“Cultivation doesn’t mean to you what it means to me, does it?” Alex asked. “You probably think about growing crops or raising trees when I say it.”
“Is that not what it means?” Tara asked.
“Eh, close enough. I’ll help you cultivate. You should have already started on the path without realizing it, so it should be easy for me,” Alex said. “Come here and let me see how far along you’ve gotten.”
Because these people ate such Qi-rich food, cultivating was inevitable. Reaching the first few realms of the Skin-Tempering realm was more or less expected even.
Alex tested Tara’s cultivation closely and realized he was in the 2nd stage. Because their Qi was so low, hidden behind a dantian that hadn’t even opened up yet, it was difficult to find that out from just sensing.
Alex’s senses had been muffled on top of that, so it was particularly difficult too. After sensing as much, he had Tara sit down so he could impart the knowledge of cultivation. He knew many Qi-absorption techniques by now, but the one he always returned to was the Starry Sky Qi Absorption technique.
There was no word for ‘star’ here, so Alex couldn’t pass along the name in their language and simply referred to it as a regular Qi-absorption technique.
He had so much to teach him to get started on the journey to cultivation. There was also some issue with the language. The old woman had taught him most words, but not all of them. Alex had to make use of existing words he knew to help Tara understand what exactly he was talking about.
“What happens if I do this?” Tara asked, curious.
“You get to use Qi,” Alex explained. “It’s a great skill that could even allow you to fly around.”
“Fly?” Tara asked with wide eyes. “Do I just flap my hands and fly?”
Alex laughed at the mental image of the young man flapping his hands violently to lift himself off the ground. “No, there’s a much easier way with Qi. You’ll need to be decently good with it. Although, in your current situation, there is one advantage it will give you that will make you one of the strongest warriors in the entire tribe.”
Tara got curious. “What is that?”
“You can stay underwater for as long as you have Qi,” Alex said. “At a certain point in time, you could stay inside the water for nearly a day and be perfectly fine.”
Tara froze in shock, the impossibility of the words getting to him. “A whole day… inside water?” he asked. That should not be possible. Even the person who could stay in the water for the longest in his village, the chief, could only do so for about 10 minutes. And that was after a long time training.
Being able to stay underwater for an entire day was simply absurd.
A person high in the True realm could do that. If one didn’t use their Qi for anything other than surviving, then they could perhaps even stay there much longer.
Saints could stay underwater for weeks, and Immortals could do so for practically forever. They used so little Qi that their body naturally absorbed back what they used up.
Alex explained that what he said was true and how Qi was so useful, but the young man didn’t seem to believe him at all. It was a very strange thing he had been told, after all.
Still, Tara understood that there was a reason why Alex was capable of doing what he did, and that was reason enough for him to accept his teaching. Even if this Qi only allowed him to stay underwater for 10 minutes, that would already make him the best in the village.
Teaching Tara how to cultivate was rather difficult since it was his first time. The young man didn’t understand meridians, nor did he have any idea of how Qi could be moved at all.
Alex taught him what he could, which the young man understood rather slowly. The first time he finally succeeded in cultivating was nearly two hours after they finally started.
Alex sighed in relief when he sensed the Qi in the surroundings slowly move toward the young man. At that point, he had cultivated.
One thing Alex did notice was that the movement of Qi was rather weak. He couldn’t tell why it was at first, but upon further thought, the reason was simple.
It was daytime. This was a technique that worked better at night.
“Try and see if you can stop and continue again.”
Tara stopped for a moment, feeling funny about his own body. There was a sense of refreshment in himself that he didn’t exactly understand.
“How long do I wait before continuing?” he asked.
“Just a few seconds should be enough. I just want you to do it again on your own.”
The young man nodded and continued. He easily restarted his cultivation again.
“That’s good. Now continue it for as long as you can,” Alex said. “You should be able to break through soon, so we can leave after you’re done.”
Tara nodded. He understood breakthroughs in concept, so now he just had to do it and see how it was in real life.
After some time, he felt it.
“I… I think I did it,” he quickly said.
Alex sensed his cultivation base and noticed the slight improvement. “You did,” he said. “Congratulations. Cultivate a few minutes longer, and then we’ll leave.”
Once Tara consolidated his new cultivation realm, they left the house.
By the time the two men were outside, the surroundings were particularly cooler, as the sun had set past the mountain for over an hour now, the hot day leaving.
There were few people around the beach too, seemingly most of them having returned to their houses already.
Alex looked to the east toward the sea. Since today was so hot, according to everyone, tomorrow would be a day for heavy rain and storms.
He wanted to see how these people dealt with that.