"Four years?"

"Pretty shocking, isn't it?"

Xiao Wu bit her lip, "...well, yeah."

"Demoralizing, even." Cheng Hao spun his cup and his gaze lost itself in the swirlings of the tea. "Four years simply wasn't an attainable target for the young ones. Even the ten years of their Clan Head felt outrageous, when put this way. Not to mention, a terrible standard."

"Twenty-four, or even their Head’s twenty-seven, on the other hand... To those children who would start their cultivation as early as nine and ten, it would look like they had two decades before them to match those records. All of a sudden, those goals sounded much more feasible. Hence, rather than promoting the truth, the more comfortable perspective became the target of the Clan's propaganda."

Xiao Wu was visibly shaken. Indeed, if she deemed Cheng Hao's words reliable, that information would be a noticeable hit to her worldview.

Cheng Hao's chuckling intruded in her thoughts, "The reason I'm telling you this, is of course not to discourage you, but rather to reassure you."

"Of what?"

"That what I proposed is possible, and has been done before. Starting from eight, until just before thirteen years of age. That's four years. A few months to spare, even."

"..." the girl's emerald eyes quivered.

"No need to worry, Little Wu." Cheng Hao poured himself a refill, "In terms of raw talent, you'd give Xu Ling a run for his money. And it's not like He had a straightforward journey either, his first time around. We'll have plenty of leeway for redos in case we mess up, and to lay a sturdy foundation."

“As a matter of fact, I'll have to apologize: the way I phrased our 'impossible goal' earlier was purposefully misleading..." Cheng Hao smiled as a scheming glint flashed across his eyes.

"To the world, what we will accomplish will be exactly that: surpassing the Evil Saint by a landslide. Twelve and twenty-four; to those blindly listening to the rumours, that'll be half the time. Can you imagine the uproar? Can you imagine the people who dared turn their back on Xiao, when they were at their lowest-" Cheng Hao managed to interrupt himself just as he felt the tone of his own voice grow uncharacteristically incensed.

Ah, the woes of Mortal flesh, he lamented as he recollected himself after the unsightly outburst.

After a deep breath, he changed the subject, "Of course, what we will be really doing is accomplishing the very feat that Xu Ling has already proved possible… Except, no one will realize that we'll be starting twelve years before he did. A matter of... Perspective."

"So. What do you think?" Cheng Hao playfully winked, "Are you ready to relish in the rumours and bring glory to your people?"

Xiao Wu pursued her lips.

The Xiao Clan had naturally been on a decline ever since they had lost the war against Tian. Had it not been for the legacy left behind by the Jade Emperor, Lord of the Heavens before Tian, they would have definitely been kicked out even from their own Ancestral Grounds. To shock the world and remind everyone of her Clan's heights...

From the moment she was born, she had been witnessing her noble Father and her dear Clansmen wear out with the passing of the years.

From as early as when she took her baby steps, she had looked to change all that.

The Clan's Hope, recognized by her adored Ancestor Xiao Lan himself, had always been confident. From the start, she had eyed the Highest as the goal. A path to the top, unwavering, even in front of adversity. And now, the golden-eyed boy's words had lit that voracious ember in her chest, shaping her disposition like a sculpting knife.

Goldy surveyed her with watchful eyes as he, for once, struggled to fall asleep.

The world had... shifted.

His experienced gaze met Cheng Hao's, and they both found confirmation of their disbelief in the other.

Indeed, it's nothing short of dreadful.

The boy smiled ruefully, while the dragon went back to his silent watch, muttering under his breath.

To think when people would stumble for millennia to find theirs, this young lady already has a Path guiding her way before even taking her first step.

That Xiao Lan...

If Youngster Ling hadn't been here, how was he thinking of handling this monster?

"...mm, I see you are rather intent," ceremoniously nodded the golden-eyed youth. "Good! Very good! Then, I'll be requesting of you to discard any knowledge of cultivation you may have, as I'll be teaching you everything anew. If you can do that and follow my instructions hereon, I guarantee that by the time you turn thirteen, your name shall be renowned across the countless planes!"

Xiao Wu felt as if her blood were boiling, only for a budding Pride to cool it down.

It's only natural, such a feeling overwhelmed her excitement, and the young girl felt unprecedently composed.

After such a boastful declaration, Xiao Wu only had one clarification left: "When do we start?"

Cheng Hao gulped down the remaining tea and leisurely wiped his lips on his sleeves.

He then took out a gourd from the magical pouch and bit off the cork. "Well… I wasn't planning to quit just as things are getting heated."

Pah! He spat out the cork and smiled in a provocative manner.

"Tonight, we breakthrough. What says you?"

…

"Inferior, Basic, Advanced, Superior, Sung and Reverend. From lowest to highest, these are the six stages of the Mortal Realm." Cheng Hao spoke. "To begin on the road of martial cultivation one has to first step into the Inferior stage. We’ll be accomplishing this tonight."

"To do so, there are multiple steps: firstly, to gather strands upon strands of one's Sensed Qi; secondly, to draw in and absorb the Spiritual Energy; thirdly, to form and weave the Qi and the Spiritual Energy together, accumulating them into a Qi Sea; finally, to condense that Qi Sea into a Pseudo-Core! Once one has accomplished all that, and their cultivation base accomplishes its first rotation, one will thus be able to claim themselves to be a cultivator!"

Cheng Hao's words made the young Xiao Wu raise a brow: unexpectedly, even the basic steps were different from what the elders of her clan had told her.

After glancing over for permission to intrude, she inquired: "Big Brother Hao, I seem to be unfamiliar with the Qi Sea as well as the Pseudo-Core?"

