My mother first taught me about the various meridians in the human body, the different acupuncture points, and the core of energy storage (dantian).
Afterwards, she continued on to explain the various types of energies.
"You might have discovered that the energies present in the surroundings are a little different than the energy in your body.
The energy that is present inside your body is the stellar energy. It is the purest form of energy, spread from the infinite cosmos and contains the unique characteristics of chaos.
The energy present in the surroundings is like the progenies of the stellar energy. It is called 'Mortal Energy'. It is mixed and influenced by the various living organisms and thus is milder and a little impure.
In the long run of cultivation, the quality of the energy absorbed paves a cultivator's upper limit and strength, and thus pure stellar energy is considered superior.
On this planet, there aren't any other cultivators to have pure stellar energy, so you will always have a little edge against them."
She also explained the various non-mainstream types of energy, such as death energy and such, but did not delve into them in much detail as they were mostly the practice methods of evil cultivators.
"Right now, you can sense the stellar energy but can't absorb it selectively.
Some amount of mortal energy would also be absorbed. Even if you can absorb only the stellar energy, your body would be unable to contain the chaos within it, and you would get hurt.
Thus, for the next couple of years, I would inject stellar energy that you would use for your cultivation.
Afterwards, when you reach the 4th stage of Body Tempering, you can absorb the pure stellar energy on your own without getting any injuries."
I took a few minutes to absorb everything she told me. Afterwards, I turned my head towards Alice and asked.
"Which stage are you in?"
"I am at the peak of the 4th stage. Within a few months, I can break into the 5th stage."
Hearing her words, my admiration for her increased by many levels. My sister saw the admiration in my eyes and teased me.
"Hehe, impressed, aren't you? If you don't cultivate diligently, big sis will leave you behind. But worry not. Even if you remain weak, I will always protect you."
She patted my head.
I smiled and let her do as she wished, but internally, I was a little miffed by her words. I promised myself to become stronger than her and eventually our mother so that I would protect them instead.
In the upcoming hours, my mother taught me about the various stages of Body Tempering and injected a steady but small stream of energy into my body for my cultivation.
Meanwhile, my sister also started to meditate and continued on her progress.
As the name suggests, Body Tempering is the stage in which one absorbs the energy.
First, one washes the body with energy and expels the impurities already present in the body. Afterwards, the energy is used to refine the body and make them stronger.
This enhances the baseline strength of the body and is the essential step for further cultivation.
The more thorough one is, the more one can benefit in the future. Thus, using stellar energy from the beginning is the perfect cultivation method. The various stages of Body Tempering were:
1st stage: Tempering of dantian
2nd stage: Tempering of meridians
3rd stage: Tempering of acupuncture points
4th stage: Tempering of marrow
5th stage: Tempering of bones
6th stage: Tempering of blood
7th stage: Tempering of muscles
8th stage: Tempering of skin
9th stage: Tempering of internal organs
The tempering of the whole was completed after breaking through into the 10th stage.
This was the final stage before advancing into the next realm. In this stage, the energy was poured into the dantian endlessly and was made to expand to its limits.
Afterwards, the energy was compressed and coagulated to form a sea of energy. This marked the beginning of the next cultivation realm called River Consolidation.
After the duration of the next two and half years, I finally broke through into the 4th stage. These past few years, I cultivated with my mother's help and started practising swordsmanship under her guidance.
My sister was also diligently training separately from me. After starting cultivation, food was not needed, so our time spent together decreased.
After I became a little proficient in swordsmanship, Alice and I would spar against each other every few days. This was the only time we could spend with each other instead of cultivating individually.
Therefore, our sparring matches became our new game.
Alice was always happy to spar with me as she had me at her fingertips and could tease me. Even though I was peeved by my defeats, I liked my time spent with her.
After one of the sparring sessions, when Alice and I were resting after being drenched in sweat, I asked a question I had been curious about for quite some time.
"Sis, have you ever met anyone else aside while training outside?"
Mother had allowed Alice to train outside our home to improve her body strength since she turned five. So, she could easily go out of the house.
I was not allowed to go outside our residence, and thus, I was curious about the outside world.
"I haven't met anybody else yet. And I think that the chances of meeting someone new are meagre.
You don't know, but our residence is built inside a valley of mountains. I have climbed the nearest mountain and discovered that the nearest settlement was quite far away."
"Oh, I see…"
"Also, I didn't see any beast in the valley. So, I can train without any danger."
Alice then went on to describe excitedly the various interesting spots she found during her training.
I tried listening to her stories, but my mind was elsewhere. I wanted to go out, meet new people and explore new places.
Also, I had some thoughts about making a few friends, although there was no genuine desire to do so.
However, my thoughts were suddenly blown away as my sister uttered some words that were entirely unrelated to our topic of discussion.
"Lucas, let's go take a bath together. We haven't taken one together since you turned three. We can swim around and play in the spring."
There was a natural spring with clear water in our backyard.
We usually used to bathe there together when we were little, including mother. But after I started to do my chores on my own, we never went to bathe together.
Seeing the expectant gaze of my lovely sister, I acquiesced to her. Hearing my answer, she pulled me to the spring joyfully. I stopped her in her tracks and asked her to also invite our mother to bathe with us.
"That would be even better. Just like the good old days."
She agreed with my proposal and then went to get our mother. Afterwards, the three of us spent quality time together while swimming and playing in the spring for the next couple of hours.