3 Stages - Cleared Path

"Please teach me how to cultivate!"

The voice of Shu Li echoed throughout the area as the rest of them remained silent, stunned from the sudden declaration and the excessively desperate dogeza bow he had done.

Cao Yang's face almost went white with exasperation.

'This kid just arrived and he's already asking something of someone he's never even met!' he thought.

The two children's expression on the other hand was a mixture of surprise and awkwardness, surprise from seeing Shu He's strong desire to learn about cultivation and awkwardness because neither of them had brought up Shu He before, and didn't even tell him about them leaving.

"Teach you?" Dong Jie's voice broke the silence.

Shu He rose his head and got a good look at the man before him, his eyes contained a hint of distain and he couldn't make out the rest of his face because it was covered with a metal fan.

"Why should i?" He spoke, his voice tinged with disinterest.

Shu He felt a pressure descend on him like he was shouldering a tonne of bricks.

"Because I want it!"

"Just because you want it. Why do I get out of it?"

"I'll do anything I can to help you!" Shu He replied without missing a beat.

"Help me?" A slightly scoff came from behind the fan "What can you, a mere mortal do to help me, a cultivator"

"I can hunt, I am a apothecary, I don't know how I can help but if you tell me I'll do it!"

"Such things are of no use to me, if I were to tell you to go kill yourself would you do that?"

"No! I can't cultivate if I do that!" Shu He answered the absurd question with a straight answer.

"Hmph, grovelling like that; Do you have any pride at all?" Dong Jie's eyes looked down at Shu He like he was looking at a bug.

"Sorry, I'm still just a child, what pride am I to have?" Pride? What use was that for him right now?

The two turned silent as the three spectators remained stunned at their lightning fast back and forth.

*Snap* Dong Jie closed his fan, causing a metallic echo to break up the atmosphere that was building, immediately Shu He felt the pressure on him dissipate like it was nothing.

"Of course you don't!" Dong Jie said, his face lined with a slight smile and his eyes reflecting none of the arrogance that they held just a few seconds ago.

Shu He felt sweat travel down his back, he had reacted on instinct entirely and thrown all his thoughts out of the window, he now held a slight fear of this man that made him feel pressure like that just on a single whim and then take it away like nothing.

"So, can you teach me?" Shu He asked, hopeful.

"Hm, I don't think so" Dong Jie stroked his whisker like moustache that had been hidden behind the fan.

"Eh, why?" Shu he asked once more, not expecting him to say no after that.

"You see I already have my hands full" He used his fan to point towards the two children behind him "These two are to come with me to the Sect and I'll be their teacher for a while after"

"Eh? Sect?... Huo Da? Cao Meili?!" Shu He looked at the figures stood behind Dong Jie, becoming surprised at who he saw.

He looked at their faces that contained a trace of awkwardness.

Honestly, he could understand why Huo Da would want to become a cultivator, he had been training with the Saber for a while now and cultivation would be an advancement for him; Cao Meili on the other hand, he couldn't understand, as far as he knew she didn't hold much interest in this kind of thing.

"You're going as well?" He looked at her and inquired.

She nodded "Yeah… Some stuff happened so I'm going too" She didn't expand on the 'stuff' merely leaving it at that.

"Well, that's the reason; We haven't got much time so we will leave out the details but that's why I can't teach you" Dong Jie explained "… And that fact that getting Huo Da in to the sect as well will already be a pain" He quietly whispered to himself.

"I see…" Shu He couldn't help but be disappointed, was this chance going to slip through his fingers just like this? Wasn't there anything he could do?

"I can at least show you some pointers though, here and now" Dong Jie smiled.

"You can?! But you just said-" Shu He's heart jumped a beat from joy

"I can't train you, that means I can't give you long term support, I can give you some tips thought; it's up to you after" He explained.

"That's fine!" Shu He was 100% okay with that, rather it's exactly what he wanted!

"First of all, let's introduce ourselves" Dong Jie said as he pointed at Shu He with his fan.

"Right! I'm Shu He, son of Shu Li and Shu An"

"As I thought, you were his son, what a coincidence; I'm Dong Jie of the Trembling Earth Sect"

"Trembling Earth Sect?" Shu He hadn't heard of it before, but based on what he knows he can guess what it is.

"It's the main Sect in control of the Earth region, there are four other main Sects for each of the four other regions; It's an ideal place for cultivators with any useful facilities and resources" Dong Jie explained, confirming Shu He's assumptions.

"Can anyone join?" Shu He asked out of curiosity.

"Heavens no, there are standard requirements to join and a test, if we just let everyone in it would be overcrowded; There are a good handful of smaller sects around the five regions though with less stringent requirements, though they won't provide the same quality of resources and services"

"Though, if you do want to try to join our sect the test isn't for another few years; I do suggest trying it if you get the chance though". Dong Jie explained, throwing Shu He a hook at the end.

"I'll consider it" Shu He replied, causing Dong Jie to nod.

Shu He wasn't entirely sure whether he would try out, a few years can change a lot in his life especially since he was still young, but he would consider it when it was closer.

"Now then, the first thing we should do is find out your general potential" He walked closer to Shu He until he was stood in front and placed his hand on Shu He's head.

Shu He was a bit startled at first but let it happen, it wasn't long before he felt a strangely familiar feeling overcome him, like a wind flowing through his body.

'It's similar, but not the same…' He compared it to the feeling of the golden flame flowing through his body, there was a distinct different, like comparing the wind to the sun.

He activated his Qi Perception, closing his eyes so he could focus more, his perspective changed and he viewed himself as a whole, a gathering of golden lights on his shape, eventually it changed and it turned normal like he was viewing a camera from another angle.

