Introducing spiritual energy into one's spirit vessel was painful.
The degree of pain depended on how welcoming and attuned one's spiritual vessel was to spiritual energy.
Sal had cultivated before, so he knew this stuff.
In his previous life, he had to endure the pain of being stabbed a hundred times before he could reach the first level because his spirit vessel wasn't attuned to spiritual energy.
In this life, although it was his first time drawing spiritual energy into his spirit vessel, the bout of pain he was expecting and all ready to endure never came. He didn't even feel as ounce of pain as he cultivated.
'This body is made for cultivation.'
Sal praised his new mortal husk before he stopped cultivating and probed his spirit vessel with his spiritual consciousness.
Within the confines of his body, his spirit vessel appeared as an intangible orb with more than two dozen pure white stars glowing inside it.
Each of these stars represented a unit of pure spiritual energy.
Sal had 30 such stars, meaning he had 30 units of spiritual energy inside his spiritual vessel.
'I faced no bottleneck and directly progressed to the intermediate stage of the first level. The quality of my spirit vessel is better than I expected,' Sal revealed a rare smile.
The first level of the introductory stage was divided into four stages: the initial stage, the intermediate stage, the advanced stage, and the peak stage.
Specifically, possessing 25 or fewer units of spiritual energy categorized a spiritual combatant in the initial stage, 26 to 50 units placed them in the intermediate stage, 51 to 75 units in the advanced stage, and 76 to 100 units in the peak stage. Having 30 units in the spiritual vessel meant that the spiritual combatant had reached the intermediate stage of the first level.
'What quality is it exactly?' Sal wondered, feeling curious.
The very next moment, as he closely examined his spirit vessel, he discovered that it was only one-third full. As if he had seen something pleasant, his eyes lit up in joy.
'It's a nearly perfect quality matured spirit vessel!'
The quality of a spirit vessel at maturity varied.
It was divided into four levels: low, mid, high, and perfect.
A low-quality matured vessel could only contain 33 units of spiritual energy. After it was filled to that point, it had to be tempered to increase its spiritual energy capacity. Without tempering, its capacity won't increase, and it would be impossible to make progress in cultivation.
A mid-quality matured vessel could hold 34 to 67 units, offering a decent range for growth in cultivation without an immediate need for tempering.
A high-quality matured vessel could absorb 68 to 99 units, and a perfect-quality matured vessel could absorb 100 units.
A person with a perfect quality spirit matured vessel could reach the peak stage of the first level without facing any bottlenecks!
The quality one's spirit vessel might possess on the day of maturation depends heavily on their diet.
However, other factors could also influence it.
Special methods and pills could increase the quality one's spirit vessel could achieve on the day of maturation, but they were quite rare. Not any Tom, Dick, And Harry could get their hands on them. You had to be someone special!
'The original owner hasn't received proper nutrients for nearly a year during the most crucial period of growth.
'It should have severely affected the quality of his spirit vessel, rending it worse than average.'
'Yet it is not only above average, it's of a high level.'
'How was this achieved?'
Sitting on the roof of the shack, Sal crossed his arms before his chest and fell into a state of deep contemplation.
Soon, he connected the dots and came to an important realization.
Neither the parents nor the relatives of the original owner were simple people. They must've taught him some special method and fed him treasures that increased the quality of the spiritual vessel when he was young.
Sal came to his conclusion after careful consideration.
Naturally, he had many other conclusions related to this matter, but they seemed too far-fetched to be true, and this was the one that made the most sense, so he believed it the most.
'I can keep cultivating until I reach the peak stage of the first level, let's resume.'
Sal resumed cultivating, utilizing the Ancestral Breathing Technique to purify and absorb pure spiritual energy into his spirit vessel.
The amount of pure spiritual energy in his spirit vessel quickly increased.
His cultivation base surged.
In minutes, he broke through multiple times and advanced from the intermediate stage of the first level of the introductory phase to the peak stage.
The amount of pure spiritual energy in his spirit vessel increased to 90 units.
Sal's eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
In his previous life, he was in his twenties when he had stepped into the path of cultivation, and with the widespread cultivation manual he managed to get his hand on he had to meditate for 6 weeks to even harness a unit of spiritual energy and introduce it into his body. Yet, now he had reached the peak stage of the first level in a couple of minutes.
Sal thought, 'This cultivation speed is ridiculous.'
'The quality of my spirit vessel and its affinity for spiritual energy coupled with the Ancestral Breathing Technique is what allows such rapid progress.'
'If even one of the three was missing, it wouldn't have been possible for me to cultivate this fast.'