"What do you think is the essence of Cultivation?" An old man said.
He had a short olive-green hair, with multiple gray strands.
The man was wearing some thick glasses, that couldn't conceal the silver light on his eyes.
At this moment he was trying to observe even the most subtle changes on the two youths before him.
His expression was flickering as he tried to conceal to the best of his ability his anxiety but to no avail, however the two brothers didn't mind it, it wasn't strange for them to be meet by that glance.
Bing Qing Yang, the oldest of the two with just 13 years, smiled lightly at him on an attempt to calm him down and to show his excitement, finally he was being guided by a proper sane Cultivator!
The adolescent had a short black, groomed shiny hair filled with gel.
He had formal clothes and was acting as elegantly as he could, however you could clearly see on his shiny eyes his juvenile joy, ambition and perhaps naivety.
Bing Qing Yang waited patiently to see if his brother would lift his hand, seeing that Bing Sheng Wang fell asleep he finally raised his arm.
"Cultivation is the act of well, Cultivating the body, mind and soul.
A path of self-improvement!
A path of defiance, defiance against restrictions, against limitations and against the Heavens.
The more you advance on your Cultivation road the wiser you grow, the more powerful you become and the longer you live, any Cultivator wants to reach the peak and transcend the mortal coil!"
...
The teacher frowned lightly, the initial good impression he had developed of the silent, respectful and diligent youth vanished, he was reminded clearly of the father of the youth Bing Zhan Hung.
"Can you be a bit more modest?" He thought, but still nodded to him.
The teacher touched his chin. "But, now that I think about it, are those ideals truly his?
I mean, his whole speech reminded me of his father's 'unfettered' speech he constantly gave.
Maybe I'm too biased against him."
The teacher named Bing Ren Zhou then replied. "A very insightful answer!
Yes, Cultivators fight against the Heavens, they Cultivate to improve themselves and go beyond their supposed limits, however this is merely half the answer.
Bing Sheng Wang, what do you think is the other half of the answer?"
He raised his voice to wake up the other brother.
When Bing Sheng Wang raised his face, Bing Ren Zhou was frightened.
The kid of 8 years had some profound eyebags that extended almost towards his cheeks, he looked like a zombie who hadn't slept well in a single day of his life.
It wasn't only this, he also had a large black messy hair, filled with multiple white and red strands, his white strands had multiple pieces of snow caught in between, whilst some of the red strands combusted randomly.
His eyes were also not normal, at the center of his pupils there were some white snowflakes, and at his cornea there was a crimson flame constantly trying to escape from his eyes, those flames were constantly burning and repairing his retina.
The fact that his body had already manifested variations on his hair and eye color was simply too strange.
Generally those 'changes' are the accumulation of the abnormalities a Cultivator acquires on their Cultivation road, the more they grow the more their bodies change to adapt to this, being the most obvious changes the chance of color of their skin, hair and eyes.
This change of color isn't exclusive to humans and it has countless uses, for example on a pride of lions they determine their hierarchy by the brightness of their hair and its color, this color also allows them to find proper mating companions, as the more similar those colors are, the more related the paths are, thus raising the quality of the offspring and the probability of pregnancy.
To achieve such changes at such a young age could only be considered to be Heaven-defying.
Yet, in spite of that, there wasn't too much arrogance on his expression, nor there was any drive or desire, there wasn't much to see on his gaze.
He wasn't tranquil either, despite what it may seem at first glance he wasn't cold and detached, rather there was a mix of hidden suppressed feelings like frustration, bitterness and anger.
If you glanced at the rest of his body you'd realize why.
His skin was fairly pale, with a faint blue tone, there weren't any pimples or other common 'imperfections' on his skin, instead there were multiple scratches, bruises, burnt flesh, necrosis and multiple bulging veins.
There was also some dry blood on his lips and he was breathing heavily, his mouth was releasing a cold smoke and his nostrils were releasing a boiling steam.
"He's constantly on the verge of collapse...
Nobody knows why, exactly, but for some reason he was born with a Bloodline Ability dozens of times stronger than on average, an ability that couldn't be turned off.
Our 'Spiritual Flame', burns our reserves of energy, exhausts our spirits and souls and strains the flesh and skin to constantly bump more blood and increase all qualities.
When we use this ability our bodies are invigorated and we temper them, we can think more clearly, we have a higher affinity to our paths, our wounds are quickly cauterized and more Qi flows through our bodies, whilst we also gain an all-boost on strength.
