Finally! Valerian's education was about to begin. Following the test, the household became very hectic and it took four whole days before it settled down. His grandfather was always away, either at work or at the clan compound dealing with the elders. His grandmother was mostly the same except she dealt instead with the well-wishers who came around the manor. The bottom line was, no one had any time to train or teach Valerian anything. After they had promised him too.

He fully understood the reason why things happened that way. The clan was interested in his talent and so his grandfather had to make nice, especially since they were going to foot most of his training costs. Plus news of his talent had leaked and so many people were trying to draw close to them and make connections. These people might be fair-weather opportunists but they had to be handled with tact. That was where his grandmother came in.

Not to mention the fact that they had work to do. His grandfather was a city magistrate. He couldn't neglect his work just because of his grandson. His grandmother had an even more trying job as a beast tamer, and a highly respected one at that. They were trying as hard as they could as is. It didn't mean he had to like it though. He didn't complain but he didn't like it either.

Thus he was understandably relieved and happy when things settled down some around the household and his grandfather announced that he would be having the first lesson today, with him. He was so excited that he could barely sit still and finish his dinner. He kept asking about the lesson plans and what he was going to be studying. The whole spectacle made his grandmother happy. She loved it when he acted his age.

Valerian rushed to the study as soon as he was able. From the moment he received the announcement, his mind had been working non-stop trying to figure out what he was going to learn. Was it going to be some secret art, family cultivation secrets or even one of those cultivation methods that he had heard so many rumours about? Given that he was now about to start cultivating it was probably the last.  But which one? Which kind even? Alas, he met something quite different.

Valan stood before a chalkboard pointing rod in hand. He made the servants rearrange the study a bit to accommodate Valerian's lessons. There was now a new, small desk and a board. Teaching his grandson was something he had been looking forward to for a long time and he knew just what to start with. In fact, the topic was written in bold, beautiful script on the board.

ESSENCE THEORY

"Most cultivators know absurdly little about the process of cultivating itself much less the energies and forces they are using and the theory behind them. Their minds are completely focused on techniques, methods and skills. Constantly fighting for secret arts they use but do not understand. It's honestly quite pitiful", he began.

"How can you hope to make any stable progress when you do not understand the fundamentals? It is important to correctly grasp the truth behind the forces to use them properly. Only a fool will take a weapon into battle without knowing what it's made from, how to use it and what it's capable of".

"Right!" Valerian answered emphatically. He wholly agreed with his grandfather. It was obviously stupid to use something you had no true knowledge of. Mentally, he ignored the fact that understanding the fundamentals never crossed his mind. He too had expected to jump right to cultivating methods and secret arts. He blamed this fact on the wrong impression he had gotten from listening to the kids at Fang's. That and the seductive power of secret techniques.

"The basis of cultivation lies with essence. Have you ever asked yourself why the word cultivate? Why use a word that means 'to foster growth', 'to refine'? There are many theories but amongst the foremost of these is that what cultivators cultivate is their essence", Valan expounded. As he did so his gaze burned hotter and his speech grew more impassioned.

"Essence is the lifeblood of the universe, of Verre and of everything in it. It permeates everything. The air, the earth, the oceans and rivers, all are filled with the essence of the world. All living things contain essence as well. It is in no way an exaggeration to say that essence is life because that is what it is to living creatures and indeed to the world itself. Without essence, all the creatures of Verre will die and the world itself would become desolate".

Valerian nodded dumbly. He couldn't remember a time when he saw his grandfather like this. It was a side of him he had never seen.  Despite this or rather because of it he did not let himself be distracted. He focused his mind on what the old magistrate was saying.

"Essence is not just life, it is also energy. It is power. That is why when cultivators cultivate they increase their essence and grow more powerful. It is the source of all the extraordinary things in the world. There is nothing it can't do if applied properly and there is no shortage of uses for it. Why even Erasmus the Sage once..." here the magistrate realised that he was getting carried away. With a sheepish smile, he cleared his throat and started over.

"There is no need to go too much into depth right now. This is only the first lesson after all. We will cover this and more in our subsequent ones. Your grandmother might even join us. Right now what you should be concerned with is the relationship between essence, humans and cultivation".

"Yes, grandfather" Valerian assented softly. It didn't matter much to him either way. He was more than ready to learn whatever the old man had to teach. He had known he was a scholar but now confronted with the depth of the man's knowledge he couldn't help but be a bit overwhelmed.

"Good! The first thing to understand about this is the essence cycle. An abundance of essence exists in the world. It is the essence that exists in the elements, in the land, sky and sea. We call this the world essence. World essence is different from the essence contained within living things. How different? We'll come to that later.

"What's important is that living things take in world essence every moment of our lives in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, the earth we trod, etc. however we also release the essence in ourselves into the world through our emissions such as exhalation.  And when we die our forms decompose and our essence becomes part of the world's essence.