“Brother Zhe, Brother Zhe.”

”Find the demon inside your heart.”

“Brother Zhe.”

”Find the demon outside your body.”

“Stop reading already!” Yun Yongru snatched the book from Tian Zhe's hands and threw it on the table. “Let's chat!”

“Gods, this girl is going to be the death of me,” Tian Zhe looked at his offending classmate. “What exactly do you want?”

“To chat, I already said that,” Yun Yongru's bright amber eyes radiated cheerfulness.

“Chat with whoever else.”

“But now you are my brother. I want to chat with you.”

“Since when am I your brother?”

“Since your uncle accepted me as a student.”

“…” Tian Zhe felt pain in his heart. “Stupid traditions when the teacher is equated to the student's parent.”

“I can see in your eyes how glad you are to have a cute little sister.”

“Where did you see your cute little sister?”

“Brother, you’re not blind, but I’m sitting across from you.” Yun Yongru did not give up. “Sung Ming, take a break from reading and tell brother Zhe.”

“Yes?” Sung Min did not expect to be included in this comedy scene and panicked from surprise. The teenager looked from his "sister" to the teacher to "cousin," after which, lowering his gaze, turned to Tian Zhe. “Br… brother… brother Zhe, can you help me with the theory?”

“Why the hell are you embarrassed like a girl on her first date?!” Tian Zhe wanted to scream with indignation. The entire elementary class was taught in the library in Tian Lan's absence, and the two were in the reading room that became Tian Zhe's base. “What exactly are you interested in?”

“Explain how to select techniques for the attributes of spiritual cores. Nothing is written in the academy's textbooks.”

“Of course, there won't be any information in the library. The researchers haven't published anything yet. Since both of you will receive cultivation techniques from my uncle, concentrate on auxiliary techniques that match your elemental attributes.”

Tian Zhe took the textbook that Yun Yongru had discarded and handed it to Sung Ming, uncovering it in the final chapter. “Sung Ming, it will be useful for you to learn this technique.”

Seeing Sung Ming's puzzled face, Tian Zhe had to sigh.

“This development technique is considered one of the weakest if you practice it at any rank, without being a qixing, and even a qixing gets an average response,” began Tian Zhe. “But its peculiarity is to enhance synchronization with a suitable spirit of a demonic beast, and most importantly, it can be used as an auxiliary technique if you have a basic one.”

After hearing the explanations, Sung Ming began to read the chapter "Oneness of the Soul." Yun Yongru joined the reading, hovering over her friend.

“Brother Zhe, will this technique suit me as an auxiliary one?”

“Probably fit, but maybe not.”

“What does it mean?”

“I'll explain now,” Tian Zhe sighed heavily, preparing for mental exhaustion. Each communication with this girl caused the boy pain in the liver. “The development technique "The Unity of the Inner Demon" is based on strengthening the connection with the spirit of the demonic beast and the adept, thereby increasing the practitioner's development speed.”

After a short pause to make sure the two were listening to him, Tian Zhe continued.

“Only a dumbass will use this development technique without merging with the spirit of a demonic beast, so if any stupid bronze-rank adept starts using it as the main one, he will remain a bronze idiot for the rest of his life. Also, the adept will receive a mediocre response due to the fact that he merged with a demonic beast without matching attributes. If the form or element match's attributes match, the response will be much higher than in the previous example.”

“Then, if the attributes of the element and the form coincide, will the benefit of the technique be maximum?” Yun Yongru was excited by what she heard.

“The response will be incredible,” Tian Zhe smiled for the first time while talking to Yun Yongru.” If everything coincided with you, then, in theory, you can become a Zhenren using the "Unity of the inner demon" as the main technique.

“Legendary...” Sung Min whispered under his breath.

“But for this, everything must coincide,” reminded Tian Zhe. “Song Ming has a very rare soul form, not to mention that he has a double attribute. On the other hand, Yun Yongru's soul form is not whimsical, which again reduces the result of this technique.”

“But then this technique is useless.” Yun Yongru twisted her face.

“That is why she is considered weak.” Tian Zhe smiled again. “Previously, no one knew their attributes, and therefore, this technique was unclaimed, but soon it will become the main auxiliary technique among the qixing. You both just need to merge with the spirit with the physique of a bird and a suitable elemental attribute, and then the technique of “Unity of the inner demon” will help your basic technique of Divine Phoenix.”

“That's how it is!” Sun Ming beamed. The Divine Phoenix technique gave a strong response when merging with the spirits of fiery birds. He has the form of a phoenix soul and merging with such a spirit, the Unity of the Inner Demon technique will strengthen his connection with the spirit. Then they can easily break into the heavenly realm and become legendary qixing.

“Should I merge with the fiery birds too?” Yun Yongru doubted because of her spirit core with the attributes of a fire cloud.

“Do you have alternatives?” Tian Zhe chuckled at the girl. “I can only assume that ideally, some mythical demonic beast living among the clouds will suit you, something like a fire qilin. True, in this case, you will have to change the development technique to the one suitable for this demonic beast in order to get the maximum benefit, but the problem is that you still need to find such a technique.”

