Chapter 13, learning
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Jiang Feng’s POV

After the demon beast named ‘Hella’ left, we sat in silence for several minutes.

I got my thoughts in order and opened my mouth: “So… What do you think?”

Elder Luo was silent for a few more moments but eventually responded: “She’s... Odd; Based on the fact that she looks nearly human and can talk, she has to be a Sage realm expert like you, but the amount of qi she releases is only enough for the second stage of the mortal realm.”

“Yes, I thought the same. I did consider that she might have even reached the Origin realm and can hide most of her qi from us, but then her imperfect transformation doesn’t make any sense; Any demon beast should be able to transform perfectly when they reach the peak of the Sage realm, the only exceptions are...” As I voiced my confusion, a new idea formed in my head and my voice trailed off.

I thought for a few more moments and eventually decided that that was the only possible conclusion: “I think she might be a divine beast.”

Elder Luo, who had been drinking his tea, froze when he heard my words.

He didn’t move for a few seconds and eventually put his cup on the table, making a loud ‘Clack’: “Brother Jiang… How could she be a divine beast? There are only four in the entire world, and they are all on the demon beast continent.”

Although his words made sense, I quickly refuted Elder Luo’s words: “It’s the only explanation, Divine beasts can only complete their transformation when they reach the Martialist realm.”, I cleared my throat and continued; ”You know the story about the war from several thousand years ago, don’t you? One of the divine beasts, the dragon, disappeared during battle, leaving only the current four allowing us humans to defend our continent. It’s possible that the dragon used a secret technique to safe themselves, burning their cultivation to escape, and then going in hiding for thousands of years”

Elder Luo was silent for a while, considering my words, and finally answered: “I suppose that is possible. There are stories out there that portray the dragon as generous and kind towards humans, it would explain how she was willing to deliver junior Wu’s package.”

Hearing his words, I grew more confident in my theory, quickly expanding on it: “Yes! It would also explain why she wants information, she’ll have missed several thousand years of history; She probably doesn’t even know how the war back then ended.”

Realising I had gotten quite excited, I quickly calmed myself “*Cough* Regardless… Whether or not she is the dragon from back then, it’s obvious that she is an exceptional expert. We can’t afford to anger her. She’s only asked for knowledge, let’s accommodate her for now; It doesn’t cause us any harm.”

“I agree, as long as her requests aren’t harmful to us, there isn’t any reason to refuse.”

As we postponed dealing with the divine beast to later, we quietly drank our tea, hoping nothing bad was in store for us.

Hella’s POV

“Honoured guest, this is the library. If you are looking for anything specific, then the librarian will be able to help you. If you need anything else, you can call for me with this spiritual artefact, it is also proof as to your status as the city lord’s guest.” The servant who led me to the library handed me a small jade and, after a polite bow, left.

I looked around the unexpectedly grand library and approached the nearest bookshelf.

Although some books had a title written on their spine, they were in the minority. Because of this, for most of the books, I had to take them off their shelf to see their title.

I pulled out a random book and read the title: ‘The history of white-gold city’

After thumbing through the book briefly, I put it back on the shelf and approached the librarian who was quietly reading a book behind his desk.

When I stood in front of the desk, before I could say anything, the librarian spoke while keeping his eyes on his book:  “You’ll need permission from the lord if you want to read cultivation manuals. If you’re looking for a specific topic or book, you can find its location in here.”

The librarian handed me a small booklet and returned to reading his book, only barely acknowledging my existence.

I opened the booklet and found the layout of the library and a long list of book titles and where to find them.

“That one seems useful,” I mumbled to myself as I spotted a book titled: ‘A brief overview of cultivation’.

Following the booklet’s directions, I headed through a door to find another section of the library. There, I quickly found the book I was looking for and started reading.

 

Since it was only a small book, it took me less than an hour to finish it.

I put the book back on the shelf and went over what I just learned in my head:

In this world, there are seven known cultivation realms; The mortal realm, the spirit realm, the sage realm, the origin realm, the martialist realm, the martial lord realm and the immortal realm.

Each of these realms are themselves split into multiple stages. The mortal realm, for example, was split into stages one through five.

When one first condenses their mana core, or dantian, as the book called it, they officially enter the mortal realm; Their life is extended by a hundred years and their overall physique and mental capabilities rise dramatically. They’ll also become able to store mana, or qi, in their mana core.

When the mana core fills up, they can then compress this mana into a denser form, entering the second stage of the mortal realm. Although this usually required the cultivator to focus on condensing and manipulating the mana, if there was an abundance of mana available, this wasn’t always needed, especially in the lower cultivation realms.

