"Really?" Amon asked, dumbstruck.
"Yes. This is a reason for becoming strong that I can accept." Lya said seriously. The sun had already set, and silver moonlight illuminate his room through the open window. Amon left a long shadow on the floor. Specs of the silver light started gathering in front of Amon and Lya's beautiful figure materialized in front of him.
"There is a huge difference between wanting to be strong to protect others and being strong to protect yourself." She looked at Amon intently, her blues eyes seemed to glow in the dim room. As she moved around, the light seemed to pass through her, and no shadow could be seen at her feet.
"It is related to the question you made me, right? When you asked me what I would do if the people I wanted to protect died." Amon asked. Lya gave a satisfied smile hearing this. Even though he didn't understand the difference in full, he had some grasp of it.
"The difference is in your motivations being dependent on others." She explained. This was something he needed to understand.
"It is okay to rely on others, but some things we must do for no other but ourselves." Her blue eyes didn't blink as she stared Amon. "Cultivation is one of such things."
"Humans are fickle, Amon. You never know what one might do, because one can ever truly completely understand another human. You might know them for years, decades, or even centuries, and they might still surprise you when you least expect." Her voice trembled a bit as she said that. She looked down and had a wry smile on her face.
"Humans are ever changing, and so are their motivations. And when you don't know what motivations they have, you don't really know what to expect from them, nor can you know how far they are willing to go for such motivations."
"Some humans don't even know themselves, so how would others understand them?"
"As such, the search of strength, longevity and knowledge that is cultivation must be exclusive to one's self. Because you never know what will happen, nor do you know how and when fate will sever the ties you have with others." As she finished speaking, her eyes showed a deep sadness. This is how the world worked and to survive in it, one must understand this. "The only person that will always accompany you while you are alive is yourself. That being the case, you must cultivate for you and you only."
Amon was in deep thought as he heard her words. He might not understand all of what she meant, but he understood the essence of it. He couldn't help but think of his father. He realized he never really knew him. If he did, maybe things wouldn't have turned out the way they did.
"Well, the first thing we must do now is…" Lya clapped her hands, excitement showing in her face. Amon grew expectant. "For you to explain to me how cultivation works."
He almost fell to the ground when he heard that. What the hell?
"What do you mean? Don't you know about cultivation?" He was incredulous.
"I do, but I don't quite understand how you people cultivate nowadays. From what I understand, in this sect you are all Elemental Cultivators?" Lya asked, dead serious.
"Yes, we are. But isn't that the norm? How can you not know about this?" Amon was confused.
"Brat, I've been isolated for hundreds of years. Do you expect me know anything at all related to recent times? From what I know, Elemental Cultivation was supposed to be an alternative path, and quite a weak one at that." She was starting to get annoyed.
"What was cultivated in your time, then?" Amon asked. Lya had implied
"The soul." Lya's answer was simple, but made Amon dumbstruck. He had never heard of Soul Cultivators.
Seeing Amon's confusion, Lya sighed. This was to be expected, given the situation, but a few doubts remained. Wasn't Arthur one of the most powerful Soul Cultivators that ever existed? How could Amon be a part of the sect he founded and not know about Soul Cultivation?
"Looks like we have a lot to explain to each other." Lya said, her brows furrowed, still thinking about what could have happened. "You can go first."
Amon nodded. "Well, I guess I'll explain the realms." He said, stroking his chin and thinking.
"It starts with Qi Gathering. In this realm, we must feel the worldly Qi, manipulate it, and finally absorb it, making it flow through our meridians and gathering it in the dantian." Lya nodded. It seemed that she knew about this too.
"After that is Body Tempering. A normal person wouldn't be able to execute the techniques that use Qi, as it would ruin their bodies. As such, you can consider Body Tempering a preparatory realm."
"In this realm, cultivators systematically hurt themselves and channel specific techniques to heal faster and perfect their bodies in the process. There is a lot of differences in strength in this realm, as the techniques and how much a cultivator is willing to temper his body all affect the final results."
