Learning At The Academy’s Library

Jam made his way to the library. The library was shaped like a pyramid and had four stories. The receptionist in the first level explained to Jam that each story corresponded to the Realms of the Mortal Plane. Cultivators of the Mortal Realm only had access to the first story, Spirit Realm cultivators had access up to the second story, Saint Realm cultivators could enter the third story, and those in the Sage Realm could enter the fourth story.

Jam knew that the Mortal Realm ended after the Core Formation Stage, but he had no knowledge of the higher Realms or their corresponding substages.

To fill these gaps of knowledge, Jam asked where he could get general knowledge of the Realms in cultivation and books on the different types of energy. The receptionist happily complied with Jam's requests and in no time, Jam had a pile of the books he wanted on his table.

Jam spent half a day reading through the information on all the books he had picked up. He would have taken longer if not for Divinity boosting mental capacity to read faster.

It was a good thing cultivators don't care about time, leaving the library open 24/7; this aspect of cultivation culture extend to all the Academy's facilities, leaving all of them open all the time.

In the end, even after reading about the functions of the different types of energies, Jam still couldn't make up his mind, as he wanted to take on all of the Daos. At this time of not knowing how to choose, he repeated a phrase he used to hear from Woody from time to time, "Let's leave it up to fate."

Let's just say fate sorely disappointed Jam. After making his mind to leave it up to fate, he walked up to the receptionist again and asked where he could get techniques and skills. After navigating through the library to where the receptionist pointed towards, Jam found that all of the techniques were astronomically expensive.

'What the fuck? Why does a basic fire manipulation technique cost spirit stones? 100 spirit stones for a thunder technique? 50,000 spirit stone for the basics of space magic?!' Each skill that Jam looked at was more expensive than the last.

Spirit Stones were the currency of cultivators. Aside from being currency, spirit stones by themselves, could be used by cultivators to power up formations, or supplement cultivation. However, the effects of spirit stones in cultivation were pitiful when compared to alchemical pills or talisman inscriptions.

It was only when Jam made his way to the free techniques, that he began to see his plight lighten up. " Styles of the Cosmic Bow, Foundational Beam Magic, True Gravitational Manipulation, Thunderfire Cataclysm and True Demon Form. "

All these monstrous techniques were free, which seemed to be insane, considering the cost of the basic skills. Even more ridiculous, was the fact that the techniques' jade slips where not guarded by the receptionist, and were inside the books; a cultivator could straight up, steal these techniques from the library and none would be the wiser!

The books which housed the jade slips were only introductions to the techniques. There is no way that entire cultivation techniques could be written down, as the information for even the simplest techniques must be shared through experiences. Thus, cultivators invented jade slips which would directly store all kinds of information, including the experiences of the person recording the technique.

At this point in time, Jam might not have enough energy within himself to cast energy attacks, but he had more than enough to read through some jade slips.

However, once Jam read the introduction to these techniques he understood why they were free to the public. Each of these techniques were without a doubt highly advanced to the point that even Sages would want to master them, however each technique had a more demanding requirement than the last.

Styles of the Cosmic Bow required a practitioner to be capable of pursuing the Dao of Bows and the Steller Dao in order to cultivate it. Both the Dao of Bows, and the Stellar Dao were extremely rare by themselves. Finding a suitable successor for this technique would be extremely unlikely. Fortunately, Jam had faked having Cosmic Control as his superpower, which made it reasonable if he practices this technique.

True Demon Form required a person to have a Demon Dao superpower as well as unlimited potential with Demonic energy. Even if a person met the requirements to acquire demonic energy, a cultivator would need to be a seasoned killer to have any progress with this technique, as its purpose was to ultimately let the user transform into a Greater Demon.

Thunderfire Cataclysm required a cultivator to have unlimited thunder energy and fire energy affinity, or have a rare mutated superpower that could make use of thunderfire fusion. Thunderfire fusion was just slightly less rare than spacetime fusion, putting their abilities roughly close to one another. However, both thunder and fire energies were strongly focused on attacking, while space and time energies could be considered allrounders, able to attack, defend, and support the user.

True Gravitational Manipulation required a cultivator to have a spacetime superpower and unlimited potential with both Space and Time energies. People with a spacetime superpower were extremely rare by themselves; having to have unlimited potential for space and time as well? One such person might not appear for millions of years.

