The fist person William saw when he walked out from the room was William standing outside the room waiting for him.

Seeing William walk out with a single book in hand Amin understood that he had finally made his decision, but he asked to make sure.

"Young Master, do you any questions or is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, I'm done, I will be picking [The heart of the forest] for my cultivation technique."

William barely managed to choke out the words. Before stretching out his arm to hand the book to Amin.

Amin while worried for William upon seeing him being so sad still did the duty entrusted to him and checked the technique to ensure that it wasn't faulty. Upon reading the technique Amin understood why William was so sad. While it was a decent starting technique, if one compared it to the others they had in their library it wasn't anything special. This of course would make one question why he picked this cultivation technique but Amin had been a library attendant long enough to understand why it was chosen.

Normally, finding a technique that you resonated with was a joyous occasion, but for a child who dreamt about being an unparalleled cultivator finding out that you resonated with a basic technique was a depressing issue. Even worse was being forced to pick this basic technique while many other high tier technique was right infront of you.

Seeing this Amin couldn't help himself from speaking a few words of encouragement.

"Young master William, we're there any other techniques that you were interested in? If you tell me now I can prepare so that when you have completed the [Heart of the forest] those techniques have a copy waiting for you."

Changing cultivation techniques was quite common in the cultivation world as no one could completely predict what the future would bring nor could they assure that parts of their cultivation technique wouldn't be lost. After all even if the book was made out of dragon leather it still wasn't indestructible.

This had made it so common procedure was to split the cultivation techniques into chapters and volumes. Each chapter of a cultivation technique contained the method for how you should practice throughout one minor realm. Volumes didn't have any world-wide accepted limitations and was therefore left up to the creator to decide how to split them.

Another procedure that came from the inability to find a infallible method to pass down techniques was to make sure that a cultivator could start practicing a new technique after completing every chapter, this was to ensure that the cultivators future wouldn't be decided by if they were lucky enough to get a technique that guided them all the way to ascension. But most techniques had a certain "bonus" if they were practiced to the end of each volume.

Nowadays the only techniques that stopped their users from changing cultivation technique after every chapter were the ones which had some sort of internal fault in them or the ones that were really, really old.

William had of course heard that you could change cultivating technique but he had never personally seen it be done as his grandfather had already undergone the heavenly rebirth and was done cultivating, his father was on the verge of completing his own cultivation, his mother had been stuck in a vicious bottleneck for almost three decades and his brothers were all still practicing their first cultivation techniques. But now when it was brought up he realized that if he was diligent and practice this technique than he could choose another one within a few years.

William got a giant smile on his face before taking the free hand of Amin and started speaking in a excited tone.

"Really? You promise to prepare one for me? I want the technique [A devious rose]."

Seeing Williams joy come back Amin smiled before promising to prepare it directly after copying [Heart of the forest]

William almost had to be pushed out from the library because he didn't want to leave Amin's side for a second. Unfortunately Amin had to go to the archive to make the new copies of the techniques to give to William. The archive being one of the most protected places in the clan since it held all the original versions of the techniques, many of which was old and fragile, a place that was not suitable for an excitable eight year old child.

Before he could be pushed out from the library William managed to make Amin promise to copy [A devious rose] once more.

"You promise you won't forget right?"

"Don't worry Young Master, I will go to the archive and make a copy immediately."

Amin like he had done a dozen times already ensured William that he wouldn't forget while still smiling. Either Amin was very patient or this wasn't the first time he had done something like this.

William kept his eyes on Amin until the door separated them from each other.

William had a new problem now, how should he spend his time before dinner.

William first thought about doing his divine duty as a little brother and go and annoy his brothers but his eldest brother, Aaric was busy helping his father with official work so he was spared today. His second brother, Harlin was trying to break trying to achieve a breakthrough and enter the middle minor realm of the second major realm so he would also be spared.

For some reason thinking about Harlin trying to breakthrough was disturbing his heart, but he couldn't figure out why.

His third brother was quite free-spirited so William didn't know where he was at this time.

