4 - Chapter 3
Sa Bina was seated in a carriage with Sun Li as they left Orange Grove behind. Han Ji and the soldiers were riding horses providing a screen for the carriage. They had only just left and Sa Bina was taking the time to look at the village out of her window.
The village had a quaint feel to it, but was more modern than she was expecting. The roads were well built and smooth. The houses were in a traditional eastern style with pagoda style roofs. The village, or what she could see of it, was clean and well maintained. There seemed to be sewer grates along the road, so the roads would not become waterlogged in rain.
She didn't know if all the houses had it, but the building she had stayed in had an indoor bathroom and some form of plumbing. There was even running water, albeit only cold. Based on the conditions in the bandit camp, the cold weapons and armour, Sa Bina had naively assumed parity with the mediaeval period of earth. Now she needed to reassess. Obviously having cultivators and Qi had led technology to advance in significantly different ways. Modern infrastructure had not developed, not because it couldn't be, but it really just had not been needed.
Sa Bina made a mental note to be more open minded in the future and not make more assumptions on first impressions. As they left the village the road cut through an open forest. She could hear the sounds of birds and animals as their carriage sped on.
The ride was a lot more comfortable than she had been expecting. Since she had Sun Li in the carriage with her and nothing else to occupy her thoughts, Sa Bina decided to get as much knowledge as she could about her new world and cultivation without making it obvious that she wasn't from this world.
“So, can we talk on this journey, or would you prefer to meditate?” asked Sa Bina. She purposefully wanted to give Sun Li the option of not speaking to make it feel like it was her choice. That way Sun Li would be more invested if she chose to speak. There was only a small risk of her offer being rejected.
“No, I am happy to speak, what would you like to speak about my lady.” asked Sun Li.
“Please call me Sa Bina. I have a lot of missing gaps in my knowledge. Due to the amnesia I don't even know what I don't know.” mused Sa Bina. “Let's start with the basics, the village was well built, had running water and drainage systems. Is that everywhere, how does it work?”
“Very well Sa Bina, but only in private.” replied Sun Li. “The whole empire has roughly the same level of development. I believe most of the land is similar, though don't hold me to that. I have only travelled around 10,000 li from the capital and dont have first hand experience of the wider land. Generally all permanent settlements have sewer systems. Most homes have a water tank and we generally use formations for modern conveniences. Qi gathering formations gather and provide the power to run these formations. In some of the bigger cities they may directly use spirit stones, though that is too expensive for most commoners.”
“Why not provide running hot water then? It would be easier taking baths and washing.” asked Sa Bina. “Also how can the commoners afford the formations, and I would assume they require maintenance?”
“Well a lot of cultivators, who don't want to fight, are able to learn formation design. Most of the designs are now standardised and only require minor modifications to be fit around the shape of the house.” elucidated Sun Li. “As most people can cultivate if they really want to and have the resources, there will always be low level cultivators who need an income. In addition, for the likes of the village, once the designs are complete even commoners can build the formation designs as they build the houses. Yes it is harder than for cultivators, but it just requires an artisan with patience and a steady hand. Then all the cultivators need to do is empower the formations and initiate them. As for maintenance, formation apprentices will tour the village on a schedule to touch up and fix any issues for a set fee. The sects post such jobs in the jobs hall and ensure all villages are regularly covered.”
“We learned some time ago the value of cleanliness.” continued Sun Li. “It was felt that in the long term, and we cultivators really think in the long term, it was easier to provide such facilities to the commoners as opposed to having to come in and stop the spread of illnesses from not having it.”
“Talking about long life spans, what are the stages of cultivation and the associated life spans?” asked Sa Bina happy to use Sun Li bringing it up to segue into the topic.
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“Well as all things they come in 9 stages. There is a theoretical 10th stage, but anyone reaching that level would be no different to a minor god.Commoners can live up to around 100 years. Most commoners actually live slightly longer as even with the worst spirit roots they usually enter the body enhancement stage and so live slightly longer and healthier lives.” answered Sun Li, “ This is usually explained the basics taught after people turn 17 at the earliest. If your dantian, the area where you can store Qi is put under pressure before it is properly formed, you can cause a rupture and lose all ability to process Qi. Those people become cripples and are usually very weak.”
