As far as Jian Shen knew, officially cultivation starts at Body Tempering Realm, in which the cultivator absorbs Qi from around them to temper every inch of their body inside and out.
However, the cultivation of the Dantian begins with the Qi Collection Realm.
Followed by this are the Qi Whirlpool Realm, Qi Refinement Realm, Qi Liquification Realm, Qi Condensation Realm, and the Qi Crystal Core Realm.
Unfortunately, Jian Shen only knew the names of these realms, as for the details he only knew until the Qi Whirlpool Realm, because the cultivation manual he was given only had the method until the Qi Whirlpool Realm.
After the body is tempered and ready to cultivate, the individual was supposed to start collecting Qi from around him/her and fill their dantian with it. Later on, the same Qi is used to travel all over the body and form as many whirlpools as possible on the acupoints they had opened during the Pathway Opening Realm.
Just like every other major cultivation realm, the Qi Whirlpool Realm is also divided into five sub realms. These are the Early stage, Beginning Stage, Intermediate Stage, Advanced Stage, and Peak Stage respectively.
From what Jian Shen had learnt from the manual he was given, the maximum number of Qi Whirlpools a human could form was 54!
However even if he practised the cultivation technique he was given to the best, he would only be able to form 24 Qi Whirlpools!
Considering how he had opened all 108 of his acupoints, Jian Shen felt it was beneath him to use that technique and waste his potential, when he should try to form all the possible 54 Qi Whirlpools.
But to do this, he'd need to find a suitable technique first.
...
Going back to his room, Jian Shen immediately found the dazzling white coloured sword on the floor where he remembered.
Rushing hastily towards it, Jian Shen picked it up and vigilantly looked around despite knowing that no one was there. After all, he couldn't afford to lose this opportunity he was given, and go back to the life he hated.
Holding the sword Jian Shen felt the cold hilt in his hand, but for some reason felt more confident and safe with it.
Running his hand carefully along the blade which was now sharp enough to cut his finger off in case he made a mistake, Jian Shen's eyes focused on the vivid black coloured dragon on the hilt.
The next moment his eyes locked on with the dragon's eyes and everything around him changed as Jian Shen felt like his soul had been sucked inside it.
What happened next felt like his imagination, but Jian Shen could vividly see everything in detail.
First, all he could see was never ending darkness, but suddenly a huge explosion took place and nine objects flew from the centre of it.
While Jian Shen's eyes couldn't track each of the nine objects which were created, his mind understood everything that was happening.
What he was witnessing was none other than the birth of the Nine Heavenly Creations!
Despite never having heard anything about it, and still not knowing what the words 'Nine Heavenly Creations' meant, Jian Shen was left in awe of their power after seeing what happened next.
Because once the so called Nine Heavenly Creations were thrown away from the explosion at the centre, three huge vortexes formed one below the other. And each vortex was bigger than the one below it.
They were the three realms!
Even though Jian Shen wasn't privy to really important information, he knew a few things. This included the fact that he was in the Mortal Realm, and above them were two higher realms.
Unfortunately, they were forever away from the grasp of those born in the Mortal Realm, because not a single one had been able to successfully go up there in the past hundreds of thousand years!
Having figured out how great the Nine Heavenly Creations were since they were formed at the same time as the birth of the three realms, Jian Shen didn't dare be lazy and carefully observed every detail to remember as much as possible.
Soon he saw all of Nine Heavenly Creations individually one after the other, until the last Heavenly Creation was shown. The Myriad God Sword.
The sword looked very simple with its two inch wide double sided white coloured blade that was almost five feet long, and one foot long hilt.
It was only the hilt which didn't look plain, but had a very complex design on it.
The long white hilt was filled with images of eight beasts coiling around it side by side until they all roared together at the head of the hilt.
No, not eight. If one looked very closely they'd count a total of nine beasts. One of the beasts was inside another beast, therefore it was understandable to think there were just eight beasts.
The image was of the terrifying black dragon which had a pure white coloured phoenix inside it, almost as if they were cuddling each other.
Other than these two beasts which were a mix of black and white, the remaining beasts were of various other colours as well. Including the terrifying black and red mix, there was a bright gold, a dull grey, and five more beasts of different colours.
As Jian Shen continued carefully observing the sword, in front of his eyes the sword split into nine different swords and scattered all over the three realms.
But Jian Shen wasn't shocked for the God Sword splitting into nine pieces, but from noticing a very familiar sword in the nine swords. It was the very sword which he was holding, and the same one which had caused all of the changes inside him, the rusted sword he found in the treasury.
Despite having expected this, Jian Shen was still a little stunned as he murmured the name of the sword which drank his blood. "The Heavenly Dragon Sword....!"
Once Jian Shen learned the swords name he was back in the real world and his hand clenched the sword hard feeling that something was lacking in it.
Almost as if something inside the sword had been lost to show him what he just saw..... It was the sword's soul...!
At the same time, he found unfamiliar knowledge about cultivation and two new techniques inside his head.... They were the Heavenly Dragon Cultivation Technique, and the God Slaying Inferno Slash.