Primordial spark

They headed to the edge of the glade, passing through a smaller gate in the wall leading to the slope of the volcano. Large igneous rocks littered the area between the trees.

“This doesn't look like a training area, Xun.” Dave said.

“It is not, but this is perfect for the kind of training we will be doing.”

“Come here, look at this boulder.”

“Looks like a perfectly normal rock to me.”

“Now punch it.”

“Ya serious?”

“Yes, very.”

“Okay, here goes.”

Dave punched the boulder, holding back a lot to not hurt himself. His fist went into the rock and broke it. It crumbled down on his arm and he reflexively shook it off like dust.

“You see now? This could have become a tragedy, had you tried to exert any amount of strength. At our level we do not even need to reinforce our bodies with qi to do a lot of damage to our surroundings.”

“Oh shit, you were completely right. What the fuck.”

“Body strengthening already made you a lot stronger than any mortal. Qi gathering would have allowed you to use qi to reinforce parts of your body. Foundation establishment added to that and now your entire body is passively reinforced. I will teach you how to do it consciously later.”

Dave grabbed a piece of igneous rock and squeezed, it let out a series of gunshot-like sounds while crumbling into sand.

“I can understand why you wanted me to slow down in my cultivation, this could've ended really badly.”

“We need to get you to a level of knowledge where it becomes believable that you were a rouge cultivator. Nobody is going to believe your actual speed of cultivating.”

Dave, having stopped listening asked: “Hey, can I punch one of these trees?”

Xun panicked and screamed: “No! Stop! The crafters will skin us alive if you damage their steelwood trees.”

Xun spent the rest of the afternoon teaching Dave how to reinforce his body with qi and to do it reflexively when attacked.

The sun dipped behind the volcano and Dave asked Xun: “Hey, how come that I'm not hungry? I've been up and about all day?”

“In the foundation establishment realm you can subsist on solely qi for a long time. As long as you do not enter a qi desert, you can live for years at a time without sustenance. At core formation you will no longer require any food at all, it can still benefit you to eat and it still gives you the pleasure of eating good food.”

“It feels like I'm becoming less and less human, for better or for worse.” Dave said, deep in thought.

“Come, we should spar a little in the training arena. Just to get your reflexes up to par. I cannot guide you forever, I have to return to my duties eventually.”

They drilled simple punches and kicks, until evening, then they returned to the Ma clan residence for the night.

The next morning morning they met in the little garden in the center of the Ma residence.

“What are we doing today?” Dave asked.

“I cannot teach you for much longer, you have also advanced to the third level of formation establishment tonight. I am going to teach you how to operate your flying artifact until noon and then I will show you how to cultivate manually.”

“I thought I was already cultivating?”

“No, what you have been doing is called passive cultivation and is unheard of below the core formation realm.”

“How so?”

“The core formation realm allows the cultivator to generate qi passively, just like your physique does. It can be expanded into the surroundings as a domain, affecting a battlefield in a way beneficial to the cultivator. When you first arrived here, you essentially had a less concentrated version of a domain. This also means that a core formation cultivator can theoretically advance without utilizing his spirit roots to absorb qi from his surroundings.”

“Why is that important?”

“It is important, because demonic cultivators that continue using demonic techniques above core formation are perpetuating a crime against the heavens without rhyme or reason. They could simply isolate themselves and slowly advance to their next bottleneck, even without spirit roots, but for them such an approach is almost unheard of.”

“Yeah, that sounds like they really enjoy pointlessly rising up against the heavens, but isn't that what all cultivators do? Battle against the heavens that want you to remain mortal?”

“Do not compare us to those bastards. We advance while safeguarding the mortals around us. Those pigs gorge themselves on the qi of others, with little regard for anyone else. They would wipe out mortals like flies if the punishment the heavens would meter out on them was less severe.”

“What punishment?”

“If someone cultivates using mortal vital qi, their tribulations starting at the core formation realm become impossible to overcome. Only truly desperate demonic cultivators cultivate using mortal lives, because it cuts them off from further advancing forever.”

“So anyone below core formation could get their hands dirty without any consequence from the heavens, until they advance to core formation.”

“Their karma would still be reduced, leading to unfortunate encounters which would likely kill them if they are weak.”

“So karma is actually a thing here?”

“Not proven, but there have been countless examples throughout history of demonic cultivators meeting a grizzly end.”

“Wouldn't that just be their lifestyle of murder coming back to haunt them?”

“It could be, but the heavens certainly bless and punish. Karma seems very likely to me, based on what I have seen. Let us end this conversation and begin flying.”

They went to the middle of the courtyard and Xun pulled out an oversized sword from his spacial ring. He stepped on top of the blade and lifted off. Hovering a few centimeters off the ground he beckoned for Dave to do the same.

Dave unrolled his carpet and stepped on top of it. Then he projected some qi into it from the soles of his feet. The carpet became rigid and started hovering.

“There are two ways to steer a flying artifact. The first way is to steer using more or less qi in a given direction, which gives you sideways momentum or you can fly using your body to steer. A combination of both is usually the best and safest way of doing it. There is even a flying competition in our sect, but you just missed it, so next year maybe.”

“Sounds fun.”

“Let us move away from the sect, it is generally discouraged to fly above the sect, however you can leave quickly, just avoid lingering for too long, otherwise people will think you are scouting for someone or preparing a potential attack. The worst that can happen, is that you will be questioned in the presence of a truth stone and maybe a fine, if what you did was particularly egregious.”

Dave followed closely behind Xun as they flew out of the sect, taking the shortest path to the walls, then turning north and flying for a while, practicing simple maneuvers by shifting their body weight around.

The plain extended in all directions and when Dave tried to fly higher to see further Xun loudly warned him: “Do not fly too high or you will lose consciousness and fall.”

Dave, feeling like testing this society's knowledge asked: “And why is that?”

“It has to do with the heavens and how only immortals are allowed to ascend.”

When the sun was high above, Xun flew down to the ground near a little creek, with some trees running along its length. Dave followed him down after taking a more detailed look at the surroundings.

“You ready to learn how a normal cultivator draws in qi?” Xun asked Dave.

“I sure am.”

“First you want to sit down and close your eyes. Rotate your qi throughout your meridians, the surrounding qi will be drawn into your body as you do so, then you take all the qi and move it to your dantian. Repeat it until you can do it faster and faster.” Xun explained.

Dave sat down and closed his eyes. He could sense his own meridians in his spiritual body.

He took a small amount of qi and moved it outwards in one of his meridians, then he drew it out of his body and into a different meridian. Qi flooded in behind the controlled qi and he drew it into his dantian. He did this process quicker and more precise, until he fell into a meditative daze.

Eventually he was knocked out of his runners high by Xun knocking him on the shoulder.

“You should stop now, otherwise the grass will catch on fire.” With a wary voice, before pointing at the ground.

Dave looked and saw that the grass in a small ring around him was smoldering.

Xun said: “I do not know what is going on here, but you should be careful when cultivating in the future.”

“I will. Should I not cultivate in front of others?”

“Not unless you really, really trust them. They might know more about your physique than we do and it might end up with you being a target. Also, as you advance in foundation establishment you will notice more and more liquid qi in your dantian, that is from compressing your qi into a liquid state. Which is what foundation establishment is all about.”

As the sun set Xun and Dave flew back to the Lone Mountain sect.