With enough practice we can even manipulate the flame to do our bidding, to attack, defend, heal, or even to Cultivate more efficiently.
However, this cannot be sustained for long, when we use this power our flesh and organs are strained, our food and Qi reserves decrease, we are dehydrated, our soul is exhausted and our muscles are torn apart, if we keep this long enough our brains may even burn out.
To be honest, is a miracle that he has survived for so long.
Perhaps is because the ice and fire nullify each other partially, perhaps is due to his sturdy physique, maybe his waters reserves are replenished by absorbing the surrounding water, or maybe because of his father's miraculous healing techniques.
Whatever the case may be there is a fact, for him it may be a curse but for the clan, his condition is a beacon of light.
Even without practicing actively his Cultivation base is rising, his body is constantly being strengthened and his potential grows, besides if he manages to control this monstrous ability he may even surpass his father's ability to fight above his Realm.
Obviously it also carries a certain hidden risk, he's a ticking bomb that one day may explode in the clan's face like on the case of Bing Zhan Hung.
That's why I've been tasked to guide him."
Bing Sheng Wang coughed loudly, waking up the teacher back to reality.
"Done checkin' me up.
Yes, I know am a freak, I don't need your reminder."
The kid then sighed and added.
"As for your previous question, Cultivation is pretty complex, it would take me all the day to describe, but my throat is sore, and I don't feel like it, so I'll keep it short.
In my opinion there are three stages on Cultivation, 'Enhancement', 'Refinement' and 'Perfection.'
For a simple example I'll use the sunflowers and the Brown Blood disease."
Right when he was about to explain, he felt a knot on his throat, he punched his chest and coughed a blood clot with the shape of a pulmonary vein.
His mind was dazed, his breath turned even rougher, but in three seconds he recovered, as he was already used to it.
"Ehem, let's start with sunflowers.
Everyone knows sunflowers, those are simple plants that Cultivate on two ways, one by absorbing the sunlight, two by absorbing the lingering Qi on their surrounds.
At the start of the life of the sunflower it grows rapidly, there are no lack of resources nor space, thus is only focus is to expand as much as possible with no regard of anything else, that is the stage of 'Enhancement.'
Until it hits a wall.
Be it because of a lack of resources or be it because of a lack of space, the sunflower reaches a threshold, to pass this threshold the plant begins a process of self-canibalization and self-competition.
The roots and leafs begin to compete for resources, they begin to steal and take from their neighboring roots, and the weakest die and the strongest thrive, as countless roots are destroyed during each season the plants becomes more and more efficient, this is the stage of 'Refinement.'
However there is a change.
As the seasons begin to pass the plant becomes so efficient on devouring resources that it experiences an overdose of Qi, to prevent its death the roots are forced to spit out the residual Qi.
This Qi is then absorbed by the other roots, and then a new phase slowly begins to appear.
At this point the plant grows so powerful and so efficient that most of its roots are able to thrive effortlessly, in fact due to the continuous circulation of Qi and its efficiency to absorb the surrounding Qi it stops depending on sunlight.
Instead it becomes a beacon of light, a 'sun', it begins to shine brightly and illuminate the surrounding flowers, not only that its body is incredibly sturdy and hard to remove.
This is in on my eyes 'Perfection' a point were the weaknesses of the plant vanish and its strengths are amplified, all while keeping its essence.
That is not the only form of perfection, the 'Brown Blood Disease' holds a different form of it.
Bacteria are meek and fragile, everyone knows this, it's so incredibly meek that they can barely handle a single trace of Qi for less than a second, if it tries to absorb more they explode, thus, it's forced to spit out the Qi it absorbs to not die.
This may seem wasteful but actually this Qi is not being wasted, instead its manipulated to become a 'signal.'
A signal, an instruction that can be send to the other Brown Blood bacteria's.
With enough instructions and orders is possible to create a 'Hivemind', however this generally doesn't occur, after all the Brown Blood disease is too weak at initial stages.
Even a bum who barely Cultivates would only feel slightly drowsy as a tiny drop of their iron on their blood turns rusty.
Most of the time few people have this disease, and due to the low density of population of this bacteria it barely triggers if it does at all.
Signals are sent but never hit anything, many signals are corrupted by the time they arrive, it's quite meaningless.
But on the right circumstances there is a qualitative change.
