All four men in the group turned to Hades with a surprised look. They almost couldn't believe the words that they were hearing.
"Hahaha. Do you truly think it's that easy?"
"This guy must be joking or something."
"How old are you even? Most people start to train very early."
"Just give up, man. Don't embarrass yourself." The youngest in the group said.
"I'm sorry to say that I'm not afraid to embarrass myself," Hades replied with a smirk,
The youngest wanted to continue trying to convince the strange man to give up, but one of his colleagues held his shoulder.
"Hm… Maybe I can help with that. I'm Lysander, a member of the Inner Circle, and I have a few techniques laying around." The man said, while staring intently at Hades' spear.
"Oh?" Hades titled his head, knowing very well that the offer came with hidden intentions.
"It's simple, We shall make a bet. If you can feel spiritual energy, I won't charge you anything for the technique." Lysander stopped for a second, his eyes lingering on Hades' spear, and then continued. "But if you fail your spear will be mine."
Hades thought for a second, rummaging through what the man had said. He could already feel Spiritual energy, but he wasn't sure if this was what they meant.
"So I just need to feel spiritual energy?"
Lysander nodded, his lips curling into a twisted smile.
"Sure then. When do we start?"
The group exchanged glances, almost unable to hold back their laughter. To them, the bet was as good as won; after all, only those great geniuses could perform such a feat.
"We can go now. All the good battles have ended already." Lysander said, jolting up from his seat and gesturing for everyone to follow him.
They exited the Crystal Palace's grounds, and headed to the north part of the city. Unlike the southern part of the city, the north was noticeably less organized, with roads full of holes and decrepit buildings.
As Hades observed the streets, he spotted a large tree at the distance. It dwarfed the buildings around it, casting a serene shadow over the northern district. Hades stopped, staring in awe at the pulsating spiritual energy around the tree.
The tree was remarkably similar to the Yggdrasil, the world tree, that he had seen in one of his adventures in the lands of the Norse.
"So? Is that where we're going??" Hades asked, raising his brows in curiosity.
"Hmm. It can't be compared with the Crystal Palace, but it isn't too bad either." The youngest member of the group said, his voice full of embarrassment.
Hades chuckled as he surveyed the building. It was a circular shaped—almost like a ringfort— three stories building, with a signboard inscribed with the words Hidden Circle above the front gates.
It truly couldn't compare with the splendor and grandeur from the Crystal Palace, but the mysterious tree more than compensated by the lack of luxury. He was amazed by how oblivious and ignorant those humans were.
They valued appearance and opulence far more than substance. If cared for, that tree could grow to become such a treasure that no amount of earthly possession could buy, yet they were still focused on petty things like wealth.
Hades was led inside the building, and through a small hallway, finally reaching the interior part. The inner court was a garden, with countless herbs and plants adorning every corner, and of course with the large tree as the centerpiece.
The atmosphere was peaceful—almost serene—with only the chirping of birds to be heard. Hades smiled, reminiscing about the Elysian Fields back in his realm.
"Quite a pleasing garden, I must say."
"Hmph! Only good for resting. If I were the leader I would demolish all of this and make a good training ground." Lysander snorted.
"Well, you can train here can't you?"
"Our master gets mad every time we damage the plants." The youngest in the group explained.
"Just don't damage them?" Hades said, snickering.
"What a brilliant idea. Why didn't we think about that before?" Another member replied sarcastically.
"Just shut it and let's finish this." Lysander said, turning to look at Hades before continuing. "Wait here, I will get the book."
He headed into the circular building through a different entrance, and after a few minutes came out with an old and worn out book.
"Here. I will give you until tomorrow to learn it." Lysander threw the book at Hades, and crossed his arms.
Hades grabbed the book, and opened it—only to realize that he couldn't understand a word from it. He let out a silent curse, remembering that while his Gift of Tongues allowed him to communicate freely with any being, it was only effective in speech, not written communication.
"Hm… I can't read." He said, scratching his head.
"What?! This fucker…" One of the group members, Dexton, said, visibly irritated.
"Hahaha. You aren't even literate and want to become a cultivator?" Ryd, the third man in the group, also joined in.
"You know that this means that you lost, right? If you can't learn this, you won't sense mana." Lysander quipped
Hades glanced at the book, and then to the youngest member of the group. He already had felt that from all of them, the one who seemed to treat him the best.
"You there, read this for me." He threw the book to the youngster.
"Huh? Me?" The youngster said, surprised by the sudden request.
"Hahaha. Is this guy serious? Does he really think that cultivating is that easy?" Dexton burst into laughter.
"Such arrogance! He must think that we're stupid." .
"Hmph! Sayr, do as he says. It's not like this changes anything." Lysander said, his lips contorting into a snarl.
Hades smiled, and finally turned to the youngster, who promptly began to read.
Hades sat down and shut his eyes, focusing solely on the boy's voice. Frankly speaking, he knew that he most likely could gather energy naturally, without depending on any technique, but he was still curious about the ingenious methods that the humans had created.
Hades pouted, slowly growing bored of all the rubbish he had been hearing. As a god, he not only had a good innate understanding of Spiritual energy, but he also had lived for aeons and had learned much more.
He continued listening for a while more, but seeing that nothing truly interesting would be said, he let out a long sigh. He truly hoped to learn something useful, but it seemed that the level of this technique was really low.
He even spotted plenty of mistakes in the technique, such as the pathways that the Spiritual Energy traveled through one body, and the stupid idea of refining energy only after it completely circulated the body.
"Oh? What happened? Did you give up already?" Lysander chuckled as he noticed Hades' concentration waver.
Hades slowly opened his eyes, glancing at Lysander with disdain. The man was completely unremarkable, but his arrogance soared trough the heavens.
"This technique…" Hades stopped briefly, making everyone look at him with interest.
Lysander and the rest of the group thought that Hades would finally admit defeat, yet, they could never expect the next words to come out of his mouth.
"Why is it so bad? Was it made by a pig or something?"
Sayr's jaw dropped, shocked by how arrogant the man sounded. The scene became even wilder when Sayr remembered that just a few minutes ago, he didn't even know what cultivation was.
"Made by a pig?! And what does that make of you, who can't even learn it?" Lysander snorted.
The Vagrant Breathing Technique was quite common and basic, but it was highly regarded as one of the best basic techniques, teaching good fundamentals for new cultivators.
"Who said that I didn't learn it?" As these words left Hades' lips, the spiritual energy around them began to tremble.
The air began to crackle as Spiritual Energy swiftly gathered and began to swirl around Hades. A curtain of dust and leaves rose to the sky, causing Lysander and his group to step away.
They stared at Hades with wide eyes, almost not believing the sight before them. It was already unbelievable that someone was able to learn a technique by having the sutra read to them one time, but the spiritual energy feedback was even more absurd.
"So? Is this enough for you?" Hades said, his laughter echoing through the garden, jolting all present back to reality.