"What is the reason why humans are the apex creatures on this world?

Is it because our ability to collaborate?

No, there are various types of Ants who can collaborate a million of times more effectively, by relying on Hive Minds, Puppet Path manipulation and other tricks.

So, what is what makes us unique?

Well...That is a very difficult question to answer.

But before we proceed, let me tell you some insights that the acclaimed Mad Taoist described on his book 'The Origin of Civilization.'

The reason why Cultivators have this name, is because we Cultivate, not only our minds or bodies, but also we Cultivate resources.

To grow healthy, a child requires nutritious food, a farmer requires to sow many seedlings and take care of their crops, similarly, Cultivators require an abundant source of resources to sustain themselves.

We are all like massive flames that require more and more fuel to be sustained.

To sustain this progress, civilizations became a necessity, and this is when the first civilizations took place..." An old man described.

He had an olive-green hair, with various silver strands, and white eyes, from where a purple light was flickering.

The tone of this man was patient, warm, but also carried a certain degree of wariness.

The reason why he was so patient, was because they're the grandsons of the patriarch.

As for the reason why he was quite wary and worried, was because they're the sons of Bing Zhang Hung.

It was quite complicated.

Yes, the potential of the two could not be denied, if they inherited just half os their father's potential they could become massive monsters, able to save the Clan.

But they also could be the last straw that broke the camel's back.

That old man sighed, he was carrying a massive burden on his shoulders.

"Even if I do not trust in my own abilities, I will trust on the patriarch's judgement, I cannot fail to meet his expectations."

He glanced at the two for a brief moment, the purple light on his eyes became brighter.

"Let us begin with the least troublesome one..." The old man thought.

He looked at the oldest son.

Who was 13 year old.

The teenager had a black shiny, groomed hair, filled with gel, and was doing his best to look stoic.

Naturally, he could not conceal his expression, his naivety, curiosity, rising excitement and even childish joy.

Those emotions were not faked, Bing Qin Yang was actually very excited.

"Finally!

I have a decent teacher, who is not incompetent, or who screams his lungs out, for every mistake you make."

His father may be a good learner, but not a good teacher to be precise.

Besides, there were other things hindering his progress.

Such as his lack of a Bloodline Ability, worse off, he had a very terrible aptitude for Fire Path.

He was far more suited for Soul or Cognition Path, Paths with his new teacher seemed to excel at.

Of course, there was another reason.

"I do not know how or what happened, but whatever the case may be, 'something' happened, something that allowed me to reincarnate.

And not only that, but it made me better than before.

When I woke up for the first time, I realized that I was brighter, I was able to react faster, think faster, recall things that I did more accurately, had a more vivid imagination, was able to keep many lines of thoughts at once, and was able to resolve things that had troubled me before.

I even got the power to 'feel' my soul.

Eventually I discovered how to control it, even without guidance I learnt how to move it outside my body, to expand my perception.

It was....Wonderful.

Whatever happened, that allowed my resurrection to take place, must have been what made my soul stronger...

I wonder...Can I replicate this process?

If I figure how it happened, I can guarantee my reincarnation, over and over again, allowing me to live forever...

Hehehehe...."

He grinned widely, a smile that was noticed by that old man who coughed softly.

"You seemed to have some insights regarding our subject.

Could you tell me, what do you believe is the essence of Cultivation?"

Bing Qin Yang's eyes flickered, many thoughts went through his head, until finally he decided to say the following.

"Cultivation is the act of defiance.

An act of defying Heaven's will, the act of breaking through your limitations.

Through Cultivation, the person becomes wiser, lives longer, and becomes stronger.

Cultivation is then, the act of self-improvement." His answer was quite short, and very 'inspired.'

Inspired by the various novels he had read on his past life.

Of course, as the old man had never read those books, he did not knew that he was simply parroting what he had read.

And thus, began to form his own conclusions.

Cold sweat reached his forehead.

"Defiance? Breaking through limitations? Unfettered?" The old man gulped, from a brief second, he saw the image of Bing Zhang Hung on that kid's face.

He squinted his eyes very lightly, to calm himself down he thought.

"I cannot judge him too early, maybe those are not even his words, and he's simply repeating what his father told him...

I will probe further, with the other kid later."

Despite he was internally worried, he revealed a very wide smile outside.

He clapped loudly.

"A very extraordinary answer, befitting of the Young master of our Clan.

However, your answer is still a bit lacking, Bing Sheng Wang could you provide us with some more context?"

He turned his gaze towards the other.

