"Anyway, it was so long ago so you probably didn't realize. But my true body wasn't actually born in this world but rather a world full of humans who mostly practice Dantian Qi cultivation.
While there are of course other cultivation types like body cultivation, dual cultivation, Spirit Qi cultivation, and many others, they are all loosely based on Qi as the basis. As you know, Qi is just the term that humans have put on the energy of our world but is in fact part of all the main worlds in one way or another. The difference is how they gather or utilize that Qi can differ widely based on the cultivation techniques.
I was born into a family of assassins that use a unique branch of sword spirit qi which is very strong and deadly, but much more difficult to find any that are able to cultivate the technique properly. Thankfully I was of use so they did not discard me as they had done to many others."
"Isn't that cruel to do something like that? To one's own family too."
Chuckling, the phantom Master Mirko shrugged.
"It may seem so considering that even though you are ostrisized to a certain point in your own village, at least it is peaceful overall. You leave them alone and they do the same to you. On the other hand where I grew up it is quite common to find a knife in your back even from your kin. My family might have not been 'caring' in the traditional sense, but they gave me purpose and the skills and training nessisary to protect not only myself but those I care about.
My true body was known as a ones in a century prodigy, Mirko was able to mold his family's ancient assassination technique into something that even the gods would soon fear. I was able to become the brightest pupil of the sect of your namesake and propel it into a force that everyone in the world feared.
Anyway, I am getting sidetracked, there are many worlds in the sky. There are however 5 main worlds that are widely known by cultivators.
The first two and oldest of the five are the Light and Darkness worlds. Each one professes to be the before the other, but regardless they are the two oldest and certainly the strongest worlds of the main worlds and have quite the vicious feud between one another.
The Light world is inhabited by mostly the Angel race alongside a few other light attributed races and creatures. While the Darkness world is inhabited by the Demon race and subsequently also those who are darkness attributed.
Both of them look fairly similar to my race of humans but are generally longer lived and possess a vast array of techniques and technology above the other three main worlds. Their most iconic trait being a pair of feathered wings and floating circlet above their heads colored in their respective world energies.
Just younger than those two worlds is the Elemental world, but most call it the world of the Elvish. As the name suggests, it is a world filled with large regions dedicated to various different elements such as Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, and many more. The most well known intelligent race in that world are known as the Elves and Fairies who are deeply connected to elemental energies and are the longest living race of all that are known. While there are some intelligent elementals, they are few and far between and rarely ever cultivate in a traditional sense.
Next is the world of humans. Believe it or not, the Human world is actually the largest of all the main worlds and contains the most diverse array of world energy, races, and creatures. Many forms of cultivation exist in that world with the two most prevalent for humans being Dantian and Spirit Qi.
And lastly, the youngest of the five worlds is the Beastworld where Beastkin of many different types of humanoid beasts make their home. For unknown reasons, the Qi in this world is incredibly suited to bloodline and body cultivation for beasts in particular. The rise of intelligent beastkin of all types is a testament to that.
While it is possible to travel from one main world to another, it is rarely done by any since one would have to be strong enough to withstand the turbulent spatial forces and sheer distance between world and even if one could get to another world, the ability for that cultivate any further is greatly diminished.
Lastly, the most mysterious place which only the strongest cultivators from each main world can go to but never return from is called 'The World of the Gods'. Almost very little is known about this mysterious place. But it is evident that untold numbers of martial prodigies feel an instinctual pull to go to this place and are never seen or heard from again.
Many think it is a haven to break through the main world's barriers to their cultivation, others think it is a death trap only for the foolish and all sorts of different theories. Whatever it may be, only those who make it to that stage will ever truely know.
As for the difference between Dantian Qi and Body cultivation, it can depend on a variety of factors. Every cultivator no matter if they are demon or elvish or anything in-between can technically cultivate in a majority of the different cultivation techniques from any of the worlds.
But generally, each world's denizens will be more suitable for their own world's cultivation type with special circumstances such as requiring certain environments, energy or bloodlines, and the like.
