Chapter 4 - Training

“IMPERTINENCE! YOU DARE SPEAK TO THE BEAST KING LIKE THAT?” Wolfy was angry.

Astler smiled inwardly, teasing Dreven was really quite fun. It seemed that throughout his life, he had never been spoken to in such a manner before.

“I will not teach you if you treat me with such disrespect!” Wolfy claims arrogantly.

“You don’t really have a choice, you already signed the contract” Astler says flatly.

Dreven’s eyes flash with confliction. In his anger, he’d forgotten about this. But to be treated with such disrespect! It was the first time in Dreven had ever been treated like this. Normally people treated him with extreme respect, they wouldn’t dare to even think of saying such things to him.

“I’d die before I lose my pride!” Wolfy proclaims.

“Master Wolfy then” Astler concedes.

“You must address me as your majesty!” Wolfy yells arrogantly.

“Then just Wolfy” Astler states.

“Fine, fine, you stubborn child. Call me whatever you want. In return, allow me to examine your core” Wolfy asks.

“Why?” Astler asks.

Wolfy sighs in his heart. This child truly can’t be treated as such, he’s far too shrewd!

“You should know too that your core is not normal. You should have also noticed that you soul itself admitted a wave of energy that compressed you core into an insane ball of energy” Wolfy explained, not hiding anything.

Astler nods. He had noticed that his core was strange and clearly different from the other members of his clan.

“Even I, with all my experiences and power have never seen a core like yours. If I am to train you, I need to examine your core” Wolfy explains, but truthfully he also wanted to satiate his curiosity. This boy’s parents were astounding and clearly the boy’s core was very strange also, maybe he could find some clue to help his own cultivation.

“Very well. If you increase your cultivation, it would help me as well” Astler smirks.

Wolfy’s heart briefly stopped. He needed to be more careful around this child, it was as if Astler could see right through him. Astler then inwardly granted permission to examine his core. Truthfully Wolfy could have forced this permission, but he didn’t risk it because of the last condition in the contract, to not act against Astler in any way. Such a vague stipulation meant he had to be careful.

Wolfy began to examine the core.

“This…..impossible” Wolfy was stunned.

“What is it?” Astler asked.

“Your….your core is so dense. It’s as if your core is solid. Now I know why you were able to absorb so much energy from that cave” Wolfy sighs.

“What does that mean?” Astler asks.

“One’s talent is represented by the beginning of one’s cultivation base. In your clan, this is measured by how quick one can advance, but this way of thinking is flawed. It’s a miracle there are any profound cultivators in your clan, let alone a legend cultivator. The denser one’s cultivation base, the more powerful they are able to become, but of course this requires a longer time to form. It could be said, the longer it takes for one’s core to from, the stronger they would be able to be with the proper instruction. What’s strange is that your core wasn’t particularly dense until your soul let out that wave of pressure. Could the soul be related to one’s innate talent? Or is this a gift of your parents. Very interesting” Wolfy was rambling, clearly although he was deeply prideful and arrogant, he was also extremely committed to the world of cultivating. It was no wonder he had become so strong.

“Can you still train me?” Astler asks. He was very much aware of how hard it was for him to even advance to the initial level. How hard would it be for him to advance even further?

“HAHAHA! Yes, yes, after training to the initial stage of any realm your training should become much easier. The density of the initial stage of any realm could be said to determine your strength in that realm. However, it could also be said that even those with a high density in the core realm could have a weak base in the martial realm. This is entirely down to your innate talent! The density of your core realm makes me anticipate that your innate talent should be rather high! I’d imagine that you’ll find it difficult to advance to a new realm up to at least the profound realm because your talent will require an extremely dense base” Wolfy was rambling again, it appeared that he was actually quite excited about Astler’s potential.

“Alright then Master Wolfy, how should I start training” Astler asked.

This statement seemed to bring Wolfy back to reality, he was visibly displeased with this name, but started pondering Astler’s path soon after.

“It’s still far too early for you to learn any skills, any core skill you learn would be a waste of time, as they’re far too weak and present no longevity. For now you should concentrate on increasing your cultivation base. You should be able to reach the peak of the Core realm in 6 months” Wolfy declared.

Astler frowned, this was too late. He was turning 13 in 2 months and in 3 months, the Tiannan ceremony of adulthood would be held for everyone who was 13. This was a ceremony that was held in great importance by the clan. Every year they would determine the cultivation base of everyone in the clan. Everyone of the 6th level of the core realm and above would become stapled as cultivators of the clan, those below would be assigned to various jobs in the clan. Not only that, the 16 strongest cultivators would be entered into a ceremonial tournament. The top 4 of which would be considered future pillars of the clan and would receive many skills and items to increase cultivation and power. The winner however would be granted permission to choose a skill from their cultivation hall’s top floor and a martial cultivation stone.

The skills from the bottom floor of the cultivation hall are out of reach for most members of their clan, let alone the top floor. Normally only elders are allowed to view such skills. The martial cultivation stone holds martial cultivation energy and is a great help to cultivators in rising their cultivation base to the martial realm. This bottleneck is tough for any cultivator after all, especially so for Astler as it will be even harder than entering the core realm and that achievement took four years and vast amounts of luck!

Such prizes are out of reach for Astler, but what he wants more than anything is to reach the 6th stage of the core realm. This way he wouldn’t shame his father. There wasn’t much time!

“Master Wolfy, how should I go about increasing my cultivation base?” Astler asked, searching for secrets to go faster, he has wasted so much time advancing to the first stage that he was rather impatient.