Burdens
"Matthew, you know what you're saying is insane, right? If you say this out in public, you might get taken to a loony bin." Eva said.
After Matthew explained to her and Amanda the true universe, she still couldn't fully believe him. If what he said was true, everything she knew about the world would be wrong.
No one would be able to accept any part of what Matthew said without sufficient evidence. The only reason Joanne and John were able to accept it more easily was because of Senior Wudi's appearance.
If not for that, they would still be slightly suspicious even now.
But since Matthew wouldn't reveal the existence of Senior Wudi to anyone else, he could only try to persuade them with his words and actions.
"While I can't give you all of the proof you need to believe all of my words, I can prove some of it," Matthew said as he got up from the couch.
After motioning for the rest of the group to follow him, Matthew exited the house.
Confused but curious, the group followed, with Joanne, the most curious, in the lead.
Outside, the group found Matthew calmly standing in front of the U-Haul with his hands behind his back.
"You know I said that there is a gas in the air that can make anyone powerful?" Matthew asked.
To his question, Amanda and Eva nodded, not knowing where he was going with it.
"I've absorbed a lot of that gas and am now in something called the Qi Refining Realm. And with my strength, I can do this." Matthew said.
After making sure they were giving him their full attention, Matthew circulated his Spiritual Qi throughout his body before slightly squatting down and lifting the U-Haul with a hand. And after lifting one side of the truck above his head, Matthew looked at their expressions.
Joanne and John were full of awe at their brother's act of strength, while Amanda and Eva kept rubbing their eyes, thinking it was an illusion. But no matter how much they rubbed their eyes, the scene in front of them didn't change.
Eva, still not convinced, went over to the U-Haul, thinking it was a fake. But after giving the truck a push, she realized that it was indeed a normal truck that weighed almost ten tons.
"Mat, this. Can we do something like this?" Amanda, with her mouth still covered in shock, asked.
After lowering the U-Haul back to the ground, Matthew turned.
"This is the lowest strength of a cultivator, so gaining this strength is easy. However, advancing past this realm is the hard part." Matthew calmly spoke.
Which was definitely true. Talent didn't matter in the Meridian Opening Realm, as all one was doing was unclogging their meridians.
The only aspect in which having a poor talent would affect the Meridian Opening Realm was your affinity with Spiritual Qi and how easy it would be for you to absorb it. But as long as you were determined and cultivated diligently, passing through the realm was simple.
It was only during the Qi Refining Realm that talent started to matter. So, while Matthew didn't lie in his words, he didn't tell them much more than that.
Especially when considering the massive gap between the two women.
Amanda, on the one hand, had some of the most average talent he had ever seen, while Eva, on the other hand, had a level of talent even rivaling that of him and his siblings.
Matthew feared that if he pointed out the massive gap between the two of them, a huge rift would appear between them.
Perhaps Amanda would lose a huge amount of motivation before she even started, potentially giving up on cultivating before she even started.
Perhaps Eva would turn into an arrogant second-generation young master clone and suddenly obtain an ego that inflated like a balloon every time she advanced a stage.
Of course, Matthew didn't really think such a situation would happen, but it didn't hurt to be cautious.
So, to keep Amanda motivated and Eva's ego in check, Matthew only planned to talk about their talents when they advanced to the Qi Refining Realm. Maybe by the time they did reach the Qi Refining Realm, Matthew would be able to boost Amanda's talent level a bit and somewhat even the playing field.
Though rare, there were some treasures on Earth that could boost a cultivator's talent. Matthew just needed some luck to find them.
After giving some more convincing, persuasive words, Matthew took the group back inside and started to lecture them on the meridians and the first three cultivation realms.
Even though Matthew had previously told John and Joanne the names and descriptions of the first four Qi Cultivation realms, truthfully, Matthew shouldn't have done it like that.
In the Chaotic Universe, cultivation realms were grouped up by how far someone's talent level would allow them to reach without struggle.
For the lowest level of talent, the Mortal Level, the one that Amanda had, one would only be able to cultivate the Three Mortal Realms without bottlenecks. After that, it was a struggle against the heavens.
These Three Mortal Realms were the Meridian Opening Realm, the Qi Refining Realm, and finally, the Foundation Establishment Realm.
They were called the Three Mortal Realms for a few reasons, but the main reason was that a cultivator didn't gain many supernatural powers during these three realms. Their powers were indeed powerful but still within the boundaries of mortality.
It was only once a cultivator moved past the Three Mortal Realms and advanced into the Four Earthly Realms that they gained the supernatural abilities that cultivators dreamed of.
But other than giving the four the names of the three realms, Matthew didn't go into very much detail about them.
