“That's a dessert spoon, not a soup spoon,” said Shui Gai, shaking her head in irritation. “And the handkerchief is not for wiping your face! If you eat properly, nothing should remain on your face.”

  Another hour of teaching proper behavior by the Yu clan's maid had passed. Learning how to eat properly wasn't the worst part. Learning how to walk, breathe, and speak was much worse.

  As it turned out, May couldn't even perform the most basic life skills, at least according to the old woman. She still had to memorize the names of all the important people in the estate, but also in the entire Inner Court. After all, a proper lady had to know the people she would be talking to so as not to humiliate the entire clan because of her lack of manners.

  Shui Gai put her hand on her head and sighed heavily. May wasn't the only one tired of the lessons. The old woman wasn't used to teaching such “old” people who didn't even know the basics.

  Over the past few days, she could only admire the city from the estate with a sigh. She was not allowed to go out, and her only activities were learning proper behavior.

  “At least you can read and write... Ah, it's already noon. Today you're starting your training with Senior La Xia, so go now and don't be late. He hates that.”

  May had been at the estate for a few days, but she had basically met no one here except the servants. Every member of the Clan was also a member of the sect, which is why all the family members stayed at the sect's headquarters at the top of Junlin Mountain. The estate was only for special occasions.

  In short, the estate was just for show. She was basically the only resident, which made her feel a little lonely in recent days. Most of the servants were much older, and even the younger ones avoided her, as servants were not supposed to get too familiar with cultivators.

  “Senior La Xia?” May asked, hearing the name for the first time. “What kind of lesson am I supposed to have with him?”

  “Senior La Xia is a cultivator who has taught successive generations of children from the Yun clan. He is an extraordinarily formidable senior at the Foundation Establishment stage, so treat him with respect,” her maid replied, speaking very seriously. “High Elder doesn't want you to neglect your cultivation.”

  “He taught successive generations of the clan...? Is it really appropriate for him to teach me?” May asked, thinking that it might be out of place. After all, she didn't belong to their clan, nor was she even formally Ze Yun's disciple yet.

  The maid just waved her hand.

  “There are no young people in the clan at the moment, so there isn't much for him to do. He hasn't been doing anything else but teaching the younger generation for a long time,” she replied calmly.

  Hmm, if he really taught subsequent generations, then maybe thanks to him I'll learn more about Ze Yun... After all, someday I'll have to decide if he should become my master…

  She was given a deadline to make her decision. Ze Yun informed her that she had a month to decide. If she agreed, she would not have to participate in the tournament and would be accepted directly into the sect. If she refused, she would be a guest at their estate for the entire next year, and then she would compete in the tournament and join Cloud Academy independently of him.

  Unfortunately, she hadn't learned much from Shui Gai or the other servants. No one wanted to talk about it.

  She went to the training ground she had seen before. It was covered with something like gravel mixed with sand, and included dummies, various weapons, and other smaller areas.

  She saw that someone was already standing there. It was a man with long white hair tied in two braids. He had an elegant trimmed beard, which was also completely gray, and he wore thick round glasses on his nose. Nevertheless, his massive figure was impressive, and May had no doubt that despite his elder age, he was still extremely strong.

  May bowed respectfully, putting one foot forward, bending at the waist, and extending her hand slightly forward, just as Shui Gai had taught her. If she was to belong to the upper classes, she had to bow like the upper classes, not like the commoners.

  The man didn't answer, but just looked at her closely. She knew that he was currently checking her cultivation level.

  “Not bad for your age. Sufficient to be Ze Yun's disciple,” he finally said.

  Oh, so he knows about his plans? Well, that's not surprising, considering that Ze Yun personally ordered him to teach me.

  May was slightly excited to have a personal teacher at the Foundation Establishment stage. There were only eight people at the higher stage in the entire sect, but none of them taught. This meant that being taught by someone at the Foundation Establishment stage was the best option available.

  “Thank you for your praise, Senior,” May replied, bowing her head this time.

  “It's been a good year, so many talents. First the twins, and now you. Every talent is worth its weight in gold right now.”

  Twins, huh? I bet they're talented too? Well, I'll find out another time.

  “More importantly, I need to see what you already know.”

  May nodded and began to show him everything she could do. She didn't try to hide her enormous range of Qi Sensing or the accuracy of her Qi Control; she showed him everything she had.

  “Amazing...” he said when she finished her presentation on sensing Qi. “I thought you were worse than the twins, but your talent lies elsewhere...”

  Hmm, he's talking about those twins again, I wonder who they are.

  “Senior, who are these twins you talk so much about?”

  “They have a great talent for cultivation, greater than yours, but you'll probably find out more about why yourself. But that's not important, your talent clearly lies in mastering techniques... In terms of Basic Techniques, you've basically mastered them to an absurd degree, you're not too far behind even those at the Foundation Establishment stage.”

