Chapter 10 - A Taste Of Cultivation!

The techniques cost Raymond a grand total of 320 gold coins, and after spending them, he only had about 79 gold coins left. Although it sounded like a meagre amount in comparison, it was still quite a lot of money. For a normal family, it would be sufficient for years. After leaving the Profound Secrets Trading Guild, Raymond decided to find himself a sword. Since he didn't have much of a budget left, Raymond decided to just get himself a normal iron sword, or at least something of similar quality.

He had heard people mention artefacts here and there, and after inquiring, he knew that they contained immense amounts of power. A person with an artefact fighting a person without one would most likely win. Much like techniques, artefacts could be divided into a few different levels depending on how powerful they are. These levels were: Mortal, Spirit and Magic artefacts. The only real issue was the cost. For now, a normal sword would have to do.

Getting a normal sword wasn't too hard, and Raymond just walked into the closest blacksmith that he could find. There, he found a refined black-iron short sword. After swinging it around a little, Raymond found himself growing fond of it. Although it was very heavy, and just swinging it around a little tired him out a lot, he still bought it. His strength was bound to grow a lot when he started cultivating, so getting himself a heavier sword now would save him from the hassle of buying another one later.

The blade of the sword itself was a dull black, and it was about 60 centimetres long. The sword didn't have any real guard, and the blade was double-edged. On the handle hung a small red tassel. Maybe it was there to improve the handling of the sword, or maybe it was just there to look good. Either way, Raymond didn't really care too much. At least it looked good. The sword could basically be considered a quasi-mortal artefact, which meant that it wasn't quite a low-grade mortal artefact, but it was still way better than any ordinary sword.

Since it wasn't a low-grade mortal artefact, it only set Raymond back 5 gold coins, which was a little more than he had originally intended. Raymond was very satisfied with the purchase, and he felt a great deal of security upon finally obtaining his very own weapon. With excitement, Raymond made his way back to the Brown Bear's Inn. It was finally time to start training! Raymond's heart couldn't stop beating when he thought of the strength that he wasn't far from obtaining.

When he entered his room, it was in the middle of the day, and the warm rays of sunlight that shone upon the floor illuminated all of the visible dust particles in the air. After sitting down comfortably on his bed, Raymond opened up the book containing the Blue Wind True Art. The book wasn't that thick, as it only contained two volumes. The first volume was regarding the body-refining realm, whilst the second volume was about the spirit-refining realm.

Since it only had two volumes, the highest realm that Raymond could reach was the peak of the spirit-refining realm. But for now, that was more than good enough. By the time he had reached the peak of the spirit-refining realm, Raymond was pretty confident that he would've obtained a better cultivation art. Since he hadn't even entered the path of cultivation yet, Raymond just decided to read the volume regarding the body-refining realm. There was no point in reading the spirit-refining volume until it was time for him to cross that threshold.

The Blue Wind True Art had detailed explanations of how to start cultivating, and its contents quickly captivated Raymond. The first step to cultivating was to sense the natural spiritual energy that existed between heaven and earth. This step was usually a good indicator of talent since the time spent was very indicative of future achievements. The less time it took to sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the more talented the cultivator was.

Raymond took a deep breath, and then calmed down as much as he could. After clearing his mind and closing his eyes, he tried his hardest to perceive the spiritual energy in his surroundings. This process took a while, but Raymond was patient, and after trying for almost an entire hour, he could finally sense the small amount of spiritual energy that was contained within his room.

After finally sensing the spiritual energy in his surroundings, Raymond was ecstatic. With excitement filling his heart, Raymond tried to absorb the spiritual energy into his body through the absorption method of the Blue Wind True Art. Maybe it was supposed to be easy, or maybe it was because of his talent, but Raymond noticed that the spiritual energy in the air seemed rather eager to enter his body.

After entering his body through his pores, Raymond guided the spiritual energy into his body's energy channels. Every cultivator had 27 different energy channels in their bodies, divided into groupings of 3. A 1st revolution body-refining cultivator only had access to 3 energy channels that formed a singular energy cycle. A 9th revolution body-refining cultivator, however, had access to 9 different energy cycles, that all connected with each other into one big system. This made the difference in strength between the 1st and 9th revolutions of body-refining immense.

Before completely forming the first energy cycle, a cultivators body would be unable to replenish the spiritual energy it had expended on its own. This meant that a cultivator would have to sit down and recover their spiritual energy on their own in the beginning. Raymond didn't think too much about any of this right now, as he was more focused on filling up his first energy channel with spiritual energy.

To Raymond's astonishment, it only took him two hours to fill up the first energy channel to the brim with spiritual energy. However, he also noticed that not all the energy channels were the same size. The first energy channel was the smallest, and each subsequent energy channel was bigger than the other. This meant that Raymond's cultivation speed would be faster in the beginning, to then slow down as time passed.

But this was something that Raymond had basically expected to begin with, so he wasn't very disappointed. The only thing that disappointed Raymond a little was that he couldn't make the spiritual energy in his energy channel leave his body. This was naturally because he was still in the body-refining realm, and making the spiritual energy leave the body was something that was only possible later on.

In the body-refining realm, the spiritual energy in the cultivator's energy channels could only be used to strengthen the body. First of all, it would slowly strengthen the cultivator's body over time, but it could also be used to rapidly increase the cultivator's strength for a short period of time. This, along with a suitable martial arts skill, could increase a cultivator's combat strength immensely.. This was something that Raymond was excited to try out, but for now, he was more focused on filling up his next energy channel.