Alex explained his situation as clearly as he could to Bai Jingshen, and Pearl listened to it completely from start to end.
"Stability, huh?" Bai Jingshen said with a thoughtful look. "I know a thing or two about this. I'm sure I can explain what is going on with you."
"Oh, please do tell, brother Shen," Alex asked.
"Your cultivation base feels stable because of a simple reason," the White Tiger said, and Alex listened intently, hoping to make some revelations.
"The reason being… it is stable."
Alex frowned a little and questioned the analysis. "It is stable?" he asked. "It certainly feels like it, but surely it can't be so."
"It can be so," Bai Jingshen said. "Do you know what stability means in a cultivator's cultivation base?"
Alex frowned a little. Stability was an abstract thing that he could only explain with a feeling or whether it was or not. Could he explain what it was?
"I'm not sure exactly," Alex said. "I must admit I've taken it for granted all this time."
Bai Jingshen nodded. "All do. But it is only the ones that understand it that can go far with their cultivation base. Even Immortals usually don't care about this, but my master taught me this very early on, so I knew this from childhood."
Alex's eyes widened slightly. Was he going to learn more about the so-called Godkiller? He was interested in whatever bits of information he could find about this being.
"First of all, let us start with a simple question that I'm curious if you can answer," Bai Jingshen said. "Why can you cultivate faster than your peers."
"Uhh… because I am talented?" Alex asked. "Because I'm a human? Pure humans are better at cultivation."
"Yes, but why? What does it mean that you are talented? You surely know it's not referring to your ability to learn skills or dao. It's talking about your body's potential, but what does it mean that you have potential? What exactly is that potential?"
Alex was stumped. "I don't know," he said. "I never thought about things that deeply."
Bai Jingshen nodded. "Then let me ask you another question," he said. "You should have a better understanding of this one. What needs to happen before you are ready to enter the next cultivation realm."
Alex thought for a moment. "Let's see. The main thing is that our Qi must improve in quality and our Dantian should become more spacious."
"And?" Bai Jingshen asked.
"And?" Alex asked back. "There's more? I don't know. Do meridians have to improve perhaps? I don't suppose the Spiritual Roots improve at all."
"They do not, but Meridians do. And they are not the only ones," Bai Jingshen explained. "Your body has to improve too. Your skin, your bones, your organs, your muscles, everything has to improve slowly."
"How else do you think your spiritual sea expands as your cultivation improves? How else does your blood aura improve as your breakthrough?" Bai Jingshen asked.
Alex felt many things click into place in his mind and his eyes went wide in shock at the revelation. "I hadn't even thought about that. Is the improvement to one's body and spirit not a benefit of one's rise in cultivation base, but a requirement instead?"
Alex had always thought of improvement to one's body to be something rewarded for reaching a higher cultivation base.
"It is in a way both," Bai Jingshen explained. "Your body only improves when it is ready to be improved, just like your Qi. But you have to prepare it to improve, which is where the stability factor comes along."
"If you only improve your Qi, and not the rest of your body, you will have higher Qi when you breakthrough, but Your body won't get the benefit. And when your body doesn't get that benefit, you can tell exactly what is wrong with it. That is what instability is."
"You need at minimum a better dantian to improve your Qi and reach the next level. You can do so without it if you force it, but that means you will have to stay in the next realm for a longer period of time fixing that."
"Past that, you need better meridians. If meridians aren't robust, you will only go a few realms before they can't handle the force of your own Qi."
"For body, I believe you have more flexibility than your dantian and meridians, but they still need to be improved. In the end, it is your body that will have to handle being constantly filled with Qi, and if the Qi is too strong, it will destroy itself."
Alex nodded continuously as Bai Jingshen spoke, slowly understanding the intricacies of what he had been unknowingly doing, what everyone had been unknowingly doing this entire time.
"Qi deviation, in the end, is just your own body seizing control of your cultivation base and reverting it down to a level where it can handle it again."
Both Pearl and Alex were left standing in shock as cultivation as a whole itself became clearer.
Bai Jingshen could see the wheels in their head turned and smiled.
"Now, can you tell me what it means to be talented in cultivation?" Bai Jingshen asked, bringing back the first question.
Alex had some thought about it now. "Talented usually means one is capable of cultivating fast or hitting bottlenecks fast. Which means their body must be accepting Qi fast, raising in level quickly."
Alex looked up. "That's what it means, right? That would make sense that they don't have to work as hard to get the same result."
Alex could understand now why humans were talented. Their body, skin, muscles, and all were capable of being refined using Qi much more than a hybrid's body was.
Bai Jingshen nodded. "Now, going back to your original question as to why you don't feel an instability. I said it is because your body isn't unstable. That is because while you did break through not long ago and are forcing your way through to the next realm, your body is already strong enough to handle the incoming breakthrough. Your mind is already so far stronger too."
"Not to mention, your blood should be so much stronger than everything else. So, there is little for your body to get ready for before you yourself are ready to breakthrough."
Alex nodded the entire time. "So that is why I don't feel any instability," he said. "That… is very good to know."
"You're lucky in that you can you don't need to cultivate everything at once. You can cultivate your body if that is lacking, improve your spiritual energy if that is lacking, or deal with your blood. Others don't have that luxury."
"I understand," Alex said. "Thank you for explaining this all to me, Brother Shen."
Bai Jingshen stood up straight. "Since I'm done here, I'll be leaving. My wives are waiting for me,"
"Thank you," Alex said with a bow.
Bai Jingshen flew away, leaving Pearl and Alex alone.
"What now?" Pearl asked. "Are you going to go back into cultivation?"
Alex thought for a bit. "No," he said. "Since I have the luxury of choosing what I want to improve, I think it is about time I start dealing with all the blood I have gathered."
"I can't let it slowly lose energy inside my Soul Space. Time to make use of it."
