Spirit Cultivation

'Your acting and tricks actually turned out with so many benefits. Not only did you feel good, reach Spirit King stage, but you also achieved the first stage in the Elemental Cultivation. Congratulations.' Ling praised him for his luck as Xuefeng lied on the ground.

'Elemental Cultivation? What does it mean?' Xuefeng asked confused as he sat down and pulled his pants up. He didn't need to clean himself as the Queen already did that for him.

'Stage one in Elemental Cultivation means that your dantian is filled with two types of Qi. Half of it contains your black Spirit Qi and another half has Lightning Qi. If both types of Qi are equal in size, it means that you attained stage one in Elemental Cultivation.' Ling explained further.

'Does that mean I can cultivate only with Lightning Qi?' Xuefeng stood up and fixed his clothes.

'You can't unless you have a special physique as for example, these Forest Elves have. If you want to gather elemental Qi, you have to dual cultivate maintaining both energies in balance. After you attain a balance with one element, you can finally feel the Elemental Essence of that element in the air and absorb it on your own. You don't need those Lightning cores anymore.' Ling described the new feature he got.

'To think she gave me such a gift…' Xuefeng looked through the windows at the Queen who stood on the balcony watching the city from behind railings. Xuefeng used Lightning Cores to gather Lightning Qi and he knew how much time he just saved thanks to her.

It would take him a few weeks of constant absorbing to reach the first stage of Elemental Cultivation he now achieved in a short session with the help of the Queen. He was naturally thankful and forgave her for the interrogation she performed on him a moment ago.

'You should make use of the time you are here to cultivate as many elements as you can. This place is filled with different types of Elemental Qi and the Spirit Essence is quite vague here. Even if you want, it would be hard to practice Spirit Cultivation here.' Ling advised while Xuefeng walked towards the doors.

While Xuefeng was leaving the room, the Queen turned around and looked at him while being deeply in thought.

'To think that his liquid would be so nutritious… Should I turn him into a half-elf so he can stay with us forever? With my help, he already achieved stage one. If I pushed him a little further and he can reach the second stage then he wouldn't die during the transformation…' The queen smiled mysteriously as she contemplated what she wants to do to him.

...….

"What took you so long… We were waiting for almost 20 minutes. I thought that my mother was doing something bad to you so I wanted to enter but Tangwei stopped me." The second Xuefeng left the room, Yiren complained yet threw herself at him hugging into his chest.

"Yeah, I'm sorry you had to wait." Xuefeng didn't expect such a welcome and patted her awkwardly on the head. They met not a while ago but Yiren was already hugging and acting intimately with him.

'She probably inherited that from her mother… I guess my days here will be tough.' Xuefeng laughed bitterly at her.

"Wait, why do I smell mother's perfumes on you?" Yiren suddenly paused and sniffed his clothes.

'Great, her nose is even more sensitive than Wuying's…' Xuefeng commented in his mind.

"Well, your mother was helping me with my cultivation. Look." Xuefeng reached with his right hand away from her and suddenly it was covered with thick flickering lightning bolts.

"Wow, so you can use Lightning Qi too!" Yiren exclaimed happily as she grabbed his right hand without worrying about getting burned.

Before he could react, Yiren touched his thunder hand and felt like it was suddenly weakening. The flickering thunder calmed down and started gathering on top of Yiren's palm like a docile puppy.

"W-what…?" Xuefeng muttered as he watched his Lightning Qi escape from his hand and form into a small ball in Yiren's hand.

"Come here, bunny," Yiren called out and the lightning formed into a tiny rabbit who hopped on her arm and settled on her shoulder licking her on the cheek.

"Haha, isn't he cute?" She asked Xuefeng as he petted it on the head.

"Yeah, adorable…" Seeing her perfect control over the elements, he wanted to bang his head on the wall for being useless. Even if he received Spirit Arts from Ling, he still has to learn how to control the Qi by himself.

"Okay, go back to your master," Yiren called out to the rabbit and it jumped back onto Xuefeng's hand and absorbed itself into his body. He regained the control over it and put the leftover Lightning Qi back into his dantian.

"How come your lightning is so gentle and mine is so violent?" Xuefeng asked in amazement. He once tried to calm down his lightning but it was futile.

"If you are going to behave nicely, I can teach you later." Yiren made a naughty smile and booped his nose.

"Come, I will show you the city." She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards the entrance of the palace. He didn't have a choice but to follow her.

"You get a lover and you quickly forget about your best friend. Humpf." Tangwei looked at their backs and puffed her cheeks. Seeing that she was out of berries, she pulled out another bag and followed them after popping the last one into her mouth.

This was the first time he left the palace since the moment he arrived here. Xuefeng looked around everywhere curiously trying to remember the route to the palace just in case. They left the palace which was built inside a giant tree that was separated from others and walked towards the city on the flying bridge.

"How high is it here?" Xuefeng looked down and saw only white mist underneath them. The bridge looked quite solid, supported with strong looking black ropes so he wasn't scared he would fall. It didn't move even as they stepped on it.

"Well, it should be a few hundred meters high, but no one ever counted as it's not really a problem. We can fly after all." Yiren looked down but she wasn't quite bothered by it.

"What? You can fly?" Xuefeng asked surprised.

"Yeah, come here and look into the sky." Halfway through the bridge, the crowns from the palace tree and the city trees left a narrow line that allowed you to look at the sky. They walked under it and Xuefeng looked at the sky. He was shocked to see thousands of black figures flying through the bright sky.

"There are various cities like this all around the canyon and you have to fly if you want to visit other cities. I will show you later after we visit the city. There is a rule that you can't fly in the cities and around the Parent Tree." Yiren grabbed his hand again and led him towards the town.