The world of personal improvement could be achieved through countless means, and martial arts were just one of them, even subdivided into almost infinite possibilities through different Daos, such as body strengthening, energy collection, demonic Dao of slaughter, demonic Dao of charm, and so on. But all of them derived from and needed to complete certain stages of an ancient method practiced by the Ancestral Gods, a race that lived in immemorial times and whose whereabouts were now unknown. The Divine Pattern was the original technique and from it that one was able to reach the Realms, which are:
1. Consolidated Realm, establishing the foundation;
2. Origin Realm, awakening one's genetic history;
3. Spiritual Realm, understands itself;
4. Core Realm, merging the present and the ancient;
5. Earthly Realm, connecting with the immediate environment;
6. Celestial Realm, uniting the core with the intention of the environment;
7. Fantasy Realm, creating a virtual world within the soul;
8. Spatial Realm, bringing the soul's world to interact with reality;
9. Demigod Realm, a small world resembling reality, created in a separate dimension linked to the practitioner;
10. Divine Realm, where the laws and foundations of the small world are fully controlled by the superior being.
The stages of the Divine Pattern managed to separate some common aspects of all known methods and thus served to relate them all. You might be wondering, what does this have to do with the current story? But the answer is simple: our Ian was entering this world.
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The body strengthening method of the Two Towers clan was called Transcendent Divine Body, one of the best in all of Sombreal and at least not inferior to any in the general aspects of the category.
1. Base Body; 2. Copper Body; 3. Bronze Body; 4. Iron Body; 5. Steel Body; 6. Silver Body; 7. Gold Body; 8. Platinum Body.
The levels followed the requirements of the Divine Pattern as well, and it could be said that someone in the Iron Body would be in the Core Realm, since breaking through the stages of body strengthening also required understanding the core of the Divine stages. It was almost like dual cultivation, as besides the requirements of the main method, one also had to possess knowledge of another. Without a doubt, this was the only possible path to follow since only the race of the Ancestral Gods could cultivate directly. Although progress was slow and the energy not as pure, the modern indirect methods were not inferior, as in addition to the natural power of the Realm, they still had the corresponding advantages of personal improvement practice.
The Base Body followed the same principles in almost all Daos, including energy collection, which was quite rational. How could a body without a minimum of mutation and refinement bear the burden of power coming from higher levels?
It was divided into seven stages:
1. Tendon Strengthening; 2. Muscle Strengthening; 3. Bone Strengthening; 4. Internal Organ Strengthening; 5. Circulatory System Strengthening; 6. Meridian Strengthening; 7. Nervous System Strengthening.
The Helis, like all species in Sombreal, had the custom of being cultivators of some martial art. From the age of five, a Heli child would begin their path as an artist martial, and on average, by the age of 10 or 12, they would complete it and enter the Origin Realm, with some unstoppable geniuses like Etri who achieved this stage at the age of 8. This scenario showed that every citizen, at the very least, would be considered a soldier, with an extremely high military power that contrasted with the seemingly eternal peace that prevailed on the continent.
The population of that race was currently around ten million, a low number considering that their fertility was not much lower than that of humans on Earth, and their life expectancy was much higher. The solution to this supposed mystery was related to the percentages of men and women. There were more than five times as many males, so most marriages would be polyandrous. Moreover, not every woman would want to get married, and there were also some with homosexual tendencies, which were not repressed in that society. In addition, in a culture of martial artists, the most important thing was cultivation, which, except for some Daos, required a lot of time in seclusion. When combined with the fact that there were contraceptive methods available, this led to the current reality.
Ian began to understand and piece together the information given by Etri with what he had already absorbed from the legacies. It seemed that this world had infinite possibilities, and he was a frog at the bottom of a well. Even small children could easily threaten his life. A sense of urgency burned in his soul, and he used it as fuel to increase his abilities.
The practice for the first stage of the Base Body, according to the Two Towers family manual, involved circulating energy in the meridians in a certain pattern synchronized with specific movements aimed at strengthening the tendons with some weights, that would be increased over time. Ian's innate learning ability was already very high, and combined with some advancements in his Librarian Dao, he quickly grasped Etri's instructions and followed the path closest to perfection. Which greatly surprised our favorite Heli since each step had to be performed with precision and control, and this seemed to come naturally to Ian.
"Etri, I noticed that the cultivation technique of the Two Towers clan only goes up to the Spatial Realm. Is it incomplete?"
"Indeed, it doesn't cover all the realms, but it's not incomplete. There is no one who has surpassed this point in the Sombreal continent. Even among the more than ten million Helis, currently only five masters have reached the Gold Body, equivalent to the Fantasy Realm, and they are the pinnacle of our race. The gran elder of my family is one of them. Each of the four major clans has one, and the fifth is in an emerging medium-sized clan, but they were blessed with a great genius. Undoubtedly, Senior Javi is the most talented among them and the only one with a chance of reaching the Platinum Body."
"How strong is a Gold Body?"
"With one or two strikes, they would be able to affect this mountain using high-level combat techniques. Now imagine the Spatial Realm... It would have at least twice the power."
"Are there no stronger individuals even among other species?" Ian was a little disappointed. His legacies, as far as he had studied at the moment, had already shown him a larger environment, but it seemed that in a foreseeable future, he wouldn't have the chance to glimpse it.
"The peak of power on the continent is the Spatial Realm. There are no stronger ones."
"Is it due to limitations in cultivation techniques?"
"No, even other organizations that have methods that, at least in theory, cover other stages in their books, their members have never been able to reach the realms above the Spatial Realm. The further you advance in cultivation, the greater the difficulties. A Platinum Body is seen only once every five thousand years among the Helis, and you know how much effort we put into trying to perfect our practices."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend your people. I'm just trying to broaden my perspective and understand the situation. I'm like a frog at the bottom of a well dreaming with the sky."
"A frog? And why would you be under a rock?"
"Oh no, it's just an expression, Etri. It means that I'm just a frog at the bottom of a well."
"What?" Her beautiful oval face began to show traces of irritation, with her eyes narrowing. Ian knew he was playing with fire and that he should take a step back. After all, we're talking about an existence at the peak of the Spiritual Realm... A flick and he would lose his head.
"I'm just kidding! Relax! Remember, the Land of the Gods? It means that my world, the one I live in, feel, and understand based on my personal perceptions, is still small, and I have not even a fraction of the vision of the whole, which is the situation of the Helis and even Sombreal."
"Humpf! If you have time for jokes and strange remarks, you can certainly increase the weights..." A diabolical gaze of amethyst color fixed on Ian, making him break out in a cold sweat. He discovered that the usually sweet Loli transformed into a strict demon when it came to cultivation.