Chapter 3 : Geek learns Basics Of Cultivation

Lost in the depths of my thoughts, I couldn't help but marvel at the bizarre turn my life had taken. Here I was, a normal person from another world, thrust into a realm of mystical energies and ancient traditions.

It was like being in one of those cheesy cultivation novels I used to read back home, except this time, it is real and it happened to me , I wonder whether there really are people chosen by the heavens like the protagonist or what I like to call MC.

I was wondering about how the first cultivator discovered cultivation, and whether the people were able to preserve that knowledge.

From what I have heard, when others were teaching the children of the clan, this world has a history of 300,000 years and there has been ups and downs in history.

Where one era was greater than one preceding it, and there were also times where the era succeeding the previous one was worse in terms of knowledge and techniques.

If I have to guess, considering cultivation novel cliches, it must have been due to hoarding of knowledge by the strongest cultivators and their deaths causing that knowledge to be lost due to some war between them or maybe something else.

As we entered in my room, an annoying little devil was waiting for us in the room.

My adoptive mother opened a worn leather-bound book, its pages yellowed with age.

With a gentle smile, she began, " I usually wouldn't tell all this to some one your age, but I know you already understand a lot more than what someone your age normally would." She gave me a knowing look ,

She probably thinks it has something to do with that gem from that naga, just like her daughter, the annoying devil beside me, who is way too intelligent for some who is only about 4 years old.

……………

My adoptive mother tried to make it easy for both of us to understand by giving examples and telling stories of great cultivators.

She was pretty good at this whole thing.

I tried to simplify what she was trying to convey .

As I understood, I summarized the whole thing in my mind:

So anyone who wanted to start cultivating must have a soul sense first but not every one in this world possessed one .

I was lucky to have been born into a cultivation clan and just like I had thought there were people with high and low talents but to my surprise, although talent matters a lot, there were still a few exceptions .

There were those, who were able to rise despite the lack of talent, but they lived long ago so the knowledge of how they did it was not known.

There were rumours of those people finding extremely rare treasure in the void forest in sub realm dungeon which helped them ascend and even improved their talents but talent wasn’t everything.

Comprehension in my opinion played just as much of a role, if not bigger and like how soul sense awoke at the age of two , talents usually awoke at the age of five.

...............

"There are people who can literally flip mountains, fly in the sky and beyond and even travel from one continent to another within a matter of a few hours." Ning Lian said with a playful smile trying to make both of us more interested in this , well mainly the little devil.

" Mother what should I do if I want to fly?" The little devil princess asked with eyes blazing.

"You will have to take one step at a time, cultivation is a slow burning process. " She explained further.

I gain summarized what she told us about cultivation process

so cultivation levels are divided based on complexity of spiritual roots.

they are divided mainly into 7 grades :

Body tempering - those who create Red Dao seal

Qi manifestation– those who create- Orange Dao seal

Foundation establishment– those who create yellow Dao seal

Core Formation– those who create – green Dao seal

Nascent soul– those who create -blue Dao seal

Then there are two more levels above it which I don’t know the name of-

those who create - indigo seal

those who create -violet seal

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Cultivation within the realms was divided based on two things the amount of Qi they have accumulated and good enough comprehension of that level.

Which are –

Low

Mid

High

Peak

When someone reaches the required threshold of comprehension for the next minor realm, their qi automatically starts evolving into a higher form and takes the form of a new dao seal for the major realm or grows denser for minor realm .

.............

I continued listening to Ning Lian as she told us about various legends of which one caught my attention, " The jade immortal is the most powerful cultivator in the history of our islands ."

"Mother , why are some people weak and others strong." The little devil asked a crazy profound question with a naively nonchalant face.

Ning laughed, "You can attribute it to many things but you probably wouldn't understand most of them right now, in future you will get to know about it without anyone telling you," She had a face which suggested she was reminiscing about her past, "But the most important thing is your talent."

She skimmed over this subject and didn't reveal too many things to her 2 and 4 year old kids.

One thing I noticed was the fact, that people relied more on their special physique, which is basically another word for talent, to climb the major and minor realms rather than their comprehension most of the time, and the main reason I would attribute it to would be, the martial culture here .

As everyone thinks, without battles one can’t progress in cultivation, but I doubt comprehending realms can'y be done by breaking down the process of cultivation and understanding essence of qi, which I plan to do as I want to avoid battles for as long as I can.

People can usually start cultivating once they are 8 years old.

Soul sense grows along with qi in a proportional measure, and the chasm between realms keeps on growing bigger and bigger as we advance further down this path.