Seeing how he couldn't annoy his brother he might as well try to calm his heart. For some reason the concepts that kept crawling into his mind were; 'time', 'breakthrough', and [A devious rose].

He soon realized why he was getting annoyed thinking about Harlin.

Cultivation took a long time for most people, even geniuses could spend years in later realms trying to progress, the early realms went by faster but they still took some time to complete.

In cultivation there were seven major realms, each one except the last one was made out of three minor realms, and each minor realm split into five different stages, Initial, Early, Middle, Late, and Peak. There was technically another stage called the half-step stage but that was a special stage that was feared by all cultivators, in this stage the cultivator would be stuck between realms and would have almost no chance of progressing further in their life.

The first major realm was called the "Body tempering realm", this realm is made up of the "Meridian opening realm", in this realm the user would unlock their meridians to allow Qi to flow in their body. The second minor realm is the "Body cleansing realm", in this realm the goal was to use their newly opened meridians to allow Qi to clean their body and meridians from the impurities in them. The third minor realm iz the "Body strengthening realm", now the goal was to use Qi to nurture and temper their bodies. His third brother was currently in the late stage of this realm.

The second major realm was the "Qi condensing realm", in this realm the first minor realm is the "Dantian awakening realm", the goal in this realm is to unlock the dantian completely. The second minor realm of this major realm is the "Meridian expansion realm" now the goal is to use Qi to strengthen your internal body. The last minor realm is the "Dantian expansion realm" in were the cultivator expands their dantian. This is the realm that his second brother, Harlin is trying to breakthrough and enter right now.

William now realized were the his unease came from, Harlin is fifteens years old now and is considered to be quite talented but he is only now trying to enter the last minor realm of the "Qi condensing realm". Meanwhile William needs to complete both the first and second major realms to complete the [Heart of the forest] technique before he can change his cultivation technique. Doing some quick math while also factoring in how the last part of each major realm is considered to be the hardest part, he came to the conclusion that he probably won't be able to change his technique this decade.

Amelia had just come back from her garden when she was tackled by her youngest son on the way to the dinner room.

Looking down she saw the young William press his face into her dress while shaking like a frightened bunny. Seeing this she effortlessly lifted him up and held him in his arms like she used to do when he was smaller.

When he was younger he loved to be carried like this by her but when he had turned eight this year he had stopped wanting to be carried, apparently since he was old enough to start cultivating he had also suddenly become mature enough that it was embarrassing to be carried by his mother. She hadn't been too surprised by it since all her sons had gone through a similar thing when they started to cultivate, apparently in their minds they associated the permission to cultivate with adulthood, silly children.

When she lifted him she took the opportunity to scan him with her Qi to see what the problem was, but she couldn't find anything, he was perfectly fine, the only thing out of ordinary was his fluctuating mental energy. With her cultivation being in the later parts of the nascent soul realm she should have been strong enough to examine his soul, but she had a serious problem in her foundations that stopped her from sensing his soul, not that it was important in this case, few things could injure someones soul and they were in the heart of Victors territory so she doubted anything which could damage souls could escape Victors senses and infiltrate the clan. So this should be an emotional issue rather than William crying from any injuries.

She wanted ask what was wrong but William only buried his head in her neck while gently crying, so she just carried him towards the dinner room at a faster pace while gently patting his head.

When she entered the dinner chamber she saw her father-in-law sitting at the head of the table with a paper in his hand. When he heard them enter he put away the paper and moved his attention towards them. Upon seeing Williams behavior a flash of worry overtook his normal smile. Amelia sensed an immense amount of power flow from his body for a single moment before it was reined in and hidden from her senses. Following this she felt the pure Qi of a Divine-rank celestial wash over her and William, Victor was scanning William and unlike her scan this scan would leave nothing hidden. William couldn't sense anything since he hadn't developed his spiritual senses.

Seeing how Victors worried expression was replaced by an amused expression and curious eyes she let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding.

