After a bit of waiting, in which Samuel became more and more apprehensive, a new group entered the courtyard. Except, these people were not like them.

For one thing, most were much older. They had white hair and a wrinkly face. However, two of them broke this trend and looked as young as the person who guided us here maybe even younger.

Like them, they too broke off into three distinct groups each going to one of the younger ones. The two young-looking masters approached them and now that they were closer Samuel could make up their features quite a bit better. They were a man and woman duo both wearing billowing grey robes that hid their physical forms.

Samuel looked at the man and woman and was once more shocked. They were by far the most beautiful people he had ever met in his life. All he could do was look at them in awe, and not only him but the other three in his tiny group were no less in shock.

A loud clap brought all three of them out of their daze and blinked in surprise.

“While I am very appreciative of your reverence, we do not have all day,” said the beautiful woman in a very dismissive tone. Similar to how his mother always treated him.

“Come now, let them look. They are not being creeps, what is the harm in letting them have a little look.”

Said the man, in a very humorous tone.

The woman only rolled her eyes at the man before turning to them who were now standing with apt attention.

“Alright, now that I have your attention, listen up because I am only going to say this once. In a minute, he and I are going to shove a bit of essence into you. This will cause an excruciating amount of pain and all of you will probably die from the attempt. If you manage to survive, think of two things, a spinning circle and what you find to be the greatest thing ever. That’s about covers everything”

With that, the woman proceeded to take a step toward them only to be stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

“Stop. That is not an explanation and you know it.” said the man.

“But it is what is relevant, everything else is just confusing fluff.” the woman argued in a huff.

“Maybe, but if we are doing this, we are doing this right.” said the man in reply.

He then turned his gaze back on the confused orphans as he said.

“Sorry about my friend, she is a bit hyperactive.”

In response, Samuel heard a menacing growl from the woman which made the orphans take a step back. But after a second she acquiesced and took a step back herself.

“Behave.” He said before clearing his throat.

“Let me start from the basics, all of you have an idea of what cultivation is right?”

All of them nodded, it was so universal in their culture that even a man living underneath a rock would know.

“Alright, now does anyone know how cultivating essence is done or what essence even is?”

This time they either shook their heads or remained silent.

“Okay. Let me begin with the fundamentals. Essence is the foundation building block of creation. If broke down everything into its most primal state what you would get is essence. It is okay if you do not understand. If, and this is a massive if, any of you survive. You will learn over time. What is most important is that essence is everywhere and in everything but we cannot use this essence. The essence we can use must be something specific to us and for that the formation of an essence core is necessary. Ask no questions yet, this part is also not necessary, I am just covering my basis”

He said before taking a breath and continuing.

“Now comes the important part. We cannot interact with the essence around us and don’t naturally have an essence core. If we did, everyone could do this…”

With that, the man put a palm forward quite casually and a powerful gust of wind shot forward, knocking three of the others on their ass and Samuel on his back. However, he did not feel the impact on the hard stone. The air itself seemed to catch his fall. Then in a swift motion, he was brought back to his feet.

There was a sense of elation in Samuel in the entire action. A sense of wonder at the mystical magicks on display.

“Cool, right?” He asked with a grin.

All of them nodded and, for the first time in his life, Samuel felt interested in something that was not the garden. He leaned forward in interest.

“Since we don’t have one we have to make it somehow. And there are two ways in which one make an essence core. Since you are in this group I will not bother with the other method. Simply put both us are going to put a bit of our essence directly into you. This will be raw unadulterated essence and the first thing it will do is seek it’s home which is the essence core that normally resides just below the navel. When the essence finds it missing, it will go to the source that generates essence for a cultivator, that being your soul. Since your soul is still mortal it is therefore very weak to such an intrusion. This essence will split your soul in two.”

Samuel gasped, he could not follow everything the man had said but the one thing he could understand was that cutting up his soul was probably very bad. Mostly because everyone else also gasped in horror.

“This where most, if not all, of you will die. Not only that it will be very very painful, the few short seconds will seem like hours to you. Normal people cannot survive having their soul split into two for very long. However, in that brief window, you have to two things. First command the two halves of your soul to spin. This might seem complicated but just the thought of a spinning circle will do. Just think very hard with a lot of focus. Secondly, think of what is most important to you. It can be anything, as long the object, person, animal or place holds a lot of meaning to you. Now you might ask how it is possible to do all that while being in pain. The answer to that is that it is really not and that is why most who attempt this die. That is everything, now do you still want to do it? There is still a chance to back out”

Samuel instinctively wanted to shake his head but seeing that no one else in his group moved he did not either.

He would do this.