Normally there were no words that Qin Mengruo could ever say wrong in Li Jie's mind, however when it came to their two sons Li Jie was not willing to be outdone by the only woman he would ever love.
"Li'er the Dragon Monarch Manual is extremely painful, the benefits that your father has mentioned do not cover the fact that the Golden Crow Nine Suns Manual is the cultivation technique that provides the greatest speed in the Central Sword Realm and it ranks in the top three amongst all the ascended realms. Are you sure of your decision?" Qin Mengruo ignored her husband as she summarized a key detail to her son.
'Why wouldn't Big Brother Jie explain this to Li'er, does he really not want him to cultivate the Li family's cultivation technique?' Qin Mengruo could not understand her husband's thought process.
"I'm sure Mother, Father already explained to me the differences. Also I'm not scared of pain!" Qin Li replied resolutely to his mother, he was sure that he has considered the differences and what cultivator could fear pain? All cultivators had to battle the heavens, how could they fear pain then.
"Very well, Mother will teach you now then." Qin Mengruo saw her son's decision was resolute and so could not bring herself to argue with him.
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Qin Li was currently sat sweating profusely as his skin had started to glow silver, he had never thought that cultivating the Dragon Monarch Manual would be so painful.
Gritting his teeth, he bared the pain as he started to move the flow of qi through the qi paths like his mother had shown him during the day, ignoring the warning that she had provided about the amount of time he should spend cultivating at any one time.
'I have to build up as much Qi as possible before stepping into the Elementary Foundation realm!' Qin Li's thoughts were constantly returning to this point. His mother had earlier explained that the more Qi that a beginner could build up before stepping onto the path of cultivation, the further along that path they could go.
An average practitioner of the Dragon Monarch Manual would store Qi for an hour before stepping into the Elementary Foundation realm. This would guarantee that they could at least complete the Foundation and Mortal realms of the technique, with every step taken after this would require huge luck and fate.
Having lasted for the shortest time in their family, his mother had managed to store Qi at the point of stepping into the Elementary Foundation realm for nine hours. Qin Li was desperately hoping to at least match his mother's efforts. Although he did not know for sure what level of cultivation his mother had reached, he knew that his beautiful mother had at least reached the Dao Fusion realm and she was unbelievably young to do so.
'I have to manage at least nine hours, no ten hours... I'll just go for as long as I can!' Qin Li's thoughts once again returned to a similar point. As the pain seemed to increase he suddenly felt that he heard a dragon's cry coming from his subconcious.
'This is...' Qin Li suddenly felt no pain but instead felt like he had been transported to a different location, in front of his eyes was a huge white dragon with scales the size of the current Qin Li's five year old body. The massive dragon had a regal aura to it that seemed to reign above all the heavens.
The aura from this dragon was even stronger than the aura Qin Li had felt from his grandfather, Li Zhang, before. This dragon was easily the strongest being Qin Li had ever seen in his little life.
"Wow, so cool!" Qin Li couldn't help but say out loud. The huge dragon looked at him, hearing him speak gaining it's attention. It's eyes were clearly appraising him.
"You are the second then, and your talent clearly surpasses Qin He... Although you will not use this to become a true dragon, you may well become a friend worthy..." The huge dragon spoke aloud and Qin Li became amazed at hearing a dragon speak the human language, although he had absolutely no idea what this dragon was saying.
"Um, where is this? What is happening right now?" Qin Li could not help but ask these questions as he clearly felt completely lost at this moment.
"Do not fear youngling, as you were using a cultivation technique I once passed to your ancestor I could feel when one of amazing talent was using the technique. I merely pulled your conciousness into this space in order to see you for myself. I can see that you will only use this technique as a supplementary manual, yet I cannot make out anything about the true technique you will cultivate... this is... odd... does heavenly fate run parallel to this? Or is it in fear of the...? Tribulations to come perhaps?" The dragon initially answered Qin Li's questions before beginning to speak mysteriously once more.
"Do you mean that you created the Dragon Monarch Manual? Am I allowed to cultivate it? Who are you exactly?" Qin Li felt that speaking to this dragon only created more questions instead of giving answers, yet he continued to ask questions based on the answers he had gained so far.
"I failed to introduce myself then, I am known as the Dragon Monarch, my name is Ao Jun. Yes I created the Dragon Monarch Manual. The technique comes from me and is based on the Qi and Essence flows in my body. In terms of how you can train in the technique, I once provided your ancestor, Qin He, with the first nine levels of the technique in order to reach the peak of the Dao Lord realm. I can see that since then his descendents have tried to reach immortality with this technique. Their so called 'improvements' are laughably wrong. It is no wonder that it is not an ascension technique and is dependent on the home realm. Still I have no reason to correct them..." The Dragon Monarch responded to Qin Li's questions, once more initially answering him before confusing him at the end yet again.
