God Of Crafting

Chapter 214: Elite Coterie

"Did you just... break to the eighth spiritual realm? Just by trying to display your cultivation?" Chihiro asked, with a look of barely controlled shock on his face.

As a cultivation quasi-mentor to me, his knowledge about the state of my spirituality was second only to Claire's, with whom my cultivation was intrinsically linked on a level no non-spiritual connection could mimic.

That's why, more than anyone else but Claire, he knew I was nowhere near reaching the bottleneck of the seventh cultivation stage, still having to go through the process of proper accumulation of spiritual energy to reach the point where I would approach the limits of the stage I was in.

And yet...

No matter what he, Claire, the two guards, or I myself would think possible, just a single look into my cultivation was enough to confirm that I had, indeed, broken through my recent limits and evolved my spirituality a step beyond.

"To be perfectly honest... I'm not really sure," I admitted with a helpless look on my face. "And if anything..." I hesitated for a moment, fully aware of how unorthodox my next and extremely pressing question would be to people who dedicated most of their lives to growing stronger, "is there any way to actually reverse this?"

If my advancement was enough to make everyone in the area shocked, then my question made them simply baffled.

"Wait, you want to go back to the seventh stage? Why?"

"I mean..." I looked away while scratching myself behind my left ear. "Contrary to how I advanced before, this breakthrough isn't a result of a comprehensive understanding. It's not born out of me figuring out the logic and sense behind this new stage before just... applying all of my strength to mix this new, more advanced theory into the practice that's already in place."

"Isn't this an enlightenment?" the second guard, the one that remained silent unless both of them chanted something at the same time, spoke out on his own for the very first time since we'd met the two.

"Looks to me like it is," the other guard added, seconding his colleague's opinion.

"An enlightenment?" I asked, understanding the meaning of the word but not the context behind it.

'What, am I supposed to start a new religion or a philosophical school now?' I jeered in my thoughts, not wasting my time entertaining this clearly misguided idea.

"It means a natural breakthrough that's free of the usual requirements for one to advance," Chihiro hurried to clear the misunderstanding. "Basically, it mostly happens when one witnesses something that opens an exclusive, momentary, and single-use path for them to advance through the innate understanding of a certain aspect of reality. So, rather than worrying about your potential..." Chihiro shook his head before taking a step closer and reaching out, only to then gently pat me on the shoulder, "you should rejoice. Congratulations, son, you've just joined quite the elite coterie."

I raised my eyes to the man's face, holding myself back from inquiring about the meaning of the very last word he used. While I wasn't familiar with it... it didn't take a genius to figure out the meaning behind it from the context of what the man said.

"So, it's beneficial rather than detrimental to my future growth?" I asked, just to be sure.

Before anyone could answer me, however, I squinted my eyes and locked my hands on my chest.

"Or should I rather ask, can you say for certain that it's beneficial, or is it just another element of traditional belief that you know just how little I respect?"