Ezra woke to a putrid smell, one he was familiar with.
He sat up with a blank face, looking around to see the pool of black goo beneath him.
He stood up, taking a closer look at himself.
Apart from the black goo, the clarity of his vision had increased, as did the luster of his skin.
'I've never felt this good'
It was amazing. His body felt weightless despite the braces on his limbs.
He took a look around.
'I had this much impurities left?'
It was baffling.
In an hour, Ezra cleaned the chamber and himself.
Now garbed in new clothes, he sat cross legged.
'Let's see what's changed'
Shutting his eyes, Ezra used his mana to feel his internals.
For one, his meridians had increased in size.
The orbs, all Adept-rank, were still the same size as they orbited slowly, but Ezra felt his connection to the elements was better than ever.
Now, he could distinguish between elemental particles in the atmosphere.
With but a thought, a stream of mana thicker than before reached the orbs swiftly.
Upon reaching one of them, the stream splits into five without Ezra guiding it, one connected to each orb.
'Oh!' Ezra was pleasantly surprised.
Afterwards, he looked at his meridians. The impurities had been cleared out.
Ezra achieved one of his objectives.
With the change in his internals confirmed, what about the externals?
He released his cultivation and took out his pair of short swords.
'Did I…grow taller?' he noticed.
The increase was miniscule and most wouldn't notice, but Ezra did.
Then, he began practice, taking different poses as he tested out multiple movements.
He eventually took out Skyfall for a spin.
At the end of his session he concluded…
"The time between the change of element has gotten even smaller"
"I've got stronger" he smiled.
"Now, onto the next task"
He had to complete the technique where he'd be able to cultivate and practice at the same time.
With his elements balanced, he got to work.
In the process, he found that his mental capabilities had increased.
He couldn't move while drawing mana at the same time, so he held a mana stone in between his teeth.
As mana gushed down his gullet, he directed it to his meridians and, from there, onto the orbs.
At the first try, he failed and a headache came knocking.
Surprisingly, he didn't puke blood, only bleeding from his nose.
'Must be a perk of the attaining elemental harmony'
He continued, and steadily grew in progress.
After two weeks, he could maintain the cultivation mana flow of physique and elements simultaneously.
In that time, Fredrick had communicated Bolton's latest actions and the war proceedings to him along with the subsequent events.
Ezra felt a headache coming on. He certainly expected the future to change, but things were spiraling out of control far too soon!
After lengthy deliberations, Ezra sent Fredrick a list of people to recruit, people to be killed, places to go for treasure hunting or grave robbing, guild's and clans to ally with, those to watch out for, the next development plan, and few others.
The motive behind this was simple.
From the start, he knew he couldn't take all the hidden pieces, nor find all the hidden gems on his lonesome.
With the changes occurring faster than Ezra could anticipate, he took an enormous gamble and gave away most of the advantages he had.
This was also thought out.
If he tried to hoard the knowledge to himself because of his fear of betrayal, the knowledge might be rendered useless by the time he came of age, and that would be a regret beyond words.
Besides, he had enough mana stones to cultivate to Grandmaster level, so if Fredrick betrayed him, he'd be able to weather whatever storm came his way.
Although it was surprising that Fredrick hadn't voided the soul contract, Ezra was still uneasy.
This looming threat strengthened Ezra's desire to grow strong.
'This time, I'll make sure no one can trample on me!'
Now able to simultaneously maintain the cultivation of both aspects simultaneously, the next task was to strengthen the mana flow until it was ingrained in his subconsciousness.
He got to work, finding the second step far more difficult than the first.
At first, while he could maintain the process, taking away concentration made the mana flow break.
That could not be allowed, so he began tinkering with the pathways of mana, creating a unique mana pathway for it.
Many times, he had to change the origin and the end of the mana path.
Then, he changed from where the stream of mana connected to the orbs.
Fifteen days in, Ezra had read across all the mana techniques he brought and his eyelids had darkened from lack of sleep.
"This is it"
It took time, but the result made it worth the effort.
