Mortal Step

"Elena," Heian Ciemnosc greeted the blondie with pale skin and nodded. Elena did the same, grabbing his right arm as her eyes showed some surprise at his cultivation base having increased in 2 stages after 2 days of not seeing each other. She nodded back at him, her eyes becoming normal again, she greeted back. "Heian Ciemnosc."

“The Assistant Teacher will arrive in a few minutes. You’re the last one. What job were you doing? Found any mommy of the 60%?” Elena teased the shit out of Heian Ciemnosc without consideration for any manly value. She turned her head to face him, and her glare was like daggers as Heian Ciemnosc looked at her to respond. “Not a mommy, but a pops.”

Elena: ／(=๏ x ๏=)＼

“Just a Teacher. He told me a few things and promised me to help him read aloud some of his books.” Heian Ciemnosc added, fearing his reputation might be harmed. But he still delivered a charming, mighty-handsome smile to daze her a little. Elena shook her head in response and tsked several times before lifting her eyebrows as if she had remembered something.

“That’s right! I spoke to my club, and they said they wouldn’t accept someone because I thought you were good. They were persistent even today in the morning. You have no idea the thrill some leaders can have over denying exceptionally capable and talented individuals. Anyway, after today, when I tell them about your cultivation progress, you’ll see tomorrow who comes to visit you. Also! I’ve received a few resources now. Heh, thank you for your honest words.”

Elena looked happy and nothing like the fighting maniac he saw the other day. Heian Ciemnosc’s turn to shake his head came, and he did so gracefully as Elena patted her thighs and swayed her head in a comfortable rhythm. From the back, she looked adorable, but with the Academy’s rules for the classrooms, Heian Ciemnosc dared not let his Spirit Sense out.

Creak. Just as Heian Ciemnosc was studying the room, the doors were opened. An old-looking fella with a long beard and 2 additional braids streaming down his cheeks, separated from the bear, walked into the classroom to the front where the teacher’s desk was. His hair was long, and both that, and his beard - were dark gray in color. While his face didn’t show many wrinkles, his long eyes spreading from the left to the right made him seem quite old.

He walked to the teacher’s desk as if in a hurry but without hurrying, and when he arrived there, he let out a bunch of books and notebooks of an ordinary size. Then, the aged man looked at the classroom and maintained silence. After some time, he walked before the teacher’s desk and began a speech with a calm but old voice. “It’s an honor as an Assistant Teacher to teach you these first few days.”

“My name is Zi, Assistant Teacher Zi, for everyone here.” After presenting himself, he turned around as a hologram appeared like a chalkboard. He began writing on it with his fingertips, not using an ounce of energy. And as he wrote, he spoke the words he was scribbling onto the hologram. “Mortal Step, the First Step. It has 13 realms, and each is fundamental for the rest of a cultivator’s long path in cultivation.”

“Even though it is seen as that, many Minor Kingdoms just can’t seem to get past this Step. Why?” Assistant Teacher Zi turned to face the students again. Several had their hands up, but he simply blinked his eyes tiredly and commented in a light tone… almost like a breeze about to stop. “Lower your hands. This wasn’t a question for you. If you want merit, win it, deserve it. Not starve for it, down!”

Turning around again, the Assistant Teacher showed excellent skill and control, dragging the hologram screen down and began drawing and writing on it seamlessly. “Minor Kingdoms produce pure energy in a year enough for 2 people to reach the peak of the First Step. Even as it is consumed by billions of cultivators daily. Yet, it is only from a few hundred years to tens of thousands of years that such a person exists.”

“Like everywhere else, there’s no end of conflict in a Minor Kingdom. Too many capable and talented individuals die every millennium, let alone every mortal generation of 60 to 100 years. Many civilians who choose to be civilians instead of living the arduous life that follows cultivation have a great talent for cultivating, or Craftsmaking, that even the Wrath Nihility Academy would rather nurture than just let become civilians from birth to death.”

“Most Minor Kingdoms only have up to 10 peak cultivators at the First Step, and that’s for every First Step generation, which is no more than 50,000 years. So, besides conflict and negligence, what else are the reasons for a Minor Kingdom to produce only ‘so little’ peak cultivators in the Mortal Step?” Assistant Teacher Zi looked at the students again. His fingers had the hologram’s pure energy slowly dissipate as it streaked across the air.

