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(A/N: Flowing River Sword Style -> Flowing River Sword Technique.)
Within the small space inside the Seclusion Cave, Tian Ye sat cross-legged near the pillbox filled with fasting pills.
His back was only a few centimeters away from the wall at the deepest part of the Cave.
His wounds… to be precise, the cut marks and bruises from being slammed into the ground repeatedly over time while sparring were slowly beginning to heal.
The cut marks that was all over his body were between 1-3 inches in length, and the bruises were mostly red but there were some, that were purplish in color.
As he circulated spiritual qi throughout his body, the length of the cuts began to turn smaller and smaller. The originally 3 inches cut began to become 2.9 inches… 2.8… the originally, 1 inch cut marks began to become 0.9 inches… and so on and so forth.
Not only that, the bruises that were originally purplish slowly became red, and the red ones began to disappear completely.
Although all of this were visible to the naked eye, it still took about 3-4 hours in total before all of it disappeared and his body fully recovered.
Feeling the pain all over his body disappear, Tian Ye opened his eyes and jumped up on his feet to see if his body had fully recovered.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
As soon as he stood up, he delivered punches and kicks towards the air within the Seclusion Cave for several seconds to a full minute, then nodded to himself, "Good. 3-4 hours before complete recovery from that complete wreck of a body? That's actually faster than I thought but…"
He sat back down near the pill box filled with fasting pills and muttered, slowly closing his eyes, "Let's go back to increasing my cultivation…"
Tian Ye considered practicing Flowing River Sword Technique's first form and second form because his spiritual qi also recovered along with his body but he immediately decided against it as his cultivation takes precedence.
The higher his cultivation is, the more lifespan he could afford to spend on such things like practicing martial arts and expanding his knowledge.
For now, as a 2nd Layer Qi Refinement Realm Cultivator, the most important thing is to reach the 9th Layer!
Furthermore, his weekly sparring with his master, Han Yi, was more than enough practice for him. The 2nd Form that he thought was a little difficult, he was able to barely perform earlier due to his focus entering its peak.
Although he wasn't confident he could enter such a state any time, if he was focused, he could get close to it.
As a cultivator who was used to entering a deep meditative state, and was used to time passing by as he cultivated, a week once again passed, and Han Yi arrived just at the moment Tian Ye put his hand on the pill box to grab a fasting pill.
"Oh! A week has already passed? Time really passes quickly, huh, master?" Tian Ye said casually as he bit into a fasting pill and stood up, grabbing his sword along with him, "Let's proceed with sparring?"
Han Yi chuckled seeing Tian Ye's enthusiasm but shook his head, "Actually, we might not be sparring today depending on your decision."
"On my decision?" Tian Ye already took a step towards Han Yi who was standing at the entrance of the Seclusion Cave but found himself frozen, taken aback and confused by his master's words.
Han Yi simply nodded as he grabbed a manual from within one of his white robe's flowing sleeves.
"This is the [Burning Heart Technique]. An Elemental Cultivation Technique based on the element of fire that the sect master found by accident. The sect master once mentioned that he noticed that spiritual qi differs from every individual. Some would possess the quality of hotness, some would possess the quality of suppressing said hotness. Some would possess the quality to strengthen it, the quality to be easier to harden, and etc. The sect master, seeing you use spiritual qi before in the sparring, mentioned that you have affinity with the fire element, so he wanted me to give you this. Since you were able to create a chant-based cultivation technique, you might be able to learn it even if there's no precedent and an uncharted territory not only for you but also for us."
"Burning Heart Technique? An elemental cultivation technique?!" Tian Ye's eyes glowed in excitement upon hearing Han Yi's good news.
Han Yi then continued, "It's up to you whether…"
Before he could finish, Tian Ye already dashed forward and grabbed the [Burning Heart Technique] manual from his hands.
Throwing the sword to the side without any regards, he quickly opened the cultivation manual and waved his free hand to Han Yi, "You can go now, master. Be careful on your way out~"
Han Yi couldn't help but be exasperated at Tian Ye's casualness and at his throwing of the treasured sword that he's given to him.
One had to take note that although they were close, the amount of time they had interacted with each other was less than a day! What's with that nonchalant attitude like he's a grandson that he raised since his birth?!
Han Yi just sighed and said as he walked out, "Forget it, busy yourself, just go look for me in the Elder's Hall if you need anything."
"Got it, master, thanks!" Tian Ye replied half-heartedly, his attention more focused on the cultivation manual.
"The first step is to learn to differentiate the elemental type of qi… fire will feel hot… water will feel cool and fluid… the wind will feel light and swift… lightning will feel sharp and electrifying… earth will feel dense and grounding…"
"If a cultivator has affinity towards fire, the cultivator will naturally absorb some fire spiritual qi naturally and doesn't need to reset cultivation. One just needs to sense the fire spiritual qi within the body and just burn the neutral spiritual qi within like a paper being burned by fire?"
Reading this line, Tian Ye was ecstatic! He actually didn't need to re-cultivate and just had to be able to distinguish the fire spiritual qi with the neutral spiritual qi within his dantian!
Tian Ye, this year, was only 9 years old since his reincarnation, even if he had to re-cultivate with the elemental cultivation technique, he would have done it even if it took one or two years to reach the 1st layer again but now that he didn't need to re-cultivate, he was even more eager to use the fire cultivation technique!
After reading through the entire manual, he soon sat in a cross-legged position chanting the words, "fire will feel hot… water will feel cool and fluid… the wind will feel light and swift… lightning will feel sharp and electrifying… earth will feel dense and grounding…"
As someone who could enter a meditative state almost instantly, the chants he needed didn't matter very much, just the basic idea was more than enough.
And as he chanted, he couldn't help but think, 'I should be able to create chant-based elemental cultivation techniques for each element later but for now… let's focus on differentiating the elements between spiritual qi…'
Sensing elemental spiritual qi didn't differ much from just sensing spiritual qi and absorbing them into the body.
The only difference was that he had to notice the difference between spiritual qi.
It took him a while to get used to it, but after 2 days, he was able to perceive fire elemental spiritual qi easily from the other elements.
After learning to sense it proficiently, it was as if he could see the color of the specific spiritual qi, which is fire was the color of red.
He just needs to guide this red-colored spiritual qi into his body to absorb but not yet, he still has to separate the fire spiritual qi and neutral spiritual qi within his body.
If there was a visual representation of the spiritual qi within his dantian, it was like the dark sky in the night. But instead of white stars, and a black sky, it was a white sky, filled with little red stars.
Focusing on separating them, he succeeded within a day, he successfully separated them.
The total of fire spiritual qi within his body could be said between 10-15% meanwhile the neutral spiritual qi was between 85-90%.
Feeling this, he couldn't help but exhale in disappointment, 'I guess my previous cultivation technique was too primeval, that's why it just simply absorbing spiritual qi that the body could take in without any regards to what spiritual qi it absorbs, causing the dantian to only have this amount of elemental spiritual qi but... it doesn't matter too much considering I'm only at the 2nd Layer of Qi Refinement Realm.'
Feeling relatively relieved after contemplating about his primeval cultivation technique, he began to convert his neutral spiritual qi into fire spiritual qi. The rate of absorption was only half or even less than half of his original absorption speed.
With this, he thought with a frown, 'If it's already this slow when converting, what would happen if I simply absorb manually, my original speed of cultivation that's about 1% per day will only be 0.2% or 0.3% per day. If I cultivated at the bottom of the mountain with the fire cultivation technique, It'd take me at least 3 or more years to break through to the 1st Layer!'
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