Chapter 4: A Lesson

Located at the back of the compound was a large stretch of grass and dirt with a small wooden platform that stood at the center of the plain. On this platform was an elderly woman, with long gray hair held in a bun high on her head, and light blue silk robes with golden lining and the clan insignia imprinted on the back. These robes were the sign of elders of the clan, a symbol of status, and this woman was the elder in charge of teaching the young colts and fillies of the clan. Surrounding the wooden platform were the many young horses of the clan. Most were in engaged in conversations with their peers, though there were also some who simply stood back silently waiting for the lesson to begin.

Arriving near the large group, Weizhe and Weiyang decided to simply linger near the back and observe. Shortly after, Weifan and Weijia limped towards the crowd as well, throwing hostile looks towards Weizhe and fearful looks towards Weiyang before moving further into the crowd. The elderly woman, glancing around and seeing everyone was accounted for, cleared her throat causing them to all go silent and stand at attention, and almost in sync they all took a deep breath before in unison shouting "Junior greets Elder Lihua!"

Satisfied, and with a small smile, Lihua spoke, "Greetings juniors, now before we proceed with the lesson there are some announcements, as there are two events fast approaching. First, in a month's time you all will participate in the Generational Tournament which is of upmost importance as it will decide how we shall allocate cultivation resources for each of you as you reach adulthood and more importantly decide who the main candidates suitable to be nurtured as the next generation's clan chief will be. The tournament will test your cultivation talent, your current cultivation base, and your fighting skills," Pausing for a moment to see if anyone had any questions, and seeing none, Lihua nodded and continued with her announcements.

"The second event is the Ancestral Coming of Age Trial, which is also mandatory and will take place only two weeks after the tournament. Heading out of the mountain range, you all will be placed into a forest where new disciples of a nearby sect will be holding a trial by fire of there own, your main goal will be to survive and, if you can, kill any humans you come across. Remember, we are beasts and as such we abide by the law of the jungle, the strong shall be washed in the blood of the weak and only those who survive are deemed adults of the clan. I hope that when the time comes you all will be ready." Soon a morbid silence filled the air, and some of the young horses began to fidget under the tense atmosphere. Sighing, Lihua broke the silence.

"This matter is better left for the future, all that is left for you all to do is to prepare. The rest of the month will be left for training, and once you all return you will be adults and assigned a job, as such this will be your final lecture. For this final lesson we will review the meaning of cultivation, and then I will introduce human cultivation to you all. First, would anyone like to volunteer to define what it means to cultivate?" Almost immediately a haughty male voice spoke from within the crowd, "That's simple, cultivation is the absorption of spiritual energy to increase one's strength!" The young colt which replied slightly tilted his head upward, feeling proud of himself, though soon after a feminine voice in the crowd sounded out to rebuke him, "That's spiritual cultivation, cultivation itself is simply the absorption of the energies of the world and the comprehension of the Dao." Hearing this the young male who had previously replied quickly put his head down in embarrassment, having recognized his mistake.

"There is no need to feel embarrassed, perhaps your answer was wrong but you were courageous enough to provide one, something many of your fellow peers failed to do, this is something to feel proud of." The young colt, hearing Lihua's praise, lifted his head once again, resulting in a satisfactory nod from Lihua before she continued.

"Cultivation itself is indeed simply absorbing the world's energy and understanding the Dao. As I've taught you before, cultivation begins with the meridian system in all living things, which is composed of channels that absorb energy through the pores in your body and move this energy into the dantians. The dantians are the foundation of cultivation, with all living beings having three dantians. The upper dantian is located in the head. It houses the spiritual sense which we can send out to scan the world around us and see things our eyes might not. There are no cultivation methods to increase one's spiritual sense; rather, it naturally increases alongside the cultivation of the other two dantians. The middle dantian is located at the heart, this is where Vital Qi, also known as life energy, is stored. The middle dantian is the focus of body cultivation, and also the reason behind why despite the incredible healing and regenerative abilities of some cultivators a blow to the heart is still fatal. Finally there is the lower dantian, located at the lower abdomen, or the navel region, and this is where Qi, or spiritual energy, is stored. The lower dantian is the focus of spiritual cultivation of which a vast majority of cultivators practice. Our lesson on human cultivation will focus on the lower dantian, and thereby spiritual cultivation; however, I would like to ask if there are any questions. Knowing the meaning of cultivation is imperative for all cultivators." Taking a break in the lecture, Lihua took her time to answer any questions brought up by the slower demon beasts, also prividing time for others to review the information. While they had already been taught the basics of cultivation before, they were, after all, still young and thus they often got sidetracked during lectures as a result of small attention spans. This was only made worse by the fact that they were demon beasts and thus couldn't comprehend things as easily as humans could.

Eventually all their questions were answered allowing for Lihua to continue her lecture.

"Unlike demon beasts, humans are not born able to cultivate. Where demon beasts naturally absorb spiritual energy as they breath and have incredibly tough fleshly bodies, humans must use Cultivation Methods to make their meridians absorb spiritual energy and rely on gruesome external factors, such as self mutilation, to strengthen their fleshly bodies." She directed her gaze to the very back, looking straight at Weizhe for a moment, before continuing.

"Furthermore, while demon beasts typically have no bottlenecks in their cultivation, humans will often encounter barriers which will limit them, sometimes resulting in those with lesser talent to be stuck forever. The heavens, however, are not unfair, and granted humans some advantages that demon beasts don't have. The cultivation of humans is split into stages, though I'll only introduce you to the first three stages, which are: the Qi Refining stage, the Foundation Establishment stage, and the Core Formation Stage. These stages are split into nine smaller layers, with the first layer being the lowest in a stage and the ninth being the highest. This way of judging cultivation is vastly different from the method used to judge demon beast cultivation, as we are split into ranks which are further split into three tiers, with each rank aligning with a stage of human cultivation and each tier being representative of an increment of three layers. As an example, we as Murky Whip Horses are a Mid Rank Three Beast with rank three meaning our cultivation can go up to the equivalent of Core Formation and the mid being short for middle tier, which means up to the sixth layer within Core Formation. The reason behind these systems relate back to the advantages humans are granted. Humans can, in theory, infinitely increase their cultivation despite the many barriers that they face but demon beasts are born with an evolutionary limit. As Rank Three beasts we can never go beyond a Core formation cultivation, thus we must find methods to evolve and increase our rank before we can increase our cultivation further, this limit in our potential is also often how we are labeled. Currently your strengths may only match a Rank One beast but to humans you will still be referred to as Rank Three beasts because, with enough time, that is where the limits of your potential will take you. Of course, there are ways to break past this limit but it is irrelevant to the current lesson. The lesson which I want for you all to take from here is this: if you ever form any enmity with a human you must strike like lightning. If you are careless you might just make an enemy who will inevitably surpass you." Ending it there, Lihua once again waited to see if there were any questions, though seeing many who were still absorbed in thought from the massive influx of information, she dismissed them.

Saying her farewells, Weiyang left Weizhe to go contemplate and analyze the information from the lecture, and so Weizhe alone walked home. By the time Weizhe got home the sun had set, the moon already hovering just above the horizon. Walking into the hut and lying down in a corner where a pile of grass was he fell asleep.