As Naath headed out of his house he was slowly adjusting to his new sense of perception. While he was seeing with his eyes still experiencing the world like he had before he also had his soul sense overlapping with it. It was disorienting but also seemed to solidify his sense of reality in a strange way. It was as if all of his senses were being double-checked and every little thing was being scrutinized for possible discrepancies. The term third eye came to Naath’s mind if two eyes gave depth perception, then this was like a third eye giving him a new level of perception. It was dizzying but at the same time made Naath feel more stable. Though it would take some getting used to.
He could sense every blade of grass, insect, and even the way his steps affected the ground under his feet. After a few minutes of walking, he was outside of the large hut where the elders could usually be found. Once he was there he had managed to adjust to the feeling that this new sense gave him. He poked his head inside the elders' hut, where he saw four of the elders currently working on paperwork and lightly chatting with one another. He cleared his throat to get their attention and they all looked up with disgruntled faces. However, once they saw that it was Naath their faces changed to ones of pure joy.
They immediately rushed over to Naath to check on him, after they determined that he was fine and healthy they backed off and asked what he was here for. Naath told them that he was here in order to help them with the various projects that he had recommended for the village. When the elders heard this they hesitated and then told Naath that they would wait for the other elders to be there first. Specifically, they had to wait for elder Huang, after all since Naath chose cultivation then elder Huang was the one responsible for him.
Hearing this Naath let out a breath and asked for some blank paper and a charcoal pencil in order for him to work on at least making some designs and instructions. One of the elders nodded his head and handed a small stack of blank papers over to Naath. He wasn’t worried at all that Naath would just scribble all over them, after all the village taught all of its children how to read, write, and do basic math. Naath sat down and started on writing the information while time slowly passed by. After a few hours, Elder Huang finally arrived at the hut. When he saw Naath he revealed a happy smile and walked over to ask how he was doing.
“Elder Huang, I’m fine, better than before in fact. But Elder Huang, why didn't you tell me that after breaking through I would be able to see everything around me this clearly? It took me a full twenty minutes to adjust to this new sense I seem to have, it took me five just to be able to get out of bed and stand straight.”
Naath knew that it would not be a good idea to publicly advertise that he had the rune inside of his soul sea or that it had in fact opened up his soul sea. Thinking like this he had decided to simply ask the elders why he could sense things like he could in order to make it seem like it had happened when he broke through to the first stage of bone hardening. When the elders heard this all of them, not just Elder Huang paused and looked at Naath differently.
“NAA-... AR…- YU…- You have a new sense? Naath you mustn't joke about this! Quickly how many fingers am I holding up? If you can answer without facing me it will tell us whether or not you have a very special gift.”
Naath didn’t even hesitate and said the number of fingers aloud five times in a row before Elder Huang stopped. He looked at Naath with his eyes nearly sparkling and said.
“Haha, soul mater! Naath your soul sea has opened! Truly a blessing from the heavens! Naath this is a very special gift, only one in every couple million people who cultivate will awaken this precious gift! It is absolutely invaluable, it allows people to work with formations and runes! This means that you can forge mythical weapons, concoct pills with myriad uses, even setting up formations for defense, offense, or just for the sake of convenience. If before I only thought of sending you off to the Raging River sect now I am absolutely certain that I must send you there to learn!
This village is simply unable to hold a genus like yourself within its borders!”
Naath made sure to have the best look of wonder that he could manage in order to make sure the elder thought this was the first time he was learning all of this. He didn’t have to try very hard because, in fact, this was the first time he was hearing most of this. King had failed to mention the uses for this ability, if Naath had known what it was this useful for then he would have just agreed to let King stay without much issue. If King were to know that, he would definitely shake with rage, thankfully though, he is in a very deep sleep.
Once Elder Huang was done talking Naath nodded his head and then asked when they would be setting out for the sect. He did not expect the answer to be “immediately”, he thought that the elders would at least wait until the boat was repaired and use that to bring him to a nearby city. Without the boat, it meant that he would have to travel through the forest to reach the nearest city. Thankfully though, this city was where the Raging River sect was located. Even still it was almost a full year of travel! Naath did a double take and asked the elders if they were sure, so Elder Huang answered him.
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“Naath the journey will be long and maybe even dangerous, however, you need to experience the world a little bit to understand some things. This journey will help you not only learn about survival but also help to sharpen your instincts. I know this seems trivial to the current you, however you are a cultivator now. Conflict is inevitable with other cultivators, if you are ever going to rise up in this world or on any world for that matter you will make both friends and enemies. And with a genus-level talent like yours rising up and making enemies is simply inevitable. The instincts you build on this journey will serve as a foundation of sorts for various things in the future. Also, since it will take you roughly a year of travel to reach the city, I want you to at least be in the third stage of bone hardening when you get there.
