As usual, the new section started with a list of requirements for finishing the previous one. These confirmed what Kevin already expected: He had completed the method and created his Sealed Land.
After that, the real excitement began. The booklet confirmed what Mr. Felton had said; that by finishing it he had been pushed into the first grade of the first section of the Body Cleansing realm.
This breakthrough was caused by the sudden appearance of a Qi devoid space. Like awakening a natural Dantian, it drew free-floating QI in from the rest of the body.
Consumption was the name for the stage he was now in, and as Travis had told him so many months ago, it, and all other stages, had nine grades. He would have to progress through them one by one until he could complete the lesser breakthrough to reach the second stage.
The goal of the Consumption stage was to accumulate Qi in any way possible. Since even traditional cultivation lacked a Qi gathering network until the meridians were opened, this was often achieved by pills, spiritual food, and temporary techniques.
A small amount of cleansing would still take place at each grade, as he’d noticed during his breakthrough, but that was secondary to gathering enough Qi to power the real cleansing stage.
In this goal, Kevin wasn’t without options. He’d already ingested a spiritual fruit courtesy of his old boss, and he could still feel its mass of power sitting within his stomach. Like a secondary kind of digestion, small motes would occasionally break off and float through his body.
While this increased the free-floating Qi within his body, it provided nothing but minor health benefits unless he moved the energy into his Sealed Realm. As his storage center, the replacement for a natural Qi Sea, Qi needed to be stored there to push his grade forward.
This was where the technique presented in the remaining pages of the Sealed Land Cultivation Method came in. As with his first breakthrough, he could pull energy into his sealed land by envisioning it as an empty void.
Qi would be drawn into such a void by natural law, thus transporting the Qi from within his body to where it needed to be. It wouldn’t help to fill his body with more Qi, but it would manage the energy he consumed.
As an interim method, the Spiritual Void technique was only designed to keep him moving until he could find something better. As Dr. Grange had said, it would be best for that new method to come from whatever sect he selected.
Until then, Kevin would have to keep getting access to more Qi, however he could. The booklet described that many styles would open three meridians to gather energy before the second stage, leaving nine to do the cleansing, but this would be useless to him.
Not only were meridians difficult to incorporate into the sealed land, his were all blocked. For now, he would have to rely on things such as spiritual food or pills to keep going.
Given the speed his spiritual fruit was being consumed, this wasn’t an immediate concern. At his best estimate, it would take at least a week just to finish that single fruit.
During that time, he could work on the Spiritual Void technique to draw the energy into his Sealed Land.
With the future planned until he heard from Travis, Kevin settled in to meditate on the new technique. He was long used to mental visualizations by now; a few more weeks of them would be easy.
Focusing on his sealed land, Kevin packed the minute amounts of Qi already there away into his canyons, then focused on the rest of the space being an empty void sucking energy in.
Within moments it responded with incredible ease, motes of Qi being sucked from his body and sent flowing through the void until they pierced the floating dome. Feeling Qi flow was so amazing that Kevin couldn’t even be annoyed at the glacial place it seemed to move at.
For the first time since he’d arrived, he was practicing cultivation that he could actually feel working.
That was more than amazing enough to keep his attention, however long it took.
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Within a few days of practicing the Spiritual Void technique, Kevin got a reply from the OIM agent. Travis indicated that he already had several potential sects picked out and that he would arrive on Friday to discuss them.
That was amazing news, and Kevin had to shake his head as he penned a reply. He should have expected that the man would have been organized long before Kevin was ready.
Not wanting to take too much of his friend’s time, Kevin organized a short celebration for the same afternoon. Even with only a couple of days’ notice, he could organize everyone for just a few hours.
With that organized, he settled in to cultivate for the last few days. While slow, his extended effort paid off and another vomiting episode heralded his progress into the second grade on Thursday night.
While the experience was unpleasant, Kevin couldn’t be happier. Even if he suspected that would be the last rapid progress for a while. Free-floating Qi was getting scarce within his body, and the booklet had warned him about draining it too much.
He needed a certain amount to keep his body functional, and he could do significant damage if he pushed his cultivation too far. That was why finding new ways to get Qi into his body was so important.
On the morning of the big day, Kevin was already waiting at the town’s landing pad long before the agent arrived. Travis hadn’t even been specific about his intended arrival time, he was just that excited to look at sects.
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After a couple of hours, the agent arrived at last, landing on some kind of miniature disk. The idea of such an object was intriguing, but the agent made the item vanish the second he’d gotten off it.
The movement was so fast, that he might not have even noticed if not for the new upgrades to his senses. Once again, the second grade had pushed them a little forward, though it was not even close to the degree his first breakthrough had.
Perhaps that was the difference between breaking through an entire realm and a single grade.
Greeting the agent quickly, Kevin hustled the man back to his apartment. Pausing just long enough to make a couple of drinks, he settled down at the dining table and stared at Travis intently.
“Eager, I see,” Travis laughed, shaking his head.
“You have no idea,” Kevin said, his tone serious in the face of the other man’s humor. “I might have broken through, but I’m already seeing my cultivation slow down. The Sealed Land Method has a technique to move me forward, but it’s going to take a long time without additional support.”
Now that he was moving through real stages of cultivation, he could hardly wait for progress to continue. While still beyond excited, he couldn't help but think about how far behind he was.
And how far it was to his goal.
“I understand wanting to move faster,” Travis responded, gesturing for calm. “But let’s make sure we take it slow and make the right decision here.”
“Got it,” Kevin nodded, taking a deep breath to slow his impatience. “What have you got for me?”