And most absurd of all, the Foundational Beam Magic required that a cultivator have unlimited affinity with at least 4 elements. Jam didn't know what kind of monster created this technique, requiring a person to have unlimited affinity with at least 4 elements! The book stressed the words AT LEAST several times. Meaning it could use the power of more than 4 energies combined.

Technically speaking, people could cultivate this technique without meeting the prerequisite of having unlimited affinity with four types of energy. However, the core skills would not be available unless a cultivator had unlimited affinity with at least two types of energies.

Rarely would people have affinity for more than one energy or Dao. Even if they did, would they have equal potential for both types of energy? If less than one in a million people had unlimited affinity with one type of energy, less than one in a trillion would have unlimited affinity for two types of energy. Not everyone could be as broken as Jam, and have unlimited potential with every energy in existence.

Because all of these techniques were independent legacies of prominent cultivators of past, the jade slips that housed these techniques were special one-time-use jade slips. After a cultivator with the prerequisites to learn these skills used that jade slips to gain the ability to practice these skills, the jade slip itself would disintegrate.

If Jam didn't possess his Divinity, these techniques would only make him want to cry. Jam could imagine the sadness that all new disciples of the academy would go through, after being taunted by such a large piece of cake, and not being able to eat it.

While there were still other formidable techniques up for free, Jam thought the he would have plenty to focus on with the ones he picked up. He didn't want to end up as a jack of all trades, being the ace of none.

With the techniques in hand, Jam left the library and headed home. On his way to his courtyard Jam began to review the knowledge of the cultivation world, he had gained from the jade slips in the library.

Currently, Jam was no longer on Earth, Rather he was on the planet Yhamnigh, headquarters to the Cultivation Academy. With this planet being the home of the Cultivation Academy, even if all the lower level sects in the planet banded together, in an attempt to fight against the academy, they would still be destroyed.

Jam learned that the Cultivation Academy was one of the upper leveled sects in the Mortal Plane. It wasn't the strongest, but given that it was able to secure a planet all for itself, it goes to show, the Cultivation Academy was no push over.

The books that Jam read about the Mortal Realm explained all of the stages of cultivation up to Immortal Ascension.

Body Tempering didn't count as a part of formal cultivation, as it didn't involve energy, so it was excluded from the Mortal Realm. The Mortal Realm comprised of five stages: Meridian Connecting, Qi Collecting, Palace Foundation, Palace Creation, and Core Formation.

The the ultimate goal of cultivators in the Mortal Realm is to create the Core and Dao Palace. The purpose of a cultivator's Core is similar to that of a refinement plant, allowing for the instantaneous generation of compact energy. The Dao Palace's purpose is to protect the Core and be a gateway for law insights to be inscribed. Without the Dao Palace, inscribing law insights into one's body would be close to impossible and also very painful.

After a cultivator had these in their Dantian Space, they could start condensing their soul, which would have the necessary foundation for fusing their mind, body, and energy.

Above the Mortal Realm is the Spirit Realm which only has three stages: Soul Condensing, Soul Fusion, and Rebirth. In the Spirit Realm a cultivator would condense their soul, fuse it with their body, then through several tribulations, also fuse their energy with their already fused soul and body.

Surpassing the Spirit Realm is the Saint Realm which housed five stages: False Saints, Saint Masters, Saint Grandmasters, Saint Lords, and Saint Gods. One of the requirements to progress in the Saint Realm is to have a Dao Domain. In the Saint Realm a cultivator would expand their Dantian Space while also working to perfect their Dao Domain.

After transcending the Saint Stage is the Sage Realm. The Sage Realm is made of: Lesser Sages, Greater Sages, Sage Kings, Sage Emperors, and Sage Gods. After reaching the limit of the Saint Stage a cultivator would have a perfected Dao Domain. However, to pass the Sage Stage and become an immortal, a cultivator would have to continue expanding their Dantian Space.

Sage Gods, according to the books of the library, were the highest ranked cultivators that the Mortal Plane could restrict. After reaching the Sage God Realm, cultivators could challenge the Immortal Tribulation to escape from the shackles of mortality, break through the void, and ascend into the Immortal Plane.

As far as Jam knew, while the academy had thousands of Saint Realm cultivators, it only had a couple of Sage Realm cultivators; The Sect Head, Guardian Elder, and Occupational Division Heads.