Spirit Cultivation

While Xuefeng was busy thinking about his future, another person far, far away from Aurora country was busy changing her future. Her name was Xiao Tianshi. 

In this world, there were five different regions. The closer we got to the center, the higher the density of the Spirit Essence was in the air. While Xuefeng landed in the Eastern Region far from the border, she reincarnated into the body of the Central Region's Xiao Family's princess. 

Today, there was supposed to be a grand wedding between two of the most respected families in the Central Region. Who would have thought that before the wedding even started, Xiao Family's Princess would try to commit suicide? Because of that incident, the wedding got suspended until everything was cleared up. 

Now, the beautiful Xiao Tianshi was standing in front of their parents and elders of the Xiao Family. 

Her father, the leader of this powerful family was looking at her with an annoyed and confused expression. 

"Can you tell me what happened? I thought you like that Tang brat?" He asked after failing to read anything from his daughter's eyes. 

"I never said I like him, you were the one who decided everything without even asking for my opinion," Tianshi said calmly as she looked straight into her father's eyes. 

Xiao Fang noticed from the start that something was wrong. Usually his daughter would lower her head while talking to him but now she didn't. He felt quite uncomfortable under her calm gaze. 

He did not know but it was not his real daughter he was talking to. 

"Then why did you not tell me earlier? Why did you try to kill yourself? Do you realize how sad your mother would be if you were gone?" 

"I told you about it already, but you did not listen. I said I want to be the one to choose my partner, but you said I am too young to decide this. You are so stubborn that you even caused your own daughter to kill herself! All you think about are profits, profits and profits! Don't you have enough money already?!" Tianshi cried her heart out in front of everyone. 

She was the same on Earth as this girl here. With a strict father who was too stubborn to listen to anyone. Now she had a chance to voice out her hidden emotions that she kept to herself all this time. 

She could not say anything in her past life, but now she decided to take her future into her own hands. 

Her new father opened his mouth several times trying to say something, but no words came out. He didn't look angry about her daughter's accusations but rather shocked that she could confront him with so much energy. 

"Hubby, how about we let her do what she wants? The bird has to fly from the nest one day or another," His wife's calm words drifted into his ears and he finally sighed. 

Many elders were talking among each other but when he looked at everyone the hall turned silent. 

"Elder Yang," Xiao Feng called out. 

"Yes, Leader?" An old man walked out from the crowd. 

"Tell everyone that the wedding is canceled. Apologize to all the guests," Xiao Feng commanded. 

"But sir, the consequences will be enormous!" Elder Yang warned. 

"I already decided. Go!" Xiao Feng ordered sternly. 

"Yes, right away," The old man didn't argue anymore and left the hall after a bow.

At this moment Tianshi ran into his father's arms and hugged him. 

"Thank you, father. You will not regret it," She said happily. 

Xiao Fang patted her head while smiling. He then turned to his wife and said, "Take Tianshi away for now. I need to clean up this mess." 

"Be careful," Tianshi's mother warned before she took her daughter's hand and they left the hall together. 

When they arrived at Tianshi's quarters, her mother finally said depressed, "Do you know how despaired I was when I saw you on the ground in the puddle of blood? Never do this again, okay?" 

She hugged her daughter tightly. 

"I'm sorry, I will not do that again," Tianshi promised. 

"Tell me, if you don't want to marry that Tang brat, do you have anyone else in mind," she asked while caressing Tianshi's hair. 

"Mhmm, but I can't tell you yet," Tianshi nodded. 

"Oh, is he that awesome?" Her mother asked interestedly. 

"Yes, he would even die for me…" Tianshi said quietly. 

———

Xuefeng woke up around noon the next day. After he got dressed, he asked Wuying, who lived next door to bring him some breakfast. They ate together and finished just before Elder Ming's arrival. 

He was the Spirit teacher in the clan and the person responsible for the Spirit Awakening Ceremony. 

They all sat down as Elder Ming proceeded to explain everything there is to know about the basics of cultivation. 

"In this world, cultivators always have to start from awakening their spirit. Deep down in everyone's dantian, there resides a Spirit of one's self. To start your cultivation, you must split your consciousness into two portions and imprint one part into the Spirit in your dantian. 

"Then, with the help of your spirit, you can transform the Spirit Essence in the air into Spirit Qi. 

"Most people, without any clan to support them, have to use Spirit Awakening Pill to wake up their spirits. It is cheap and does the job, but that's all. It doesn't increase the quality of your spirit. 

"On the other hand, if you have money, you can use an expensive Spirit Awakening Liquid. Not only does it awaken your spirit, but it also nourishes it and increase its talent. 

"The higher your talent is, the quicker you can absorb the Spirit Essence into your dantian. So, without Spirit Awakening Liquid, your Spirit will only have your inborn talent. 

"There are nine levels of Spirit talents: Golden, Black, Purple, Dark Blue, Sky Blue, Dark Green, Light Green, Red and Orange where Golden is the highest, and Orange the lowest. 

"When you refine Spirit Essence with Orange Spirit talent, you will produce Orange colored Spirit Qi. With that, it is not hard to check someone's talent. 

"There were only a few people in the history who had golden Spirit Talent and all of them were either Emperors or Saints. You can imagine how rare it is." Elder Ming explained without a break. 

