Next Step In Cultivation

"Sect Master, With your permission, we would like to attend the Great Hunt, the one hosted on the planet of Ji."

This was an event that was held annually in the territory of Ji. Various sects from all over the State of Ming would be in attendance. The State officially hosted this event, and it was a great chance for the young talented cultivators of each sect to compete for experience and prestige.

Promising candidates were often offered the chance to become state officials. If the young cultivators accepted, they would be given special education and may eventually be given an official position in the government, depending on their performance.

Naturally, the Sects that raised the promising candidates would be given generous compensation by the State. Also, as the populace supported the State of Ming, Sects that provided able new talent were seen in a very good light.

"How many people are you planning to bring?" Mo Li inquired.

"Currently, only I and Hualing are planning to go."

"What do you think about bringing along Zhongming, Gao Liang, Xiuying?"

Xue Jian and Xu Hualing were both powerful Soul Integration cultivators. If Zhongming could accompany them for this event, he may very well be able to break into the next realm.

"Zhongming is still in the core formation, is he not? Pretty much all of the cultivators from the other sects will at least be in the Nascent Soul realm of above."

"You and Hualing are already in the Soul Integration Realm, along with Gao Liang and Xiuying, who are both talented Nascent Soul cultivators. So I'm sure between the four of you, Zhongming will be fine."

Knock. Knock.

"Master, your disciple is here for his daily studies."

Ever since about one year ago when Mo Li had taken Zhongming as his direct disciple. This has become his daily routine. Every morning, he would meet with his master, and they would start with a mental training session, usually by solving various logic puzzles.

"Ah, come on in Zhongming, you have come at just the right time."

Zhongming opened the door, walked into the room, and greeted his master and older senior brother.

"Zhongming, Xue Jian is planning to go to the Great Hunt. Right now, further theoretical studies will only provide you with diminishing results. Real-world experience is now going to be the key factor as to whether or not you can break through into the nascent soul realm."

"So when will we be leaving, and apart from senior brother Xue Jian and I, is there going to be anyone else coming as well?"

This time it was Xue Jian who answered the question.

"I was originally planning to go with Sister Hualing. However, if Gao Liang and Xiuying agree, then it will be the five of us. The event starts in less than a month from now, so we should be ready to leave in a few weeks."

"I see, is there anything specific that I need to prepare for this particular trip?"

Although Zhongming had never really participated in any of these events, he had a rough idea of what they were all about. As far as he knew, it was quite rare for a Core Formation cultivator to appear in this particular event.

"You should bring the weapon prototypes that we have been developing during your lessons, also..."

Mo Li simply waved his hand, and an array of seals appeared. In the center of the array was a portal that led into a pocket dimension. This seal was no mere storage array. No, this was a special array developed over the years by the sect master. It was a storage seal of infinite size and dimensionality; theoretically, it should be possible to store all of reality into this particular seal.

From the portal, an item appeared. It was a special belt that Mo Li had developed in the past. For low-level cultivators like Zhongming, it was an incredibly useful tool.

This spiritual tool had the ability to passively absorb the spiritual essence from any soul crystals within a few dozen kilometers.

This would essentially give Zhongming an almost unlimited use of the spiritual weapons and arrays he had developed with his master.

"Using this should be enough to narrow the gap between you and the other Nascent Soul cultivators from the various sects." Mo Li said as he handed his disciple the spiritual tool.

"Thank you, Master. I won't disappoint you."

And indeed, when Zhongming had spoken those words, he had meant them from the bottom of his heart.

In this life, his parents had died when he was still but a child. Both of his parents were members of the Mo Sect; their deaths had occurred when the sect had dispatched them to defend the State of Dao from the invasion of the State of Bing.

Being the child of two martyrs, many of the members of the Mo Sect had gone out of the way to make sure that Zhongming was well taken care of even to the point of papering him, of course, this courtesy was not extended to debates after all the Mo Sect was comprised of principled logicians.

Furthermore, the Mo Sect had an extremely progressive ideology for its time. When compared to the modern ideologies of Zhongming's old world, it was unsurprising that the Mo Sect ideology was found a bit lacking in a few areas.

However, the sect founder Mo Li was an extremely open-minded visionary. If there were any chance of creating a society based on the principles and morality from his old world, it would be through the Mo Sect.