Cultivation Levels

Tao Xue was kicked out of the restaurant, and had no place to go to for work. He had figured out that he only had this season left to find a job, and finding one wasn't enough. It should be able to get him enough money to show the Patriarch that he was doing something worth of skipping the training.

He still had some time, so he didn't have to sweat it, and went back home.

He knew that tomorrow he would be meeting and getting closer to his new comrades, and they will be lectured about Mind Cultivation. Other than that, the results would be evaluated and shown.

The next day was something that Tao Xue anticipated, and was actually looking forward to.

The next day, Tao Xue and the other students who chose Mind Cultivation met up with each other in their new class, which was the Mind Cultivation area of the 'Testing & Practice Arena'. There, the students introduced themselves. Other than Tao Xue, there was a slender girl, called Nuo Peng. There was also a rich boy, called Kuo Wei. Finally, there was this smug-looking kid, called Lei Pan. These were the students that Tao Xue had to work with, and that wasn't looking good for him. The rich kid were mostly nuisances as they were always acting conceited, and that was the same with smug kids. Tao Xue was a person who didn't like that kind of people, as he found them 'boring'.

He wan't liking this, and as they say, first impressions are last impressions.

Teacher Bao Tan walked up in front of the students, as he was about to start speaking. Today, he had to give quite a long lecture to the students, which was rather a pain for him. Talking wasn't his specialty, but it wasn't his weakness either. It was high time to tell the students what they were going to learn at the 4 Seasons Academy.

Teacher Bao Tan commenced the explanation by generally talking about Cultivation.

He said, "In Cultivation, there are various realms, and you are only to know about the first realm, which is the human realm. In the human realm, there are 10 stages. From not being a Cultivator to stepping on the first stone of success, is a very important breakthrough. This level, where the person is not yet a Cultivator, nor has he started his learning, is called level 0, just like you guys. After you start learning about Cultivation, and you have started to be able to sense the energy of the Heaven and Earth, you will be coined as a half Cultivator, or level 0.5, as you would have started sensing the energy, but you wouldn't be able to utilize it at all. Then comes the first level, called level 1, which is when you start your Cultivation, by utilizing the energy after you have sensed it. The Breakthrough from level 0 to level 0.5, and the breakthrough from level 0.5 to level 1, both have bottlenecks. A bottleneck is when the difficulty of the breakthrough is significantly increased by several folds. There are bottlenecks in various levels for various different reasons, and all of which are meaningful. There is a breakthrough with a bottleneck in the step to level 0 to level 0.5, as it separates them from the rest of the crowd of people, as they are able to sense the energy of the Heaven and Earth. There is a bottleneck on the breakthrough from level 0.5 to level 1, because that is when a person accomplishes the glorious task of becoming a Cultivator. There are also bottlenecks on the breakthroughs from level 5 to level 6, which is when you step up into the higher half, from the lower half. There are breakthroughs from level 7 to level 8, level 8 to level 9, and level 9 to level 10, since these are the upper levels of the higher half, and people of these levels are considered formidable, both as enemies, and as allies. These higher level experts are those that are given the most importance in society. If any of you are able to reach the 8th level in your life, you would be able to get a decent rank under the Emperor, in his court, or even as one of his advisors, if you happen to be a Mind Cultivator, which is what will happen in your case. Being a member of the advisory board, or the group of strategists, or anywhere else like this, you get rewarded on your contributions. Let's say if there's a full-blown fight between two divisions of a sect, and you are one of the strategists, then the reward you will be given based on your performance. It's just like playing a military board game, or something like chess, but there will be real lives at stake, instead of tiny wooden pieces. If you suggest a strategy, which will be the cause of victory in a certain battle, you shall be rewarded very generously, over there, for that decision of yours, which led to becoming the key factor for victory. Well, coming back to what we were previously talking about, Cultivation levels, was it. Well, I guess you are dying to know the ranks of the important people in our 4 Seasons Academy. Well, I have no idea of the ranks of the Secluded Elders, but I can give you information on the ranks of the Principal, the Vice-Principal, the Grand Elder, and the other Elders of the Academy. The Principal, the Grand Elder, and the Vice-Principal are all at the 7th level. Out of them, in sheer strength of Cultivation, the Principal comes first, at the peak of the 7th level, the Vice-Principal second, at the middle of the 7th level, and the Grand Elder third, who has just stepped into the 7th level. Well, that is not enough to categorize them. The Grand Elder has the most influential power, as he influences the whole board of Elders, who are each at the peak of the 6th level. The Vice-Principal runs all the activities in the 4 Seasons Academy, and has the most political power. As for the Principal, he holds the highest rank, and has the most power in Cultivation, as well as superiority, as he is above both of the others in rank, and happens to be their boss."

After hearing this, Tao Xue was surprised, as he thought in his mind, "That's just what I wanted to know. Now I know who's the strongest in which aspect out of these three. This is great!"