Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

Alright, now that I had time to think, maybe things weren’t so bad. For example, the flame burning on my hand was… Well, it was big, but the Mana Qi consumption was so tiny! I was saving at least 90%, holy shit!

I had no idea that simply beginning to Cultivate would bring such drastic changes to magic. I barely wasted any Qi with the spells now, while before most of the energy was just drained off with no effect!

Wow. Magic was so freaking cheap now! And I was barely in the… Foundation Building? Spirit Accumulation? I wasn’t sure, honestly.

Anyway, there were much greater heights to climb, and much to learn, so it didn’t matter for now. I decided I would ask a few questions the following day. Hopefully, the Elder won't be too angry.

The Elder was furious!

Not because I asked a question, but because I asked a stupid question. As it turned out, he explained most of that yesterday and I somehow missed it.

“I’ll say it again if anyone else missed my explanation…” He appeared displeased that he had to do it all over again, but I think I wasn’t the only one who misunderstood or missed something. Many other guys were listening attentively to his words too.

Oh, and the gals were training with a female Elder. We were split into two groups on the first day. Now back to the lecture…

“As I have said previously, the first thing to do is to expand your Soul and split it into nine equal parts. Then, you have to carefully go over every little piece of it, picking out the fragments that feel off.”

I think that was the corruption he was talking about.

The Elder went on with his explanation. “If you can imagine your Soul as a soft dough, the fragments will feel like small pebbles and sand inside it. Pick them all out and burn them off. They are imperfections of your Soul, accumulated over the years of your life.”

He then emphasized his following words. “After you finish with the first round of refinement, you will be able to detect smaller imperfections. That would be the second refinement. Then there would be the third and the fourth… The better talent you have, the more you will be able to clean your Soul.”

So that’s how talent was determined. An interesting fact, but it did make sense.

“Now, for those that are wondering why we split the Soul into nine parts, first let me be clear that we don’t completely separate the pieces. For Heaven’s sake DON’T shatter your Soul, or you will die! Or become crippled in the best case. It happened before, so heed my words!”

After getting that warning out of the way, the Elder continued. “Now, if you are capable enough, you could refine your Soul all at once, but why make things harder for yourself when you can focus your attention on one piece at a time? And also, don’t expect to be able to finish your refinement in a few days or weeks. It’s going to take a long time! Do not underestimate this step, for it is the most important one and will determine how high you can go in your life.”

Basically what he was saying was that the more refinements cycles you can do and the purrer your Soul, the better the talent, and the higher Realm you will be able to reach. An interesting idea, but I didn’t know how that referred to me!

I didn’t see any filth in my Soul. Well, in the Before I had tiny chunks of corruption all throughout my Soul, but I had cleared or burned off most of those long ago. And after the resurrection, there weren’t any left, except for the little thing that I discarded yesterday.

So does that mean my Soul was completely pure now? Did that mean I didn’t have any limits?

Haha, yes, very funny, brain. I’d better kill this thought right now or I’m going to get myself in trouble. My ego was big enough already, don’t need to feed it even more.

“Alright now! Listen up!” Everyone straightened their backs at the Elder’s call. And then the torture started.

Instead of a lecture today, we had physical exercise. Everyone got into a horse stance and had to hold it for a minute, for starters. It was quite easy. I would just cast a few spells on myself, relieving the fatigue-

“No magic allowed!” The Elder’s shout was accompanied by a stomach-churning wave of something that hit my mind and nearly made me puke. In an instant I lost all connection to my magic, unable to call forth even a single point of Qi.

Fuck, I hate Soul attacks! This one was even worse than what little I experienced in the Before. Those back then were crude and just made my head hurt. This one was a complete dominion over magic.

And so the arduous training began. For a full week, the Outer Disciples trained, a minute-long horse stance, followed by ten or so minutes of full-body movements designed to recruit every muscle in the body and stimulate it. Then the cycle began anew.

The Elder explained it was to train discipline, but it was also a good way to see how the Disciples moved under stress. Some of them were as stable as a rock and learned the new movements with ease, some were stumbling and shaking even days after.

A Sect was a community. And like every community out there, it was made of many different moving parts. Not everybody was suitable to be a warrior, the most important job of them all, to defend and protect the Sect from external as well as internal threats, unlike what many stories would make you believe.

