God Of Crafting

Chapter 97: Cultivation is not as simple and uniform as I lowkey believed it to be

"Let me indulge you a bit."

Just six words.

Three words if one were to ignore articles and pronouns. A single word if one were to remove the useless descriptor and the basic verb.

To indulge.

'A fitting word for ninth stage cultivator teaching basics to those four whole ranks below him.'

In theory, Claire already gave me the run-down through the cultivation ranks... But what could she, formerly a fifth-stage aspirant and now a fifth-stage practicioner know about the sixth stage?

And while sure, as someone who lived in this community and culture for her entire life, she surely knew more than me... But it was all still but theoretical knowledge, unsupported by hands-on experience.

Chihiro, on the other hand, had not only gone through the whole of the sixth stage already, but he could now look back on it from a much better, much wider perspective of his ninth rank!

"Before that, however," Chihiro said only to then turn over to Claire while resting his hands down on his hips. "Show it off."

There was no need for Claire's dad to elaborate any further. Even though his relationship with his daughter clearly wasn't as normal as they would like it to be and there were some issues... when it came to simple communication like this, they still understood each other without any major issue or need for further clarification.

Because what better did my mind have to do when all I did for hours upon the time was standing in the exact same position as I did for hours before striking out with my fist in exactly the same way I did over and over again?

And with me overthinking Chihiro's words, I soon arrived at an entirely different conclusion, by catching the one small detail that was so hidden in what the man said, I wouldn't blame anyone, not even myself, if they missed it.

'This kind of enlightenment, he said,' I thought, squinting my eyes just a tiny little bit. 'So, the way one's cultivation works while at any given stage is dependent on the details of their enlightenment?'

For an outsider like me with nothing but sparse bits and pieces of knowledge that others took for the norm, cultivation stages always appeared to be... something normalized? They were nothing more but levels one could achieve with enough time, effort, and resources. And while there were obviously going to be differences between two cultivators of the same stage...

Weren't those differences supposed to be minimal, a surface-level thing?

"Tim helped me out with it," Claire revealed without holding anything back but rather shaking her head instead. "To be perfectly honest, I don't think I would break through to the fifth stage so soon if not for his help."

"That's quite the praise," Chihiro muttered and followed with a small, short whistle as he turned his eyes over to me and nodded his head, in lieu of expressing his respect with words.

Then, before even looking away, his face tensed up as his attention moved somewhere else, somewhere... inside his own mind.

"But with this sort of enlightenment..." Chihiro muttered again only to raise his hand to his chin and rub it a little as he fell deep into his thoughts. "Okay, I've got it," he then added a mere moment later as he raised his eyes and smiled.

"Cultivation stages, in a sense, are all about mastering dimensions."