The man stayed silent expecting an answer.
I came up with some bullshit. "Indeed, the younger generation are heavenly talents," I answered hoping that'd suffice.
"Hmm? But none of them are talented? I meant that they were all demonic in nature. Have you been cooped up in secluded cultivation for the past five decades?" The man questioned with a glint in his eyes.
'Shit… I guess I'll go with the story that I'm a lone cultivator, but how did he mistake me for one? I need to learn more without seeming suspicious.'
"Ah, yes. I've been secluded for the past couple of years. But… isn't their demonic nature a problem?" I asked for information, basing my question on common tropes I've seen in the novels my coworker reads.
"Not really… Since 50 years ago, after the divine demon was slain by our head, demonic cultivators and their techniques have become welcome under the heavenly palace and other sects. Of course, they must be under higher supervision than the rest of the cultivators." The man explained while shooing away his junior.
"I'll finally be a First Class disciple! I can finally enter the hall of spirits!" the junior shouted as she happily went away out of the door and past the arena.
"Now, on to you. I've never seen a spirit technique like that before. Spatial techniques are scarce in the lower realms." The man continued after the junior was out of view.
'Spatial techniques… is that what they think brought me here?'
"Oh, it wasn't a spirit technique that brought me here… I suddenly arrived here after touching a worn-out artifact. But since I'm already here and have heard of the Heavenly Palace's reputation, I'd be grateful for the opportunity to become a cultivator of the Heavenly Palace." I went on, hoping they'd believe my half-truths.
"Hmm… An ancient artifact that has the properties of space… That makes more sense as to why you're still at the Qi Gathering stage." The senior muttered to himself.
'I'm at the Qi Gathering stage? How? When? Never mind, now's not the time for that. I need to focus on figuring out more about this place.' I thought before the senior continued.
"Well then, no matter your backstory, the Heavenly Palace has a place for people like you. Follow me, I'll take you to where we accept new disciples." The senior said with thin curved eyes and a grin that was on the border of being mockful.
***
"Just write your name, age, realm, and spirit root." The senior stated while pointing at the paper on the wooden desk.
'...what spirit root do I even have? Do I put a random one? Would they know if I fake it? Most likely.' Thoughts kept churning in my head.
I held the brush and hesitated.
"Can you not write? No matter then, you can answer the questions verbally." The senior took the paper and brush and then sat across the desk.
"I'd like to ask a few questions before I answer… How many spirit roots are there? And how many realms are there after Qi Gathering?" I asked hoping to get as much information as I could.
"Ah… Yes, in total there are four types of spirit roots; a cultivator can only have one type of spirit root in their body which is the one they're usually born with or gained through awakening their body." The senior explained
'Body Awakening? Does that count as a realm?' I pondered, trying to remember what all I could about the 'cultivation' genre my junior talked about.
"The first and most common spirit root is Earth; second, Yang; then, Yin; and finally, Heaven with it being the rarest spirit root." He continued explaining.
"The number of realms is a bit tougher to explain… The first realm is named the Qi Gathering realm. The name is self-explanatory; the Qi Gathering realm is a realm where you gather as much qi as you can in order to awaken your body. Awakening your body will allow you to attain your spirit root and start to refine the qi that you have gathered."
"After that is Qi Refining, where you must refine the qi until it is fully pure and of the same type as your spirit root. This is the stage where most spirit techniques can be used. Rarely, some can be used at Qi Gathering, but the Heavenly Palace doesn't have any due to most being lost." The senior explained.
'Qi has different types like spirit roots? I never heard about this before from my junior coworker…' I thought while the senior continued explaining.
"Later on, you'll need to fuse and compress all the refined qi. By doing that, you'll break through into Qi Fusion. More than that, I cannot explain as I'm simply a First Class disciple." He ended the explanation.
"Thank you greatly, I'll forever be grateful for the knowledge you've given me." I thanked him with honeyed words.
"Well then… Your name?" He asked
'I've never heard their names… Let's just go with one of the names of those MCs that my junior coworker keeps talking about. Hmm… which one though… I can't really think of one that I liked…' I contemplated
'I give up. I'll just go with my original name to feel some sort of normalcy in this weird world…' I decided
"Henry, my name is Henry," I answered.
"Hen Ri… Weird sounding name… Age?" He moved on.
'That works.' I noted.
"56," I answered again.
"You don't need to answer realm as I already checked your realm when you took that translation artifact." He said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"spirit root will stay blank until you reach Qi Refining. And… that's it. Congratulations! You're now a proud Third Class Disciple!" He shouted out.
He snapped and pushed me towards some hut far away from the hall I was in. All done without hands, just qi.
'That was insulting… Now, knowing that cultivation is indeed real and seeing all those powers… I can't help but get excited about becoming a cultivator!' I excitedly thought.
The senior, thankfully, left a spirit technique to cultivate once I've reached Qi Refining.
'For now, I just need to learn how to sense and gather qi…'