Ji Jingqiu sheathed his long saber and muttered, "Time is pressing, with only two months left. My progress is still too slow..."
He pondered that upon his return, besides his daily cultivation, he would also need to hurry the Arhat Fruit from the Supreme True Buddha Sect.
Only waiting to complete his Cultivation Body, he would then attempt to Reverse Innate!
"Don't you think that your progress in Martial Arts is actually too fast right now?" Zhuang Yanxing couldn't help but say.
If he remembered correctly, isn't this person not even 17 years old?
Ji Jingqiu recollected and, indeed, it seemed so; he had only been practicing martial arts for a few months, and his superior cultivation body was nearing small achievement.
"Isn't everyone progressing this quickly?" Ji Jingqiu asked, puzzled.
No, it's you Proud Sun seeds.
Zhuang Yanxing lowered his head, counting ants, and silently said in his heart, then suddenly raised his head at the sound of Ji Jingqiu's curious "hmm?" and hurriedly explained—
In Federation Martial Arts, regardless of whether one is a genius or an ordinary person, the speed of breakthroughs in the first two realms is actually considered rapid.
For example, a typical genius martial artist, combining Body Refining with the Five Limits of Heavenly Person, takes about a year or so.
If one chooses to forge a superior cultivation body, the first major challenge is the Visualization Map of Superior Quality. For martial artists whose spiritual cultivation is insufficient, it's common to be stuck for half a year, or even a year.
Adding the subsequent processes of refinement, strengthening heart electricity, and the entire set of cultivation body forging...
Being able to forge a superior cultivation body by the age of eighteen is already considered only second to the Daoist seeds amongst martial arts geniuses.
The standards for core disciples of top forces in the Federation, also known as the Daoist level, are to begin martial arts practice at sixteen, complete a superior cultivation body by eighteen, and breakthrough to Godseeing without significant weaknesses.
If there are no geniuses of such caliber in the current era, the position of a Daoist would remain vacant.
In eras not marked by the Age of Great Struggle, those at the Daoist level are regarded as having the status of Arrogant Sun.
As for ordinary martial artists, they lack the qualifications to forge a superior cultivation body, and they progress step by step until the realm before Divine Travel, where they are obstructed by their spiritual cultivation.
These martial artists, in fact, tend to reach the realm before Divine Travel even faster than the geniuses because they take fewer detours...
However, no matter which type of martial artist, they will all be stuck at the Divine Travel Realm!
That is what's known as the plateau period.
"Ordinary martial artists are usually stuck due to their spiritual cultivation, whereas people like Ji, you will be hindered by two factors—"
"One is Martial Arts Divine."
"The other is the breakthrough after achieving perfection in the cultivation body."
"The True Seed Realm regards oneself as raw jade, continually polished and tempered until it becomes a brilliant gem, and these two steps are the final polish."
"Many genius martial artists stop before Divine Travel, striving to polish these two steps to the limit, and then breakthrough to Divine Travel. The transformation after Divine Travel offers the greatest benefits!"
Saying this, Zhuang Yanxing couldn't help but ask, "If I may be so bold, Ji, how old are you exactly this month?"
"Me?" Ji Jingqiu thought for a moment, "Sixteen, my birthday is in March."
Zhuang Yanxing's face suddenly became blank.
So the "Ji" standing before him was actually... younger than him by a few months in terms of age?
That day, Zhuang Yanxing finally understood a phrase his master once said:
——When you meet those true geniuses, you will realize that the thickness of time is different for each person.
As Zhuang Yanxing struggled to come to terms with this reality, Ji Jingqiu, stroking the handle of his saber, expressed his doubt:
"Is a Daoist the embodiment of the Arrogant Sun? Are there too many Arrogant Suns this era? Is the Federation's standard for Arrogant Sun so low?"
Zhuang Yanxing really wanted to say that places like his Heavenly Mechanism Dojo hadn't produced a Daoist in a hundred years, until this generation, when the master found his senior brother...
In the end, Zhuang Yanxing sincerely said:
"The Arrogant Sun status and an Arrogant Sun are two different things. Based on past years, the selection criteria for an Arrogant Sun usually have two standards."
"The first standard is simple– the posture of a master! Throughout the Federation, Martial Arts Masters are also indisputably upper echelons!"
Ji Jingqiu agreed with this point. It seemed that for a hundred years in East 3 District, only Wan Ku Wei Quan became a Heavenly Master.
This person even dared to oppose the Ji Family!
Within the Federation, a Heavenly Master can at any time "receive" a barren planet from the Federation and become the true lord of a planet.
Moreover, as long as they are willing to use their dojo's influence to reform the planet, countless Federation citizens will volunteer to migrate and settle there.
"A martial artist with the posture of a master doesn't need to participate in any selection competition to be honored with the title of Arrogant Sun!"
"What qualifies as the posture of a master? A superior cultivation body?"
Zhuang Yanxing shook his head:
"A superior cultivation body is just the threshold for achieving mastery, just like the Five Limits of Heavenly Person is the threshold for forging a superior cultivation body. The gap within can be immeasurably large.
Take your Star Division for example, isn't there someone called... uh, Gong something? He's also a genius of Five Limits, but not even qualified to carry shoes for Ji."
Good memory had always been one of Ji Jingqiu's strengths.
"The posture of a master has three standards: one is Divine Travel before Martial Arts Divine; two is the cultivation body progress surpassing perfection, reaching 99.9%, infinitely close to a true Innate Taoist Body; three is Spiritual Residence.
The former two are the points that countless genius martial artists polish to the utmost before Divine Travel!
Before the age of twenty, achieving two of these criteria indicates a combined success rate of over 27.3% for future Master challenges, according to historical statistics of the Federation!"
Ji Jingqiu asked, "Of these three criteria, which is the hardest?"
Zhuang Yanxing decisively said: "There's no question of what's harder. For 99.99% of genius martial artists, all three are insurmountable obstacles! Achieving two of them is to be a true Martial Arts Pride!"