The person standing before Jason was a warrior instructor.
Jason had already planned to follow the path of a warrior and reach the Saint-level first, then bring his magic up to par.
In fact, the Rhine Clan, with its many Saint-level experts, had no shortage of people with foresight. The experts had long since taken notice of Jason's aptitude and assigned him directly to the warriors.
He had six affinities, two of them supreme. If he also studied necromancy, he could offset the Rhine Clan's short life span to some extent.
With aptitude like that, breaking through to the Saint-level naturally came first. A powerful Necromancy mage could still die of old age, while a warrior had an excellent chance of reaching the Saint-level. The Rhine Clan could hardly fail to see which of the two choices was better.
Especially since the Rhine Clan had no shortage of Necromancy mages.
Jason guessed that, as the Rhine Clan stood now, it could sweep aside all the human nations on the Yulan Continent if Saint-level and Deity-level experts stayed out of it. Only the rat tide in the Dark Forest could compete with it.
Instructor Feidier was an eighth-rank lightning-element warrior and a member of the Rhine Clan.
As a female warrior, she was meticulous and responsible for training the lightning-element warriors among the Rhine Clan's youths.
Only now did Jason learn that all the Rhine Clan's children received their early education in the imperial palace. He had been introverted before and had never learned much about the other clan members. Lucy had only told him a few days ago.
Only adult members at the seventh rank or above went to Blood Blade Castle outside the city, and they had to reach the ninth rank to qualify for Bloodshadow Valley.
"Prince Jason, your lightning-element affinity is supreme. I recommend that you learn Thunder Swift Lightning Battle Qi."
"Teacher Feidier, please just call me Jason. What are the characteristics of this battle qi?" Jason was very humble.
"This battle qi isn't particularly outstanding. Its practitioners are only a little faster, but it has one major advantage: the bottlenecks they face are less restrictive."
Feidier explained, "As long as warriors follow the proper steps, their battle qi cultivation won't be slow. It's the breakthroughs at each rank that take time, especially from the sixth to the seventh rank. Thunder Swift Lightning Battle Qi is distinctive because its bottlenecks are relatively easy to break through at every rank."
Jason took the battle qi manual. "This battle qi must be very popular in the clan."
Feidier nodded somewhat helplessly. "Yes, I cultivate it too. Battle qi that can shorten cultivation time is very popular in the Rhine Clan."
Feidier seemed a little emotional. "Our clan's bloodline is both a blessing and a shackle. People like you and me have it fairly good. As long as we work hard at cultivation, we still have hope. Those who only have an affinity for destruction have it much worse."
"Only an affinity for destruction?" Jason thought back. There seemed to have been one or two people like that in his group.
Feidier explained, "Humans have neither destruction-element battle qi nor destruction magic. People with only an affinity for destruction can only learn battle qi of another element, but because of their affinity, their progress is bound to be extremely slow.
"Even if they remain free of illness and misfortune, they'll already be two hundred by the time they struggle their way to the peak of the ninth rank cultivating battle qi that doesn't match them. If anything goes wrong along the way, or their aptitude is a little worse, or they indulge themselves a little too much, they'll have only thirty to fifty years left to break through the threshold to the Saint-level. That's an impossible task!"
Now that Jason thought about it, they really were rather pitiful.
In the original work, even Linley had taken about ten years to break through to the Saint-level. And that was with his Dragonblood Warrior transformation and his prior comprehension of "force" and profound mysteries. That was a "genius's" speed.
For other ninth-rank warriors, breaking through the Saint-level bottleneck within a hundred years was normal performance, especially when the battle qi they cultivated didn't match their affinity-
In the end, Jason accepted Feidier's advice and chose to cultivate Thunder Swift Lightning Battle Qi. Attack, defense, speed, and fighting strength against others of the same rank-were any of those as practical as breaking through to the Saint-level?
Since it was Jason's first time cultivating battle qi, Instructor Feidier had to supervise him.
Jason took off his shirt so the instructor could directly observe the changes in his body.
Sitting cross-legged, Jason tried to draw in the lightning-element battle qi around him.
He had already meditated before, so sensing elemental energy wasn't difficult, but drawing it into his body and circulating it through his meridians was hard.
