The Path of Cultivation

"Barely ten days have passed?" Having been utterly immersed in cultivation earlier, Xu Yuan was astonished upon asking to discover that just over ten days had actually gone by. From completely unranked to Eighth Rank Meridian Tempering had taken him less than two months. Even though Xu Yuan had prepared himself mentally, he still could not help clicking his tongue in amazement at such cultivation speed. Exiting the secret chamber where the spiritual spring lay, he walked out along the inner courtyard's covered corridor. Xu Yuan chose not to keep cultivating. The pills Xu Changge had left him were essentially all used up. Without the medicinal effects that protected his meridians and nourished his soul, cultivating for too long without respite would damage his foundation. As he walked all the way out, Xu Yuan spotted many guards and instructors who had come to train at this "Wuxuan Courtyard." Most of those permitted to cultivate in the inner courtyard possessed cultivation between the Seventh and Sixth Ranks, with only a few geniuses at the Eighth Rank. There were both men and women. Cultivation depended on aptitude, not gender. The men were all packed with thick, solid cords of muscle. Though the women still faintly retained feminine curves, the muscle beneath their clothing was undeniably substantial as well. Indeed, this was not athletic tone, but pure muscle—hulking slabs of meat. A few women with quite pretty faces were even bulkier than Zhou Chen beside him. As his gaze swept past, catching their eyes by chance, Xu Yuan's eyelids twitched uncontrollably. Zhou Chen noticed Xu Yuan's gaze and gave a rather peculiar chuckle. "Young Master, these people all entered the path as martial apprentices, much like mortals practicing martial arts, which is why most of them have such burly physiques." "Martial apprentices?" The unfamiliar term surprised Xu Yuan a little, and he asked in a low voice, "What is a martial apprentice?" After that attack involving Su Jinxuan, Xu Yuan had realized that his understanding of this world's extraordinary powers was still far from sufficient; he needed to learn more relevant information. Zhou Chen chuckled. "Certainly. The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Ranks we cultivate today were originally named after the three realms of martial apprenticeship established back then by the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion: Body Tempering, Meridian Tempering, and Bone Tempering..." "Wait," Xu Yuan suddenly interrupted. He had never heard that name before, not even in Cangyuan. He asked softly, "Is the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion a sect?" Hearing this, Zhou Chen casually explained without much care: "Yes, though it was destroyed over ten thousand years ago. Most of today's cultivation realms were originally delineated by them." "They delineated the realms of cultivation under heaven?" Xu Yuan's pupils constricted slightly. Zhou Chen took a swig of wine. "Of course. Otherwise, the cultivation realms of today couldn't have just appeared out of thin air, could they? "The Qi Path, Martial Path, Soul Path, Formation Path—so many of them were designated by the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion. "Still, ten thousand years have passed after all. A method of cultivation like the martial apprentice path is completely outdated today. It's just that out of habit, and because no one else could establish a unified system, the names of the realms have simply continued to be used." "..." Xu Yuan's eyes flickered for a moment. He instinctively wanted to ask for more information, but in the end he held back. Complex matters concerning cultivation paths were better investigated later by browsing through ancient texts in the library pavilion himself. Nodding slightly and composing his mind, Xu Yuan glanced at those martial apprentices. "Mister Zhou, continue telling me about them." Zhou Chen smiled faintly. "Of course. For those walking the path of martial apprentices, only when they reach the peak of Seventh Rank Bone Tempering will the Chancellor's Manor bestow a cultivation technique for them to practice." With that, Zhou Chen shook his head gently with an air of sentimentality. "Don't mind how big they look right now, Young Master. Once they enter the Sixth Rank Iron Body and temper their flesh, sinews, and bones, they will naturally return to normal." Having listened closely, Xu Yuan asked with a hint of doubt: "Mister Zhou, do you mean they currently possess no cultivation technique? But without a cultivation technique, how do they draw Source Qi into their bodies?" Zhou Chen glanced at Xu Yuan and fell silent for a moment. "Without a cultivation technique, they naturally have to rely on the body-tempering methods of martial apprentices to slowly hone and grind their bodies." Xu Yuan's mind stirred slightly. "These body-tempering methods can also draw qi into the body?" Zhou Chen nodded and let out a sigh. "Outdated as these body-tempering methods are, drawing qi into the body isn't slow, and they don't require an intent-soul. It's just that they easily leave behind lifelong, incurable hidden ailments." "Hidden ailments?" Xu Yuan muttered with furrowed brows. His thoughts flickered as he grasped the crux of the matter, and