After Casmir had broken through, Bluefire quickly walked over and examined his body for the last time before nodding happily as she noticed no anomalies in his cultivation.
The only thing to note was that Casmir's Dantian was now releasing a different type of Qi energy alongside he natural affinities. A slightly unstable flow of Healing Qi energy was being release by Casmir's Dantian as Casmir released the last remnants of excess energy from inside his newly formed Qi Grade 2 Dantian.
"Casmir, your Qi energy now holds the affinity of Healing Qi energy, it's too unstable to give it a precise Grading for now. I estimate it will be a Grade 3 Qi Healing affinity, low grade, but enough for you to make do..." Bluefire explained.
Casmir nodded, remembering that Qi energy affinities like those of Healing or Elemental Qi energy allow a cultivator to convert portions of their Qi energy into whatever type matches their affinity.
This is different than racial or animal based affinities like the Purple Haired Great Ape affinity that Casmir natural had, those affinities affect the natural pathways of Qi energy in the body, giving cultivators special abilities linked to their bodies.
For example Casmir's common, Grade 3 Purple Haired Great Ape affinity gives Casmir greater arm strength in combination with his Qi energy, however such effects would only be noticeably in higher cultivation levels. Casmir's Grade 2 cultivation might just be enough to unearth some of this affinities potential.
Regardless, for the Qi Healing affinity, the grade of the affinity determines the maximum percentage of a cultivators Qi energy output that can be of the type of Qi energy.
Each Grade represents a 10% increase, so a Grade 3 Healing affinity allows a cultivator to convert 30% of their maximum Qi energy output into Healing Qi energy.
For Casmir, this was enough to perform most of the necessary techniques for Qi healers, of course the higher the grade the better. Elena for example, has a Qi Healing affinity of Grade 6, allowing 60% of her Qi energy to be in the form of Healing Qi energy.
This advantage means, all her Qi Healing techniques would be smoother and more effective than Casmir's, it's easier for her to control her larger portion of Healing Qi energy while using techniques and perhaps most importantly, her Healing Qi energy reserves are much larger.
"Thank you for giving me the Thousand Year Tree Heart Master, I wont let it go to waste." Casmir then said with a grateful smile.
Bluefire simply nodded before she turned gave Casmir once last glance and turned away from him, calling out to him as she slowly walked away .
"I'll be seeing you in a few days so that you can meet your Qi Healing instructor. Perhaps bring Elena along with you if you like, your Qi Healing Instructor is hers as well after all."
Leaving her final words behind, Bluefire's indifferent figure disappeared into the forest as quickly as she had appeared.
After she left, Rose and Elena walked over, having deliberately waited until after Bluefire had left to come over to Casmir.
"What did she say Casmir?" Elena asked.
In response to her question Casmir simply shook his head, saying "Not much, just reminding me that I'll be seeing her later on this week."
"Oh.. well anyway, congratulations on breaking through, how did it feel?" Elena said as she and Rose looked at sweaty body.
Noticing his condition Casmir grabbed a towel from nearby and wiped down his body as he explain his experience to them.
"It was intense... but it felt great. Elena, was your Breakthrough a few months back like this?" Casmir asked as he put on a new white shirt.
Elena nodded her head as she stepped closer to Casmir.
"Yes, although you should remember, what I showed you in this place back then wasn't my full Breakthrough. As a member of the Floral Races, I have two Breakthroughs in a sense."
"Firstly I breakthrough in a similar way to you have done, through transforming my Dantian to a higher Grade. Then I use my new higher Grade Qi Energy to perform a minor transformation of my body, called the advancement ceremony in Floral race culture. It's just a simply process of filling my body with my new Qi energy causing it to change slightly."
Elena pointed at the nearby pond, where she had shown Casmir her advancement ceremony a few months ago as she continued her explanation.
"What I showed you back then was exactly my advancement ceremony, as I had already broken through at home with Gloria's help. Oh.. and my Qi catalyst was just a regular type, it didn't have any special effects like Casmir's."
"As for how the ceremony effected me.. as I am a half-human, half-Tree Dryad it only effects my hair, slightly altering its structure to make it stronger, more flexible and even slightly more beautiful in my opinion.." Elena said as she held her black her in her hand.
"It only effects your hair?" Rose asked curiously from the side.
Rose had found out Elena true racial identity not too long ago, it was actually by accident when Rose walked in on her as she was cleaning her hair. However after knowing Rose for the last few months, Elena knew she was trustworthy so she didn't try to lie to her.
"Yes. My body is very similar to a humans, my hair which is composed of a similar substance to plant fibres and a few other minor things are the only consequences of my Tree Dryad heritage."
"However if I was a full Tree Dryad, my body would be a lot different and the advancement ceremony would strengthen my entire body, making my muscles stronger, my flesh tougher and even allowing me to control my hair like a weapon."
"Oh.. that sounds interesting. You'll have to let me watch next time you have a breakthrough." Rose suggested with a smile.
Elena nodded happily "Sure, same for you as well!"
