As the old man; the old butler of the now fallen Snow Clan saw Nite opening his eyes, his face immediately brightens.
"Young master are you awake now? Are you fine? You should rest more."
As Nite opens his eyes hi saw his most faithful servant, Mr. Jason. Jason was rescued by his father in the Mogui Mountains, he was so grateful to the his father that even after the decline of the snow family he was still working for the family. Even though they are the only one left of the family.
"Is that you Mr. Jason? I think I'm fine already, just a bit hungry." Nite weakly says.
"Ow.. just minute young master, I'll be preparing the food." says Mr. Jason as he scrambles out of the door.
"First let me sort the memories of this body."
According to the memories of this body, cultivation is divided into Realms. Cultivators generally begin in the lowest realm and progress linearly through the ranks of each realm. After the peak Rank of a Realm, they progress to the 1st Rank of the next Realm. Cultivation is a difficult, dangerous, and expensive occupation in this world. People practice cultivation for various reasons; for longer lives, to have deeper and more profound understanding of the world, to protect oneself and their loves ones and finally for fame and fortune.
A person can increase their cultivation using several methods. One can take in the naturally occurring world energies and try to break trough; one can use spiritual medicines, absorb their energies and try to break trough; one can use formations and other natural or man-made phenomena and try for the same effect. The only downside of using those methods is that it is usually very slow and tedious; not to mention very wasteful too. To counter this some ancestors and sects came up with cultivation techniques and spread them.
Cultivation techniques increased the speed of absorption of energies from the surroundings, from spiritual medicines and other methods. Some cultivation methods also had some side effects; some good, some bad.
Tempered Body is the first stage of cultivation. Tempered body is cultivation of one's body. In path of training one should first be training muscles and bones in order to strengthen them. This give rise to seedling of Yuan Power. Only then can one be called a true practitioner.
Cultivating in Yuan Power require various amounts of nourishing elixirs to supplement the body in order to progress in training. However this very expensive and only wealthy people can afford this. Others need to be lucky to find items. Talent here is important but is not a key factor.
Tempered Body is divided into 9 layers, the difference between the first 3 layers is not significant as it only improves one's physical body and foundation slightly. Only when the body has been cultivated to the 4th layer, will the advantages of training gradually surface. At that Stage, the skin will slowly harden to become as tough as wood or rock, and both one's strength and speed will substantially upgraded.
Nonetheless, to reach the 9th layer of Tempered body is an extremely difficult and tiring affair. Usually the captains in the army and the elites of a Clan are at this level. This was because only by constantly pushing the limits of one's physical body, could one's body gradually grow stronger. Yet this way of testing one's limit was akin to squeezing out the potential in one's body. If one's body was not sufficiently restored after the 'squeezing', one's body would be injured due to the strain. At the time, not only would the training be affected but the whole body would be riddled with injuries. An overall loss. In order to advance through the ranks of Tempered Body you need Qi. This can be found in Pills and Herbs.
In the 1st to 3rd layer of Tempered Body there is usually physical improvement only.
Only after entering the 4th layer of Tempered Body will the advantages of training gradually surface. Also when reaching this Stage the skin hardens. The new skin will become hard like rock or wood. One's strength and resilience will greatly enhanced. The 5th layer is called Bone Refining. When someone enters this stage his/her bones starts to refine. This would greatly enhance the toughness of one's bones, resulting in an enormous upgrade in power, strength and speed. However training speed starts to slow down. When reaching the 6th layer one can refine essence into Yuan Power and make a Yuan Power Seed. In this stage you will get faster and your sense will improve.
You'll reach the 7th layer of the Tempered Body when the Yuan Power finally breaks out of his bones and flows into the channels within his body. Refining Yuan into the Channels, which are also known as 'Meridians'. The instant the Yuan Power Seed broke through the confines of his bones. It would flow into his body's internal channels. And then, he would finally be able to absorb Yuan energy from between heaven and Earth to train his body. An extremely important step.