Seeing how nothing was truly wrong she choose to enjoy the moment. She sat down and shifted William so that he was sitting on her lap, she didn't know when she would be able to cuddle with her son next time so she would make the most out of the moment.

William soon calmed down and started to explain what was wrong all while sniffling.

"I, I found a technique that I resonated with."

"That's great. I knew my son was a genius a little genius in the making."

Amelia was overjoyed upon hearing this since this not only meant that that all of her sons had found a fitting technique it also lowered the risk of them encountering the issue of being stuck at a bottleneck like she was. In fact one of the major reasons she was stuck was because she had never managed to find a truly fitting technique which left some issues in her foundations, if not for Victor and her own father helping her she would never have been able to cultivate.

Victor only smile grew brighter upon hearing William. Amelia knew that Victor had never found any cultivation technique he "resonated" with so he would of course be happy upon hearing that his grandsons had all found one that they "resonated" with.

Of course this wasn't why William was crying, it was quite obvious that those tears wasn't ones that came from happiness. So Amelia gently coxed William to inform them what the issue was while simultaneously patting his head and holding him in her embrace.

"So what's the problem William. Did someone bully you?"

Even if she asked it like that she knew that the issue lay elsewhere.

In the far past numerous prominent clan and sects had been destroyed from internal issues. It was apparently so rampant of an issue in some time periods that according to many historians more clans and sects fell from issues brought forth from internal factors compared to outside forces, either they were destroyed by this internal issues or they were weakened enough that outside forces could come in and deliver the final blow.

Nowadays internal harmony was a key focus in most clans and sects. Victor and the old geezers in the clan had taken this a step further and spent an immense effort to keep the clan clean from internal issues such as bullying and other issues that would sully the harmony of the clan.

Victor upon hearing her question shot her an amused glance before focusing on William and what he was going to say.

"Does fate count as someone?"

Apparently William had recovered enough to use the skill which he had honed against his brothers. This response seem to please Victor as he started laughing a little

"You want to sass me little boy? You think your worried mother is a pushover?"

This seem to put William on the right track as he had never fought against his mother in a battle of words but he still knew that he would lose that battle. So he quickly started speaking, saying the first sentence in a normal pace but then rushing to say the rest of it before she could stop him.

"No mommy. I don't want to fight you. I'm just sad because the technique I resonated with is awful."

Amelia smile got wider when she heard his response. He had long since stopped calling her mommy so that was obviously an attempt to soften her up and then before she could say anything he quickly diverted the topic.

"Well look at you mister silver tongue. Trying to bribe your way out? I guess you will have a talent for politics when you grow up."

William upon hearing that he failed in diverting the topic looked at Victor expecting to be saved. Victor of course was enjoying this interaction immensely but unfortunately he got a bit worried upon hearing the technique William "resonated" with was awful, so he decided to help William.

"This technique, was there a flaw in it?"

This of course was a worst case scenario, "resonating" with a flawed technique, fortunately that happened very rarely and when it did happen the user would usually be okay. "Resonating" with a technique wasn't something as simple as just understanding it easier. When a cultivator practiced a technique that they had "resonated" with the technique itself helped them practice it to the point were it functioned as if the technique itself had been upgraded. This meant that most flaws were simply fixed when the cultivator practiced it, the problem being that there wasn't any guarantee that every flaw would disappeared.

"It's not flawed. It's called [Heart of the forest] and it's just not good. The Qi isn't very pure and it doesn't strengthen the body much. The only abilities it gives is sensing plants at major accomplishment and being able to communicate with the surrounding forest at perfection while meditating."

Hearing this Amelia became happier and Victor also smiled a little brighter. Amelia complimented the ability and Victor agreed.

"It can communicate with nature, that's good."

"Indeed. That's very good. You should be happy William."

William became confused upon hearing this, he couldn't understand why they would compliment the ability that even the creator seem to be embarrassed over. At least with the upgrade from "resonating" with it his Qi would become decently pure and his body would also be further strengthen, but thinking about how the upgrade would interact with the abilities of it he didn't know. He could guess that maybe he would be getting the abilities earlier or they would be upgraded so that he could sense plants at a longer range and maybe communicate with the surrounding forest without meditating. If he was lucky both things might happen, but it still wouldn't be a particularly good technique.

