The realms

Next morning. I was all ready to go to Noncho village. I packed my empress costume and gave it to Guo Ning since I thought it would be better in his hand than mine. In my bag, I carried some spare clothes for the "stay". I simply hope that they don't get in contact with Qiu Si's household.

Anyway, with that Guo Ning and I began our journey towards Noncho. The beginning of the journey was fine, even with neither of us talking. However, as time passed, it became increasingly awkward for me to walk with him. I don't know why, but walking like this with him was extremely weird. I just couldn't think of holding a conversation with him. I guess we're better talkers with our bodies when we fight.

"Umm, Guo Ning. Why don't you head forward from here on and check if the path is clear and stuff?" I basically ordered.

It was hard to keep him around like this, so I had just this choice.

"Ah, yes! I will do that." He looked enthusiastic as he accepted the task.

It seemed as if he was waiting for it as well. The situation was awkward for both of us, it seems. Guo Guiren was the talker among us. And when he's away, we could clearly feel the difference.

So, Guo Ning sped up and disappeared right before my eyes. With my Qi sense, I felt that he was at least five hundred meter away from me, which was good. Because it seemed like there was another guy who was actually itching to have a conversation with me.

"Whew, what an incredibly awkward half an hour! How come both of you are freaking boring in this case?" Goldy sighed.

"Well, the only properly long conversation I held with someone is with a dragon which is basically invisible to everyone. You gotta understand the position that I'm in, my man." I replied.

"Ha… Whatever. Do you have something to talk about? Something that you would like to ask me?" He asked.

"Wait. Weren't you the one itching to talk with me? How come you couldn't prepare a proper topic to talk about when you had over half an hour to think about it?" I asked.

"Well, I'm not the one who creates topics to talk about. I'm the one who has an opinion in everything, whether good or bad." He replied.

"Enter someone else's conversation and basically shite on them, eh?" I asked back.

"Hmm, I didn't mean it like that. However, if that's how you wanna roll, then I mean why not! We could consider it a way to describe me." He replied with a smile.

I clicked my tongue. He was no fun to tease. He basically accepts everything—case on point, his name.

"Ha, something to ask you, huh? Let me think about it." I went on a whole stream of thoughts before getting the perfect question. "Okay, remember how you talked about you being in the ancient realm and the one above you being the God realm? You explained nothing other than that to me. All that I knew was I had to make it to the ancient realm someday. I have no idea about what exists underneath it." I replied.

"Oh, I just didn't tell you because I thought you wouldn't wanna know." Goldy replied.

"Hmm, why wouldn't I wanna know?" I asked.

"Well, a fixed goal is better than a step-by-step goal, right?" He asked back.

"It might be, in your perspective. However, then you'd be missing out on the fun in clearing out the checkpoints in the midst. That's the stuff that keeps people moving, you know?" I replied.

"Hmm, is that so? I guess if you're that kind of person, I'll just talk about the cultivation realm in detail." He took a long breath before starting out his explanation.

"Okay, let's start from the beginning, shall we? So, the beginner realms include the Apprentice stage, where you get initially exposed to cultivation and advanced beginner stage, where you could call yourself a cultivator. We cannot consider these two as actual realms because they aren't, but are treated as such.

After you pass the beginner stage, you'd become something more than a mere mortal, but lesser than an immortal. This realm is called the Master realm. Here, one learns about fortifying their defences with Qi and using Qi in their attacks. The next stage is the Sage realm. Here the meridians of a person opens.

If you're able to surpass the sage realm, you enter the emperor realm. This is the one where most of the current cultivators end their pursuit. It does body fortification. Most of them can't advance because of their Qi levels. It might be too low to jump into the next level.

Anyway, this is where the actual fun starts. Everything you do until now is for this next realm. The Qi core sculpting that you did or the Qi center stuff that others does, everything's meant for this realm. Although you could use some of your family powers in the earlier stages, this realm is where you are officially recognized by the heavens as a credible challenger to the God realm.

It's called the immortal realm. Although you won't technically be immortal, the lifespan in this stage is way more than the emperor realm. The speciality of this stage is bone transformation. Your bones would be stronger than ever and you'll feel invincible.

This stage is just preparing you to receive your new form that's gonna come up in the next stage, which is obviously the Ancient realm. This is where you receive the powers to challenge the Gods and you finally receive the form you are meant to be in.

Then obviously, it is the God realm, the final one. You defeat a God; you transcend into one. It's as simple as that.

These realms might seem too little, but thinking about all the conditions to attain a new realm, even these are too much at some point. Or else, why would people get stuck in the emperor realm? Anyway, there ya go. Is there anything you wanna ask me?" Goldy concluded with a question for me.

I subconsciously gulped. At this point, there was only a single question coursing through my mind. "Which realm am I in?" I asked, fully prepared to hear the harsh truth.

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