The Three-Five Paths
Paneneko held a small funeral for his brother and buried his body. For the next month, everyone went to do their own thing. Lorne trained to familiarize himself with his new body. When Lorne appeared in a new body and left Malkus' body, everyone was shocked. Lorne refused to explain anything to those present. All he was willing to say is he was in the body he should have had from the very beginning.
Lorne finally felt in sync with his new body. His body had the traditional abilities of the Zimwarn warrior, the Five-Clawed Gold Horn Dragon (without the third arm), and the sturdiness of the bodies in the ascended dimension. The drawback to the body was its abilities were weak. Lorne's Ridarn Vision could only see through objects which weren't very dense. His Laser Vision, at maximum, could be used to light a fire. Flying was reduced to hovering, and super strength and durability were reduced to a realm greater than the average cultivator. Lorne, at the Master Student Realm Middle level, had the strength and durability of someone at the Master Realm Middle level. His speed was only three times faster his maximum speed as Malkus.
The way Lorne's strength is being described it sounds like his abilities are much less than when he lived in the lower realm. However, his abilities are actually much greater, it's just that higher realms have higher 'expectations' when it came to how much power it took to be strong. If Lorne entered the lower realm he came from with his current abilities, no one would stand against him, destroying a planet would be like cutting grass.
Lorne was very satisfied with his progress. He was especially excited to have his Wudi Vision once more. The Wudi Vision had an advantage over all of his other abilities. It allowed him to see the flow of energy. This allowed Lorne to quickly improve many fields. Currently, Lorne trained as a formations master. Once he regained his Wudi Vision, he was able to find the flaws in his formation creating techniques. This caused his formations to rise by several levels in strength.
However, just as he did in his old world, Lorne held back from making his formations perfect. He now understood that doing so led to the opening of the Karmic Transference Zone which would theoretically lead to an ascended realm. Lorne now understood what it meant to enter the KT Zone. He believed that unless he was at the pinnacle of power in this universe, he would never survive the ascension process, with or without his Samsara Pod.
Lorne mastered formations for the mortal level. If he wished his formations to grow stronger he would need to become an immortal first. Currently, Lorne was at the Master Student Realm Middle Level. He had a ways to go before he became an immortal. Rising up in levels became harder and harder. Just rising a single sub-level took Lorne thirty years. Even though he wasn't aiming to raise his cultivation level, in the past his cultivation quickly rose up without special focus. He knew reaching the immortal level would take some time. However, since he reached the height of the mortal realm with his supporting career it should be possible to put all of his efforts into raising his cultivation to the Perfect Level in the Master Realm in no more than sixty years. Lorne, however, had other plans.
Once again Master Que, Lorne, Paneneko, Tower, and B'wiri gathered for a meeting at Master Que's. Master Bilvo, Master Perachia, and Master Macey were also in attendance. This time, the meeting was called by Lorne. He had some ideas to share and asked for everyone to come. Paneneko was able to look at Lorne now without feeling anger and hatred. In fact, he felt a certain amount of gratitude. Tower and B'wiri also changed their attitudes about Lorne, especially B'wiri who realized she treated Lorne unfairly in the past.
Lorne began to speak as soon as everyone arrived.
"In the lower realm, I came from I had a Master, Master River. When he trained me and my friends he insisted that we not limit our training. He believed in order to set a firm foundation a person needed to become proficient in what he called the Three-Five Paths.
"The Three-Five Paths are divided into three parent categories and five child categories for each parent category. The three parent categories or 'paths,' are The Path of Trade, the Path of Knowledge, and the Path of the Soul.
Under the Path of Trade are Medicine, Forging, Pills, Music, and Formations. Under the Path of Knowledge are Math, Science, Language, Law, and History. Under the Path of the Soul are Strengthening, Arts, Limitation, Wisdom, and Freedom.
Through the mastery of the Three-Five Paths, Master River, set a foundation for his students which didn't just prepare them for success in the path of cultivation of the lower realm; it prepared the student for success in the upper realms! Master River's teachings of formations in the lower realm prepared me for formations mastery in the upper world. I have already reached formation master under the mortal realm!" Lorne said.
Everyone was startled. Is it possible to reach such a level of mastery at such a young age? Lorne only started learning formations about thirty years ago, but he already mastered it?
