Opening his laptop, Acheron quickly finds the cultivation methods he's just obtained. It was associated by a set of martial art techniques that use energy internally. They were best used during the lower Earthly Shackles stage, as soon after, in the intermediate Earthly Shackles stage one would be able to send energy out of their body.
Even though he's never practiced cultivation, Acheron was still familiar with the first two major stages of strength, the Earthly Shackles and the Heavenly Ascension stages.
Strength was separated into five major stages all over the universe: Earthly Shackles stage, Heavenly Ascension stage, Planetary Subduing stage, Galactic Travel stage, and the legendary Universe Domination stage, at which point one would theoretically be able to dominate the entire Universe. Naturally, many cultivation paths were present in the infinite universe. This is why these stages represent strength and not cultivation.
In the Earthly Shackles stage, humans from the Human Coalition cultivate through four different minor stages: Qi Harmonization, Qi Gathering, Foundation Establishment, and Revolving Core.
Going forward, the Heavenly Ascension stage is represented by the ability of constant flight and consists of the three minor stages called Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, and Heavenly Tribulation. In this major stage, one's harmonization with the energies of heaven and earth reaches a terrifying degree, allowing one to use these external energies for attack, rather than merely the internal energies stored in the dantian.
Regarding every stage after that, Acheron was still in the dark. Regardless, now that he's obtained a cultivation technique, he could begin his path to power.
The cultivation technique used by the Chreka family was called Advanced General Tactics, a neutral cultivation technique. From its name it was clear that it was a technique used by the Human Coalition's military, showing off the connections of the Chreka families.
Edward's father was rumoured to be a Heaven Ascension cultivator and he had quite the influence on this planet. Too bad that no matter how great his influence, there was no way to track him down considering his careful preparation. Every item Acheron used was bought anonymously with no way to track him down.
Besides the neutral cultivation technique, there was also a fire element cultivation technique. It seemed to be much less detailed and informative than Advanced General Tactics, quickly triggering Acheron's disinterest.
Cultivation techniques could either be neutral or elemental. In the case of neutral techniques, one would be able to use all elements with the same strength, while elemental techniques tended to focus on one or two elements at a time, drastically improving the power of said elements, while toning down the power of other elements.
In Acheron's case, Advanced General Tactics was perfect for him, as he was still not aware of what element suits him the most. He could always switch to another technique in the future.
Reading the technique, he quickly realized his memory improved significantly, his reading speed being slowed down merely by his scrolling.
Ten minutes later, after Acheron made sure he's memorized and understood the technique properly, he begins the first stage, the Qi Harmonization stage.
In the Qi Harmonization stage, one would circulate the energy absorbed from the environment throughout the entire body, in order to allow the body to get used to the feeling of having Qi coursing through every nook and cranny.
Acheron sits down in meditative position in a familiar manner before beginning the first step of sensing the Qi present all around him.
Another habit his father taught him was meditation. Acheron always meditated for thirty minutes to an hour before sleep. He is completely used to emptying his mind and entering the meditative state.
After about ten minutes of attempts, Acheron easily begins perceiving a strange flow of transparent energy all around him, even though the technique's book says it would usually take hours or even days for the untalented few. He feels a bit excited before quickly calming down, continuing to focus on the task at hand.
He absorbed and spread the energy through every part of his body, from his skin, muscles and bones, all the way to his organs and brain. Acheron even felt his meridians beginning to fill up with spiritual energy, a sign of great progress in the Qi Harmonization realm.
Thirty minutes later, the Qi Harmonization stage was over, with all his meridians being filled up to the brim with Qi. He could already begin the Qi Gathering stage. There was no reason to stop at Qi Harmonization. In fact, Acheron was hoping he could reach Foundation Establishment today, then his father wouldn't be able to sense his cultivation, as he was only in the Qi Gathering stage still. While this would leave his foundation a bit shaky, he could rectify this problem by simply taking a break for several days or even a month, depending on what he feels.
In the Qi Gathering stage one was supposed to fill up the dantian with Qi and condense it four times, signifying the early, intermediate, late, and peak stage of the Qi Gathering realm. And that's exactly what Acheron did.
Over the next hour, he filled up his dantian two times in a row, managing to condense it once. Unfortunately, he was forced to stop at the intermediate stage. He felt it would irrecoverably damage his foundation if he continued. Half-expecting this, he decides to take a break.
'I'll have to spread my cultivation time over the next few days if I want to keep my foundation stable. But how will I get past father?' he thought.
Suddenly, he feels an alert from the system.
"Host's life signature is completely concealed by the system. Host can release his life signature at any time by just willing the system to do it."
Hearing this, he relaxed immediately. He also realized he still had some time left before school ended. Thinking about this, he decided to check his cryptocurrency accounts. In total, he currently had around five million credits, a sum which he can't even think about how to spend. His money problem was completely resolved, he could even stop selling drugs.
Too bad he had to deal with addicts now. If he didn't satisfy their cravings they would most likely go crazy. After considering his options for a few moments, he decides to start honestly selling quality drugs, without adding more addictive substances into their formulas. That way, he could slowly taper his customers off of the substances they got addicted to. With this, he will be able to stop selling eventually, worry free.
Maybe he could even offer coaching sessions for certain school subjects instead, as a method to launder a bit of his wealth. He had a lot of time to spend before the military academy admissions.