It's time to teach you a bit about the cultivation world." Mira said to Dominique. She then walked over to Dominique and sat in front of her while Vulcan jumped out of her lap and ran to Maria.
"The first thing I think I should tell you about is that when you become a cultivator, your aging will stop. So, if you become a cultivator right now then you will look like an 8-year old for hundreds or maybe possibly thousands of years." Mira said with a stern face. She didn't care what Dominique looked like, but she just wanted to warn her beforehand.
Dominique was shocked to hear this.
"Why wouldn't I grow up if I become a cultivator? That doesn't make any sense." She asked.
"I'll try to put it simply. When you absorb Qi into your body and cultivate it, the energy that you just cultivated affects the aging process. Normally, humans are full-grown around 18 years old and you mature a bit in your 20's and 30's. Wrinkles and aging start to show in your 40's and 50's. You start growing weaker from this point on and wait until your inevitable death. But Cultivators don't age the same way as normal mortals. I couldn't tell you exactly why, but you could say that it's just a reaction to absorbing Qi into our bodies. There is no longer a need for our bodies to grow up so quickly since the natural lifespan of someone in the Qi Condensation Realm is around 300 years. You will probably see a lot of middle-aged-looking cultivators since they probably start around 16 and it might take them a few years at the very least to break through to the Foundation Realm and since they were already 16 when they started cultivating, after those few years they'd look like a young adult. That's if they have the resources to do so, it could take years or even tens of years for people that don't have the resources." Mira explained to which Dominique seemed to grasp the basic concept. Basically, Qi slows down the aging process for cultivators by a lot.
"Even knowing that, I still want to be a cultivator as soon as possible! I don't care if I still look like a child the rest of my life! My life hasn't been great and who knows when it could go back to that again? I want to be able to live how I want!" Dominique said with conviction and Mira just sighed. Her reasoning isn't wrong and is even somewhat admirable that she can come to that conclusion at 8 years old, but looking like a fucking child your whole life might be rather annoying.
"Do whatever you like. I'm just warning you beforehand. I'll now move onto some of the Realms of cultivation then I will tell you your training schedule." Mira said as she began explaining the different stages in the Body Tempering Realm and talking a bit about the Qi Condensation Realm. She even made Maria give her cultivation manual over for her to study. Mira also said that she'd just get a Marrow Tempering Pill either from the Sect or an Alchemist for her. It shouldn't be too expensive for her to get a Rank 1 or Rank 2 pill.
"Now onto your training schedule! After you've gained some weight then you may start following this training regimen!" Mira then proceeded to tell Dominique about what she had planned. The training regimen ended up being extremely similar to how she trained those women at the Bandit Camp. Mira would turn the training yard in their living place into a frozen hell, dumb a bunch of different-sized rocks in there and make her work out the entire day. She'd only get breaks to eat food, but other than that she'd work out from dawn until dusk. Mira also said that she'd ask if she can let Dominique stay in Training Ground 1 just so she can try to survive and temper her body from the pressure that is exerted in that room. The only difference between the women at the bandit camp and Dominique's training is that she wouldn't be training to use a weapon for now. She'd only be strengthening her body. But Mira did say that she'd give Dominique an hour off of training to come to watch her spar with the other disciples.
"That's all you need to know for now. I don't have time to teach to fight, but if you really want to test out your skills then ask Maria. She'll probably spar with you though she's not that skilled with a sword so you might not be able to learn a whole lot from her. Once you reach the Qi Condensation Realm, then I'll start sparring with you. Though I only really know how to use a scythe so if you pick a weapon to use other than the scythe, I can only provide experience to you and won't be able to teach you anything else. For now, just study that cultivation manual until you have everything memorized. Give it back to Maria when you are done." Mira finished talking to Dominique about cultivating and training. Mira got up and walked to her bedroom to get some sleep. It might be a while before she can sleep this peacefully again.
Dominique took the cultivation manual with her and followed Mira back to her bedroom as well. As Mira was getting into bed, Dominque came in and looked towards Mira shyly.
"C-C-Can I sleep with you?" Dominique asked in a weak and nervous voice while holding onto the cultivation manual tightly. Mira paused for a couple of seconds.
"Fine." Mira said after thinking about it. It didn't really bother her to have Dominique sleep in the same bed as her. There is a 0% chance of anything weird or strange happening during the night. And if she even thought about such things, Mira would just kill her.
Dominique nearly exploded with joy but managed to keep it together. She set down the cultivation manual and crawled into the bed next to Mira. She wrapped her arms and legs around Mira's arms and snuggled her face into her shoulder before closing her eyes with a loving smile on her face. Mira also closed her eyes. But right before she was about to fall asleep, Dominique muttered something.