"The consensus is that once a cultivator goes through the first round of tempering he reached the initial stages. His strength will then be measured and when he becomes five times as strong, he will be in middle stages. When he becomes ten times as strong, he will be in the late stages."
"I know of Body Tempering too." Lya said.
"The next realm is the Elemental Purification realm. Each person has elemental affinities, and a Elemental Cultivator must purify the Qi in their bodies to match the element they have highest affinity with. This way, they can quickly execute techniques with their own reserves of Qi, not needing to gather it from the surroundings and extracting the elemental energy they need from it."
"For that, they absorb Qi in special locations where it is naturally aligned with such element, or absorb Qi from special Elemental Crystals to speed up the process. The stages are defined by how full their dantian is with purified Qi. Up until one third is the initial stages. From that to two thirds is middle stages and after that is late stages." Amon said.
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"Then, one must use the elemental Qi to condense their Elemental Cores. The degree to which they managed to purify the Qi and how much their dantian can handle changes the quality and size of the core, so we also have great differences in strength."
"Elemental Cores can automatically purify the gathered Qi and compress it, so a Elemental Core cultivator has a lot more power than any cultivator at Elemental Purification and they can also fight for longer periods of time."
"After that is the Divine Foundation realm, but I know nothing of it." Amon finally finished his explanation, letting out a long breath. Lya had a pensive look on her face.
"Wait, so every cultivator only uses one element?" Lya asked, a strange expression on her face. Amon nodded in response, making her frown.
"There are special cases when one's affinity is high with more than one element. I heard rumors that a very small number of people managed to cultivate more than one at the same time, and that they were quite stronger than usual cultivators, but I never saw one." He answered. Such cases would be extremely rare.
"What about Natural Laws?" Was Lya's next question. Her frown turned greater every time Amon explained something.
"Natural Laws? I think it is related to Divine Foundation, but I'm not sure…" He had heard of it before, but he didn't know anything about it. "What of it?"
Lya gave a long sigh. "Alright, I can kind of get the picture here."
She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking deeply. When she opened then again, her gaze was firm with resolution. "Amon, what I'm about to teach you must never leave these walls. You must never speak of this to anyone, or you might put yourself at risk."
Amon turned serious hearing this. He gave a light nod.
"Let's start from the beginning. What do you know about the soul?" She asked, her eyes unblinking, her face serious, just like a teacher.
"The soul… is us, right?" He said, unsure. "Is where our consciousness resides. It is our soul that goes through the cycle of reincarnation as we die."
"That is mostly correct, but also terribly lacking." Lya nodded hearing his words. She was already expecting this. "What do you know about Qi?"
"Qi is the origin of everything we have here. Is from the Qi that all matter is created and all elements are derived. All of the phenomena in this world is a manifestation of the Qi that permeates it." Amon gave a textbook answer. His face was blank as he recited what he heard from his mother years ago.
"That is a good answer. Now tell me, how can cultivators control Qi?" Lya looked at him, waiting for his answer.
"We expand our divine sense to perceive the Qi. Then we… control it." He said after pondering for a moment. Lya smiled hearing that. The conversation was going the way she wanted.
"Then what is the divine sense?" She asked, still with the same expression, analyzing him as he answered.
"I… I don't know. I never thought of it" He lowered his head, a bit ashamed. This was supposed to be basic, wasn't it?
"Then, allow me to explain to you." The conversation reached the point she wanted.
"Both the soul and the Qi have similar origins. Because of that, they share a deep connection. It is because you have a soul that you can sense Qi. It is not something special in any way. This divine sense is just you perceiving the world through your soul." She looked at him, already expecting the question he would make.
"If that is the case, then why can't all people develop a divine sense? Why isn't everyone a cultivator?" He asked, confused. That didn't make much sense.
"Everyone can be a cultivator. It is just that their souls are weaker than yours. Some people are simply born with stronger souls. They have a head-start of sorts. Even so, everyone strengthen their souls during their life, even if they don't realize it." Her answer was simple. She was still looking at him, trying to see how much he was understanding of what she explained. She slowly opened her hands and the air above her palms seemed to ripple.
