Further
Lui finished her cup of wine.
“Alright, alright… So the third level is the one that actually matters. It is starting from this point that our friends from Journomanp are officially considered true cultivators. The two stages before that are just the initiation… Don’t pay attention to the fact that the first is literally called the Initiation Stage. The first two are just the warm-up for them”
Edrick’s Jhila pulled a cigar from her pocket, lighting it up with a small zap of lightning.
“The third level is called ‘Foundation Establishment Stage’, and as the name spells out, it is where the foundation of the cultivator is set. Theoretically speaking, even those with the lowest of spiritual roots can reach this level… Anyway, ‘foundation’ is a lot more literal than what you might have in mind”
“Their idea of cultivation is literally about building something inside their soul. The foundation is about the foundations of a structure… To build it, they have to go through two sub-stages. First is the ‘Elemental Choice’. It is at this stage that they decide whether they will specialise in an element or not. Most won’t pick any element and instead let their natural affinities do the job. However, some will specialise in one element, or more if they have a very good spiritual root or practise a special technique”
Anoteros listened closely.
Yingzi Sect was definitely a sect where the chosen element was set in stone from the very beginning. Edrick presumed that for the disciples of such sects, picking the element once they arrived at this stage was a big moment. It would probably greatly increase their strength when wielding the sect’s core element.
The inner disciple he had slain had probably not even had the occasion to do this. He truly wondered whose bright idea it had been to send this guy of all people to do the job. He was probably the weakest Foundation Establishment cultivator available within their sect.
Either it was the product of foolishness, or the unlucky fellow had been set up.
Regardless of the truth, he was going to be prepared by Linmin’s expert hands.
‘He made some progress in spirit cuisine. I can’t wait to see the results of his work’
Linmin had kept his progress a secret, but the patriarch of the household had sensed it through the crest–Though Edrick was going to act none the wiser about it. His Foppoof wife was very excited about making it a surprise.
“...Then, the second sub-stage is the ‘Material Choice’. Once again, very literal. The foundations of their inner structure had to be built out of something, so they need to pick a material and cultivate with it... Eventually turning the material into dust as it absorbed into them, building the foundations”
“For a lot of our cultivation fellows, this is the end of the journey. The bottleneck in the way of further progress is far greater, and failure is far more likely to result in death or being so badly crippled that they might as well have died. It is at this point that their own version of elitism truly shows up”
“Unless you are an absolute genius with an incredible spiritual root, you don’t stand a chance of progressing past this point without great resources to assist you. It is also at this point that we can see that their idea of cultivation is far inferior to ours. The sheer amount of things they need to ingest to progress is staggering”
“Even if they manage to progress, the impurities left from what they consumed are the main reasons as to why they will stay stuck afterwards”
Anoteros leaned forward, tapping his finger against his wooden pipe.
“Lui, which stage would you say I am equivalent to, right now?”
The Duookois rubbed her chin.
“You’re definitely above Foundation Establishment. All a peak cultivator of this stage has is alright physical power, and access to spells… You’re definitely more akin to the following stage, but even then, I think they would view you as a body cultivator–Their idea of a body cultivator, that is…”
“The fourth level is the Architecture Manifestation Stage, with two sub-stages as well”
“Oh, so they just build on top of the foundations they laid?”
“Precisely! The two sub-stages are literally just the Planning Phase and Building Phase. They first need to fully envision what their inner structure will look like. It is of tremendous importance, especially since once it is decided, it will be locked in place. The Building Phase will require materials just like the foundations did–And if the cultivator saw too big, they might find themselves unable to complete their structure for a long while”
“Huh… I feel like they could use some help from architecture cultivators for this. Maybe we could bribe some of them this way”
“Not a bad idea, but I have no clue whether our guys from Labyrinth Palace would have the expertise for inner structures like those… I suppose it is worth looking into... We’ve never really had big ties with Journomanp aside from basic trade. Let’s just say that we don’t exactly see eye-to-eye. So…”
“...It might actually be something that works, but that was never tried. I myself would rather tell them to go fuck themselves than trade with them”
“You see, Lui… Trade is also one way to make an enemy submit”
“I know, I know… It just isn’t my style–You are shrewder than I am, so you can go ahead and play insidious tricks. I’ll just be zapping them hard enough to make their organs explode”
She chuckled while thinking about it. The smell was never that great, but the spectacle was always worth it.
“Anyway… The fifth level is where they actually start to be fun. They can actually give me a good fight once they’re at this level”
“Oh? I was almost expecting to hear that you could beat all of them with your hands behind your back”
“Don’t be silly, Zixu~ They have true powerhouses as well. Otherwise, we would have been encroaching on their territories instead of being nice with them… In any case, the Core Formation Stage is when they actually matter”
“They gain some sort of special analysis sense, but more importantly, they form a core within their inner structure. The word ‘core’ is a bit misleading, though. When I hear the word core, I think of a solid sphere, but it can be much different from this”
“There are three sub-stages: Final State Decision, where they decide whether their core will be solid, liquid, gaseous, or whatever the hell... Phase Transition, when they cross over from the previous stage–A proto-core already formed. It is usually solid at the start. To refine it and get it to the proper state, they need to make it shift between the different states of matter…”
“The last sub-stage is the aptly named Phase Finality. At this point, the state and appearance of the core is set in stone, and can no longer be altered”
“As for what comes beyond… There aren’t many of them, and I am not quite familiar with how it works. But as you can tell... Their way of cultivating is much more arduous for basically no rewards. I don’t really know why they don’t switch over to how we do it”
“A matter of pride, certainly”
“You are certainly right… Anyway, why don’t I show you Yechen’s progress? He definitely has a strong talent for alchemy”
“I do not doubt that in the least…”