Cultivation and Performance

Naomi had started to explain what cultivation was for the kids and what came after body refining.

"You must all be wondering why we have made you all work so much on your endurance and strength. This isn't something everyone has to do but for you all to use Void Breath, this is the most essential thing"

Kai and his companions came to understand why they had to be on death's door every single day with these drills. The main focus of this was to strengthen their bodies enough for them to use Void Breath.

Void breath could only be used by someone with strong foundations and body. The nature of it was very destructive. The explosive strength and speed it could produce far outweighed any other breath, however, the more you train and cultivate, the harder it was to use void breath as the requirements kept increasing.

Hence, why it was dropped by many great figures after helping them till a certain point.

Naomi further explained that for now Void breath would help them cultivate faster through the refining realm and help them reach the next realm.

The speed and whether you could get there depended on your skill and talent.

After body refining, they would unlock either a sword or a book that originated from the depths of their heart.

It will be their companion for the rest of their lives. Naomi pointed at her wakizashi on her lower back and said the swords come in 3 different appearances.

A katana, wakizashi or a Nodachi. These 3 types of blades would manifest after they entered a new realm.

Wakizashi and Nodachi we're considered short and great sword.

On the other hand, magic was quite different. For humans, it was less likely to awaken magical abilities because that was there Elves excelled in but it didn't mean they had no potential for it. Some humans were born with extreme magical reserves, not as much as elves but they were sufficient enough to make them great magicians.

There were 4 categories of magic: Fire, water, earth and wind. There were also subcategories inside them but those were very rare. Only someone with immense magic talent could wield them.

The awakened book had a symbol on it which represented the magic, a person can wield.

Now came the four realms after body refining.

Bronze knight which was after body refining. It had five levels and each level was tougher to climb to. Your magic power or strength would increase depending on ur profession by 10 tonnes or increase in 10k magical reserves per level.

After Bronze knight was the Silver knight, similar to before it had 5 levels which increased magic or strength by 100 tonnes or 100k increase in magical reserves per level.

Gold knight came after it, with 5 levels, each level increasing strength or magic by 1000 tonnes or 1000k increase to magical reserves.

Finally, it was the White knight, it too had 5 levels, each level increasing strength or magic by 10000 tonnes or 10000k increase to magical reserves.

Naomi looked back at the kids "There is another realm above White knight but for now you all are too weak to know anything about it."

Following the lesson, Naomi ordered another man to take them into the cultivation room. The group followed and we're led to a room that had stairs going underground.

Only a single student was allowed to go down one at a time. As the first child went there, the rest waited above.

Only about 10 minutes had passed when they heard a loud screeching sound coming from the underground. A few seconds later the man brought a child above who appeared to be dead.

Tossing the body to the side, the large man looked back at the kids "This is what happens when your body is not strong enough. Comprehending Void breath is no joke. You will die if your body is not able to withstand the viciousness of this technique"

The youngsters etched all the words the man uttered deep in their heart. None of them here was a weakling like they used to be before. They had suffered enough to not be bothered by deaths anymore.

Soon kids got taken down one after another, some survived while others died. Those that survived looked as if they had just experienced death. Soon it was Kai's turn to go down. His heart started pounding heavily as he took his steps down the stairs.

Arriving in this underground location, what he saw was almost a cave-like, appearance. In the middle of the cave, seemed to he a hot-spring but rather than being filled with water, it was red coloured.

"That hot-spring is filled with boiling blood of a Hollow. You have not come across them yet but their blood carries immense killing intent. Being baptised in their blood can allow you to connect with Void breath. Void breath seems more useful for hollows rather than humans but lucky for us, they are incapable of replicating Void breath."

Kai was ordered to go and sit inside the pool so he could connect to the void breath. The man didn't expect him to succeed and only wanted him to feel the connection.

Just like that Kai took off his clothes and slowly sat inside the hot-spring. Suddenly, his eyes went wide open and his long black hair fluttered backwards. His whole body seemed to be in immense pain but the worst part was the attack of the blood on his psyche.

It was as if the blood was alive and Kai had to hold it back. After holding out for 5 minutes his body slowly got used to it. He noticed, his body broke past level 8 of body refining by this constant attack on his body. His whole body seemed to have relaxed.

Soon the boy inhaled deeply and tried to sense void breath. Naomi had told them that every single breathing technique had its own rhythm. Some faster than other while some slower. What he needed to do was to find that rhythm and sync with it.

Eight minutes had passed since Kai went inside. He only had two minutes, however, he could still not sense the rhythm. Frustrated he tried to calm his mind and block out the world outside. This again didn't do anything.

