The Path of Cultivation

For the following three days, Yaan rested in bed as suggested by Great Elder Wan. He was brought three cooked meals a day, and also instructed to consume two medicinal pills twice each day, once in the morning and once in the evening. One of these pills was supposed to recover his body, the other to heal his mind. Back in Zong Village, he fell into insanity after absorbing too much Slaughter Aura too quickly, which could leave behind some lasted damage if not treated properly. Fortunately, Great Elder Wan was able to supply Yaan with everything he needed. Thanks to this, Yaan made a full recovery in a few days.

During this time, Yaan was often visited by the servants who brought him the food and medicines, but also by Great Elder Wan himself. The elder would sit beside the bed and explain things to Yaan, regarding both cultivation and the Heavenly Path Sect.

Yaan learned that the elder really did make an official announcement to the sect, stating that he was taking Yaan on as his personal disciple.

Sometimes, the elder would simply stay by his side and silently paint. His skill as an artist was excellent, even Yaan's inexperienced eyes could tell that much. On more than one occasion, Yaan became entranced whilst watching him.

Great Elder Wan painted the scenery of the world outside of this room, he painted Yaan and himself, and sometimes, he just painted abstract thoughts as they flashed through his mind. Whenever he painted, Great Elder Wan's aura seemed to become truly tranquil and at ease.

Yaan still couldn't fully trust this man, nor did he understand his true intentions, but he was now certain that Great Elder Wan would not harm him any time soon. He was trying to have Yaan integrate into the sect, this would be pointless if he intended to kill Yaan in the near future.

The fact that he was teaching Yaan about cultivation further quelled his doubts. By the time he recovered from his injuries, Yaan had learned all about the most important inner workings of the sect. He understood now that the outer sect members were trial members at best and slaves at worst, but the remainder of the sect was extremely united and the true sect members looked after one another.

Great Elder Wan noticed that Yaan felt apprehensive towards cultivation and cultivators in general. After doing some investigation on his background, he quickly discovered that Yaan's entire family were massacred senselessly by an elder of the inner sect. As an experienced old powerhouse, he could easily guess that Yaan was holding onto a deep grudge because of this, warping his perception of the cultivation world.

"Cultivators often view mortal lives as grass, because mortal lives are so fragile and short lived. However, the real reason that cultivators distance themselves from mortals, is because cutting ties to the mortal world is a tried and true method for advancing further in later stages of cultivation. Because of this distance, many cultivators come to disdain mortal life."

Great Elder Wan explained this carefully, trying to portray these ideas in a way that Yaan could understand and accept. He also made himself out to be someone who understood Yaan's misgivings, hence deepening Yaan's trust in him.

Three days was only a short period of time to a cultivator, but it was enough for Yaan to learn the basics. Firstly, he learned about the cultivation realms, or at least the four realms which had been achieved by those within the Heavenly Path Sect.

Qi Gathering Realm, Innate Qi Realm, Qi Temple Realm, Spirit Core Realm. These were the first four cultivation realms for Qi refining cultivators. Like Sect Lord Shin, Great Elder Wan was at the Peak Spirit Core Realm.

The Qi Gathering Realm could be roughly split into initial, early, middle, late and peak stages. However, these were not actual realms, but more like checkmarks that were used to signify one's progression through the realm.

The initial stage meant that a person had just recently entered the realm, whilst the early stage signified the realm foundation settling and solidifying. The middle stage was the midway point, where the cultivator had accumulated one half of the necessary Innate Qi to ascend from their current realm to the next. The late stage was the point of progression three quarters the way through the realm, whilst the peak stage signified that their Innate Qi had reached the maximum level possible for their realm.

Yaan also learned that there were multiple paths of cultivation in this world. Spirit beasts and demonic beasts followed a different system of strength compared to humans, one where they naturally evolved without the use of techniques.

