"Well, let me give you some simple explanations so that you understand how martial arts cultivation works. It would be easy to explain in this way. The martial arts mortals practice is simple and doesn't have much value or intricacies in them. However, every martial art a cultivator practices will be based on some principles or universal truths," the young man said excitedly.
"When you master low-level martial arts to the utmost, you will kind of grasp the concept behind its creation. That is the most basic form of martial arts cultivation. When you master higher level martial arts, things you will grasp will be far broader than a mere concept."
"First there is a concept. Then the concept will become a domain. From domain, you will start to peer into laws. There are countless laws that govern the world. When the same kinds of laws are grouped together, they will form a dao."
"I don't understand the last bit," Duncan said scratching his head.
"Well, think of it this way, take wind dao for example. The wind dao is formed of multiple laws that govern the wind in general. There will be a law of wind's sharpness. There is also a law of wind's freedom. Likewise, you will have many laws that shape what is wind as a whole. You with me so far?"
Duncan nodded his head.
"Let me give you a better example. Tell me one of the martial arts you are practicing currently," the young man asked excitedly.
"Hmmm I practice a movement technique called <Wind Chasing Steps>," Duncan answered without thinking much.
"Hah, this is even better. From its name, I guess this <Wind Chasing Steps> might be based on the speed of the wind. If you completely comprehend this martial art, you might grasp the concept of wind's speed."
"But, is speed exclusive to the wind? There is also light and several other natural phenomena that might relate to speed right?"
Duncan nodded his head in acceptance.
"Likewise, is speed the only aspect of wind? What about its ferocity? What about its sharpness? What about its formlessness? Aren't they aspects of wind as well? Low-level martial arts are based on these numerous aspects of things like wind, fire, water, earth, ice, and so on."
"If you move to a higher level, we have domains. A domain is basically a combination of two or more aspects or concepts. Take the wind's speed you will have comprehended by practicing your <Wind Chasing Steps> and combine it with some other concept, you will get a domain. A weak domain is made up of two concepts. A strong domain will have more concepts."
"Medium-level martial arts will directly allow you to comprehend a domain directly. There a variety of combinations of concepts, so there are a lot of different types of domains out there."
"But, when you reach an even higher stage, you will have to glean insight into the laws that govern the world. The next step after domain is a law. Take wind, for example, wind's speed is a concept. A tornado or a storm is a domain. The law of formlessness is a wind type law. You get the picture?"
Duncan nodded in understanding. A vague outline was beginning to form in his mind after hearing the young man's explanation.
"Likewise, when you raise to a higher level, you will need to grasp more than one type of law. Wind's speed, formlessness, ferocity, sharpness, and many other wind laws will combine to form a wind dao. A dao is a kind of universal truth. How much you grasp regarding that truth will determine the strength of your dao."
"That's why it is hard to put Heavenly Dao under daos. Heavenly Dao changes from world to world. It isn't a universal constant. Hence the confusion."
"Is there something above dao?" Duncan asked curiously.
"There may be, I don't know," the young man said shaking his head. "Grasping a dao completely is already beyond human power. Only immortals can do that. A novice cultivator can't grasp a domain or law. Only when your cultivation increases will your increased perception allow you to grasp more. They say cultivation is an endless journey. No one knows where the end is."
"I think I can understand your words. But, these things are too vague for me to wrap my head around," Duncan said sheepishly.
"Like I said, you need higher perception. That can only be achieved by increasing your cultivation level," the young man smiled assuringly causing Duncan to feel glad. "If you have any other doubts, feel free to ask."
"I do have one doubt," Duncan said scratching his head. "I have heard stuff like sword dao, saber dao, and others being mentioned. How do they relate to universal truths like wind, water, fire, and others?"
"Hah, nice question," the young man smiled genuinely. "That is the marvel of dao. You see, in the beginning there were only primordial daos like chaos, time, space, yin-yang, and so on. Getting insight into them is tremendously difficult. Among the daos they are the most powerful and ancient ones."
"Then, Ancient God Beings were born. They had full control of natural elements like fire, ice, water, wind, and so on, from the moment of their birth. These daos are called natural daos or ancient daos. The difficulty in obtaining insights into them was hard but manageable."
"The important part about natural daos is that they are much more suited for demonic beasts and descendants of Ancient Godly Beings. However, we humans do not have a great affinity with them in general."
"But, when humans were born and they started to develop, material daos started coming into being. Daos like sword dao, saber dao, spear dao, business dao, music dao, and countless others came into being due to that. We humans in general have a high affinity for these types of daos."
"But the type of daos doesn't end with these. There are special daos like ghost dao, nether dao, slaughter dao, annihilation dao, cloud dao, and whatnot. The truth of the matter is, there is no end to the type of daos you can cultivate. It all depends on your perception and your ability to grasp the truth of things."
"As they say, cultivation is endless. I do not know all the kinds of daos in the world. Actually, no one knows. It is all about your perception," the young man said smiling slightly.
"So which dao is the strongest?" Duncan asked curiously.
"Ha ha ha… no one knows. People have been searching for an answer to that question for a long time. But, they can never get others to agree. The fight for daos is more brutal than anything you could imagine," the young man smiled as if he was remembering something.
Duncan too was reminded of the old fart who kept harping on about how the dao of stealing was the one true dao of the world.
"If you want a scale of measure, I can tell you about the general consensus in the cultivation world. Primordial Daos are considered to be the rarest. Their strength is also really high. You won't find a weak cultivator who has grasped primordial dao. As they are the origin of all things, they are considered to be the strongest by many."
"Then comes natural daos, followed by materialistic daos. Other kinds of daos fall below them in general consensus. But, never ever think that having a special dao makes a person weak. It is all about…"
"…how much you can perceive and grasp individually," Duncan smiled and finished the sentence.
"Very true," the young man nodded in satisfaction.
The duo's discussion raged throughout the entire night. By the time morning arrived, the young man bid goodbye to Duncan and walked away. As he was leaving, Duncan remembered that he didn't even know the name of the young man.
"Brother, what's your name?"
"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Shen Wulong."
"Shen Wulong, great name. I am Duncan."
"Duncan, alright. Duncan, let me tell you a secret. Hang around this region for a few more days. You will be in for a surprise. What you gain out of that opportunity will depend on your luck and strength," Shen Wulong's voice echoed in Duncan's mind shocking him.
Before he could react, the young man had already vanished. Duncan didn't know what kind of opportunity that was going to come. But, he decided to wait and see. He felt that Shen Wulong wouldn't send him to danger knowingly.
So, he decided to wait for a while in this same region and check out the opportunity Shen Wulong mentioned. Quite frankly, he wouldn't mind a little helping hand here and there.
His goal was far away and he would need every bit of help to reach that stage as soon as possible. If this opportunity could help him to get stronger, Duncan didn't mind checking this out.
However, before that, he needed to do one thing. He needed to break through the advanced stage of the Qi Gathering realm first. From talking to Shen Wulong, Duncan realized that his cultivation realm was the basic foundation upon which his strength can be built upon.
So, it would behoove him to increase his realm as soon as possible. Duncan could already feel that he just needed a little push to reach the seventh level of the Qi Gathering realm. And now he had everything he needed to do that.
Looking down at his hand, Duncan saw the extra wine gourd Shen Wulong had given him. A small smile crept across his face as Duncan opened his bag and retrieved a blood gourd.
With this wine and the demonic beast's blood, Duncan can once more create a large number of blood wines and use them for cultivation. As for the location, this place was just ideal to sit down and cultivate calmly.
With a large smile on his face, Duncan sat down and started mixing wine with demonic beast blood.
*****
A/N: Hey folks!
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