This was one of the only results of his training, he steadily managed to control and adjust what he would see with Qi Perception, while he wasn't clear on what uses this would have In the future he was sure it would come in use.

As the two stood still he observed himself closely, he steadily adjusted his Qi Perception based on what he felt and eventually he could see a thin mist entering his body from Dong Jie, he focused more and it became clearer like a pale blue stream flowing in to him.

He got closer, observing his body as a whole, all the structures that made it up.

'It's flowing over everything, like some sort of film' He felt the slight warmth throughout his body, it was not like the rejuvenating warmth from his golden flame, but more like touching a warm slab on a cold day.

He eventually got used to seeing it and instead turned his perception to Dong Jie, his body was overflowing with the pale blue aura, he focused more and more before he saw it had an origin point, everything flowed to and from that point like an endless loop at all times.

"Done" Dong Jie's voice echoed snapping Shu He out of his focus, he returned his perception to normal and looked up at the man who was now stroking his beard.

"You're lucky" He said.

'Lucky?' Shu He's expression displayed doubt 'Was it a good result then?' He thought that may have been possible.

"Your father has no talent for cultivation, I'm not sure about your mother but this kind of thing is hereditary; You seem to have avoided that problem at least, your talent is all around average"

"That's good" He said, internally relieved; If he was stopped before the starting point he would be a joke.

Of course, there was a simple question settling in Shu He's mind right now.

'Did he not detect my golden flame? He used a pale blue aura… I feel like I might have felt something like that before, did I do something wrong? Is my flame not QI?' His mind was confused, but he put those thoughts to the back of his head right now and focused on what was in front of him.

"What does talent in cultivation mean anyway?" He asked out of curiosity.

"It's not a straightforward thing to judge honestly, it's a collection of the quality of a variety of things like Qi channels, meridians, bloodlines and a lot of minor things; It takes a while to learn how to judge it".

"Got it" Shu He said like he understood, he had seen a variety of things inside himself with Qi Perception but couldn't match them up with what was being said immediately, that said he decided to look into them when he had the chance.

"Now that it's confirmed you're suitable, let me tell you the most important saying to start cultivation." Dong Jie cleared his throat and began talking like he was at a lecture.

Shu He listened attentively.

"Accept the heavens, light the flame; The path before you shall unfold". He recited it with a loud and grand voice.

"…" Shu He just stood still with a blank face.

"I can see you're a bit confused, don't worry; The first tip is that the key is meditation, clear your mind and try to feel the world around you" He went on to explain.

Shu He didn't want to interrupt, he decided to listen until the end.

"You want to feel the Qi in the world around you and steadily gather it, moving it to your very core, once you've gathered enough compress and release it all at once, a flame shall form and that is your 'Core Flame', doing this successfully means you've reached the first stage of cultivation known as 'Qi Ignition'"

'The first stage! My golden flame was similar to that… but it just happened after a lot of time and effort' Shu He reflected on the similarities between the explanation and what he experienced with the pale golden flame currently flickering inside him.

Seeing Shu He listening with sparkling eyes Dong Jie continued on.

"The second stage is actually quite simple, it is called 'Blood Enhancement', after you ignite your Core Flame it will steadily leak qi in to your body, you must control this qi and steadily refine the blood and marrow inside your body until they themselves can store qi, this is quite time consuming but in terms of difficulty it's rather low, you'll know when you've finished because you will not longer have any blood to refine, you'll see an increase in bodily strength and health with this stage and the ability use QI to reinforce the body"

'Second stage… I'm already at a roadblock, the flame inside me radiates warmth when I activate it but I have next to no control over it, that and…' The memory of his experiment flashed through his mind 'Using it on my body is a no go right now'

'I can't progress with the gold flame!' Was Shu He's conclusion.

"Finally, the third stage is the last of the 'Initial' stages; It's called 'Meridian Awakening' and it has a degree of risk to it, you'll know when you can progress to this stage because you'll feel an innate thirst from the twelve major meridians in your body"

"Heart, lung, pericardium, liver, kidney, spleen, small intestine, large intestine, sanjiao, urinary bladder, gall bladder, and stomach" He recited out loud by habit.

"You know them? Of course you mentioned you're a apothecary… that'll help you at this stage a bit at least" Dong Jie praised Shu He.

"This stage involves using the blood refined with Qi in the previous stage to shock the Meridians in to awakening, doing so will allow them to refine the Qi inside you to a higher quality among other benefits, but the risk is that you can damage them doing so, you need to take this stage slowly and carefully, overdoing it can result in irreversible damage and this is the first stage on the path of cultivation that has ruined many"

"Make sure to remember these!" Dong Jie said with a stern voice.

"What about the stages after?" Shu He didn't want to stop here, he wanted to know all he could.

"Unfortunately you won't be able to achieve the next stage without external help, so I will not tell you; If you do reach that point seek out a sect" He explained.

"So it's inevitable in the end…" Shu He whispered to himself, no matter what if he progressed far enough he would have to leave this village.

"Cultivation is a way of progression; you will learn in time that you'll have to sever attachments and leave them behind less you stand still in your path" Words left Dong Jie's mouth that felt like whispers on the wind, there was deep emotion contained within them.

"My last words to you for now will be: Forego your prejudice and common sense, open your mind and accept the incomprehensible, the path forward is not a straight line but an open field."

With that, he entered the cabin of the carriage, bringing the two children with him.

Shu He bowed as the carriage rode away in to the distance, until it was gone he never raised his head.

'This is enough for now, I have an idea of what I should do, I think I can finally move forward!'

It took another second for Shu He to remember there was another person here, he turned to Cao Yang that was also watching the carriage leave, who also turned to him and shook his head.

"You're just like your father" He grumbled as he walked away towards his house.

'That's a compliment… right?'