After he said that to my father, the Head Elder looked at me deeply. He went silent as if thinking about something. A long time passed and he seemed to come to a decision.

“Come with me, Azalon. You two stay here” and he started walking towards the doors. I got up and looked at my father.

He nodded at me and I went after the Elder. We went towards the stairs and he started telling me about the pavilion.

“The pavilion contains various martial art techniques and body refining techniques. Usually there will be a Guardian here to check the Realm of the cultivators and assign the floor level in which they can select at most 3 techniques pertaining to their Realm. They can’t take them out but they can stay here and comprehend them. That way we can prevent copies and theft of the techniques here.”

I nod my head at the explanation. It seems they follow the same method various libraries use in my previous world. But there came a doubt at his explanation. And I took a chance and directly asked him about it.

“But cant the ones who study them copy the technique after they leave the pavilion? And why are there only 4 stories in the building?”

He turned his head and looked at me with surprise on his face. It seems he didn’t expect me to understand that much.

“It seems Lorvak really is blessed by the Spirits. To answer your questions, let me answer the second one as you will understand the first one by yourself after you experience it personally. This pavilion contains various techniques for the first 4 Realms and a single technique for the 5th Realm. As to why, the techniques for higher realms are rare and powerful. They are provided by the Kingdom at the capital or various academies and sects.”

“That is because, they can’t let go of the expert at that level who can be considered True Spirit Power House. Since they are not usually tempted by treasures, they are lured in by powerful techniques or Spirit weapons. Understand?”

Oh, that was the case. Kingdom, Academies and Sects huh…Hmmm… “What is the difference between a sect and academy?”

“Sects are generally formed by a single family and if you join a sect, you have to pledge loyalty to that sect. but academies do not have that condition. They are entirely dedicated to study and development of Realms and various Professions.”

Aha… A Sect is like a company and Academy is like a University huh… As we were discussing about them, we reached the top floor which is a 10 by 10 meter room with 8 pedestals placed around the room. There are 8 books placed on them. I knew they were the top techniques beside the single powerful one that is available in the pavilion. He then turned towards me and

“Azalon, do you know about the Realms and professions?”

“Yes Elder, I have read about them in my father’s library”.

“Oh, then it makes my work reduce by half. Then let me ask you one question. How much do you think is my age?”

“Huh? Elder, what do you mean by that?”

“I will naturally explain but first answer my question, Azalon.”

“…Around 80 years?” I answer slowly so as to not offend him if he is somewhat younger than he looks. I had some experiences like that on Earth.

“Hahahaha, 80 years huh? Let me tell you Azalon. I was 80 years about 120 years ago, you know”

I stood there like a statue, shock and astonishment flowing through my entire body. About 200 years… his goddamn age is about 200 years… I couldn’t believe what my perfectly fine ears heard. As he looked at my shock filled face, he lightly laughed again.

“This is the result of Spirit Cultivation, Azalon. If you can reach higher Realms than me, you can live for thousands and tens of thousands of years, you know. And if you can reach the Legend Realm and I am saying only can, as it is said to be unattainable, it is said that you can be considered to be an Immortal.”

Immortality… True Immortality… The thing which was chased after by countless people in my past world, to the point of obsession, can be attained in this world… JUST WHAT THE HELL IS THIS WORLD??? First there are Dragons, then entities that wiped out the Dragons, then Spirits, and now Immortality… I think I am going crazy. My beliefs and theories I have dedicated my entire life are being broken one by one. It’s like I am losing sight of what I once was… and isn’t that what reincarnation is meant to be? Let go of old beliefs and links and start fresh with new beliefs and ideas?

As I was immersed in my inner turmoil, the Elder started talking again. I shook off my thoughts and listened to his words again.

“Spirit energy is a very mysterious thing. It is present everywhere between Heaven and Earth. We can refine that energy to shed our mortal shells and attain higher Realms. We can do many things which are considered impossible if one can reach higher Realms. Take for example; a cultivator in Spirit Lord Realm can fly in the skies without using flying artifacts.”

*Sigh* Now humans started flying without use of any technology. I can’t be surprised anymore. Compared to dragons and immortality, flying is a small thing, you know.

