William was ready to start his new day. His excitement today almost rivaled his excitement of the day he had gone to the library to choose his cultivation technique, but sadly that day had turned out to be a disappointment, he hoped that today would be better. He would have been more excited if he could actually cultivate a technique that he liked, while his grandfather had explained that the technique was actually very good for his future and so he would trust his grandfather and diligently practice it, but it still left a sour taste in his mouth.

As he walked towards the dinner room he was wondering when he would get his technique. He knew that the librarians worked fast and he had heard that all his brothers had gotten their techniques the day after they had picked their techniques, it also helped that the technique was neither very complex or long. The question was, when during the day would he get it? He'd have to go to the library after eating to see if it was ready.

After entering the dinner room William saw his grandfather and mother being the only ones present. His grandfather wasn't sitting in the usual chair at the head of the table, instead he was sitting next to Amelia. They were both reading a book, they looked like they were quite focused on it as they didn't even pay attention to William when he entered.

It wasn't until William asked what they were reading that he caught their focus.

"What are you reading?"

Seeing his enter Amelia smiled and waved him to come to her. As he did so she caught him and in a replay of yesterday she placed him in her lap before cutting off any protest by distracting him with the books true nature.

"The library had the book delivered to father this morning since he told them he wanted to check it before you could start training."

Hearing this William focused on the book and realized that it was indeed the [Heart of the forest] technique. Although there was unfamiliar parts in this book as well. But instead of them being more instructions for how to cultivate they were instead helpful advice from seniors and really anyone else who felt to contribute to the clans knowledge. He doubted anyone in the clan had chosen to actually train with this technique so why was there so much extra information in it? Could it be that he had missed something about the technique that actually made it was popular?

"Did I miss anything? Why are there so many extra notes in the technique?"

It was his grandfather who answered his questions while simultaneously shooting down his rising hope.

"No, you pretty much had a perfect understanding of what the technique will do. The extra notes are just from people who were interested in the communicate with the forest part. It seems like it was researched quite a bit when we first settled down next to the Soh forest but since we got better methods to communicate with nature it has been left alone."

That was truly and utterly disappointing. Apparently it wasn't even good enough to research anymore. William raised his head in an attempt to stop the tears. When Victor saw this he quickly added his own thoughts to encourage William.

"But it doesn't seem to be a bad technique. I'm looking forward to seeing how it functions in its upgraded state when you have completed it and reached a perfect mastery. I'm sure it will be a sight for sore eyes."

While this was said in an attempt to stop his precious grandchild from crying it was at the same time his true thoughts. He had never "resonated" with a cultivation technique but he had seen many others train and perfect the techniques that they had "resonated" with and from his experience it had the ability to exceed your expectations and be truly great. His heart shook a little upon thinking how all his grandchildren had immediately found a technique they "resonated" with. He calmed his heart by accepting that no one could truly predict the future and he could only prepare the best he could while hoping for the best. Besides who knows, maybe this truly was just a stroke of extreme fortune, it's not like lucky things didn't happen in the world.

Adalgar was currently being dragged down the halls of their mansion by his little brother, William. They were currently going towards the training hall that was located inside their own mansion. Normally Adalgar would have preferred to train outside but winter was here and it was snowing right now. Nothing that would bother Adalgar overly much since it still wasn't cold enough to penetrate his body's defense but it would hinder William from training efficiently, not that anyone's first day of training was efficient.

Adalgar had been the one who was the one who had the least to do and so he was the one that had been sacrificed and told to help his little brother. There were some more excuses like how training someone else also helped you deepen your own understanding of the subject you taught, this was in his opinion bullshit. He still remembered his own first day of training, of the disappointment and how he had constantly complained to his older brother while believing that the clan had collectively decided to prank him. Actually thinking about his little brother reaction this might be surprisingly fun.

The training hall in their mansion was completely made out of wood, it was as also barren as all tools and such were placed in storage rooms next to the hall. This made the whole training room look like a large wooden hall that had yet to be furnished. The only hint that this was made for training was the increase in both Qi density and purity inside the hall.

Adalgar took a deep breath when he entered the room. While the increase in Qi quality had it's benefits for him he would get the most from being outside where the Qi held some wind attunement rather than the neutral Qi here even if the quality was better here. Well the quality of the Qi here could be changed but having too dense or pure Qi could backfire and injure them since he was still in the body tempering realm, it was even worse for William since he wasn't even a proper cultivator but that would change soon enough.