“Unfair.” Yun Yongru pouted.

“Not fair?” Tian Zhe gasped with indignation. “Having purified your spiritual energy and formed a silver cage, you can merge with any demonic beast of a neutral or fiery attribute and use any powerful technique for developing the elements of fire for maximum development!”

The girl was shocked by Tian Zhe's indignation.

“Tian Lan's little sister has a formless spiritual core and therefore cannot find a suitable demonic spirit. I have a spirit core with a mythical beast's attributes, but unlike Sung Ming, the Jade City has no development technique suitable for me, let alone find and defeat the storm dragon! In this case, spiritual cores with rare attributes are a disadvantage.

“Can complex forms of spiritual cores become a problem?” Sung Ming was surprised by this revelation.

“They can,” Tian Zhe took a sheet of paper and drew two schematic sketches of a human figure. Both drawings had three circles at the head, heart, and navel levels. Then Tian Zhe drew a point inside the circle at the level of the navel and a shape around the point. In one drawing, a point was enclosed in another circle. In another point was enclosed in a triangle. After that, Tian Zhe connected the first three circles with lines coming from all the limbs, denoting the meridians.

“For adepts, it is important to accumulate spiritual energy and expand the spiritual core,” Tian Zhe pointed to the points inside the circle and triangle. “At the same time, at the stage of the earthly kingdom, the adepts must open three dantian necessary for internal alchemy.”

Tian Zhe continued the explanation by pointing to the first three circles.

“We absorb external spiritual energy, xie-qi, in order to strengthen our spiritual core. Having accumulated sufficient spiritual energy and transforming it into pure external energy of zhen-qi, we release it from the spiritual core into the space of the lower dantian,” Tian Zhe pointed to the lower circle, which contains a figure with a dot. “The opening of the lower dantian awakens the inner spiritual energy of the adept, the yuan-qi actively move along the meridians, while its part mixes with the excess zhen-qi around the spiritual core to form a bronze cloud. That is why, according to the principles of internal alchemy, the real name of the first rank of the earthly kingdom is called the stage of the bronze cloud, which is popularly called the bronze rank.”

“By combining zhen-qi and yuan-qi, we increase the volume of the bronze cloud so that it fills the entire lower dantian, because of which the original yuan-qi begins to move along the meridians upward, opening the middle dantian,” Tian Zhe painted over the middle circle. “The opening of the middle dantian begins the process of converting the yuan-qi into the jin-qi's true internal energy. The middle dantian not only transforms yuan-qi into jin-qi, but itself forms it so much that it replaces all the yuan-qi in the meridians and rebuilds the meridians, only after this restructuring can adepts without harm to themselves accumulate external spiritual energy at night because surplus xie-qi trapped in the meridians will not damage them.”

“So that's what you were talking about on the first day! Yun Yongru exclaimed.” But then it turns out that you can use the purified zhen-qi at night since it will not harm?

“Yes,” Tian Zhe nodded.” Now let's continue. As the jin-qi begins to flow along the meridians, it begins to mix with the bronze cloud, turning it into a silver cloud, which then condenses into a cage inside the lower dantian.

Tian Zhe pointed to the shapes of a circle and a triangle around the points in the drawings.

“Due to the fact that at this stage, the adept transforms the bronze cloud into a silver cage with the help of internal alchemy, this stage began to be called that,” Yun Yongru said.

“Show off means.”

“In that case, what is the name of this rank among demonic beasts?”

“Silver cage?” Yun Yongru replied uncertainly, looking at Song Ming, hoping that he would help her out, but the teenager could only shake his head.

“What did you do in the classroom if you don't know it?”

“We didn't go through this,” Yun Yongru.

“Master Lan did not explain the inner alchemy to us on the same level as Brother Zhe explains it,” Sung Ming clarified.

“What did your little sister do with you?”

Hearing the explanation, Tian Zhe could only sigh.

“Let's go, then tell your classmates to study in the library the theory of alchemy, external and internal,” Tian Zhe changed the topic of conversation. “Where did we stop there?”

“At the silver rank of demonic beasts.”

“Oh, so, their silver rank is called the silver sphere,” Tian Zhe explained. “The souls of demonic beasts are perfect, therefore, in their improvement, the bronze cloud immediately becomes a silver sphere, and for this reason, the power of demonic beasts begins to surpass the power of adepts of silver rank.”

Listening to the classmate's explanations, the children began to understand why he continued to skip classes and spent most of the time reading in the library.

“After the silver cage is completely completed, the adept, using the jin-qi from the middle dantian, opens the upper dantian, which begins to produce zhen-qi,” Tian Zhe was tired, deciding to end quickly with the explanations and return to their studies. “Under the influence of zhen-qi, the silver cage melts, merging with the spiritual core into a golden sphere, because of which the qixing can no longer change the spirits of demonic beasts.”

“Brother Zhe, did you miss anything?” Yun Yongru approached Tian Zhe. “It seems to me, or are you shortening the explanation?”

“Do you want to swim again from the men's baths, or will you be a good student of my uncle and start reading textbooks?”

