The first man in line stepped forward, his footing was steady, however his trembling hand betrayed his real emotions.
"My name is Aru"
When Aru's hand touched the sphere, a lifelike red light illuminated the bog, a surprised expression flashed on Yun Qiang's face before he composed himself and announced.
"You have a level seven spiritual root, congratulations you can cultivate"
A warm smile appeared on Yun Qiang's lips as he watched Aru rejoicing; his small arms were up in the air, and a wide smile etched on his pale face.
What he was seeing would probably become one of the most important moments in Aru's life. People that had a level seven root were almost certain to reach Golden Core and had a good chance of reaching Soul Wandering. If Aru survived this war, then he would probably become someone important in the cultivation world.
"Good, next!"
When he heard these words, Aru instantly moved to the side with a light jog, letting the ones behind him advance.
Soon the line started moving again, each time they would say their names then touch the sphere. During this, Yun Qiang looked at them with a smile while trying his best to memorize their faces and their names. In fact, saying your name out loud wasn't a requirement for the talent measuring sphere to work, but it was something that Yun Qiang thought of at the last second.
He wanted to make them feel like this process was something personal, something special.
As the process went on, a delighted smile formed on Yun Qiang's lips, he had measured the talent of six mortals and all of them had enough talent to become cultivators. At that point, he didn't even need to try and look happy. Because he was! If he managed to form an entire team made out of cultivators, then their chances of survival would skyrocket.
Expectation lingered in his eyes as he looked at the last man in line. The man in question looked in his thirties and wore a ragged jacket stained with blood. Yun Qiang nodded to him, signaling him to come forward.
"I'm Alivar!" His voice was loud, and filled with trepidation.
As Alivar's hand fell on the sphere, Yun Qiang met his gaze, he had seen Alivar's reaction when the python had attacked. Even if his eyes were filled with fear and panic, Alivar had managed to extract his blade, trying his best to retaliate. From this, Yun Qiang could already see that Alivar had sharp reflexes and good instinct, he would definitely make for a strong warrior if he was given the right training.
Then Alivar's hand touched the sphere. The scene that unfolded shocked everybody, even Lee, who was watching the scene from the side with a bored look, let out a loud gasp.
The light emitted from the sphere was blinding, in a blink of an eye it enveloped Yun Qiang and Alivar's figures, making their silhouettes barely visible from the outside.
When Alivar stopped touching the sphere and the light disappeared, a shocked silence fell on the bog, everyone looked at Yun Qiang waiting for him to announce the results.
Yun Qiang stood there in a daze for a second before letting out a fake cough.
"You have a spirit root of the ninth level..." he paused for a second.
"The highest level..."
Everyone stared at Alivar. Even if they didn't know what a spiritual root was, they could easily understand from Yun Qiang, Sun, and Lee's expressions how important something like this was. However, the one with the strangest expression was Alivar himself. While waiting in line, he had hoped for any kind of spiritual root, even a weak one would have made him happy. But he had never expected this to happen.
"Anyway. Sit down with the others, right now I will explain some common knowledge about cultivation before passing you my cultivation method"
Hearing this, everyone snapped out of their stupor and looked at Yun Qiang with attentive eyes, even Alivar shook his head before quickly sitting with the others, in one of the few dry spots in the bog.
"Ok, let's start with the basics. Cultivation is divided into various major realms, like Qi Gathering, Foundation Realm, Golden Core, Soul Wandering, and others. Each one of these realms is divided into six levels. Two for each category.
Two levels for the Soul, two levels for the Body, and two for your Qi"
As he spoke, Yun Qiang occasionally gazed at Sun. Even if he was confident in explaining the basics to this group of people, most of his knowledge came from the conversation with Sun, so he would occasionally look at him to see if he wanted to add something or correct what he said.
"These six levels can be trained in the order you like, some cultivators like to focus on one specifically before going to the other, while others like to spread their attention on multiple levels at the same time. I personally suggest starting training in a category you can improve the fastest before passing to other categories."
"Your cultivation speed for each level is determined by various factors. Your soul quality determines your speed when cultivating the Soul category, your spiritual root level determines your speed when cultivating your Qi, while a myriad of various factors determines your speed when cultivating your body. For this reason, I won't talk much about this last category."
As he said the last part, he stuttered a little, he had never informed himself on the factors that determine the speed of body cultivation, however he couldn't admit his ignorance in front of his new "students" so he glossed over it, hoping nobody asked questions on this specific topic.
"Of these three categories, the Soul category takes the longest to train, followed by the Qi and the body category. For this reason, soul quality is something extremely important for cultivators, unfortunately we don't have any way to measure it, so various sects only measure the level of the spiritual root to determine how talented a cultivator is."
