Master is Reliable After All (II)

The Spirit Initiate Realm was fundamentally different from the previous two realms. It represented the first real step towards a greater power while utilizing the mysterious concept of the spirit. What was the spirit? Was it merely the existence of the middle dantian, the spiritual sea, which was created as one broke through? What was spiritual energy and how did it exist?

Why spiritual energy existed was still a deep mystery and even the strongest immortals in the world didn't know. However, they all understood the simple fact that every single element, every being, everything physical and ethereal, all contained spiritual energy. In its natural state, it is invisible and undetectable. Reaching the peak of the Mind Focusing Realm meant a person had met the requirements to start unlocking the spiritual energy that was naturally within themselves.

The spiritual sea within a person was there from birth, slowly spinning and growing slightly larger as they aged. It was a magical gift from the all mighty gods and it is what allowed people to cultivate their body and mind in the first place.

Once unlocked, a person could use the spiritual energy from their spiritual sea. However, this took training and a lot of practice. The spiritual sea could also be used to absorb spiritual energy from the environment and other sources. This was the reason why elemental arts were popular such as the Eternal Winter Sutra and the Blazing Sun Art. Its practitioners could pull ice or flame spiritual energy into their spiritual sea and then expel them through special martial arts as powerful attacks.

There were also arts that compressed spiritual energy to explode like bombs or sharpened them into blades that could cut through steel. These arts were less flashy and colorful than elemental arts but no less difficult to train and often times much more deadly.

While spiritual energy could be used for martial arts, there were more direct uses of spiritual energy that involved enhancing a person's own body and mind with special properties. The Beast God Sanctum's various beast transformation arts involved injecting spiritual energy into their muscles, organs, and bones. On the other hand, Immortal Gentle Lotus Gong Liyun's illusion arts dealt with affecting the mind through spiritual energy.

There were also other aspects not related to combat that used spiritual energy including inscription, crafting, smithing, alchemy, and many more. Spiritual energy was truly the key to unlocking the myriad world and the possibilities were endless.

Cultivation within the Spirit Initiate Realm simply involved increasing the spiritual sea through absorbing spiritual energy. This is why spiritual crystals were priceless as they gave a constant and easy source of spiritual energy. Once the spiritual sea increased by a certain amount, it would result in a breakthrough. The individual levels within the Realm were straightforward but they required massive amounts of spiritual energy. For those without resources, gathering spiritual energy was a slow and arduous process that could last most of their life.

"But, levels and the size of the spiritual sea aren't everything in this realm." Chen Wentian warned, "A person can have a high cultivation level and yet be trash in actual combat."

Chen Wentian described several key aspects of spiritual energy that required training within the Spirit Initiate Realm to increase a person's mastery over their spiritual sea. The first was spiritual sense, or the ability to sense sources of spiritual energy large or small around them. Spiritual sense could be developed to sense far distances and sense minute details. It also played a part during battles to sense enemies, their attacks, and the surroundings.

The second was spiritual control. This dealt with a person's ability to manipulate spiritual energy within and around them. Strong control meant faster, more accurate, and sharper attacks. It could also be used to control their own body and mind, enhancing their capabilities. For natural energy within the environment, mastery of control allowed one to absorb it faster and speed up their cultivation.

The third and last aspect was spiritual strength. It dealt with the fundamental quality of one's spiritual energy when directly clashing against another spiritual energy. This manifested in the spiritual aura around a person that could suppress others or be suppressed in return. Spiritual strength had to be trained step by step and there were no shortcuts. In fact, increasing one's cultivation level too quickly only meant more difficulty raising their spiritual strength later on.

"The energy within a spiritual crystal is abundant but it does not have any qualities and provide very little growth in spiritual strength. Thus, a few red spiritual crystals are actually not that important for your cultivation right now." Chen Wentian said. "However, there is an important caveat to this rule. Spiritual energy from more powerful and dangerous sources on the other hand would be able to train spiritual strength. This is also true for spiritual energy gathered through powerful cultivation arts as it is designed to train their spirit as well as increase their cultivation."

This was why he didn't let Zhou Ziyun increase her cultivation in the Spirit Initiate Realm quickly, while the other disciples could. Lin Qingcheng's special physique broke all the rules so he wasn't worried about her. Wu Qianyu also had some sort of special ability related to pain. Meanwhile, Li Yuechan and her sisters cultivated with netherworld yin energy and blue dragon flame, which were both vastly superior to spiritual crystals.

Zhou Ziyun opened her eyes after absorbing the information. It was very thorough and much better than the books about the Spirit Initiate Realm she had read before.

"I guess you can be reliable after all." Zhou Ziyun said flatly.

"Hey! Who said I wasn't..." He then saw she was teasing and huffed in response.

"Anyway, what's next then?" She asked.

Chen Wentian rubbed his head and thought about it before answering. "Er... continue practicing the Nineteen Demon Subduing Palms. It has a spiritual component to it that can train all three aspects. But that is not all as spiritual sense and spiritual control can be trained even when you are not cultivating. You can train it while walking, talking, and doing normal things. Spiritual strength is best trained through some sort of cultivation art. I'm not sure on that yet so I will have to look around."

"What art does Chengcheng use?" Zhou Ziyun asked.

"I've tested it with her, her special constitution takes care of cultivating spiritual strength surprisingly well." Chen Wentian chuckled as he recalled the 'tests' that were wonderfully naughty.

Zhou Ziyun frowned. "Hey! Why don't you teach me your secret cultivation art? You mentioned it had something to do with the soul."

"Oh, umm... well..." Chen Wentian was caught off guard. "..."

He was pretty sure he should say no. Yet her amazing comprehension ability gave him an interesting thought and there was a minute possibility. However, the secret art had a very strict barrier to entry and high possibly of failure. He thought about it in silence, which Zhou Ziyun took as refusal.

He looked up to see she had left to get some air. He followed and found her on the balcony.

"Hey." He said lamely.

"Hey..." She replied, continuing to look towards the city below.

"Ziyun, it's not that I don't want to teach you my secret art. It really isn't." He saw that she didn't look convinced so he delved into a bit his past, "It's really dangerous and you could lose your soul and go crazy if anything goes wrong. It requires a heaven defying amount of luck... and the desperation of facing certain death. Also, to even begin cultivating the art, we will have to find an extremely, extremely rare item..."

"Look, all I am saying is, you have so many other options available. I'll find you a perfect cultivation art. I promise."

Zhou Ziyun looked up at him and smiled, "You're quite reliable, after all."

She wasn't really sad or angry at his initial refusal. It was expected and she was still a novice with spiritual energy, there was plenty of time. She also appreciated him finally opening up a little about his past so she leaned over and rewarded him with a sweet kiss.