“Oh. I forgot how backwards the level of learning in your world was. Those damn fools have even lost such basic knowledge. Those devices that measure talent have made people forget what it really is. Cretins.”

Tao Ba had to stop and turn his head to the side, spitting on the ground to show his distaste for those people. Sage was surprised, it seems that this little fellow truly values knowledge.

“I’ll ask you then. What do you think is the most important thing for a cultivator to advance?”

Sage thought about this for a while. He’d tried to gather information on the many people who were said to have extremely high levels of talent. Those qualities he had listed before were simply things that different geniuses were said to have. From what he gathered, there wasn’t some unifying trait that every one of them possessed. Instead they were all said to be possess great talent.

“I… have no idea. Is this going to be a trick question about perseverance, discipline, careful planning, or survival instincts?”

Tao Ba laughed and shook his head, “Hah! Okay, I’ll stop torturing you. No, it’s not a trick question. Those things are certainly necessary to make a powerful cultivator, but we are talking merely about success at cultivating itself and not life philosophies. Think of it this way, to cultivate you must perceive and control the Qi of the heavens and earth. You draw it in, manipulate it through your body and accumulate it. Once you have enough, it transforms the body and takes you into a higher level of existence.”

Sage pondered these words, a summation of the basic experience of cultivation. He tried to decipher where he was going with this, starting to feel like he had an inkling of an idea before Tao Ba finally blurted it out.

“Perception. That is the main measure of talent. The very first step of cultivating. You must sense the energy and guide it through the body. Those with high talent have naturally higher perception and control of the energy of the heavens and earth. Those with low talent are like people wearing mittens and blindfolds in comparison to them. Surely, you can accomplish the same tasks, but they will always have the advantage. Most of the people in the world have such terrible perception they can’t even cultivate. This is similar to teaching blind people to read.”

No wonder he was upset. This truly is a simple and basic explanation, what a shame for it to be mostly forgotten.

Sage bowed again to Tao Ba, thanking him for the information before he rose back up and quickly asked another question, “You are truly wise. Where does talent originate? If it is like a sense, does it originate from an organ? The soul? Spirit Power in the mind? Is there any way to increase it?”

Tao Ba furrowed his brow, again with these difficult questions. The little boy reached up and rubbed his head, “This much… it’s still not very widespread knowledge. There are a few precious natural resources that can improve talent, and also a few powerful alchemical pills. Obviously, the fabulously rich and powerful will procure them for their descendants so they’re quite rare and expensive for others. As for what it actually originates from… well, that is known as the Spiritual Root.”

Tao Bo gave the Serpent a knock on its forehead with his small hand, “You just had to meddle. Fine. I admit it. Even I don’t know what the spiritual root is. It’s like trying to hear one’s own ears, taste your own tongue, or look into your own eyes. The first seems impossible, for the second, how do you decipher what is the real source? For the third… Well, if we could find something that could act like a mirror then maybe we could find the Spiritual Root. Many have tried in the past. There are already ways to improve it and to measure it, so most gave up finding the truth of it.”

Sage rubbed his head where he’d been smacked and nodded to Tao Ba. It seemed this mostly beast body of his was much more talented than his purely human one. Just as the boy said, it would be difficult to truly isolate the Spiritual Root, but it seemed that an overall improvement of his body seemed to have an effect. Unfortunately, Tao Ba didn’t really know much more than he’d learned previously in the past, but at least a second source confirmed the knowledge.

I’ll just have to add it to the list of things to research in the future.

Distracted by the concept of talent, Sage remembered that he was in the middle of trying to rebuild his cultivation. He once again slipped into a state of meditation and send his senses inward. He had already drawn in enough energy earlier to saturate his body, which meant he’d just barely reached the qualifications of a cultivator. With a bit of a closer look he realized it wasn’t just that breathing exercise. As a beast, he’d been consuming many other creatures and the Qi naturally built up inside his body. It was the method that Demonic Beasts used to cultivate. The most powerful of them would have their own Qi Cultivation Methods in their ancestral memories, but the vast majority of them merely accumulated their energy by consuming others. It seems he was already close to ranking up by mere accumulation.

The last step to becoming a true rank one cultivator was to circulate his energy with a Qi Cultivation Technique. Very quickly he started to guide the energy through his meridians in the manner that he’d learned from the Seed of Life. He named it the ‘Life Nebula’ technique, merely because of what it seemed to do to the energy within his dantian. Slowly at first, but then with rapidly increasing speed, the energy of the heavens and earth was drawn into his body. It was so very thin, a light vapor or mist seeping through his body. All he could do was fan it along, creating a gentle breeze at different spots in his body to alter the flow and force it to follow the route he wished.

After following the route for Life Nebula a few dozen times it suddenly got faster all on its own. The energy began to move on its own, collecting within his dantian and starting to build up. Very rapidly, Sage felt his body being cleansed by the flowing Qi. Sage didn’t move from that spot, maintaining the Life Nebula technique. He quickly lost track of time and very soon found that the vaporous Qi had condensed into a liquid. Within his dantian the swirling cloud had transformed into a puddle of liquid. Or at least it seemed like a puddle of liquid. Looking closer, Sage could see each individual droplet was shimmering like a mote of starlight.

At this moment he felt something happening outside and it drew his attention. While he was still circulating the Life Nebula technique he opened his eyes and saw the five Heavenly Treasures flying towards him. If he were to suddenly stop his cultivation it was quite likely he would suffer from a qigong deviation. That is to say, a problem in his psychological or mental state from the intense disruption. It was already bad enough to open his eyes at this point. Worrying certainly wouldn’t help him right now, so he chose to close his eyes and focus on circulating the Life Nebula technique.

A terrible force smashed against his body, crushing him from all sides. He imagined this might be what it felt like to be thrown into a trash compactor. The force suddenly subsided to be replaced by a massive pain from his abdomen. Within his dantian he watched as that mystical realm was torn asunder. In the past the dantian and meridians were like an invisible and mystical extra layer inside his body. At this point, he got to see in gruesome detail as those five heavenly treasures ripped through his body and tore their way into his dantian. In the past they’d smoothly entered into that other layer of being on their own, but this time they shoved their way in by force.

The pain was overwhelming and Sage almost immediately lost consciousness, though he could swear he heard a deep laughter as his thoughts faded away.