and more.”
“Uh, huh. You’re disappointed. I can tell.”
Her face fell. “This lowly disciple apologizes, Senior Brother Chao. It’s just … Senior Brother Chao is so fast and smooth when he moves. I was hoping… This lowly disciple is being silly. You have given us so much.”
She got down on her knees and kowtowed.
That girl! It had been quite some time since he’d had to deal with the wild emotional swings of a teenager. The experience brought back both good and bad memories.
“Please get up,” he said, trying to keep any hint of displeasure from his voice.
Apparently, he failed because, when she rose, her expression showed her devastation.
“Don’t you think I know what you’re feeling?” he said. “I told you I wasn’t much further along in cultivation than you are, and you see me doing these extraordinary things. It’s only natural for you to expect to be able to do those things yourself. And you will be able to. You’re just missing one component.”
His explanation hooked both her and her brother. Both looked at him expectantly.
“The beginning of your cultivation journey doesn’t change you much. You can sense qi and pull it into yourself and cycle it, but your dantian isn’t used to holding qi yet. Your channels are unexercised, unused to moving it around your body. The first minor realm is all about preparing your dantian and your channels for you to manipulate qi to your benefit. The breakthrough to the second stage is where you actually gain that ability.”
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The two still stared at him raptly, hanging on his every word. Good.
“As a cultivator who reached into the Foundation Establishment realm, I have years of experience moving my internal qi wherever I want to give me the result I desire. You two don’t have that experience. You require either a technique or many hours of directed practice.”
The next part was trickier to make them understand. Too many details would confuse them, but he wanted them to know what he had planned and why.
“Sects differ on how they handle this stage. A martial sect might give their disciples a movement technique but rely on training to teach weapons. Another sect might try to have disciples learn both a weapon technique and a movement technique. Some sects don’t allow Qi Gathering disciples to learn any techniques at all, believing that the best foundation is built by learning how to manipulate qi without any crutch.
“Honestly, I agree most with that latter philosophy, especially for disciples as talented as you two. If I had all the time in the world, I would spend months drilling you on how to manipulate internal qi. That approach gives you infinite flexibility. You wouldn’t need to rely on a technique to understand how to make your body move a certain way.”
He let out a frustrated breath. “Unfortunately, training in that way is just too slow. We are too weak as we are. I need to found a sect in order to realize my potential, and to do that, we must move on from this spot as soon as we can. That journey will take us through a territory teeming with spirit beasts, so for your safety, you both must learn a weapon quickly.
“Thus, I will be giving you each a weapon technique. Because I believe so strongly in the rewards of being flexible, however, I will not be giving you a movement technique.”
He held back a wince at that declaration. In the long run, the more techniques his sect members learned in the Qi Gathering realm, the more profit he’d make. On the other hand, there were only so many hours in a day. Time spent working on one technique was hours not spent cultivating or working on a different technique.
“As you learn how to manipulate qi to use your weapon, I expect you two shining stars to apply that knowledge to other aspects of combat, including movement.”
Benton pulled his System-given spear, bow, and quiver full of arrows from his spatial ring. “Soon after being inducted into my previous sect, all of us were brought to a huge armory where we could choose any weapon that resonated with us. They had more choices than you could imagine, from common ones like swords to esoteric ones like war fans and whips.”
He smiled at the memory. Su had really enjoyed that experience even though he’d ended up choosing a common longsword.
“This area is one in which being a part of a fledgling sect is a disadvantage,” Benton said. “I only have these two weapons right now, and honestly, it makes sense from a resource allocation standpoint to have all sect members focus on them.”
“Senior Brother Chao,” Yang Xiu said, “those weapons far exceed anything we could have ever hoped to use.”
He nodded in what he hoped was a sage manner. “I understand that perspective, but the lack of choice is still a disadvantage. It is important you understand both the strengths and weaknesses of our sect. Honest examination is key to advancing as a cultivator. If you refuse to acknowledge your flaws, you will not be able to move past them, and you will bottleneck or have those flaws exploited by an enemy. As it is with an individual cultivator so is it with a sect. You two are my core disciples. You are more than just random members. I will be relying on you to strengthen the sect in all ways.”
“Yes, Senior Brother Chao,” the two chorused.
“You two need to decide which of you are taking which of these weapons. Once you make that determination, I will distribute the appropriate technique to you. From this point onward, you should spend a minimum of one to four hours per day practicing the technique on top of your ten hours of cultivation. Understand?”
“Yes, Senior Brother Chao.”
“At first,” he said, “you will rapidly drain the available qi in your dantian, dissipating it to your muscles. You might fear that you’re somehow losing that qi. You aren’t. It will naturally return to your channels as you cultivate. You’ll need to practice for a little while, cultivate for a few cycles, practice again, cultivate again, and so forth. Your goal is to obtain the same boost to your muscles using less and less qi. Become efficient.”
He grinned, remembering Su’s early efforts. “My first time trying to channel qi for a punch, I flooded qi into my entire arm, which basically drained all the qi at my disposal. It took many hours of practice to learn to focus on just a single muscle. Then on a portion of that muscle. Then on just the tiniest bit of that muscle. Now, I only use what I absolutely must to gain the boost I need. I have confidence that the two of you will advance much faster than I did.”
“Yes, Senior Brother Chao.”
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Yang Xiu couldn’t believe how much her life had changed in such a short period of time. She’d gone from fearing for her life and almost starving to becoming a cultivator—an actual cultivator like those in the stories! She’d already broken through to the second minor realm!
And it was all due to her master. He was the best.
She did wish sometimes that he would just make decisions for them. Instead, he’d left it to her and her brother to determine which weapon each of them took. And she knew how that would go.
“I supposed you want the spear,” she said to Ru’er.
“Yes.”
It wasn’t like she had a burning desire for that particular weapon. Her dreams weren’t filled with spear combat. The problem was the principle of the thing.
“You want me far from the fight as possible so that you can protect me,” she said.
He grunted.
Though the two were the same age, her brother had always assumed the role of older, protective big brother, but those tendencies had ramped up to the level of obsession since their parents had been murdered. And honestly, she hadn’t minded. She’d needed all the protection she could get.
Things had changed, though. She was becoming powerful, and if whatever spiritual roots were actually served as an accurate predictor, she would in fact grow more powerful than him.
But she understood. Protecting her was her brother’s way of dealing with their parents’ deaths, deaths she had caused.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll take the bow.”