While Elena and Rose spoke, to the side Casmir had raised his hand up as he controlled his Qi energy to flow out of his hand.
He watched his hand carefully, releasing only small amounts of Qi energy which Casmir found he was unable to see. Only when Casmir released his Qi energy at half of his maximum capacity did a thin cloud of Qi energy appear around his hand, mostly white but with a slight tinge of green inside of it.
"Strange.. " Casmir said as he examined this cloud of directionless Qi energy that he was controlling.
Unfortunately this cloud of pale green Qi energy only extended about half a metre from his body before it began to dissipate extremely rapidly.
This was the limit of Casmir's control right now, one that would grow as he cultivated more, but this limit wasn't what Casmir's attention was most focused on. Instead his attention was focused on trying to control the Qi energy he was releasing to move according to his will.
Elena soon noticed what Casmir was trying to do, she saw him moving his arm around as the Qi energy followed his hand but not by his will, simply like a magnet following his hand.
"You can give up on trying to control your Qi energy just yet Casmir." Elena said as she raised her own hand.
Suddenly, a cloud of bright green Qi energy appeared around her hand, however it looked remarkably different to Casmir's. Elena's Qi energy created a smooth ball just ten cm around her hand while Casmir's was large, fuzzy and only maintain its shape because as it moved too far away from his hand it dissipated.
Then as Casmir stopped his own Qi flow, focusing on Elena's display, the ball of Qi energy started to Change shape.
First it formed a long point, like a large blade of grass that Elena moved about slowly, then a green star around her hand while Elena waved her hand violently as if trying to get rid of it, and yet it stayed in its perfectly formed star shape.
Then finally, Elena positioned her body like she was performing archery, her Qi energy forming the shape of an arrow as it rested just inches from her chest.
"And.. release.." Elena said softly as her green arrow shot forward like a real arrow.
However her arrow was slow, much slower than one she was already capable of firing with a real bow and arrow. Also, her Qi energy clearly started to dissipate when the arrow was only a few meter's from her body, fully disappearing as the arrow reached around 10m from her body
Casmir watched Elena's display with a curios excitement, he couldn't wait to ask Elena how he could replicate her actions.
But Elena knew that Casmir would be impatient so she quickly spoke up first.
"Hold on Casmir! I know you have questions, but we need to go home first, I don't have the books and writings to explain everything to you."
Casmir was clearly reluctant, but he nodded anyway "Alright, lets go home then.."
They quickly gathered the items they had brought, Casmir taking special care to collect the remnant dust from the Thousand year Tree Heart into a pouch, he had already found an important use for this seemingly worthless crystal dust.
Yet, as soon as the trio had gathered the items they had brought along with them, Casmir began asking Elena various questions about her performance of Qi energy control.
In the end, as they walked home, Elena explained the basics to Casmir while Rose listened from the side.
Although Rose was only a Qi Grade 1.3 cultivator as of now, this information would still be useful to her later so she listened well.
Elena explained that her performance was the result of her practise of Qi energy control. However unlike how Casmir had trained his Qi energy control before which consisted of controlling the Qi energy inside of his body, focusing on controlling the output of his Qi energy. Elena's Qi energy control was based on the understanding of a specific technique, the Water Qi Flow Technique.
It was a Qi energy control training technique based upon the fundamental properties of water, something that the flow of Qi energy held a natural similarity towards.
This specific Qi energy control technique held a special place in cultivation, as it was a technique that almost every cultivator would learn to be able to control the Qi energy outside of their body. Although other similar techniques existed of which many were better in specific circumstances, like the Eternal Rock Control Technique or the Beastial Qi Flow Technique, each of them had their own problems regarding their usage.
The Eternal Rock Control Technique led to a cultivators Qi energy being stronger but too rigid for some delicate tasks, where as the Beastial Qi Flow Technique was too complicated for most cultivators to understand and its effectiveness varied based on a cultivators race.
The Water Qi Flow Technique struck the best balance between hundreds of similar techniques by relying on waters inherent similarity to Qi energy. The Technique had a low requirement for learning the basic necessary stages, but also higher stages for those with the required ability. It also had no requirement for a cultivator other than the ability to emit Qi energy outside of their bodies, it was a very well rounded Qi energy control technique.
Due to this, the technique was used by most cultivators as they began to utilise Qi energy outside of their body.
Elena herself had trained the first stage of the Water Qi Flow Technique to completion and was now working on the second stage.
As for how many stages there were in the technique, Elena only knew of 4 because the version of the technique publicly available only contained these stages. According to one of Elena's teachers, only 3 of these stages were strictly necessary for cultivators while the higher stages were generally restricted for higher level cultivators with the necessary talent for Qi energy Control.
After explaining this to Rose and Casmir, they arrived home were Casmir and Elena immediately went to her room to study this technique further, much to Rose's disappointment who wanted to spend the afternoon with Casmir.
Casmir could only give her a kiss and a promise to spend some time with her another day, in order to placate her for the time being.
