Explaining Cultivation

The black skeleton looked at the woman before it.

In a single night, it had learned all the basics of human language. It was not yet a master but it had learned enough to communicate effectively.

It looked at the human and waited for her to answer it.

The woman looked at the stranger who was covered from head to toe. She had tried all night long to identify the intruder but she could not remember ever meeting someone this tall.

"To begin cultivation, one needs to first go through the Martial Phase. In this phase, one prepares their body to handle the spirit Qi. The body is strengthened and one's speed increases beyond that of someone who had never cultivated. This phase is not a considered part of cultivation and those in this phase are considered martial artists. Only when they can break through from this phase will they be considered to be cultivators? Breaking through from this phase is referred to as 'stepping onto the path of the immortals'. Very few people can break out of the Martial Phase. I do not know the reason for this.

The Martial Phase has nine stages. The first stage is the Spirit Forming stage.

In this stage, one awakens their Spirit. Each person has a Spirit that is tied to the very core of who they are.

The second stage is the Spirit Firming stage. In this stage, one strengthens their Spirit by absorbing as much spirit Qi as possible and using it to condense their Spirit as much as possible. After this, the Spirit can no longer be strengthened.

The third stage is called the Spirit Gathering stage. In this stage, one has to make contact with the three Ethereal Souls and the Seven Corporeal Souls. The three Ethereal souls are Embryonic Radiance, Clear Divinity and Serene Essence. One has to first contact these ethereal souls since they govern consciousness, before contacting the Corporeal souls. If one begins with the corporeal souls which govern the body and form, they risk losing control of their body and physical form. This is because their bodies would become too powerful for their consciousness to control.

The Corporeal souls are the Ba, Ka, Akh, Ren, Sheut, Ib, and Khat.

The person aims to make contact with as many of the ten souls as possible.

For this reason, this stage has nine levels with the first being Embryonic Radiance and the last being Khat.

To break through to the fourth stage requires one to make contact with a minimum of four souls. The three ethereal souls and at least one corporeal soul.

The more souls one can contact, the stronger they are and the higher they can go in their cultivation. An average person can contact five souls. A talented person can contact six souls and those legendary geniuses in the sect can contact seven souls. It is rumored that no one in the world has ever contacted all ten souls. The geniuses from the Rubicon continent are said to be able to contact eight souls.

With a minimum of four souls, one can break through to the fourth stage which of called Spirit Awakening.

In this stage, one has to awaken their Spirit giving them the person limited control over its rotation.

The fifth stage is called Spirit normalization. In this stage, one has to choose a particular rotation for their spirit and make it the new normal. Once this is done, it can never be changed and if one uses a low-level skill, their future cultivation becomes limited and difficult.

The sixth stage is called Spirit Pacification. In this stage, one has to remove any disturbances brought to the Spirit by all the changes.

The seventh stage is called Spirit Focus. In this stage, all one has to do is to focus on their Spirit rotation making all its movements instinct to them.

The eighth stage of called Spirit Shape. In this stage, the spirit takes on a shape of its own. Each person has their shape. This shape is decided by their soul and nothing else.

The ninth stage is called Spirit Name.

In this stage, one has to find out the name of their Spirit. This is the hardest stage.

After all this, one has the chance to break through into the first realm of cultivation which is called the Qi Gathering realm"

The woman explained as best as she could.

The skeleton was in silence. I had not expected the process to be so complicated .

He waited for the woman to continue but she just looked at it with fear.

"This is all we know. Information about the higher levels is strictly controlled by the government and the sects. We normal citizens are not given this information. The only way to get it is by joining a sect or becoming a soldier or a government official ." said the woman. She was covered in sweat and her blue dress was drenched making it stick to her body.

The woman then quickly brought out a small piece of paper and handed it to the skeleton.

"This is the Wind Blade Skill that is freely given out by the wind sect to the people in this area. It can allow one to reach the Qi Gathering realm but that is all," she said.

The skeleton accepted the piece of paper and read through it. This was what it had come for. It is now new that humans used these skills to make complex cultivation a little easier.

The more it read, the more it became engrossed in the content of the skill.

When the husband saw that the skeleton had become distracted, he slowly moved behind the skeleton. He grabbed a frying pan that was on the desk behind. The man knew that he had to do something instead of hoping for mercy from this intruder.

The man was in the fifth stage of the first phase of cultivation (Spirit Normalization).

When the woman saw what her husband was doing, she wanted him to stop immediately. She tried signaling him to calm down but the man had made up his mind.

He realized all his power and swung the pan towards the skeleton's head.

Bang, the frying pan hit its target and the man thought that he had just saved his family. If it were a normal person, this blow would have been enough to knock them out. The skeleton was in no way normal.

It slowly turned around and looked at the human. The two made eye contact.