Nie Tian spent the next few months cultivating under Wu Ji’s guidance on the back mountain of Cloudsoaring Mountain.
Every morning, Wu Ji would instruct him about the origins of Qi warriors and the differences between realms, and also impart to him various secrets and anecdotes of the Realm of Flame Heaven.
From Wu Ji, Nie Tian also learned that the period before one hundred thousand years ago was referred to as the ancient era.
During that time, a variety of races had been established in countless realms. Titans, ancient beasts, and the monarchs of various special races were the overlords of their separate realms.
Humans, on the other hand, were just sheep waiting to be slaughtered, controlled by the stronger races, and were reduced to the powerful races’ offerings to the heaven and earth.
Only when the ancient Qi warriors figured out a way to cultivate, and learned how to channel the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth into their spiritual sea, did the human race finally break free from enslavement and rise to prominence.
Wu Ji told him that all living being in this universe had unique talents.
The titans and ancient beasts had been the favored ones from the moment they came to exist, the reason being that unimaginable, frightening strength lay within their flesh and blood.
As for the monarchs of the various powerful races, they possessed bloodlines that were incomparably strong. Some bloodlines allowed them to interact with the lava from the earth’s core, some allowed them to cause great changes to thunder, some contained the profound mysteries of death, and some bloodlines carried endless life.
There were also special races that had been born with mysterious souls, allowing them to float through the dark holes of space like ghosts.
According to Wu Ji, any living creature was able to possess three types of strength, which were spiritual power, bloodline power, and soul power.
Some strong races had the secret laws of heaven and earth within their bloodlines. They would mainly cultivate their bloodline power, and the life force within their flesh and blood would be as strong as the mountain and as abundant as the ocean.
Some other strong races had powerful souls, and their cultivation would be mostly soul-related.
There were also other races that mainly focused on the cultivation of their spiritual sea and spiritual power.
Spiritual power, bloodline power, and soul power were just different manifestations of strength. They all contained boundless mysteries, and possessed the ability to reshape the heaven and earth.
As for the human race, they usually started their cultivation path by cultivating their spiritual power. When they reached a certain stage, they would be able to sense the existence of the soul power and start to comprehend its profundity, and thus start to refine their souls.
Of course, nothing was for sure. Some people were able to keenly sense the existence of psychic power at a very early age.
Psychic power was the earliest form of soul power.
As one’s psychic power gradually congealed and became stronger, then by slowly nurturing and refining the soul with it, one would be able to gain a clear understanding of his or her own soul, and from there, begin the path of soul power cultivation.
Due to the special nature of the incantations cultivated by the Ghost sect, they would usually greatly value a person’s soul power when they picked disciples.
It was also for that reason that the Ghost sect disciples would often possess outstanding psychic power.
As they proceeded further with their cultivation, they would usually put more emphasis on the cultivation of their souls. Therefore, the Ghost sect always required their disciples to possess a strong psychic power from the very beginning.
Every morning, Wu Ji would teach Nie Tian about the ancient Qi warriors, the different major races, and the difference between the three types of strength.
Every afternoon, Wu Ji would lecture about the ancient symbols and the scripts of the titans and the ancient beasts; he told Nie Tian that he would find them useful sooner or later if he was to travel outside of the Realm of Flame Heaven.
The ancient symbols were the language the ancient Qi warriors used in ancient times to communicate with the heaven and earth.
The titans’ and ancient beasts’ scripts were two different languages.
According to Wu Ji, when he had the chance to step out of the Realm of Flame Heaven in the future and visit other realms, he would definitely get to see those two type of scripts and maybe even… encounter titans and ancient beasts.
By that time, his knowledge about those two languages would come in handy and help him make the best out of the situation.
At the very least, he would be able to communicate with those terrifying beings.
Actually, Wu Ji found it surprising that Nie Tian never resented the idea of learning about the scripts of the titans and ancient beasts.
Wu Ji didn’t know that when he had introduced the ancient beast script to Nie Tian, the writings reminded him of the stone palace underneath the desert in the Green Illusion dimension.
Every wall and stone column in the stone palace had been engraved with the mysterious writings.
If he had grasped the meanings of the script back then, he would have understood what the writings engraved at the stone palace were talking about.
As for the titans’ script…
The first time Wu Ji had told him about the titan’s script, he was one hundred percent certain that those mountain-like arms pointing up into the sky in the mysterious land he had been taken to by the dragon bone, belonged to the titans!
Under the ground of the mysterious land must lie quite a few titans that had disappeared from this world for who knew how long.