The kid had 8 years of age.

Despite his young age, there did not seem to be any of that jovial joy on his face, nor the naive curiosity of a kid on his eyes.

There did not even seem too much of the arrogance befitting someone of his status.

Instead, there was tiredness.

There were very profound eyebags that extended towards his cheeks, that revealed that the young kid had never slept well a single day of his life.

His hair was very unusual too.

It was split in two.

Half of his hair was white, and from it, multiple snowflakes were tangled, forming many strange knots that adorned his hair.

Whilst the other half was red, and from within many sparkles of light surged, constantly fluctuating and producing small flames, that burnt some of his strands of hair.

His eyes were very unusual too.

At the center of his pupils there was another snowflake, and from iris there was a crimson fluctuating light.

On the middle point of his eyes, both forces confronted each other, creating a beautiful shade of pink.

All those things on his face and expression, were actually not that rare.

After all, as Cultivation progresses the body, adapts accordingly changing it's characteristics to best adapt to one's path.

That was not something exclusive to humans, in the cases of wolves for example, as they kept Cultivating, their furs and claws began to change of color.

Fire Path Wolves would acquire a red fur, whilst Ice Path wolves would acquire a completely white pure fur.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

This was a very important quality, as it allowed wolves to find more compatible matings, it also allowed them to organize and distribute the food, Earth Path wolves had priority on eating the liver, or Blood Path wolves had a priority on drinking the blood.

What was really unusual on Bing Sheng Wang's case, was at the age those changes took place, most people did not even had a third of the body modifications his body had already endured.

...

"Of course, excessive growth, excessive change, are not necessarily good..." The old man pondered, as he looked at the youth's skin.

The skin was very pale, and had a very faint blue tone.

With various bulging veins, scratches, bruises, burns, and even some signs of necrosis.

His nostrils released a hot smoke, whilst from his mouth a cold fog came out.

With every movement the kid took, a feeling of pressure and strength could be felt, yet within that strength there was also fragility, and instability.

Like a bright candle burning brightly before extinguishing.

Bing Sheng Wang coughed blood.

...

The old man frowned lightly, feeling a mix of feelings, like pity, fear, and respect.

"Should I say he is blessed or cursed?

His talent in Cultivation is simply unmatched, even surpassing his father, somehow.

Nobody knows why exactly, but since the day of his birth, he seemed to be born with an endless vitality.

A quantity of vitality so high, so incredible, so massive, that his Bloodline Ability is triggered automatically.

That...Is simply amazing, our Bing Clan's Bloodline Ability works by forcefully 'Igniting' our vital force.

On the process, releasing a powerful flame that mixes with our Qi.

On the process of ignition of Vital Force, our bodies become invigorated, our senses become sharper, we heal faster, we become stronger, and through practice, we're able to command our flame for a myriad of techniques.

That is the immediate effect.

Truly, the reason why our Bloodline Ability is powerful is not simply because it make us better on fighting, rather is because it tempers our inner selves.

Temporarily whilst we 'ignite' our Vital energy, our Affinity to Fire Path skyrockets, and it becomes many times more easier to Cultivate related Sutras, every time we trigger our Bloodline Ability.

That is not all, but every time we ignite our Vital Energy, we temper our bodies, that to adapt to our spike on power, change, morph, becoming tougher, and becoming better at circulating Qi.

Through the power of our Bloodline we improve our physique, and we Cultivate faster.

Of course, the effect is not that exaggerated.

The process of burning our Vital Energy cannot be sustained for long periods, if a person overexerts themselves, they will simply fall unconscious, or even die, which is why, we do not use that power daily.

However, the same does not apply to him.

Due to his power, due to his endless amount of vitality, his Bloodline Ability triggers randomly, constantly strengthening his physique.

Making him more suited for Cultivation, through every passing second...

Which on turn, makes his Bloodline Ability more powerful, which in turn makes him more suited for Cultivation, which in turn makes his Bloodline Ability more powerful yet..."

On summary, it could be said that his body was always on it's peak state.

On the most optimal, most powerful form, as if he was training or fighting.

You could imagine this, as if he was constantly injecting himself on steroids, on every single moment of the day.

That made him stronger, but it was not sustainable.

With every passing day, the stress kept accumulating, his body, organs and muscles became progressively worse at resisting the rising amounts of power, producing harm that never heals.

He was also unable to rest or sleep properly, as his body simply did not allow him to, it felt invigorated, too energetic to ever stop.

