'Cultivation'

This is what all Cultivators do and an essential part of the struggle for supremacy.

It is essentially the process of taking Qi, that is naturally everywhere in the world, into a dantain that everyone has.

But a dantian can only be used to cultivate when a person reaches 10, as the spirit roots are then developed and the person can then refine and accumulate Qi.

A large majority of commoners have no spiritual roots or trash ones. hence don't have much potential. Whereas people with distinguished cultivation backgrounds have a higher chance of better quality spiritual roots.

Cultivators then refine the Qi and condense it in their dantian so that it accumulates to the point where the dantian and the cultivator's existence is elevated up a level.

Hence this is a breakthrough to a higher cultivation realm and is done by using a Cultivation Technique.

There are many stages which a cultivator needs to breakthrough to get to a higher realm, and these are called minor realms.

Realms (can be called major realms as well) are numerous. The known realms to mostly every cultivator in Divine Sword Empire go from lowest to highest,

Body Refining(9 Minor Realms)

Qi Refining(9 Minor Realms)

Qi Condensation(9 Minor Realms)

Golden Core(3 Minor Realms)

Nascent Soul(9 Minor Realms)

Martial Lord(9 Minor Realms )

Martial King(6 Minor Realms)

Martial Emperor(3 Minor Realms)

And the rumored,

Martial God Realm(??? Minor Realms)

It is said that you can ascend to a higher plane of existence where it is paradise, but these are just speculations.

The person who is publicly recognised to have the highest cultivation in the Divine Sword Empire is the current Emperor's Grandfather. He is said to be somewhere in the Martial Emperor Realm and is the reason why the Empire can dominate around half the world.

The other half is a free area swarmed with multiple different races and species of spirit beasts.

Cultivators also follow a certain path to attain their cultivation and these paths are collectively known as the Dao. There are so many branches of cultivation that it is unquantifiable.

An example of a Dao would be the Sword Dao, which is the most commonly pursued Dao in the Divine Sword Empire.

Although a lot of cultivators follow this Dao, it does by no way mean that other Daos are irrelevant or weak as there are many who use Fists, Poison, Ice, Fire etc and hence follow the correlating Dao.

Cultivators can also follow more than one Dao, but if a cultivator does then usually there will be one they mainly focus on (usually one they are the most talented in).

For example, there are many individuals who also learn the Dao of Alchemy to be able to enhance the effectiveness of Spirit supplements (Spirit herbs) they have by combining and purifying them to make them into a pill.

These pills can various effects depending on how it is made and what materials it is composed of.

The cultivator could then sell the pills for money, which can then be used to purchase costly external resources that can help the cultivator in a variety of ways, E.g. Make up for lacking talents, increase the speed of cultivation, help breakthrough a bottleneck, etc.

Cultivators also have cultivation techniques to refine Qi, and have mystical techniques to apply Qi.

These 2 techniques are vital as they are the basis of a cultivator.

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Without a cultivation technique you won't be able to cultivate (Unless you have a talent which allows you to Absorb, Refine, and Accumulate Qi unconsciously. Yes... such people exist).

And without any Mystical Techniques you won't be able to fight as effectively and utilise Qi as precisely, unless you can make them yourself (Or have innate God-level Battle Instinct which will allow you to fight better and unconsciously allows you to do incredible movements) and hence will get obliterated by someone who does*.

And finally, mastery of Mystical Techniques.

It can vary from technique to technique, but is usually Split into:

Basic, Acquired, Adept, Completion, Minor Mastery, Greater Master, Return to Origin, Exceeded.

This is all the information I have been able to find through the system and my parents.

(Training Court in Elder Du's Living Quarters)

After three months of training. Five Year old Bu Cai was already starting to look more healthy and muscular than previously.

He has been diligently training hard with a solid will which surprised Bu De and Lu Li, as they thought that a child of such an age would be more interested in talking to other children and making friends.

But regardless, they were quite proud and happy that their son was so devoted.

In fact, this was especially surprising to them as usually all Bu Cai would do was laze around and read a bit.

