Vitenka's arm moved, signaling the young boy to approach and sit in front of her. Sheng Hao executed himself silently as he felt that it was already too late to stop the act from further continuing.
Despite the problems that existed between his grandfather and the old female spiritualist, he actually didn't mind receiving her teaching and was even intrigued by what he might learn from her.
Deep down he was more than aware of the plethora of opportunities that existed in the Toe Village. Here, every elder could help him further develop a solid foundation to secure himself an unshakable future. On top of that, he was far too self-conscious of his tendencies to get bored from what he was currently working on. Making him go down different paths greedily without any care for their consequences.
Even back on Earth, he had recognized this childish tendency, of his, that developed due to his innate curiosity. Thankfully, the advantage he have here by starting early in this world made the situation far less troublesome. On top of that, a spiritualist journey was long and made it possible to have the time to delve in different subjects as long as one didn't derive too far from the main principles they studied.
Even with a bigger lifespan, spiritualists were still part of the mortal plane and were unable to escape from the forever-flowing river of time. Even the archaic spiritual beasts that could age hundred thousands of years were vowed to die at some point, be it from savage fights with other foes during cataclysmic battles or simply from old age.
Their carcasses would turn into natural treasures that were capable of turning an area that was deserted of spiritual energy into a boon full of spiritual energy that would benefit every single life form in that area. Usually, the area closest to the body would end up being protected by the strongest spiritual beasts of the area. Who would later develop at a fast rate thanks to the vast resources of the godly carcass and slowly grow into a king among the spiritual beasts.
However bodies like those were rare and would usually swiftly be found due to the way they impacted the land they rested on. It wasn't rare for expeditions to happen in the wilderness, with the goal to hunt beasts or look for deceased archaic spiritual beasts in order to harvest their bones and other resources.
A spiritualist's growth could never get separated from the rest of the world, especially not from the millions of spiritual beasts that existed in the wilderness.
"I will now place my palm on your back and will help you activate the energy resting inside your body." Vitenka spoke calmly. The rhythm of her sentences was neither slow nor fast and made it possible for Sheng Hao to understand the entire process.
"During that time, make sure to focus yourself in order to sense your body and your surroundings." Her instructions left him feeling puzzled, he couldn't help but feel that there lacked several instructions to the mystical process she had explained.
Despite the doubts, he decided to shut his mouth and execute her orders. An instant after he closed his eyes he felt a hand connect with the center of his back.
Vitenka's hand was very warm and the sensation that traversed the young boy's back was pleasing to the point it disturbed his focus a little, his cheek reddened slightly and he couldn't help but tense up a little before relaxing.
The next moment a surge of ice cold spiritual energy entered from his back. Right after, the sensation traveled to the rest of his body and coursed to the surface of Sheng Hao's skin.
"Cycling your energy isn't an overly complicated feat but it will still take you some time to develop it into an unconscious habit."
"I do think we should leave that for the moment your awakening takes place. For now your own natural reserves still need to augment by themselves before you can try to control and move the power spread inside your body." Vitenka controlled the energy she sent through Sheng Hao's body making it courses through the pathways that were already open. This first revolution of energy wasn't something that was supposed to be done at this age, but Vitenka seemed to possess a confidence that made push through the act.
The eyes that coldly gazed at the young boy changed slightly when she felt how he was reacting to her own cold spiritual power.
The fact that he had accepted to let her inspect his pathways with her own energy without refusing made her change how she viewed the young child. She couldn't help but focus her control to the utmost in order to avoid making the process uncomfortable for the young boy.
"I don't think you have been able to sense precisely where my energy has been going. But this is normal for your current step. Remember that as long as you feel it precisely in the upcoming steps, you will be able to drastically raise your feel of spiritual energy."
The reincarnated man nodded silently, not bothering to explain that he still somewhat felt where the cold sensation had been traveling inside of his small physique.
The cold spiritual power that entered from the center of his body before making a cycle all around his clogged energy pathway didn't escape his sharp senses. Right now, he could feel that the cold sensation had spread to the surface of his skin and was starting to affect the millions of pores on the surface of his elastic skin.
"This might hurt a little!" she suddenly added before her cold energy turned into small needles that poked through his skin. A small muffled grunt forced itself out of Sheng Hao's lips, his hands turning into clenched fists that trembled for a short second before relaxing entirely.
"Turn your mind into a void." Vitenka's cold but calm voice turned into a mantra that replaced every single thought in the head of the reincarnated man.
"Empty your thoughts and focus on your diaphragm and lung. Feel your breathing." Her calm voice echoed in his mind as he felt a soothing sensation surround his body in a calming embrace.
"Recognize the sensation of the energy that is going to enter your body. If you feel any sudden discomforting pain, don't hide it. I will immediately dissipate all the energy that isn't already yours if that happens."
"It that can take more than several attempts before a spiritualist's body is able to completely connect with the outside world."
"Before that happens, the energy you accumulated was absorbed through a far slower but necessary process that is fundamental to the development of your spiritual soul." Her explanation soon came to a stop as she noticed that Sheng Hao's situation had stabilized.