"Honestly, I do not even know how he is even alive.

Is it because, the Ice and Fire suppress each other, giving him the small possibility of recovery?

Is it because of the drugs his father gives him?

Is it because of some special technique?"

The old man kept observing Bing Sheng Wang attentively, the body of the youth was a wonder, he was like a living anomaly.

Bing Sheng Wang snorted coldly, he crossed his arms.

"Done checkin' me up?

I already know am a freak, don't need your reminder."

The old man gulped.

"No, do not misunderstand me, I am worried about you.

I am your teacher, I want you to become the best version of yourself."

Bing Sheng Wang huffed and rolled his eyes dramatically.

"You do not have to find any excuses.

I know how you all see me, as a freak, a burden, a ticking bomb.

If I was not this powerful, you would have already thrown me with the wolves."

Then he sighed loudly.

"Besides, were you not waiting for your stupid answer?

Then, let me speak."

"Cultivation is very complex, it would take me hours to explain and define it properly, but I do not feel like it.

So, I will keep it brief.

To me, Cultivation is divided in three stages.

Enhancement, Refinement, Perfection.

To explain my theory, I would use sunflowers as an example.

In its first stage, the plant is very basic, it takes energy from the sun, it receives nutrients from the soil and air, and absorbs the lingering Qi around.

Under the process, the plant keeps growing, becoming bigger with every passing day.

That step is defined as enhancement, where it simply becomes stronger by virtue of getting larger, nothing too special.

However, it cannot sustain it's growth forever.

Sooner or later, it will run out of resources to absorb, and a new phase will begin.

On this process, the plant is unable to sustain it's growth, and begins a process of self-cannibalization where it begins to shrink, and whilst it's roots, begin to compete to see which can acquire more resources.

The weakest roots are eliminated, whilst the strongest roots thrive.

With every passing day, the average quality on the root rises, and the plant produces more roots, that get progressively more refined, becoming more and more efficient.

That is Refinement.

However, after enough 'generations' of roots have taken place, a new curious event will happen.

As more roots appear, an emergent event happens.

The roots no longer require water, soil or even sunlight, after so many iterations, the only source of energy they still have is the Qi on their whereabouts.

The plants become so effective at absorbing this Qi, that their bodies begun to experiences troubles at handling it.

And then, the plant is forced to release this excessive Qi in the form of light.

When there is too much coldness, the plant absorbs more Qi to warm itself, when is hot, it releases the Qi to decrease it's temperature.

The light it releases, is absorbed as if it was sunlight by the other plants, which become increasingly more reliant on the sunflower to sustain themselves.

A sunflower, the flower that becomes a sun.

That is 'Perfection.'

On this world, there are a myriad of species, each with their own form of Perfection.

They do so by amplifying their strengths and decreasing their weaknesses.

Of course, that does not meant that they're diverting from their own nature.

An ant is an ant, a tree is a tree, and a human is a human.

Some things, simply never change."

There was a long pause.

"But...

Even though I know this, I still have one dream in my heart.

One day, I want to become Perfect.

I wish to get rid of my flaws, I wish to get rid of my pain." Bing Sheng Wang muttered.

Bing Qin Yang and the old man could not help but look at him with a blank expression on their faces.

"What a great villain monologue, brother!" The older brother could not help but think.

Whilst the old man, felt as if he was having a heart attack.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THOSE TWO?" He screamed internally.

That old man had a long career of acting as a tutor for the future generations, yet on his long life he had rarely meet people with such extravagant dreams like those two.

Even those who had wild ambitions rarely dared to openly state them.

The teacher known as Bing Ren Zhou took a sip of his tea, called 'Carefree Tea.'

This tea had a taste similar to water after taking a mint, but that was only it's most basic effect.

He sweated heavily; from all skin a dark, impure liquid began to come out.

Those drops of liquid condensed, forming a myriad of bubbles of all shapes and colors.

Every of those drops of liquid contained all the negative feelings that he wanted to get rid about, and things like his adrenaline.

Finally, after calming himself down, he nodded slowly.

"Alright...This has been a very interesting class.

Indeed, both of you hold part of the truth.

Yes, Cultivation is the act of improvement, through Cultivation we surpass ourselves, and overcome our weakness.

Of course, there are biological factors which push this to happen.

However, there is even more human ingenuity on the process.

Humans stand at the peak, because at difference from most animals, we do not rely on our instincts to Cultivate.

How?

Well, have you not ever wondered how animals do Cultivate?