“Yun Yongru will no longer bother the venerable elder brother.” The girl bowed, trying not to look into the boy’s evil eyes.

“That's good,” Tian Zhe, seeing the girl's reaction, couldn't help but laugh.

“Brother Zhe, you're scaring me.”

“Okay, in conclusion, I will say that the golden adepts should form a red cinnabar field in the lower Dantian area and combine the spiritual cinnabar with the golden sphere into the jindan ball, thereby reaching the heavenly realm and transform all the energy inside their body into true spiritual energy li-qi ,” Tian Zhe ended the introductory part of his lecture by spreading in a lazy puddle on his chair. “Returning to the problems of the shape of the vessel of the soul.”

Tian Zhe pointed to the circular and triangular shapes inside the Lower Dantian drawing.

“Despite the fact that this is called the shape of the spiritual core, the spiritual core itself looks like a sphere,” Tian Zhe reminded about the point inside these figures.“The form of the spiritual core or the form of the soul is a flaw in the lower dantian that is present only in humans, judging by the chapter "Unity of the Soul" of the treatise "Imperfection of the Human Race" and the technique "Unity of the Inner Demon" was created to eliminate this flaw. I do not know what exactly this flaw is, but because of it, the bronze cloud does not become a silver ball, forming a cage, and it is thanks to it that people can merge with the spirits of demonic beasts.”

“Brother Zhe, why didn't you immediately start with this but walk around explaining the stages of development of the earthly kingdom?”

“…” Tian Zhe's face froze. “Really, why ?!”

When he was Yang Li, Tian Zhe made a living by writing articles for several periodicals, having developed a habit of explaining everything meticulously. In this regard, when discussing issues related to his work, he turned into a bore who could talk for a long time about the topic he understood.

“I want to go out the window,” the young man's heart wandered in the darkness.” “It's a pity it's not high.”

“So what is the lack of improvement associated with the form of spiritual cores?” Sing Ming tried to get Tian Zhe out of his depressing thoughts.

Tian Zhe recalled the story “The Saga of the Seven Scriptures.” He did not know how much the information from the novel coincided with the rules of this world. For example, in other stories about people who have fallen into fictional worlds like Shield Hero, one of the important themes of the narrative was the theme of “deceptive knowledge,” which led to the fact that the hero makes fatal mistakes. Despite all the risks, Tian Zhe again decided to rely on information from the novel.

“There are two chairs ... no, a wrong analogy,” Tian Zhe frowned. “Nobody knows what the spectrum of visible radiation is?

The two listeners looked at each other. They could not understand what Tian Zhe was asking. Seeing their reaction, the young man realized that it was better to show by example.

“For example, the spiritual core of whatever Vasya accepts only conditionally green, spiritual energy,” Tian Zhe took out a green sheet of paper and applied it to the window. “Then he uses a technique that works like this leaf, letting only green light through, purifies xie-qi into conditionally green zhen-qi.”

“I already understood that, but what about the shape of the soul?”

“…” a heavy sigh. “Everything is connected. For example, merging with the spirit occurs either because the attributes of the elements coincide and the spirit adjusts to the shape of the spiritual core, leaving gaps. Either the fusion occurs due to the form, and then there are fewer gaps. Still, you get an additional elemental attribute that gives you an advantage in the spells of the new element but also requires you to combine the energy of the new element with your own in the spiritual core. Either you find the spirit of a demonic beast that is suitable in the shape of the soul and does not have an elemental element if it is impossible to find the spirit of your element.”

“That's clearer.”

“An adept cannot merge with the spirit if he has a weak foundation. On the one hand, it is easier to form a solid foundation around complex shapes of spiritual cores than for shapeless cores. On the other hand, it is the simplicity of ordinary spiritual cores that allows you to merge with any demonic beast if you form a solid foundation. The formation of the foundation depends on the quality of the development technique, since the purer the flow of spiritual energy, the stronger the foundation of the adept.”

Seeing his classmates' eyes widen, Tian Zhe was pleased. He was finally able to explain the principles of merging with the spirits of demonic beasts.

“Yun Yongru can merge with any demonic beast, even if it does not belong to the fire element, but it will be difficult for her to form a solid base of the silver cage if she does not use a suitable development technique,” concluded Tian Zhe.” On the other hand, only demonic spirits with the structure of birds are suitable for Sung Ming.

“Thank you, brother Zhe, you are the best!”

“Thank you, brother Zhe.”

“Now leave me. I need a break from you.”

“Are you going to kick everyone out?” Someone's voice came from the corridor.

“Great, not only did they make me chew everything; they also overheard me.”

The door to the room opened, and a tall young man of about sixteen entered the room. His clothes screamed about his position in society, and his pleasant face and neatly styled hair made Tian Zhe jealous.

“I passed by here, but I listened to your explanations,” said the handsome man. “My father was right. Younger brother Zhe was blessed with divine intelligence.”

“Well, brother Shen, you are exaggerating,” Tian Zhe knew the handsome man from the memories of the former Tian Zhe. “Guys, greet the next head of the sacred family of the Misty Peony.