12 Eyes of the shadow

A pot-bellied man walked into the yard as Jin was doing his morning practice and watched him train, unnoticed by Jin due to this focus.

"Phew..." Jin dropped the weights softly onto the ground, he finished up his morning routine for the day and felt he was fractions away from reaching the small success stage in muscle.

"Not bad right?" Luca chuckled as he stood next to the grizzly man.

"You said he was 9? You're raising a monster, Luca." The man spoke.

Jin finally noticed the newcomer and realized his father had been standing beside that man and had been observing him train.

"Jin, get over here and greet Hayes. He's the bow maker I've been telling you about." Luca called out.

"Who ya callin a bow maker? I just know how to make bows, bloody hell." Hayes, the grizzled man, spoke out in annoyance.

"Hello sir, I'm Jin. It is a pleasure to meet you." Jin quickly arrived before them and bowed at the man.

"Heheh... Luca told me you're already past the small success stage of blood and almost there on muscle. Teaching you pretty early I see." Hayes was a big man. Not just in terms of height but in overall size. He almost resembled a giant bear as he was wearing loose fur outfits as well.

"Don't provoke him Jin, though he looks like a beggar, he's much stronger than you think." Luca chortled.

"A beggar? Luca if this was 30 years ago I would've smacked that lip right off your face! Humph!" Hayes spoke out grumpily at the remarks of his friend.

"Sir, if I may ask, are you at qi condensation stage?" Jin asked curiously.

"Qi condensation? Hahahaha! Boy, I've crystallized my qi years ago." Hayes chuckled as he replied. "From the look of your face, it seems Luca didn't explain anything past Qi condensation huh."

"No, he hasn't told me of the steps above Qi condensation." Jin replied honestly.

"...It's information he doesn't need to know yet." Luca said in a low voice.

"Oh come on Luca. It wouldn't hurt him to know. Here, let's talk in the shade. I really dislike the sun you know." Hayes quickly moved into one of the shades as Jin hurriedly followed after him in thirst of the knowledge.

Sigh.

Luca shook his head and reluctantly followed them as well.

He was already starting to regret inviting his talkative friend over.

-----

"Wait so there are 5 large steps on the road to ascension?" Jin asked after attempting to organize what he had just learned.

"Nonono, the fourth step just has two options." Hayes responded as he chugged a bottle of wine he had brought.

"Ahh..." Jin nodded as he continued to organize the information he had gained.

The mortal stage of cultivation had four major steps.

First was the Body Enhancement stage where one would set up the basis for the body to withstand to chaotic energy of the worldly Qi.

Each improvement of the nine smaller steps at this stage would roughly increase one's lifespan by around 5 years. As the average lifespan of this world being 50 if one was to never train their body, one could roughly live up to a hundred years old once they reached the peak of body enhancement.

Once the body has been reinforced enough, they can then start absorbing the Qi which penetrates through the skin, muscles, blood and bones and condenses within the dantian.

This was the Qi condensation step and where the majority of the 'cultivators', people who have gone above the Body Enhancement Stage, stayed at the entirety of their lifetime.

There were 4 stages and a total of 10 steps to the Qi condensation level. Gaseous, Liquid, Solid and Crystallization.

The initial qi would be gathered in a gaseous form. A hazy and translucent gas ball that one could see through was the first step. Then this gas would further condense into a cloudy ball which was the second step and then into a solid ball of gas at the third step.

At this point the cultivator could condense the ball into a singular liquid drop to enter the liquid stage. From the initial size, a drop that was doubled in size was a sign of the second step and doubled that was the third step.

At the solid stage the large drop of liquid will further be condensed into a small, dense and solid ball. Two balls for second and four for the third step.

The final tenth step required taking all four balls and smashing them into one singular crystal and stabilizing it. At this stage something strange would happen as there would be a solid crystal in the center, surrounded by flowing liquid qi that released gases within the dantian.

This was the peak of the Qi condensation step.

Each step at the QI condensation stage would further invigorate the body and grant around 10 to 15 years of life. Adding up to around 200 to 250 years at max.

Once the body and qi were sufficiently enhanced. Hayes told Jin that the next step and the third stage of the mortal stage was Spirit reinforcement.