And this time, no student lifted their hands, and the Assistant Teacher had a comfortable paused pent of silence. After a bit, he continued with a slightly excited voice and a throbbing tone. “The first realm, the Spiritual Ligament realm. It gives anyone a time limit of 180 years with a base lifespan to reach the next realm. But this first realm is where everyone understands the fundamental of all cultivation. Your Links.”

The Assistant Teacher then elaborated on the creation, formation, and solidifying of one’s Links as they were created, giving inspiration, if not revelation, to those who were already aware of it all, like Heian Ciemnosc or Elena. Before long, the next realm was initiated. Including descriptions of connecting one’s cultivation path to their Natal Spirit. And the natural increase of 1,000 kg bodily strength.

“The second realm, the Spiritual Condesation realm. The time limit is expanded to 270 years. You also form your Natal Spirit in your mind in this realm and connect your mind to the rest of your body, still not a Psychogenic.” Then, the teacher offered many words for the process to cultivate through this realm and how simply training one’s mind and easing one’s heart was the key to seamless speed and efficiency.

Besides that, he explained the ‘ability’ to increase one’s bodily strength to double with one’s Power Energy and the exhaustion rate that anyone would have on an ordinary basis. Assistant Teacher Zi’s descriptions were very smooth.

“The third realm, the Link Consolidation realm.” The Assistant Teacher showed signs of reminiscence. “To breakthrough into this realm, you finally form your Psychogenic, and unify it with your Dantian; link them together. That is the foundation to keep cultivating. Not having them is the same as walking on a rope with knives sticking out of its body. And barefoot. It is finally in this realm that anyone’s Spirit Sense comes out to the light. Before, it was all no Spirit Sense, and it is understandable. But from hereon, one’s Spirit Sense is given birth.”

“Starting from here, one’s Spirit Sense must grow to its maximum before any breakthrough to the next realm. Or else, you may as well not care about anything beyond the First Step. The Link Consolidation realm’s maximum Spirit Sense range is 1 meter.”

Lightly mentioning the ‘time limit’ increase to 390 years. The Assitant Teacher continued. All this long, there were drawings of a sexless figure on the hologram. Going from an unadorned child’s body with a ‘1,000 kg’ written to the side of its left shoulder to another one with some glow around it saying ‘2,000 kg’ instead. To another one, where their mind and lower abdomen were seemingly connected by a tube, like a tree’s main root attached to the ground.

Its heart was the separation the earth is between the tree’s trunk and the underground where its roots lay.

“Then the fourth realm, the Phrenic realm. All one needs is their Power Energy to grow in power that the breakthrough simply comes, and all you have to do is accept it. If it is not like that, your cultivation base is unstable and your foundation worthless. That’s why you have 500 years to fix it. Its maximum Spirit Sense range is 5 meters.”

Next were 2 figures drawn together. One had their hand lifted and pointing somewhere, as a glow covered that hand, and the space around it became vulnerable. The other one was with the child’s body fully enveloped and with small ‘details’ that elaborated, without telling, the enhanced prowess of the child. The Assistant Teacher used these drawings to explain the almost miraculous use of skills of a cultivator with their Power Energy.

“The fifth realm, the Spiritual Gathering realm. With 800 years as a time limit, it is one of the simplest realms in all that exists and there is. But even then, many fools fail to feed their Natal Spirit. It is a stubbornness not allowed within the Academy, as it means utter stupidity!” Assistant Teacher Zi elaborated on the methods to imbue a weapon, tool, or armor with their Power Energy and how anything, even a blade of grass, with the correct use of Power Energy, could become deadly to even Spirit Birth realm cultivators.

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“Its maximum Spirit Sense range is 10 meters.” Before, Assistant Teacher Zi explained the possible mixture between cultivation methods and the skills one can employ in the Phrenic realm. But within the Spirit Gathering realm, he explained how that is even more fundamental to the possible changes, combinations, and synergies one can have with inanimate objects.