"As you develop your soul, you will feel and control Qi more easily. You will be able to understand Qi better, how it transforms, how it changes the world around it. These are the Natural Laws. And if you understand them, you will be able to emulate them." A small flame appeared over one of her hands. Its light overtook the moonlight, painting the room in an orange color. Dark shadows started dancing in the room as the flame flickered.
"If your soul becomes strong enough, you might even be able to look at the Foundations and better comprehend the Natural Laws. This is what we Soul Cultivators do. This is what cultivation should be. Understanding what is around you and ultimately being able to influence everything that you wish. Change it at will. Create or destroy." The flames in her hand grew and started flickering, changing colors. The orange light turned red, then green, and then a blinding white.
"This world is ours, Amon. What you do is entirely up to you. And that is why cultivators are so dangerous. One cultivator alone can completely ruin the balance of the world if he is strong enough." As she said that, the flames suddenly froze in place. They were still shining, but they didn't move, nor did they flicker. It was almost as if they turned solid, frozen in time, making for a bizarre sight.
As Amon looked at them, they suddenly turned gray and started falling apart, like glass shattering. The flames ultimately dispersed in specs of light that floated through the room before disappearing. Amon was impressed. He had never even imagined such phenomena.
Amon was in deep silence after hearing what she said, in daze. Lya's words were too overbearing, too absurd. Yet, he knew them to be true. He had seen the strange flames in her hands and he somehow was sure no Fire Cultivator he heard of could do that.
"Any questions?" She asked, smiling widely, her eyes glowing with a strange light.
"You said the soul and the Qi have similar origins. What did you mean by that?" He finally managed to ask.
"You can say they originated form the same place, although 'place' wouldn't be the right word. I can't go into detail because I myself am not too sure. This has always been one of the great mysteries of this world, and spawned countless studies and theories." She tilted her head, looking up as she formulated the answer.
"What are these Foundations you spoke of?" He asked again, his golden eyes shining with curiosity.
"Do you know the Divine Language?" Lya questioned him instead of answering.
"I know about it." He nodded, a weary expression showing on his face.
He didn't knew the Divine Language, but he had seen it. He remembered the day his father left. The day his father put him inside that golden circle filled with runes of light that connected twisted around each other in strange ways. Divine Language was the basis for any array formation like the one his father used.
The Divine Language channeled the Qi in such an array formation and produced the desired effect. Maybe it did have something to do with the so-called Natural Laws?
"The Divine Language has this name for a reason. They say it is the language of the Creator. The Foundations are nothing more than a higher level of perception that the divine sense can reach."
"The Divine Language is the prose that wrote this world, Amon. When we peer into the Foundations, we can read it, understand it." She had a dreamy expression as she explained. In truth, these words weren't hers. Still, they brought back good memories. "But this is a matter for another day. You are far from the level you need to reach to worry about such things."
Hearing that, Amon couldn't help but sulk a little.
"From all of that, I believe you can understand my point." Lya completely ignored his sulking and continued, still smiling.
"While a Elemental Cultivator might be able to control one element, a Soul Cultivator can control them all as long as he comprehends the Natural Laws. The only advantage Elemental Cultivators ever had over Soul Cultivators is the speed at which they can attack and control the Natural Laws respective to their elements. This is why Elemental Cultivation has always been an alternative and nothing more." Her smile turned into one of derision.
She raised her hands again. The same small flame lit up in her right hand. Then, on her left, the air started swirling, forming a miniscule hurricane. Amon's eyes bulged seeing that. She really could control more than one element.
"With that, I believe the basics are covered. Again, never repeat to anyone what I just told you." Amon nodded repeatedly at her words, assuring her.
Lya smiled. A strange, restrained smile, almost as if she was thinking of a joke only she knew of and she didn't want Amon to know. Her blue eyes had a glint of expectation on them. This smile gave Amon chills.
"Well then, let's get started!"