Unexpected Situation

Inside the consciousness of his mind, Adrian was listening to the voice that was telling him about the Aqua Wave Breathing Technique.

The technique sounded profound but the basic theory behind the technique seemed quite understandable. There was just one problem. Imagining and feeling were different things. The technique required him to imagine him breathing in air as if it was water so that the waves generated from the water could be the trigger for the heart core to form.

Proceeding towards trying the theory he adjusted his breathing and took a few deep breaths. While doing so, he tried to imagine the air he was breathing. Inside his mind, he saw his body breathing in the silvery blue colored air, as the air enter his nostrils, he thought about how it would feel. The instant he tried to imagine the feeling of sucking in water, his conscious was jolted and his imagination was broken. He could see his body throwing out the water back from his nose.

This was somewhat unexpected. He was baffled by the situation. How could it effect the picture in his mind if it was just his imagination. Was it because of the technique? or was it because of the voice.. Is he in a state where his imagination was linked to his inner self? Is that how this technique and the whole process worked?

His heartbeat increased and his breathing quickened when he thought about the reasons. He could feel himself being enlightened. The quick thinking and reasoning he reached in such short time made him proud of himself. He tried to stabilize his breathing and focus his thoughts to find the solution to this problem.

Outside. The clan hall was again filled with silence. Even the old man was seriously observing Adrian and the group. This was the critical point in their life. This was the first step towards cultivation that one must take. How they tackle this hurdle would also define their path in the future.

As he was mulling over himself, suddenly there was a change among the candidates. It was Adrian whose face went red in an instant, he then coughed as if he got chocked by something, his breathing went uneven.

"Here it comes! Ah, I remember it so clearly as if it was yesterday. It was quite painful and sudden. It took so much time to just figure out the problem, haha". - Said one of the observers.

Another guy also joined in by recalling his experience "Right? You know I was eve... WHAT!!! Did..did he just stabilize himself?" - But halfway through completing his sentence he was shocked to see Adrian stabilize himself, Adrian looked like he was never disturbed before.

"This...it can only happen if he figured out the problem already. I tried at least 19 times before I even knew about the problem, only then was I able to stabilize myself and think differently. He is truly a genius."

There was a big grin on the old man's face. He was proud to see everyone's mind blown by the feat achieved by his grandson. But soon, his expression was back to serious again after all the real test was just beginning. Alfons had left the clan hall upon being called by one of the guards for some urgent clan matter.

After Adrian discovered the real theory behind the technique, he started analyzing about the solution step by step. For someone to be able to breathe in water, one needed to be able to breathe underwater. But that was impossible for a normal person who hasn't even started cultivating let alone an eight year old boy.

He thought - ["If I have to breathe underwater then I have to be like a fish or other aquatic beings. hmm I've ever only seen a fish up close. Emin once said that fishes use gills to throw the water out to breathe air through water. Would it be possible for me to picture breathing in water if I imagine myself having a gill?"]

Giving this idea a thought for some time, he settled on trying it as only by trial and error can he find the solution to something like this. As he pictured himself inside his mind, he tried to imagine him having small gills like opening around his neck which wasn't so difficult a task to do. After that, he tried breathing the air which was in the form of water.

Alas, he was still unsuccessful. It wasn't painful like the previous time but he still wasn't able to fully take in the water or make use of the gills to expel the water. But, this showed him that his way to find the solution was not totally wrong so he went ahead and made several attempts.

Finally, after more than two hundred plus attempts later he was successful at easily breathing in the water like air without any problems. He could already breathe in just after his sixty third attempt but it wasn't a natural process. It took several more attempts before he could use his imaginary gills without feeling any discomfort in his mind.

Feeling refreshed at the idea and concept behind being able to use his imaginary body part he wondered if he could do the same once he was proficient with qi at the higher stages of cultivation. Would he be able to make use of qi to simulate the gills? Is that how powerful cultivators were able to swim underwater like fish and soar the sky like eagles? He was thrilled at the idea. He could already see himself being able to do those things.

Calming himself down after a few deep breaths, he moved forward to the next step which was to imagine the extraction of qi particles from the lungs to his blood stream and then moving in waves towards the center of his heart.