"So then Dragon Monarch, your majesty, would it be okay for me to practice your technique?" confused to the point of his head swimming Qin Li could only nervously ask this and hope for a positive response.
"Do not fear youngling, you are free to practice the technique. I will also provide you a gift as I once did your ancestor. As you will only use this technique as a supplemetary one my gift will be dependent on your capability to reach immortality on your own, but do not fret... it is a worthy gift I assure you." The Dragon Monarch couldn't help but chuckle at the nervous and confused boy in front of him. he moved his giant claw atop Qin Li's head and a blindingly white light appeared in front of Qin Li's eyes.
"I will send your conciousness back now youngling, the Dragon Monarch Manual has been circulating continuously whilst we have been chatting so I may have unintentionally improved your aptitude for the technique, oh well take it as another small gift from me..." As Qin Li felt his mind slipping and felt an extreme power had been placed into his soul along with vast amounts of information in his head, now the call for sleep overtook his mind. Although he heard these words from the Dragon Monarch, the exhaustion he felt coming from his mind overtook the ending to the sentence the Dragon Monarch was saying.
"...he's awake, Li'er is awake! Big Brother Jie he finally woke up!" Qin Li awoke to the sound of his mother's voice more anxious than he had ever heard before.
"Mother, what's wrong?" Qin Li opened his eyes and asked his mother the first thing that popped into his head.
"Silly child, do you know what is wrong? Do you know how worried Mother was for the last... it doesn't matter how do you feel Li'er? Are you unwell anywhere?" Qin Mengruo looked at her son and finally felt relieved after hearing him speak to her like normal. She could only ask how her precious son was now that he was awake. She had called out to him countless times before but there had been no response. Yet now it was fine once more as her son was awake again.
"I feel fine Mother, actually I feel great! Did I breakthrough into the Elementary Foundation realm? I feel so light but strong!" Qin Li answered his mother before standing up and feeling how great his body felt, he truly felt amazing.
Qin Mengruo smiled bitterly seeing her son go from lying flat to jumping around the moment he awoke. 'Still, better this way than something actually being wrong.' She consoled herself whilst thinking this.
'How long did I hold on, judging from the position of the sun in the sky... I barely made five hours! Oh no, don't tell me I failed to build Qi for any longer!' As he looked into the sky, Qin Li felt a huge wave of depression wash over him as he tried to estimate how long he had managed to build his Qi before breaking through.
"Mother, Father I am sorry. I am untalented at cultivation and could only hold on for a short time. Please do not abandon me, I will definitely train harder to make up for my lack of talent!" Looking to his parents, Qin Li begged them for forgiveness and acceptance.
A bitter smile crossed both of his parents faces. 'Boy do you seriously think you lack talent after what just happened?!' Neither of his parents could repress this thought before comforting Qin Li and explaining the truth to him.
"Li'er how long do you believe you continued to build up Qi for before stepping into the Elementary Foundation realm?" Li Jie asked his son quizzically.
"Judging by the position of the Sun... um... five hours maybe?" Qin Li responded with his voice growing smaller the more he spoke, the shame he felt for letting down his family taking over him.
"Li'er it isn't just five hours, you have continued to build up Qi for the past... the past three days!" pausing momentarily to compose himself, Li Jie answered his son whilst still feeling bewildered himself.
'F***! How did this brat manage to last so long?! This daddy only lasted half a day and was the only person in the history of the Central Sword Realm to do so until Yun'er lasted a day! A day I could understand... even a day and a half I would accept considering what Uncle Luo said about his talent, but three days?! Are you kidding me?!'
"Three days... I built Qi for three days?! Are you serious?! Are you sure?!" Qin Li couldn't believe his ears. He was positive he had misheard his father there, he looked at him to confirm that he wasn't crazy.
"Yes Li'er, you continued to build Qi for the past three days and didn't step into the Elementary Foundation realm until the moment before you woke up. Li'er you must know that in order to be considered talented in the Central Sword Realm, you would need to build Qi for three hours, to be classed a genius you would need to build Qi for five hours. The other Four clans and three sects at the peak of the Central Sword Realm all use this system aswell. Donghua Fei who is nine months older than you was the greatest genius the Donghua clan has produced for five millenia, he built Qi for nine hours like Mother and is classed as an apex genius of this realm. Yet you have lasted for three days, this..." Qin Mengruo explained to her son the logic of the Central Sword Realm, yet even she did not know what to say at the end.
"Li'er no matter what you cannot ever let anyone know of this. I will inform only Yun'er and your grandparents of this. For everyone else we will say that your talent matches Yun'er and you built Qi for a day. Although this caused a huge uproar once, it is less likely to do so a second time as people will already expect you to have a similar talent to Yun'er." Li Jie explained to his son the need for secrecy in this matter.