The Argument Between Students

Teacher Jun Yao wasn't done yet, though. He was still going strong with his explanation.

He continued his speech, "As you know, the difference between two levels with a bottleneck in between is more than that of a level without any bottleneck in between. The difference between two levels with a bottleneck in between of them is different for every bottleneck. Let's take the example of level 0 to level 0.5. In this case, a person who has turned into a half level just now, can easily beat 3 people who are on the verge of becoming a half level in an instant. This case will be the same for 1 level 1 to 4 half levels, 1 level 6 to 20 level 5 people, 1 level 8 Cultivator to 80 level 7 Cultivators, 1 level 9 to 100 level 8 practitioners, and finally, 10th level Cultivator to 200. This shows how much of a difference there is in just one level of Cultivation. As most of you might be knowing, Soul Cultivators learn Arts, after they have reached the 4th level. These Arts sure make them strong, but at the 4th level, they just learn an Art, at the very basic level, and with that level of an Art, there is not any bottleneck from the 3rd level to the 4th level. Right now, we will be constantly learning about bottlenecks, and other aspects of Cultivation in more depth, as you all are soon going to become Cultivators. By the way, if any of you come from families in which there are a decent amount of Cultivators, and you know their levels, you can enlighten the other students here."

When teacher Bao Tan said this, two hands shot up, one of which was of the rich kid, and the other was of the smug kid. Tao Xue had a lot of Cultivators in his family, but he didn't know anyone's level.

First, the smug kid talked, in a smug manner, with a smug look on his face, (everything about him was smug) "Well, you see, I'm from a very neat background. My family is full of Cultivators, and a lot of them are of high level. If any random commoner from any random, common place came over to our estate, they'd collapse out of pure shock."

"Yea, they'd collapse because they'd get a whiff of you, and you sure smell! Did you take a bath?" Tao Xue interrupted.

The rich kid and the girl burst out into laughter, and even teacher Bao Tan couldn't help his face awkwardly change expressions.

On the other hand, Lei Pan, the smug-looking brat, couldn't stop his face from becoming red from embarrassment and anger, while he was fuming like mad. As he was a smug-looking brat, with a smug attitude, it was obvious that he had been treated like a precious gem, never was he ever made fun of, the result of which was why he got ticked off. He was mad at Tao Xue, abd started glaring at him.

He shouted, "Hey, you! If you have the guts to argue with me, you should first have the strength to fight me. Come, if you dare!"

"Now, now, you poor little mongrel, whatever your name is, you've come here to learn Mind Cultivation, so what's with all that 'let's fight' vibe that you're giving off. Didn't you listen to teacher Bao Tan?" interrupted Kuo Wei, the rich kid.

After hearing the rich kid's reply, Tao Xue had started to form a new opinion of Kuo Wei, which was a little more positive compared to the previous one. He had started to like the sarcastic comments that Kuo Wei gave, and had turned that into a plus-point.

On the other hand, Lei Pan was again fuming, and this time he couldn't tolerate what was going on. It was as if he was a balloon which had been filled with excess air and which was about to pop, just that he was a human which was filled with excess anger, and he was about to go berserk.

Teacher Bao Tan could see things weren't going smooth, and he had to think of something soon, or else this place would turn into a war-zone of mad people. He thought for something to say that would immediately put a stop to this argument, and found out a solution, rather almost immediately.

He said, "We were here to discuss about the ranks of the members in your family, if you belong to a Cultivating family, so please continue with that. If things with such minor importance keep coming up, and they stop the flow of our teaching and learning routine, I would have to throw you people out of the class. I'm saying this to the three of you, not any particular one of you, so all of you better understand this quick."

After hearing these words, the uproar sure ended. The students didn't want to get kicked out of such a prestigious academy, and obviously not at such an early time of when they've remained here. The other two were completely shut by this, as it would hurt their pride if they were thrown out of the academy, but Tao Xue didn't care whatsoever about being thrown out of the academy. He also shut his mouth, as both of the others had done the same, and he had no one left to argue with.

The smug brat, Lei Pan continued, "In my family, the Patriarch is at the middle of the 6th level, as all the Elders have just entered into the 6th level. Other than that, my dad is at the late 5th level, while my mother is at the middle 5th level."

Well, as he said, you might have noticed words like 'middle 5th level', right. Well, levels are divided into 5 sub-divisions of their own, which are as follows. When one has just entered a new level, he or she is at the sub-division 1, which is called by various names, like, "has just stepped into...". When one is yet to reach the middle of the level, and has started Cultivating, and made some progress, it is called the sub-division 2, also known by names, like, "early...". When one is at the middle, comes the sub-division 3, also known by names, like, "middle...". After that, comes the sub-division 4, which is when one is at a state in between of the middle, and the highest point of Cultivation in that level, which is also known by names, like, "late". Finally, comes the sub-division 5, in which the Cultivator is at the highest possible level in that particular level that he or she is in, which is also called by various names, like, "peak".

Tao Xue said, "Well, then, what if someone has a stage that is in the exact middle of any two of these stages? What will it be called if that's the case with a particular Cultivator?"