Death... and me

Suddenly, Zuo's eyes twitched slightly. Naturally, Roan noticed straight away as he also felt a disturbance in the flow of Zuo's Spiritual Energy. With that, he asked, "What is it?"

The metal items floating around Zuo soon dropped to the ground before Zuo explained, "I felt a sharp pain in my dantian when I jumped to the fifth step of the manual." Of course, it wasn't as if Zuo could already read. He was participating in the school's classes every morning. Nevertheless, it was too early for him to suddenly understand everything. Roan was the one who explained to him the steps every time he finished a new magnetism cultivation manual.

"A sharp pain?" Roan pondered over it for a bit. "I know what it is. The fifth step requires you to mix the Magnetic Force into the Spiritual Energy passing through your meridians. I thought that since Magnetism was your Elemental Affinity, your dantian wouldn't suffer from the additional element. Your dantian wasn't very happy with it, though. Too bad. If it had worked, your cultivation speed would have increased by 10% or so."

Roan then took out a booklet from the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm and began to use his Spiritual Energy to write a few things while wiping out others. He could use a jade slip, but he preferred to write them instead. There wasn't really a reason for it. It's just that he felt better that way. "Let's see if I can fix this issue without taking this part out of the cultivation manual."

However, before he finished, Zuo had an idea, much to Roan's surprise. "Master. The issue was not the element of Magnetism itself, but the meridian path used to gather it. Do you mind if I try to use the meridians in my hands instead?"

"Your hands?" Roan had made it so that the closest meridians to Zuo's dantians would be the ones responsible for the absorption of that Magnetic Element. Due to their distance, the hands weren't the best part of the body to do that, so Roan didn't even consider it. Nevertheless, Roan didn't see anything wrong with Zuo's idea. He wasn't a Magnetic Elemental Affinity cultivator, so Zuo might be feeling something he couldn't tell. "Alright. Go ahead and try it. If anything goes wrong, I'll cut the absorption of Spiritual Energy with my Dark Element."

Zuo was happy that Roan accepted his idea and immediately started to work. The metal items and equipment around him began to float once more as the Magnetic Element and Spiritual Energy entered Zuo's body. Of course, only the meridians in his hands were used to send the Magnetic Element mixed with Spiritual Energy directly to his dantian.

Roan couldn't help but raise an eye as he checked Zuo's dantian with his Spiritual Energy. Unlike the previous attempt, the dantian seemed to accept Zuo's change quite well. 'I see... so that's why.'

A few minutes later, Zuo took a deep breath as he stopped cultivating, saying with glee, "Master! It actually worked! I can absorb the mixture together, and it really improved my cultivation speed!"

Roan nodded and gave the boy a rare pat on the head as he complimented him, "That was a very good idea. The issue with the path I selected was that there wasn't enough time for the Magnetic Element to mix with the Spiritual Energy. Naturally, your dantian formed a rejection to that half-mixed energy. However, when you used your hands, the meridian path to the dantian was much longer. The mix of energies was completed during that time, and the dantian didn't feel anything wrong in the end."

Zuo giggled a little, feeling overjoyed from the praise as he asked, "Should I continue like this?"

Roan pondered for a bit before shaking his head, telling him, "No, it's time for your classes to start. I'll take your change into consideration and will make a few improvements during it. Once you're back, we can restart."

Seeing Zuo's slightly annoyed face, Roan immediately rebuked him. "If you say you don't like studying, you better be ready for a lot of pain. Also, your subject scores will come out in a week. For your own good, I better not see any result below 90%."

Zuo couldn't help but let out cold sweat after that. Roan had never told him that he would check his scores. That's right. Zuo hated going to school...like most kids around his age. It seems that this trait wasn't different even in a cultivation world.

Zuo then left the cultivation room with a fearful expression, trying to figure out how to increase his subject scores in the final week before the results were out.

Roan naturally noticed Zuo's change and mentally snorted in response. How could he not know Zuo's progress in school? He was taking the kid's cultivation very seriously, and that also included his intellectual improvement. However, he left it for the last week to give Zuo a warning. That way, he wouldn't be able to recover from his faults at school in time. This was Roan's way of making sure that Zuo would take school seriously from the next semester onwards.

Calina then entered the room with a slightly confused expression, asking, "What happened? Zuo looked like he had seen a ghost."

Roan nodded in response, saying, "He probably would have preferred to have seen one."

Calina didn't know what Roan did but could imagine what happened since she was talking about Roan. "Oh well, don't push the kid too hard. He's really putting a lot of effort in his cultivation."

"Hmph! Of course, he is!" Roan made sure of that.

It was then that Roan remembered something. "You left to check on Malaka, right? How's she doing?"

Calina shrugged her shoulders as she replied, "What else? She obviously used the baby as an excuse to avoid training. She was in Kentucky's nest, wasting her time while playing with the dumb bird."

Roan couldn't help but comment, "I really don't know how she reached the Late Stage of the Core and Soul Fusion Realm with that attitude. Even her foundation is perfectly stable."

"Perhaps being like that is the best cultivation method for the happy-go-lucky girl," Calina said in response as she sighed.