"If I remember correctly, the 9 realms of cultivation should be Body Tempering, Qi Condensation, Foundation Building, which is my current level of cultivation. This should be the first set." Fu Hao Xin paused for a moment, "I've also heard that in the first set Body Tempering and Qi Condensation can be done in either order, with some cultivation methods doing Qi Condensation first, although the more mainstream method is to do Body Tempering first as it makes it easier to condense Qi afterwards."
"Either way, Body Tempering and Qi Condensation can be considered the basic accumulation of outer force and inner force respectively, while Foundation is the stage in which one combines the two forces seamlessly to enhance each other's strengths, letting one plus one equal more than two."
"The first set of three can be considered helping transform a mortal body into a vessel more suitable for cultivation. Of course, this doesn't mean that everyone's aptitude is the same after this stage. Different cultivation techniques aside, a lot of the later stages are more stringent on the cultivator's insight and ability to comprehend laws and sense Qi, and even a genius requires upwards of decades to advance just a little bit."
"The second set of three are Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Resonance." Scratching the back of his head, Fu Hao Xin said somewhat awkwardly, "I honestly don't know that much about these realms beyond the Golden Core stage. I only have a vague concept of what they consist of. They're still rather far away…"
"But to my understanding Golden Core is about exceeding the body's capacity for Qi by creating a new organ in one's body that's dedicated to holding Qi, the Nascent Soul is about creating a new method of sensing the world, and Resonance is about using the natural forces to make yourself stronger."
"As for the last set, I only know the names. Which are Void Returning, Spiritual Palace, and Supremacy."
Scratching his head again, Fu Hao Xin hesitated for a moment, "Then it's mainly hearsay, but I've heard there's actually a realm above Supremacy called Legendary, but I've only heard of it as a rumor."
Di Tou couldn't help but feel dismayed. F*ck, wasn't one of his quests to reach the peak of Body tempering? Didn't that mean… he wasn't even at the standard of the weakest realm of cultivation? Heck, even this lad Fu Hao Xin was at the Foundation realm… just how weak was he, ah?
Cold sweats suddenly ran down Di Tou's back. Wait, if Fu Hao Xin was at the foundation realm, than that Teacher Li, no matter how weak he was had to be at least Golden Core realm right? After all, the teacher couldn't be weaker than the student could they be? Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, just what sort of monster had he provoked, ah?
Looking at Di Tou's grim face, Fu Hao Xin felt like Senior Mu wasn't quite satisfied with his explanation. After thinking for a moment, he continued. "The other important thing to note about cultivation should be the cultivation manuals. Generally speaking cultivation manuals are divided into three categories, being Human, Earth, and Heaven tier manuals, and each division is further divided into low, mid, and high tier manuals."
"All manuals in the Earth and Heaven tiers can allegedly cultivate all the way up to the Supreme stage, although I've heard that in terms of ability someone who's cultivated a high tier Heaven manual would be over two times as strong as someone who cultivated a low tier Earth manual in the same stage."
"Human manuals on the other hand are categorized differently because they are incomplete cultivation paths. In terms of the actual amount of strength they can grant their user, they can even be stronger than cultivators who are cultivating according Heaven or Earth manuals in the same stage, but they typically have some sort of defect that prevents the cultivator from being able to go further."
Scrunching his face Fu Hao Xin tried his best to recall something, "I've also heard that tier isn't everything for a cultivation manual. I think it was… something about how the tier of a cultivation manual is based off it's maximum capacity, not how good it is on all fronts."
"For instance, I cultivate an mid-grade Earth tier manual called [Hornless Dragon] that specializes in speed and mental strength. Beyond that, it's also relatively well rounded in the aspects of strength and spiritual sense. It can be considered a very good cultivation technique."
"On the other hand Da Niu from earlier cultivates the [Great Oxen] manual which is a low grade Heaven manual that specializes entirely in strength. Relatively speaking, if we were to compare his strongest attribute, strength, to my strongest attribute, speed directly, he can be considered a notch or two above me, but his cultivation technique is lacking in every other aspect, so my relative strength to his speed can be considered more than a few notches above, and the same thing with spiritual sense and mental strength."
A look of disdain creeping onto his face as he thought about Da Niu, Hao Xin continued, "If we were to compete one on one at the same level of cultivation, even without considering techniques I would be able to win easily.
All he has is a strong body. As long as I don't take the initiative to run into his fist, he can't hurt me. He doesn't have the mental strength to calculate a way to entrap me mid-fight, and he doesn't have the spiritual sense to learn any supporting techniques to help him out. As for his speed. Che."
"To put it simply he's an idiot who saw the word Heaven and jumped for it without thinking about the technique as a whole…" Realizing that he was being a bit too casual with his words with his mood, Fu Hao Xin stopped himself.
Cupping his hands, he half-bowed while sitting, "Apologies senior, I got carried away. I hope you'll ignore my loss of face."