Author’s Note: Sorry in advance as this chapter is kind of an info dump on the cultivation system and I hope it isn't too confusing. Feel free to ask any questions you have. Next chapter is on Friday.

A week passed and it was time for the first lecture. During this time, Qian Yu managed to break through to the 5th stage of the body refinement stage as he started to get used to his basic sect routine. Train, eat, sleep. Rinse and repeat. 

“Hey, Chen Ya, hey Wu Jing!” Qian Yu amiably greeted as he saw them waiting outside the lecture hall waiting for him. During this time, Qian Yu got to know the other two pretty well as he spent most of his time with them. Sometimes, they would even go train together and Wu Jing even sparred with Qian Yu once which ended miserably since Qian Yu had no fighting experience and while Wu Jing was a bad teacher. 

“Qian Yu!” They smiled back and greeted him. 

The three finally entered the building and sat down on the mats that were on the ground. After a couple minutes, more and more people arrived until it was completely packed. Finally, the guest of honor came and Elder Wu entered and walked onto the stage. Seeing the hall pretty packed he immediately started.

“Alright, today will be a pretty big lecture with a lot of information. Some of you may already know it but most of you guys may not so I’ll be going over a lot of basic information before going onto the more grandiose of material,” he said loudly. 

“Ok, so who here can tell me the stages of cultivation before one becomes a Martial Fighter?” he asked. 

About half of the hands in the class shot up instantly and Elder Wu chose a random disciple. “Greetings Elder, my name Yuan Long. The stages are body refinement, qi gathering, and soul foundation stage,” the disciple said.

“Correct. Now, most of you here are in the body refinement, and maybe a few in the qi gathering. These two stages are the most basic of foundations for cultivating. Why do you need to go through body refining? It’s because you will need to gather qi into your own body actively after you enter the qi gathering stage. Although everybody has a bit of qi inside their body, actively gathering qi is something that goes against nature and as such it requires a strong body. Otherwise, the qi that you absorb will go amok in your body and it can damage your body,” he nodded his head.

“After you enter the qi gathering stage, you will start gathering qi into your dantian, purify it, and then circulate it through your body to get a better understanding and control of it. This is where your cultivation technique comes into play because the grade of the method affects the gathering speed and refinement of the qi. The higher the cultivation technique, the more efficient it is at gathering, purifying, and circulating the qi,” he stopped as he saw a few students raise their hands with a worried face. 

“Elder, is it possible to switch cultivation methods while you're in the qi gathering stage?” the student asked.

“Of course, you can change your cultivation method at any time actually. It doesn't really matter in the qi gathering stage but it’ll have more consequences in the soul foundation stage and above. After you reach the qi gathering stage, you will slowly learn how to infuse your attacks with qi and start learning the martial techniques in the cultivation technique. As for our Ice Arts Sect, we will give everyone the Sky ranked Ice Manipulation cultivation technique, which is above the mortal and earth rank. If you ever manage to become an inner court disciple, you will have access to our sect’s Heaven ranked Ice Arts cultivation technique. Alright come in.”

At this time, some disciples entered the room and started handing out a cylinder container that had something inside. Some of them opened it and Qian Yu did the same and he discovered a piece of paper which read, “Ice Manipulation cultivation technique.”

Elder Wu didn’t wait that long as he started lecturing after all the techniques were passed out. 

“Next is the hardest part on the road to becoming a Martial Fighter. The soul foundation stage is where one’s cultivation talent is tested as most of you will be stuck here. Personally, I spent over 5 years in this stage. Essentially, to enter the Martial Fighter realm, you need your soul world to mature. At first, your soul world will just be a completely empty and black slate. As for how you develop it? It depends on your cultivation method. As you use the cultivation method more and more, refine more qi and practice the technique, you become more proficient in it.”

“We call it “mastery” and it is something that will slowly increase over time. As you get more mastery, you will start to unlock more layers of the technique. For example, a cultivator who just entered the soul foundation realm and was at the 1st layer of the technique would easily be defeated by someone who had been practicing the technique for longer as this person would have a higher mastery.”

“Of course, there are times where one person’s low mastery can sometimes be stronger than someone else with a higher level of mastery due to difference in talent and affinity for the cultivation technique,” he finally stopped talking to take a breather and looked at the numerous hands in the air as he chose a student.

“How does this relate with developing one’s soul though and entering the Martial Lord realm?” the disciple asked.

“Good question, unlike the body refinement and qi gathering stage, the soul foundation stage and up is separated into the early, middle, and late stage. This is because of how mastery works. After you mastered the 1st layer of the cultivation technique, it means you are an early soul foundation stage cultivator. At this time, you will see a noticeable change in your soul world.” 

“This also happens at the intermediate and advanced stages of mastery after you master the 2nd and 3rd layer respectively. The last barrier to entering the Martial Fighter realm is reaching the proficiency stage, where you mastered the 4th layer. As such, this is why it is more rare to see people forcefully drop their cultivation techniques because they will lose all of their accumulated mastery and understanding of the laws to do so.”

“Lastly, I’ll talk a bit about the Martial Fighter realm and higher. After someone has achieved proficiency in one cultivation technique they become a Martial Fighter as they have enough experience and control to use qi to fly. After mastering the 4th layer, a Martial Fighter can start learning another cultivation technique or continue to improve their first cultivation technique.” 

“The next realm is the Martial Lord where one has proficiency in two techniques and so on. However, a Martial Lord fighting a Martial Fighter with the same technique would easily win most of the time. This is because a Martial Lord has a higher level of quality and quantity of qi than a Martial Fighter even if they are at the same layer in the cultivation technique.”

“Alright that’s enough for today,” the elder dismissed the class.

When Qian Yu came back to his room, he was completely shocked. Previously, he only knew about the body refining and qi gathering. He only heard bits of information on the soul foundation stage but he didn’t know that much as there was a lack of information in the village. As there were few villagers that managed to become disciples, and even those that were, wouldn’t come back to the village usually. 

‘Elder Bai is truly amazing, so young and she’s already a Martial Fighter, the rumors about her could probably be true too. Hmm, I’ll go visit the mission center to see what I can buy with sect points and then go to the medical hall as well,’ he planned.