Chapter 05

Zise took the crystal with thanks and Hong told him that the three arrowheads he forged will be sold, for now the association will but them from him and give him their monetary equivalent.

Zise was shocked to discover that the three arrowheads were actually worth 3 silver coins, this was way too expensive as it meant that each time a cultivator shot an arrow they spent 1 silver crystal.

and it turns out his arrowheads were cheap because they were for single use, channeling mana into the arrow would make it explode upon contact with the enemy meaning it couldn't be retrieved.

however if it was a multi use arrow head it would go for as high as a single gold coin, that was very expensive and it showed why blacksmiths were considered rich people,

at that moment a badge is also granted to Zise that signifies he was a second grade blacksmith. this was a surprise to him as at rank two it meant he could accept both rank 1 and rank two tasks.

although rank one and rank two tasks were still small scale and required him to assist other blacksmiths, rank two tasks were worth some money.

with this Zise realized he could support himself I'm the city no problem, as a disciple of the branch president he was given a forging room free of charge which he would use to practice forging as well as where his teacher would find him for guidance.

he was also granted accommodation within the association just like all high level blacksmiths, at grade 5 and above a blacksmith could request for a room at the association for him to reside and it would be granted to him free of charge.

however most rank 5 blacksmiths were rich enough to have their own home unless they are visiting in the city for a short time, that is when they would use that privilege.

Zise was directed to his room and he was astonished as to how spacious it was, it was 50 by 50 meters with a cultivation room, a bedroom, a bathroom as well as a main room.

he had a window and a balcony over seeing the entire city, the blacksmith association was the same height as the city leaders mansion with both of them being at seven stories,

however the association had more than one building as they were about seven towers all of the same height, Zise was in one of the towers and from his room he could see a big portion of the city.

as he settled in, he decided to start by absorbing the origin crystal he had been given. he popped the crystal in his mouth and entered his cultivation room.

the cultivation room in the association was so special as it was filled with heaven and earth energy that seemed to be coming from below and radiating throughout the whole tower via a guided path.

this signified that the association was built at the convergence of heaven and earth energy, this would be very influential to his cultivation going forward.

as he was still thinking about that the crystal he had swallowed took effect, massive energy flowed into his body surging through his meridians

his body was filled with the purest form of energy that he felt like he was overstuffed, he wondered what it would mean if he had taken only an 11 year old origin crystal and it had this effect.

this meant a stronger one may have been too much for him, as the energy filled his meridians they started surging and two nods were formed, two nods that would represent his last two meridians,

however those two didn't become meridians and just stopped there, the energy then coalesced at the bottom of his belly and erupted form a sector within him, this sector was the mark of a cultivator.

cultivators kept their weapons, armor, spirit beats and many more in this space, no one could access anything in that space until the cultivator dies and the sector breaks with the materials appearing outside his body.

For Zise his sector appeared to be about ten meters wide however it was incresingly expanding, the sector was made of purple and gold plants and the skies were filled with grey clouds that sparked with lightning every now and then.

a short while later the sector stopped expanding having reached 13 meters diameter it was then that Zise understood the significance of the sector diameter, the diameter of the sector signified the level a cultivator had reached,

it also helped a cultivator keep track of their cultivation, during cultivation the energy absorbed by the cultivator would be used to form and maintain this sector, during a fight the cultivator would draw power form this sector to fuel their attacks.

his sector being at 13 meters meant his cultivation had reached level 13, then the energy started flowing through his body bringing about a significant change.

the impurities in his body were gradually pushed out cleaning up his seemingly clogged meridians and purifying his blood essence.

his muscles and bones were strengthened making him take a leap in his physical capabilities, when he opened his eyes,

he realized that his sight has turned clearer and his gaze could reach abit farther than usual, his comprehension had also risen as he could notice even the tiniest details he could have missed before.

just then he realized what had happened as behind him a magic circle had appeared, Zise had seen this circle several times as it appeared when cultivators triggered their mana.

the magic circle was the same for everyone however the difference appeared in the number of arrow like strips appeared on the circle's edges.

to Zise his magic circle was purple to signify his elemental affinity and he had a single gold marking on it to signify that he was still a stage one cultivator.

the following day he headed for the forging room where he attempted to comprehend the changes through his body through forging,

with a forging room he could also quickly master his father's directions in his forging to achieve better results, Hong found him there and gave him a few tips on where Zise was going wrong.

two days passed in a rush and soon it was the first day at the academy, Zise left early in the morning, he arrived at the academy just in time to meet a few other studnets from the other sects arrive in groups.

a few of them had even already recieved weapons, Zise didn't have a weapon yet as he hadn't reached a level where he could forge himself a weapon yet.

he attended his classes in silence until he reached the end of the day and returned to the association for forging training.

on non study days Hong would take him for resilience training inside a high pressure room, this pressure not only trained his body but also helped him develop a strong will which normally decided victory or failure.

by the end of two years Zise had already reached level 20 however Hong prohibited him from taking a level 2 crystal, he told Zise to take this time and strengthen his cultivation,

for the next three years Zise condensed his mana until his sector became a fog of purple gold mist, the grass had grown into a thicket and the grey clouds above head become so dark that the lightning flashing within could barely be seen.

however the time had reached, Zise was ten years old and along with his colleagues the academy was taking them to spirit valley to obtain spirit beats.

finally they would get to get more information about spirit beasts, surprisingly Jiang was one of the guides they had to the valley and he started explaining.

Jiang tells them that spirit beats aren't that different from regular animals or chaos beats, ordinary animals have no capability of absorbing mana so they are like ordinary people

chaos beats are originated from the chaos realm so they cultivate by absorbing life force hence their quick evolution,

spirit beats on the other hand are the cultivators of anumal kingdom in Heiping world, once they are lucky enough to generate an origin core at birth, they absorb energy freely from the environment,

at ten years their origin cores stabilise and turn red making then level 1 spirit beats, from there they would need to cultivate for ten years to reach level 2,

each level after that is obtained after cultivating for ten years so level 10 spirit beats are born from 100 year old spirit beats.

he explains that once the spirit beast emerges at ten years old, the gods direct the beast to Spirit valley where all spirit beats live.

it is said that level 10 spirit beats could even assume human form, at ten years old cultivators make their way to Spirit valley to seek out a spirit beast that matches them.

once the spirit beast and cultivator find each other compatible, a contract is signed binding their lives together so the spirit beast can live inside the cultivators inner world.

they were split into teams with each team being led by a cultivator at least level 4 and above. in the past five years Jiang had reached level 5 from level 3 however he hadn't left Ming city.

Zise and a few others were given Jiang as their guide, before leaving for this trip, Hong had given Zise a secondary task which was to obtain a leven two origin crystal during his trip.

this crystal needed to belong to a lightning element chaos beast and it would act as his second origin crystal, during their way to the spirit valley they had run into a few chaos beasts.

the teachers had fought them off and some students that had reached the peak managed to obtain origin crystals, Jiang could tell that Zise was at the peak of level 1 and needed an origin crystal.

however Zise had adamantly refused to take any of them, he then explained to Jiang about his task from teacher Hong and how he needed to fulfill the request

Jiang told him that lightning beasts are among the rarest species there is, they rarely appear and when they do they are hard to kill because of the explosive power of lightning in their bodies.