Pursuing The Summit - Chapter 12 Louis

The next day, he performed Amber’s daily check up and Amelia was reading a book nearby, for she was so close to becoming a two star array master that she did little else.

“Amber, Amelia, spend the next week cultivating. We will be going into the ruins soon, so it would be better if you cultivated. Especially you Amelia, you have almost reached the third realm, so breaking through before then would be best, or at least reach the bottleneck.” Louis said, once he finished her check up.

While nothing bad had happened since Amber reached the third realm two years ago, Louis was afraid that the delicate balance within her body would suddenly shift one day and she would have to start cultivating. The most painful process of Amber’s cultivation, now that she reached the third realm was the amount of qi and physical pain Amber was willing to tolerate, which is why Louis had prevented her from improving a single step for the past two years in this domain and instead pushed her intellectual boundaries, for although she was young, having opened all three dantians and reaching the third realm caused her to have the intellectual capabilities of an adult without the knowledge and experience to back it up.

Amelia looked up from the book and puffed her cheeks. “But I’m so close to finishing and you told me to read it in the first place.” Amelia said.

“Yeah, I did, but things have changed. Don’t you want to explore the ruins north of campus?” Louis said. “We are going to visit it for a month soon, but you need to get a little stronger. Otherwise, I won’t take you.”

“Fine, fine.” Amelia said, throwing the book up into the air then running to breakfast.

“What about me?” Amber said, turning around.

“You have a choice. You can either stay here and learn more about becoming a doctor or you can start cultivating again. However, if you do choose to cultivate, it will be more painful than before you started cultivating, since your senses have now increased.” Louis said.

Amber stared at him for a minute, then two, before speaking, “What do you think is better?”

“Cultivating will be better. You have had some time to adjust to your state of mind and body, so you should have better control now. Things may get dangerous in the future and improving your cultivation may improve it. You will just be putting aside your studies for a month and a half. However, if you don’t want to experience it, I understand. I’ll gather some books for you to read, so you can learn it more effectively. I will also spend the last day beforehand answering any questions you have.” Louis said.

“I will cultivate.” Amber said, gripping his sleeve.

Looking at her hand, he said, “Truly, it’s fine. You can always decide to cultivate when I come back. It won’t be too late then.”

She started shaking. “Don’t leave me. Mother is not here either.”

“Fiona and Silva will both be here to look after you.” Louis said, hugging her. “You will be safe.”

She shook her head. “I want to come.”

“Alright,” Louis said, not sure whether which was the better option.

Louis spent the next two weeks busy concocting pills. Apparently, training within the ruins will require many pills, otherwise time would be wasted. He had hardly seen Shea and Carla, but Carla was busy with classes while the part-time studying at the shrine would require her to invest more time in the earlier part. Silva and Fiora were still collecting information on the political situation on not just the elemental cities, but also the frontier states, the Mainland, the desert and the Great Forest, so he hardly seen either of the two. Not that he had much time reading any of the material they would have collected, since when he was not concocting pills, sleeping and eating, he helped Amelia and Amber cultivate.

Amelia’s cultivation technique was called the Sword Maiden of Ice. This was also the same technique his wife and two daughters practiced. However, it was a rather simple and straightforward cultivation technique. She could either start with the wind or water chapter, then complete the other before combining both in the third segment, which was when things truly got difficult. Until then, the technique involved little more than opening the three dantians, improving one’s elemental affinity and cultivation, and understanding swordsmanship. While Louis had neither the time nor energy to teach her swordsmanship, Raphael, Laura and Nancy vouched Priscilla Lovell, another Second Generation member, as a fine swordswoman to teach her. Her training was not easy, but Amelia seemed to have fun.

Amber, on the other hand, was having the worst time of her life. Her technique was called the Nine Sun Yang Emperor technique, the royal technique of his family’s dominion. While reaching the third realm for her was atrociously easy and nearly killed him from jealousy, the next three realms would be something even he would rather not endure. However, it was the only cultivation technique he had and, while it was painful, it was the undisputed number one cultivation technique in his arsenal, especially since Amber had some type of flame constitution. Her body produced flames and Amber had to compress those flames into an orb and seal it within her body: two for the head, three for the torso and one for each limb.

While Amber never talked with him about cultivating again, he knew just hard she tried, so whenever she slept, he gave poured pure water elemental qi into her body. This mositured her skin and improved various other bodily functions, especially since condensing an orb of flame, if nothing else, dried her considerably.

Within the two weeks she started cultivating again, she failed to produce a single orb and nearly burned herself to death countless times, only to be saved by Louis at first, then by Nancy, whose cultivation was both higher and more familiar with medical techniques in their current world. She became the person who watched over Amber’s cultivation while Louis had to concoct even more qi replenishing pills to repay that debt. He could now finish a batch within an hour and only used forty percent of the spiritual energy since he was no longer researching how to improve the pill and only needed to concoct it.

Despite just concocting pills, thanks to how frequently he was emptying and restoring his meridians with pure wind and water qi, he reached the second realm, fifth layer in his water element. His wind element still remained at the second realm, sixth layer.

On the last day before the Second Generation would go to the ruins, Louis, Amelia and Amber all took a day to rest. Instead of going to the alchemy room, much like every day they had spent at school. Instead, they went into the commercial district. He had to beg Raphael for some pocket money, two gold coins – which was absurd for pocket money, but the commercial district was renown for sucking people dry. In this world, one thousand silver was equal to one gold, one thousand gold was equal to one spirit stone.

Instead of eating breakfast with the rest of their family, the three of them ran to the Aqua Pavillion. Aqua Pavillion was run by the Hess family and was the most famous restaurant on campus. Not only was the food was excellent, the prices were also reasonable, taking only two hundred silver for a meal. However, people from the middle class only ate there as a treat, since it was still expensive.

Aqua Pavillion was the busiest at lunch and dinner, but the breakfast company was by no means small. Since all the noble clans gathered within middle ring of Allyn City and the campus was in the middle of it all, many people ate at the pavillion while conducting business. So while few students were eating breakfast here, a good number of the seats were filled by older customers.

Although Amber and Louis never been here before, Amelia had. She immediately took them beside the aquarium, where few people sat and the fishes could be see up close. Amber and Amelia both ordered chocolate chip pancakes and a vanilla cake as dessert. While Louis thought it would be too sweet, since he saw the burns Amber taken while she was cultivating over the past two weeks, he swallowed his words and ordered the same thing.

Afterwards, they went shopping the entire day and Louis realized how little pocket money two gold truly was. Just a stuffed turtle and winged unicorn, for Amber and Amelia respectively, costed just as much as their meal, seven hundred silvers. Amber got a cute black dress with white frills while Amelia, due to a lack of money, got two blue ribbons, and immediately wore them for twin tails, and a promise she would get another stuffed animal in the near future. They returned home for dinner and a list of things the two would like to purchase on their next trip.

The next morning, they grabbed their bags and met up with the other Second Generation members who were waiting at the ruin’s gate.