“As for the levels of cultivation and life span, as I said there are 9 major realms, each with 9 minor realms. Each minor level will give you an approximate 1/10th to 1/15th part progress of the full realm. The realms and lifespan are as follows.” continued Sun Li. “1,Body enhancement - 200 years, 2,Qi gathering - 400 years, 3,Foundation Formation - 800 years, 4,Core Formation - 2000 years, 5,Nascent Soul - 10,000 years, 6,Soul enhancement - 100,000 years, 7,Soul core formation - 250,000 years, 8,Core merge - 1,000,000 years, 9,Earthly Monarch - immortal. Of course this is a rough guide and impacted by a lot of things. Also we generally go by feel, there isn’t a convenient system to just give us numbers. We have to work things out ourselves.”
“Wow, so people can live forever? I don't know if that is a blessing or a curse.” mused Sa Bina. She wouldn't want to live for that long and be so bored. 100 years was enough in her last life.
“Don't forget, you don't get old in the traditional sense. My master Ja Son is over a 1000 years old.” smirked Sun Li, answering the question Sa Bina had not voiced. She had obviously let her thoughts show on her face enough for Sun Li to take note.
“That’s good to know at least.” replied Sa Bina, she would need to remember to school her features better. She couldn't wear her emotions on her face for everyone to read. “How many people make it up the ladder so to speak out of the population.” She wanted to get a better understanding of both the numbers of people and the numbers of cultivators.
“So as I said most people can reach the first realm. About half enter the second realm at some point in their lives.” answered Sun Li. “ Half again, or a quarter of the people will enter the third realm. Do you understand percentages? It would be easier to explain it that way.”
At a nod from Sa Bina, a mildly surprised Sun Li continued. “1 - 95%, 2 - 50%, 3 - 25%, 4 - 5%. The jump comes in difficulty and resources required. From there it gets much worse. 5 - 0.5% or 5 out of 1000 people. 6, 1 out of 100,000, 7 1 out of 10,000,000, 8 1 out of 1,000,000,000. 9 and above no one really knows exact numbers. It's just too hard to get there.”
“So how many 8th and 9th realm people are around today?” asked Sa Bina. on one hand it was so hard to get there, on the other, once you reached that level you lived for so long.
“Well, and this is why the nobles are so revered, they are all born with really good spirit roots.” said Sun Li, “they all managed to get at least the 4th realm. The high nobility, like you, have perfect grade spirit roots and can usually reach the 6th realm at the minimum. Most royal families have people in the 7th realm ruling the kingdom. I am sure there are higher realm elders doing their own things in the background. It's why the kingdoms are so stable. When a new generation reaches the 7th realm, the previous generation will abdicate power and then go off to do whatever it is that the higher realm cultivators do.”
“So you are saying that I will reach the 6th realm at the minimum? And I don't understand how spirit roots are classified.” said Sun Li.
“Most living things have spirit roots. It's very rare to see anything living that doesnt have at least some ability to absorb and refine Qi.” elucidated Sun Li. “ We categorise the roots based on how easy it is for the Qi to be absorbed and processed. Basic is less than 5%, standard is up to 5%, Good is up to 20%, Excellent is up to 50%, Pristine is up to 75%, Perfect is up to 99%.”
“There is a theoretical divine grade for 100%, while it is possible, it has never been seen before.” laughed Sun Li. “If you had a divine grade root, you would never need to cultivate or need any resources as your body would perfectly process all Qi and not produce any waste. I guess that's why they called it divine grade.”
“Your root is definitely at perfect grade, and I would say at the higher end of the range. Only the royal families have perfect grade spirit roots, that's how we knew you must be related to one of the royal families.” continued Sun Li. “So yes, you will find it very easy to cultivate when you start, but you will still need to put in the work and need some resources. We can discuss it further when you are at the right age. You still have 3 to 4 years before you can start.”
While the information was great, it made Sabina more confused. If she was really related to one of the royal families, would they come looking for her? Was the spirit root part of the body she had taken over? Or was it part of her soul that had taken over this body? If it was part of the soul, how did she get a perfect spirit root? So many questions and possibilities and no answers. She didn't even have an idea of where to begin.
Sa Bina decided it didn't really matter. She would just enjoy her new life and see where it took her. If issues came up, she would deal with them then. She had a new youthful body, a new world to explore and magic to learn. Most of all she just wanted to have fun.
They two had spent the whole carriage ride talking, and were soon drawing up to the village as dusk approached.