Path Of The Dragon (A Dark Fantasy Cultivation Wuxia Xianxia Progression Series)

Chapter 8 Dragon Lightning

"So, are you ready to learn how to cultivate, kiddo? Most kids start actively cultivating when they're four or five years old. Some start younger than that and it usually only takes a week to reach the first star of the first rank. So, you're way behind children your age and we need you to reach impossible heights that dwarf anything they'll ever accomplish.

"And remember what I said about it growing exponentially more difficult to break through as you climb the ranks. The first star takes just a week, but the second star can take months or even a year. The next star takes even more effort and time and so on and so forth... many cultivators live their whole lives without even breaking through to the middle part of their dantian and unlocking their spiritual energy," Ming said.

"So it'll take me decades to get to the middle part of my dantian?" Jie asked. That seemed so far away... she wanted those powers now!

"Decades are the least of your worries," Ming said, "for as your cultivation base grows, so you will age slower. And, once you reach the level of a god, you will never have to worry about old age. Not in a million years. While many cultivators cannot break through to their middle dantian, we need you to break through the middle, upper, and beyond. You must transcend every other cultivator and step into the ranks above gods!"

Jie smiled at that idea. She was going to become a goddess... more than that in fact. But, she grew troubled by some of what Ming had said...

"How am I going to grow so strong if so many don't even make it to the middle dantian?" Jie asked.

Ming puffed out his chest. "Humph! Isn't it obvious? They didn't have me as a teacher!" Ming said.

Jie giggled.

"You've gotten used to your body faster than I expected, so I'll teach you to absorb and refine Essence into qi now. No need to wait. We have too much to do after all!" Ming said, "Close your eyes and reach out with your spirit sense like I taught you earlier. Can you sense the Essence around you?"

Jie did as Ming said, and reached out with her spirit sense. It came easily to her this time and she felt that same strange energy that permeated everything around her.

"Yes," she said.

"Excellent," Ming said, "now most will bring that Essence into their body and refine it to varying degrees according to different techniques. Some will hardly refine it all and end up with a dull and weak qi.

"Those who refine this way will rapidly gain quantity and surge through the early ranks extraordinarily quickly, but their power will be greatly lacking. And it will be almost impossible for them to break through into the middle dantian.

"Those who take more care to refine a higher quality of qi will have more powerful qi which will lead to far more powerful martial skills and a greater chance of breaking through into the middle dantian.

"The purer the qi, the better. So, you will spend much longer refining Essence to get your qi than many others. As such, the first few ranks will be painfully slow for you, but who cares about that? We need you to go far beyond them... and you won't be refining any old ordinary qi anyway..."

"What do you mean I won't be refining ordinary qi?" Jie asked as she opened her eyes again.

Ming smiled widely and puffed out his chest even more.

Jie covered her mouth with her hand to hide her smile. Ming was such a silly dragon.

"I am a descendant of the great lightning dragon," Ming said, "the qi I cultivate is the purest form possible, and it has the extra attribute of being dragon lightning qi.