"I was able to draw upon the teachings of Master River, and my experiences with cross training in multiple trades. This helped me conquer this trade. However, I'm dissatisfied with just this. I believe Master River set out an appropriate course for me and understood the challenges I would face. Therefore, I think it is appropriate to continue developing my foundation as Master River taught me." Lorne said.
"Why have you invited us here?" Tower asked.
"In honor of the friendship and brotherhood you had for Malkus I would like to work together with all of you to attain what Master River referred to as the level of Master Tradesman. A Master Tradesman is a Master of the trades under the Path of Trade," said Lorne.
"You don't want to do the other two paths?" asked B'wiri.
"It is better to master one path at a time. Once we have master our trades, then we can move onto a new path. We would learn together and to reach the Master Tradesman level we need the support of the masters here and other masters as well," said Lorne.
The three masters looked to Master Que for his decision. Master Que had a small smile on his face as he seemed to think about things. Smiling and nodding for a few more minutes, Master Que returned his attention to those present.
"I'm interested in this idea. I would like to see if Master River's techniques work. The reason we set a minimum of one trade for our students is that if they try more it's almost too difficult to complete. People run out of life force before reaching the Master level. It is risky and very few have reached the realm of Master Tradesmen," said Master Que.
"Oh, so this is actually something that's real?" asked Master Macey.
"Indeed, but it's a legendary status, but what this fellow wants to do is even more ambitious. This Three-Five Paths is something new. I suspect, with the Technology Center that Warbox BS42 has constructed the second Path is attainable, but I'm not sure about the third Path. There's no harm in trying, everyone here is exceedingly gifted. If you aren't able to do it you can always choose to refocus on breaking through.
I will allow all of you to make the attempt but keep in mind this is risky. However, if you are able to set the Three-Five Paths as your foundation, you will all be unstoppable monsters in the future. Over Powered Masters from the Immortal Realm and on. Perhaps, you could one day become invincible!" Master Que said passionately.
Tower and Paneneko conferred with B'wiri about whether they should attempt the Three-Five Paths. B'wiri felt Lorne's progress was enough to demonstrate his claims were possible. She felt if they could complete their foundation according to the Three-Five Paths, like Master Que said, their futures' would be limitless.
Tower and Paneneko agreed to work with Lorne as did Master Que and the other teachers. Master Que was a renowned doctor and he would guide everyone down the path of medicine. They also brought in Master Neville for the path of music.
The music trade might seem out of place, however, its benefits for cultivation, attack, defense, and even healing were well known. Music was a mystical trade that in some ways had abilities similar to the other four trades. It could enchant equipment to make it stronger, sharper, and more durable like forging, it could heal and strengthen the body like medicine, it could create barriers, kill zones, and other features like formations, and it aids in cultivation like pills.
Lorne learned the Music trade under Master River and even created a few instruments from Earth that he was fond of. Since these instruments didn't exist in Master River's experience, Lorne adapted the techniques he learned from Master River to these instruments. His favorite instruments were guitar, fiddle, trombone, and piano.
Lorne named this group of students and teachers the Three-Five Paths Group also called the T/FP Group or just TFP. It was decided that everyone work together to master one trade at a time. Since Lorne mastered formations, it was agreed to begin there. With Lorne and Master Bilvo there were two formation Masters to help everyone move forward. Formations only took the group fifteen years to master under the guidance of Master Bilvo and Lorne. Lorne's Wudi vision was able to spot errors in the formations very quickly. Plus, it was two master aiding three students so the teacher to student ratio was more like one to one and a half.
It was decided to adopt a similar model for the other trades. The master of that trade worked with their student to help with the advancement of the students. Lorne's Wudi Vision aided in the quicker advancement of the skills. Music was the hardest trade to master as Lorne's Wudi Vision wasn't as useful. However, with BS42's help, Lorne created a new hearing technique that was incorporated into his DNA called Super Resonance Hearing. Super Resonance Hearing worked similar to Wudi Vision and aided in speeding up the time it took to master the music trade.
With everyone working together, the T/FP Group finished the trade path in just one hundred years. Even the masters who aided the group benefited from building up an understanding of these other trades. None of them bothered mastering the other trades, although they began to wonder if they should have. Next, it was time to train in the Knowledge Path.