Although the amount of spiritual energy, he was collecting from his daily life was very low due to his lack of spiritual soul. During his sleep, the rate would drastically augment when there was moonlight based spiritual energy in his surroundings.
The current situation didn't raise his absorption to the same intensity of his sleep, but it was still better than nothing especially when compared to the intakes his body would go through during his sleep.
"What a surprise, looks like your body is already quite attuned to the outside spiritual energy." Her voice contained some doubt as she double-checked and verified if the young boy's meditative state was going well.
Her light-blue eyes blinked a few times as she tried comprehending why the process was this smooth, neither could she couldn't find the answer to why this was happening as the young boy's spiritual soul was dormant and she couldn't assess all the details of the child's constitution.
"His body might be natural attuned to spiritual energy, it is quite understandable if we take into account he is from the Sheng Clan too." She thought quietly as she couldn't help but stop her mind from thinking about the past.
During their youth Sheng Wang had been part of the same spiritualist's team, she held the role of the team's controller type spiritual due to the nature of her spiritual soul that made it possible for her to manipulate the elements that existed in the world.
At that time, even with her own talents and gifted spiritual soul, she had seen the strength and power of the Jianshen Royal Family spiritual souls and was forced to recognize their value. Their swords type soul had been placed among the same ranks as the strongest types of spiritual souls.
Sheng Wang's variant bastard sword wasn't common in his clan and had even caused him to lose his chance to one day rule the lands of the Jianshen Empire. His large sword was still a spiritual weapon with a strong attacking power that he had used to make himself a reputation during his youth.
Among spiritual souls, only the strongest and gifted souls were able to climb to the highest peak of the world. A sad reality where one's talent was decided the moment their spiritual soul awakened, rare were those that were able to go through the first forty ranks with a third-rate spiritual soul that wasn't gifted in any aspect.
Trying to develop a weak spiritual soul would result in dozens of times more effort for less result than with more talented constitutions.
Reinforcing the talent of a soul was only possible with rare elixirs that would stop having effect after a few consumption, needing to raise the quality of the elixir by a few margins to gain further results. Even this method had a limit as the upper tier of spiritual cultivation would be difficult to access due to the lack of quality in the spiritual power gained through elixirs.
Vitenka took away her hand from Sheng Hao's back, and after looking at him for a few minutes ended up departing from the quiet meadow. Although she didn't know if one practice would be enough for him to understand the principle behind the first step leading to cultivation. Sadly he wasn't her disciple thus she couldn't use the steps of her own technique and had only helped him produce a result that would have naturally happened if he had received the same help from anyone else.
In the spiritualist's community, the method of ranking a spiritual cultivation base was defined by the number of spiritual beast's soul they have absorbed. A spiritualist's growth was separated through ten major ranks. Each of them having dozens of levels, which made up the total of steps up to the hundred ranks.
Most of the Toe Village's elder were spiritualists that had cultivated beyond the first sixty ranks, true-blooded experts that had cultivated for at least half a century to attain their current strength.
Before his injury Sheng Wang's spiritual cultivation base was in the seventy ranks but due to the injury he received in the Jianshen Capital, his cultivation base was shortened by dozens of levels.
Currently he had recovered to the point where he could use his spiritual energy without receiving backlashes and injuring himself. However, the moment he used his strongest spell, he would be at risk of endangering his spiritual soul and could risk his own life. Thankfully, the life inside the village was safe and wouldn't require him to do that.
The sole reason that would force him to move out of the secluded village would be the moment the spiritualists of the Jianshen Clan found their way to their current location.
However, the old man was sure that as long as they didn't live in any major city there wouldn't be any problem to the pair of Sheng Clan grandfather and grandson. Sadly, Sheng Wang knew that the moment Sheng Hao tried making his way in life with a spiritual soul from the Sheng Clan he would immediately be hunted down.
It wasn't a life he wanted for his grandson, and it was also one of the major reason Sheng Wang avoided letting Sheng Hao travel to the world outside of the Toe Village.
He didn't say anything to his grandson, he had even refrained from teaching him anything related to cultivation. In the end, he was far too much aware of the strength their enemy had at their disposal. Two people, an injured old man and a growing boy, would never be able to out throw an entire empire unless they were able to climb to the highest ranks of cultivation.
Currently Sheng Hao was still in a meditating state. The stream of energy entering his body from his pores didn't stop as it seemed his developing physique was able to absorb a lot more energy than Vitenka had thought.
Thankfully, the moment his tiny body was full of spiritual energy, the intake of energy came to a stop. Shortly after that the young boy awoke with clear eyes that flashed with a dim hue.
Although he couldn't precisely assess the quantity of energy that was in his body, he could still feel that his mind was in an exceedingly good state. Without moving, he knew that his body was no longer sore from the jog he had gone through this morning. Without waiting for his mind to fully awaken, his legs took the direction of the village. Ready to quench the thirst of his soul.