In the distance was the figure of "Ye'er" or more specifically the young boy from earlier whom had touched the azure flame of the "meteor". He was currently running at quite the speed and he himself didn't know how he was.

"Mmmmm, I'm usually tired by this point? Was it that blue fire? Can I become strong like those Immortals!?" To a young boy like him, cultivation was a far fetched dream which perhaps may never be achieved or found, at least until the day before.

The young boy was fantasizing about Immortals as he heard in legends that those that could were able to move mountains and change the sea. In the Mortal World there were three terms about how people were classified as.

They were either Mortals, Pugilist and Cultivators. Mortals were natural born commoners and those who were Pugilist were those who were considered those who had just barely touched the surface of Qi. Those who were Cultivators held an exalted status in the secular world and out of a few thousand Mortals there would usually only be a few cultivators. 

Cultivation started from Spirit Foundation moving on to, Soul Emergence, Enlightenment and Immortalization. On the entire World only the figure would know such information and perhaps as well the one on the throne from before.

To people, like the young boy there only knew cultivators as "Immortals" and didn't know about cultivation such as the Spirit Foundation. He only knew that there were Immortals capable of great feats.

The boy had about then arrived at the house, he currently had a happy expression until he saw the face of his father whom had an imposing presence. 

He had a slightly rugged face and a mean look and was lacking his left arm which he lost in a beast horde. Thankfully it was the left arm and not the right arm, as if it was so the right arm then his power would plummet and his life would become much harder.

He was a Pugilist and had an extremely small amount of Qi within his Dantian. If he had enough Qi it would start to transform in to the base of a statue which was just like some metal on the floor.

Once the statue began than this was the start of Spirit Foundation and at the peak the statue would become fully materialised allowing for incredible physical prowess. Once one attempted to assail the Emerging Soul stage to become an Soul Emergent Cultivator the statue would attempt to become real! 

The Heavens were strange. If one attempted to revive someone who was dead, the heavens would allow it, granted whomever was doing so was strong enough to do the revival process even the though the heavens could easily wipe them out.

But they would never allow for something that was never even alive to become a real and alive being. That's why when someone was attempting to become a Soul Emergent Cultivator they had to face a tribulation. 

They would face the statue itself and if they defeated it with their own power and their own alone, then after that the statue would become real and gain flesh and blood and have the same mind and thoughts of the original person. 

The statue was a second body and could be stored within the main body, but it couldn't be done vice versa.

But regardless it was equivalent to having another body and people could live on as merely the statue itself but that would cut off the road to enlightenment. 

Who failed to defeat the statue and lived would have the statue disappear and never appear as whatever they destroyed would be appear as an illusion. For example if one destroyed the head of their own statue but not anything else then they could make only the head appear and it was the same for other body parts.

Those at Pseudo Soul Emergence wouldn't ever create a physical body with the statue but rather only an illusion and this was the main difference. The difference between an Illusion and Reality was far to big a gap to be passed.

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But if one wished to regain their statue it could only be done with an Heavenly Treasure or restarting cultivation. Restarting cultivation meant a possible loss to everything and was considered worse than being a Pseudo Soul Emergent. 

But Pseudo Soul Emergents always had far more power as even dealing a single wisp of damage such as tearing of the ear of their own statue would make them stronger than most normal peak Spirit Cultivators.

To become an Enlightenment Cultivator was to fuse the statue with the main body becoming one sole body and having the user become countless times more powerful as what was once one became two and became one again.

Within Enlightenment were three other steps and after which was Immortalization which was as the name implied for Immortals. 

But yet again such stages of cultivation were impossible for Zhou Ye for him to reach before. His father had yet to even properly take a step in to cultivation and his mother, suprisingly was actually a cultivator but a weak one at that and even weaker than the father because of her elemental disadvantage. 

Within the Realm of Cultivation there were an array of elements, ranging from the main ones of fire, water, wind and earth there were also other elements such as Spatial, Void and the alike. 

Excluding elements such as Void, Spatial, Time, Yin and Yang and Lightning. All other elements were branches from either fire, water, wind or earth and all elements eventually came from them.

Zhou Ye's own element was Wind and his Father had the element of water as well and his mother had the element of fire, this naturally meant that his father had an elemental weakness, if it was the other way around then his mother would be several times stronger.

As for his mother currently, she was looking at Zhou Ye and hugging him and saying "Ye'er! Where were you?" Zhou Ye looked away before moving his eyes on to his father who was eagerly waiting for Zhou Ye's answer.

"I saw a meteor! I followed it and it landed!" Zhou Ye's answer was quite loud and attracted the ire of his father as he heard a loud shout "You.... Fool! If I...." His father was just about to scold him before seeing the mother saying "It doesn't matter... It's quite dark let's go in!" 

Zhou Ye's mother at this point seemed that she had power over his father and this was because the father wouldn't be bothered to argue as he lost several times in arguments they had together as well as the fact that the mother sometimes may even resort to force against him.

The three were now at a dinner table eating and talking to each other. Zhou Ye's father currently had thoughts on about the "meteor". "A meteor? I don't remember telling him anything about something like that...?"

Zhou Ye's mother was thinking "Humph...He probably told Ye'er about that "meteor" he just wants to pass the blame". Compared to Zhou Ye's father serious thoughts, Zhou Ye's mother didn't really need serious thoughts as there was nothing important going on.

Zhou Ye however was focusing one hundread percent on his meal and didn't even notice the expressions his mother and father had, but was caught by a voice "Ye'er the family competition is soon! I hope your ready for it" This was from his father and was said in quite some sarcasm as if he wanted Zhou Ye to get hurt.

This was true, but this was more of a lesson for Zhou Ye than anything. The family competition was virtually completely safe as killing was banned and so was crippling or even severely damaging your opponent. 

A small family group had to stick together, they were also the smallest of the three leading families of the city and thus the young generation was greatly valued, no matter of whatever branch.

Zhou Ye, hearing the competition was slightly frightened as it was only six months away and those who entered it were usually either powerful Mortals or even pugilist. In fact there was even the family head's son being a great talent and having immense appitudes as well as already stepping in to cultivation. 

The leader of the family clan was a Late Stage Spirit Cultivator or otherwise a Spirit Master. For both the Spirit Foundation and Soul Emergence stage, each early, middle, late or peak was virtually akin to an entire stage.

This was because within any of the four quarters of the cultivation there would be three grades. The difference between each grade meant a difference where one could defeat another and an entire stage meant the difference of effortlessly defeating one a stage lower.

This worked for both Spirit Foundation and Soul Emergence, the other stages worked differently with no early, mid, late or peak and had their own levels. 

As for pseudo it meant a failed attempt to reach a stage and those at half-step were people who managed to become half way inside of a cultivation stage. For example a Half-Step Emergent Soul cultivator meant someone who could despite yet not defeating the statue, still use it for themselves much like how true Soul Emergence cultivators could but by a lesser extent. 

Half-Step was an uncommon but not rare cultivation and was an ideal cultivation to be at before assailing the next stage instead of doing at the peak of their stage which was the minimum. 

Through all this, was located within the Dantian of Zhou Ye, a man on the floor sleeping and dreaming of a past, long ago.