“Why I am saying all these things is to let you know that anything can be achieved once you can reach certain stage. If you can’t achieve something at your strength, it means that your strength is not enough and you have to reach a higher stage.”

“You may wonder why I am talking like this. I am at the peak of 5th Realm and a Rune Master. I have almost reached the end of my life span and the only way to extend it is to break into higher Realm. But I know I can’t reach it with my talent. That’s why I first took your father as my disciple. He had high talent and comprehension abilities and I did whatever I could to aid him in his cultivation. Even if I can’t reach higher stages in my life, I wanted to be remembered as the Master of one who reached there. And your father didn’t disappoint me.”

“And right now, he has a son with a unique body and I pray to the Spirits that your talent in cultivation is as unique as your body condition. That’s why I decided to help you in your initial stages and if your talent is high enough, I wish to take you to the capital.”

I stood there listening to the flood of information and busy sorting out but the last sentence threw me off track. What did he mean by take me to the capital? Before I could ask him that question, he once again started talking.

“You have yet to start the cultivation by selecting a cultivation technique. But before that there are certain steps that you have to understand before starting the cultivation. You can call these the basic requirements to understand cultivation. First, sit on the floor in a lotus position.”

I sat down on the floor in cross legged position and the Elder sat in front of me. He then gave me 2 things to do.

“Close your eyes and free your mind of all thoughts. This is the basic step in the cultivation process. If you can’t achieve this stage, you can never comprehend energy around you.”

What he doesn’t know that I have been doing the absorption of energy around me for the past year. So I immediately cleared my mind and entered the meditative state of cultivation. The energy around me came alive in different colors and intensity. As the Elder felt that I achieved the isolated state, he once again started instructing, but his voice betrayed the surprise he felt. According to him, I achieved this state of mind at the first try. I can understand his thought process. He he….

“Try to spread your senses around you to perceive the energy present around. After you can sense the energy, imagine yourself as a dry pool and the energy as water filling that pool. If you can do that perfectly, the energy will start moving towards you and you can absorb thee energy.”

Before he finishes talking, I already start absorbing the energy rushing towards my body. And the same thing repeats itself as it did every day. Once again I am left with a trickle of energy in my body. As if the Elder sensed the energy movements, he instructed me with a quivering voice.

“Good, good, Azalon. Now, the energy absorbed is the raw form of energy present in the nature. You can’t manipulate it

freely and completely. At most you can guide in the Spirit paths in your body. So we refine that energy in our bodies and store them in the Dantian. Now I am going to teach you a basic refining method but there are several high level refining methods present in the pavilion. Once you can successfully refine the energy, you are free to choose any method you want.”

“Now imagine that energy moving towards your Soul. A Soul is formed of Spirit energy and any type of cultivation is based on the Soul. What the technique changes is the concentration and quality of refinement. Guide that energy to your chest area. That is where the Soul resides and imagine the energy being moderated according to your Soul. Once the energy resonates with the Soul, you can channel that refined energy around your Spirit paths once and store it in the Dantian. Now, try it, Azalon.”

Ah, so that’s why I couldn’t completely control that energy in my body. It’s like transmitter and receiver combination. Without resonant frequency between the two, you can’t send or receive the signals. So even though I didn’t understand what he meant by Soul, I guided the energy to my chest area. But no matter how much I concentrated, I can’t find that something called Soul to refine the energy.

So I tried a different approach. Instead of using Soul to refine the energy as the Elder said, I tried to match the frequencies of both. Per my theory, the energy is like an energy bandwidth and my Soul or whatever is a specialized channel. So I tried to search the bandwidth for the frequency which resonates with my channel frequency. As I explored the energy, at one point suddenly I felt my entire body jolt once and something in my chest pulsed back.

It seems like I found my frequency. So I try to concentrate the energy on that particular frequency. As I tried to do that, suddenly all the energy rushed into that pulse like a river and immediately I felt a great control over the refined energy.

At one, I channeled that refined energy all over my body and finally into my Dantian in my lower abdomen just below my navel. As I was feeling a sense of accomplishment, something unexpected happened. All that energy immediately disappeared. I suddenly felt cheated. Immediately a voice resounded in my head, the one I have been waiting for the past one and half year.

“Master”…