"The most important part of cultivation is building your dao base.

Think of a building under construction.

First and foremost, the base or in other words, foundation must be built properly, while keeping in mind that the rest of the building's weight would be on it always.

If you build a narrow, shallow foundation within a forty square meters area, at best you can get two small rooms which will be cramped and uncomfortable to live in, shabby to look at, not to mention a shallow foundation will never allow you to build higher floors past its limits. If you forcibly do so, one tiny earthquake, one half-decent flood can make it crumble.

BOOM, the cultivation you have achieved throughout your life will be gone just like that.

But if you are intelligent enough to understand this, you'd definitely build a better foundation for your dao base.

Now imagine a foundation covering more than a hundred square meters land and going dozens of feet underground to lay a firm footing for the building in th future.

Even if you build a five storied building, it would be adequate with many large rooms that are comfortable to live in.

You can imagine these rooms as your cultivation techniques.

Each room in the lower floors will be more influential than those above it. The higher you go, the riskier it is. The lower level techniques may not shake the earth or colour the sky, but they'll lay the foundation for the techniques you practice at the higher levels.

Naturally, you must make sure to practice the lower level cultivation methods to their fullest extent or otherwise risk losing a room in the ground floor, which would simply waste the foundation you built in that area, thus blocking much of your potential.

Of course, all this is but an analogy. Dont try to argue with me about how buildings are actually made and losing a room isn't something that cannot be remedied...

In essence, cultivation techniques allow us to reach higher, like one floor after another.

Now, the next matter a young cultivator is often concerned with is how many techniques to cultivate.

As I said before, these lower level techniques are just your foundations. Theoretically, the more you master, the better and deeper your foundation gets because different techniques give you different sorts of outlooks and methods to influence nature. The more you learn, the better grasp you have over your own ability.

But practically, it's useless cultivating dozens of techniques because it will waste your time by keeping you at the lower levels of cultivation for a long time, which can lead to the loss of your youth and potential. You won't even live long enough to reach the next level to increase your longevity.

One may ask, how about I cultivate to a very high level and cultivate a lot of lower level techniques from the scratch with my immense longevity? This will expand my base, right?

If only the answer was that easy...

Once you pass a floor, there is no coming down. Either you keep going upward, or you can just jump down to commit suicide, in other words, destroying your own dao base.

After reaching a higher floor, even if you cultivate the low level techniques meant for the foundation, they would only leave an imprint on your dao base.

Unless you keep practicing those useless techniques to their higher level and reach the same floor where you are in, they wouldn't be of much help.

After they reach your current level, they can occupy one of your rooms in that floor and be used as properly like any other techniques. But they wouldn't have any effect on your base like your original techniques.

Now, you might ask, how many rooms are we allowed to have?

That solely depends on you and your foundation. If you cultivate three techniques from scratch and reach a higher level, you'll have three rooms where each technique occupies one. They can be replaced at will with a technique of similar level anytime. But it'll never exceed three no matter how high you go.

There is a theory in legends that once you reach a very, very high level, a cultivation realm unimaginably high, you can achieve the ability to build more buildings beside the one you possess. They can be used as a substitute, but they will never be as effective as your own dao base.

Now, daydreams aside, let's move onto more practical stuff, like the effects of cultivation methods at your levels.

Once you start cultivating a technique, it can allow you to break through layer after layer till its limit. No matter how many more techniques you practice afterwards, they won't encounter bottlenecks as long as the previous techniques has cleared the path for them. The following techniques will be more focused on enhancing your dao foundation.

The trend right now is to cultivate three to five techniques in your realm, the realm of physique transformation.

Naturally, your path ahead should be quite clear by now.

First, cultivate your primary technique till the ninth layer, the peak of physique transformation realm.

Then start with your secondary techniques one by one, making them all reach the ninth layer and enhancing your foundation to its highest potential.

Once all of your cultivation techniques have reached the peak of ninth layer, you are a true cultivator at the peak of physique transformation realm and ready to step into the next floor. However there exists a dangerous staircase, a sub-realm named physique tribulation where you transform your body to a vessel strong enough to survive the heavenly tribulation and reach the next realm, the second floor, the soul reformation realm.

Allright, that's too far from your current level. So let's put that off for future and start with our routine qi cycles. Close your eyes and start absorbing qi. "

With elder Kong's shout, all the disciples in the great hall started their qi cycles, their mind still refreshed from the precious knowledge they'd acquired today.

"That felt like an info-dump. But damn, this stuff is so interesting! " Xuhan muttered to himself.

Sneaking a glance at his boss who sat just a bit ahead, Xuhan noticed his relaxed posture and couldn't help but feel relieved.

Mu Ran finally seemed to have figured out a proper way to avoid the invasive claws of elder Kong. Even after the elder examined his qi cycle multiple times rather suspiciously, he didn't seem to have found anything extraordinary, judging by his lack of reaction at that time.

If the protagonist's secret remained safe, Xuhan was hopeful that he would be able to get a few more perks out of him slowly. As a person who had cultivated the zeroth layer of physique transformation realm, he already understood how beneficial it was after comprehending the lecture from elder Kong today. His dao foundation would be leagues better than most of his peers.

If he could continue to receive such advantages...hehehe.

'Celestials, it wouldn't be long before I show up on your doorstep and piss on it. Of course, I'll take care to be discreet about it and run away before anyone can catch me...and I might even shift the blame on my boss just to troll you into picking a fight with the protagonist.

After the lessons ended, Xuhan accompanied Mu Ran and Xiao Wu to the inter-sect auction. He carried a bag with him, something that attracted the attention of many.

"Xuhan, are you planning to buy something big from the auction? I thought your financial situation was a bit tight."

Both Xiao Wu and Mu Ran kept pestering him with similar questions. But Xuhan put on an arrogant smile that spelled i-know-something-y'all-don't-and-i-aint-telling-you-no-matter-what.

He was confident in his money making scheme. With the sect's direct support, there was no way it could go wrong. He was about to make some big cash. Hell, he might even earn enough to buy enough resources to propel him straight to the second layer of physique transformation realm.

If everything went smoothly, he might even be able to buy some good stuff with Mu Ran's help...

Xuhan couldn't help smiling deviously. Was his bullshit luck finally about to abate ?