Alex and Graham talked for hours and hours, long after the sun went down and the night took over the land.
Alex did most of the talking as he was the one that had to explain to his father not just about what cultivation was, but also the inner details of everything that a cultivator would need to know about.
Alex knew he was overloading his father’s mind with information, but his father kept asking him questions and he kept explaining. By the end, Graham had already forgotten over 80% of the information he had learned from his son, but Alex didn’t find it a waste at all.
The time they were spending was precious father-son time that Alex had lost after becoming a cultivator. Now that he was finally getting it, even if he spent it doing the most mundane task, he would still find the time spent worth it.
“So, I can be a cultivator too, right?” Graham asked.
“Yes,” Alex said. “Well… there’s not always a guarantee, so it is better if we test it.”
He had no spiritual root testing formations on him, so he asked a few of the palace servants to help him find one that could work on regular mortals.
Not even 5 minutes later, a servant was outside his door with the formation plate and Alex brought it in.
“Place your palm on the plate. It will send some Qi into your body. You might feel some tingling or maybe even some pain, try not to avoid it or force it away. Accept it all, and it will be fine,” Alex said.
Graham nodded and did as Alex said. The Qi moved into his body, and the most he felt was a cool sensation going throughout his body. There was no pain or tingling as Alex mentioned.
A minute later, the Qi came back out of his body and the formation started lightning up, showing exactly what Spiritual root Graham had.
“These colors… they are the elements you told me about?” Graham asked.
“Yes,” Alex said.
“Why are there only 5?” he asked.
“That’s how it usually is,” Alex said. “Not everyone has all 7. As far as I know, Yin and Yang are the most notoriously hard-to-find Spiritual roots and very few people have it.”
“So what do I have?” Graham asked.
“Look here, you see how the Brown and Green are so strong? That means your Earth and Wood spiritual roots are quite strong. It’s impossible to say how good they are exactly, but you can judge them based on their differences from the other colors.”
“Next you have your Water root, which is slightly worse, but not that bad. Finally, your Fire and Metal roots are frankly… trash. I have a way to fix the Fire root, but Metal… I will have to find a way,” Alex said.
“So… can I cultivate?” Graham asked.
“Huh? Oh yes. Absolutely. As long as you have a single one of these colors, you are able to cultivate,” Alex said. “That is one of the reasons why the players I tell you about can’t cultivate. Those clones weren’t given a proper spiritual root, only ending up with regular meridians that couldn’t go through Meridian Tempering realm.”
“I see,” Graham said. “This spiritual root, it’s a physical thing in our body right?”
“Yes, it’s around your navel area,” Alex said.
“Then, can you transplant it into other people to donate to them so they can cultivate it?” Graham asked.
“Uhh…” Alex was stumped by the question. “Actually, I do not know the answer to that. I would normally say no, but the world is still full of so many mysteries that it is possible that such a thing is possible.”
“I can confidently say that it is not something you can do in this world. Maybe in the Immortal realms,” Alex said.
Graham didn’t say anything as he kept watching the colors on the plate that was starting to vanish.
“So, what should I do now? I need a technique right?” Graham asked.
“Yes,” Alex said. “I don’t have a good one on me. I’ll try finding one for you after the event tomorrow. Quite a few big shots should be gathered, so I could ask them to help me find the best cultivation techniques for you.”
“I would have given you my own, but you don’t have a yin or yang spiritual root.”
Graham shook his head. “There is no need for you to hurry about all of this. Take your time. You do say it will be a while before I can see your mother again, so I feel like I have all the time in the world to prepare for it,” he said.
“I’ll do the best I can,” Alex said. “By the way, you don’t remember what the system wrote for your information, do you?”
“I barely even remember what the system looked like, let alone remember what it said,” Graham said.
“Sigh, it would be so much easier if we just knew what your body constitution was called. We could ask Scarlet or Godslayer about it,” Alex said softly. “No matter, I will run some tests on my own.”
Graham didn’t understand what he meant really, so he just nodded.
“You don’t remember any specific reason why your body got strong, right?” Alex asked.
“No,” Graham said. “Even back home, I was quite strong. Not to this level, but I was strong. People were surprised that I looked like a bodybuilder without ever going to the gym. I would tell people it’s because I worked on the farm, but the truth was I was made to work after my father found out I was strong.”
“It’s definitely your body’s constitution’s work then. It must improve your physical strength drastically quicker than other people,” Alex said. “Whatever, I will learn it all once I run the tests. You’ll have to have cultivation for that though, so I should get you to do that as quickly as possible as well.”
“As I said, you can take your time,” Graham said.
Alex sighed. “I know, but I still want to make you cultivate quickly. I’m worried that because of your age, the more we delay, the worse it is. Although, your body cultivation definitely should help you a lot, so maybe I’m worrying for nothing.”
“You definitely are worrying way too much about way too many things at once,” Graham said. “Start with the little steps. What’s the first thing you need to do? Find me a cultivation technique so I can get started, right? Until you can do it, you should calm down.”
“Yeah, I will have to find you that fi– Wait, no. There’s something else you can do. I nearly forgot,” Alex thought as he fished into his storage ring and brought out a black and white fruit, which he showed his father.
“What’s this? An alchemy ingredient?” Graham asked.
“No,” Alex said. “This is a Divine Devil fruit. It’s something that can make you go through mortal cleansing, which is very good for someone that wants to cultivate.”
As he explained that, he wondered if he should give one to Scarlet as well. Maybe Whisker would love it too. He had 4 Divine Devil fruits, so he had to be careful how he used it.
“Oh,” Graham said. “Why is good?”
“A mortal’s body is full of filth and waste that gets accumulated in their body over time. When they start cultivating, those filths interfere with the movement of Qi in your body,” Alex explained. “If you eat that fruit, the energy in it will basically push all of that filth out of your body in one go, making you as clean as a newborn baby.”
“Ooh, sounds nice,” Graham said. “Get rid of all my body’s filth, huh? So it can get rid of the lead dust too?”
“Yes, it can get rid of ever–” Alex paused, and then his eyes went wide. “Holy shit! Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Think of what?” Graham was surprised as well when he saw his son surprised.
p
“I’m not following,” Graham said. “Are you talking about my friends?”
“Yes,” Alex said. “I am making pills to treat the toxins in their body, but I was wondering how I could get the dust itself out of their body. I finally have an idea now.”
“I see,” Graham said. “So you’re going to feed them all this fruit?”
“What? No! I only have 4 of them,” Alex said, actually horrified that his father was putting up such a proposition. “There are people who have lived for thousands of years that have only heard of these fruits in fairy tales. I cannot just hand it out to a bunch of tribal people who will under all circumstances just go back to body cultivating around phoenix fire.”
Graham was a little surprised that Alex was saying something that sounded so selfish, but the number quickly put things into perspective.
“Then why would you say you finally know how to treat them?” he asked.
“Well, that’s because over 3 decades ago, I had somehow managed to make a pill that could easily make someone sweat out profusely from their body.”
“If I make those people eat that pill, I can force out the lead dust from their body while treating their toxins as well. That way, I can completely heal them all.
“Oh,” Graham said excitedly. “That sounds amazing.”