This is also what happened to me; I first condensed my mana core by myself, but when I filled it up at the pit, the overwhelming amount of mana in the air allowed me to enter the second stage of the mortal realm without even trying.

This is also the reason my mana core won’t absorb any more mana. It is full and I would have to condense it before I could absorb more.

“That’s not the biggest hurdle though...” I said to myself as I thought back to a chapter of the book; To enter the next cultivation realm, cultivators would have to face a heavenly tribulation, putting their life at risk in exchange for an increase in power and a longer life span.

According to legend, the gods are cultivators that ascended the seven known realms to reach their current position. They, allegedly, then created these heavenly tribulations to keep others from doing the same.

Whether this was true or not didn’t bother me and I didn’t dwell on it.

Instead, I looked for a book that described the heavenly tribulations in more details, as the ‘Three strike mortal tribulation’ that I would have to face, was one.

I searched the booklet the librarian had given me but couldn't find anything about it.

After searching for a bit longer, I eventually left the room I was in and went back to the librarian’s desk.

To prevent a repeat of the first time, I quickly opened my mouth: “I’m looking for a book on heavenly tribulations”.

The librarian eyed me for a few moments but eventually responded: “You’ll need permission from the lord for that.”

Hearing his words, I fished the jade the servant had given me before out of my pocket and showed it to the librarian: “Will this do?”

“Hmm…”, The librarian studied it for a few seconds and then continued: “I suppose it will. You’ll find the books you want through this door, here.”

He pointed at the door behind him and I quickly entered it.

 

I spend the rest of the day reading. The books in this section of the library were countless times more useful than any other book in the rest of it.

Not only did I learn much about tribulations and, most importantly, how to survive them, but I also learned many ways of improving my control of mana.

Apart from that, I also learned some fundamentals on how to cultivate my mana core and several practical uses of mana.

These mana techniques allowed me to wield my mana in many ways besides just strengthening myself with it.

After reading the majority of the books in the library, I left to find a place to practise some of these techniques.

Although I had learned some magic from Hestri before, these techniques utilized mana in an entirely different way.

The spells that the little elf taught me were based on using the mana to construct a ‘ message’ that ushered nature it into creating whatever phenomena the message asked for, whereas these mana techniques used the strength of the mana itself to construct these phenomena.

Both ways have their advantages and disadvantages. 

Magic spells were relatively easy to learn and use, every spell had its own mana pattern and you only had to shape your mana in that pattern to cast the spell. 

Someone with a moderate amount of aptitude for magic would only take a few weeks to learn a few simple spells. But creating new spells, or even adapting existing spells, would take years of studying or boundless talent. And many of the more powerful spells had incredibly huge and complex mana patterns, requiring immense control and large amounts of mana.

This was also why many magicians carried a grimoire with them, they could record spells in them and reduce the amount of mana and control by casting magic using it.

Mana techniques, on the other hand, took longer to learn and often required natural talent; Someone without any talent wouldn’t be able to learn any technique in their whole life. 

Mana techniques also couldn’t easily be taught, most techniques required one to comprehend the working of mana and its influence on nature. This isn’t something someone can teach you, you have to come to these understandings by yourself.

However, although mana techniques were harder to learn, they were more flexible than magic spells and could be adapted relatively easily to suit different situations.

What made mana techniques seem superior in my eyes, however, was that there didn’t seem to be a limit on how powerful they could get; Whereas magic spells could only be as powerful as nature allowed, mana techniques would be as strong as the practitioners’ mana.

 

Thinking about these things, I found an empty courtyard and, after getting permission, started practising the first technique, the ‘Immortal’s skin’.

This technique consisted of three parts: 

The first part consisted of gathering mana under the skin; When injured the mana would absorb any damage that got through your skin, practically acting as a second, stronger skin. Although your skin would still get damaged, your internal organs had some extra protection.

The second part consisted of infusing the mana into the skin, strengthening it. Although it wouldn’t get as strong as the extra layer of mana under your skin, the skin wouldn’t require active control of mana and added a passive layer of protection during a fight. You practically turned your skin into a layer of armour with this part.

The third and final part of the technique required one to create a layer of mana on top of your skin. As there was a limited amount of mana you could gather under your skin, once your mana exceeded this amount, you could use this third part to turn this excess mana into defence; You could create a shield out of mana on top of your skin.

Although there were many defensive techniques to choose from, I chose this technique because it seemed to work synergistically with my ‘Tough skin’ racial trait.  

Recalling the contents of the technique, I sat down cross-legged and started practising.

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