Jin hurried to get up and was the first to reach out his hand forward to the outer sect disciple still on the ground. The guy had been so surprised he had remained sitting on his ass. As soon as he got him up, Jin bowed to the two and said:

" Sorry, friends, it was my mistake running without paying attention. I have reached a little problem in cultivation and my head was in the clouds, i'm deeply ashamed "

Both of the brothers were quite stunned as the polite apology. They thought for sure this random guy was here to create trouble. After all, the road had been wide enough for dozens of disciples to move about and he just had to jump on them from behind. Turned out the guy had just been an airhead. They both looked at each other and said it was fine. Everyone suffers from cultivation problems. They did remind him to pay attention to where he went though.

Jin bowed once again to the duo and left. They left shortly after. As Jin took to his run once more, he couldn't help but once again marvel at the gentleness of his sect mates. He certainly did want to fight but not someone that could overwhelm him. Someone of similar aptitude or slightly stronger was good to test and improve himself. If it was someone who could overpower him in a move or even slaughter him with a sneeze, was there a point? No.

Jin wanted a fight but not a beating.

After his run, he relaxed in a bath then went to sleep. He woke up in the afternoon and was forced to skip lunch. The sect provided free meals but only at certain times. If you wanted the chefs to cook for you at random hours, you would have to pay up.

In the end, he planned to start back on cultivation. He wasn't going to be defeated after a single try. Though, before he did, he decided to take a peek at the available lessons these days. Maybe there were some related to his problem? There was fortunately a few lessons who, while not being focused on what he needed, weren't too far from the topic. They were of course about the basics.

He noted down the times of these lessons and went back to trying his luck at eating energy and shaping it.

...

A week went by in such a way with Jin not making any progress. He found out how to eat energy but still had no idea how to shape it. The only answers he got from the elders teaching the lessons were that he just had to focus like he did when absorbing the energy. Fun fact: He ate them instead. And so, he was stuck.

However, the inspiration reached him as he was munching on a pork bun at lunch with the petite girl. She had made some new friends by now who stood at the same table. For some reasons, he still was unable to make himself remember their names. Anyways, they were the only ones who knew him in the outer so he hanged out with them. And they seemed happy about it as eating with an inner guy seemed to be a boon to their fame. He didn't care.

What he cared about was the spiritual bun! No, wait, not that. The pork bun! He was eating the pork bun right now! But the bun would change shape while going through the insides of his body. Why? How? Because there were some things inside his body forcing it too!

Then, couldn't he apply the same principle to the spiritual energy he was eating? Now, he knew that only spiritual energy could mold spiritual energy and if he wanted to make some kind of things to mold spiritual energy, it would require him to first mold spiritual energy into those things to mold it... Ah, shit, he was fucked again. A dead-end.

Wait. No. Not for sure. There was one more thing that could manipulate spiritual energy. His will. So, where there ways to shape his will inside his soul sea? It was his inner self after all so it might be possible. If crows could take and fight better than him, couldn't he make his will take a shape?

He put down his bun in slow-motion as he looked at the cultivators at his table one by one. A little girl slightly older with anger issues and prone to violence, another similar little girl and two fiery little guys of the same breed. Good enough. They would do. He quickly interrupted their conversation without a care. It probably was some meaningless child bullshit anyways.

" Hey guys, I got a question "

Since it was rare that Jin was joining the conversation by himself without them making him do so, they were quite eager to answer him. They were very helpful about it and not even angered that he completely cut them off. Jin nodded to himself, considering that his charisma was good. It was in fact just the other kids thinking he was shy and they needed to be nice so he opened up further.

Regardless of all that, he asked them straight: " Can I give shape to my will in my soul sea ? "

At the question very off-topic compared to what they previously chatted about, the kids were a little surprised but they soon answered him as best they could. One of the boys said " Why not ?" which was both helpful and unhelpful. And two other kids nodded at that. Only the last little girl which was not the one he had met first, so little girl number two, gave him so valuable information " It might be possible but we don't know. If it is, it is likely written in a book in the library though! "

Right. There was that too. A library. Why didn't he think of it beforehand? As he munched on the remaining bun, he got the answer to that question: "Right, I was never good at studying"