A Convoy consisting of many black-dressed people, Alrick, and Connor, was going through the snow desert. There were no obvious differences in the surroundings if you look from the aside, but Connor noticed that the layer of snow became thinner. Hence, he deduced that the temperature was falling, which means they were slowly escaping the plateau.
The red sun was right above the group's heads, but it didn't feel different from the night. It is just brighter, nothing more. Even if you look directly at it, you will not feel such pain and irritation as if looking at the Solar System Sun.
Alrick was heading in the middle of the group, rarely talking to anyone, it was evident that he was a leader of these people, but it seemed that they walked a very long path together, so there wasn't anything left to talk about.
Although these people had nothing to talk about, Connor was different.
-Can you tell me more about cultivation?
A curious child looked upwards to the tall red-haired man.
-I will tell you the basics, and you can ask questions after it. First, you need to know that people cultivate to gain power and live longer. When you're advancing in cultivation, your lifespan, and power increase because you accumulate more Qi in yourself. Channels through Qi flows are called meridians. The place where your energy is stored is called dantian. You probably already noticed them. So far, an absolute goal of cultivation - cultivate to the point where you could live forever and rule over the universe with your strength. Of course, anyone hasn't even gotten close to that level, but everyone tries.
-Is the cultivation of a cultivator measured in the amount of Qi that the cultivator holds inside him?
-Well, indirectly, this is true, but usually, cultivation is divided into realms and stages. I know the names of the first three realms, but there are more, a lot more. One could even say that there are an infinite amount of realms because cultivation itself is everlasting.
Connor didn't like that cultivation could be infinite because that meant older people, who cultivated more due to their age, will always be more powerful and dominate everything in the world and could not be rivaled by any means before they naturally die. Other old geezers will come right after them, so he could gain power by becoming this old geezer himself or befriending with them. If it is possible to cultivate to immortality, the situation will be even worse. This situation didn't please Connor. Suddenly, a question appeared in his mind.
-If cultivation increases the lifespan, doesn't it mean that everyone will become Immortals after some time of cultivating?
-Good question. Most people are restricted by their talent. Talent in the cultivation is how fast you could cultivate compared to anyone else, 95% have mediocre or even worse talent, so they will die from age faster than they will be able to cultivate to the next realm, or they will just get killed by other cultivators.
"I will study how those "talents" work so that I can improve my talent to the top-notch level," - thought Connor inwardly.
-You mentioned cultivation realms. What are those?
Alrick took some time to gather his thoughts and reply.
-It is similar to a ladder, where the higher you are, the more powerful you will become. Realm is a kind of big stair, consisting of small stairs. As I mentioned, I know the first three stairs. The first big realm is a body refining stage, the very beginning of the cultivation path. In this realm, you will fill your diantian with energy as much as you can. After it, your dantian will push this energy out of it after it will be filled to the brim, nourishing your body with Qi. The body refining realm has nine stages, so it means that you will have to fill up your dantian nine times.
Connor fell into deep thought. He was curious about how these processes work. Does the body just do it naturally, and all that cultivator had to do was accumulate energy? Or was it a manual process and there were other methods to cultivate?
-What about the other two stages?
-I will tell you about them after some time. It is better not to know something at the beginning.
Connor thought it was one of the stupidest things he had ever heard. It was always better to know more. If Alrick said that he was just lazy and didn't want to talk about it, Connor probably would consider that more reasonable than: "it is better not to know something at the beginning." It really frustrated him, but he had to keep up his act, so he didn't say or show anything
-I understand, but can I ask some more questions?
He was frustrated, but, opposite to Alrick's point of view, he will try to learn everything he could.
-Yes, child, what else do you want to know?
-Why could I make a fireball with Qi?
Connor didn't want to say that he was just vibrating air at a very high frequency to produce heat because a child of his age couldn't know complicated principles that even most adults weren't aware of.
-Qi is the energy present anywhere, including objects and humans. And so, because it is everywhere, it connects everything.
-It's true, I felt it already
He was listening tall man carefully.
-What you can't sense yet, is that Qi not just connects everything physical, but it also connects the Dao of everything.
Connor was once again stunned by an unknown term.
-Dao? What is Dao?
Alrick made an oh-yes-I-remembered face.
-Sorry, I always forgot that you don't know the basics. Dao is a set of rules of our world. Dao is divided into parts, for example, Dao of fire, wind, lightning, water, and earth. Those called the five basic elements and considered to be the Dao of lowest levels, someone names Dao as laws, concepts, and so on
-Okay, I get it, so the Qi connects the Dao and the physical objects?
-Yes, you are right.
Connor didn't actually think that it was Qi that connected the laws with the object because he knew from science that all the laws of physics work perfectly fine without any Qi, but he didn't say it out loud because:
1. It may not be true in this world
2. Science on the earth wasn't aware of Qi, so their picture of the world may be incomplete
3. The last thing he would do is argue with Alrick because he pretended to be an innocent child, knowing nothing about this world.
-But even so, how do I create something from Qi?
-Because Qi is connected to the laws, it can take the form of anything you want and understand well enough. If you understand the Dao of fire, you can create fire with Qi. It seems, in such a critical situation, all you wanted was to heat yourself, and because of that, you were able to grasp the basics of the fire Dao.
Connor stayed silent for a moment before speaking.
-I understand now, thank you.
Alrick smiled softly and replied
- Good, you will understand even more when we will return
-Oh, by the way, where are we going?
-We will stop and replenish our stock at Aros, and then we will head right to the Capital.
It is time for a geography lesson.
-What is Aros?
-You don't know? I thought you were from Aros because you ended up staying in Snofjell
-I don't know the name of the city I am from. Everything I remember is some streets with homeless people and thieves. Is it Aros or Snofjell?
-It is every city in the world, child.
Said Alrick with a sardonic face.
The plan of Connor worked out, he thought that in every world where humans exist, there would be such dark-and-gloomy places, but it appears that red-haired man had some stories connected with such cities, or maybe not, it could be just an association after all. Anyway, Connor took a mental note and continued, pretending that he hadn't noticed anything.
-So, where are Aros and Snojfell located?
The red-haired man jumped out of his dreams and concentrated on the topic.
-We are in Snojfell right now. It is the name for this snow desert. The nearest city to us is Aros, one of the five cities connecting the Snojfell and the Northran Kingdom. The Northran Kingdom is a name for the county we all live in. It is located on the island, 60% territory of which is Snofjell. The Northran Kingdom occupies the rest, 40% of the territory. Right now, we are heading to the border of the Snofjell. Only one day of walking will separate us from the Aros when we reach it.
-And where is the Capital located?
-Capital is located near the island coast. We will be there in ten days if nothing serious happens.
-And what will we do in Capital?
-There are headquarters of Jarvinen family, we need to get there first of all. Right now, we are returning from the expedition, and as a leader of it, I need to report the results.
-I understand.
Suddenly, the shout from the crowd was heard.
-Hey! Look! The blizzard!
A large white cloud of snow was approaching them from the horizon.