“The next and eighth stage of cultivation is called aura assimilation. At this stage your elemental energy will start to merge with the walls of your energy pathways and dantian. From there the energy will start to infuse itself into your very body, when that happens your body will be able to give off an aura based on whatever element you have chosen to cultivate. The stronger this aura, the stronger the talent and power of the cultivator, for people with multiple energy types or dantians this process is even harder. They have several sources to draw on and merge into themselves and use. Say someone with both fire and wind elements is in this stage, how do you think that would show in their aura?”

Naath opened his mouth to answer but his father put up a hand to stop him laughing and shaking his head as he continued.

“Don't actually answer, that was a rhetorical question. I’ll just give you the answer, one of three things will happen in such a situation. The first and most likely is that their aura will use one element as the primary and the other would show up in places around the aura as small spots as a secondary. If they were fire primarily and used wind to support it for example then they would have a heated aura with mixed feelings of sharpness.

At the later levels of this stage of cultivation the aura gains a color to it as well, of course the color of the fire aura depends on its purity and density. Most flame cultivators have a red or orange flame, some talents have blue, and the truly rare geniuses have white flame auras. The brightness of the color is how we can determine the density of the energy. When they reach the level of developing color you will see random spots of a very light swirling grey representing the wind element they use for support inside of whatever color they have for fire energy. When it does gain color it’s worth noting that the size of one's aura is normally a very good indicator of the amount of energy a cultivator has, as well as it’s intensity, at least for the first two possibilities.

The second option is that their auras will merge, this only happens when they train both elements almost equally and don't just use one as support. When this happens the cultivator is presented two choices. One they can choose to let their elements merge into an entirely new one, or two they can use the supporting element to fortify the first, this will consume the secondary elemental energies and in essence promote the primary elemental energy by a level. When they choose to let the energies merge in order to create an entirely new one they have even more options. They can choose to guide the energies into creating a new elemental energy with both of the energies as a base. They can also choose to simply let the energies merge naturally and become whatever they wish to become randomly.

When this does happen and they merge their elemental energies it increases the intensity of the elemental energy when compared to anyone with the first type of aura. The auras of the second type will also normally be much larger indicating the large amount of power and elemental energy available to them. However size isn't everything, people with the third type of aura have the smallest hands down but if you ever see one and don’t have it yourself turn around and run, run for dear life.

The third possibility is that one's aura will simply layer on top of one another, this happens when they have elements that perfectly merge together following a single core principle. If one were to cultivate water and ice for example, they both have their cores in the same elemental branch so their aura would simply be two different shades of blue. When this does happen the person's aura also compresses, a lot, you would see two layers of aura in different shades of blue maybe an inch thick.

This single inch each of aura though is very very dense and will put even the largest of auras from either of the other two aura types to shame. This is important because once you step into the last level of the aura assimilation stage it becomes solid. It becomes something that can be used for defence, offence, as well as being interchangeable between solid and simply aura. In its solid state it will not affect the environment around it all that much. In its aura state it will show effects based on what element was cultivated in. If they use fire it will heat the area up based on the quality of their aura. If it’s ice they will cool the environment. And so on and so forth in that manner, with these compressed auras the effects are not as widespread but are far, far more potent.

Now onto the ninth stage. This is the last stage most people attain on this world before they look to the starry sky and leave the planet for other, vaster places. This stage is called halo condensing. This stage is the culmination of every other stage you will have gone through thus far. The energy in your body will be projected outside of it through your aura and you need to condense it above your head into a ring. This ring is called a halo, it has many, many functions most of which can only be discovered by the user themselves later on. There are some basic things that every single halo condensed by any person on this world has. Before that though I will tell you about what these rings represent.

Firstly when you are condensing your halo it will be that same as your aura is. Whether it is a single element, an element with spots of others. A fused elemental aura, or if it has layers. Secondly the size of the halo you condense is proportional to a few factors. The range of your energy sensing, the type of energy gathered, it’s purity, how efficient your pathways are. How attuned you are to your chosen element, the size of your aura, or how compressed it is. All of these factor into how large the ring you initially condense will be. The size of your ring is generally the measure of how great your cultivation technique is over all.

