"It's pretty obvious that what I have is not bronze. So with that in mind, I would say that my foundation is… not bad."
Truthfully speaking, not even Long Di was aware of what grade his cauldrons were. He read thousands of books throughout the time he lived with his parents.
That said, it wasn't that he had an unnatural thirst for knowledge for the love of it. He just knew that one of the things an MC had to possess in a cultivation world was knowledge, and lots of it.
Besides, the lore found in the older scrolls was pretty interesting for the most part, so it wasn't that bad.
In any case, one of the things he had made sure to brush up on was the cultivation system in this world. The cauldron-forging realm was one realm he made sure to pay special attention to.
This was the realm of foundation. He knew that whatever he laid down in this realm would be the basis upon which everything else that came after would be built. However, nothing about the cauldrons he currently possessed came up in any of the books he had read.
With his destiny, he practically blazed through the Tan'tien Saturation realm, only slowing down at Cauldron forging.
His father, Long Huangdi, was worried that his son would wreck his foundation by advancing this fast and even wanted to seal his son's cultivation until he got older. However, when he saw how he slowed down at the cauldron-forging realm, he was well pleased.
Long Di actually tracked the progress of his cauldrons as he forged them one by one. For his first one, he made sure to slowly and steadily feed the vessel his spiritual qi as he studied its evolution.
Months had gone by as he fed the vessel his spiritual qi. For anyone with a decent destiny, it normally didn't take them this long to forge a cauldron, but he still continued like this.
His father didn't worry back then either. Because he knew his son was meant for greatness, he was well aware that an unbreakable foundation was paramount.
Long Di remembered that in the scrolls he had read, there were six known grades of cauldrons. However, he always felt that he never reached the limit of what he was able to forge.
The scrolls never did go into detail about the extremely high-levelled cauldrons. This was because a remote country like Thunder Cloud City wasn't qualified to know about those types of cauldrons.
When Long Huangdi saw that his son forged a high-grade cauldron, he was ecstatic! However, Long Di kept on forging this cauldron, as he didn't feel as if he approached his limit, something that shocked his father and mother.
He approached colours with his cauldrons that Long Huangdi had never known.
Nevertheless, Long Di still marched on and it was only when he had only reached the limit, or in this case, felt the limit that he finally stopped. This was when the black cauldron was born.
When his father saw what he had created at the time, they were horrified. The pressure of this cauldron was beyond that they had ever experienced!
His mother was extremely worried, not wanting any harm to befall her son.
However, Long Huangdi knew how hard his son worked on the cauldrons, so he was sure that they were anything but low grade.
So Long Di was then allowed to continue cultivating and made sure that every single one of his other cauldrons achieved the same grade. He didn't know what grade they were, but he knew they would make him badass… eventually.
Observing his changes, Long Huangdi knew his son would bring huge changes not to just their city, but to the entire continent. So surely his abilities and paths would be unorthodox for the most part.
"Alright, I—I will believe you that your cauldrons are… not low grade," this was the best thing that Uncle Tian Lu could say since he was even more lost than Long Di on the black cauldrons.
"Alright, what martial techniques have you learnt so far?" Uncle Tian Lu finally asked.
"Oh, about that, none," Long Di answered honestly.
"Wha—!"
Uncle Tian Lu nearly coughed up blood in anger and shock!
Was this little demon playing with him!? How could someone have such ungodly talent and have not learnt any martial technique!?
However, Uncle Tian Lu was able to control himself, and after taking a while to calm down, he stared at Long Di. Observing the lack of fluctuations in his spirit; he chose to believe Long Di's claim.
After all, what use would there be in lying about something like this? As it would make it more difficult for Uncle Tian Lu to train him.
"Alright, what cultivation technique are you practising, then?" Uncle Tian Lu asked.
With that same impassive expression, Long Di answered. "None."
"Khak!"
Uncle Tian Lu finally coughed up a mouthful of blood in anger when he heard this.
"What do you mean you have no cultivation method!? Then how did you weaponise your qi!?" Roared Uncle Tian Lu.
"I didn't," Long Di answered calmly.
"You…! Are you trying to tell me that you're a nominal 9th Core Formation expert!?" Uncle Tian Lu pointed at him with trembling fingers.
