The child grew up under the care of the sect master Shangun Bingying. She fed him, clothed him, bathe him and did everything a mother would do for a child. The child was sensible though, he never dirtied his clothes, never cried or demanded anything obediently listening to his surrogate mother. As time passed, Bingying was shocked to see the wisdom of the child. At the age of four, he could recite and write poems. At the age of six, he could write his own poems and stories. He was a literary genius with creativity and a memory that seldom forgot things. The age of ten was the time to start cultivation for other kids for them to have enough wisdom, perseverance and a body capable of withstanding pain that goes by to achieve greatness in the way o cultivation.
Li Tian started cultivating at the age of eight. He would have liked to start more early however, his master did not give him the permission to do so. The girls in the sect practiced Divine Ice Arts which was Yin based cultivation and required females to be virgin till they at least reached Martial Ancestor while higher stages of cultivation is much easier reached by virgins than non-virgins do. Li Tian however, practiced a martial arts that was practiced at a time when the sect was the number one in the Human Empire with both male and female disciples. The name of the cultivation technique was "Divine Phoenix Code". A yang based cultivation technique that has lost significance in the all-female sect.
When Li Tian started cultivating he felt a warmth passing though his skin to his body. The human body had 100 primary meridians. When a single meridian is opened you will begin your journey of cultivation becoming a Martial Apprentice. As you open more meridians you will step through the different levels of Martial Apprentice and reach Martial Student when you open 10 meridians. The accumulated opening of all 100 primary meridians is reaching Martial Teacher.
Li Tian continued to cultivate with the warm air circulating and trying to open the first primary meridian. However, in a sect with ice scenery present all around to cultivate a fire based technique was extremely difficult to do. He was forbidden to come close to the only lake which had warmth and vegetation. Helpless over this fact, he could only steel his resolve and continue to practice on the mountains looking over the scenery. A orange light would twinkle in the depths of his soul increasing the speed of his cultivation ever so slightly. Little did he know that it would help him converge the fire elements in the sky and help him cultivate.
Walking up early in the morning just as the sun rises and cultivating till night until he literally forces the warmth in his own body for cultivation was his daily practice in the first few day he learned of cultivation. His master would watch over him surprised over his perseverance and shocked with his speed of cultivation. He took three days to reach the first stage of Martial Apprentice and another 5 days to reach the second level, another 16 days to reach fourth level apprentice and finally reaching Martial Student in just 120 days.
One has to know that the cultivation starting age of the girls was at a better suited time with a very good environment for practicing their cultivation technique. However, even the greatest genius in the sect took 60 days to reach Martial Student in the history of the sect that included its most glorious period when it was number one in the whole empire and perhaps even the best when you include all the other races. Even her, considered to be the best genius in a hundred years took 100 days to reach Martial Student.
While others might trivialize it saying that speed though much better than the average 180 days is not exceptionally good, she knows the importance of the environment in playing a role for the cultivation technique a cultivator cultivates. Imagine asking you to light a fire under water, while a volcano underwater might erupt and make the water evaporate or you may be able to see fire in such a case but asking you to light the fire is impossible., or asking you to be able to freely breathe at high altitudes and conduct a running race is difficult for the body to be able to achieve due to lack of oxygen.
Shangun Bingying believed that he will not be able to cultivate and the persistence in the few days will cool off. The child without cultivation will not have to embark on the cruel journey where dog bites another dog to achieve supremacy in the martial way. Even if leaving the sect was a forgone conclusion she might be able to delay it using his cultivation as an excuse and when he finally leaves he could become a great scholar of the land. But reality showed that the kid was extremely gifted in cultivation and might be the greatest human genius in history.