"Our clan uses Spirit Awakening Liquid, right?" Xuefeng asked, wanting to have his input. 

"Of course… Clan leader bought an especially large amount of it, just for tomorrow," Elder Ming said in irritation. 

'He definitely thinks it is a waste to use it on me,' Xuefeng thought secretly. 

"Everything is clear up to this point?" Elder Ming asked. 

"Yes, Elder," Xuefeng nodded. 

"Then listen carefully now. After one awakens their Spirit, they proceed to fill their dantian with Spirit Qi. This stage is called Spirit Gathering Realm. It can be a long process, but also a quick one. It all depends on how high the talent your Spirit has. 

"For comparison, an Orange Spirit Talents needs at least a year to fill his dantian fully, but Golden Spirit Talents would only need about a day. That's the strength of having a better talent. 

"When you fill the entire space in your dantian with Spirit Qi, you can finally move to the next step. The truth is, all that you see in your dantian is just a small part of it. To increase the capacity of your dantian, you need to break the walls surrounding around it with your Spirit Qi. 

"After breaking the first wall, you will be a Spirit Master. Many cultivators with Orange Spirit Talent stay in this realm their whole lives. Unfortunately, the weaker your Spirit Qi is, the harder it is to break the walls. 

"Unless they use some expensive pills to help with their breakthrough or some Spirit herbs to increase the quality of their Qi, it will be hard." 

"Life is cruel," Xuefeng commented. 

"Indeed, but there is nothing we can do… Okay, where did I stop... Oh, after you break your second wall you will then be a Spirit Grandmaster. Most Red and Light Green Spirit Talent cultivators are stuck at this stage. 

"But in this area, if you are a Spirit Grandmaster, you can become an elder of some clan or power and live a decent life. 

"After breaking the next wall, you can become a Spirit King. That's the stage your father, the clan leader is at. 

"From what I know there are four more stages after that, Spirit Lord, Spirit Overlord, Spirit Emperor and Spirit Saint. But there aren't many cultivators who reached the last two stages. Some say that when you become Spirit Saint, you can fly without using any Spirit Artefacts. 

"In our Eastern Region, there are only a few Spirit Saints and most of them live in the Azure Dragon Empire," Elder Ming explained and looked at Xuefeng's smiling face, asking, "Is everything clear?" 

"Yes. I'm just looking forward to cultivating. It sounds fun," Xuefeng said cheerfully. 

Elder Ming sat there dumbfounded. He's never heard anyone say that cultivation might be fun. 

"Young master, you will soon realize how dangerous the cultivation world is. If you leave the city you can be attacked by many beasts or be even robbed and killed by bandits. Don't think everyone will be nice to you just because you are the Clan Leader's son," He warned Xuefeng in a serious tone. 

'Right, I forgot that everything can kill you here. Even a small mosquito,' Xuefeng gulped. 

Seeing that Xuefeng understood, Elder Ming continued. 

"There is another aspect in cultivation that you need to know. There is a saying, "A man without a Spirit Artefact is like a man without his manhood, useless." 

"When you are in Spirit Gathering Stage, your Spirit Qi is enough to support one Spirit Artefact. The more Spirit Artefacts you place inside of your dantian, the slower your growth will be. 

"You must know that every Spirit Artefact needs your Spirit Qi to survive and if you want to use it, you need to consume even more. Fortunately, it is easier to replenish your Spirit Qi to the point you had before. 

"You can compare your Spirit Qi to a bubble that is slowly expanding and increasing the cultivator's capacity inside their dantian. When you use your Spirit Qi, it will become smaller, but the space is still there. 

"When you reach Spirit Master, you can use two Spirit Artefacts at the same time without any problems. Spirit Grandmasters can use four, Spirit Kings eight. 

"Of course, it doesn't mean they need that many." Elder Ming looked at Xuefeng's sudden change when he started talking about Spirit Artefacts. He started to get excited and listened more carefully. Elder Ming smirked and suddenly a light green glow covered his hand and a sword appeared out of nowhere. 

"Wow," Xuefeng exclaimed. 

"I would let you hold it, but unfortunately you don't have any Spirit Qi yet," Elder Ming said as he played around with the sword. 

"Okay, we are not done yet. As you might know already, Spirit Artefacts are also segregated into ranks. There are nine ranks with rank 1 being the weakest. Of course, the higher the rank the more consuming it is to use it. 

"For example, the sword I'm using is a rank 3 sword and I got it from killing a Bone Python. Even though it doesn't have any special ability, it is still a good Spirit Artefact. It can increase your attack strength by thirty percent. 

"Tomorrow you will be taking part in the Spirit Awakening Ceremony where not only will you awaken your spirit but also get a chance to enter the Spirit Treasury. There are many rare Spirit Artefacts in there and you can take one. But there is a catch, you only have ten minutes. If you can't make any Spirit Artefacts acknowledge you as their master, then you can only please yourself with normal ones. 

"Okay, I think I've told you everything you need to know about cultivation." Elder Ming flicked his hand causing the sword to disappear and stood up. 

"What should I do If I have some questions later?" Xuefeng asked. 

"You can go to the library, there are many books about cultivation there," Elder Ming suggested and walked towards the doors. 

"Prepare for tomorrow, we expect huge things from you," he stated before leaving.