It only had 3 steps and it was to smash apart and rebuild one's spirit to cleanse its impurities and become a 'higher level being'. The first step out from being a pure mortal.

Each cleansing added around 50 years for a total of around 350 to 400 years at this point.

As for the fourth stage, it had two paths. One could master a major element and their qi and take the Elemental Path or push their body to the limits and take the Demonic Path.

Hayes was currently at the second cleansing and didn't know much about the fourth stage other than telling Jin that there weren't more than a hundred of them at this step on this entire plane and that Luca was one of them.

And this was a tremendous shock to Jin, as well as Luca who didn't expect his friend to give out his secrets so openly, who had always been told that his father was merely a Qi condensation stage cultivator.

"Alright, fine." Luca sighed out. He then waved his arms around before creating a translucent barrier around the three of them. "Might be a bit too late now but better late than never. This will block out the sound. I'll tell you a bit more in detail in regards to the parts Hayes doesn't know."

Hayes chuckled as he sipped on his wine and sat back.

"I'm currently walking the Elemental Path of the wind element. There are 4 stages of success for this step. Outside the small, medium and large success there is another one for this stage called 'Mastery'. I'm currently at the Large success of the Wind Elemental Path. Cultivators at this stage can generally live to around 600 to 1500 years depending on how far they have climbed." Luca explained in annoyance.

"Come on Luca. It's been years, people make mistakes. You should learn to forgive." Hayes spoke out as he chewed on a piece of jerky that came out from his pockets. Did this guy just carry around an endless amount of food?

"Humph." Luca, still visibly annoyed at this friend, spoke out to Jin. "Don't reveal this information to others Jin. There's a reason why I have been hiding it as much as I could, it's because leaking this knowledge could make my future plans more complicated. Hayes knows because he's also a part of this plan along a few others..."

"...Understood. But father... You are essentially at the peak of the mortal stage. You told me that you still aren't strong enough for your voice to be heard. How strong does one need to become in order for their voices to matter?" Jin asked in curiosity.

Theoretically, just judging from power levels, his father stood at the peak of this world.

And if someone like him, did not have the power to voice his opinions than who did?

"...Jin." Luca gazed into Jin's eyes. "What do you know about the guardians?"

"Uhm...I know people call them Gods but I've met one of them and from that exper-"

"You met one of them!? What!?" Hayes freaked out from the side. "How are you aliv-"

"Quiet Hayes. He's talking about Baek. Lady White, whatever." Luca cut him off. "Jin. What if I told you that there was an entire major stage above the mortal stage that one can climb to and that the guardians stand at the apex of that entire major stage?"

"..."

"..."

Luca and Hayes were both at a loss. This was something that even Hayes did not know much about.

Though he knew that the guardians were no longer mortal, he didn't know there was an entire stage above. He had thought that the mastery of an element or one's body was the limitations of a human being.

"The 'ascension' people speak about is just becoming a higher level life form. Once you reach a certain threshold in a certain aspect, this world cannot handle the power and forcibly sends you to a higher dimension. This is what ascension is." Luca explained. "I don't know much other than there are 3 stages after one ascends and that the guardians are at the peak, possibly even higher."

"Wait. That doesn't make sense. How can they stay here then? Didn't you say that the world forcibly sends you to a higher dimension?" Jin asked, still shocked at the sudden news of 'another world.'

"Well the people who ascend can return at any time with a price, but they are prohibited once they ascend by an unspoken rule. The enforcers of this rule are the guardians. Their role is to guard the mortal plane against the ascendants." Luca continued. "There are actually some hidden ascendants outside the guardians on this plane as well but most of them are mainly visiting temporarily or serving a different purpose."

"As for my current situation. Even if I reached mastery of my elemental path, I'm still not sure if I can reach my goals."

"..."

"..."

Silence fell among their group.

"Nevermind that for now, it's my life and my burdens. Come on Hayes, I'll show you the infused wood. Jin, go to the drying shed and get some sheets of leather for the grip." Luca removed the sound barrier around them as he walked off, breaking the silence.

Hayes quickly followed Luca while Jin stood there in silence.

And unnoticed by anyone, a pair of tiger's eyes opened from Jin's shadow for a moment before closing and disappearing again.