In the beasts' system, each cultivation realm was signified by a numerical rank. Of course this was just something designated by human cultivators. For example, a Rank 1 beast was roughly equal to a Qi Gathering Realm cultivator, whilst a Rank 2 beast was equal to an Innate Qi Realm Cultivator. This was only a correlation between the state of their being though, their actual combat abilities couldn't be measured so simply without fighting one another.

In actual fact, this numerical system assigned to beasts, could actually be considered a 'universal system' which could be applied to all manor of life and all cultivation paths. A Qi Gathering Realm cultivator was also a Rank 1 being, but typically, human cultivators preferred to separate themselves from the mindless beasts by using their own cultivation realm names.

The boundaries between the major realms existed as universal constants, they were barriers that all beings needed to overcome if they sought to improve their strength. Beasts were able to do this naturally, but humans could not, resulting in the creation of cultivation techniques which allowed them to step onto the path of cultivation.

Yaan was already faintly aware of this, but Great Elder Wan confirmed his suspicion that his own path was somewhat unique. Now that his body had developed the fiend foundation, any chance to follow the orthodox cultivation methods was no longer possible.

From what Yaan understood, members of the fiend race were required to cultivate both their bodies and their Qi. This meant that Yaan would be cultivating the Qi refining path, but also the body tempering path!

But cultivating two paths was not simple. To break through each cultivation realm, he would need to push his body and his Innate Qi to the peak of the equivalent realm, then break past the realm boundary with his Innate Qi and his physical body simultaneously.

In terms of body tempering, the fiend bodies were described by the star system. A '1-Star Realm' body was equivalent the Qi Gathering Realm, hence it was a Rank 1 cultivation realm. The 2-Star Realm was equal to the Innate Qi Realm, making it a Rank 2 cultivation realm. The levels of strength also seemed to be roughly similar between the Qi refining and body tempering paths.

Not only this, but it would be impossible for Yaan to ever reach the next realm, the Qi Temple Realm, or the realm after that, the Spirit Core Realm. The demonic races did not form a Qi Temple, but a Qi Palace. They did not form a Spirit Core, but a Demon Core. Great Elder Wan didn't bother to explain any further than this for now. He said that all of this was still too far off for Yaan to worry about.

Since he was just getting started in the cultivation world, it really was a lot to take in and remember. For now, he only really needed to concern himself with the Rank 1 cultivations realms; the Qi Gathering Realm and the 1-Star Realm.

In these three days, Yaan only felt truly uncomfortable at one point.

"Yaan, how exactly did you come to develop the fiend foundation? Do you still possess a hard copy of the Fiend Transformation Technique?"

He knew that he couldn't lie under the elder's piercing gaze or else he would be seen through immediately, this was Yaan's instinctual feeling. In the end, in order to avoid suspicion, he decided to tell the truth, whilst carefully omitting some troublesome details.

"I met a mysterious woman in the dark forest. I was really hungry and had just eaten a baby demonic beast fish, but its energy poisoned my body. The woman forcefully put the technique into my mind, then when I opened my eyes, she was gone."

Great Elder Wan meticulously examined Yaan's expression, body language and other cues to see if he was lying, but decided that this should be the truth. Perhaps he was skimming over some details, but he wouldn't push any further. If that woman, who sounded like a powerful ascetic cultivator, really did disappear, then there was no way for him to gain the technique for himself anyway.

Of course, he would definitely investigate the dark forest later on, but there was no reason to mention this to Yaan.

Yaan didn't actually 'know' the technique itself. This technique was forcefully imprinted into his mind and then circulated through his body, so he did technically 'know' it, but he didn't understand it in any tangible way that would allow him to transmit it to others. All he really knew were the details surrounding the ascension to the Qi Gathering Realm and 1-Star Realm.

Finally, after three days of rest, Yaan had fully recovered. He dressed himself in the robes provided by Great Elder Wan, pausing for a moment in surprise when he felt the unfamiliar smooth feeling of the lavish silk, sliding across his pale skin. The robes were a crimson red in colour with a character which apparently meant 'Wan' on the chest, signifying his status as a personal disciple of Great Elder Wan. These were not the robes of the outer sect or inner sect disciples, but the robes of the core sect disciples.