With your talent that should be doable, if you can’t, then you haven't been pressured enough. In that case, you wouldn't be ready to join any sect let alone the five bronze star Raging River sect. What's more with that cultivation art of yours, that seems to be able to let you absorb pretty much anything I have two words of advice. The first is, absolutely no matter what do not allow others to see you cultivate. We elders are like your parents we are close family, and thus we do not covet the secrets you have. The rest of the world though would go absolutely mad if they knew how you cultivate and would come after you torturing and killing you for this secret alone. My second piece of advice, meditate on it and comprehend as much as you possibly, humanly can.
I don’t know what it is or how it works but one thing is for certain, your cultivation arts is at least a single-star gold ranked method! I know there are no free meals in this world and that whatever method you seem to know must have some drawbacks I can't tell you what those might be. So you need to understand this cultivation method of yours as deeply as you can, in doing so you will be able to cultivate faster, and who knows maybe even unlock some secret techniques from it as well?”
Naath listened intently to Elder Huang and nodded his head, he had already decided to keep his True Void Arts a secret. Now though it was solidified that he had to be absolutely sure to never expose it to anyone he did not trust with his life at the very least. He also noticed a particular detail in what Elder Huang said and asked.
“Elder Huang, you mention that it's a single-star gold method what is that about? You also mentioned bronze stars for the sect?”
“Ah, right, right. I forgot to explain that, didn't I? Naath everything in this world has a ranking, humans are great and are able to think and understand but not in an overly abstract way. We divide cultivation into realms and levels with specific names, however, how do we divide the myriad techniques in this world? We divide them by a system of star ranking. As far as this old man knows, there are bronze, silver, and gold star rankings, there are probably some beyond that but that's all I know of. Each star ranking is divided into five levels each level being another star. The more stars it has the higher its ranking and the greater the technique.
The difference between even a single star in rating is the difference between night and day. While the difference between material rating is like the difference between heaven and hell. A single star bronze technique for example may be able to create a small trickle of water, enough to fill a bucket after a few minutes. However, a two-star bronze technique would be able to make a small stream of water that’s able to fill the same bucket in seconds. Whereas a single silver star technique would be able to create a raging river capable of making a large lake in minutes. By comparison, a single gold star technique would be able to fill an ocean.
I should also mention that these star ratings are used to define pretty much everything that isn't a cultivation realm. Hmm I think that’s everything, did this old man explain it well enough?”
Naath nodded his head as he digested all of the information, according to what Elder Huang told him then his True Void Arts seemed to be truly astounding. The scariest part was that this was only when he had just scratched the surface of them! After learning about this Naath took and released a deep breath. He looked up to Elder Huang and said.
“Elder Huang, thank you for your advice, this junior will take it to heart and follow these suggestions. I will also live up to elders' expectations for myself, if in a year's time I am not at the third level of bone hardening I will simply return to the village and give up on my dream of cultivation. Junior is very confident in being able to reach the third level of bone hardening. Junior has also just finished all of his designs for the various aspects of the village as well as advice on management. I hope it will help elders to do their work well.”
The elders all nodded their heads and elder Huang handed Naath a ring saying.
“Naath take this, it is a storage ring. I got lucky on one of my trips to a city and accidentally helped an expert cultivator. In return, he gifted me this ring, it has an internal space of ten cubic meters. It has water and food for your journey to the city that we have prepared for you. However, be warned it cannot store living things. Now then, I will give you 24 hours in order to gather all of your belongings and meet me at the edge of the forest by that little tree stump you always seem to meditate on.”
Naath nodded his head and respectfully thanked the elders before leaving the hut. He then proceeded to his own small home and gathered all of his personal belongings together using the storage ring. Elder Huang had shown him how to use it, he just needed to surround whatever he wanted in the ring with his martial power and focus on the ring. To remove things he just had to focus on the ring and his awareness would show him the inside of it, and he had to simply focus to draw it out. After gathering his belonging and looking at the house one last time Naath met Elder Huang at the edge of the forest.
When he got there Elder Huang was waiting for him and even seemed to have a surprise for him. He had in fact uprooted the stump for Naath and was waiting for him to give it as a gift. When Naath asked why, Elder Huang told him that it had a certain sentimental value and it was always good for a cultivator to have an item they had close ties to, to assist cultivation. He also warned that he should not get too attached to it or if it was destroyed it might end up becoming a heart devil and could ruin his future cultivation. Naath smiled and thanked Elder Huang and then bid his farewells and stepped into the forest.