Hearing Ken's reply, his father's lips turned upward as he smiled and said.
"That's my son! You don't have to worry about your cultivation speed. We have more than enough resources to support you."
"Don't worry, Dad. My cultivation speed will not be slow even if I don't rely on my Bond." Ken spoke with some confidence.
He no longer felt that same aura from his father.
'What was that? It felt so terrible for a moment. I never thought my gentle father would've such a terrible aura.'
"Alright, today is just the first day. You will slowly learn more about the struggles of cultivation."
His father shook his head and smiled.
Soon, his mother served food on the table and went to catch his father by his ear.
"Who told you to use your Spiritual Pressure against your son? Is this how you teach him, Ben?"
"Sorry, sorry, Mom, can you please stop doing that?" Ben screamed in pain while struggling.
"Humph! You told me you just wanted to see his determination. Is that how you check his determination?" Flora didn't let him go instead, she continued to argue with him.
"I'm sorry." Ben had no choice but to accept punishment before dinner.
"It's okay, Mom. Nothing happened." Ken tried to calm his mother, but Flora didn't give him a chance.
"Ken, you don't realize how dangerous Spiritual Pressure can be. If you didn't have a strong determination, that Aura would've tortured you mentally for the next few days."
"But, I have a strong determination. Dad knows. Right, Dad?" Ken tried to wink, but knowing how sharp his mother was, he simply asked his father.
"Yeah, yeah, you know how good our son is. I just wanted to help him get used to Spiritual Pressure faster."
Only after that, Flora let go of his ear and snorted. She went to her seat and sat down.
"Since you want to learn Fire Element and Wind Element, I can order some Fire Spirit Pills and Wind Spirit Pills for you." Ben spoke.
"No, I shouldn't take them this early. At least, let me try to comprehend these elements by myself. With mom's help, I should be able to do it without the pills."
Ken still had some level of confidence in himself.
"Okay, but I can still help you with your Basic Energy Refining Technique." Ben nodded and replied.
"But how?" Ken curiously asked.
"Normally, we can use our Mind Power to control other people, especially if the person we want to control doesn't have any defenses against us. Since our Mind Power has the ability to use our subconscious mind."
"It can be used to help your brain get more experience with the Basic Energy Refining Technique. Once you get more experience, you don't need to meditate to refine your energy."
"And, with enough mastery, you can refine more in a shorter time. The mastery of a technique or even spells has been divided into five levels. Entry-Level Mastery, Basic Mastery, Great Achievement, Completion, and Perfection."
"In Entry Level Mastery of Basic Energy Refining Technique, you can refine up to Level 1 Spiritual Energy within an hour. With Basic Mastery, you can achieve the same result within half an hour."
"With Great Achievement, you can do it within fifteen minutes. Completion allows you to refine the same energy within seven minutes, and finally, Perfection only takes about five minutes."
"If you want to unlock your first Titan, the total amount of energy required is one hundred Level 1 Spiritual Energy."
Hearing that, Ken suddenly realized something and asked.
"Wait a minute, is that why I can't refine more Spiritual Energy in my Spiritual Planet?"
Ben and Flora looked for understanding and nodded.
"You have been refining energy for hours now, you should have more than 3 Level 1 Spiritual Energy. You can send out your Spiritual Energy into the first blockade of the Energy Circuit to open the first titan."
"Of course, I don't suggest you do that right now. You should first concentrate on decreasing the size of your Spiritual Energy. By doing this, you will be able to reach Level Two Spiritual Energy with Level One Spiritual Energy."
"Because Level Two Spiritual Energy is not a simple one plus one. It is not only far more complex but also increases your power immensely. Of course, you can only achieve it by unlocking your first titan."
"Once you decrease its size while keeping its power the same, you can increase the power of Level Two Spiritual Energy, but it will still be Level One Spiritual Energy."
Hearing that, Ken scratched his head and said.
"I don't understand."
Ben nodded and put an empty glass on top of another glass.
"This is putting Level One Spiritual Energy with Level One Spiritual Energy to create Two Level 1 Spiritual Energies."
Then, he put the empty glass inside another empty glass and said.
"This is combining Level One Spiritual Energy with Level One Spiritual to create stronger and tougher Level One Spiritual Energy."
"You have to understand. Spiritual Energy exists in gaseous form. It doesn't have mass, but it can be given mass by simply concentrating its particles together."
"But you can not do it indefinitely because there is a limit to how much space a Spiritual Energy particle has."
"But even so, you can do it a few times until your Level One Spiritual Energy has the same quality and power as Three Level One Spiritual Energy. Of course, its form has not changed yet."
"When you condense a hundred Level One Spiritual Energy in your first blockade, you will unlock your First Titan and gain the ability to access Spiritual Energy throughout your body."
"Your Level One Spiritual Energy will be as powerful as Level Two, giving you much more support during a battle. This process will be slow, but I believe you can persevere."
"Yes, Dad."
As soon as he realized the advantage of condensing powerful Level One Spiritual Energy, he agreed immediately.
Ken had one goal. It was to get stronger than his parents.
But he also had one big obstacle.
His Heart!
He couldn't allow himself to get help from his enemy.
Mighty King didn't directly harm him, but he did cause him a lot of trouble.
The trouble that led to his mother breaking into the Forbidden Land, to obtain an artifact that would help him survive.
So, he had to rely on his talent, his parents' inheritance, and hard work to surpass his mother.
After having dinner, Ken went to the training room, and his mother joined him half an hour later.
"Now, let's start with your Sword Training."
Flora picked a wooden sword and spoke.
"You have one goal. Attack me with everything you've got. Retreat is not allowed."
Her tone was serious.
Ken didn't understand why she was so serious about this, but he didn't doubt her.
He held his wooden sword and took a deep breath.
Then, he dashed forward. His sword made a stabbing motion as it pushed forward.
Flora waved her sword and blocked the upcoming attack.
Two swords were stuck in the middle.
For a moment, Ken wanted to pull back his sword, but he remembered his mother's words and pushed forward with all of his strength.
He didn't manage to break his mother's sword, but his sword did slide and move forward.
Facing such an attack, Flora had no choice but to strike it away. Her sword struck his and pushed it to the left.
Clack!
As he felt his sword moving to the side, Ken forcefully gritted his teeth, exerted more strength in his arms, and slashed it downward.
Clack!
Flora made a casual move as if she saw his attack coming and blocked it with ease. But Ken didn't stop.
He jumped into the air, which helped him raise his sword up and to the other side.
When he landed on the ground, he made an upward motion, pushing his sword towards his mother's face.
Suddenly, his mother's expression became stern. She slapped his sword near his hand, forcing him to drop the sword, and struck his head with the hilt of his sword.
"You made a mistake. Pick it up and continue attacking. As I said before, you are not allowed to retreat."
Ken felt a strong vibration in his hand. He didn't understand why his mother suddenly became angry, but he did as she told him.
He picked up the sword and continued attacking.
He had trained his swordsmanship for years now. Although he might not have mastered Sword Momentum, he did master many sword moves.
That previous one was a perfect attack strategy, but for some reason, his mother didn't like it.
He had no choice but to slash forward.
Flora casually blocked the sword, her expression changing back to normal.
She also didn't put more force into her sword, which helped Ken keep his hand stable.
But Ken didn't stop. He realized he could slide his sword to a different position, and his mother wasn't stopping him.
Normally, his enemy wouldn't give him a chance to slide his sword because that would lead to his enemy's defeat.
But his mother didn't seem to care about that.
Or rather, she wanted him to do that.
But Why?