Unbeknownst to Kong Xiang and Li Luo, certain existences sensed a shift in the world trend when the arts were unsealed.
Far away in the east, a majestic looking figure shrouded in darkness opened his eyes. At that moment, the world seemed to have lost its brilliance. His eyes, which shone as bright as a star looked to the sky and he chuckled softly.
"Interesting"
A frail looking old man walking down a street paused suddenly. Countless people brushed past him in a hurry, and nobody paid him any heed. His figure was easy to ignore, and anyone who saw him would never guess he possessed the power to shatter the entire continent he stood on without lifting his hand.
He had a thoughtful look on his face. A while later, he sighed and resumed walking.
Elsewhere, a bald monk emitting a holy and solemn Buddhist Halo suddenly let go of his prayer bead. The faint waves of Sanskrit incantation ringing out from his body ceased, and he muttered 'Ambhitta' before resuming meditation.
The two attention-drawing perpetrators were completely clueless and sat opposite each other to meditate. They assumed a lotus style pose and circulated their arts.
The first three levels of cultivation, the Body Refinement realm, the Origin Pool realm and the Origin Refinement realm were foundational. The first two realms could be cultivated in any order, or at the same time. The Body Refinement Realm involved tempering the body with external energies to its peak. It was subdivided into nine stages.
The Origin Pool, on the other hand, involved the absorption of energy to fill up the Origin pool. Ideally, as soon as one reached cultivation age, one could start cultivating and absorb energy to either temper their body or fill up their Origin pool.
The Origin Refinement realm involved expanding and tempering the Origin pool in preparation for Core formation. There was a prerequisite of concept comprehension to cultivate this stage. Any concept could be comprehended, such as elemental (frost or lava intent, amongst others),weapon based (sword, axe intent) or even will intents like slaughter or blood. Regardless, the tempering of one's Origin energy with one's comprehended Intent laid the foundation for the next stage.
Kong Xiang decided to cultivate his Origin Pool first. Body tempering was a slow process, and the resources that could shorten the time taken were generally expensive, but if he possessed a bit of cultivation, he would be able to undertake missions to hunt beasts and gain some wealth.
Kong Xiang thought Li Luo likely had the same idea as him, because soon enough, a large amount of elemental energy converged around her. Kong Xiang watched in disbelief as she broke past levels in minutes. A full hour passed, and she stabilized her Origin Pool energy at the 9th level. However, she didn't stop and continued to absorb more energy. It didn't take long for her body to shimmer faintly, a sign that one had tempered the body to its peak.
The domineering nature of the Grand Divine Art was revealed, as she completed both body tempering and Origin pool filling in a short while without consuming any pills. More amazing was the fact that her Origin foundation was perfect without blemish and her body exceeded the 9th level to reach the legendary 10th body of Body Refinement.
Li Luo opened her eyes to see Kong Xiang staring bleakly at her.
"Your cultivation...?" She couldn't sense any Origin energy from him.
"I totally forgot that the Sutra is an auxiliary art" The Sutra required the cultivator to cultivate another art to improve on it. Kong Xiang could only test his innate elemental affinity first before choosing some arts to cultivate. Li Luo didn't even need to test hers because her Art forcefully gathered the five elemental energies to form a five element Origin pool. Feeling her body brimming with energy, she smiled at the brooding boy.
"I guess we are going out tomorrow."