Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 186 Failed Cultivation

"WHAT?!" Elizabeth couldn't believe it. How had two special fusion Affinities manifested so suddenly and why had her Death and Yin Affinities also improved? Naturally, Persephone was always available to give her some peace of mind, saying, "It's obviously the result of your enlightenment. See how fucking broken the experience is? That's why so many cultivators would kill to experience it."

"Damn… I wouldn't have even noticed for a while had the functions not notified me." Elizabeth said as she reminisced about the feelings she experienced while under enlightenment. She still saw the world in a different light and would certainly meet what most would consider a disturbing rate of progress. But, she no longer felt as warm and excited about every little thing as she had a couple moments prior. At most, only a slight smile and look of anticipation would form as she thought about cultivating.

Alas, she resolved to set that aside for a later point in time. Right now, she wanted to visit Tyre Academy and complete her business for the day in the city before returning to her friends. As someone obsessed with efficiency, she refused to settle down into cultivation without first setting up a system of Spirit Veins after she had pillaged Zhenlang's underground cave. It would be blasphemy to not extend the benefits of the Spirit Veins to her party while she was both willing and able.

Thus, it was with a bit of reluctance that Elizabeth got up and left her room to pay a visit to the city's Academy. She descended from her room to the ground level of the Guild and took to the streets through the route the receptionist used earlier during the day to reach the Academy. Soon after she made it through the Academy people started recognizing her; evident by the overt looks of fear, respect, and admiration she received. Before she knew it, Elizabeth was met with someone hoping to take care of her.

As all the teachers in the Academy were high ranking officials of the city, they had been among the first to learn of Elizabeth's status. Thus, one such teacher that recognized Elizabeth dropped his current task to approach and take care of any questions she might have. "Supreme Mage of Destruction, h-how might I be able to help you today?" The teacher asked.

"Right… I was told that I could come here to oversee some lessons for free." Elizabeth said without introducing herself as the man seemed to know of her already.

"Y-you want to take a lesson h-here?" The teacher asked, thinking he had heard incorrectly.

"Exactly."

"Oh… ok then, which class would you like to take today? We have…" He then began listing off ALL the rotations for all the classes that had yet to begin for the day.
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"I see. Well, my plan is to take one lesson for most classes, so I guess I should take the class for Martial Practitioners as it seems to be the one that will start soonest." Elizabeth muttered to herself.

"What a coincidence. I happened to be the teacher for that class, so you could perhaps just follow me as I was en route to the classroom." The teacher put on a nervous smile as he explained to Elizabeth.

'Mhmm…' Elizabeth gauged the man's cultivation base to be hovering between Level 20 and 21 but in the end, she just nodded her head and followed him. He may not be able to teach her anything considering the disparity in their ranks, but Elizabeth had much she could learn from the teaching environment of this world, so she didn't take the incoming experience as a waste of time.

Following the man all the way to a room that wouldn't look out of place in a high school back on Earth, Elizabeth scanned through the room before choosing an empty seat to sit on. Her appearance sparked much debate as it was unusual for a new face to appear in the Academy mid-semester, not to mention that she certainly didn't look like she was dressed for close combat. To the untrained eye, her main armor set looked like a fancy dress, so when she didn't have her supplementary armor set keeping things "tight," it looked like she would be severely handicapped if she had to enter a fight.

"Alright… Let's begin with half an hour of meditation. Once your Qi has been galvanized and you've warmed up, we'll meet by the sparring rings outside." The teacher of the class looked at Elizabeth a bit flustered since he knew she would have Magic instead of Qi. But she was the exception in the class; not the norm.

Thus, for the next thirty minutes, Elizabeth sat waiting around for the class to finish their meditation. Of course, she didn't completely waste that period of time. Instead, while everyone was focused on galvanizing their Qi, she used her augmented vision, sensitivity to energy, and medical knowledge to clandestinely assess how they cultivated.

In those thirty minutes, Elizabeth's originally slightly joyful expression dimmed down considerably and when the time to leave came up, she couldn't help but think, 'This… this is truly a sad sight… Honestly, even on Earth, practitioners aren't this… shit…' She honestly couldn't think of a better adjective to describe the mess she saw. Even worse was how she looked at the teacher who seemed to be happy with the result of his students. He would walk around the room as everyone was meditating and "correct" the form of those that he saw deviating from their cultivation methods.

Alas, the hollow feeling of sadness she felt for these unfortunate students didn't end there, as she was treated to an even more hopeless sight when the class left to start sparring. Outside, while under the afternoon sun, Elizabeth couldn't stop herself from shaking her head in misery as she watched teenagers and adults alike between Levels 6 and 10 perform worse than the average Level 5 on Earth.