The Qi begins to be evenly 'shared', creating a thin Qi layer, this Qi layer modifies its surrounds subtly to create more ideal conditions for the thriving of the bacteria, the thicker the layer is the more profound this change is.
If the density of the layer grows high enough, there's another change, the bacteria is able to transport nutrients inside this Qi layer, thus it can transport materials from host to host effortlessly.
What does this mean?
Well, imagine that suddenly the iron on your blood decreased or increased by a fifth, or that suddenly a part of the oxygen you had vanished.
What would happen then?
And is not all, when the quantity grows strong enough it gains the ability to thrive without a host, as its able to manipulate its surrounds enough with its dense layer of Qi to thrive anywhere, on the skies, ground, lakes, anywhere.
When it finally grows strong enough to devour entire cities it begins to affect even powerful Cultivators, at this point pretty much anyone is susceptible to this, that is the peak of its 'Enhancement.'
In this level it gains a hive-mind so incredibly dense that it gains a 'conscience', some believe is lower than the one of a bug, others believe it surpasses the one of human, anyhow this hive-mind being gains another ability.
The power to manipulate the inner structure of copies of this bacteria to amplify its qualities, no one knows what exactly does but every generation of the bacteria is more dangerous than the last, on the future it may even become powerful on low samples.
In fact some have created a novel or two about the ancestral plan of a god-like bacteria.
Luckily the bacteria has a limit, ironically its own efficiency it becomes so good at acquiring more and more hosts and reproducing so quickly that it kills them on masse.
When enough bacteria begin to perish, the Qi layer begins to turn insufficient to satiate the need of the hivemind, and it slowly begins to perish.
As for its perfection, well I believe the disease is still on the process of achieving it, is still half-incomplete.
Anyway, as I have shown you, Cultivation is the essence of amplifying the existing qualities, removing or suppressing weaknesses and acquiring related qualities.
However regardless of how much they grow, an ant is an ant, a tree is a tree, a human is a human.
No one can escape from their inner nature, because at the end Cultivation is merely another part of the cycle of life like eating or breeding...
But...Even if I know that, I still have a dream.
One day, I also want to be 'Perfect.'
To stop being defective, to remove my weaknesses, that is my only dream.
I don't care about other stuff like becoming a patriarch or what not, I only want to be Perfect!"
Bing Sheng Wang concluded his speech, whilst the teacher was dumbfounded.
"I know where they're coming from, but...
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE TWO?"
He thought, he had been teaching for years to countless students, all with their own ambitions and desires.
Some wanted to make the best song on the world, others wanted to rule a country, others wanted glory and fame.
Others had more trivial goals such as being qualified enough to acquire a wife/husband/harem, or to grow strong to become rich.
Yes, there were some black sheep's from there and there, however all those youths didn't dare to reveal their ambitions so openly.
The only previous case was the father of the two!
Bing Ren Zhou was even more nervous than before.
Luckily he had already made arrangements, he took a sip from his 'Carefree Wind Tea', to calm his nerves.
The tea wasn't delicious by itself it was like eating water after taking a mint, he only feel the 'freshness' on his mouth.
However the real change on his body was yet to begun, tides of Wind Qi began to surge, he began to sweat heavily.
This sweat quickly changed of shape, turning into countless bubbles of all colors and sizes, that was the effect of the drink.
That could transform some of the impurities of the body and brain, or substances that increased awareness like 'adrenaline.'
His mind was quickly refreshed, and finally he replied.
"Good job!
You both are very talented and hardworking!
Yes, Cultivation is a part of our nature, any living creature on the world Cultivates, however is also an act of defiance.
The reason of that is because every creature on the world 'struggles' to survive, thrive and prevail, the struggle of every species is different.
For example, we humans are natural inventors, if you're to let a man on the wild, with no knowledge of Cultivation nor Bloodline Ability they'd still learn.
From the birds, from the wild beasts, from the plants and even from nature.
We humans love to learn and to create, is in our nature!
Through the efforts of countless creators and pioneers we have constructed a solid Cultivation System with very few defects and risks.
The first realm is known as 'Body Tempering', on this Realm we focus on improving the qualities that will allow us to Cultivate on the future.
We start by acquiring and strengthening the 'main quality' of our Cultivation System, a Fire Cultivator would raise the heat on their bodies, an Iron Cultivator would raise the Iron and so on, that is the initial stage of Body Tempering.
As we Cultivate we begin to perceive this change, an Iron Cultivator would have a bitter taste on their mouth for example, however if this remains for long enough it actually becomes dangerous.