He had learned the rage punch from one of them. If only he had known this language back then, he would have been able to uncover many, many more secrets..
Therefore, when it was time to study the languages of the ancient beasts and titans, not only did he not have a problem with it, he was even extremely eager learn about them.
Wu Ji was quite pleased with his hard-working attitude.
During the day, he would learn from Wu Ji about the languages of the two great races, as well as why Qi warriors existed, and the applications of the three types of strength.
In the night, he would cultivate diligently using the Qi Refining Incantation to expand his spiritual sea. In the process, he would take advantage of the spirit stones that Wu Ji had bestowed upon him.
Every few days, a Thunder Beast would descend from the sky and throw him a second grade spirit beast as food.
As soon as it left the food, it would swoop back into the sky before vanishing into the clouds in a flash.
It had been extremely difficult for him to get the meat of a second grade spirit beast in the Green Illusion dimension.
However, after coming to this place, second grade spirit beast meat had become his everyday meal.
Following Wu Ji’s instructions, he didn’t use the energy produced by the second grade spirit beast meat to expand his spiritual sea.
Instead, he allowed it to naturally disperse into his flesh and merge into his bones and inner organs.
That was because the low grade spirit stones which he used to cultivate during the night already contained enough spiritual energy of the heaven and earth for him to use to gradually expand his spiritual sea.
Time flew… In the blink of an eye, he had already cultivated under Wu Ji’s instructions for half a year.
By now, his spiritual sea had expanded to the limits of the ninth level of Qi Refining!
He was only one step away from breaking through the bottleneck and entering the Lesser Heaven stage.
After consuming the meat of second grade spirit beasts for half a year, he had grown taller and even more robust. Moreover, the fluctuations of life within him had become significantly more vigorous than cultivators at the same stage as himself.
His psychic power could now cover a range of 300 meters.
One morning, following his usual routine, Nie Tian once again planned to go to Wu Ji’s cottage to listen to him explain matters pertinent to breaking through from the Qi Refining stage into the Lesser Heaven stage.
During the past three days, Wu Ji no longer talked about the respective features of spiritual power, bloodline power, and soul power, but rather focused on instructing him how to break through the bottleneck and step into the Lesser Heaven stage.
To Nie Tian’s surprise, Wu Ji walked out of his thatched cottage, and said to him, “I’ve already told you everything there’s to say about the transition from the Qi Refining stage into the Lesser Heaven stage. For the rest, you’ll have to explore by yourself.
“This is the first bottleneck you’ll encounter on your path of cultivation. You’ll meet many more in the future. You can’t make the breakthrough by cultivating blindly. Instead, you’ll need to draw upon your own experience and comprehension.
“You’ve stayed here for half a year already. It’s time that you went out and explored. You’ll benefit from it.
“The Spiritual Treasure sect is holding a grand convention. I’ll have the Thunder Beast take you there. Here, take this command medallion. Show it to them at the Spiritual Treasure sect and they’ll let you take up to three items; you can choose anything you like.
“Before you reach the Lesser Heaven stage, there is no need to learn about spiritual tools. Due to your current insufficient cultivation base and spiritual power, there is absolutely no way for you to bring out the full potential of a spiritual tool.
“You can learn how to wield them when you enter the Lesser Heaven stage.”
With these words, Wu Ji waved his hand towards the sky.
A low-pitched cry echoed out from within the clouds, and in the next moment, a giant eagle-like Thunder Beast landed in front of them.
It was dark-green in color, wreathed in numerous fine lightning bolts, and within its deep, green eyes, lightning flickered from time to time.
With a flap of its wings, the lightning that covered its entire body entered into its body like little snakes.
“Go,” said Wu Ji. “It’ll take you to the Spiritual Treasure sect.”
Nie Tian took the command medallion, which had the ‘Ji’ character carved into it, and carefully climbed onto the Thunder Beast’s back.
The Thunder Beast seemed to be somewhat unwilling and slightly twisted its body. That small movement almost shook Nie Tian off its back.
With a cold snort, Wu Ji looked towards the Thunder Beast and said, “Don’t feel wronged. You’ll need Nie Tian’s help one day!”
The Thunder Beast’s eyes glittered with light of intelligence. After hearing Wu Ji’s words, it seemed to be slightly puzzled, unable to comprehend what he meant.
“Take Nie Tian to the Spiritual Treasure sect,” Wu Ji said with a scolding tone. “You’d better not cause trouble on your way there, or I won’t let you off easily!”
The Thunder Beast let out a discontented bellow and stopped moving around, waiting for Nie Tian get a firm hold. Only then did it flap its wings and soar up into the sky.
