Moon-Refining Continent

Chapter 8: Moon-Refining Continent

"My name is Xia Xue. Are you not from around here? How could you not know what this place is?" The girl looked at Chu Xiaotian, her big eyes blinking in confusion as she frowned unconsciously and asked softly. It was hard to believe that someone who had appeared here didn't know where he was, and Xia Xue couldn't help finding it unbelievable.

"Ever since I was old enough to remember, I've lived in this forest. I really don't know what this place is called." Faced with Xia Xue's question, Chu Xiaotian could only make up a lie on the spot. Given how he looked right now, his appearance didn't contradict his story.

Xia Xue's pretty face flushed slightly as she studied Chu Xiaotian. After a moment's thought, she didn't seem to doubt his words. After all, he looked just like some wild man who had wandered out of the mountains.

"This is the eastern part of the Moon-Refining Continent, within the territory of the Xia Dynasty..." Xia Xue looked at Chu Xiaotian and began explaining the situation.

From what she told him, Chu Xiaotian learned that he really was no longer on the Earth he knew. The region where he now found himself was called the Moon-Refining Continent, a vast, boundless land. On the continent stood five great dynasties—Xia, Yan, Chu, Qi, and Xue—as well as several smaller states that depended on them. The place where they were now was in the Endless Forest, near a small frontier town at the easternmost edge of the Xia Dynasty.

The forest stretched endlessly. Apart from the most powerful people on the continent, no one had ever ventured into its deepest reaches, because terrifyingly powerful demonic beasts lived there. Their current location was only at the forest's outermost edge. Even the giant wolves they had encountered earlier were nothing more than ordinary beasts, among the weakest in the forest. If they ran into a true demonic beast—even a lowest-grade, first-rank one—the only fate awaiting them would be death. They wouldn't stand the slightest chance of surviving. Demonic beasts and people like them existed on entirely different levels.

Besides all that, Chu Xiaotian also learned from Xia Xue that the legendary experts really did exist in this world. This was a world with cultivation techniques, and nearly everyone had their own method of cultivation. Many who had mastered their art possessed incredible abilities. The mightiest among them could level mountains and overturn seas with a wave of the hand, destroying heaven and earth.

Since cultivation techniques existed, so did ranks of cultivation. Across the entire Moon-Refining Continent, the nine realms, from lowest to highest, were Body Refining, Pulse-Opening, Pi-Hai, Essence-Transforming, Acupoint-Breaking, Spirit-Condensing, Earth-Penetrating, Heaven-Passing, and Void-Breaking. Each realm had its own smaller stages, generally divided into early, middle, and late. Some major realms, however, were divided into ten stages. The lowest, the Body Refining Realm, for example, had ten stages.

The Body Refining Realm was easy enough to understand. One absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to temper the body, making it stronger. The realm had ten stages, and the main sign of advancement was an increase of a hundred jin in strength with each stage. Someone like Chu Xiaotian, who could lift a two- or three-hundred-jin object with one hand, was at the third stage of Body Refining. Of course, people cultivated in different ways, so the signs of progress at this stage varied.

Xia Xue, whom Chu Xiaotian was looking at now, was actually a little more advanced than he was. She was at the sixth stage of Body Refining, but her cultivation focused on bodily flexibility—what could also be called agility or speed. Still, despite her higher cultivation, she had been less lethal than Chu Xiaotian in the earlier melee. After all, flexibility didn't count for much in a battle against a pack of giant wolves. Chu Xiaotian's frenzied attacks, smashing away with brute strength, had been far more destructive.

The Pulse-Opening Realm came after Body Refining. Once someone reached the tenth stage of Body Refining, they drew the spiritual energy they had used to temper their body inward and guided it to break open their meridians, allowing spiritual energy to exist within them. It was a process of turning from the outside to the inside, and it brought a great leap in strength. But the pain was no joke. If they were careless while opening their meridians, they could cripple themselves.