he sighed faintly. It was not that they didn't want to choose, but that they had no choice. Zhou Chen shook his head, sighing with a light chuckle: "Young Master, for people like us who want to cultivate, there is simply no other way. Having the cultivation methods of martial apprentices is already something to be deeply grateful for. "After all, things like cultivation techniques are truly far too out of reach for ordinary people..." Xu Yuan fell silent for a long time. Suddenly looking at those practicing martial arts in the courtyard, he asked in a low voice: "Mister Zhou, could you tell me more about it?" "..." Zhou Chen glanced at those hulking figures as well. He unfastened the wineskin at his waist, quietly took a swig, and with a trace of reminiscence surfacing in his eyes, began rambling softly to Xu Yuan about things from the past... The reason this antiquated cultivation method of martial apprentices still existed ultimately boiled down to five words: Techniques are not lightly imparted. Nearly all cultivation manuals and secret arts were monopolized by sects and aristocratic clans, yet in this world, far too many people longed to change their fates through cultivation. So many that countless people died over it every single day. Back when Zhou Chen had not yet touched cultivation and was wandering the common streets, he had seen scores of people die without a burial place just fighting over a scrap of a damaged manual. To obtain a cultivation technique, to touch cultivation, ordinary people—barring the extremely rare few who stumbled upon fortuitous encounters—were left with only joining the military or becoming servants to noble clans to earn rewards. Don't even mention sects; the way sects recruited disciples was even less dependable. Every few years, the various sects would indeed open their mountain gates for a few specific days to accept disciples, but those accepted had to possess superior aptitude at the very least; even medium talent would be turned away. The reason was simple. Most sects had existed for a thousand years by now. The original batches of disciples had long formed affiliated clans beneath the sects, and these clans steadily sent younger generations with cultivation aptitude into the sects to train. A sect could only support so many people; if someone without background squeezed in, wouldn't that take away cultivation resources from the scions of the sect's affiliated clans? Given equal aptitude, why would they choose an ordinary person with no backing? Under such circumstances, several decades ago, the Tian'an Chamber of Commerce gradually began establishing martial halls named Tian'an. Back then, martial halls across the realm were beyond count, but over several decades, barely any remained. Because the Tian'an Martial Halls taught real martial arts—namely, the cultivation methods of martial apprentices. And because of this, even with the protection of the Prime Minister of Great Yan, the immense Tian'an Chamber of Commerce had bordered on total destruction several times. Yet as time went on, the aristocratic clans, sects, and affiliated clans ultimately ended up compromising. They too opened corresponding martial halls among the common folk, though regrettably, the scale of those latecomers was far from matching the Chancellor's Manor's Tian'an Martial Halls. Regardless of the intentions behind the struggles at the top or what the outcome was, from that point on, ordinary people finally had an avenue through which they could cultivate. Even though cultivating as a martial apprentice was fraught with difficulty, even though this method might damage one's foundation, to a group of people who had no cultivation path whatsoever, it was their only opportunity. Zhou Chen had been one of them back then. Relying on the silver he had scraped together through childhood and youth by swindling and cheating on the streets, Zhou Chen became one of the first batch of cultivators to enter a Tian'an Martial Hall. Yet inside the martial hall, things were vastly different from what he had imagined. The hundred taels of standard silver he had risked his life to save bought him nothing more than a body-tempering fist manual, a reasonably tidy single room, and over a thousand fellow students living together outside the city. There were no one-on-one instructors, no medicinal baths like he had envisioned, not even a decent aptitude test. This made him feel cheated. Yet later, he gradually realized that the money had been well spent. At least, for a genius, it was worth it. Although the Tian'an Martial Hall had just been founded at the time, its internal structure was already quite complete. Various assessments, various ranking boards, and various competitions. In short: The capable stayed; the incapable left. Of course, staying was fine too, so long as you kept paying. Cultivation resources were distributed according to rank; the higher one's placement on the various boards, the more resources one received. Everyone in the martial hall cracked their heads fighting upward for that sliver of a path to rise. Countless were eliminated along the way... Countless were wounded or killed... And Zhou Chen was, in just such an environment, a Third Rank Grandmaster who had clawed his way up step by perilous step, braving death at every turn.