"As you may know Ru, all races have a different system when measuring cultivation, your mother taught you ours, but in the "Neutral Country" a way was created to-"
'ahhhhh, Not long ago we left after finishing lunch, since we entered deeper into the forest, we have been more attentive to our surroundings in search of a monster to train, while my father has been teaching me how other races measure their cultivation levels, in short, all races go through certain processes that even though they are called different they are the same, "Tempering the body" is considered the first, humans, demons and dwarves have to train the body themselves to eliminate impurities, the Dilmun, Lihyan and beasts are lucky that the blood of ancient beast lords runs through our veins, making our body temper itself as it grows, within this step there are ten levels, the estimated age to reach the top of this is twenty, if you reach At that age and not having reached the peak, you are considered mediocre and not fit to follow the path of cultivation.
By the way, I'm already at level two, a great achievement at my age, where the normal thing would be not to reach this level until age twelve, I am considered a rarity among the Lihyan, speaking of which, I read it in a book in the village library, being born into my race is considered a bet, in fact I'm surprised that we haven't become extinct, apart from the fact that it's hard for us to have children, we are born with something that others are not, the normal thing would be that the spiritual energy we collect to cultivate is stored in our body creating a kind of ball that is the core of our cultivation, the "core of life", well in the Lihyan it is a vortex called essence devourer, where apart from filtering spiritual energy we can devour the essence of the lives we take, strengthening ourselves in the process, yes, I know it sounds like cheating, but it's not, in fact it is considered more of a "curse?", that's when the luck factor comes in, that vortex the more it absorbs the more it oxidizes making our growth obstructed and not allowing us to advance further, advantage that the rest of the other races have where they can grow unlimitedly with enough talent, with a powerful bloodline, some ancient treasure, etc. The Lihyan must be born with the luck that this vortex is powerful enough to not rust quickly. Yeah, it sounds like a pain, I know, by the way the ancient lords who represented us in the ancient wars were those lucky people.
But well, leaving aside the problem of my race, the next step in cultivation is "tempering the soul", in this spiritual energy is gathered from the environment to create the "core of life" where the energy is filtered and polished to cultivate the soul. At this point there should be enough energy to manipulate the elements, a test will be done to find out which element you have the best connection with to start learning it, some are born with the power to control more than one but these cases are rare, also depending on what race you are you will have more affinity to certain elements, for example, demons that control darkness will not be affined with the light element of elves or humans who can use all the elements. This step begins at ten years old, there are ten levels and at twenty years old it should be completed.
What follows is to fuse the already tempered body and soul into one, this step is called "Core Fusion", where the impurities will be finished cleaning, also the "life core" would not only filter energy for the soul, it would also begin to nourish the body, taking the cultivator to new heights of power. With ten levels, it would normally take ten years to complete this step, those who have the most advantages in this process are the elves, since the energy of the tree of life helps them to complete it faster than the others.
When the body and soul are already fused with the life core, the next step is "Core Strengthening", the size of the life core and the purity of the energy that forms it will be improved, with five levels and five years to reach the top. Having completed this step, the decisive moment in the life of a cultivator arrives to create his own path, where only those who are willing to sacrifice everything will be able to advance to be at the top of power.
Or so it was in the books, since ever since the separation of the five continents, the energy is not enough to allow the completion of the cultivation stages so quickly, causing a large part of the population to become weak as the years go by, you need to be a genius nowadays to reach the peak of the "tempering the soul" stage, in fact the only people alive right now who reached the "core strengthening" stage are those who were chosen by the ancient weapons, people call them the seven chosen ones. The people who have reached the "core fusion" are considered generals or hold important positions in the kingdoms, those who have been able to "temper their soul" are high-ranking soldiers or adventurers who defended the borders from the beasts and finally those who have been able to reach the peak of the "tempering the body" stage are low-ranking adventurers or soldiers. It was also written that there were more cultivation levels above those already mentioned, but their names were lost thousands of years ago.'
"This would be the path of Ru cultivation, since much knowledge was lost in the last war of the ancients, we would also have to add to this the different techniques of energy management in each kingdom where the most important families have one. Our race only uses one technique that you already know the name" Kian spoke to the left of his son with Fa to his right, some time had passed since they entered deep into the forest and he began to explain to him how cultivation worked.
"Soul weapon" Ru answered, as he walked alertly in search of his first opponent.
Nodding, Kian continued, "That's right, even though we don't have a chosen one from the inheritance of an ancient, our energy management technique, in this case of the soul, is more than enough to instill fear in other countries, the good thing is that it is forbidden to use such weapons, if any country were to send a chosen one into battle, it would break the agreement that was signed after the death of our former lords, causing other countries to take drastic measures against that country, even stealing its inheritance."
"Mom, Dad, what is your cultivation level?" Ru spoke with curiosity in her voice as they looked at them.
"Fu fu fu, honey I'm in the second stage of "core fusion"", Fa had said as she puffed out her chest with pride and glanced at her son to see his reaction.
Ru, realizing that his mother was expecting him to be surprised, decided to please her. With a look and voice of wonder and admiration, he gave her a hug and looking at her said, "Wow, my mom is amazing."
Happy with his son's reaction, he picked him up, hugged him tightly and began to rub his face against his and with a loving voice said, "That's right, love, your mother is incredible."
Bringing a smile to Kian's face at the scene his wife and son were making, he decided not to stay behind with Fa and also show off his strength, "Fu fu fu, Ru, your father is also in the second stage of "core fusion" and soon surpasses it-" cutting his words off abruptly and in a low voice he said "I feel the presence of a beast nearby, get ready Ru, the time has come."
Listening to his father's words, Ru changed his expression to a serious one, beginning to pay attention to the surroundings in more detail, his eyes shining with the excitement of his first prey.
Fa lowered Ru from his arms, whispering one last thing in his ear, "Careful sweetheart and good luck, I know you can," giving him a kiss on the cheek and separating from him.
They had already explained the plan to Ru, that morning while they were going to the forest clearing, his parents would let him know if they detected a beast nearby since they had better senses than him, but then, Ru would have to look for it and hunt it alone.