As he was mulling over this thought, suddenly he had a crazy idea. He was surprised at himself for even having the possibility. He thought, what if he was able to picture something in his mind that would make the Aqua Wave Breathing technique provide more qi particles then normal.

He had this idea because, in his mind was a artifact that was pronounced as "Filter" which seemed to be named in a language which he felt he was somewhat familiar with. Is this also from the jumbled up memories he had from his past life like the town priestess mentioned? he wondered. The purpose of the artifact seemed to be to purify water. He didn't recall ever seeing or hearing about an artifact like that. More so because, such artifacts were not needed in the world. The natural water was already pure for mortals and cultivators alike.

But the crazy idea was not just using the Filter artifact. It was using the artifact to purify air so that it could contain more qi particles than normal. If he really could visualize this and if it worked like how his imaginary gills worked then he could have a ten fold achievement over others. He would get a boost not only from the technique but also from the enhanced heart core that would form because of the abundant qi particles. He was excited beyond belief.

He prepared himself and started visualizing the Filter artifact according to the vague image in his memory. He visualized a simple cylindrical object with one opening towards top left and another opening towards bottom right. This was the entry point for the normal water to go inside and exit point the purified water to come out. Next, he thought about the purification process.

Here he encountered a problem and was stuck. The Filter artifact worked in such a way that it filtered out any tiny particles that was unwanted in water but what he needed was to let the qi particles accumulate more so that he would be able to get more of them.

He thought about this for a long time and finally came to a conclusion. He visualized the Filter artifact to have a layer at the middle, this layer was like a valve. He had often seen this in the household artifact where the valve would only open when certain force was applied to it. Next he visualized the valve to have very tiny holes, they were tiny in such a way that they could only let the water pass through them but block the qi particles. Next he visualized another opening at the bottom left of the filter artifact slightly below the one at the right. At this opening he again placed the valve. He then made the bottom right opening with same tiny holes which could only let the water pass through.

It might sound complex but once seen properly it was pretty simple. Normal water would pour from the opening at the top. The qi particles in the water would get stuck at the valve as it could only let water pass through, the passed water would get thrown out from the bottom right opening. Once enough qi particles were accumulated at the valve in the middle, it would open and let the qi particles fall down getting the valve close up again. The qi particles that fall down would again open up the bottom left valve and go out.

This was what he came up with. As he visualized and prepared the artifact in his mind, he was really nervous. This had taken him so much time and energy, he didn't know what was happening outside. He didn't know if this could even work. He tried to remove such thoughts. He imagined the voice in his mind, it wasn't there but he imagined it speaking to him again and it did calm his mind after a while.

Little did young Adrian know that he had created the blueprint for his first qi artifact. Not only would this artifact be the basis for future generation to use the enhanced heart core formation technique but this would also be the first artifact which would help rise the Siniad Corporation in the future.

Adrian then began trying the artifact, he visualized and placed the imaginary Filter artifact so that its bottom left opening was near his nose. As he began breathing in, there was no change at the beginning but after a hundred plus breaths of time he began to feel the thickness of water increase. With focus, he could see that the water now had much more qi particles than the normal water. It was a grand success!

He mind was filled with disbelief. He had really done it. He had created something that no one ever in his clan had done or thought about. There was only one catch, the time it took to produce the abundant qi water was much more. So comparatively, there would only be a slight difference in the total qi particles absorbed by other in the same amount of time. Still, it was much better even with this slight amount.

He followed the next steps according to the how the voice had instructed him and tried to form his heart core.

Outside, there was great turmoil in the crowd. Adrian's grandfather's face was still serious but his forehead was creased with worry. This was because, it was already past noon. The other candidates had long since formed their heart core and were now awake of their state of stillness. Only Adrian was still immersed within himself.

"Is he trying something new? There was much less information given to the children so that they couldn't think of trying anything new." - said one of the observers.

The lady beside him agreed - "Yes, the more you ask them to not try the more they would want it. If you just leave them with the initial problems, they would be busy solving it rather than trying anything new. Even if they tried something, anything made wouldn't simply work. Sigh! I just hope he isn't lost in his ideas."

The girl Kaia had smirk on her face that she was trying very hard to hide. But Tulio and even Livia's face were sullen with worry. This was the clan leader's son and the companion that attended the ritual with them. They just hoped he could soon resolve his issues and form his heart core.