There was a chill in the air and water drops could be seen on the leaves. The sun was rising and the birds had started chirping. In this period of dawn when most where sleeping a father and a son were wide awake sitting on grass in the lawn of a house.

James had his eyes closed and was deep in meditation. His father had started this training for him since he was ten years old. Every morning before leaving for school at 7 James used to wake up at 5 o clock and used to sit in the lawn on the wet grass barefoot and bare chested and close his and meditate.

He used to meditate for 30 minutes, jog for 20 and exercise for 20 after which at 6:10 he used to go back to have a bath and get ready for school. The purpose of the meditation was for James to have a keen sense to his surroundings and to develop a calm mind which would benefit him in his cultivation road while the light physical training was to keep him fit.

Today was no special day as James continued his training but it was special as the method had changed. While arriving to his usual spot James's father had instructed him to not start physical training after his meditation.

As time flew by, James opened his eyes and awaited further instructions from his father.

Edward looked at his son and said,

"Today officially marks the start of your martial journey son. Let me test your knowledge first. So tell me how many cultivation realms are there? And what are they? "

" There are 5 known realms father. The first being the Form Realm. It comprises of 4 stages:-

1) Bone strengthening stage

2) Muscle strengthening stage

3) Sense strengthening stage

4) Meridian opening stage

Only after opening the meridians can one absorb energy or qi that is available around us to strengthen ourselves. When enough qi is accumulated inside our body a core will form near our heart on its right.

Just like the heart pumps blood to the various parts of our body, the Core will similarly accept the qi and distribute it to the various parts of our body further strengthening it. The core also acts as a storage for us to draw qi when we need it in battle. " said James.

" Good! Good! Carry on" urged his father.

" The moment we form our core we enter the Azure realm. The name is so because the Core we form has an Azure color to it. "

" After the Azure realm come the Emerald realm where our core changes to the color of an Emerald.

The last realm being the Carmine realm. In this stage our core turns deep scarlet to the color of Carmine. Each of these realms apart from the Form realm has an early, middle and peak stage"

"So far so good, but you have only highlighted 4 realms my son. What about the 5th?" asked Edward.

" The 5th realm is the realm of Sages! It is when our Carmine core dissolves in our body merging completely. We are no longer bound to the core as our body reaches the epitome of martial cultivation! It is said that a Sage is born only once every 500 years! " said James. His eyes glittering with deep passion.

" That is right my son but to reach that will take monumental effort! Your old man couldn't achieve Carmine so you can imagine how difficult reaching the Sage realm is! In the past 29000 years since man discovered and developed methods of cultivation not more than 46 Sages have appeared in our history amongst which only 27 are alive! "

" How did so many Sages die? " asked James.

" War my son always takes lives. In the past a huge war was fought between 2 empires. Each commanding a dozen Sages under them. The war devastated our civilization just because of a few mens greed."

" After the death of a few sages in the war, a peace treaty came into being as the war had brought in great calamity and it was decided that Sages can never be used for wars due to their devastating abilities. Apart from these some died due to unknown reasons while some disappeared all together" said his father.

James listened to his father with awe imagining how battles between Sages was like.

After a short pause Edward looked at his son and said, "As an Emerald realm early stage cultivator under my training you don't have to worry about reaching the second stage of Form realm. However, that also doesn't mean you can slack off. The training will be harsh and brutal."

"Son the requirement for martial cultivation path is the 2nd stage of Form realm which is the muscle strengthening stage but you and me both know that the top martial schools accept only 3rd stage of Form realm."

"With a 2nd stage you won't qualify to take their entrance test itself! I myself was unable to achieve the 3rd stage when I was your age and so had went to a normal martial school. As a father I only wish for the best for my son!"

" The meditation and physical training you have went through the past year was done to ensure that when you start cultivating you will be able to break through with lesser troubles! Try to reach the 3rd stage in these 7 months and maybe then you will really stand a chance to reach the summit of martial cultivation that you so desire to achieve! "

James looked at his father with a determined expression. He knew about this. The kingdom's top institute Sky Blaze Martial Academy had the minimum requirement of 3rd stage of Form realm to be eligible to give the test. Only 1 in a 100 cultivators generally achieve the 3rd stage in the given time period. It can be said that each student attending the martial school was a genius in his own right.

James clenched his fist and bowed down to the ground and said," I will do my best father! "

" Good my son! It doesn't matter if you achieve the 3rd stage or not, the most important thing is to always do your best under all circumstances! So that even in failure you may never regret about the fact that you didn't try hard enough!"

" Remember son a martial cultivator can only advance when his mind is crystal clear and not filled with regrets! Otherwise it will pull him down and he won't be able to advance further."

"With that said let's begin! "

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Notes: well here's the second chapter for today. Another will be uploaded soon.