Cultivation Realm Divisions-Do I Have the Power of an Old Man? (Please Keep Reading)

Before heading out, the woman in purple had reminded Gu Qingfeng that there was a curfew at night, and that Ghost Hand Apothecary had rooms for medicine testers like them.

She was probably worried that he would be taken away by the city guards during curfew and delay the medicine testing.

Gu Qingfeng returned to Ghost Hand Apothecary, where the two medicine apprentices were still sorting through the blood jars.

When they learned that he intended to stay the night, the medicine apprentice who had received him for the medicine test during the day said, "One tael of silver per night."

Gu Qingfeng said in surprise, "Wait, I have to pay silver too?"

"Of course. What do you think our Ghost Hand Apothecary is?"

"Could you make it cheaper?"

"No! It's already half-price because you tested the medicine in the purple bottle." The medicine apprentice looked thoroughly impatient.

Gu Qingfeng paid the silver, feeling that this apothecary was even more evil.

Medicine testing did not even include lodging. They had deliberately failed to make it clear, misleading people into staying here. One-star review!

In truth, the medicine apprentice had every reason to be impatient.

She already knew that medicine testers like Gu Qingfeng were more likely dead than alive.

Once a person died, the silver left on them would still belong to Ghost Hand Apothecary. They merely had to handle it discreetly.

After all, the city had rules. They could not openly harm people at will, or else if they were caught, they would have to punish themselves with three cups of wine and pay a fine.

The silver belonged to Ghost Hand Apothecary anyway. Collecting it now was simply because she did not dare violate the apothecary's rules.

Yet this medicine tester was still hemming and hawing, acting as if the silver on him actually belonged to him.

In the end, the room assigned to Gu Qingfeng was actually the very same one where he had tested medicine during the day.

The air still carried the tobacco smell left behind by the Yellow-Haired Smoke Ghost.

Still, it was quiet with no one else around.

Seeing that no one was nearby, Gu Qingfeng took out the Chivalrous Spirit Incense Burner.

At last, he had the leisure to properly converse with these great heroes.

His sudden loathing for evil demons and Outer Dao practitioners during the day might have seemed like a spur-of-the-moment impulse, but there was not a trace of falsehood in it.

Because he really had been harmed by evil demons and Outer Dao practitioners!

He understood all too well the helplessness and pain of being persecuted by evil demons. Even now, he still had nightmares.

Evil demons always loved hurting good people like him.

He was truly afraid!

Afraid of being harmed!

So after turning it over and over in his mind, he felt that only by wiping out evil demons and Outer Dao practitioners step by step could he avoid being harmed to the greatest extent possible.

Gu Qingfeng was someone with rather strong powers of action.

Because he feared persecution by evil demons, he was already preparing to start with the Ghost Hand Apothecary that wanted to harm him.

He had the urge to eliminate evil demons, but it was not a blind impulse. It was an impulse guided by wisdom.

Gu Qingfeng occasionally wondered whether he was, by nature, a man blessed with world-shaking wisdom.

The reason he could reverse the cost, and why all that information appeared in his sea of consciousness, was because he had accomplished it through that world-shaking wisdom, not because of some cheat ability.

Of course, he only thought that occasionally.

Now that wise Gu Qingfeng had lit the incense, he naturally wanted to learn some information.

Information concerning himself.

He had transmigrated for so long. He had fought his way out of the Golden Core Immortal Sect, fled all the way here, killed a few people along the way, and chopped down quite a number of trees and corpses. It was not as though he had achieved nothing.

Yet even now, he did not know his precise strength, much less where he stood in this strange world where people could cultivate.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.

He had to know himself first.

Therefore, he felt it was necessary to cram some knowledge in this area.

As the words "I want to be a great hero!" rang out, the burning incense in the burner rapidly straightened taut.

Yet this time, no smoke responded to him immediately.

After all, every time he had used the incense burner before, Number Three, Lin Qingxia, had always been the first to pop up.

But now, though the smoke stretched taut and straight, nothing changed.

Could it be that no one was around?

Apparently, no matter how addicted to smoking a great hero was, they would not stay online all the time.

So he could only write, "Is anyone there?"

Honestly, whether in a WeChat group in his previous life or in this great heroes' group in this life, typing those words felt a little awkward.

Especially if nobody replied. That would be even more awkward.

Fortunately, not long after he wrote those words, that wisp of pink smoke appeared.

[Number Six Peach-Eating Jade Sword: Yes.]

[Number Nine XX: The others aren't here?]

[Number Six Peach-Eating Jade Sword: Mm. It should be just the two of us.]

This was the first time Gu Qingfeng had encountered a situation where only he and a heroine were in the great heroes' group.

[Number Nine XX: Heroine, may I ask you some questions?]

[Number Six Peach-Eating Jade Sword: You may.]

[Number Nine XX: Is cultivation in this world divided into realms? What exactly are they?]

[Number Six Peach-Eating Jade Sword: Are you a fledgling?]

Gu Qingfeng froze. Why had this heroine suddenly asked whether he was a virgin?

Did being a virgin affect one's cultivation realm?

Then he abruptly realized that she was asking whether he was a complete newbie.

