In the few days here Thirteen had seen each and every inhabitant, Zhao Wei included receive extreme wounds and injuries which would usually take a person's life or at least cripple them for the rest of it. That in addition to her lifetime spent as an assassin however short it was, allowed her to recognize almost every kind of wound, this included the kind of swing, maneuver and even the kind of weapons used to inflict the wound.
Her body had several scars running down her left thigh, culminating into a stump where her left leg should be. The flesh was pulled away as the bone popped out of it's socket to follow the rest of the limb. There was a lack of bruising in her torso, but a dent was left in it's shape as if something had tied it down and was digging into it for sometime.
Her first thought as she saw the wound was a fight, but on closer inspection of the wound she saw that some of the flesh had clearly been cut off. Additionally the muscles were not torn off quickly like in a fight as the left over flesh seemed to stretch and tear.
Somehow she was caught and tied up, explaining the dent in her body, having herself wrapped in chains, as ropes wouldn't be enough to hold her strength. While she was unable to fight back they then inflicted the wound. Slowly, deliberately, having the whole leg pulled off, probably with some kind of contraption or had it tied to some kind of beast.
But because she was stronger than most beasts her limb wasn't directly ripped from the body. Instead the event probably lasted a few days, prolonging the pain much much longer. After some time, the perpetrators grew tired of the act and decided to cut the left over flesh to finish the deed.
There was only one kind of animal that Thirteen could think of that could do such a thing, the cruelest most selfish beasts on the planet. Humans.
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"You know, if you taught these kinds of things back in my kingdom they'd probably stone you." Jeff said as he looked on towards a field of people all trying to learn from the few books that Grendolyn had kept with her.
"Why's that?" Grendolyn asked.
"You've basically told us that all we've researched through a millennium of history to be false." He replied, though he said those words in a form of mockery, his tail maintained his grip on one of the books she supplied. "And if you're a mage why do you have so many martial arts books anyway."
"I'm a blacksmith before I'm a mage, and although most mages want a good staff, they don't change or damage them as frequently as warriors and swordsmen. If I had to eat according to what I get from selling to mages, I wouldn't be able to grow so well." Grendolyn answered, beating her chest with a fist. The intent was probably to exude a sense of manliness, but the more than tender and staggering result more than nullified it. "Besides, I didn't go so far as to dismiss everything your people have researched, I've simply extended it to where I've researched."
"Your bodies are like a series of roads and each of your methods are like maps telling you where to expand. But your research is limited, so people assume the roads only go so far. What I'm doing is simply giving you a bigger map and telling you how big the world is."
"Your Gold classes were probably impressive to you, but to me a gold class had just graduated from the body strengthening class which our people still designate as mortals. When I first met you, you had barely surpassed the level of your kind, reaching the foundation nurturing class, Thirteen was already mid way body strengthening class. And you'd be surprised how fast you grow when path is open to you, haven't you yourself grown several stages since we met?" She looked at Jeff cheekily.
Jeff just smiled and pretended he didn't know anything. It was true though, while he'd been told he shouldn't practice those methods without someone to properly guide him, he wasn't a man of precaution. By the first day he'd already looked around for books he liked and begun cultivating, putting his own life at risk.
"Of course the bigger the world the higher the risk... The open roads have no shortages of danger and demise." As she said that, Grendolyn looked far into the field, into an indistinguishable corner, at the edge of where the crowd was. It's existence was indisputable, but every man and woman no matter how powerful they were seemed to actively avoid gazing it's way.
From time to time a man would come bringing along a cart. Once he arrived he unloaded bundles of white cloth onto a mound which was growing bigger by the hour.
"The one I'm surprised by however, was Zhao Wei of all people." Grendolyn stated.
"How so?"
"From his stories his world didn't have any of these methods of cultivation. Out of everyone, he should have the hardest time believing in such things. And of all things he had started with a cultivation method that is pretty close to mine." She explained.
"What!?" Jeff's eyes went wide. He'd remembered the method Guru had given Zhao Wei and he had tried to teach his own student in the past. It was one their kingdom had found but couldn't identify. Now he understood why it had such a tyrannical effect and completely crushed his student. But Zhao Wei who had no foundations to speak of actually succeeded in practicing it.
It wasn't just a problem of whether a body was suited or not. Even little things like character and thought processes came into play with cultivation. This was why so many stories told people to calm their minds before breaking through higher realms. Simple things like rushing, or being unsure of something could lead a person to their deaths in a single moment of uncertainty.
Coming from a world without such things, there should be at least some uncertainty in his heart. And if he practiced any method, not even mentioning the powerful ones and those feelings surfaced, the overwhelming energies would've torn his body apart. Or that's what Jeff thought anyway.