=========
Later that day Casmir and Elena could be found together in her room.
Elena was displaying her Qi energy control by holding her hand in front of her and waving it up and down in a rhythmic motion, a cluster of Green Qi energy following behind her hand with a slight delay.
"By practicing like this, you should be able to feel your Qi energy pulling and pushing against your body as it tries to stay close to you... can you feel it?" Elena said, paying close attention to Casmir sitting parallel to her.
Casmir was replicating Elena's movements very accurately in terms of his hand motions, however his Qi energy was much slower to react to his movements.
It could be said that Elena's Qi energy was attached to her hand by a one inch long piece of string, slowly being dragged behind it with only a small delay. However Casmir's Qi energy was attached to his hand with a ten inch long piece of string that caused his Qi energy to flail about much more and even move in directions his hand didn't move in.
Clearly Casmir's control was deeply flawed, but that wasn't the point of this small exercise as could be seen by the confident smile that rested on Casmir's youthful face.
"I can feel it..! It's weird though.. it doesn't feel like I imagined it.. it feels like I'm dragging something through water..." Casmir explained as he continued his hand movements, concentrating on the feeling of his Qi energy rather than trying to control it yet.
"Oh?" Elena said with some surprise, "You're right, that's exactly it Casmir. I didn't realise this for a fair while but yes, our Qi energy isn't just moving through the air around it, it's passing through the ocean of naturally abundant Qi energy around us."
"At your level this can cause some more disruption, however as your Qi energy continues to be refined into higher Grades, the disruption is mitigated. For example at my cultivation of Qi Grade 2.1, I feel about 30% less.. stiffled I suppose is the best way to describe it, compared to when I was at your cultivation level." Elena explained dutifully.
Casmir nodded in response to Elena's explanation.
He was reminded about the composition of this naturally abundant Qi energy. It was something he had studied with Master Bluefire, she had told him that naturally abundant Qi energy was formed from mostly Qi Grade 1 Qi energy with a smaller mixture of Qi Grade 2.0 through to 2.3 Qi energy.
In most parts of the world only Qi energy up to Grade 2.3 was abundant enough to fill the air around us, however there were exceptions to this rule where natural springs of Qi energy produced massive amounts of higher Grade Qi energy into the environment.
"That reminds me Casmir, I'm only in the middle stages of Qi Grade 2.1 so it's not an urgent worry but.. when I reach Qi Grade 2.4 I'm going to need to start supplementing my cultivation with Qi energy Crystals." Elena said as she stopped her practice, her Qi energy dissipating into the room.
Hearing her, Casmir was struck by a sudden thought of 'how did I forget about that?', as he too stopped practicing.
Due to the natural abundance of lower Grade Qi energy, cultivators need only absorb whatever energy they need from their surroundings, however past Qi Grade 2.3 natural Qi energy becomes too scarce to be able to cultivate reliably with.
This prompted cultivators to use Qi energy crystals as their primary fuel source for their cultivation. However, with the massive populations of cultivators across the world it was obvious that such crystals were in high demand and thus expensive.
"It's not too big of a deal, but one of my teachers has recommended to me and the rest of the students of the Qi Healing Class to work as Qi Healers, either for a company or the Academy." Elena explained with a slightly nervous look on her face.
"So.. some time in the next few weeks I'm.. fingers crossed hehe.. going to start an apprenticeship at the Academy. They've even said my work there can be used to pass the Qi Healer Class exams and get my Class certificates with a lot less hassle.." She continued, her nervousness morphing into excitement.
Casmir was surprised by her sudden announcement, he quickly shifted closer to Elena as he congratulated her.
"Wow, that's great! When did you hear about this? Is your spot guaranteed or what?"
Elena's smile grew wider as Casmir focused his attention on her, she happily explained the details to him.
"It's pretty much a sure thing, I've been talking about it with my teacher for about a week now but she only confirmed everything to me the day before yesterday."
Suddenly Elena's smile slightly drooped as she looked away from Casmir with a slightly embarrassed expression.
"I didn't tell you because I was slightly worried it wouldn't come through.."
Casmir didn't care that she had kept this from him, it was only something small and he could tell that she was worried about it.
He simply wrapped his arm around Elena's shoulder, pulled her close and whispered into her ear.
"It's ok.. I've also kept a little something from you.." Casmir said in a playfully mysterious voice.
Elena smiled and crooked her head slightly as she played along with Casmir's little game, assuming his motives were less than noble as she looked down at the area between Casmir's legs.
"I already know about your big brother down there.. he seems a bit lonely.." Elena whispered back, pointing at the slight bulge in Casmir's trousers.
Casmir couldn't help but slightly blush as he realised he had grown excited, thinking about what he was about to tell Elena.
"Close.. but that's not what I meant.. It's been three months since I 'met' Rose... The Life Giver Orb has given me another charge of Vital Energy, so.. if you're ready.. we could.."
Suddenly, Elena's entire body shivered slightly as she looked at Casmir with a mixture of shyness, excitement and a unique form of anticipation.