“The dreams of many, the sixth realm, the Conflagrate realm.” The Assistant Teacher looked at the non-cultivators before continuing, “Many think reaching this realm allows them to fly. In truth, the best they can do is float. Fauna are still the only methods to fly for any First Step cultivator. And with a limit of 1,150 years. If one cannot breakthrough into the Obsidiafying realm with such simple cultivation stages, they’ll be the laughing stock of all.”

“You burn and dry up your blood for no reason other than to replace it with a powerful, substantial, pure energy mixture. This increases the storage of Power Energy and increases your survival and the amount of blood within one’s body. Floating is but the least important among the benefits of fusing one’s blood with one’s cultivation path. Its maximum Spirit Sense is 20 meters.”

“Now, the seventh realm, the Obsidiafying realm.” Assistant Teacher Zi drew a child still, but this time with their entire bodies illustrated, showing the beauty of anatomy. And after elaborating on its breaking through method, he commented. “Our time limit is extended like never before, so does the strength of our previous steps and miscalculations. We either grow strong or strong without brains. Do the latter, and you’ll see yourself expelled from the Academy without consideration of your merit and capabilities.”

“Mn, its maximum Spirit Sense range is 50 meters, the largest growth yet.”

“But in the eighth realm, the Ashes Apperception realm,” Assistant Teacher Zi showed another drawing. This time, it was a child with their bones visible as their skin shriveled. Their Linked Psychogenic and Dantian were seemingly filled with something, something that reminded Heian Ciemnosc of the first time he witnessed an ashy ‘aura’ within lots of people when that 10 year old war celebration after the Great Sage’s death occurred in the Sinvonnia Kingdom.

“To breakthrough, you dry every ounce of Power Energy within you. Everything until not even blood is left within your veins, brains, or under your nails to bleed out. You do so until ashes form all over your body and condense them towards your Links. That is where things start changing more than ever.”

“If previously, at the Obsidiafying realm, your Power Energy and body evolved like never before. Then in the Ashes Apperception realm, your mind becomes as solid as the rest of yourself.” Assistant Teacher Zi made a pause before continuing, his tone light but his meaning severe. “Once again. If you made just a little mistake or took something too lightly just once… This breakthrough takes away all you ever had. Dreams, hopes, desire, lust, passion, greed and right or wrongs. It takes your life. You will take your life.”

“... … … …” The students grew silent despite being silent already. Thus, the atmosphere became heavy, and amidst it, only the Assistant Teacher’s voice drilled into it and cleared the air.

“In the Ashes Apperception realm, you may or may not find your Natal Spirit in your Spiritual Bosom. It is there where your Natal Spirit has been living alongside you all this while. And your Natal Spirit is thus converted into a Spiritual Seed with those ashes fully illuminating your body from within. That only those with a deeply advanced soul can see. 3,700 years. More than enough for the most ordinarily talented cultivator to breakthrough into the ninth realm, the Spirit Birth realm. Its maximum Spirit Sense range is 67 meters.”

“It is simple to breakthrough. You have almost 4,000 years to let your Spiritual Seed blossom into your Spirit Image. It will reside within your Spiritual Bosom, where you can see and interact with it as much as you want. It can be anything. An animal, Fauna, your sexy neighbor next door, and even the incarnation of Elemental energy. But it depends on one’s Soul potential whether you can see all of it, for a long time, or even interact with it in the first place.”

“In this realm, one can finally send their Power Energy outside their bodies. No longer needing a tool or Mortal weapon to do so. In this realm, one can borrow a Mortal weapon’s image and send a simple yet powerful attack that, although fast and agile, drains quite a bit of one’s Power Energy reserve. It is easy to kill cultivators below this realm with it. Nothing except an innate pseudo-Art may can save one’s life from it. Mortal weapons will break like bamboo against such.”

“There’s a limit to how far such attacks can go on. And that is 20,000 meters at the 10th stage, peak of the Spirit Birth realm. However, in the first stage, only 1,000 meters can be extended by one’s Power Energy attack. And even at the 10th stage, only 10,000 meters can be reached. With it doubling only when at the very peak of this realm.”