It becomes harder to comprehend the qi without enough talent but that doesn’t mean its impossible.

Then there are concepts for examples element like fire , water, wind , shadow , blood , light, space , etc or something elusive like healing, soul, etc or something abstract like life , death , yin-yang, emotions, time, etc.

Which can be comprehended or given by a special physique or can be gained by luck , these concepts can enhance the techniques and give cultivators total control over the element they have comprehended.

The most important part of concepts is -> to advance to core formation and nascent soul you must master a concept, along with comprehending the next major realm and accumulating enough qi.

If someone comprehended next major realm , then he then must attune his dao seal to a concept or else the cultivator wouln't be able to advance. .

Once you add a concept to the seal it changes from just a concept to a dao giving you completely new level of control over that element.

There are higher and lower concepts based on their ranks , there maybe something that comes after the dao too too but I haven’t read about it yet.

This was what I understood till now, Ning Lian continued to tell other interesting things but the little devil was stuck on becoming able to fly and shatter mountains with her tiny fists.

“Mother what about after nascent soul realm?” my sister asked.

“ There is no need for you to worry about that for now little one, people above that are legendary figures.” Ning Lian said with a chuckle.

"Everyone has same number of spiritual roots, so, you can also reach the heights jade immortal reached, be a little patient." Ning Lian mentioned something interesting.

Hmm…… although everyone who has soul sense possess roughly the same number of spiritual roots, what sets them apart is if someone possess a special physique .

“That’s interesting”. I thought while coming up with various theories.

“I have been speaking for so long do you even understand half of what I said little Ning .“ Ning Feng just dutifully bobbed his head looking very innocent .

“ The biggest benefit of comprehending realm is, if you can comprehend the minor realm next to the one you are in, before accumulating enough Qi to advance to next minor realm of Body tempering realm, your cultivating speed will not be any lower than those with spirit or special physique depending on your cultivation technique .

Basically comprehension of cultivation realms can compensate for talent, which is great news for me.

One benefit I posses over everyone else in this world was my systematic education which , no doubt will give an huge advantage coupled with the fact that I have mental capacity of adults in this age .

I can spend most of my time trying to understand cultivation realms while others will be dreaming of battling the heavens.

His sister asked “How strong are the people at violet grade.” Sometimes she wasn’t just a little devil born to torment him after all, Ning Feng nodded to himself.

“Violet grade?” Ning Lian started laughing and said wistfully, “It’s only seen once in a 10 millennia and that might even cause a great battle between sects.

Experts would try to prevent that from happening.” I pondered about what she just said.

She had an amused expression as she added, “ Although talent is a crucial factor in determining your fate as a cultivator its not everything.

Some with low talent might form a third dao seal although cases like these are as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns .

Reaching core formation is something most people can never achieve, and even those with good talent get stuck at foundation establishment , and people with this much strength are already eligible to enter great clans as elders on the Seven great islands."

The little devil acted as if in deep thought..

As mother mentioned more stuff as off handed remarks, I realized a few things.

Unlike what I had thought before, our clan was only an above-average clan in this part of the world, called the seven great islands, separated by sea from the great dao continent, one of the two main continents.

Although they were called the seven great islands, they paled compared to the great dao Continent in terms of land and population.

“Mother, if cultivators can live for so long, why does the clan only have around 100 members, and why does Father have only one sister?” my sister asked again, showing she might be a little too intelligent for her age.

“That’s because as a cultivator gets more powerful, it gets harder to give birth to children. But the children born from these cultivators are usually endowed with high talent and sometimes even powerful physiques.

However, there is always a chance that those born have low talent .” Ning Lian stood up as she said the last line.

"Alright that's enough for today, you two come with me, I have prepared a special medicinal bath for both of you." She grinned like a devil just like her daughter.

...........

As the months passed and my soul sense awakening ceremony loomed, I felt a little excitement . Would I be among the lucky few blessed with high talent and a powerful physique?

Or perhaps I would be an average guy. That sounded fine to me as well. I didn't care much about glory and stuff.

Everyone in the clan would gather to congratulate the family of the child who awakened, as most cultivators came from commoner backgrounds.

Talent was a rare occurrence that could happen to anyone, though some had a slightly higher chance than others, especially those within the clan.

Outsiders could become elders if they reached Foundation Establishment, though they couldn’t become clan leaders.

This was how most clans operated in this world. If an outsider wanted to become a clan leader, they had to marry into the clan.

Polygamy was also a common in this world, just like in any other respectable cultivation world.