Free Web NovelChapter 264: Awakening
This time, Lucas froze up for a moment.
He may have feigned ignorance a while ago, resulting in him being punched a second time by Tina, but Lucas wasn’t some dense protagonist from one of the cheesy stories in his inherited memories.
The slow but steady change in her attitude towards him, how she would occasionally look at him with a more than a casual interest, how she acted around him and spoke about him to others, Lucas hadn’t missed all these subtle signs. freewebnøvel.com
Could it all be a coincidence?
Yes, it could.
But was that the most likely answer?
Well...
As for how he felt about her, Lucas would be lying if he said he felt nothing for Christina. The two of them had literally faced death together, more than once, in fact. Such shared experiences tended to bring people closer together.
And that was to say nothing of how attractive Tina was from the start.
However, what was he supposed to do?
"She’s a once-in-a-millennia genius royal princess," Lucas ultimately uttered, "I’m just an ordinary son of a small-town blacksmith."
"Hmph," Celestina got up from her chair and walked over, rapping her knuckles atop her First Disciple’s head, "Is that really what you think? Do you really believe such things matter?"
Pursing his lips, Lucas didn’t answer the question and instead whispered, "But, Eris..."
Knocking the boy’s head harder this time, Celestina sneered, "Those two are already Sworn Sisters and Sister Disciples, you think they’ll object to becoming Marital Sisters as well?"
Lucas just grit his teeth in frustration and grumbled, "I know that..."
There was nothing unusual about men having multiple wives in the Rockwell Kingdom, or throughout the Blue Sky Continent as a whole.
There were also many women who had multiple husbands, women who had multiple wives, and every other combination you could possibly think of.
Basically, like with everything else, if you were strong enough, you could have anything you wanted.
Of course, that didn’t mean such relationships were simple to establish or easy to maintain, just that they existed.
Shaking his head in defeat, Lucas let out a long sigh, "I don’t know, Master."
"En, that’s the right answer," surprisingly, Celestina just ruffled his hair this time.
Looking up into his Master’s eyes, Lucas asked, "What do you think I should do?"
"That’s for you, Eris, and Christina to figure out," Celestina stated flatly, "And, you don’t have a lot of time to do so."
"Hm? Why so?" Lucas asked curiously.
Frowning slightly, Celestina warned, "So far, the true extent of Christina’s talent has been kept under wraps, but that won’t be possible forever. As soon as she goes through her Awakening and enters the Grand Spirit Realm, everyone will start trying to possess her."
"Once that happens, forget about marrying her, just keeping Christina free and safe will become difficult."
Hearing it put this way caused Lucas’ expression to sink and a quiet anger to build up inside of him.
He knew that when his Master said people would try to ’possess’ Christina when they discovered her extraordinary Innate Talent, she meant it literally.
Christina had the potential to reach the Spirit Grandmaster Realm and become a powerhouse capable of single-handedly influencing the entire Blue Sky Continent. With such immense latent potential, all those who already had power, and all those who sought to obtain power, would try to bring Christina to their side, whether through persuasion or coercion.
Worse yet, if these hegemons, would-be or otherwise, couldn’t have Christina, chances are they would try to eliminate her in order to avoid their rivals obtaining her.
Once again, strength was what really mattered, even if it was only ’potential’ strength.
Seeing the fire in her Disciple’s eyes, Celestina nodded in satisfaction, having accomplished her goal here.
Lucas already had a number of reasons to get stronger, wealthier, and more influential, but adding one more never hurt. This kind of intense pressure was just what he needed to push himself beyond his limits and achieve true greatness.
On top of that, now that she had accepted Christina as her Disciple, Celestina felt that tying her and Lucas closer together was only natural.
Still, the red-headed Marquess understood that too much pressure could also be detrimental, so she flashed an encouraging smile to Lucas as she patted his shoulder, "Well, don’t worry about it too much. Although I said there’s not much time left, it’ll still probably be another 10 years before Christina makes that breakthrough."
"10 years?" Lucas was taken aback, "Are you sure about that, Master? Tina’s already in the Third Step Sea Establishment Realm, she’s not that far away from the Spirit Initiate Realm, is she?"
"Indeed, if she keeps cultivating the way she has been up until now, she’ll probably reach the peak of the Sea Establishment Realm within 3 years at most," Celestina agreed, "As for how long her Awakening process takes, that’s a lot more difficult to estimate."
"You mentioned that word before, Master," Lucas interjected, "What exactly do you mean by ’Awakening’?"
"Huh? No one’s told you about it yet?" Celestina looked down at Lucas in surprise; however, after thinking about it for a moment, she slapped her forehead and muttered, "Right, I keep forgetting you haven’t had any formal guidance when it comes to cultivation."
