Essence, energy, and spirit

"No, Uncle Cao, I just didn't want to trouble you. Didn't Sister Strawberry say she was preparing for the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament? I thought if I told you, you'd definitely have to trouble her to come with me. Or at least find someone else. I thought I was just going back for a visit, and nothing would happen." Facing an angry Uncle Cao, Huo Yuhao waved his hands repeatedly as he explained.

Aunt Lan's heart softened at his words. As far as she was concerned, everything about Huo Yuhao was good, except that in some ways, he was far too considerate-so considerate it made her heart ache. He hardly seemed like a six-year-old.

"That doesn't mean you can leave without saying anything! Besides, there's still a year to go. They only said they were planning to cultivate in seclusion for a while. That doesn't mean they're really in that much of a hurry."

"I'm sorry. I made you worry." Huo Yuhao lowered his head and apologized, both for lying and for making them worry.

Uncle Cao and Aunt Lan genuinely cared about him. Over the past six months, Huo Yuhao had felt that more clearly than anyone.

"Sigh." At that apology, even Uncle Cao, who was still angry, could only sigh helplessly. He put down the rolling pin in his hand. He knew getting angry now wouldn't help; what mattered was teaching the child. "Don't do this again. If anything comes up, tell your Uncle Cao and Aunt Lan beforehand."

"Okay."

"Don't just sit there nodding. Show me some actual action. Don't let me catch you doing this again. If I do, I promise I'll break your legs."

In the end, Uncle Cao and Aunt Lan let the matter off lightly. They lectured Huo Yuhao for nearly an hour before finally letting him go.

Of course, that only meant Uncle Cao and Aunt Lan had let him go.

After lecturing him, since Huo Yuhao had only just returned that day, they gave him the day off and told him to get some rest.

Back in his room, Huo Yuhao took out the belongings he had brought here six months ago, packed them up, and put them into his Storage Soul Tool.

"What are you doing? Worried they'll get lost?" Huo Yun asked curiously when she saw this.

"Um, Mom, do you think we'd be better off leaving?" Rather than answering, Huo Yuhao asked her this question.

"Why do you think leaving would be better?" Huo Yun asked in return.

"Tang San has his sights on me. Once he finds out I'm here, it'll inevitably bring unnecessary trouble to Uncle Cao, Aunt Lan, and the others. I don't want them dragged into this whirlpool because of me," Huo Yuhao said. He wasn't afraid of fighting Tang San, but he also had a very clear understanding of himself. He wouldn't blindly grow arrogant and assume he could actually defeat Tang San just because he was some Child of Destiny. Right now, he was still a weak Soul Master.

During a single round of attacks from Tang San, even Huo Yun had had no choice but to ask others for help. As he was now, he couldn't help with anything.

With his strength, it would be good enough if he didn't get in the way, let alone protect anyone else.

Huo Yun didn't consider it a big deal. She gathered a patch of air into a hand, patted Huo Yuhao's head, and said, "You can rest easy about that. I interfered with Tang San's vision long ago. The only reason he found you before was that you caused too much of a stir when you obtained your Soul Ring.

"Otherwise, why do you think you were safe and sound during the six months I was asleep, with no one coming to bother you? It's because he can't find you at all right now. He doesn't know where you are.

"You could say that as long as you don't run off and make a scene somewhere within his reach, especially places like the Clear Sky Sect or the ocean, finding you would be like searching for a needle in this boundless sea-and a needle that can move at any moment, at that.

"Just stay here with peace of mind. Besides, where do you plan to go if you leave? Back to the Star Dou Great Forest? As I said before, humans are social creatures. Although there would be a group of Ferocious Beasts around to talk to you, I had another purpose in bringing you back: tempering yourself through experience."

"Tempering myself through experience?"

Huo Yun said, "That's right. You don't think you can become a god just by casually cultivating because you're a Child of Destiny, do you? Follow the path I've arranged for you, and barring any accidents, you can become a god.

"But what powerhouse hasn't fought a hundred battles and crossed one hurdle after another to grow stronger step by step?

"So gaining experience is essential for you. You've only just obtained your first Soul Ring. You still have a long road ahead.

"Besides, the most dangerous place is the safest place. This is Shrek, the place Tang San graduated from. In his mind, this is his territory. He thinks that no matter what your mom does, I couldn't possibly bring you somewhere this dangerous. Just stay here without worrying."