He hurriedly wrote, "I know absolutely nothing."

After some time, a string of pink words emerged.

Number Six was explaining cultivation realms to him in terms easy to understand.

Looking at those words, Gu Qingfeng felt as though he could see an elegant older-sister teacher holding pink chalk and giving him a private lesson.

Number Six was probably an elegant older-sister type, right?

Gu Qingfeng quickly pulled his thoughts back and seriously read the words Number Six had written.

According to the heroine Number Six, the cultivation world did indeed have divisions of realm.

The first four realms in particular were quite clearly defined.

The first realm was called the Profound Awakening Realm, and it was the starting point of cultivation.

Cultivators had to continually temper their qi and blood, becoming familiar with their own apertures and meridians in the process, until their qi and blood became so abundant that it entered their sight.

Only then could they sit in illumination and observe themselves, inwardly perceive the locations of their own apertures and meridians, and open the gates of cultivation.

Only after reaching Profound Awakening—after sitting in illumination and observing oneself—could one enter the second realm, the Qi Refining Realm.

The second realm, Qi Refining, was exactly as its name implied. On the foundation of sitting in illumination and observing oneself, one used cultivation techniques to nourish true qi within the five viscera and dantian, then circulate it through the heavenly cycle.

At that point, as one's true qi grew stronger, it could be used externally against enemies and internally to strengthen the five viscera and six bowels, allowing cultivators to gradually gain physiques far beyond ordinary people.

In the Third-Tier True Essence Realm, the true qi within one's body advanced further, becoming purer and more condensed. It could react with the body's apertures and open up "aperture seats."

"Aperture seats" could store massive amounts of true qi and alter the state of true qi. The altered true qi was known as "true essence."

The simplest indication was whether one could condense true qi into a liquid with tangible substance in a short time.

At this stage, the power a cultivator could unleash was no longer comparable to that of an ordinary second-tier Qi Refining cultivator. They could form qi swords in their hands and pluck flowers to wound people.

In the Fourth-Tier Divine Sense Realm, once true essence resonated intensely with the primal qi of heaven and earth, it would reshape the cultivator's sea of consciousness, and their mental power would rapidly increase.

At this point, they could use mental power to control true essence attached to tools such as flying swords and talismans, achieving unfathomable techniques such as "where the mind reaches, the flying sword kills," and could even cultivate dharma manifestations with their mental power, creating a startling display of force.

After the fourth tier, realm divisions became relatively vague.

Some continued cultivating, opening apertures and drawing in qi through long years, swallowing the essence of sun and moon, refining an inner core, then gradually condensing that inner core into a Golden Core. With long lifespans, they were often called "Earth Immortals."

Gu Qingfeng guessed that the Ba Mountain Wood Daoist was such a figure.

Others focused on Life-Bound cultivation, refining the heavenly treasures and earthly materials most compatible with themselves into Life-Bound Objects. For example, Life-Bound sword cultivators could already become one with their swords; their swords could commune with divinity, and they excelled at slaughter.

The representative figure was the foremost divine sword, Feng Kuang.

Others focused on the physical body, cultivating it until the body itself became a world, capable of becoming large or small, with extraordinary might. Buddhism was especially skilled in this path.

Regarding realms above the fourth tier, Peach-Eating Jade Sword had already done her utmost to explain with simple examples, yet it remained difficult to make them clear.

Because they were inherently chaotic and mysterious.

For Peach-Eating Jade Sword to explain as far as realms beyond the fourth tier already showed extraordinary breadth of knowledge.

After all, most cultivators in this world rarely had the chance to come into contact with figures above the fourth tier, much less witness their methods.

What was more, these cultivators who stood among the clouds each had their own strengths and marvels. They usually showed their heads but hid their tails like divine dragons, and would never easily reveal their trump cards. Naturally, they were unfathomably mysterious.

During this time, Peach-Eating Jade Sword also mentioned that this was merely the most common realm classification across the Three Kingdoms and Ten Continents. It did not apply overseas, in the Returning Ruins, or to demonic paths, evil paths, and unorthodox side paths.

After all, the road of cultivation had never had only one path. It was simply that this path was the broadest and easiest to see, and had been traveled by the most people since ancient times.

The evil path, demonic path, and side paths, on the other hand, had many more methods and did not adhere to a single pattern, even seeming rather sinister.

For instance, she mentioned the Golden Core Celestial Venerable, believing that he had used an evil-path method in an attempt to directly form a core.

Such an evil-path cultivation method surely had many drawbacks and required paying no small price. It definitely could not match the steady, solid progress of cultivators who formed cores through the orthodox path, but it was usually faster.

At this, Gu Qingfeng more or less understood.

The orthodox path was steadier; the demonic path was faster.

And himself, who could reverse the cost?

Steady and fast?

So he asked a question—"Then what level is the Third-Tier True Essence Realm in the cultivation world?"

He asked because he somehow felt that he resembled a Third-Tier True Essence Realm cultivator.

"Enough to serve as an elder of a small or medium sect. If your potential is sufficient, a major sect might cultivate you in that direction as well."

Upon receiving that answer, Gu Qingfeng's eyes immediately lit up.

My level is almost catching up to an elder?