As she cried internally at the sad sight, a young man walked up to her and asked, "Miss… Would it be alright if we sparred together?"

Looking at the boy, who looked to be her age — 15 — Elizabeth squinted her eyes before saying, "Sure…" She had kept track of the whole class and this boy was the weakest at Level 6. He also had the worst quality clothes among all those in the class, and everyone seemed to ignore him for some reason.

Walking over to a sparring ring with the boy, Elizabeth remained quiet until she saw him get into an offensive stance. At that point, she said, "Come at me, whenever," and then proceeded to poke the boy into oblivion. Limiting herself to the speed and strength of a Level 1 Beginner Phase Mortal, she used the fighting form of her Death Thai to effortlessly best the boy in their "spar," if you could even call it that.

Poking the boy every time he attacked recklessly and opened gaps in his defense, Elizabeth calmly reprimanded, "Why are you in such a hurry… That's not a very good idea… You should think about your next move before you attack… It's not a good idea to wind up your hands like that, it makes you predictable… Did you forget you can use your legs… See, this gap is very problematic, I've already hit it like half a dozen times…" As she continued on with the impromptu lesson on combat, the whole class gathered around her sparring ring.

Eventually, the boy had been beaten down and exhausted his stamina to the point of not being able to get up any more. So, Elizabeth, appearing as if she had yet to feel satisfied with beating him, drew closer to his body before standing within reaching distance. She materialized her needles, preparing to heal him before leaving as she had seen more than enough from this class, before she froze.

Unable to stop her jaw from dropping, Elizabeth unconsciously muttered, "It can't really be that bad…" After probing the boy's body with her needles, the result had sent her cringing like never before. The boy hadn't even completed 10% of his Mortal Stage cultivation, yet had already started tempering his muscles. 'No wonder his combat prowess is so god-awful… Just what kind of idiot would fail to cultivate their body to the best of their ability as a Martial Prac…' Then the thought hit her, 'Wait… could it be that all these people…'

Standing up as she had already finished healing the boy, Elizabeth walked over to the teacher of the class with a despairing look. "Is he the only one with a failed cultivation base?" She asked.

"A failed cultivation base? Whatever do you mean?" The teacher asked, rather confused by the term.

"You don't know? Wait… Can I check your body for a second?" Elizabeth asked, disregarding how inappropriate and rude her question was.

"Uh… Sure…" Still deathly afraid of Elizabeth, the teacher could only grit his teeth and comply lest he refuse her and potentially die. That was exactly the kind of image most people would conjure when thinking about ridiculously powerful Practitioners or Mages.

Getting his consent Elizabeth nodded before placing a hand on his shoulder. It took less than a second for her probing attempt to confirm her thoughts and after flashing the man a look of pity, Elizabeth let go of his shoulder. Heaving out a heavy sigh, Elizabeth said, "You said you don't know what a failed cultivation base is, so I'm guessing your students don't know either…"

With a shake of her head, she began explaining, "I'm sure all of you understand the Stages of cultivation in the Mortal Realm and how to progress. However, what you probably don't know is how advancing too early might destroy your foundation…"

By now, everyone in the class, even the boy that had been struck down by Elizabeth, was standing and listening intently. Thus, she continued, "To enter progress in the Mortal Stage, you infuse your skin with Inner Strength before making a Qi Connection. Then you reinfuse your skin with Qi and move on to the muscles to progress in the Pawn Stage. Going to your bones in the Soldier Stage, your marrow in the Warrior Stage, organs in the King Stage, and finally the cultivation pathway system for the Saint Stage."

Everyone nodded, failing to see why she would bring that up. But Elizabeth continued nonetheless, "However, have you ever wondered why we cultivate in that order? Why build up your body from the outside in, when you could just open up your acupoints and meridians to enter the Spirit Realm right away?" Elizabeth questioned.

Surprisingly, no one answered her question, which only made her already depressed state for them all the worse. "Do you really not know?! It's because the mortal body isn't born as a suitable vessel for proper cultivation! The Mortal Realm is only the beginning of true cultivation and every step towards that path must be taken carefully."

Now pointing at the boy from before, Elizabeth said, "In his current state he can't even reach the Soldier Stage and do you know why that is the case?"

People started to look towards their fellow peers and teacher, before one brave soul said, "He doesn't have the talent or resources to push ahead?"

"Wrong! It's because he's barely cultivated his skin properly. His Mortal Stage cultivation is barely 8% complete, while his Qi Connection is a whole other mess onto itself." Now pointing at the teacher, Elizabeth said, "And the same could be said for your teacher. His skin being only 70%, Muscles 55%, and Bones 20% complete, it's a miracle he's even reached the Warrior Stage."

Chapter end