Now that Xuan Jin had completed his talent assessment, Xuan Moon immediately scooped him up and headed back towards their home leaving behind a cacophony of cheers and praise for the young boy who was merely 5 years of age.
A few minutes later the family arrived at their palace. Parting ways with Mei, Xuan Moon and Jin headed into an isolated room of the house. It had a plain stone door and upon entering it it was merely an empty room. All it possessed where its 4 walls, a window to look out wasn't even present.
"This is your cultivation room Jin, how do you like it?" Xuan Moon said a large grin apparent on his face. Looking around Jin didn't know what to say. "...What am I meant to do paint the walls?" Jin asked completely unamused by the room.
Hearing this Xuan Moon let out a chuckle. He then bent down and tapped the floor lightly. Immediately a number of runes appeared lighting up the once dim room. Jin's eyes sparkled as he watched in amazement.
"Are you impressed now? This is a Tier 1 Array, only 13 of these are present in the Sect, one is mine another your mother's, ten for the Elders and this is the 13th. It not only automatically gathers Qi, doubling your speed of cultivation, but it even cleans you and replenishes your energy meaning you can cultivate without a worry in the world." Xuan Moon declared a look of pride on his face.
"WOAH! That sounds so cool! Who made this? He must be really cool." Jin exclaimed trying to touch the runes embedded in walls and floating about the room. Smirking slightly, Xuan Moon then cleared his throat. "I am glad you say that, because I actually made the array I dare say its my finest work yet." He reveled before thinking. 'Besides you of course.'
Turning to his father Jin rushed over and clutched his leg once again. "Teach me father! Please! Please! Please!" The little boy pleaded to the amusement of his dad. Ruffling the boy's hair, Xuan Moon first took out a small book handing it to the child.
"Unfortunately you can't learn array formation right now, you don't have enough Qi, but this manual can change that. This is our Xuan family's Black Moon cultivation technique, the best technique in the whole Black Blade Pavilion if not the Black Jade Province."
Receiving the manual Xuan Jin immediately began reading it in awe. Naturally as a 5 year old he was quite easily distracted, and having his wish to cultivate finally fulfilled he was soon engrossed in reading the intricacies of the technique.
Every now and again there'd be a word he didn't understand so he'd simply ask his father, although this was a relatively rare occurrence. This was because despite being a relatively excitable child, when he was interested in something he was typically rather focused. So much so, that when he grew interested in reading at about 4 years old, he read nearly 30 books in a week. In fact he would've read more if his parents didn't bar him from reading them.
A few minutes later Jin closed the manual with a satisfied expression. "I've finished the manual, that was quite interesting, cultivation is simpler than I thought actually." The little boy chuckled much to the amazement of his father.
"Jin'er are you sure you understood everything? I know you're very good at reading but its very important that you understand this technique thoroughly." Xuan Moon asked, hinting that the boy should read it over again.
Jin simply shook his head before strolling to the center of the room and sitting down. "Don't worry father, when have I ever let you down." Jin declared giving him a tiny thumbs up. Seeing this Xuan Moon could only shake his head before sitting down behind his son.
"All right but if anything goes wrong I'll be here to help okay?" He then placed his hand on Jin's back and the boy closed his eyes, entering meditation.
For the first 5 minutes the little boy began to control his breathing. 'Innnnnn, Innnnnn, hold, hold, hold, outttt, outttt, hold, innn.' Jin thought to himself as he controlled his breathe. The first part of the technique was entering meditation.
Cultivators who had already obtained a strand of Qi could more or less skip this step, but since it was his first time this was rather important. Soon Jin entered meditation in an astounding time frame. The darkness of Jin's mind faded as he began to perceive his meridians and dantian.
"Seeing" all of this for the first time naturally made Jin quite excited. Fortunately once one entered meditation as long as their breathing was constant they wouldn't be broken out of the state.
Inspecting the structure of his meridians and dantian, Jin quickly identified which meridians were necessary for the Black Moon technique and what cycle the Qi would follow. His focus then shifted towards his dantian.
As he had read before, it was a massive empty space within his body. So massive that he couldn't quite fathom how it was contained within him. 'Woah! I know the books said a regular dantian was about 10 meters in radius, but I didn't expect it to actually be true, not only that but I think mine's even bigger than that!'
Looking around the dantian Jin was quite satisfied, that was until something peculiar entered his view. 'What's that black shard in the corner?' Jin pondered trying to "touch" it but the object seemingly had no reaction. Initially he wanted to start cultivating immediately, but seeing this oddity the boy decided to ask his father.
Breaking out of meditation he turned towards Xuan Moon. "Given up already? You've been trying for 5 minutes I'll have you know it took me 2 hours to enter meditation so you better be patient if you want to cultivate." He said lightly scolding his son.
"Its not that father, in fact I already entered meditation. Rather there's an odd black object, about 2 fingers long and a finger wide." Xuan Jin replied as he made gestures to try describe the object.
Hearing this the veteran cultivator immediately raised a brow. First at his son's shocking comprehension ability, and then at the peculiarity of his dantian. While he was amazed and proud at his son's comprehension, the object in his dantian alarmed him, and like any good parent his son's safety mattered the most.
"Close your eyes and start meditating Jin'er, I am going to take a look at this myself." Xuan Moon said with a stern expression. He then lifted his right hand a small strand of black Qi emitting from it, which then slowly began to gain colour turning a bright white.
Pressing his hand against the child's back, the white strand of Qi entered his body and then his meridians. Using this along with his senses, Xuan Moon began to perceive Jin's network of meridians. 'Over all he has a solid base for cultivation, his meridians look thick and strong at least.' He thought before his sense entered the dantian.
Looking around Xuan Moon was surprised once again. 'My son truly is a genius! Somehow he's attained a special dantian, this is at least 30% larger than a regular dantian. Haizz, anyway I don't have time for this.'
Soon his perception locked onto the black shard and immediately he sent his strand of Qi to go and prod at it. 'How odd, I've never seen anything like this before....' Xuan Moon pondered as the Qi wrapped around the black shard.
At first he didn't notice anything, but slowly the previously white strand of Qi turned a dull grey and then into a dark abyss like black. And all of a sudden Xuan Moon's perception of Jin's dantian was cut off.
'What happened...WHAT' Before Xuan Moon could process what was going on, it appeared as though Jin was a step ahead of him. Standing up and waving around a black strand of Qi. "Father have I become a cultivator?"