Being around Lucas, it was easy to forget that up until about a year and a half ago, he was an ordinary boy living in a remote town where people’s understanding of cultivation only extended to the Core Formation Realm.
How was Lucas supposed to learn about how to enter the Grand Spirit Realm from the Four Mortal Realms when there was literally no one around to teach him?
Now, to be fair, Sasha or Farah could have taught Lucas about the Awakening process, but neither of them had thought to do so yet as both of them figured it would be years before that knowledge became relevant.
Entering her usual teacher mode, Celestina began with a question, "What do you know about the Grand Mortal Realm and the transformation one undergoes as they progress through it?"
Like a model student, Lucas promptly answered, "We use World Qi to strengthen our physical bodies in the Body Tempering Realm, then clear and expand our meridians by circulating World Qi through them in the Vein Opening Realm. This process also trains our bodies to refine World Qi into Spirit Qi, similar to how we digest food and turn it into energy."
"After our meridians are fully cleared and opened, we begin gathering Spirit Qi to condense our Core, also known as the Dantian, in the Core Formation Realm. Finally, we use that accumulated Spirit Qi to force open our Soul Sea and gradually widen it in the Sea Establishment Realm."
"Good," Celestina nodded, "There is still some debate about whether we are born with our Dantian and simply manifest it in the Core Formation Realm, or if we are truly building it from scratch; however, other than that, your description is basically accurate."
"Basically accurate?" Lucas asked.
"There’s a lot more depth to each process you just described, but let’s not get bogged down in unnecessary details right now, alright?" Celestina shut Lucas’ line of questioning down, knowing that if they got drawn into a discussion about the intricate details of cultivation, they could be here for hours and still not accomplish anything.
Taking the hint, Lucas reigned in his curiosity and simply nodded.
Celestina continued, "Up until now, you’ve probably assumed that after reaching the peak of the Sea Establishment Realm, one just continues accumulating Internal Qi in their Core, Body, and Soul Sea and then at some point break through to the Low-Rank Spirit, Martial, and Soul Initiate Realms, but that’s not the case."
"While it’s true that accumulating enough Spirit, Martial, and Soul Qi is one of the requirements to complete this breakthrough, there is another one that is even more important."
"And that’s this ’Awakening’ thing?" Lucas inferred.
"Precisely," Celestina picked up a piece of chalk from nearby and began writing on the nearby blackboard while asking, "What do you think is the biggest difference between those in the Mortal Realm and the Spirit Realms?"
Lucas’ immediately thought was ’strength’; however, was that really the case?
Was a Low-Rank Spirit Initiate always stronger than someone at the peak of the Sea Establishment Realm?
That was probably the case under normal circumstances, but thinking about all the Sea Establishment Practitioners and Spirit Initiates he had met recently, Lucas couldn’t help having some doubts.
For instance, Count Richard Baker was a genuine Low-Rank Spirit Initiate, but Lucas hadn’t felt this waste of a man’s aura was nearly as strong as some of the elite Tenth Step Sea Establishment soldiers from the Raging River Legion he interacted with.
Whether this meant those Captains were actually stronger than Richard, Lucas didn’t know, but it was a clear example of how one’s Realm was not the only factor in determining one’s overall strength.
So, what then, as Celestina had asked, was the difference?
Sinking into thought for a time, Lucas reviewed everything he knew about Mortals and True Cultivators and eventually guessed, "Is it their ability to control their own Internal Qi?"
"Close," Celestina smiled but shook her head, "An untalented Spirit Initiate may not have much better control over their Spirit Qi than a highly talented Core Formation Practitioner, the difference is that the former is constantly and unconsciously circulating Spirit Qi through their system, whereas the latter has to actively concentrate to move their Internal Qi." free𝑤ebnovel.com
"Only when you reach the point where you can automatically absorb, circulate, and refine World Qi into Internal Qi can you step into the Grand Spirit Realm," Celestina declared, "The process of teaching our Core, Body, and Soul to do this is known as Awakening."
"Fascinating," Lucas marveled at this new information, immediately speculating, "It’s like teaching yourself a new autonomic function. No no, it’s like transforming a somatic function into an autonomic function!"
"Hm?" Celestina tilted her head, confused by these new terms she had never heard before.
This was not the first time Lucas had spouted off unfamiliar words like these, but from past experiences, Celestina knew that if she just waited a bit, her clever Disciple would explain it to her.
Sure enough, Lucas excitedly launched into his own lecture, "Somatic functions are the voluntary actions we take, such as walking and talking; learned processes that require us to think before executing them. Autonomic functions are the ones our bodies do involuntarily, like breathing air through our lungs or pumping blood through our veins."
"I see," Celestina absorbed this new knowledge like a sponge, again appreciating how systematic and precise the information Lucas had inherited was.