After repeated stumbles, Jason spent the whole time from morning until after four in the afternoon before he finally completed his first proper cycle of drawing in and expelling battle qi.
Warriors of the first through Sixth-level Warrior ranks simply drew in battle qi and stored it in their meridians. Only at the seventh rank or above, when battle qi formed a complete circulation through the meridians, could it leave the body.
"Thank you for your effort, Instructor Feidier."
"It's all right. I don't usually have much to do anyway."
Feidier was telling the truth.
Although the Rhine Clan didn't pass its bloodline down through a single descendant in each generation like the Four Ultimate Warriors, its population wasn't large either. It was rare for anyone to have as many as three or four children in their lifetime.
There were only around two or three hundred youths in the imperial palace at present, scattered across various areas. Besides, once warriors in the Coiling Dragon World got started, they didn't need much instruction from a teacher.
As the dedicated instructor for lightning-element warriors, Feidier usually only checked on her students to keep them from injuring themselves by cultivating too aggressively.
The current Rhein Emperor invited Jason to dinner.
Even now, Jason still referred to his father as "the Rhein Emperor" in his mind. In fact, the original owner of this body had been the same. Neither of them felt much attachment to their biological parents.
After changing into a more lavish set of clothes, Jason arrived at the brightly lit hall.
The emperor's family was there.
More precisely, it was the emperor, the empress, Jason's mother, Yunika's mother, and four princes and princesses.
The emperor had more than just those few women, of course, but only those three had borne him children. Barek and Lucy were both the empress's children.
They took their seats one by one. Following the original owner's example from his memories, Jason tried to make himself as inconspicuous as possible.
"Barek leaves for the front the day after tomorrow, so our family is having dinner together today to see him off!" Maisiji raised his wineglass.
Jason raised his glass along with the others and drained it.
This tastes awful. It wasn't that the wine tasted bad. Jason simply hadn't liked drinking in his previous life. Fortunately, this body had a fairly good tolerance for alcohol.
As his older brother, Barek struck up a conversation with Jason. "I heard you awakened six affinities, Jason, a rare occurrence that gave the elders quite a surprise?"
There was a teasing note in Barek's voice.
"Not at all, I was just lucky. Besides, only my lightning and death affinities are supreme. The others aren't worth mentioning."
Lucy seemed to want to stir things up. "Second Brother has already been transferred to battle qi cultivation. With necromancy to extend his life, he has an even better chance of breaking through to the Saint-level than you, Big Brother."
"Oh? Then Jason should help Father shoulder more affairs of state in the future. Look how sensible Lucy is." Barek looked at Lucy.
"I can't handle affairs of state. Lucy has exceptional talent; I can't compare." Jason hurriedly declined.
"Don't turn it down. You're a prince, so it's only right that you help your father govern the country." Jason's mother, Aidem a, actually wanted him to get mixed up in this mess.
He didn't know whether she was simply tactless or wanted to egg Jason on to help her compete for favor.
Jason was nearly in tears. Oh, Mother, no wonder you're one of only three women who've borne the emperor children and still aren't valued. Could you have a little more tact? Even if you want to compete for favor, don't say it here! You might not care about living, but I do.
Fortunately, the emperor himself didn't want his only four children fighting to the death either.
"Do you have any plans for your future, Jason?"
"I want to focus on cultivation. Once I reach the seventh rank, I'll go train in the Sunset Mountain Range. If I'm fortunate enough to break through to the ninth rank, I hope you'll introduce me to the clan's holy land so I can broaden my horizons, Father." Jason answered very humbly.
"Haha, that's fine too. With your aptitude, reaching the ninth rank won't be difficult. When the time comes, a clan elder will come and take you to the holy land." Maisiji spoke casually, but then changed tack. "However, with such good aptitude, you should have some descendants sooner rather than later. Our Rhine Clan relies on its bloodline to dominate the Yulan Continent, so we should pay even more attention to producing outstanding descendants."
Maisiji looked at the empress beside him.
"Arrange a marriage for Jason soon. She must have excellent aptitude, looks, and character!"
"Ah, Father, I'm still too young."
The gentle empress paid no heed to what Jason's mother had just said.
"It's all right. Ten years will pass in the blink of an eye. We'll arrange it first, and you can marry later. Or we could arrange several matches."
"I'd rather wait until I'm an adult."