In ka wielders’ cultivation, there were 10 ranks. From rank 10, the first step ka wielders stepped on when they first opened their sea core, to the exalted rank 1. In the Bottom Realm which contained the first 3 ranks, each rank of them had 6 transformations.

The night had fallen, and the noisy street below only grew noisier.

Sa Min closed his eyes, focusing his mind — not too much as to forget about the outer world. He needed to stay vigilant just in case something should happen within the Qin residence. With his inner sight, Sa Min looked around his sea core.

A rough and rugged blue layer enveloped his sea core. The kind of wall that ka wielders with C-grade aptitude had. The hard wall that was extremely difficult to refine and strengthen, compared to the walls of better sea cores.

The better the aptitude, the less hardness a sea core wall was. And that was a huge advantage.

Inside the sea core, there was a sea sphere of Sa Min's unique pure force. It had a sky blue color, smooth like glass, and sparkled with his Essence marks. It was the sky-blue pure sea, the first transformation of rank 1 provided.

This sea sphere of his pure force remained separated from the core’s wall, creating a gap between them. It appeared to be floating there, as if suspended by a mysterious force.

The sea sphere was moving slowly in place towards the right; on its surface, the waves rose and fell.

With Sa Min’s thought, the Volcanic Black Rock Ka emerged from within the sea sphere onto the surface like a fish emerging from the ocean.

Sa Min sighed. Tomorrow, I need to feed it again. I only have 7 force apples, the 5 Hu Guo gave us this morning, and the 2 I took from that man in competition. With 2 Liquid Bottles, I’ll be left with only 5….this is not enough.

The force apples were not just currency in the cultivation field. They were much more important than that.

Letting out another sigh, Sa Min shifted his attention to the bottom center point of his sea core.

Unlike the rest of the rough, sky-blue wall, a pitch-black spot stood out there. It wasn’t supposed to be black; it was meant to be open, allowing the pure force to flow down to the essence core.

This blackness blockage was what was holding Sa Min from accessing his essence core. And shattering it was the first thing he should do before even considering strengthening his sea-core wall.

Sa Min took a very deep breath. Another one. Then another one. He balled his hands into tight fists to prepare himself. And with a determined grimace expression, he began channeling his sea force.

Immediately, on the bottom of the sea sphere, a portion of pure force shifted, emerging and moving towards the black roadblock, while Sa Min’s fists squeezed, his body stiffened and shook under the strain.

It felt like a skinny man with 100 catty trying to move a boulder of 500 catty.

With a great effort, Sa Min kept dragging that portion, kept dragging it, until he splashed it against the bottom of the sea-core wall.

Half of it had missed the black roadblock.

Sa Min paused, gasping some breaths; sweat had already begun to appear on his naked body.

The sea sphere had diminished in size — the pure force had been decreased by 5%; however, the portion he had used didn’t seem to do any real damage to the roadblock.

This time, curious about his Ba’s limits since it’d been a long time, Sa Min tried to channel three portions at the same time, and he couldn’t help but grit his teeth. Before the three portions could leave the sea sphere, Sa Min released his grip and gave up. He felt like if he didn't stop, his mind would explode.

The three portions of his pure force returned to the sea sphere as if there were a magnet pulling them.

I think I should stick to small portions for now. Sa Min’s breathing became heavy, sweat trickled down his entire body. He had to take some moments to rest; he had to open his crossed legs to let the air flow in.

This was the Bas strength that Hu Guo had spoken of. Sa Min believed that her explanation of their importance was just all a waste of time, though.

Advancing in rank meant channeling your pure force to strengthen the sea-core wall.

Channeling this pure force would automatically strengthen your Ba.

If advancing in rank was like pushing a boulder of 500 catty to a mountaintop, the suffering your skinny 100 catty body endured would naturally strengthen it until the point where you could move that boulder with super ease.

And once you reached the mountaintop, a heavier boulder would await you, requiring even more suffering to ascend to a higher peak, further strengthening your body, and the cycle continued.

That’s exactly how cultivation worked. Ka wielders had to strengthen their sea-core in order to advance, and by doing that, their Ba would naturally suffer and so, strengthened. That was until their Ba strengthened enough and they could manipulate their pure force with no effort. However, when they moved to a higher rank, there would be a denser and stronger pure force that would require their Ba to suffer yet again and yet again, strengthening their Ba.

Those born with a stronger Ba merely had a temporary advantage that was not going to last long.

If I can get my hand on that Spherical Coin that the academy offers to whoever opens his essence core first.’Sa Min opened his eyes slightly, checking on the Qin residence before closing them again. I can strengthen my Ba faster… which is going to help cultivate faster.