We will get into that later, for now lets focus on what people’s halo’s are capable of first. In general everyone's halo enhances their abilities from previous stages of cultivation. Depending on the size of your ring it will increase or decrease your sensory range, it will also improve the range and accuracy of which you can absorb energy from. It will assist in converting compatible energy types for you, in helping to passively purify that energy. It will form a link between your aura and energy pathways to the external world allowing you to strengthen your pathways and dantian even further. It will also enhance your aura at the same time.

The average cultivator will produce a halo that is 10 feet in diameter. Those with above average talent will make one anywhere from 20 to 50 feet. The rare talents will make one from 60 to 200 feet in diameter. The geniuses of the world can condense one anywhere from 200 feet all the way to a span of hundreds of miles. The talents after this level will have halos that are measured in comparison with the planet itself, we call these people immeasurable talents. Past that simply isn't worth mentioning because the only information past that is from very old, very ancient legends. Some of the halo’s unique abilities will be based on the element it is based off of, of course. The size is also a factor in how potent these abilities are. That is all the relevant information for you about the first nine stages of cultivation.

Past this not much is known, at this stage most people simply leave this planet entirely. Now then I think it’s safe to tell you about cultivation techniques. They vary from element to element and vary in quality as well. The lowest grade is bronze, each grade having five stars, five being the best and one being the worst. After bronze is silver, after that is gold, above that is platinum. Beyond these are, ascended, heavenly, and absolute. Our family has several 2-star silver cultivation manuals in the library for various elements. However you won't be allowed to look at those until you are ten years old and ready to start cultivation. Ah just for reference even lord Kree, the ruler of our nation only has four-star silver manuals. Gold and above are exceptionally rarer and harder to find treasures after all. Now do you have any questions for me?”

Naath’s head was spinning after absorbing all of this new information and he simply shook his head to respond to his father. His father saw the look in his eyes and knew he was thinking about all of the information and memorising it. He had seen this look in his eyes before after some particularly difficult lessons. His father simply smiled and left Naath with his own thoughts while he went to do other things around the house. At this time Naath’s older brothers walked out into the yard and saw him sitting on the boulder in a dazed state. They both recognised the look on his face as they had been there once too. Their father had told all of them all about the first nine stages a few years in advance.

That was the exact reason their mother had become so upset at the dinner table two days ago. The two brothers went over to him and silently waited by him in case he needed anything. Naath eventually snapped out of his dazed state a few hours later and saw both of his older brothers there smiling and waiting. He looked at both of them and immediately understood why they were there and simply smiled knowing he had such a close, warm family. When he saw them a question also popped into his mind now that he knew all about cultivation.

He looked at Zhu Leng, his oldest brother and asked “what are your guys' cultivation realms?”

The two of them seemingly expected this question and both spoke in turn. Zhu Leng spoke first saying, “I am only at the third level of energy gathering. It has been five years since I have started cultivating. I am considered as an above average talent so this time is pretty good.”

Zhu Shuan spoke next saying, “I am considered as a rare talent and have reached the fourth level in energy gathering in only three years of cultivation. But little brother, neither me nor our eldest brother had a sign appear at our births showing our future potential. It will probably take you a single year to reach energy gathering once you start to cultivate. The whole family looks forward to seeing you starting your path to cultivation little brother.”

As he spoke Zhu Shuan had a warm smile on his face, neither he nor Naath’s oldest brother held even a trace of jealousy in their eyes at all. They were happy and content knowing their little brother would surpass them one day. They knew the entire family, maybe even their entire country would be elevated one day because of their younger brother. They were excited to just be able to see his rise and be there to support his journey. Naath felt warm and safe in this environment and felt a closeness to his brothers and his family as a whole. He felt as if even if the entire world were to turn hostile to Naath they would still stand by his side.

He spent the rest of the day doing his lessons and playing in the yard with his family. His parents watched as he played with his two older brothers in the newly cleared yard. Naath’s day continued like this until the sun set and he had to go to sleep as he anticipated the next day. Tomorrow he would begin learning about cultivation in depth and work on his studies anew. He would be able to form ideas about cultivation paths, what kind of energy he wanted, and so much more.