Some Disciples would become smiths, others carpenters. Some would become masons and architects, others Formation Masters. The Sect needed Beastmasters and Alchemists, as well as Herbmasters and miners.

There were many jobs to do in the Myriad Beasts Sect, and the first week was to weed out those that couldn’t be used in combat. While everybody could be trained, if they had no heart for it, what was the point?

Chity Boru quickly decided to join the warriors’ ranks. He would receive one Spirit Stone Shard each day, and all he had to do was join a daily training course, from morning till noon. The rest of the day could be spent doing some other tasks that had to be done in the Sect and making money, he could Cultivate in peace, or just laze around. The choice was his, and his alone.

Che Erie decided to work in a quarry or mine. His work ran for 10 hours a day, however, at the end of the week, he would receive 10 SSS. He would also be learning masonry there, and could later study under the Elder Architects and Formation Masters of the sect.

While those two picked hard physical work, Alyx Bell chose to focus on the path of Alchemy. He would be learning to grow herbs at first, and then, after gaining sufficient knowledge of the various reagents, he could become an apprentice of a Pill Master where he could learn the creation of potions, pills, and various elixirs.

Each of them picked a path suitable for them, and only Gerald remained undecided. It was not mandatory to pick a profession so early on, however, most of the Disciples did. Those that did not instead choose to do various odd jobs around the Sect to make some money to survive. There were no handouts in the Myriad Beasts Sect.

Those unable to make it were free to leave at any time. It's just that after they left, they were banned from ever coming back. That’s how many rogue Cultivators came to be. That, and they were unable to meet the minimum requirements for remaining in a Sect, but those weren’t often tested.

The newcomers didn’t have to worry about such a thing for at least a decade to come.

[What to do, what do pick?]

There were so many things to do in the sect, I was honestly a bit overwhelmed by all the choices we had. There were at least ten main jobs and those branched out into further specializations down the line. And now I should pick one? Difficult!

I already started with my little quarry of stone but I wasn’t that into it, so mining was out of the question.

But there were so many interesting professions to explore. For example, a Blacksmith, making weapons and armor for Cultivators, probably using some fantastical metals and alloys I have never even heard of.

Then there was the Artificer, making tools and gadgets for the warriors, with the Enchanter engraving Runes and Formations onto them, creating great treasures…

And the Herbmaster, a founding pillar for any Sect, as far as I could tell, growing plants and herbs for pills and potions that Alchemists make…

And the Beastmaster, herding monsters and powerful beasts for the Sect to eat, using their hides for clothing, parchment, armor…

So many! Too many!

After careful consideration, I have decided! I would do… fuck all.

That’s right! I was not in immediate need of money, especially now that the prices came down. And did they come down, holly shit! 1 SSS for a massive meal to keep you satisfied for a day?! Bro! They literally inflated prices by 5-10X!

Unbelievable….

But at least I knew my instincts were correct. And as most jobs offered about 1 SSS per day, that’s as much as they could realistically charge. Now we know.

And it’s not like I would starve if I didn’t get a job. The Sect has plenty of stuff to do, and those were all well-documented tasks in the Trade Hall.

It was called the Trade Hall not because stuff got traded there, but because of the Trades people picked there. Well, stuff did get traded there too, I suppose.

Massive amounts of metals, ore, lumber, stone, herbs, and other such things traded hands in there. And we are talking massive amounts! They were counted in hundreds of metric tons of stuff. I wasn’t sure how many people were in the Sect, but apparently, it was a lot.

Raw materials moved back and forth between the craftsmen and artisans before they got spread out across many markets of the Sect.

In the Inner Sect, the market was open to all, and the stuff there was for the lowest Realms only. I didn’t know about the Core Sect, but they probably had stuff we lowly peasants wouldn’t even dream of.

At least common weapons were pretty cheap. Blacksmith apprentices needed to train a lot, and they usually made many iron and steel weapons before they moved on to higher-quality metals, so the market was flooded with them. I bought a nice steel glaive for just 5 SSS, what a steal!

A nice, long, sturdy wooden shaft, with an equally lengthy, polished, one-sided steel blade on the other end. An overall solid weapon as a start.