  Her understanding was extensive, which was the result of several distinct factors. Her earthly knowledge, talent, hundreds of pills and potions unavailable on the market, purchased thanks to the system, as well as hard work.

  She could use her Qi sensing ability from dozens of meters away. Whichever way you looked at it, she was talented.

  “I was going to start with teaching and polishing the basics, but that won't be necessary.” He said suddenly, invigorated and visibly pleased with his discovery. “Since you are at the fifth stage, you should already know the basics of Advanced Qi Techniques, right?”

  May shook her head, which caught the man off guard. Usually, after reaching the fifth stage of Qi Refinement, one began to learn advanced techniques. However, May had no time to learn them. She reached the fifth stage alone in the cave. It was true that she had a powerful person there in the form of Scar, but he was not a cultivator, so he could not teach her anything.

  “So that's how things are? Well, that's okay, although it's rather unusual considering that you're already at the Peak Phase of the fifth stage.”

  May had no way to counter that argument. The way she cultivated herself was unusual in itself. However, even if she had some shortcomings, it was nothing serious. After all, most people her age weren't even at the fourth stage, while she was already close to the sixth. So what if she hadn't learned some techniques yet? She would do that now alongside her new trainer!

  "The basic Qi techniques have three forms that you already know: Qi Suppression, Qi Control, and Qi Sensing. The advanced techniques also have three forms. But today, we will start and focus on only one, which is the most important and time-consuming: Qi Manipulation. You are going to need it in order to master the other two," he said, explaining the general concept to her. She already knew this, but she listened carefully anyway.

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  The man walked eastward, and May, puzzled, followed him. He lifted a jug of water and poured some into his cup, filling it to the brim.

  Was he thirsty?

  “Manipulating Qi requires both Qi control and Qi sensing, which is why it is an advanced technique,” he said, bringing his fingers close to the glass.

  The water began to freeze, and soon the glass was filled with ice. May felt the coolness coming from the glass. It was truly amazing.

  “However, Qi Manipulation requires more. It is the manipulation of reality itself and its properties using Qi. It is often said to be the most important cultivation technique. It is used by both children just learning cultivation and sect leaders.”

  When he finished speaking, he brought his hand close to the glass again, and this time the ice began to melt. Soon after, smoke began to rise from the glass and the water began to boil. After just half a minute, there was not a drop of water left.

  “Changing the properties of existing matter is much easier than creating something from nothing,” he said, and a faint light rose from his finger, and soon water began to fall into the glass like from a tap, refilling it with water.

  The glass was full of water again, and May was impressed. Of course, she had seen similar things before, but this time she would learn it herself! It had always seemed so distant to her, but this time she would soon be able to make something out of nothing.

  “It may seem easy, but it isn't. It takes years of practice and a perfect understanding of what you're creating. You can't do something you don't understand. And sometimes, even when you think you know something, it often turns out that you know nothing.”

  However... Doesn't that mean that this technique is perfect for me?

  After all, she understood many things that were foreign to this world. The structure of atoms, chemical compounds and reactions, patterns and formulas, as well as other concepts that were unfamiliar here?

  After all, for others, fire was a warm element that they could only understand with their own eyes and logic, but for her, fire was a phenomenon accompanying the combustion process; an exothermic chemical reaction between a combustible material and an oxidizer, with the release of heat and light.

  She had been able to master her previous techniques to such a perfect degree; thanks to her foreign understanding, but in this case, it seemed to her that her talent would be even greater. A technique whose power depends on understanding the world? She had always been obsessed with science.

  “Umm, May? Are you okay?” asked the man, concerned.

  “Oh, yes, sorry, Senior, I was just lost in thought.” She replied, breaking free from her swarm of thoughts.

  “Well, the things I have shared are the most fundamental concepts. However, I am not keen on theory, so let us proceed directly to practice.”

  He began to show her how to adopt the correct posture for manipulating Qi. Contrary to expectations, it was not so simple.

  To change the temperature of water, it wasn't enough to just think about it. If that were the case, it wouldn't be an “advanced” technique. It required much more. A complete understanding of the substance being manipulated.

  “Most often, the first practice is to freeze water or boil it. It's a fairly simple action that's not difficult to understand, which is why we start with it.”

  To freeze water, many steps had to be taken. First, it was necessary to combine two techniques. Use Qi sensing on the entire volume of water, without going beyond its boundaries, and then distribute the Qi energy using Qi Control evenly throughout the water. Qi sensing and spreading had to happen simultaneously, which was a problem for many people. However, distribution alone was not enough.