Cultivation is very difficult, very complex, it requires an specific mindset, it requires an specific diet.

What a Water Path Cultivator eats and what an Earth Path Cultivator do, are two completely different things.

Cultivation is also risky, as you're constantly messing with the flux of your internal body.

So...Why then, can animals Cultivate?

Is because of instinct.

Within their brains they have wired, the exact required patterns to Cultivate.

Those patterns are helpful, but are also are very limiting.

You may imagine this as the typical Sutra you may find, yes they provide you instructions you must follow, like doing this amount of exercise, for this amount of time.

However, not all bodies are made the same, maybe you can do more, or you can do less, maybe you should use your left hand, instead of your right hand for this step...

Any decent Cultivator knows how to create the modifications on the Sutra they practice to adapt them more accordingly to their own physique.

But most animals lack the intelligence to do so.

They're born wired to perform basic, generic Sutras that are not suited for the specimen on question, only for the species itself.

Another quality that makes them very limited, is that they lack the adaptability to Cultivate all Paths, that the human possess.

Another quality we have is our ability to transfer knowledge from generation to generation, our ancestors teach us techniques, that we Cultivate, and on the process, we improve and modify accordingly.

With every generation our Sutras become better and more diverse, giving us greater power.

The most creative people, even begin to create their own original Sutras.

Sutras with certain extravagant abilities, most of them tend to be quite useless, but a small percentage of them, truly provide an improvement to the level of humanity.

.....

And that leaves us under our current era.

Currently, apart from certain vital services like the military, mercenaries, and other jobs which engage in conflict, Cultivation Base has been increasingly been devaluated.

Being replaced by how diverse and useful the Cultivation Techniques of the Cultivator are.

Why?

Is simple, why would a business use the services of a Mystical Condensation Realm Cultivator, when they can simply teach those same Cultivation Techniques, to a hundred of Qi Gathering Cultivators.

They can acquire more of the same, at a far cheaper price!

And yes, the quality of the product may decrease, but even then, it's still far more convenient.

That is why, unless you're willing to engage in conflict, a higher Cultivation Base alone does not guarantee you a position of power on our current society.

Which is why, those Cultivators with a high Cultivation base, but poor Cultivation Methods, decide to expend many years of research where they try to innovate beyond others, creating marvelous creations that allow them to stand from the crowd.

That is the origin of the 'Signature Techniques' you hear so often.

Signature Techniques that become so renowned and famous, that everyone begins to refer to those Cultivators by those titles, instead of their names.

Of course, that does not meant a higher Cultivation base is useless, the deeper your Cultivation becomes, the easier it is to innovate, as you acquire more means and power.

Having said all of this, on our current Civilization there are many ways to Cultivate.

There are some who do it by using Gu's, others who rely on their swords and fuse their Dao Heart with them, but those are the exception.

On our current era, the current orthodox Cultivation system is the following:

Body Tempering Realm.

Qi Gathering Realm.

Mystical Condensation Realm.

Void Realm.

Qi Sea Realm.

Divine Projection Realm.

I will not explain much about the other five, but let me give you some basic idea of Body Tempering.

Body Tempering is on essence, the act of forging the body to adapt to the future Realms.

To do so, we first train ourselves to become more powerful, and to acquire our quantities of Qi flowing through our blood.

This process is the simplest, as our body has too little Qi, we can raise the quantities with very little side-effects, of course everything has a limit.

If a Fire Cultivator raises too much their amount of Fire Qi, their blood may boil, and they may die of thirst, a Water Cultivator may drown, and so on.

To prevent this, we switch our practice.

We begin to focus on adapting our bodies to acquire the qualities required to store this power, for example, we raise the boiling point of our blood by giving it salt, or find better ways to decrease our heat.

Thirdly, we put on synch our bodies, and stabilize all the relevant properties and characteristics on the right measure.

Or as you said before, Enhancement, Refinement, Perfection.

We do this, three times.

Firstly we do it on our muscles and flesh, as they're the toughest parts of our bodies. (1th to 3th Stage)

Secondly, we do it to all of our bones, tendons, and bone marrow. (4th to 6th Stage.)

Thirdly, we do it on the rest of our body, composed of softer tissue. (7th to 9th Stage)

Having said this, I already have spoken too much.

Our class will have to finish already.

But before you leave, Bing Qin Yang, Bing Sheng Wang I want to give you some homework.

Try to apply, the principles I explained to you on this class to create a variation of a technique you already know.

It does not need to be better necessarily, of course.

Alright, you can go now."