Chapter 10 - The Pursuit of Strength

“So let’s finally begin talking about cultivation.”

A certain blue dragon with emerald eyes and red streaks donning its arms hopped onto Daniel’s lap, eager to listen to the lecture.

“Let’s start with explaining the world we live in for little Eifion. As the three of you know, we live in the sole township of the Ancient Mountains, Ván. Ván has approximately two thousand inhabitants. Do you all know why this town has a lot of friends and family of mine?”

The children started pondering on the question, but seeing that no answers would come out any time soon, Evan continued to explain the history of the township.

“The Ancient Mountains are situated at the eastern extremity of human lands. The five villages and many hamlets are ruled by Ván, because we are the only ones capable of granting them protection. We have the Elders, who all have Nine Heavenly Palaces at the least.

To explain how powerful the Elders are, we need to explain the whole cultivation system. Daniel, list out the cultivation realms for me.”

“Ok, dad. The first state is the Houtian lifeform. The realms in this state are the Qi Sensing Realm, the Pathway Refinement Realm, the Locus Creation Realm, and the Limit Unlocking Realm. The second state is the Xiantian lifeform. The realms in this state are the Revolving Core Realm, the Core Sea Realm, and the Palace Creation Realm. I think I heard Uncle Keith (Sixth Elder) talk about about becoming a Law Soul lifeforms… Am I right, dad?”

“That's already a pretty good overview. You didn't mention some things, but I'll get to it. So, you begin cultivation by sensing Qi with your Martial Spirit. This is the Qi Sensing Realm. It's not technically a real realm in that it doesn't actually change anything in you. But until you go through this step, you can't start cultivating.

In the next Realm, the Pathway Refinement Realm, you take the Qi you sense in your surroundings into your body and circulate it in your Qi pathways with a cultivation method. Little by little, you allow the pathways to get used to the Qi and expand to accomodate more Qi. By circulating the Qi in your body, you also pump energy into your muscles, bones, organs, and skin, enforcing them according to your cultivation technique.

Once your body is ready, you can create an energy locus with your Qi as a base. You can store various energies in the locus and depending on how big your locus is, you can use Qi outside of the body as what we call basic magic, such as creating a fireball, or creating a gust of wind. Even if you don’t have enough Qi to use outside of your body, you will still have enough Qi to give your body an instantaneous boost. At this stage, most people start to choose whether to become a warrior and focus on the strength of their body, or become a magician. However, up to this stage, you are still within the bounds of humanity. If someone were to train their body to the maximum, they most likely can battle against someone in the Locus Creation Realm to a standstill.

The next step is the real decider on whether you can become a real cultivator or not. Most people are stuck at this step. You have to break the limits of human body. That is why we call this realm the Limit Unlocking Realm. Their are the gates in your body that put a natural stopper to the human body. You have to break through them with your Qi. You can break through as many as you want, but at the very least you need to break the Heart Gate, the Brain Gate, and the Navel Gate, where the locus is located. You can break through as many gates as you want to and unlock the limits of your body. Some very popular gates are the arm and leg gates, as well as the lung gates. You can also break through the individual gates governing each of the fingers for example, so there are infinite possibilities, according to the individual compatibility to each Gate and the cultivation method. If you break through the three central gates, your lifespan quadruples, and you are an official cultivator. You usually need to wield a Rank 4 or higher Martial Spirit to break a gate, so most people are innately limited to this step with a low rank Martial Spirit.

These are the well known Realms of the Houtian Realm. But I like to add two Realms between the Locus Creation Realm and the Limit Unlocking Realm.”

A smile crept up on Evan’s face, as he prepared himself to present his own research to the four listening children.

“Although you only technically need these four steps as a foundation to break into the Xiantian Realm, I found that there are still ways to get stronger within the bounds of the Houtian Realm. And these two Realms are the Locus Expansion Realm and the Sensory Evolution Realm. In the Locus Expansion Realm, you just expand the locus. So, even if your original locus were to be too small to allow the use magic, you can improve your own aptitude towards magic.

After this Realm, there is the Sensory Evolution Realm. Before breaking through any of the other gates of the body, you can unlock the gates of the five senses. It is way harder and painful to open than the other gates and these gates become almost impossible to open while in the Houtian Realm if you open the other gates first. If you choose to go through the Sensory Evolution Realm, as a trade off for the pain and effort, you can feel... see, hear, taste, smell, and touch Qi.

These are the foundation that you create to break free of humanity.”

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The Cultivation Realms

Lifeform

Realm

Lifespan

(transition)

Qi Sensing

100

Houtian

Pathway Refinement

100

Locus Creation

100

(Locus Expansion)

100

(Sensory Evolution)

100

Limit Unlocking

400

(transition)

Qi Crystallization

400-1000

Xiantian

Revolving Core

3000

Core Sea

10000

Palace Creation

20000

(transition)

Soul Nourishing

20000-40000

Law Soul

Law Soul

50000

Law Domain

60000

(transition)

Law Baptism

60000-1000000

Immortal

False/True Immortal

As long as the law exists

World King

As long as the world exists

World Creator

As long as any one of the worlds created exist

Divinity

Divinity

Infinite