  Qi had many properties. The Qi density, or the number of energy units per unit of surface area, was the most important one. The "normal density" of Qi in the body wasn't enough to change the state of water.

  Therefore, in order to use Qi, one more technique was needed - Qi compression. In short, using the advanced technique of Qi - Qi manipulation - required as many as three other intermediate techniques.

  Qi compression, as the name suggested, allowed the density of Qi to be changed. Thanks to this technique, the volume of Qi increased, making it easier to change the properties of a given material. However, different materials required different densities.

  Simply changing the temperature of water was easy and did not require high Qi density, but changing the properties of mercury into gold, for example, was basically impossible for anyone. It would require compressing an absurd amount of Qi into a small area.

  This stage was the most difficult for many people. Compressing Qi caused physical pain and put great pressure on the body. With practice, the pressure became less, but it was still an extremely difficult task.

  And at the very end came the most important moment. The actual change in the properties of matter. Here, however, there was no method. Some imagined the change in properties in their minds, while others thought of nothing. It was the final step, for which there were no instructions.

  "However, there is a certain correlation here. The better you understand a given phenomenon or material, the better you will do. That is why most people focus only on something specific. The first cultivators who used water were fishermen, and on land, farmers who cultivated the soil ruled. To change something, you have to understand it not only with your mind, but also with your heart," said the man.

  “When I was learning to make fire, I put my hands in the fire. They were completely burned. Then I healed them and put them back in. I understood the warmth and power of fire through the pain. My understanding increased significantly at that time,” he said, reminiscing about the old days.

  May currently had no intention of doing anything so extreme. She just wanted to understand the basics of Qi manipulation. However, it turned out to be more difficult than she thought.

  First, I must master Qi Compression in order to master Qi Manipulation. To need one thing, I need another...

  According to the man's words, it was painful. Compressing Qi made all her muscles tremble with pain.

  “Take this,” he said, giving her a pill.

  Without thinking too much about it, she quickly took it.

  After a few moments, the pain subsided a little.

  “It's just a painkiller, but you'll need it at first. You'll get used to the pain over time.”

  So she continued to compress her Qi. The greater the compression, the more the pain pierced her, and she was already covered in sweat.

  It took her over two hours to compress her Qi to a stage that satisfied Senior La Xia. However, even that was difficult for her.

  “That should be enough for now. Now try manipulating Qi,” he said, handing her a glass. She knew what to do, but she was terribly tired.

  I don't have the power... Minnie, how much does it cost to remove my fatigue?

  Minnie immediately perked up and began chanting her advertising slogans.

  “Removing fatigue? Only with me, the perfect offer, no pain and complete comfort for only 95 mu!”

  So be it.

  May wanted to learn as much as possible that day, but she was too tired. She wouldn't be able to do anything else today. She needed to refresh herself a little. The price wasn't the cheapest, but this was no time to be saving money.

  She immediately felt reborn. It was really worth the price. She didn't feel a drop of fatigue anymore.

  I hope he didn't notice that.

  So even though she felt better, she decided to keep pretending to be tired. She didn't want it to look too suspicious.

  However, the man was impressed even without that. May's stats were extremely high, her strength was higher than the average person her age and at her stage. So even if she hadn't bought it, he would still consider her incredible.

  She placed her hands close to the glass. The closer the physical contact, the easier it was, in theory, to manipulate Qi. She followed all the steps she already knew. She surrounded the glass with her Qi, used Qi control to spread her energy from her body, and then compressed it to increase its density in the glass.

  The last step was to make it freeze. However, she didn't want to start with a scientific approach right away. First, she listened to the man's advice. She imagined the coldness of ice and had images of the glass freezing in her head.

  Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work; she didn't feel any difference. It was difficult, and using these three techniques at the same time, while also trying to use Qi manipulation, was an absurd challenge. She felt pain throughout her body, even though she had just purchased fatigue removal from the system.

  In just a minute, as she tried to freeze the water, her fatigue returned to its previous state! This technique was too absurdly demanding, May couldn't imagine how anyone could use it.

  Suddenly, she felt a hand on her.

  “Enough!” the man shouted, causing her to immediately stop her technique. “You'll only hurt yourself. You just trained compression, and now manipulation... You have to approach this gradually.”

  “It... was...” May didn't know what to say, completely exhausted again.

  “I didn't think you'd even try... Most people start fainting even after just compression training. I underestimated your willpower!” said the man, clearly pleased with his new student. “You did pretty well for your first time.”

  “How did I do, Senior? How long will it take me to learn Qi Manipulation?”

  “For someone without talent, freezing water in a glass would take at least a month. The average student at Cloud Academy needed two weeks, Elder Ze Yun needed less than a week... But in your case, I think it's a matter of a few days,” he said, nodding his head with satisfaction. “There's no denying your talent.”