The Ashen Mountains

"The Ashen Mountains are a group of 7 gigantic mountains that are pitch black, look like stone, but feel like dirt. You can even grab pieces of the mountains like grabbing a handful of dirt from a small pile. The only thing is that it'll reappear back on the mountain where it was before, it's really strange...

It was said that an expert with unimaginable power created the Ashen Mountains thousands of years ago. Apparently, the expert created 7 small piles of ash and imbued them with his Qi and they became the Ashen Mountains.

I also heard rumors from my friends a long time ago that there was treasure hidden in every mountain. The expert's Qi still lingers within the Ashen Mountains to this day, which is why the True Qi around and within the Ashen Mountains is of such high quality."

Dina dropped a massive information bomb on Xiang Xiang, causing her head to hurt.

'So the mountains weren't created naturally?' Xiang Xiang felt an indescribable sense of weakness after hearing Dina's words.

How strong does someone have to be to be able to create a mountain, much less 7?

"What are the realms beyond foundation building?" Xiang Xiang asked with a solemn look on her face. If Xiang Xiang wanted to get stronger and possibly dominate this world in the future, not only did she have to get stronger, she needed to be properly educated about the power ranks.

Dina casually replied.

"What comes after the Foundation Building realm is the Qi Refining realm and then the Core Formation realm. I was told that at the final step between the Foundation Building realm and the Qi Refining realm, we have to create our foundations.

This would ultimately decide how great our potential would be further down the path of cultivation. And at the Qi Refining realm, at the last step into the next realm, our Qi nature will change to the current Qi we cultivate.

But I heard that with enough effort we can change our Qi nature in the future if we acquire a good enough cultivation technique or we're surrounded by dense bodies of Qi. And at the Core Formation realm, we create our core which is in our dantian and it bolsters our cultivation speed and comprehension speed depending on how we create it.

This is all I know sadly."

Xiang Xiang felt satisfied after listening to Dina's explanation. Now that she knew what the basic cultivation realms, she didn't have to worry about the near future.

"How many stages are in each realm?" Despite looking through the memories of the previous owner of her body, Xiang Xiang strangely couldn't find any information related to cultivation realms.

Just information about a considerable amount of treasures and a few villages beyond the forest. Xiang Xiang felt strange whenever she thought about why there weren't many memories but she decided not to pay attention to it anymore.

"Are there any strong individuals within the Ashen Mountains?" Xiang Xiang asked.

"Yes, in fact, there are a few people within the Qi Refining realm! I was told that all of the disciples in the sects will become Qi Refining realm cultivators eventually and that the sect masters are way beyond that realm." Dina responded.

'What should I do then? Should I stay in the village and cultivate those talentless people or should I go to the Ashen Mountains where the Qi is better?' Xiang Xiang was in a small dilemma. If she were to stay at the village then she'd have a slow start but she would also have a little bit of force to back her.

But if she went to the Ashen Mountains, then her cultivation speed would definitely improve and she'd get to higher cultivation realms faster. The only problem is that people would have already created factions and groups so she wouldn't be able to recruit anyone.

"Are all of your kind in the same group?" Xiang Xiang suddenly thought of an idea.

"No, we only live in villages and our race is spread out all around the Ashen Mountains. But there's a tribe leader within every village." Luciana replied. Her expression was quite sour when she said this.

'So maybe I could move the villagers from the village into the Ashen Mountains... No I have to pass through the forest with the villagers and there are too many strong magical beasts lurking inside. Plus, I can rely on my luck stat to come across more treasures so for now I guess I'll keep these three with me...'

Xiang Xiang condensed an extremely long katana from her Evil Qi and waved it recklessly around the three Gaphoms.

They all backed away nervously.

"You all are coming with me. You'll be apart of my force for now." Xiang Xiang didn't wait for a response and instead gestured with her katana to follow her.

The three Gaphoms heaved a sigh of relief as they followed Xiang Xiang but were ultimately worried. Despite being told that they would be spared, they were still worried that Xiang Xiang would pull something.

'Her force?' Jelvin was both curious and fearful when he thought about Xiang Xiang's 'force'. She was at the 5th stage of the Foundation Building realm which was beyond what was normally possible for people outside the Ashen Mountains.

He was expecting Xiang Xiang's force to be full of monsters that could kill them all easily. After all, the three Gaphoms were only at the 2nd stage of the Foundation Building realm.

Even if they wanted to resist, they weren't strong enough.

After dashing through the forest for 10 minutes, the four people arrived at the exit of the forest and could see the entrance of a village not far away.

It had wooden gates as the entrance and numerous villagers were pacing around. There was also a hill in the back where the three Gaphoms could just barely make out the silhouette of two people cultivating.

"You three'll be staying here for now." Xiang Xiang couldn't help but admit that she was slightly embarrassed when she thought about how weak and harmless her soon-to-be force was. It just looked like a regular village when one ignored the two people cultivating on the top of a hill.

The three Gaphoms had a stupid expression on their faces as they looked at Xiang Xiang who didn't dare to turn her head to look at them.

'Where's her force?'(Jelvin)

'What the hell is this? It's just a village...'(Luciana)

'Maybe the strong cultivators are hiding somewhere...'(Dina)

They all refused to believe that the one who suppressed them within such a short time was living here. And with no real force behind her much less.