“As would be the case…” the golden-eyed youth nodded like it was natural, "Because it's not something you would read in a book, or hear from just any Senior. This particular Sequence is simply not feasible for anyone, there’s a few rather stringent requirements. It's also the fruit of many great minds convening together in the midst of a war, regardless of affiliation, in a discreet fashion. As such it's kept as a closely retained secret."

Cheng Hao took a short sip from the gourd, not keeping Xiao Wu waiting long.

"In the early days, when the subtleties of cultivation had yet to be figured out, there would be upheavals after upheavals in terms of what people considered the most optimal. Eventually, however, it reached its current point, where it has staled since. The brightest minds of the past few eras all seem to agree, even, that cultivation today has reached its theoretical peak. Be that right or wrong, what matters is that for hundreds of thousands of years the most optimal sequences have remained the same."

"As such, most cultivators have come to associate the terminology of Inferior, Basic, Advanced, etcetera, in accordance with the requirements needed to enter their corresponding stage. However, those requirements are often misunderstood as a result of the fixed methods. The fact most cultivators nowadays have never personally experienced the shifting in the sequences has led to glaring misconceptions."

"At first glance, the Inferior corresponds to Qi Sensing. Similarly, there's a Qi River at the Basic stage, the Core is for the Advanced Stage, the Superior stage has the Satellites, and so on and so forth. That is not wrong today, but it is not the right way to look at things either: this functional fixedness made the next step even more difficult to find."

"In essence, if one wished to truly revolutionise cultivation, they needed to discard the preconceptions that tied a Construct to a certain Stage."

"This, was readily apparent to a young Xu Ling as he stepped into the Realms of cultivators." Cheng Hao's eyes glinted intelligently, "You see, before Xu Ling was a heaven-shaking general or a world-renowned genius, he had been an esteemed scholar. A researcher of great renown, with a sharp eye for the details."

Blindlight rolled his eyes.

Cheng Hao explained, "As he first made to play around with the Qi strands, the scholar found a deeper truth from the olden eras. Even more so as he explored their ancient records. He took note that the constructs, such as the Qi River, Core, Satellite, that one would assemble as they broke through in stage, were artificial. They were the result of countless years of research by cultivators, as they experimented to look for better sequences and structures. To be precise, they had been searching for the most efficient architectures to make better use of their Authority. Just like mortals would look for better materials and blueprints for their utensils and weapons."

"The Core stood out from the start to the experts of yore, as the prime construct. The idea of a central nucleus, a heart that would filter and pump the Qi and Spiritual Energy, quickly spread and was improved upon. In no time at all, the disparity between those who had condensed a Core and those who hadn't was rapidly made apparent. At least, such was the case for those below the Immortal Realm."

Xiao Wu was intrigued by this, "What about the others? The Immortals?"

"The struggles of efficiency are long past their kind. Those at that level have their own issues to figure out," the boy briefly clarified without going into much detail.

"On the other hand, even those at the peak of the Ageless Realm weren’t spared. In fact, they especially found it hardest to adapt. By that point, the quality of their Qi Strands made them extremely viscous, and as such very demanding to correctly condense them into a Core. It was similarly problematic for their antipodes: the Qi Strands at the earliest Stages of Mortality lacked enough of a cohesive force to condense."

"That's only the case until the Advanced Stage, right?" Xiao Wu assumed. “Today, cultivators build Cores in the Advanced Stage after all.”

"Indeed. By the third stage, the Qi Strands are barely cohesive enough to stabilize into a Core. As any cultivator would be able to tell you, it’s the timing we use today." Cheng Hao smiled. "But at the time, Mortals had yet to solve the problem of impurities. It instead became the norm to build a core during one's First Ascension, upon entering the Ageless Realm"

"What impurities?" questioned the emerald-eyed girl.

"Qi Strands of Sensed Qi other than their own.”

Xiao Wu’s eyes lit up as she put the pieces together, “Oh!”

“Indeed, I was confident you would have heard of this. Spiritual Energy can freely be taken in from the environment and even directly employed. It won't quite match the output of energy that has been further refined in one's cultivation base, but using it won’t bring any harm." Cheng Hao rapped his fingers on the side of the tabletop, "On the other hand, the homogeneity of the Qi Strands is incredibly important to cultivators. Too many impurities, too many strands of foreign Qi other than their Sensed Qi, can disrupt the balance of its flow and interfere in its functions."

"I see. And it's not easy to solve?" the emerald-eyed girl questioned.

Cheng Hao explained, "At the Mortal Realm, it's borderline impossible to reliably filter out Qi Strands on the scale required when undergoing the process of condensing a Core. It remained like so for the longest time. Before they figured the Qi River out, they needed to gather the required strands and energy in real time, quickly leading to impurities sneaking their way in due to a lack of control. As such, it was unthinkable to make perfect Cores, free of the pollution of foreign Sensed Qi, at the Mortal Realm. A Core that wasn't perfect was bound to collapse in a few years, so it was even seen as a waste of time."

"And such filtering was possible in the Ageless Realm?"

"Yes. The Ageless rapidly improve their control over the Qi as they attune to it. By then, even cleansing an entire construct is no longer a huge problem, merely a time-consuming task. Furthermore, as you will come to know," Cheng Hao revealed, "during the process of Ascension, the Qi Strands of all but one's Sensed Qi would even be cleansed by the worldly Laws. Remember what I mentioned was the norm then?"

"Ah!"

"Yes, that's why most cultivators would take advantage of that very occasion to condense a perfect Core. During one's First Ascension, the worldly Laws would even accomplish the filtering in their stead, so it was the most sensible choice. It made the Ascension quite the hurdle, but it was worth it for the guarantee of a perfect Core that wouldn't wither away with time."

Cheng Hao sipped from his gourd.

Then, stating the obvious, he added,

"As you would have seen from meeting any Advanced Stage acquaintance with a Core, that is far and away no longer the case today."