[Strong Advice: This chapter was written to give everyone a true picture of what cultivation is all about, and as a result, I would be explaining most of it using terms that are extremely relatable to the modern day earth, so keep that in mind…]

Uncle Min was speechless, and after trying so hard to keep calm in the face of the mystical and supernatural phenomenon he had just witnessed, he simply sighed and sat at the edge of the plateau with his legs dangling from the edge as he tapped the ground beside him;

"Come sit and let me explain…" Dara complied joined him at the edge of the plateau...

"You see, the road to cultivation is a very mysterious and deep path… One which less than 0.0001 percent of the entire word know about…"

"But I am not telling you to sit here to teach you about what I have read, or what I have heard; no… I want to tell you what I know and what I have experienced about cultivation…"

Dara who already knew much more than Uncle Min knows still listened on out of the hope that he might get an information about what he doesn't know about yet, or a simpler insight into what he had already learnt from the Dark Soul's memories…

"They say cultivation is about the same as going against the heavens themselves, and the major reason why people feel this way is because of the level of difficulty involved in the path to cultivation…"

"First of them all is the fact that there are extremely few resources available for cultivation when compared to the amount of cultivators that exist out there…"

"This is not to say there are many cultivators out there, but because the resources needed to cultivate are specific and scarce…"

"Secondly, it is an extremely dangerous thing to involve oneself with…"

"As a matter of fact, contrary to public belief, it is much safer to be a mortal than to be a cultivator…"

"This is because there is an unspoken rule amongst all cultivators that mortals are not to be harmed, and though, we still have some bad fruits who attack and kill mortals, they would usually do it in secret…"

"But once you become a cultivator, all bets are off, and then you will begin to witness the strong prey on the weak type of life…"

"A stronger expert might decide to kill you just because he hates your hair style, and you will meet some that would slaughter an entire clan or nation of cultivators just because they possessed a resource he needed which might actually be the size of your pinky fingernail…"

"Lastly, is because of the mysterious, strange and mythical heavenly phenomenon that interrupts ones journey into cultivation… Now this is where people think the heavens are against them…"

"Cultivation in actuality is taking power that mortals are not meant to wield…"

"So, once a mortal tries to wield or use that power, he or she would look like a virus trying to upset the natural balance, rules and laws that governs the universe…"

"As a result of this anomaly, these rules and laws would try to solve that anomaly so as to restore the balance of the universe back to its normality…"

"Then most times, the rules and laws would use a bottleneck to limit the rate at which this anomaly grows in strength and finally stop it, but in cases where the anomaly proves stubborn, then they use a much more forceful and violent manner to restore the balance, and in this times, they might use Tribulation Lightning, or in other case scatter the process by which the anomaly grows…"

"The bottle necks are the ones people face when they reach the peak of one stage and are about to enter another stage…"

"An example is a cultivator in the 1 Star Qi Creation stage who must face a bottleneck whenever he or she is about to enter the 2 Star Qi Creation…"

"This bottleneck the person wants to overcome was put in place to keep that cultivator from reaching the 2 Star Qi Creation Stage by the natural rules and laws that govern the universe…"

"Then once that person overcomes this blockade, that person would be deemed to have challenged the heavens, and then these rules and laws would respond with aggression, and that is where they bring Tribulation Lightning into the picture…"

"The tribulation lightning was also put there to keep the person in that same 1 Star Qi Creation Stage, and most times, people die from the attack…"

"Some who managed to survive by the skins of their teeth might have their cultivations damaged, never to be able to progress further in life…"

"Then we also have those who were destined to cultivate; these one would not only survive this attack, but also use the attack to nurture themselves and cleanse the limits of mortality out of their bodies…"

"It is these ones that would enter into the 2 Star stage, and after meet another bottleneck, and the entire process would also be repeated once again…"

"But the thing about this is that, the more that expert ascends towards the heavens, the more these laws and rules would heighten his threat level, and that in returns means; tougher bottlenecks, and stronger Lightning bolts…"

Uncle Min explained whilst Dara who was engrossed into the minute insights he was gaining; kept listening one attentively…

"Thus, what people feel to be hatred from the heavens is just the heavens trying to regain the balance and natural order of things…"

"Thus, anyone who cultivates wishes to enter into the heavens, and that would mean violating the rules and laws that separates the mortal from the spiritual; so, these laws would do everything it takes to retain balance and order…"

"Thus, those who aren't mentally prepared for the hardships in the path of cultivation should just not bother beginning, because they might just end up wasting years of their lives…"

"Then because mortals are not supposed to cultivate, the resources needed for such a journey is almost close to none, and the little amount of resources available have been fought over for generations and split amongst the most powerful; and this means anyone who needs these resources have to go to war with the major powers who possess them…"

"An example is the segregation of the Dark Lands from the Lands of the Light…"

"For those of us who are here and wish to cultivate, they would have to fight their way into the Land of the Light to obtain them; and the more they need, the higher up the food chain they would have to climb, which means; displacing people from their ranks by either killing them, or scheming against them, or any other means necessary…"

"Even the Season of War we are currently facing is because of mortals fighting for resources amongst themselves to survive; then how much worse would you think the resources that can make a mortal ascend the heavens be?"

Dara shook his head deep in thought has he began to figure out where the true dangers of the cultivation path lurks…

A friend would be compelled to betray you when one has what they needed the most to breakthrough into the next level…

A family member might kill one if they were told it would make them breakthrough into the next level…

"People feel they can control power; but once they obtain it and begin to use it, they feel elated, thinking they were the ones who made it happen, not knowing that what was given can also be taken…"

"When they have basked in the false elation brought by their self-pride on a power that wasn't initially theirs, the get intoxicated, and before they know it, the power has taken over their mind, and they will now begin to serve what was meant to serve them in the first place…"

Dara didn't know how or when, but he realized at some point that he had drifted away from the conversation and sunk into his thoughts, and that was when Uncle Min said;

"And there goes the first two obstacles; the tribulation, and the resources…"

"The source of the third and final hurdle of the path to cultivation is living with those who had been intoxicated by power; those who can laughter an entire kingdom just to bed a single damsel…"

"Those who can slaughter millions of innocent kids just to ensure that they keep getting stronger, and those who give in to their fetishes and vices, and even go as far as to fuel them with the power they think they have…" Uncle Min continued;

"When you see what humans and mortals become once they have the slightest taste of power, you would not be too bewildered by the reason why the laws governing the universe didn't create them with one in the first place…"

"But I am not here to tell you all these just to scare you away from cultivating; rather, it is because I want you to cultivate to the peak, and show these people that the cultivation world and the path to achieving infinite might doesn't have to be that perilous and evil…"

"But once your 8 Great Meridians reveal themselves, then you will then borrow the natural energy in the atmosphere to unblock your 12 Principal meridians..."

"And from then on continue to unlock the rest depending on your luck, your cultivation technique, and the quality of natural energy around you…" Uncle Min continued;

"From then on, you would then be able to absorb the natural energy into your body through these meridians and store it within yourself…"

"Is that the Qi Creation stage?"

Dara who had been silent and attentive all these while finally asked his first question;

"Yes and No…"

"NO in the sense that, the first stage after opening all your meridians is the Qi Sensing Stage…"

"Then after that comes the Qi Manipulation Stage and finally the famous Qi Absorbing stage; It is at this final stage that one would be able to absorb the energy around them and use it to nourish their body, do battle and finally store it within them…" Uncle Min explained…