How strong was his fortitude, what was his motivation that kept him straight and steady while he cultivated?
"I'm pretty sure if those things you gave him weren't always feeding off the energies building up in his body that he'd already surpass you" Grendolyn said. "Right now, wherever he is, he's probably at the level of a either in the early stages of foundation nurturing class."
"And that's only in terms of his chi..." At those words Jeff nodded, he had understood for quite some time that Zhao Wei was dual cultivating mana and chi. At some point he had expected one to lag behind the other and Zhao Wei to switch to focusing on just one. But so far, both those things had been growing at a ridiculous rate inside his body.
"But this is still nothing to your kingdom right?" Jeff asked self deprecatingly.
"You want me to be honest or do you prefer I lie to you?" Grendolyn asked in reply.
"Can you tell me the truth but then lie to me so I'll feel better about it later on?"
"Sure."
"Children in our schools have reached your level by the age of ten, those that only reach foundation establishment after the age of fifteen remain as farmers. But those two levels are so small to us that they don't even require being split into levels like your Bronze, Silver or Gold class."
"After that there are Martial lords which are split into ten different levels, the lowest of which's requirements dwarfs the amount of talent and resources for you need to reach gold class by at least five times but can probably only get jobs as a guard at stores."
"Then there are Martial Kings and Emperors both of which dwarf the previous class by several more times and who are most of the soldiers of kingdoms at our level. Most small families have at least one Martial Ancestor, who are pretty young despite the name. And every person in a big family with a position like head butler or maid are at least Martial ancestor."
"The adults in big families are at least at the Martial Spirit level and you can't be a patriarch or matriarch unless you're half a step into Martial Saint. That's not even including the monsters that spend most of their time behind the scenes, I don't even know what kind of level they use." Grendolyn sighed after almost rapping all those words out in less than a minute. "Of course that's only for people who train Chi, I'm not as familiar with them as my country consists of mages."
"For us a mage equivalent to your level isn't even worth being a street performer, those under it are trash to our society stuck with cleaning waste from our latrines and sweeping our streets early in the morning before anyone is awake enough to see them. One level above can only be considered a student and above that is an apprentice."
"Only when you graduate from being an apprentice are you called a mage. Our seniors are Grandmages, and that's where the similarity stops because only once we surpass this do we get to actually get any job and our titles follow according to our field spanning several more advanced levels that most would just consider untouchable... Of course I'm just kidding." Those last words were said in a similarly self deprecating way Jeff had asked at the beginning of this lecture. Those titles as daunting for Grendolyn who lived it as much as it was to Jeff who had just been introduced to it.
"Hard for you too eh?" Jeff asked, a rare moment of warmth in his eyes for his travel companion.
"Don't look down on me? My abilities actually surpass a Grand Mages and I can smith better than most black smiths in the kingdom, even my weapons are already renowned by master blacksmiths for the skill put into it..." She'd been piling on reasons, but slowly she quieted down.
"It's just that?" Jeff watched her, telling her he was listening so that she'd let it out.
"It's just that... I suck at all the basic elements other than Earth. Unless I increase their proficiency to an acceptable level they won't even let me advance to Grand Mage and keep me in a class with kids 5 years younger than me..."
"Pft!..."
"Don't laugh!" Grendolyn shouted.
"I'm not! So these kids, do they call you big si... big...Pft hahaha! Oh come on haha, I can't say it with a straight face!" Jeff said as he dodged a spear Grendolyn had suddenly conjured out of the earth.
"Hey..." As Jeff turned around he saw a tear at the corner of Grendolyn's eyes. "How about this, I can help you train, and if we pass by your people on the way then you can just show them you're fit to graduate."
"Her eyes became redder as she thought about his proposal. "I'd say yes since we're friends, but you're not even very strong in your field. How're you going to help me learn to control fire, water and wind when you're not even a mage?"
"Hmph! Who do you think you're talking to? I'm at least several times older than you! I've been alive for so long that I've made so many fires without magic, I've been so bored with life that I've watched water flow down rivers just because I want to and I've created poisonous winds with my bottom!"
"Pft hahaha!"
"Why are you laughing! I'm serious! I once killed a whole command center of the enemy by entering their camp with my invisibility and using it right in the middle of their meeting. Before they could do anything they suffocated to death by holding their own breath!" He was talking nonsense, but with such vigor and seriousness as if he was a general giving an uplifting speech to his troops.
"Hahahaha, Stop! Stop! I can't Hahahahaha Breath Hahahaha"
In the midst of an army that was trying to cultivate, their roaring laughter echoed through the air.