Core sect disciples were all special in that they were personal disciples of the great elders, or other high ranking elders who resided in the core region at the top of the mountain. Usually, core disciples would possess Innate Qi Realm cultivation at the very least, with some rare cases in the Qi Gathering Realm. Yaan was the only mortal core disciples, but he could be considered an exceptional case. After all, his new 'master' was not only a great elder, but also the vice sect lord, the second strongest member of the sect.

Nobody would argue with Great Elder Wan. If he said that a mortal could enter the core sect, then that was that.

Yaan ignored the stares of the curious core sect disciples as he walked outside for the first time. He felt breathless whilst taking in the beauty of everything. He realised that his world view was simply too narrow, he could never have imagined that scenery so magnificent could exist in this cruel world.

The core sect was situated on the upper three miles of Heavenly Path Mountain. The mountain was nine miles tall in total. It also had a steady incline and stretched out for dozens of miles across the base. It might seem like the lower sect members were privy to more space, but the truth was that the core sect held very few permanent residents.

There were only 12 great elders and 32 elders who lived in the core sect year-round. The number of disciples also added up to no more than 200. Compared to the many hundreds of elders and the tens of thousands of disciples in the inner sect, this really wasn't much at all.

Yaan continued to look around, marvelling at the sights all around him, feeling like this magnificent place had been taken out of a dream. The occasional quaint wooden building could be seen, along with some small temples, sitting beside various thin streams which flowed with clear spring water. Flowers like lotuses and chrysanthemums blossomed throughout the year around these waters, as rare species of colourful birds chirped happily in the blissful ambient atmosphere.

Yaan stood atop a small wooden bridge, looking down at the shimmering downwards flowing stream below. Beyond the exquisitely crafted wooden handrails, he saw brightly coloured koi fish playfully splashing in the waters.

Whilst watching his wondrous expression as he walked beneath the tunnel of cherry blossom trees, Great Elder Wan chuckled with an amused expression.

"I don't suppose you've seen anything like this before?"

"No, nothing even comes close. So this is the top of Heavenly Path Mountain. I had always wondered, but this…there are colours here that I have never even seen before, so how could I possibly have imagined such a thing?"

Yaan's comment actually made the wisened elder pause for a moment in thought. He pondered over Yaan's words and realised that this child had made quite the thought provoking comment without even meaning to. He decided to let it slip, then continued to lead the way whilst observing Yaan secretly.

His past few days spent with Yaan served two purposes. The first was to learn more about Yaan, allowing him to better understand this child and helping him to assimilate the boy into the sect's system, gaining his trust and obedience.

His second objective, was to discover what it was that Yaan desired more than anything else. Every cultivator would arduously cultivate with a clear goal in mind. In most cases, those who only went through the motions mindlessly would never achieve anything. He wanted to confirm that Yaan would be able to cultivate diligently and with sincere motivation.

When he discovered Yaan's burning desire for revenge, the elder felt conflicted. On one hand, killing an elder of the sect was a massive taboo, one that could never be forgiven, no matter the circumstance. On the other hand, however, the desire to obtain revenge against a far superior enemy was certainly a powerful source of motivation.

In the end, he told Yaan that revenge was possible, but could only be achieved safely if he reached the Demon Core Realm. Whilst this was technically true, Yaan would never be able to achieve his revenge after reaching this realm, owing to the great elder's own plans. Despite getting to know Yaan over these past few days, he still planned to refine the boy into a puppet to assist him in his ascension to the Origin Soul Realm.

To reach the Origin Soul Realm, he would gladly sacrifice a single boy.

Of course, Yaan was oblivious to this malicious scheme. A fire ignited within his heart after learning that he might truly have a chance to obtain revenge. The revenge that he dreamt of day and night, The revenge that always felt like just that; a dream. Now, Yaan began to see it as a possibility, something that he could really have the chance to obtain!