Putting the necklace back on, Lucas moved to the centre of the training hall, closed his eyes, and chose a set of Forms to perform before stepping out.
The moment he began practicing, Lucas noticed a drastic difference from when he was only cultivating using the Focused Breathing Art.
Before, when he was sitting in meditation, the flow of warmth from the Spirit Crystal into his body was akin to a faint trickle; but now, as he executed the complex movements of the Unarmed Foundations Art, together with the corresponding breathing regimen, Lucas felt several times as much warmth pouring into him.
This feeling was a bit overwhelming at first and nearly caused Lucas to lose focus and halt, but after adjusting both his pace and breathing slightly, slowing both by about 20%, the sensation became much less distracting. If before, it had been like he had tried to drink a boiling cup of tea and nearly burnt his tongue, it was now like having a warm cup of milk, soothing and delightful.
Fully immersing himself in this feeling, Lucas soon sank into a kind of trance, completing the movements in an almost instinctual manner, every action pushing and pulling the warmth he was absorbing around his body in a thorough and systematic manner.
It was only after completing a full set of 12 Forms that Lucas stopped and exhaled gently, remaining in place with his eyes closed, seemingly savouring the aftertaste of the experience.
Charles, Sasha, Anna, and Drake all observed Lucas with a sense of calm and pride, each of them appreciating the smoothness with which the young boy had executed the Unarmed Foundations Art. It was a display of mastery that none of them even remotely approached yet.
There was even a bit of envy in the adults' gazes, all of them wondering when they too would be able to do what Lucas had just done.
Farah, on the other hand, could barely contain the shock on her face. Unlike the previous test, this time she had fully released her Soul Sense and had been meticulously monitoring Lucas' condition.
Lucas moving around while cultivating, which was all but impossible for someone in the Mortal Realms, was already a big shock to witness, but it was the movement of World Qi around the boy that truly caught Farah's attention.
As soon as Lucas opened his eyes, Farah couldn't help but blurt out, "Toss me the crystal."
Awakening from his stupor, Lucas quickly took off the Spirit Crystal necklace and handed it back to its original owner.
Immediately upon receiving the Spirit Crystal, Farah sank her Soul Sense into it to check its content, soon after shouting, "Impossible!"
Peeling her eyes away from the Spirit Crystal, Farah directed a blazing gaze towards Lucas, as if she was looking at some kind of priceless treasure.
The intensity of her stare was enough to make Lucas flinch, wondering if he had done something wrong.
Had he drained too much World Qi from the Spirit Crystal and now Farah wanted him to compensate her? If that was the case, Lucas could kiss all the Silver Coins he had just bargained for goodbye, causing his joyful mood to rapidly plummet.
With great difficulty, Farah tore her eyes away from Lucas and shifted her attention to the other adults in the room, her expression filled with disbelief as she declared, "I don't think you fully understand just how extraordinary this technique Lucas picked up is. If you did, you wouldn't have dared to use it even in secret, much less openly like you've been doing."
As they absorbed these words, Anna, Drake, Charles, and Sasha were struck with confusion. They certainly knew that the Unarmed Foundations Art was precious, but after many experiments, they had determined that its benefits were quite limited.
It's utility as a Body Tempering Art were excellent, but as an 'Auxiliary Cultivation Technique', it only seemed to be useful in the Body Tempering Realm, with its effectiveness falling off dramatically in the Vein Opening Realm and all but disappearing in the Core Formation Realm.
Farah, however, had a very different opinion. Turning back to Lucas, she asked, "You slowed down your movements right at the beginning, right?"
"Yes," Lucas nodded, not bothering to hide anything as the change in his pace would have been obvious to anyone watching him.
"You did that to slow down the rate at which you were absorbing World Qi, correct?" Farah continued to press, her eyes now flashing a profound light.
Pursing his lips, Lucas nodded once more, not quite sure what Farah was getting at.
"Astonishing, simply astonishing!" Farah praised without reserve, "This can't be classified as a mere Auxiliary Cultivation Technique anymore, it's more like an entirely new method of cultivation!"
"Was the difference really that big, Senior?" Anna asked, trying to understand why Farah was so excited all of a sudden.
"Was the difference big? The difference was more than just big! The two different methods are simply incomparable!" Farah exclaimed, looking more animated than any of them had ever seen her before.
Seemingly noticing the odd way everyone was looking at her, Farah cleared her throat awkwardly before taking a deep breath, doing her best to control her raging emotions as she explained, "Compared to when he was sitting in meditation, using the Focused Breathing Art alone, Lucas drew out over 3 times as much World Qi from this Spirit Crystal using his new method. He also wasted less than half as much World Qi as he had taken in before! It's the equivalent of improving his cultivation efficiency by more than 5 times!"
"5 times more efficient!?" The others shouted incredulously.
Previously, through repeated testing, they had found that using the Unarmed Foundations Art had boosted cultivation efficiency by about 30% in the Body Tempering Realm, and 5% in the Vein Opening Realm. That was already quite outstanding, so none of them expected that the effects to be so dramatically different when it came to pairing it with the Focused Breathing Art.
