"Hey, it's not my fault I mixed it up. I told you I had never cooked before... Besides, it can't be that bad."
As soon as Meiya picked up a piece of the food and ate it, her eyes suddenly started to widen.
"This is actually so good! Alex, you should try some."
Seeing Meiya say it out loud, Alex became curious and decided to try one out as well.
To his surprise, the sweetness didn't make the potato beef stew taste bad. It actually tastes much better than he ever imagined.
"Hey Luqing, don't eat all of it to yourself."
Luqing's face blushed a little as she ate almost a third of it while the two were still just having a taste.
"It's fine, I can cook more..."
---
As lunch quickly ended, Luqing brought the two back to their house for the sword training.
After a short warmup with the dummy training, Meiya finally started with the real training.
"I have to say, Alex, you're really talented in sword fighting." Meiya complimented.
"That's because you taught me well," Alex replied.
"No need to lower yourself like this. You will be a generational talent if you're born on my continent."
Alex didn't say anything as he raised his sword against Luqing, who also raised her sword as well.
"You two ready?"
Both Luqing and Alex turned towards Meiya, with their eyes staring right at her as they stood together.
Within a blink of an eye, Luqing struck first as she dashed forward from the left, aiming her sword right for Meiya's neck.
But it was easily deflected to the side as Meiya picked up a nearby tree branch as a sword.
Meanwhile, Alex went much further right, trying to flank her as he slashed forward.
Just like earlier, Meiya instantly deflected off, not even needing to move a single step the whole time.
The two didn't waste any time as they struck forward again, aiming from two different directions right at where she stood.
Meiya quickly blocked off Luqing's attack first, leaving her with a single second to block Alex's attack as it got closer and closer.
But once again, she somehow turned faster than any normal human reaction as she deflected Alex's attack to the side.
However, it wasn't without a cost.
Meiyia's tree branch had completely snapped in half, leaving her weaponless as the two didn't stop there.
Yet, just as they were about to get her, an almost invisible sword appeared in her hand, blocking both of their attacks with it.
No matter what angles the two used, Meiya blocked every single one without needing to move a single time.
Suddenly, Luqing's sword went much faster, with a slight wind blowing to both Alex and Meiya as she stabbed forward.
Within a millisecond, Meiya finally moved this time, taking one small step to the side as she deflected the stab.
A loud clank sound could be heard as their sword hit, but Meiya didn't stop as she turned towards Alex.
Even though Luqing couldn't see the Qi blade exactly, her movement narrowly dodges all the attacks thrown at her.
With more and more slashes, the Qi blade began to expand exponentially, covering almost every angle.
However, his slash was not fast enough to eliminate all the gaps that allowed Luqing to dash left and right.
After keeping up the pace for less than fifteen seconds, Alex's hand started to feel tired.
The slowness began to rear its ugly head as Luqing was finally able to advance towards him.
Just as she reached halfway, she was forced to dash around again as the Qi blade was now much faster with the closer distance.
"I can't do it anymore."
Alex quickly lowered his sword down, with his arm beyond exhausted from the amount of swings.
"Tsk, that wasn't even a minute," Meiya murmured as she looked a little disappointed by Alex's performance.
"I'm only ten, okay? How am I supposed to swing this sword when it's half my size?" Alex argued back.
"Ahem. I had seen young prodigies who could lift that sword even without Qi helping them."
Meiya awkwardly swirled her hair, trying to change the conversation. She had once again completely forgotten how young Alex still was.
"But I don't even have Qi on my body to use in the first place. How can I train my body to be stronger without Qi?"
"Mom... Isn't there physical cultivation? Could Alex try that?"
Luqing suddenly brought it up as she walked back to the two of them with her sword.
"Not possible. All three of the cultivation methods aren't compatible with Mana." Meiya pointed out.
"What is the other cultivation method?" Alex curiously asked.
"You don't need to know about it... It's pretty much irrelevant on this continent."
Meiya's answer made Alex even more curious as she began to pack everything away in the storage room.
"Luqing, Luqing, what are the three cultivation methods?" Alex curiously asked as he grabbed her arms.
After a short hesitation, Luqing folded to Alex's plead.
"The three cultivation methods are... Xiandao, Physical Cultivation, and Shendao."
"What's Xiandao and Shendao?"
Alex curiously asked as the name sounded a little familiar and mysterious at the same time.
"Xiandao is the normal cultivation, like Mom and I are both Xiandao. And Shendao is..."
Luqing paused for a second as if she was trying to recall her memories.
"It's like making people believe in you and then gathering their beliefs to ascend to God."
"Huh... How would that even work?"
The thought of having other people's beliefs would make someone stronger just didn't make any sense to Alex's brain.
"I'm pretty sure mages have this too. Don't you guys have a mage goddess?"
Meiya finally chimed in as she finished carrying all the equipment into the storage room.