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Pulling a folder from nowhere, Travis extracted four pages and spread them across the table.
“I’ve been looking through the top sects over the last few months, and comparing their entry requirements, culture, and expectations,” the agent began, tapping each page.
Kevin leaned forward, a warm feeling spreading through his chest. The agent had been looking for that long? That was before he’d even finished the second exercise of the Sealed Land technique.
He'd never expected such a level of faith that he would make it.
“During this process,” Travis said, “I’ve had to discard many because of the limitations of your situation.” Holding up a hand, he continued.
“Not to cause offense, but there are a few things that many sects would bulk at. Your age for one, and your complete lack of combat ability for another. And, of course, your end goal.”
Kevin scratched the back of his head, a rueful smile crossing his face. “Yeah, I was worried about those too. But,” he said, cheering up, “From these pages, I’m guessing you found some?”
“Indeed,” the agent nodded, a pleased look on his face. “When you factor in an OIM recommendation letter, I believe these four would look kindly on your application. Each of them also has acceptance examinations or interviews on different days; I removed a couple of lesser options on duplicate dates.”
Kevin nodded, that made a lot of sense. He could apply for two places that would require him to be there on the same day, but he’d have to refuse one if both were accepted. Given the pride of the average cultivator, that wouldn’t be a very smart choice.
That actually brought up a good point. “If I get accepted by the sect I see first, would it be a problem if I wanted to hold out for a later one?” He asked, biting his lip.
Travis blinked, a surprised, but approving, look crossing his face. “Why Kevin, I think you might finally be getting an idea of how the world works. Yes, that would not be a wise decision.”
“If there is a particular one of the four sects here that you would like to join, I recommend skipping the other exams if they come first. That way, you can avoid snubbing any powerful organizations.
“Got it,” Kevin nodded, glancing down at the pages. “So, what do you have for me?”
Travis reached forward, turning the pages around one by one. “All four sects are in the top eighty-one, and a single one of them is in the top thirty-six. That puts them among the best in the country.
Kevin raised an eyebrow at the odd numbers but soon picked up on the meaning. Thirty-six was six times six, eighty-one nine times nine, it was the cultivation numbers again. Would that make the best sects be the top nine at three by three?
“Does the ranking matter that much?” he asked, glancing over the pages.
“Some,” Travis shrugged. “A sect’s ranking is about prestige but also points towards greater income and more talented individuals. Often the higher-ranking sects will provide more for their inner disciples.”
“Which I presume I’d have to work up to anyway?” Kevin asked. At the agent’s answering nod, he continued, “So it’s important to consider, but might not end up being the deciding factor then.”
“I’d guess the higher sects might have more competition as well.”
“That I can’t speak to,” Travis responded a hint of regret in his tone. “The sects keep their inner workings private, and I’ve never been part of one.”
“No matter,” Kevin chuckled, shaking his head. “I can’t very well plan to reach immortality while being afraid of a little competition. It’s something to think about, but I’m hardly going to base my choice on it.”
The conversation fell silent as he focused on the information brochures for each of the sects. The Twelve Talismans, the Twisted Path, the Silent Whispers, and the Thundering Hammers.
Of the four, the Twelve Talismans and the Thundering Hammers pitched themselves as support sects, focusing on creating equipment to sell. When they talked about combat, it was about loading their disciples down with the best gear possible.
The Silent Whispers was a martial sect, focusing on something called Incantations. Travis was able to confirm these were chant-focused techniques that more resembled what Kevin would think of as spells.
Last, the Twisted Path was a complete sect, maintaining both martial and support cultivators. They were also the only one of the four in the top thirty-six sects, perhaps because of their broader scope.
Looking them over left Kevin with something of a conundrum. Did he want to focus on a support sect? It might make it easier to get in with no combat experience and might also allow him to get away without any fighting.
But how much time would he have to focus on crafting pursuits over actual cultivation? It wasn’t like he was skilled in any support disciplines either, so there would be a heavy learning curve.
When he brought the issue up with Travis, the man only shook his head with a laugh. “You’re going to have to be useful somehow, Kevin,” the agent chuckled, “no sect is going to take a cultivator who just wants to sit in their room meditating all day.”
“But you have a valid point about the support sects,” Travis continued, his tone more serious. “Both are less wealthy than the martial sects and put a lot of their focus into producing goods for sale.”
“Their tuition might be lower, but even as an outer sect disciple, you may find they place high demands on your time. It’s not something I can confirm, but it’s certainly a possibility.”
Kevin bit his lip but still nodded along with the agent. There goes his idea of focusing on cultivation while occasionally making something. “Well, I’m not going to pick the pure martial sect,” he snorted.
“So does that leave the Twisted Path then?” he finished, glancing over the last brochure. They were the more powerful sect in any case, and that would imply they had the greatest access to cultivation methods.
Given his need for something to work with the Sealed Land method, that might be extremely important.
“Indeed,” Travis said, a smile crossing his face. “They also have another advantage. The Twisted Path focuses on strange and varied cases. Unlike sects such as the Severing Sword, they don’t have a homogeneous style, but enjoy surprising their opponents with as much variety as possible.”
“Ah,” Kevin nodded, an answering smile growing on his face. “So an outsider with an odd cultivation style would be right up their alley?”
“Correct. They are also second in chronological order with their exams. If you aimed for them, you would only miss out on the Silent Whispers sect.”
“I guess that cinches it,” Kevin grinned, tapping the brochure for the Twisted Path. If he failed to get in, he could always fall back on the two support sects as options.
He’d made his choice, it was time to apply for a sect.