For example, a demon can learn how to harness fire elemental energy and cultivate it well but have a much harder to almost an impossible time doing the same for an angelic cultivation technique. While there have been one or two insane situations in the millennia that the worlds have been around where such a cultivator has popped up, they are so incredibly rare and usually don't end up very strong anyway.
Every main world and even the world of the gods are all very similar when it comes to the basics. Despite being called a multitude of different things like Elemental Energy, Qi, Spirit Qi, Light, and Shadow, all of them roughly boils down to be the power that is radiated from their own worlds.
Every world is unique in that they provide their denizens with a type of power the denizens of that world can best utilize to become stronger.
Dantian Qi, which is part of what you are cultivating now, is just a way to describe gathering the world's power inside your body and transforming it into an energy source to draw on when using cultivation skills.
The body of most humans is not enough to hold the energy of the world to utilize cultivation skills of any significance which is why they need to create a power source to draw upon to become stronger.
Dantian-based cultivation techniques all start this way and the different branches utilize the stage after forming their Qi Core to their specific techniques such as Spirit Qi users placing their Qi Core in their mind space and Sword Qi users crafting a Sword Spirit.
Body cultivation on the other hand does not start the same way. Instead of using the world's power to form a Qi seed and then a core and drawing from it as a source of power, body cultivators absorb Qi into their bodies and strengthen everything from their skin, bones, muscles, blood, and organs.
As you might have realized, it is incredibly difficult for human cultivators to spread out the Qi they gather to the extremities of their bodies, not to mention strengthen their skin, bones, and other parts of the body.
Even the body cultivators in the human world have to use various tonics, creams, and techniques to even begin cultivating their body and the time it takes compared to Qi cultivation is generally seen as not at all being worth the time and effort required.
The only reason body cultivation is one of the more notable cultivation types in the human world is that it allows them to generally have a longer life than Qi cultivators at the same level as well as being unrivaled when it comes to defense and bodily power.
Anyway, the reason why the Beastworld has predominantly body cultivators is because of the unique Qi the world emits. Unlike the human world Qi, the Beastworld Qi nurtures the natural-born denizens of the world. Over time, the creatures were able to develop unique bloodlines with humanoid bodies and intelligence while at the same time boosting the strength and nourishing benefits of the demonic beasts at the same time.
Pretty much every beastkin has a body that soaks up Qi from the world and the food they consume and are able to naturally strengthen their entire bodies without any cultivation techniques at all. Imagine how it would be when beastkin tribes place training and bloodline traits on top of being naturally strong body cultivators?
It isn't to say that a beastkin cannot cultivate a Qi seed and temper a Qi core, but you have experienced it for yourself how slow and tedious the process can be when your own body steals the Qi you absorb. Most of your training over these years has been to keep a fraction of the Qi you absorb and keep it contained within your dantian and build upon it.
Your success is incredibly noteworthy as you are one of the incredibly few beastkin that have had the perseverance and will to keep working on building a Qi core.
Thinking over the flood of information that he received, Noxtis fell onto his back and looked into the sky. "Ugh...too much information for my tiny brain. So has all the work I've put in these years been for naught? Would I have been better off just being a body cultivator?"
Feeling a prickling sensation in his mind, his Master's fragment scolded him. "Of course not, while not all races are suited for different cultivation types, there are those that have trained in both Qi and body cultivation and become incredibly strong as both cultivation types work to boost one another but it usually takes up more than double than amount of resources and time than focusing on one path.
Even in my true body, I could count on my fingers the number of humans that have successfully cultivated in both Dantian Qi and Body Refinement.
Even I cannot think of any Beastkin that have cultivated a Dantian based cultivation. Once a Beastkin has gone far enough on body cultivation, it is impossible for them to train in techniques that require a Dantian Qi core.
Truthfully, the onyx panther tribe is quite well suited for the Bloodless Assassin, both require speed and agility with a slight darkness affinity. Should you properly craft your sword spirit, your bloodline abilities, and natural body cultivation will let you become a cultivator with one of the highest potential Mirko has ever seen.
Potential doesn't mean jack shit if you don't live long enough or lose your way though, so keep training hard and don't slack off."
Reinvigorated and having a clearer goal ahead of him, Noxtis picked up his heavy wooden sword and began his training at full throttle.