"..."

The old man still couldn't believe what he had witnessed.

Nobody had ever made it pass the first 50 steps!

They merely designed it with 999 steps for the coolness factor!

What sort of monster was this kid? What did he eat growing up?!

Completely unreasonable.

"Are you alright."

Zero asked.

The old man closed his mouth.

"Yes..."

"Let the others finish the willpower test."

An hour later.

"50 people have passed the first two test."

"Now time for the test of combat ability."

"Follow me!"

The man took them to an arena.

"The goal is to be the last man standing."

"The first 25 knocked off will not be joining the sect."

"Begin!"

Somebody charged at Zero and grabbed him.

Zero threw him off the stage.

"Everyone! Target the monster!"

Instead of it being every man for themself.

For some reason.

Everyone was working together to boot off Zero.

But Zero was trained in hand to hand combat.

He ended up being the last man standing in the end of things.

"... congratulations... what is your name boy?"

"Zero #119"

"What sort of name is that?"

"Well... we will be sect mates soon. You can call me Elder Flow."

"Nice to meet you Elder Flow."

Everyone left the the pagoda.

Then Flow led them to a flying artifact in the shape of a ship.

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They traveled for about a day.

The flying artifact stopped at the gate of the sect.

He gave everyone an emblem.

"With this, you'll be able to register. I have to go to other towns to continue recruiting more disciples."

Flow showed them to the logistics department.

He then went and got his contribution points for this batch of disciples.

He made sure to write a note talking about "Zero #119".

He then flew away on his ship and headed to other towns.

Zero filled out the form and turned it in.

He was given a new robe as well as a card that stored his contribution points.

He was also given a key to his dorm room

He was also able to set a pin on the card so others couldn't use it.

There were free lectures everyday one could attend

He made sure to attend them and learn what exactly 'cultivation' is.

He soon learned.

To begin cultivating.

You must first sense the spiritual energy in the surroundings.

Naturally due to his eyes of an original incarnation.

Even though this body didn't have them.

These eyes weren't restricted by common sense.

The eyes themself existed on an entirely different plane of existence.

So he could use them whenever.

He could adjust them and see all forms of energy and waves.

It was overwhelming.

So he limited the information in this body.

But it was already enough to instantly detect spiritual energy.

There are three major steps to the first realm of cultivation.

The first step is engraving.

You must use your dantian to convert the spiritual energy in the environment into Qi you can use.

There are ten points in the body that block the flow of Qi.

You must practice circulating qi through these pathways.

The more you unblock, the more control and less pressure you will have to deal with when casting techniques.

Cultivators in this world are called Saints.

What type of saint you are depends on how far along in cultivation you have come.

You aren't really a saint until you have broken past the engraving period.

Somebody that has 6 points unobstructed.

Would be called a 6th engraving expert.

The next step after you have done all 10 points.

During this time you will still be moving on to the next process.

This is stage is called Ground Breaking.

During this stage you will solidify the spiritual energy and draw runes at the base of your dantian.

After you have added the perception rune to your dantian.

You will gain a new ability.

It is called 'Spiritual Sense'.

Your range is based on a variety of factors, such as cultivation level, aptitude, and soul strength.

The next stage is called Excavation.

All of the dantians have more space inside then what you would think on the surface.

This step involves slowly using your solidified spiritual energy to chip away and mine the crystal like structure. Until there is enough space for a pillar as well as a hole to connect directly to your Engraving network.

The next realm is called Foundation.

It is here where you will use the solidified spiritual power and the chunks of dantian to form a unique structure in the dantian.

A pillar.

This thing will be quite flawed with cracks (since it is made from the broken fragments of your dantian).

But it will absorb spiritual energy from your environment and leak Qi from the cracks in the pillar.

In other words, once you have made it to this level.

You will naturally convert spiritual energy to internal energy.

As for what comes after these stages.

Zero didn't know.

It was a deeply guarded secret.

It is said that those that breakthrough to the foundation stage, will gain an additional 200 years of longevity.

Zero wasn't too interested in 'longevity'.

200 years was nothing in his eyes.

He became an outer sect disciple.

Then a brilliant idea came to his mind.

In the past he had made a killing in money by choosing a simple repetitive task he could do each day for hundreds of years.

Normally such a thing wouldn't be worth the time.

But Zero has all the time in the world.

So he went to the task master.

"I would like a task that is always available."

"Let me check... we have cleaning task, trash task, animal handling, accounting..."

After he ran down a list of task.

Zero choose cleaning.

He became a janitor in the sect essentially.

The pay was 100 contribution points a month.

He made 1200 points a year.

A century went by.

During this time he wasn't merely just cleaning.

He was also cultivating!