If a 'main quality' is strengthened recklessly a Water Cultivator may for example drown due to receiving too much water on their lungs, or a Fire Cultivator may burn to death, or a Earth Cultivator may die of poisoning.
We need to advance and reach another stage, the middle-stage where we begin to adapt the 'secondary qualities', a Fire Cultivator will gain a tolerance to heat for example.
Lastly to reach the peak-stage they must be able to not only adapt to this quality but also to circulate this kind of Qi through their bodies permanently, thus adapting to handling this ability actively to strengthen themselves.
We do this first on the superficial parts of our body like the tendons, skin and muscles; 1-3 stage, then towards our internal parts like the bone, blood-marrow and nerves; 4-6 stage and lastly on the rest of our organs and other tissue; 7-9 stage.
Then, we reach the Qi Gathering Realm.
This focuses on three parts, Qi Storing: 1-3 stage, Qi Circulation: 4-6 stage, Qi Production: 7-9 stage.
On Qi Storing we must focus on storing on our bodies as much Qi as possible without wasting a single drop, first we do so on our veins, then organs and then muscles and skin.
Qi Circulation is a bit more complex it focuses on Circulating the highest amount of Qi as possible there are many methods to do so, our clan focuses on an specific method.
First we must learn a breathing technique to absorb the surrounding Qi, then we must strengthen our lungs until it can absorb Qi twenty-four hours per day without straining.
However we can circulate it effectively just yet, as our hearts aren't trained yet, thus this energy is stored on the diaphragm.
This process is a bit dangerous as if we don't forcefully exhale some of the Qi our diaphragm may expand and on the worst case it may partially implode or we may cough some blood.
Anyway, the fifth stage consists on strengthening our heart until its able to circulate the Qi permanently, without any strain.
Lastly the sixth stage consists on reversal transpiration, we must learn to absorb the Qi by relying on this method, this Qi will be useful as secondary reserves for our muscles.
The reason we train this after the heart is because if we didn't the muscles on our bodies may explode due to Qi overdose.
As for the third sub-realm it focuses on acquiring as much energy as possible by creating more methods to acquire Qi, our clan uses a unique method.
To reach it, you must first make many preparations strengthen our heart as much as possible with multiple Cultivation manuals.
When you made enough preparations we must begin.
You need to circulate as much Fire Qi as possible around one of the veins of the heart, and we must raise the heartbeat as much as you can.
The Fire Qi and the absurdly fast heartbeat will slowly create friction, releasing sparkles of light, we must focus on efforts on creating a thin needle-like flame.
If the flame is too strong you may die as your heart is reduced to ashes, if you're successful, well, you still haven't finished yet.
To complete the step you must create a heart wound, were blood will constantly flow through, this blood will act as a fuel for the flame, if the fuel is too few the flame will extinguish, if the fuel is too much the flame may extend and you may die.
This step is too hard, many of our clansmen change to neighboring sutras to not take the risk, however this will affect your future foundations so I recommend you to stick to this method.
Anyway, the flame on your heart will slowly grow, after enough time pass you'll be ready to tackle the 8th stage.
To achieve this realm you must convert a fraction of the energy you eat in fuel for the flame on your heart.
Lastly for the ninth stage you must raise the quantity of Fire Qi on your blood so every single part of it burns slowly.
After this realm you reach to the Mystical Condensation Realm, however that realm won't be explained on this class.
Instead I want you to hear me out.
Mystical Condensation Realm is the 'racial limit' of Cultivation, humans aren't supposed to go beyond this Realm.
Then, how is possible that there are Void Cultivators, Qi Sea Cultivators and even Divine Projection Realm Cultivators.
To achieve those Realms you must transcend and move beyond your human limits, at this point your own biology won't help you to progress any further you must advance through your own efforts.
That is where the 'Heaven Defying' comes from.
Anyhow, with this we finish the class.
I'm going to give you some homework of what we learnt today for the next week.
By the next week I want you, Bing Qing Yang to modify a technique you know, so it adapts the insights your brother taught you related to 'nature', such as a plant or an animal.
As for you Bing Sheng Wang you must focus on creating a technique that transcends an original limitation of a technique you know, and move it beyond its supposed limit.
Of course, the technique mustn't be top-notch, is fine if its worse than the original the most important thing is that you learn how to create something by yourself.
With this said, you can go."