Kai who was nearly close to giving up suddenly thought of something that would be extremely dangerous. Focusing again, he let the blood attack him. Without blocking the killing intent of the blood, it rushed inside him, wreaking havoc. Blood started to trickle from his mouth.

The man that was waiting for him, looked over in surprise. 'Never would I have thought I would see a child crazy enough to willingly let his body be invaded by all this killing intent and still be able to survive. I don't know if he's crazy or smart'

Kai on the other hand finally sensed something but was woken up by the man telling him the time was up. He got out and wore his clothes again. The man for some reason gave a smile to him as they went back up.

Just like that others went in and came out. Ten of them had died this time. None were able to sense a shred of void breath as of now. It was already lucky how Kai did it but that was at the cost of injuring himself.

Jack soon ordered them all to assemble in the drill grounds. Moving back and forth, he blew out smoke "What have you just experienced is the finest commodity of this place. It is meant to strengthen your body even further and help you learn the breathing technique. This barbaric way is the only way to learn it. From this moment on this commodity would only be given to those based on merit. Those in the top 50 will be given a chance to try it out again. Remember, your end won't be good if you stay at the last position"

The first week passed by and the results were announced. Kai was placed 80th in the rankings. It wasn't cause, he was weak, rather he had been injured the first time.

It also didn't help that the hollow blood had pushed those who were at peak of level 8 to level 9 and those at early level 9 to peak level 9.

Kai wasn't worried about this all. He had already sensed void breath once. All he needed to do was train and increase his knowledge until he recovered.

Soon a couple of weeks passed by and after a month Kai had pushed his ranking up to 60th. This still wasn't enough to qualify.

However, something new happened this month. Instead of Naomi taking over the class, it was Jack who came in.

"Alright, since you brats have been growing stronger and some of you will reach level 10 body refining and above. It's time for me to teach you about swords. Some of you might awaken as magicians, however, most of you will awaken your own swords"

From that day it was jack who taught them all about swords. The most basic thing was when they awakened their sword or book it would be nameless.

Knowing the name of your sword is the hardest process and only those who have learnt it can take the next step after the white knight. Jack stressed on this point.

Pulling his sword out from its sheath he held it in front of the kids "Now let me tell you the most important feature of having awakened your own sword. We have talked about vampires before and I'm sure some of you have even seen one before." To which some of the kids nodded and Kai's eyes turned cold.

Glancing over them, his whole face suddenly turned dark "Vampires are deadly creatures but they aren't the most dominant creatures. In fact, when it comes to dominance and raw power, none other than hollows are the kings. The lowest level hollow you will find is equal to a level 10 body refiner and they are referred to as Half-Hollows. What makes them deadly is that they cannot be killed by normal weapons. Only your own awakened sword can kill it."

"Half-Hollows are not sentient beings. Only when they evolve further can they develop intelligence. This is why our ranks are Bronze, Silver, Gold and White. Hollows are creatures that look more like Animals and deformed creatures"

Carrying on he further explained that a half-Hollow does not have a skeletal mask on his face and doesn't talk. After evolving, it becomes a Bronze rank as they develop a skeletal mask on their face which is of bronze colour. Silver, Gold and White hollows respectively have their faces covered with the colour of their rank.

Just like us Yang races, Hollows could reach a realm higher than white as well but again they were, again too weak to know about it.

Listening to all this, Kai felt like he was at the bottom of the well and there was a whole world to explore out there. If he had struggled with a vampire than hollows who were much stronger than them, would have annihilated the town he lived in.

After explaining all this, Jack brought out about 100 swords that were all great swords. They weighed about 9000kg. He ordered them to pick one and start swinging them using both hands in a single straight motion. Bringing the sword above your head and then all the way down.

This was a typical kendo sword style that was taught to all the new kids. It strengthened their body and taught them a skillset.

Jack told them swordsmanship and magic was divided into realms just like cultivation. It went from Swordsman/Magician, Expert swordsman/Magician, Master swordsman/Magician, Elite Swordsman/Magician, Grandmaster swordsman/Magician which were further divided into branches with each going low, mid and high.

They were only allowed to know this much at this point. From this day on they all had to practice swordsmanship daily, swinging their sword thousand times. Kai when he touched the sword already felt like there was a connection and hence picked training fairly quickly with perfect form.

His ranks rose up cause of this and he finally ranked 30th. Kai knew that people now ranked below 50th would just be eliminated. Anyone who got eliminated would only have death awaiting for them.

A week passed and Monday finally arrived. Soon Kai was allowed to Baptise again.