Well the best thing to do when you didn't know something was ask someone who did know.

"Why is being able to communicate with nature good? I'm not planning on becoming a druid."

Amelia laughed a little before pressing William further into her embrace before closing her eyes and laying her head on top of Williams soft hair.

Victor smile had a trace of sadness appear for a second before he could hide it. He looked into Williams eyes and started speaking.

"William, you should know from your preparations before you could cultivate that every major realm has an overarching goal that is supported and achieved by the completion of every minor realm in them. This is why they are split into different realms, it's to help cultivators understand them better. You should also be aware that advancing becomes harder and harder the further one cultivates, taking longer and longer to achieve less and less progress, this is the fate of cultivators who progress to the higher realms. Are you following me so far?"

These were all things that he had read about before he could choose his technique. While he didn't have a good understanding what the books meant by it all as he had no practical experience in cultivation. But he still understood that it took a longer time to progress at higher realms compared to the lower ones, he also knew that it became more complex but he didn't truly understand why this happened or what implications this had at higher realms.

Even so, this seemed to be important topic so he tried to nod his head only to be stopped by his mother head resting on his so he answered verbally instead.

"I think I understand grandpa."

"Good, good. Well I guess it doesn't matter too much as you will understand what I mean when you cultivate in the future. Your ability to communicate with the surrounding nature will allow you to ask for help from nature itself, at the early realms this won't matter that much but at the later realms this will become invaluable because it essentially puts a hard limit on how difficult your cultivation can become. In more simple terms you can think of it like always having a teacher with you, one that will help you whenever you need it without asking for anything."

Victor paused for a moment to let William understand what he was saying. He didn't really expect William to understand the importance of what he was saying so for now his goal was simply to encourage William and make sure that he completed and reached a perfect accomplishment in the technique. After waiting for a few breaths he continued speaking.

"Now for something you probably don't know. The goal of the fifth major realm is to create your nascent soul, to complete this nascent soul you will have to infuse it with different principles found in the world, so being able to ask for help from nature itself is a invaluable tool, it's could almost be considered cheating."

Victor once more stopped speaking to allow William to digest the information he had heard, William had only heard the names of the higher realms as there were no books that explained them in their library. This was of course a deliberate choice since knowing these things had a tendency to cause more problems than they solved. Since after understanding what this all meant some cultivators started to gravitate to becoming evil cultivators. Victor thought that this was an exception so he felt the need to explain somethings to William.

Well even if William heard it now he was simply too young too understand what implications these higher realms could have. Still to be safe Victor would keep his eyes on William to make sure that he didn't do anything stupid when he became older.

Victor was now getting ready finish this lesson.

"This becomes even more important at the sixth major realm, in this realm you will have to understand and fuse the world's principles into your own soul while also merging your nascent soul with your true soul and if you don't understand the principals of the world then you will never progress in this realm, even me standing in front of you and giving you step to step instructions how to progress further into the realm won't be able to help you progress as this is something you have to truly understand."

William while he didn't understand much of what was being said he still understood that communicating with nature was a great tool in cultivating. But these topics raised some questions in his mind. So after seeing that his grandpa was done he started ask them.

"Grandpa, the writer of the technique seem to be embarrassed by the ability to communicate with the forest, but you are saying that it's great, why would he be embarrassed by it. Also if communicating with nature is so important why don't all techniques come with it?"

"The author was probably embarrassed because the ability should be quite weak. Most cultivation techniques don't come with the ability to communicate with nature because there are already many utility techniques which grants the ability to communicate with nature to a high extent, but they aren't that helpful, the best you can expect from them is that they cut of a few years of cultivation time. You should not misunderstand the only reason your technique William help you that much is because you "resonated" with it making it surpass it's limits, don't forget when something "resonates" with you it means that there is a connection to your soul. Normally the ability of your cultivation technique would be trash."