"In general, level eight and nine spiritual roots are considered the highest talent, people that have this kind of root usually become direct disciples of the elders of the sect, level five to seven are important disciples that will become the future backbone of the sect, while level four and below are considered unimportant people. These low levels won't receive much attention from the higher-ups unless they possess special talents for crafting or alchemy"
Yun Qiang took a good look at this group of people, regret flashed before his eyes. All of them had the qualification to become important members in any sect. Instead, they were here with him, forcefully recruited in a war they didn't want to be in. His gaze lingered on Alivar for a second, this guy was the luckiest and unluckiest person in this team, he was lucky due to his high-level root but he was unlucky because he was forced to waste his life in a place like the Rainy Fort.
"Anyway I will now pass to you a cultivation method and a way to train your soul. The cultivation method is something that I received by luck, while the method to train your soul is something that I bought using contribution points and it's publicly available."
Then he started explaining.
Sun looked onward with a strange glint in his eyes.
Indeed this method is very interesting....
Just by listening to the introduction for the Qi Gathering and Foundation Realm, he had already noticed a few details, the method was extremely optimized, every step was extremely detailed and had a step-by-step explanation on how to accomplish it, some parts even had some personal comments from the author, from this it could be seen that the author was someone extremely skilled.
However, this wasn't what attracted Sun's attention, what attracted his attention was the target for this method.
In fact, this method seemed specifically made for people with low-quality roots, Sun had already ran some calculations and if someone with a low-quality root practiced it, then his cultivation speed would double.
A level one spiritual root would require five years of cultivation to reach the Qi Gathering Realm, however with this cultivation method they would only need two and a half years.
Their overall speed would still be low compared to other roots, however this could save an enormous amount of time. For untalented cultivators this was something extremely revolutionary!
Sun hesitated.
Should I switch too?
Due to an accident, his root had been damaged, regressing to a second-level root. However, he was still hesitant about it. Changing cultivation method also meant cutting ties with his family. In Sun's case, this meant destroying the small chances for redemption that he had left.
Sun knew that when a cultivator reached the Golden Core Realm, their Qi would change color and properties depending on the method they practiced. Some Qis were strong, some were weak, some were violent, some were calm. For example, the Mo family Qi was gray and was suited to create undead, while the Skyward Pavilion Qi was gold and had strong defensive properties.
For this reason alone, a Golden Core Qi was their identification in the cultivator world, just by seeing your Qi color and properties someone could discover your origins or background.
In Sun's case, changing method meant rejecting his family way of cultivating effectively, tarnishing his family honor and practices.
Another thing he had to consider when changing cultivation method was the completion of the method itself. Sun's method only allowed him to reach the Golden Core Realm, after that he would have to ask for the complete method from his family or deduce the rest by himself.
Suddendly Sun's pupils shrinked in surprise.
Right now Yun Qiang was explaining how to circulate their energies at the Golden Core Realm. The way Yun Qiang explained it was mechanical and purely theoretical since he didn't have practical experience, however the method was still extremely detailed, making everything smoother.
According to Yun Qiang's explanation, the Qi of the practitioner would have a light blue color and its main properties were speed and cold. Later on, their Qi would change color, becoming darker in the later realms.
In the later realms?
Sun's ears perked up, if Yun Qiang's method went beyond the Golden Core Realm, then Sun would definitely switch to it. His family had already banished him, and it would be difficult for him to get the missing part of his own cultivation method in the future. His eyes shone as he listened to the remaining explanation.
After a few hours, Yun Qiang had explained the entire method and all of the mortals started cultivation, trying to sense the Qi in their surroundings.
At that moment, Sun got closer and whispered.
"Can I use your method in the future?"
Yun Qiang accepted and only asked for the same oath as the mortals.
Sun smiled and instantly did the oath, his pupils and eyes were trembling. He looked at Yun Qiang for a second, his eyes filled with gratitude and respect.
"A complete cultivation method..." his whisper was basically impossible to hear.
As he sat on a wet trunk, he still couldn't believe it, his friend had just gifted everyone a complete cultivation method.
This method didn't stop at Golden Core, instead it went beyond that, stopping only at the Ensoulment Realm. This kind of method was extremely valuable and could even rival the one used by the royal families.
His gaze fell again on Yun Qiang and he couldn't help but let out a saddened sigh.
His friend was in possession of an extremely precious treasure yet he couldn't use it completly.
Yun Qiang had a level one spiritual root and his cultivation could reach Golden Core at best, maybe Soul Wandering if his luck was heaven-defying; however Sun already knew it, his best friend would never reach the peak of cultivation, he was destined to have the way to the peak but not the talent to reach it.
Can someone be considered rich if they can't spend or use their fortune?
After thinking about it, he understood why Yun Qiang was so nonchalant about this. He gazed at the excited mortals that were trying to meditate in the wet bog. One day, they would understand what they had just received was the encounter of a lifetime.