But Sa Min only sneered in his heart, and resumed manipulating his sea force. He knew he had no chances in getting it. The only way he could get it was by gathering enough merits, from taking the academy's missions and completing them.

Which was going to take years and years.

But whatever.

The room naturally became stinky.

Whatever. With extreme difficulty, Sa Min continued channeling his pure force, all the while his sea sphere continued to shrink. No real damage had been done to the blockroad. But he wasn’t surprised. He knew it would take time. Maybe about two months or more, depending on many things.

Minutes flew by, and his face turned deadly pale. His Ba was screaming at him to stop, and his body as well. He stank. Extremely exhausted. That’s probably enough for today. But…who was Sa Min again?

I must strengthen my Ba to 5Q before I stop, he thought, huffing and puffing.

Similar to physical strength, Bas could also be measured. The unit of measurement was called 'Q.' To be able to manipulate the sky-blue pure force effortlessly, your Ba had to have 50Q. And Sa Min didn’t need to check his Ba to know it only had 3Q.

About two hours later, Sa Min paused and leaned on his knees for a few moments to catch his breath, before he stood up. The sea sphere in his sea core had shrunk to 4%. 96% of pure force had been used.

Meanwhile, his force gate was generating his pure force.

There were two methods for ka wielders to replenish their pure force.

The first way was the natural way, which cost nothing. Allowing the force gate to draw the primal force that existed in the world in — the world force. However, the force gates would only begin absorbing the world force to replenish the sea sphere once it had diminished to 10%.

Unfortunately for Sa Min, given his C-grade aptitude, it would take approximately eight hours for his sea core to be filled once again.

The speed at which ka wielders’ sea sphere replenished depended on their aptitude. The more talented a ka wielder, the faster his pure force regenerated. Naturally, the force gate continuously replenished the pure force until the ka wielder’s sea sphere was 100% full.

The second way was through absorbing force apples.

With his head aching, Sa Min wiped his entire sweaty body with the towel that the servant had brought him, then walked over to the bed, took out one force apple from the pouch in his robe and returned to his chair.

For a poor ka wilder like him, who only had 7 force apples, using force apples to refresh his sea sphere, which could naturally be refreshed if he simply waited, would be considered stupid by ka wielders' standards.

 

But for Sa Min…

5 force apples are not enough if I want to cultivate every day, Sa Min thought, and without hesitation, he placed the force apple before his force gate and closed his eyes. I’ll have to find some way to get them. I have to.

This was his way. Leaving the problems of tomorrow to tomorrow’s him. If he started keeping his resources unused for whatever he thought might need them in the future, he would never go anywhere. And opportunities would never show themselves.

The force apple trembled in his hand, and with a refreshingly cold feeling, the primal force condensed in it started flowing into his force gate sea. At the same time, the sea sphere began growing, expanding.

With his aptitude’s grade, Sa Min understood it would take minutes for his sea sphere to be completely refreshed. Wanting to waste no time, he struggled to direct his pure force to the black blockroad even as he absorbed the force apple.

Time continued and no change had occurred to either the black road or his Ba's strength. Not a surprise, but an exhausted sigh couldn’t help but escape his thin lips as he stopped to take a rest.

It'd be a lot more helpful if only I can get my hands on that Spherical Coin, Sa Min thought, leaning back on his damp chair. But compared to Sa Juan and Sa Wen and Ta Chen, their aptitude is better, which means their black road is less hard to shatter.

Not to mention their Ba strength, he's no better than Sa Wen. He might have the advantage of not being a woman with a period of weakness. But still, there was no way he could get that Spherical Coin.

Sa Min knew that. That’s why he wasn’t in a rush to cultivate like the rest.

If he had to guess, one of these, Ta Chen, Sa Juan, Sa Wen, or Qing Lian would win that reward. It was hard to tell exactly. Sa Juan had the best aptitude, but her Ba was weak compared to Ta Chen.

Sa Wen had a weak Ba, but he was a man with no seed core, which gave him an advantage. It was truly hard to say for sure, as there were many variables involved, but one thing was certain: all three of them had wealthy families backing them

As for Qing Lian.

Sa Min suddenly leaned forward, his eyes narrowing at the courtyard of the Qing’s residence.

A young man with disheveled hair had walked out of a room and was heading towards the main hall.

It was Qing Lian. Sa Min didn’t know his Ba's strength.

However, even if it was weak like his and Sa Wen's, he still had a chance of getting that reward.