(Bu Cai POV)

Today I finished my training and felt quite satisfied with myself.

Originally it was tiring and painful, but eventually I got accustomed to it and started to enjoy training.

Most days I would do runs, pull ups, etc, with heavy boulders on my back. Every time I got accustomed to the weight, I would increase it.

Alongside my body building, I also practice martial arts.

When I do, my father sometimes spars with me to check my progress and point out mistakes during the fight to help me improve.

It turns out I'm actually quite talented in martial arts and fighting!

Though I am not sure if it was originally because of this body's talent or if it is because of me, either way, I don't dwell on it too much.

Today, father told me to go to him after training and to not overexert myself due to having to meet some 'Important People'.

Speaking of interaction with others.

Due to me urgently wanting to send Long Tian to see yama, and wanting to get rid of the nervousness brought about by it. I hadn't really focused on interacting with people.

And due to previous experiences with friends, I couldn't be bothered to try and be friendly with a bunch of snot nosed brats who are less than half my real age.

However I still learned manners and etiquette due to being taught by some teachers and my parents. Shit was easy so I learned it in a year. And by the age of five I had completely fit in the with Xianxia world's social norms.

When I got back from training, I was instantly told by the maids that they had to wash me for preparation for meeting the 'guests'.

I complied and I got washed and dressed in a fancy robe and shoes, which is my formal attire.

They then lead me to the living room where my mother and father were similarly dressed up in formal attire.

My father had a handsome face with a lean but muscular body with black hair and green eyes. He looked in his early thirties but was actually around 120 years old.

He had clean white robes like mine on and was looking quite fresh if I do say so myself but, of course, he is inferior to me.

My mother was a characteristic Asian beauty with with long silky black hair, black eyes, and fair skin.

She could pass of as a woman in her late twenties, although I know she is not.

She gave of a gentle look with her light green robes which covered her nicely shaped curves.

While on the topic of looks, I must address that although I am To-Be cannon fodder that is to be face slapped.

I am quite cute.

I have fair skin with long silky black hair and well shaped face.

It's almost certain I will grow up to be relatively handsome.

Although in a Xianxia world looks aren't that important as you will usually get more handsome or beautiful as you reach higher realms.

You can also use illusion techniques or face changing techniques to make you more attractive but it must be mentioned that there will still be some disparity between a natural good-looking person and an artificial one.

If you were born very handsome then you will be even more handsome after reaching gold core and someone ugly can become handsome but there will still be a difference.

But needless to say most 'ugly' people here could be considered as 9/10's by my previous world's standards.

Oh the wonders of Qi.

After I arrive, my mother and father look at me with hopeful expressions.

I was confused to say the least.

It should be noted that I had asked the servants about the people I will be meeting, but they kept quiet.

This made me quite curious and also a bit annoyed.

After going outside to head off to our destination, I get to see the ride we will be taking.

A spirit beast that looks like a Pidgeot from Pokemon appears in sight!

Although I had flown a couple times on it, I was still quite excited as it is a very cool experience to fly high above the sky and see parts of the sect below. It gives a sense of freedom.

This Pidgeot looking bird was my father's mount which he used before being able to fly. It is called a wind-gliding sparrow and is one of the faster and rarer species of birds in the sect.

After getting on the Spirit Beast, called Nero, began to fly at a moderate speed we made our way to the destination.

After arriving at a grand estate, which was even more fancy and large than ours, we got off and a servant lead us into the mansion.

Although I began to have a guess at who it may be I kept my hopes up that I was wrong.

Unable to hold my curiosity anymore, I asked my father who was walking next to me,

"Can you now tell me who we are going to meet now?"

He then turns to me with the same ambiguous smile he has had on his face the whole time and says,

"The person who we will be meeting is someone I have known for a long time, and is the father of your future 'friend'"

Hearing this, the bad premonition I have becomes more intense.

Sure enough, when we reached the room where the owners of this estate where, I couldn't help but curse my luck seeing who my prospective 'Friend' is...