"I love you, Mira. Thanks for taking care of me when no one else would. If only you were my mother, you wouldn't abandon me like mine." Dominique muttered and then fell asleep. These words almost caused Mira's icy heart to tremble a bit. She opened her eyes and just stared at the ceiling for a bit before shaking her head and closing them again.
'Children sure are scary.'
***
The next morning, Mira woke up before dawn again. This also woke up Dominique as well.
"Good Morning Mo-Mira!" Dominique almost said 'Mom' there, but quickly stopped herself. Mira also noticed this, but just ignored it. We'll see if she can still think such things when her training brings her to the brink of death.
She just nodded towards her and walked out of the room. She gathered with Maria and both of them left to check out what announcement Elder Kendra will be making. They made their way towards the large hall they gathered at before and soon found hundreds of other disciples also entering the hall.
Mira entered the hall while getting quite a few stares. She didn't need to wear a mask anymore so everyone is now able to see her face.
Once all of the disciples gathered in the hall, it soon became packed full of people. Elder Kendra then walked up to the front of the stage to start her announcement.
"Welcome Disciples! Thank you for coming today! I am here to share a few things with all of you, but first I'd like to say that we have accepted 100 new disciples this year! Will those 100 new disciples please come up?!" Elder Kendra said as all of the 100 new disciples came up to the stage and stood in front of the rest of the disciples. Obviously, Mira got the most attention as almost all eyes were on her, but this didn't stop Elder Kendra.
"Now, I will hand our disciple robes to them as well as introduce them to all of you." She then took out 100 sets of robes. Almost half of them were red and almost half of them were blue, but there were also a few black robes as well.
"These robes are a symbol of your disciple status and they also offer a bit more protection compared to regular clothes. The red robes are for Outer Disciples, the Blue robes are for Inner Disciples, and the Black Robes are for Core Disciples. I will start off with the new Outer Disciples first." Elder Kendra started handing out robes while saying the disciple's name. After she finished with the Outer Disciples, she moved onto the Inner Disciples. And after around 20 minutes, she finally made it to the Core Disciples.
"We now have 8 new Core Disciples! Anna, Hazel, Celaine, Sia, Nisha, Audra, Maria, and Mira." The Elder said while handing out the black robes to them. Mira got the most attention as the people have never seen someone so beautiful before, but the next shocking thing they saw is Celaine. Celaine is only Stage 2 Qi Condensation and they made her a Core Disciple? She's either extremely lucky or extremely talented.
"The next thing I'd like to announce is also for the new Disciples. We will be holding mandatory classes once a week over the next 6 months. In these classes, we will be teaching you about the basics of Forging, Arrays, Inscriptions, Alchemy, Fighting, and Magical Beast Knowledge. These will be used as a guideline to help determine what you might be good at and the magical beast knowledge is to help you all when you go out on missions. We might also teach or show off our different elements as well. I know I said they are mandatory, but the classes are only from dawn to noon so they will only take up half of your day. The classes will start tomorrow!" The Elder said and the new disciples just nodded their heads. Spending half a day every week to have an Elder teach them about those things is not a waste of their time at all! But Elder Kendra isn't done with the announcements.
"I also have an announcement for all of the Disciples in the Battle Maiden Sect that are currently not on a mission! We have decided to add a mandatory class that all of you will be taking part in. One of our new disciples, Mira, is very skilled in unarmed combat and we've made a deal with her that she will teach you all the basics of this form of fighting as well 3 days a week. We are also leaving how she trains you and for how long she trains you up to her discretion. She can do anything as long as she doesn't kill you. I know what you might be thinking, 'is this really something that I need to learn?'. Let me ask you something back. How many disciples from our Sect get captured or used by men? It's not that uncommon! Whenever we find out something like this happened, we always strike back and kill the people who did such a heinous crime, but it's already been done. This is meant to prevent that from happening! And if you watched Mira during the tournament then you'd know she is extremely skilled in this style of fighting. If you still aren't a believer, we want to hold a match between Mira and an Elder. One where Mira won't use a weapon and the Elder will and another match where both of them will be fighting without a weapon. Of course, our Elders are much stronger than Mira so they will limit their cultivation to match hers. We will set the fight for next week so we can try to gather as many disciples as possible to watch. That's all I have for today! You all are free to go now!" The Elder finished her announcements and left, but Mira also left and followed her since she had some questions about this.
Meanwhile, the rest of the disciples were all stunned by the announcement before they went into an uproar.