Would he have to help Long Di get a cultivation method and everything? He had to do everything from scratch for him!?
"Calm down, I can explain why I only focused on cultivating without a cultivation method all this time," Long Di said after it looked like his master was about to explode.
"There was no cultivation method I found suitable for myself. So I wanted to go on an adventure when I was old enough to see what I could get," Long Di admitted.
"No suitable cultivation method?" Uncle Tian Lu was shocked for a moment, but after thinking about it for a while he understood Long Di's plight.
A once-in-a-lifetime genius like Long Di needs an accompanying cultivation method that could keep up with him.
After all, in this world, a cultivator could absorb and refine the surrounding spiritual energy to cultivate, but only to the route dictated by their destiny or else qi deviation was a very real possibility. However, because the spiritual energy being absorbed was just passive in nature, a cultivator couldn't use this energy to attack, even if one knew martial techniques.
A cultivation method would not only allow a cultivator to cultivate faster, but most importantly, it would also weaponise the qi. Allowing the practitioner to launch attacks and use them in conjunction with other skills as well.
Of course, the stronger the talent of the person, the higher the grade of the cultivation method they would try to use.
Still, a cultivator could only reach the peak of the Core Formation realm this way. Of course, no one had ever reached this level before because it was too hard cultivating this way, and this was in addition to them not being able to fight or defend themselves.
Such cultivators were known as nominal cultivators. In actuality, most, if not all, cultivators would cultivate whatever cultivation method they had access to at the time, provided their destiny allowed it until something much better came along.
"This is a problem," Uncle Tian Lu said after pondering for a long time. "Right now, we only have a high-rank mortal grade cultivation method. Obviously, it's not worthy of your talent, but you can make do with it until we find something better. After all, you can change your cultivation method anytime."
Cultivation techniques were classified under five ranks. These were mortal grade, earth grade, heaven grade, divine grade and legend grade. These were further classified as either low rank, medium rank, or high rank.
Cultivation methods could, as explained before, be changed later on, but there was a danger of there being irreparable damage to a cultivator's foundation because of it, which was a taboo most cultivators didn't dare to touch.
Of course, as long as the foundation was sturdy enough, this change could be done with minimum harm. Hence, anyone doing this had to be aware of the risk, as great damage could effectively cripple a cultivator's path or future growth.
However, Uncle Tian Lu had a feeling that these cauldrons of Long Di, the mark of any cultivator's foundation, could withstand such changes.
"Oh, that's fine, I'm good. I found a good cultivation method that's… not low-grade to use after I came here." Long Di stated.
Uncle Tian Lu's expression turned to one of shock when he heard this. Of course, he knew most out of everyone, their current situation, and apart from the high-rank mortal grade cultivation technique, they had nothing else.
Moreover, Long Di had been here the entire time. There was no way he would be able to get his hands on something like that.
Unless…
'He could have discovered it at the crash site when he was sent here through the void,' thinking of this Uncle Tian Lu presumed it to be the most likely explanation.
"What grade is this cultivation method?" Uncle Tian Lu finally asked.
If there was a chance for the clan to gain a higher grade cultivation technique, he would ask if Long Di wouldn't mind allowing others to learn it. The few disciples they had were all good seeds. It was a shame they could barely support them, and they even had to send them out for experiential training for miraculous encounters.
Hearing this, Long Di's brows furrowed on his otherwise expressionless face. "Hmm, I don't know, I haven't considered its grade yet. I mean it's really new, I haven't even named it yet."
Uncle Tian Lu revealed a puzzled expression when he heard Long Di's reply. "What are you talking about?"
"Huh? My cultivation technique, of course," Long Di replied matter-of-factly.
"Why would you be the one to name it and consider its grade?" Uncle Tian Lu asked, getting annoyed. "Just let me see the scroll and I can estimate its grade at the very least."
"What are you talking about? I made it up," Long Di stated.
"Made what up?" Uncle Tian Lu interrogated.
Why couldn't he be more clear on what he was saying?
"The cultivation method I got after I came here…" Long Di specified, using hand gestures as if he was talking to a slow person. "I made it up."
"… WHAT!"