Cultivating in Honkai!

"The first thing that comes is the aptitude test. You can think of it as scanning for talents, but in this case, it is related to martial arts."

The two girls had different reactions. Bronya just nodded; Seele looked a bit anxious.

"I need to touch your wrists."

"Hm."

Bronya came forward first. She handed over her right hand to me.

I blinked several times. Only when I am sure my vision remains on 'meridians' did I look at her.

I pulled up her sleeves. White snow started falling onto her skin. It is the same as the snow on the ground.

I know how tough it was to withstand the cold like this, thus I used the [Jade Warm Touch], the exact opposite of the [Jade Cold Touch] used to chill our pillows. Bronya's body trembled slightly at this heat.

She did not say anything else.

Touching her wrist pulse is ceremonial.

My spiritual consciousness can perfectly capture what her Spirit Roots look like.

…

Strange.

…

I can't see her meridians, dantians, and Spirit Roots. I haven't encountered this with Kiana since I used my spiritual qi to scan. It's different from spiritual consciousness.

…

My mind came up with a solution. From my fingertips, spiritual qi began flowing into Bronya's intangible meridians. Humans have a fixed 1,599 meridians according to all techniques. That includes the twelve standard meridians and eight extraordinary meridians that serve as the mainstays in spiritual qi circulation.

The moment my spiritual qi entered her meridians, they "appeared" in my vision. It was as if I am the trigger of their emergence.

It took an entire minute to go through everything.

A small black dot appeared on her chest. It slowly expanded until it became fist-sized. A strange feeling was emitted by it, something similar to the Dao Rhyme I still cannot understand. Although, it feels even more complicated.

This is something present in all high grade Spirit Roots.

Bronya's is made of pure darkness with hints of small dots here and there. A technique popped up inside my mind.

"Astral Spirit Root."

"..?"

"You have the power of the stars."

I removed my two fingers on her wrist. Only now did I notice the other two girls' stares. Did I take more than a minute?

"Sorry about that. It took some time because I am inexperienced."

"The Bronya wants to know more."

"Oh. Astral Spirit Roots… Our martial arts encompass many elements. You have the talent of stars. You can create small stars for attacks, enhance other people's powers, manipulate gravity, and the likes. That's the gist of it."

I turned to look at Seele.

"It's your turn, Seele."

"Oh? Ah, um…"

She isn't as nonchalant as Bronya. I pulled the sleeves of her clothes upwards. Her wrist trembled several times. 

I tried not to pay much attention to it. I did the same routine as Bronya's. 

"Uhm?!"

She was startled by the sudden warmth.

"Sorry. That's my skill. I thought it could make you more comfortable..."

"No, it's fine…"

Her somewhat flustered look was there to see. Seele is the complete opposite of the Tuna when expressing embarrassment. 

Kiana fights it back; Seele doesn't.

It took a minute to finish going through her meridians and closed dantians with my spiritual qi.

…

A fist-sized light appeared. It is pure light blue with no hints of other elements. It also possessed the strange feeling Bronya has. Out of all the techniques I have, there is at least one for each spirit root type. There are the ones for five-attribute, four-attribute, three-attribute, two-attribute, and the single-attribute spirit roots.

The last one is infamous for being the "Heavenly Spirit Roots". The cultivation techniques I bring is different from the conventional "strong at early stage, weak at late stage" in webnovels.

Forming five elements are not needed for the Divine Transformation Realm. As long as it is a "high grade" Spirit Roots, it is a free pass to the Void Refinement Realm.

…

This confirms it.

Everyone with a certain connection to the honkai, Herrschers specifically… They are prone to have high talents in cultivation.

"Water Spirit Root. The level is the same as Bronya's."

"Really?!"

That sentence struck a mark on Seele. Her eyes held a glimmer on them as she looked at Bronya.

Maybe it's her inferiority complex or cowardice. Seele hasn't dealt with these things properly at this stage.

"You can use it to learn healing spells and manipulate water to form offense and defense…"

For a while, I lectured the two about the basics of immortal cultivation. Kiana, who looked bored, took out her phone. I could hear her giggle in excitement when she saw something.

My best bet is a new HOMU comic chapter.

These idle thoughts did not conflict with my teaching. A perk of spiritual consciousness is the strengthening of one's mind. I can recall my memories more clearly. I can also multitask pretty well.

"The Bronya has a question."

"Go ahead."

"Martial arts are physical skills."

"Oh." I saw her doubts. "Martial arts originated from there. With the advent of the honkai, uhm, tens of thousands of years ago, it gradually evolved into this system of supernatural powers."

Thank goodness I readied the backstory ahead of time. Kiana and Seele are not skeptical, but Bronya is.

"For example, this."

My spiritual consciousness began to form a line towards the not-so-far orphanage. It connected with the sword case and opened it. Ten seconds passed and a familiar jian flew to my right hand.

I spun it to do a reverse-grip before stabbing it into the soil. The hazy silver light amped its sharpness to an extreme degree. The ground got cut like butter.

Seele gave me an awed look. She satisfied my small vanity to show off.

"Are there others like you?"

"I think not." I answered honestly… before I began to spit half-truths. "Master told me I am her first student."

"Don't you have a rule about it?"

Bronya's meticulousness continued to surprise me.

"Not that much. I can teach a few people, but she asked me not to make it widespread."

"The Bronya understands it."

Just then, I met Kiana's gaze. Our gazes met for a few seconds before she returned to reading her digital HOMU comic.

"I will pass on the techniques corresponding to your talents…"

*****

A/N: I had to pass my papers to uni earlier, hence the lack of chapter. The good news, though, is our classes starting next week, not this week. I can sustain the two chapters a day update for another week ദ്ദി(｡•̀ ᗜ<)

PS: Let's see if we can reach 800 powerstones next week?

PPS: Bonus chapter coming tomorrow.