No wonder.
After all, slowing one's breathing and stilling the body were, in essence, not all that different from sleeping... Or rather, the prerequisite for the so-called Guidance Technique was actually a controllable form of deep sleep. It could rapidly restore one's strength and draw forth the energy that had always lain dormant within the body.
Only once one could grasp that dreamlike yet not-quite-dreamlike stillness, control one's body within that tranquility, seize the rhythm of one's breathing, and stoke the furnace of one's body with bellows and fuel could the Guidance Technique truly be considered mastered.
"Such rapid progress."
When Hilliard noticed that Ian had genuinely fallen asleep—and was sleeping soundly—he was not annoyed in the slightest. Instead, he clapped his hands in delight. "Only a tranquil heart can fall asleep in an instant... Children's minds are cluttered, their thoughts fluttering everywhere. How could they simply sleep whenever they wished?"
"To sleep whenever one wishes means one has already gained an initial grasp over one's own body. Learning the Guidance Technique next and mastering the rhythm of breathing will simply be like water flowing naturally into a channel."
People said children's minds were pure, but in truth, they were merely ignorant. Their thoughts were incomparably chaotic; sometimes, they did not even know what they wanted to do. Their sense of self was actually quite faint. They could not even perceive the fear of danger and death. That was why children failed to notice carriages on the street, or even deliberately darted out from the roadside without warning.
Thus, proper ascendant training generally only began after puberty had ended, when one's thoughts had stabilized and were no longer disturbed by hormones.
Only great families possessed sufficiently outstanding inheritances, along with enough instructors to guide the cultivation process, to begin training