“...” - “...~” Heian Ciemnosc turned to look at Elena at this point, only for her to respond with a trolling face and in a good humor. Ignoring her antics of a spoiled young girl, he kept hearing Assistant Teacher Zi, almost idolatrizing the teach. This was the information he longed for so long, after all.

“5,000 years are enough for a cultivator in this realm to breakthrough to the next realm, but reaching that limit would be too shameful. Its maximum Spirit Sense range is 80 meters.” Assistant Teacher Zi changed the hologram from a drawing of a child flying above the people below and reaping their lives with just the swing of their arms and hands in a knife stance. To the sketch of a child. Whose ashy glow from inside its body spread outwards to surround its body.

“The Ashes Soul realm, the tenth realm.” The Assistant Teacher paused once again before continuing as he looked at the students and spoke directly to them without suspense. “This isn’t where your Soul is formed, not at all. In this one, you are to consume the ashes within you, the same ones that were once part of your Power Energy and have been gloating over the nutrients in your body, the pure energy, Power Energy, now also from your Spirit Image.”

“Nature comands balance. Thus, as you consume them, each 10% is the progression of a new stage to your cultivation base. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking you can consume more than you can hold.”

“At the 10th stage, you will only be a tiny bit from the 100% at 99.99%. The last step means breaking through into the next realm. The eleventh realm, the Crabstyinian realm.” Assistant Teacher Zi simply explained before elaborating a little on the tremendous dominance of Power Energy one would have arrived at this point. “Its maximum Spirit Sense range is 100 meters. A notorious milestone, at last.”

“10,000 years of lifespan at this point, an age civilians think to be immortal, legendary, and timeless. But the next realm doubles that amount.” Assistant Teacher Zi demonstrated a drawing of a child, this time with its body covered by some sort of armor that was linked to their Power Energy. Anyone with incredible manipulation over one’s Power Energy could decipher that much, such as Elena.

“The breakthrough is yet again simple, not as lethal as the Ashes Apperception realm nor changing as the Spirit Birth realm. But it grants what most cultivators lack most - bodily strength and defense. One’s bodily strength is increased naturally to 3,5000 kg, but our Power Energy alone can no longer grant us an enhancement. Only by directly forming an armor around our bodies that will accompany us for life will we double that to 7,000 kg.”

“One’s defense with this armor will depend on the type, solidness and manipulation of one’s Power Energy. But towards anyone below the Crabstynian realm, they are hopeless and futile against this armor unless they dare to violate the Disciplinary Laws, in which case they are doomed as anyone else would be.”

“?” Heian Ciemnosc frowned. He felt as if he almost understood what that meant. But the Assistant Teacher wasn’t babysitting him and didn’t notice, then continued.

“In the Crabstynian realm, one can finally truly fly and even soar into the skies for 50 km. It has a maximum Spirit Sense range of 150 meters.” Without mentioning the apparent and previously mentioned double increase in lifespan, Assistant Teacher Zi talked a bit about the cultivators in this realm’s flight and incredible freeness to move before proceeding to the next realm.

“The twelfth realm, the Spirit Formation realm, is a grand change to the cultivator.”

“In this one, our lifespans increase to 35,000, the largest in this First Step as the 13th realm will too only increase in another 15,000 years.” Assistant Teacher Zi looked out the window and then showed the hologram’s image of a child with their mind seemingly transmitting Power Energy to it as it employed some sort of technique. “Here, one’s Spirit image sends Power Energy into your bodies… Never forget that your Spirit Image, Natal Spirit, and Spiritual Blossom are but yourself and nothing else.”

“Indestructible, never-changing, and everlasting as long as one breathes. Just as it is with one’s cultivation, with nature.” Assistant Teacher Zi’s voice turned somber. The silent students listened more attentively. “The maximum range for one’s PowerEnergy is 100 kilometers, which increases by 8,000 per stage. For 100 kilometers at the 10th stage. And a maximum Spirit Sense range of 200 meters.”

“Lastly, the thirteenth realm and the one where one’s Soul forms…” Assistant Teacher Zi gulped with shining eyes, reminiscing as if it was the event of his entire lifetime. “The Spirit Rebirth realm!”

…