10 The Joys of Youth
A few hours later, when it was close to dinner time, a young Felis showed up at Yun's door. This young girl was wearing a dark colored leather chest armor and sections of leather on her legs in the same color, each covering part of her body but leaving the joints exposed enough to retain full mobility. Yun thought for a few moments and realized she'd seen something similar in her father's things, this must be some form of protective equipment for warriors.
She also noticed the girl's forearms had another piece of leather shaped to cover as much as possible without restricting her. After a few moments of awkward silence, the older girl cleared her throat to get Yun's attention, "Little Yun, I've been sent by Elder Lei to be your Senior Sister and take care of you. You will call me Sister Rong. First lets go to dinner, tomorrow morning we will collect your resources and you will get some time to learn the things your father never taught you, then you will do the things I assign you before dinner and sleep. You will repeat this daily, your schedule is to learn in the morning, and work in the afternoon. You may cultivate when you have free time and resources, but you must complete all tasks from your Senior Sister before you may do anything personal. Understood?"
"Yes Sister Rong."
"Good, then let me take you to get your meal so you may rest well for your first big day."
Soon they arrived at the dining hall, apparently located just below the bar by the smell of it, and were served a basic meal. The food was nutritious, but there was a distinct lack of the feeling that it was delicious, instead you were left feeling full, but not delighted by this fact. After eating dinner, Sister Rong directed her to return to her room and prepare for the next day. They would be up early, and the only meal provided to the students in the Sect was this dinner each day, which was nutritional enough to ensure they had food, but was intentionally left flavorless to discourage sect members from relying on this method to feed themselves.
This was yet another measure the Sect took to encourage competition among the students, causing them to fight for resources so far as even putting their food on the line. The next morning Yun woke early and cultivated, but not having a lot of time to work on it she focused on solidifying her current level instead of trying to break through another gate and failing due to interruptions. Soon enough the time for her to begin her learning began, and time passed quickly as she began to study the world of cultivation knowledge.
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Two months passed very quickly for Yun as she learned all the things that children from higher class families learned at her age. Cultivation levels, basic concepts such as reinforcing the meridians to stabilize your current level before breaking through again, thus ensuring you would have a strong foundation to continue further, and even about the future concepts such as being able to store and use Heavenly Qi to empower the body and weapons, or even manipulate it to create elemental energies that coincide with your talent and body.
Qi Forging, Meridian Opening, Neidan Forging, Body Tempering, Blood Condensation, Tendon Forging, Bone Forging, Marrow Forging, and Qi Imbuing. These were the nine levels of Body Forging that the Lynhär cultivated. Within each of these levels were the nine levels of working towards the next realm, and within each set of nine every three was a qualitative change in power.
Small Success, Large Success, Perfect. These three terms were used to gauge which minor subrealm of power you had entered, while First through Ninth change were used to state exactly what level of each realm you had cultivated to. Within these nine levels of Body Transformation, only the first level, namely Qi Forging, had the potential to be skipped by some people.
Talented individuals could be born with the ability to sense and manipulate Heavenly Qi and would already begin their cultivation attempting to break through to the First Change of Meridian Opening. Yun and Fenglong were both these type of children. The first realm was also the only realm without labeled Changes, and instead you could use those as levels of talent when one finally managed to manipulate Heavenly Qi. Small Success, Large Success, Perfect. Those born with great talent such as Yun were frequently considered to be at Perfect from birth, those who just barely manage to manipulate it after cultivation are typically at the Small Success, and those who can adequately manipulate energies are at Large Success.
The next major milestone for Yun would be stepping into Neidan Forging. In this stage she would begin to condense a seed of Heavenly Qi at the core intersection of her meridians, near her navel, and nourish it until it could store Qi for her to use from within. Once this was accomplished she would be able to use this energy as her own to attack, defend, or nourish the body. The most important factor within Neidan Forging was making sure you nourished that seed well before breaking through to the next stage, otherwise, with a weak base to work from, you wouldn't be able to store enough Qi and would very quickly exhaust your supply. Learning all of this astounded Yun. She had no idea there was so much more to cultivation and energy, but what she learned next blew her mind even more.
The Neidan was also extremely important because it is the core of your elemental powers. When forging the Neidan you had to discover and nurture the elemental energies that you had a natural affinity with. Some families had a hereditary type, like some well known forging families were known to have affinities for metal and fire energies, but these were typically created by some powerful ancestor using his great cultivation to apply a runic power to his bloodline, and if the bloodline was not awakened properly it could eventually perish.
Some families, however, had what seemed like an inexhaustible bloodline affinity with certain elements, as every child would inevitably be tied to the same elements and no runes would ever be present. These families firmly believed that they were the closest bloodlines to the ancestral God Beasts of the Lynhär race and made themselves into self-declared Noble families.
Finally, after learning all of these things, Yun was introduced to the concept of cultivation techniques. These techniques were not particularly helpful within the Meridian Opening realm, but were extremely important when you reached the Neidan Forging realm. If you did not have a cultivation method to help you, there was an extremely good chance the Neidan you formed would be incomparably weak.
A powerful cultivation technique, in the hands of a poor talent, would allow them to be stronger than a great talent with a poor cultivation technique at the same or higher realm. This explained why so many would try to join a sect so early in their path. As Yun learned all of this she also spent every day doing endless menial tasks for Sister Rong, from retrieving a piece of meat for her to eat while cultivating to sweeping the floors, even managing the desk of the rations floor when Sister Rong didn't feel like doing it.
Every day was constant work, but also constant knowledge. As time passed on and she obtained more valuable resources, Yun also managed to advance slowly in her cultivation. She was adept enough at using Heavenly Qi that she could solidify her current level while doing menial tasks for Sister Rong, so she would use her Heavenly Stones to break through the next gate and advance her cultivation. Thankfully, unless you had already reached the Neidan Forging realm, your cultivation level was not easily detected and would require someone to physically check you with their spiritual energy, so Sister Rong had no idea that Yun was growing ever closer to the end of Meridian Opening.
By the time Yun had reached her sixth birthday she was already past the Large Success sixth stage of Meridian Opening, and by the time her seventh birthday approached she was completely ready to begin trying to breaking into Neidan Forging.
