Damian stood and went to the small river near the library pagoda. There he submersed himself as he left the gunk to be washed away by the river. He took off his t-shirt and pants, remaining only in underwear. Damian noticed that whereas before; he was a little chubby; now he had a normal frame and even the outline of his muscles could be barely perceived. He washed his clothes in the river. The water washed away the gunk after some moments. However, part of the smell continued to impregnate the clothes, although bearable.

Damian put on his pants, remaining topless and seated in a meditative position beside the river. He continued to cultivate for like what felt like minutes, then the smell of gunk assaulted him again. Only this time it wasn't him, it was James, Celia, and Jack as they washed in the river. Damian understood that soon the river would be no place to have the clearness of mind required to cultivate.

So he stood and didn't return with his close family. After all, he still smelled bad and would most likely disturb them. Instead, he went to a nearby tree on the other side of the river and sat to meditate.

Damian never was one to meditate. Now the simple act of absorbing the ambient Qi and cycling it brought him great calm. Therefore, he continued to cycle his cultivation technique until he felt like the night had fallen. Damian opened his eyes to see a full moon hanging in the sky above.

Damian stood. He felt tired, as he had not moved for the past few hours. Damian felt small cramps on his legs and hands. Still, he raised his hands, stretching his back. Damian returned to his brothers and a few of his cousins, aunts, and uncles. Damian and his brothers had lost their parents a few years back. Their mother died in a car accident. His father, in his depression, wasted himself on alcoholism after losing the love of his life.

When he arrived, Damian noted his brothers felt different, as well as most of his cousins, aunts, and uncles. Didn't take long for him to understand they had broken through as well. That was why the other family members that had not broken through felt more mundane, less clean.

Damian now understood why, in cultivation novels, the cultivators treated mortal lives with total disregard. They barely considered them human. If he himself a neophyte cultivator could perceive them as less clean and mundane. No doubt in the future, prejudice will form and mortals will receive such poor treatment. If possible, he wanted to avoid that from happening.

Damian and his close family had a small chat about what they felt while cultivating their prospects. After a few minutes of talking, they all went to sleep.

Days passed. Soon, six months passed. The family had fallen into a constant routine. They would wake up to train in their cultivation or technique manual. Then they would go wash in the river either daily or with a breakthrough. Then they continued to train. When the day was close to an end, they spend some time with the family to know each other. This was especially so for the members of the council. As once outside, they will be the backbone of the family. Mostly, they had decided the council would handle important decisions. However, Divine spiritual roots mostly would focus on cultivating. They needed to create a strong backing as soon as possible.

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Damian had just broken through to the nine-layer of the Qi condensation a few days ago. He now was a few feet taller, standing at 6.5 feet tall, whereas before cultivating, he was 6 feet tall. His skin looked paler but far healthier. His beard was still trimmed to a two-week beard, his hair now shoulder length.

Damian had dedicated the last six months to cultivating and training [Fallen weeping willow art] to great achievement. An impressive feat judging by the description of the technique. It stated that one needed at least five years of practice to reach it. No doubt his speed to reach the great achievement was thanks to his excellent comprehension ability and his divine spiritual root. Talent really tore people with it and without it apart.

But he was not the only person in the family to progress. Nor was he the only talent. The other members of the council and the family members with divine spiritual roots were on the seven through the ninth layer already.

His brothers were also in the upper part of the Qi condensation realm. They had their own achievements in the techniques they had selected.

The achievements for techniques were minor achievement, achievement, great achievement, master, great master, and finally ingrained. This was the last stage of mastery of a technique. It was where one could be said to truly dominate a technique. However, the [Fallen weeping willow art] stated that a high talent would require at least six months for the small achievement of diligently training, two years for achievement, Five years to reach Great achievement, nine years to Master, fifteen years to reach Great Master and forty years to reach Ingrained.

However, Damian could not further cultivate [Fallen weeping willow art] at the moment. His cultivation was lacking. Right now he could only use once this technique at full power of his achievement before running out of Qi. Even then, it would only display around seventy percent of the speed and the power of the wind blade.

As for advancing his achievement, he would need to wait until he broke through to the foundation establishment. He could not cultivate further at the moment. For the past few days, he had been practicing the [Ten Thousand Jade Swords Make One Copper Sword art].

He could practice that technique with the sword that appeared in his hand when he selected the sword manual. Something he knew would happen as his brother Jack and Rodrick also practiced this sword technique and received a similar sword.

But not only them, all that choose a sword manual would receive one. The same went for those that chose a spear manual or other technique that required a weapon or instrument. What varied, though, was the quality of the item depending if the technique was earth, sky, or heaven grade.

The Jian sword Damian had received was green with a black flat circular pommel, a wooden hilt, and a golden tree hand guard. The sword came with a black scabbard.