Now, this didn't mean that Lucas' method was superior to using a higher Grade Cultivation Technique. For two people with the same Innate Talent, it would still be faster for them to cultivate with the Flowing Flame Art rather than with the Focused Breathing Art and Unarmed Foundations Art combination, but that didn't make the latter method any less shocking.
"What's more," Farah continued, "That doesn't seem to be the limit of this method. Lucas intentionally decreased his rate of absorption because his body couldn't handle it. If his physique was more robust, he might have been able to push it to 6 or even 8 times the efficiency, which would make this method better than using any Peak-Rank Spirit Grade Tier 1 Cultivation Technique I've ever heard of."
This was a truly shocking revelation! It had to be known that of the hundreds and hundreds of Cultivation Techniques in the Rockwell Kingdom, there were probably less than 50 that could be rated above Spirit Grade Tier 1. If what Farah suspected was true, this meant that Lucas' new style of cultivation would be superior to the methods used by most noble families!
"But, we've all already tried using the Unarmed Foundations Art, and we didn't see nearly that much benefit from it in our own cultivation," Charles couldn't help pointing out.
This didn't dampen Farah's enthusiasm at all, though, as she simply stated, "It's normal to see falloff in efficiency at higher Realms, and in a place like Redwood Town, no matter how good a Cultivation Technique is, the low density of World Qi will limit its maximum efficacy."
"With this method, it might even be possible for me to…" Farah began musing before abruptly stopping, a wrinkle forming on her brow.
Contemplating something for a moment, Farah ultimately let out a long sigh before shaking her head, "No, it's still useless to me."
Curious about this sudden outburst, Lucas couldn't help asking, "Senior Farah, is there something wrong with my cultivation method?"
Regaining her composure, Farah flashed a wry grin and replied, "As far as I can tell, there's absolutely nothing wrong with your cultivation method, Lucas. The problem is with me."
Perhaps feeling that it was only appropriate to share her story after having learned such a precious secret, Farah began narrating a piece of her past that she normally kept hidden, "It all happened about 60 years ago, not long after I had broken through to the Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate Realm."
Hearing the true extent of Farah's strength for the first time nearly caused Lucas' thoughts to shut down then and there.
A Mid-Rank Spirit Initiate!
From what little Lucas understood, such a master would be able to exert dozens of times more strength than he could!
Recalling his earlier defiance when Farah's hand was resting on his head, Lucas couldn't help shivering slightly. He didn't regret his actions or attitude, but he did understand how foolish he was being. There was a fine line separating courage from stupidity, and at that moment, he had clearly leapt light-years beyond it.
Not noticing the complicated emotions the young boy was feeling, or perhaps not considering it anything important, Farah continued, "I was on a mission with shoddy information and… questionable objectives, when the team I was leading was ambushed."
"In the opening moments of that battle, nearly half of my subordinates were killed and several others were heavily injured. It was a hopeless situation and I saw no chance of any of us escaping alive, so I didn't hesitate to use a Berserker Medicine which temporarily granted me a massive increase in strength."
"Even with that boost, it wasn't long before I was the only member of my team still standing. I fully expected to die that day, so all I wanted to do was take as many enemies down with me as I could, but it seemed the Heavens had other plans for me."
Glancing over at Sasha, Farah let out a light laugh as she muttered, "Fate is truly a strange thing."
The others in the room all turned to look at Sasha as well, wondering what role she could possibly play in this story, especially seeing how she hadn't even been born at that time.
"Don't look at me," Sasha waved her hands, "I have no idea either."
"Well, suffice-it-to-say, I was saved at the last moment," Farah dove back into her story, not even trying to explain the slight diversion she had just taken, "I was somehow able to keep my life, and my Realm, but the damage I suffered to my body and meridians was extensive. It's now almost impossible for me to continue cultivating."
"On top of that, I can now only fight at full strength for short intervals and it takes nearly 10 times longer for me to recover after I do."
Turning to Lucas, who by now had somehow managed to recover from his initial shock, Farah said with confidence, "Which is why, no matter how precious your new cultivation method is, it's useless to me. I can't cultivate, and I have no family to speak of as I've been an orphan my entire life. I have no formal Disciples, apprentices, or even any subordinates left that I care about, so I have no reason to covet your technique."
A gloomy mood suddenly settled over the training hall with this series of revelations.
It now made sense to everyone present why Farah was always so gruff and withdrawn, preferring to keep to herself. Her background and situation also explained why she was so concerned about the orphans in Redwood Town, and why she seemed to have a soft-spot for the town's children.
Taking all this in, Anna, Sasha, Drake, and Charles couldn't help feeling a sense of sympathy for this woman, despite knowing that as a Spirit Initiate, she definitely didn't need their pity. After so many years, it was clear that Farah had long accepted her situation and adjusted to her current life.
The best evidence of this was how casually Farah had spoken when talking about her past. It was like she was just discussing the weather, rather than narrating her own tragic backstory.
Lucas, however, had different ideas in his head, ones which were spurred forward by his newly awakened memories.
Considering his words for a moment, Lucas eventually said, "Senior Farah, I may not be able to do anything for you right now, but in the future, I might have a way to help you recover..."