Spirit Cultivation

As he went out, Xuefeng passed by Drakos who waited on the balcony for him and as usual, Drakos has something to comment. 

"Tsk, you all with Golden Talents will know nothing about the struggle of Cultivation," Drakos snickered, his ego high as the sky. "Back in my days, we used to fight for each resource yet they get everything with ease." 

"I thought that Dragon Race talent is the best out of all races? How come you struggled to cultivate?" Xuefeng questioned as he launched himself in the sky, already late with his practice. 

"Of course! The talent of dragons is the best of the best! No one can match us!" Drakos immediately countered as he followed him. "I was talking about others. Not me. Because of the hardships, many tough humans were born that could rival even dragons. Aren't you making them weak if they get so many resources without fighting for them?" 

"What? You want them to fight with each other for resources?" Xuefeng asked sarcastically, but then imagined his wives wrestling each other in the mud while only wearing bikinis, making such idea quite alluring. 

His dreams could only stay as dreams. 

"I think you are overreacting," Xuefeng added without waiting for Drakos' comment. "I want all of my women to be strong. They will get enough of a battle experience and struggles when we enter the Hidden Realm. Right now they need to grasp all the elements before we depart." 

Drakos didn't argue anymore, probably recalling how he himself told them they need to cultivate to survive in the Hidden Realm.

'Talking about elements, I'm already filling your dantian with Ether Qi. Do you mind testing it out?' Ling suddenly joined the conversation, reporting her work. 

'Good that he doesn't know about you helping me all the time. That's when complaints would start,' Xuefeng pointed out as he scanned the Qi inside his dantian. 

The only reason why they could do it was because he had full trust with Ling, giving her full access to his body. Not many Fate Holders were willing to give so much power to their Fate Spirit. 

Talking about him, he already had all eight elements filled to the limits of his cultivation stage, making him eight times more resourceful than a typical Sage Cultivation without any elements and the ninth section was currently filling up. 

Spirit, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Lightning, Metal, Blood, Ether. 

All nine elements combined allowed one to create Fate Qi, the most powerful Qi in existence. Everything that existed was made from elements so technically, one could create anything with just enough amount of Fate Qi. That was the reason why Drakos could rebuild his body thanks to Fate Qi. 

'What do I do with it?' Xuefeng asked as he wrapped his hand with some Ether Qi only to see it disperse after he lost control over it. 

'Ether Element is used to bend space around you. You can transport other elements through space with it, together with you. What's more, Ether Qi is really unstable so you need to be definite with your actions else it will disperse into space. Try transporting small objects at first,' Ling proposed, giving Xuefeng an idea. 

He was already above the training grounds so he stopped, hovering above it and created a small rock from Earth Qi, materializing it in his hand. He then wrapped it with some Ether Qi and as soon as it was completely surrounded, the rock disappeared. 

It felt strange but even though he didn't see it, he could still feel the rock laying on his hand. He tried to move it with the Ether Qi and surprisingly enough, it flew whenever he wanted it to. He checked how far can he send it but after five meters, the Qi around the rock dispersed, making the rock appear once again. 

"Cool!" 

It was a fun concept to be able to send objects far away but also dangerous. Couldn't someone just send a knife through space and kill someone unexpectedly?

'Good job! The more Ether Qi you use, the further and quicker you can travel in space,' Ming called out cheerfully. 'You need to grasp this concept as we will need it for your Sword Arts. Try moving your body through the Training Grounds barrier and appear on the other side. It's just a defensive barrier so it doesn't have a function to block space.' 

Hearing Ming's proposal, Xuefeng naturally wanted to try it and started surrounding himself with Qi. He made the layer a bit thicker than normal, just in case. He didn't want to be stuck inside the barrier on accident. 

Right when his body was fully wrapped in Ether Qi, his surroundings turned grey and time slowed down. He inspected his body and then transported himself down just like the rock before. He passed the barrier as if it wasn't there and saw the Tianshi with Lisa. 

They seemed to be testing something, acting like they didn't see him at all. 

Lisa was running around with a shining white hue around her body, reaching quite a great speed. He gently landed on the ground and observed them with a smile, forgetting his time was limited. 

He was about to dodge seeing Lisa was running straight into him but then his body appeared, returning back to the outside world. 

"Ah!" Lisa exclaimed, trying to dodge him but Xuefeng did the same, choosing the same side to dodge. 

Thud!

Lisa's soft body was like a rock when she knocked into him, sending them both backwards with the momentum she built. All Xuefeng could do was hug her and absorb all the damage as he fell on his back, sliding on the ground for at least ten meters. 

"Xuefeng!" Tianshi called out from afar but Xuefeng was naturally fine. 

"Don't worry, nothing happened," Xuefeng assured but still made sure with Lisa who curled in his arms in panic, "Are you fine?"

"Mhmm, I'm okay," Lisa confirmed but didn't seem willing to move, hugging into Xuefeng's chest. "Only my heart is beating really fast…" 

"I'm sorry for scaring you," Xuefeng apologized as he lifted them both up but Lisa shook her head and corrected sweetly, "It's not that. It just beats faster when you hug me…" 

As she said it, Lisa jumped away from him and wrapped her arms with Tianshi, asking, "Why did you appear in front of me all of a sudden?" 

"I was training my Ether Element," Xuefeng relied before questioned as he pointed at Lisa's barrier, "Are you training your supportive arts? Is that a speed buff?" 

"Yes. It's both defense and acceleration buff. I'm still not sure how strong it is. We just started testing different buffs," Tianshi explained. "Do you need help in your training?" 

"Not now but I might need you later. I will train my Sword Arts right now. We can later test the strength of our arts together," Xuefeng proposed and the girls immediately nodded, "Yes!" 

"Alright, I won't disturb you for now," Xuefeng hugged them both, giving each a casual kiss and walked away towards the other corner of the Training Grounds. "You two continue." 

Tianshi took it calmly, smiling at his back but Lisa was moved, touching her lips with her eyes wide open as if she wanted to savor this moment. 

Xuefeng only smiled, watching her reaction even without physically looking.

'What do we start from? You said you have seven Sword Arts for me?'