"Okay!" Huo Yuhao nodded and never brought up leaving again.

"Don't overthink things. Get some rest. Starting tomorrow, you'll officially follow Mom's cultivation methods. Tonight, I'll give you a simple lesson so you can get a basic understanding of the path you'll take and learn a little useful knowledge."

"All right!" At those words, Huo Yuhao sat up, tidied up a little, and had dinner. Since he had the evening off, he returned to his room early, sat cross-legged, and entered his Sea of Consciousness.

Meanwhile, Huo Yun briefly organized the points she would be teaching Huo Yuhao.

As the Douluo Consciousness, apart from knowledge from outside this world, such as Electrolux's, which she didn't understand, there was no more comprehensive repository of knowledge in the entire world than her.

Actually, this job was originally supposed to be left to someone else. The original Douluo Consciousness had also intended to have Electrolux serve as this teacher.

But Huo Yun felt it would be better to do it herself. After all, she could let Huo Yuhao reach straight to the core.

When Huo Yuhao entered his Sea of Consciousness, he saw that an enormous screen of light had appeared there at some point.

Written on it was: Douluo Consciousness classroom!

Seven large characters!

"Young student Huo Yuhao, please take your seat. The Douluo Consciousness classroom is about to begin. Please remember the following points carefully. They will definitely benefit you greatly."

Hearing this, Huo Yuhao sat down right in front of the screen. Since there weren't any chairs or stools here, he simply sat on the ground.

"First, before we begin discussing the material, let's talk about what cultivation is."

As Huo Yun's voice rang out, the words on the screen changed as well, shifting from the original Douluo classroom to What is cultivation?

"Mom, doesn't cultivation just mean cultivating your Martial Soul and Soul Power?" Huo Yun's opening question already confused Huo Yuhao. In his understanding, cultivation meant cultivating the Soul Power inside his body, then choosing a suitable direction for development based on his Martial Soul.

"That proves you haven't touched the core of cultivation yet. You don't think the ordinary people on the continent who have Martial Souls but no Soul Power are unable to cultivate, do you?"

"Aren't they?" Huo Yuhao asked in confusion. If ordinary people could cultivate, the whole continent wouldn't place such importance on innate Soul Power.

"Although there is no absolute fairness in the world, when humans were brought into being, all of them could cultivate.

"In essence, everyone can cultivate. It's just that for all sorts of reasons and under all sorts of circumstances, some people have good cultivation talent and others have poor talent. But fundamentally, they can all cultivate.

"People without Soul Power could originally develop it through later cultivation, too. They simply lack an orthodox cultivation method to help them cultivate that Soul Power.

"The most important things on the path of cultivation are essence, energy, and spirit, which correspond to a person's physique, Soul Power, and mind.

"Those ordinary people who haven't awakened innate Soul Power can actually embark on the path of cultivation. What they need now, however, is to train their bodies and minds, and thereby draw out that strand of Soul Power within their dormant Martial Souls.

"Aside from that, there's your awakening ceremony. The awakening threshold is rank one, and at the absolute limit, it can awaken rank 0.5. That depends entirely on luck.

"In other words, all of you actually have Soul Power in your bodies. It's just that an ordinary person's innate Soul Power might only be around 0.1, or perhaps even lower, or a little higher. In any case, it won't be very high.

"In theory, if an ordinary person practiced your Meditation Method, they should be able to cultivate one rank of Soul Power in eight or ten years. And that's assuming they cultivate from childhood onward, without missing those golden years that are the best time for cultivation. Of course, it could take even longer."

This was the first time Huo Yuhao had learned that ordinary people could cultivate too. But then he thought about it: eight or ten years just to cultivate one rank of Soul Power-how long did a person have in their lifetime?

Judging by the average lifespan on the Douluo Continent, without war, ordinary commoners only lived fifty or sixty years. If they were lucky enough to eat some medicinal herbs that had grown for a number of years without becoming Soul Beasts, they might be able to extend their lives a little. But normally, it was generally only fifty or sixty years.

Wealthy people might live a little longer, but reaching a hundred already counted as a long life. At this cultivation speed, they might only have rank-ten Soul Power by the age of a hundred.

Being able to cultivate like that didn't seem much different from being unable to cultivate at all.