He planned to make an instruction manual for them that would give them all the information they needed for the Meridian Opening Realm, while the cultivation techniques he would give them when they completed the Meridian Opening Realm would describe the following realms for them.
Each cultivation technique affected each realm slightly differently. So, if Matthew told them a 'fact' that didn't coincide with their cultivation technique, it might do more harm than good.
Matthew also took this time to answer any questions they had about cultivation or the circumstances following Earth's Spiritual Qi rejuvenation. But anything that related to this previous life or went deeper than the Outer Universe was off the table.
He didn't want to tell the group too much and overload them. The Three Mortal Realms and the Outer Universe were enough.
Matthew planned to tell them about the realms above the Four Earthly Realms when the situation was right. That time was not now, though.
The in-depth lecture continued late into the night and only ended at 1 a.m., when John and Joanne were visibly starting to doze off.
Matthew, noticing this, stopped.
"We'll continue tomorrow morning, so for now, get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a big day." Matthew said while taking the twins to their rooms.
Now, in a house with more than two dozen bedrooms, the twins could finally have their own bedrooms. So after bidding the two goodnights, Matthew went back down to the basement and started to cultivate.
Time stopped for no man, and just because Matthew had broken through to the 1st stage of the Qi Refining Realm didn't mean he would become complacent.
The first stage of the Qi Refining Realm in the vast Chaotic Universe meant nothing. Even a stray dog in the Inner Universe would have a higher cultivation base than the current Matthew.
So even though Matthew was invincible on Earth, he would still cultivate diligently and widen the gap. His short-term goal was to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm before the seal was completely broken. Only with that level of strength would Matthew feel safe.
Sitting down on the mat, Matthew was about to start meditating, but as he closed his eyes, he sensed the door to the basement open. Looking up, he found Eva sneaking in like a thief in the night.
The lights in the basement were off, so while Matthew could see Eva clearly, she could barely even see her own hand.
Moreover, since their house was in the middle of nowhere, there were no ambient lights around to keep the house illuminated at night when all the lights were off.
"Matthew! Are you done there? I can't see anything, and I don't want to fall." Eva cried out.
The stairs to the basement had almost a dozen steps, and Eva was terrified at the idea of going down them without any lights.
"Yes, I am. Do you want me to turn on the lights?" Matthew chuckled as he stood up.
The basement was poorly set up, with the light switch at the base of the stairs. This minor detail didn't bother Matthew or the twins, as they could see in the dark very clearly. But for Amanda and Eva, who still hadn't taken the first step into cultivation, this was a death trap.
"Please! I want to ask you something." Eva answered.
Nodding, Matthew flipped the switch before sitting back down on the mat while Eva hurried down the stairs.
"Why did you come down here? I feel like it's very boring." Matthew amusedly asked as Eva made it to the floor of the basement.
"I said it. I have a question." Eva responded as she found a chair.
Curious, Matthew gave the women the floor.
"I wanted to ask you. Why did you bring me and Amanda here with you? Surely, you could've left us to fend for ourselves." Eva asked as she looked Matthew in the eyes.
Not expecting the question, Matthew didn't know how to respond for a moment. He obviously couldn't tell her that he was greedy for her physique, could he?
So, after thinking about the various responses he could give her, Matthew eventually gave her one that was mostly truthful.
"I like your company, I guess?" Matthew simply responded. "Sure, I could have left you in New York, but that would always weigh down on my conscience. It took me little to no effort to bring you along, so why not bring you?"
Stunned at the simple answer, Eva couldn't help but feel slightly conflicted. On the one hand, she was happy about the fact that Matthew cared about her, but on the other, she felt disappointed that there wasn't a deeper answer.
"But aren't I going to burden you?" Eva asked back.
"Sure, definitely. However, aren't John and Joanne the same? Just because someone is going to burden me doesn't mean that I will leave them to fend for themselves in New York. People carry burdens either because they don't know how to get rid of them or because they don't wish to get rid of them. You, the twins, and Amanda are the latter." Matthew explained with a smile.
Eva was rightfully dumbfounded when she heard Matthew's sweet yet simple answer. She couldn't even fathom a response for a moment.
"Do you have any other questions? Or do you want to stay down here and cultivate with me?" Matthew asked as he noticed that Eva was still replaying his words in her head.
"No, that's all I wanted to know." Eva declined. "See you tomorrow."
After saying so, Eva turned the lights back off and went up the stairs. She wanted to rethink his words in her room.
"Silly girl." Matthew shook his head.
Putting the quick conversation to the back of his mind, Matthew closed his eyes once again and started to cultivate.
Time waits for no man!
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