After Pulse-Opening came Pi-Hai, a realm far more powerful than the one before it. In this realm, the spiritual energy that had been circulating through the meridians gained a new place to be stored: the qi sea, commonly known as the dantian. Cultivating this realm was just as painful and dangerous as cultivating Pulse-Opening.

The qi sea had its limits and could not hold an endless amount of spiritual energy. To advance once the dantian was filled, one had to refine the energy into a higher-quality form. Thus came the Essence-Transforming Realm. In this realm, the spiritual energy filling the meridians and dantian was compressed until it liquefied, becoming spiritual essence and freeing up space for more spiritual energy.

Once spiritual energy had become spiritual essence and the dantian was full again, cultivation had to expand into new territory. That was the Acupoint-Breaking Realm. One used the spiritual energy within the body to open other acupoints, giving the additional energy they absorbed somewhere to go.

Once every acupoint in the body that could be opened had been opened and could store spiritual energy, cultivation turned in another direction: the spirit. One fused and condensed the intangible spiritual power innate to the body, giving it concrete form as a spiritual entity. This was called the Spirit-Condensing Realm. At this level, one's spirit was incredibly powerful and could command the spiritual energy of heaven and earth across thousands, even tens of thousands, of li. With a single thought, one could overturn rivers and seas.

As for the three realms after Spirit-Condensing—Earth-Penetrating, Heaven-Passing, and Void-Breaking—Chu Xiaotian didn't learn much from Xia Xue. Those realms were far beyond where they were now. To the likes of them, they were almost legendary, so Xia Xue didn't know the specifics. The one thing she did know was that the five great dynasties of the Moon-Refining Continent had endured for so long because each was protected by an expert at the Heaven-Passing Realm. As for experts at the Void-Breaking Realm, they were no longer people of this world. According to rumor, they had left this world for a higher one. But no one knew whether that was true.

Hearing all this from Xia Xue, Chu Xiaotian grew excited—thrilled. To overturn rivers and seas, destroy heaven and earth with a wave of the hand... What a magnificent sight! His blood began to race at the thought. These were the terrifying abilities possessed by the immortals of mythology. What man wouldn't want such power after seeing those scenes in a myth?

But there was no spiritual energy on Earth, so such terrifying abilities could exist only in legends. Of course, judging from the Maoshan talismans Chu Xiaotian knew, it was possible that people in the distant past had truly possessed such power. But in the present day, it was simply impossible.

Things were different here, though. In the world where he now found himself, there were powerful people with those very abilities. That meant he might be able to become one of those legendary figures himself. How could Chu Xiaotian suppress his excitement at the thought of wielding the power to destroy heaven and earth with a wave of his hand?

"Hey, beautiful, I want to cultivate a technique that can destroy heaven and earth with a wave of the hand. Could you tell me one?" After a long while, Chu Xiaotian turned to Xia Xue and asked with a fawning grin. He wanted the power to destroy heaven and earth, and the first thing he needed was a cultivation technique. He didn't have one, so all he could do was ask the beautiful girl he'd just met.

"Ah, don't you already have the strength of the third stage of Body Refining? Are you saying you don't have a cultivation technique?" Xia Xue looked confused by his question. From the earlier fight, Chu Xiaotian had wielded a two- or three-hundred-jin giant wolf as a weapon. It was clear that he had to be at least at the third stage of Body Refining. How could someone with that kind of strength claim he had never cultivated?

"Heh, I've never cultivated. I was just born strong." Chu Xiaotian scratched the back of his head and smiled. His strength hadn't come naturally, but there was no way he could tell this beautiful girl that he turned into a zombie at night and grew stronger by devouring the life force and blood of living beings.

Xia Xue didn't seem to find his words all that suspicious. But after a moment's thought, she shook her head. "I only know one cultivation technique, and before my master left, she told me not to pass it on. Besides, it isn't suited to you; it's only suitable for us alchemists. If you want a cultivation technique, you'll have to go somewhere else in the Great Xia Dynasty. You can join a sect or attend an academy established by the dynasty and learn a technique that suits you best there."