He made the mana go along from one side of his body to the order.
From the throat, the mana would go down the left shoulder, splitting into two as one filled the meridian on the arm while the rest flowed down the left leg.
From the left leg, it would flow into the right leg, flowing upwards to the right arm.
As it did so, streams of mana extended and connected to the orbs.
Then, the mana split again as one flowed down the right arm while the rest went above the shoulder into the cranium.
He opened up a few smaller meridians that connected to the largest like branches on a tree to give better coordination of mana.
As the impurities in the largest meridians were cleared out, the ones in the smaller ones weren't difficult to clear out as well.
To sustain the cultivation method and increase its efficiency, he created stops along the pathway over the course of another twenty days.
'Cores' he called them.
The multiple stops made sure the mana didn't overwhelm him. Even better, he could increase and restrict the amount of mana in his attacks.
This brought about multiple considerations as for what his fighting styles would be.
The ice shower passed after fifty-five days, fifteen more days than expected. It took the perk of increased ice cultivation speed with it.
Ezra had no regrets, rather, he was thankful that it had brought to his attention to something that might've eluded him for years otherwise. Though Fedrick was regretful it hadn't lasted longer.
With the impurities cleared out, Ezra drank multiple poison elixirs to increase the potency of the poison in his blood, harden his meridians, and recondition his body.
Experimenting with his elements, he made short swords out of blood. After that, he made short swords with ice.
The power of the elemental weapons was negligible, but Ezra knew its uses to be better for short and throwing weapons.
He practiced cultivation of physique and element simultaneously for another two months.
He gained enough proficiency to do it with far less concentration.
The next step was cultivating while training with his weapons.
Upon trying, a massive headache hit him, causing extreme dizziness and for blood to wash out of Ezra's nose.
It was an experience to remember, and Ezra wasn't optimistic feeling the same again.
He checked his steps, analyzing it all the way.
Turns out, he skipped a step.
The next step was to cultivate without conscious thought.
He began with a simple step…walking while cultivating.
Of course, he failed, incurring a headache and a bad stomach in the process - one far less painful than the last.
With each try, he rapidly progressed, accumulating proficiency at speeds that would scare Master Mages.
In two months, he could walk while cultivating - with the mana stone hosted in between his teeth, of course.
Ezra clocked eight years old.
Another month passed and he could now jog while cultivating.
The fifth month elapsed and he could now run while cultivating.
His mana sensitivity, conductivity and mana pool increased by leaps and bounds.
By cultivating both physique and element, his mana pool expanded, becoming six times the normal size.
With the seventh month evaporating, he could jump, twirl, and spin while cultivating.
In the eighth month, he made a breakthrough. All elements advance to Intermediate-rank.
Ezra huffed, nodding.
'I'm ready'
At the start of the ninth month, he retried training while cultivating.
He took the mana stone and placed half of it in his mouth and half outside, holding it in place with his teeth.
As the mana gushed in, he was quick to guide it through the meridians and connect it to the element orbs, starting a new cultivation session.
He sustained it with little concentration, directing the rest of his mind to weapon practice.
He took out the pair of short swords, took a stance, and then transited slowly into the next movement.
He completed a slow slash without experiencing a break in cultivation.
'Yes!' he hailed.
In doing so, the connection broke.
'No!' he cried as his mana went wild.
Blood spurted from his mouth, but he quickly built back the connection.
A smile widened on his sweat drenched face, as he affirmed…
'It's possible'
The mana flow didn't break with his first movement.
Now, he just had to improve on the Mindless Cultivation technique - as he aptly named it - till he could maintain it no matter the situation.
He went back to the first step, understanding the problem.
'I can't maintain cultivation and concentrate on perfecting my movements at the same time'
After all, he had only one mind.
'That it!'
He poured out combat manuals and mana techniques from his space ring and dug in.
Flipping pages, he found his mental acuity to have increased.
'Even my mind's being reinforced'
Skimming, he picked out eight techniques and returned the rest.
He didn't intend to give up.
'There has to be an answer'