Adalgar saw William spread take out his cultivation technique and lay it on the ground. He had opened to the first page of the chapter for the "meridian opening realm" the pages there would describe how you should train, not leaving a single miniscule details untouched. It was common sense to bring your cultivation technique and revise it before practicing it, at least in the early stages of the realm, the steps would soon become a habit and the book would be left behind until the cultivator managed to progress. Adalgar was currently in this position as he had already memorized the steps he needed to take in both mind and body. Not that he would need the book today as he was going to be too busy helping his little brother cultivate and with this being William's first time cultivating he was going to have his hands full.

Adalgar walked over to his brother and read the book so he would know how to correct his brothers posture and movements. Adalgar saw how focused and excited William was and knew this was going to be a troublesome day, the more excited they are the worse the disappointment is.

After they had read the last page of the chapter for the fifth time it William looked like he had understood what he should do and so he jumped to his feat and moved a few meters away from the book to not damage it. Adalgar knew that it was going to start now and prepared himself mentally while standing next to William.

Adalgar watched William started to move his hands infuriatingly slowly while also shifting his feat forward, every meter taking dozens of seconds. It was like watching someone move in slow motion, except a dance would at least be elegant, this was just embarrassing. Adalgar did the first of his jobs of today slowly following William and gently correcting his movements, a hand to high up was moved downwards, a elbow not bent to the correct angle was shifted to it proper angle, a leg placed to the ground too quickly was held up in the air until it was time for it to move down. Adalgar was bored out off his mind the whole time. The only time he was relived from boredom was when William had such an incorrect posture that he had no way to correct his brothers posture in time, those instances would nine times out of ten end with his little brother falling on his ass. After that they would either start to argue over whose fault it was or William would just give Adalgar a look that promised death and pain.

After almost four hours Adalgar started to see the end of this days practice as William was now sweating like he probably never had before and had the eyes of a dead person. Adalgar was impressed with Williams dedication, but he was curious if William hadn't noticed it yet, or maybe he was one of the few who could accept it. But just as he thought so he saw Williams face go trough those oh so familiar expressions. First came surprise and shock, after surprise came confusion, Williams stayed looking like he was trying to figure out the mysteries of the universe for a few seconds before changing to anger, and with that anger came a shout.

"Why! Why can't I feel anything!?"

Lastly came the look of an empty person, as if he had lost everything they had in the world. The despair of a person who didn't know what to do with themselves, like they had lost their very future.

"Brother I can't feel anything. Nothing is different. Could it be that I'm not able to cultivate?"

"Relax, you are able to cultivate, it was confirmed when you where born that you had no problems cultivating. You have made some good progress today, let me check your meridians and I will tell you how much progress you made."

Adalgar bent down and placed his hands in the placed on William where he knew the meridians openings were located. Unlike higher realm cultivators he couldn't [scan] something at range, but the only reason he could [scan] anything at all at his realm was because his cultivation technique was special and also upgraded with "resonance".

A problem inherent in the whole "body tempering realm" is the lack of a spiritual connection and Qi was at the end of the day more spiritual than it was physical, so without a spiritual connection you wouldn't be able to command Qi. But heaven wasn't too unfair, just like how something physical like a silver sword could affect something spiritual like a ghost, certain movements if done properly could affect Qi. By using this method cultivators could move in accordance with their technique and "call" Qi to themselves and then they would move in other ways to make the Qi enter their meridians. This is were another problem came forwards the meridians would be "closed" by barriers made up of impurities from the body, and breaking those barriers was exactly the goal of the minor realm, the "meridian opening realm".

The problem came from how barriers were destroyed from outside the cultivators body making the destruction invisible to their senses until they reached the mid stage of the realm and a small hole was opened up in the barriers finally allowing Qi to enter the meridians. All of this made the first few training sessions nerve-racking as the cultivator would be unable to know if they have made any progress or not, it was rare for a cultivator to pass through this realm without starting to question if they are even able to cultivate and considering how most cultivators of this realm were very young this would usually lead to a breakdown. Even if one prepared by telling them this there would rarely be a change in the reactions, after all, with them usually being mentally exhausted and also having high expectations they would usually forget that this was common. Instead it had been popular lately to not mention that there would be no way for them to sense the changes and depending on how long they cultivated the first time without breaking down would allow you to gauge roughly their resistance to heart demons.

As Adalgar [scanned] William he saw that there was a small crack in the barrier made of impurities.

"Don't worry you have cracked the barriers to your meridians. In few more sessions you will have entered the mid stage of the "meridian clearing stage" and will be able to sense the Qi flowing into your body. Right now you are in the initial stage and will enter the early stage in two more sessions."

"You promise nothing is wrong with me?"

"Yes I promise, don't worry so much, we can get grandpa to [scan] you if you want to."

Adalgar kept petting Williams head while comforting him as they left the training hall to get cleaned up before search for their grandfather.