5 Learning At The Academy’s Library (1/2)
Jam made his way to the library. The library was shaped like a pyramid and had four stories. The receptionist in the first level explained to Jam that each story corresponded to the Realms of the Mortal Plane. Cultivators of the Mortal Realm only had access to the first story, Spirit Realm cultivators had access up to the second story, Saint Realm cultivators could enter the third story, and those in the Sage Realm could enter the fourth story.
Jam knew that the Mortal Realm ended after the Core Formation Stage, but he had no knowledge of the higher Realms or their corresponding substages.
To fill these gaps of knowledge, Jam asked where he could get general knowledge of the Realms in cultivation and books on the different types of energy. The receptionist happily complied with Jam's requests and in no time, Jam had a pile of the books he wanted on his table.
Jam spent half a day reading through the information on all the books he had picked up. He would have taken longer if not for Divinity boosting mental capacity to read faster.
It was a good thing cultivators don't care about time, leaving the library open 24/7; this aspect of cultivation culture extend to all the Academy's facilities, leaving all of them open all the time.
In the end, even after reading about the functions of the different types of energies, Jam still couldn't make up his mind, as he wanted to take on all of the Daos. At this time of not knowing how to choose, he repeated a phrase he used to hear from Woody from time to time, ”Let's leave it up to fate.”
Let's just say fate sorely disappointed Jam. After making his mind to leave it up to fate, he walked up to the receptionist again and asked where he could get techniques and skills. After navigating through the library to where the receptionist pointed towards, Jam found that all of the techniques were astronomically expensive.
'What the fuck? Why does a basic fire manipulation technique cost spirit stones? 100 spirit stones for a thunder technique? 50,000 spirit stone for the basics of space magic?!' Each skill that Jam looked at was more expensive than the last.
Spirit Stones were the currency of cultivators. Aside from being currency, spirit stones by themselves, could be used by cultivators to power up formations, or supplement cultivation. However, the effects of spirit stones in cultivation were pitiful when compared to alchemical pills or talisman inscriptions.
It was only when Jam made his way to the free techniques, that he began to see his plight lighten up. ” Styles of the Cosmic Bow, Foundational Beam Magic, True Gravitational Manipulation, Thunderfire Cataclysm and True Demon Form. ”
All these monstrous techniques were free, which seemed to be insane, considering the cost of the basic skills. Even more ridiculous, was the fact that the techniques' jade slips where not guarded by the receptionist, and were inside the books; a cultivator could straight up, steal these techniques from the library and none would be the wiser!
The books which housed the jade slips were only introductions to the techniques. There is no way that entire cultivation techniques could be written down, as the information for even the simplest techniques must be shared through experiences. Thus, cultivators invented jade slips which would directly store all kinds of information, including the experiences of the person recording the technique.
At this point in time, Jam might not have enough energy within himself to cast energy attacks, but he had more than enough to read through some jade slips.
However, once Jam read the introduction to these techniques he understood why they were free to the public. Each of these techniques were without a doubt highly advanced to the point that even Sages would want to master them, however each technique had a more demanding requirement than the last.
Styles of the Cosmic Bow required a practitioner to be capable of pursuing the Dao of Bows and the Steller Dao in order to cultivate it. Both the Dao of Bows, and the Stellar Dao were extremely rare by themselves. Finding a suitable successor for this technique would be extremely unlikely. Fortunately, Jam had faked having Cosmic Control as his superpower, which made it reasonable if he practices this technique.
True Demon Form required a person to have a Demon Dao superpower as well as unlimited potential with Demonic energy. Even if a person met the requirements to acquire demonic energy, a cultivator would need to be a seasoned killer to have any progress with this technique, as its purpose was to ultimately let the user transform into a Greater Demon.
Thunderfire Cataclysm required a cultivator to have unlimited thunder energy and fire energy affinity, or have a rare mutated superpower that could make use of thunderfire fusion. Thunderfire fusion was just slightly less rare than spacetime fusion, putting their abilities roughly close to one another. However, both thunder and fire energies were strongly focused on attacking, while space and time energies could be considered allrounders, able to attack, defend, and support the user.
True Gravitational Manipulation required a cultivator to have a spacetime superpower and unlimited potential with both Space and Time energies. People with a spacetime superpower were extremely rare by themselves; having to have unlimited potential for space and time as well? One such person might not appear for millions of years.