"We've strayed a little off topic, but as I just said, the most important things on the path of cultivation are essence, energy, and spirit. Different talents may mean people excel at different directions of cultivation. But fundamentally, they're cultivating essence, energy, and spirit. These are the most basic foundations of cultivation. Only on that foundation do you go on to master the essential abilities of your Martial Soul. With a foundation, you have better conditions for developing your Martial Soul's abilities."

"No matter what stage you reach, all three are extremely important. Right now, though, some people, especially over in the Sun Moon Empire, only value cultivating Soul Power. They don't train essence, energy, and spirit at all, nor things like their own Martial Soul's abilities. They think Soul Tools can compensate for their weaknesses in other areas, but that's rather putting the branches before the roots.

"Yuhao, you mustn't learn from them. A true powerhouse must have no shortcomings."

"Mm-hmm." Huo Yuhao nodded repeatedly.

"Speaking of Soul Tools, Mom hopes you'll study them and gain some familiarity with them. As I said before, the energy Mom currently has at her disposal really can't compare with my peak back when I brought the Dragon God into being.

"When bringing you into being, I could only give you the same comprehension and Mental Attribute talent. In other areas, you fall quite a bit short, especially when it comes to your body.

"So for now, we can only start with equipment. Soul Tools are actually similar to a profession called artifact refining, which can produce all sorts of equipment. I'm fairly familiar with the upper limits of that path.

"But a meal has to be eaten one mouthful at a time. Let's start cultivating first. Once everything is progressing steadily, I'll teach you how to make Soul Tools."

"Okay."

"Next comes practice. In the Storage Soul Tool Di Tian gave you, I also had him put some Gold Soul Coins taken from the Storage Soul Tools of people who died in the Star Dou Great Forest in the past.

"Tomorrow, take that money and these blueprints to a shop called Xinghe Manufacturing in central Shrek City. There are people there who can make them. These will be useful during your cultivation."

As Huo Yun spoke, the contents of the screen changed into images of several Soul Tools.

There weren't many, only three in total: a spherical Soul Tool, a juicer, and a wristwatch.

"Yuhao, draw these out, then go there tomorrow."

"All right." Huo Yuhao immediately did as she said. Although he had never had any contact with Soul Tools, he only had to follow Huo Yun's drawings, and she had even thoughtfully marked how these should be manufactured.

But if Huo Yuhao were asked to make them himself, that would be utterly impossible. He had never even had contact with them, let alone made them. Drawing them out, however, was no problem at all.

Still, because Soul Tools were extremely precise, any mistake while drawing the blueprints could cause problems when someone later manufactured them according to the plans. Thus, Huo Yuhao drew with great concentration and care.

It took him nearly a full hour to finish the three drawings. Once he was done, he put them into his Storage Soul Tool.

After all this was finished, Huo Yun taught Huo Yuhao a fist technique and a cultivation method, one for training his body and the other for training his Spiritual Power.

In Huo Yun's understanding, the most important things in cultivation were essence, energy, and spirit.

The mind, Soul Power, and physique were the three foundations. A Martial Soul was more like a talent; on top of those three existing foundations, one would then practice and master its abilities.

As for Soul Power, Huo Yun had already taught Huo Yuhao a cultivation method before. It was suitable for building his foundation, and it wasn't yet time to change methods.

Then there was the fist technique. Rather than calling it a fist technique, it would be more accurate to call it a body-refining method. By performing the corresponding movements, he would mobilize the Soul Power in his body to hammer his flesh, thereby strengthening it.

This fist technique also had a name: the Body-Forging Fist, also known as the Body-Forging Method!

Its principle was essentially to treat the body as iron and Soul Power as the hammer, mobilizing Soul Power to strengthen and improve the body through a thousand hammerings and a hundred refinings.

However, practicing this method would later require enormous quantities of food, or natural treasures, to nourish the body. Otherwise, practicing it once or twice would be fine, but continuing for a long time without enough nutritional replenishment would leave him crippled by his own training.

As for the spiritual cultivation method, it could also be called an eye-refining method. It complemented the cultivation method Huo Yun had given Huo Yuhao. She should originally have given it to him on the second day, but because she had fallen asleep, she hadn't.

It involved mobilizing Soul Power to nourish his eyes. Since Huo Yuhao's Martial Soul was his eyes, this would stimulate the growth of his Spiritual Power.

Every one of these cultivation methods had been tailored specifically for Huo Yuhao by Huo Yun.

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