Apotheosis

Though Zen had made rapid progress to his refinement, it was still not enough.

He knew that his progress was still far from those members of the noble clans in the Eastern Region. Took for example his friend, Roger. Zen first met Roger while he was completing a task that the Cloud Sect had assigned to him. Roger was only at grade one of nature level back then. But when Zen had seen Roger again after a few months, he could tell that Roger had quickly progressed to grade five. It had amused Zen how much Roger improved in a short period of time!

However, it was common knowledge that some martial arts cultivators could use some pills to speed up their progress. When they did, their cultivation base would normally be unstable. It was like hastening the baking of a pastry. The outside looked good, but the inside would turn out to be half-baked. But some cultivators would opt to pay the price of unstable cultivation just to speed up their progress. However, a half-baked cultivation base would often have a bad effect on their further progress.

Nonetheless, it was the pride and reputation these cultivators were after. Despite having an unstable cultivation base, once a cultivator reached the Illuminating Soul Realm, he would immediately become a respected figure in the Eastern Region. This was enough for many cultivators. Without a stable cultivation base, progressing from Illuminating Soul Realm to the next level would be like a thread passing through a needle hole. Hence, some cultivators would forget about progressing from Illuminating Soul Realm to Internal Elixir Realm and other higher stages of martial refinement.

But Zen wasn't like everyone else. He had a very solid cultivation base. Sometimes, he would even restrain himself from leveling up until his body made a breakthrough on its own. This was the same as men's nocturnal emission which happened naturally after a long period of accumulation.

Inside the pond, Zen had finally stabilized his new breakthrough. But instead of relaxing, he continued to sit in a lotus position and do his breathing exercises. He felt that staying in that environment for a longer

must warn you. The cultivation methods of dragons like me aren't suitable for you because your body is still very weak. Even if I teach you some of our cultivation methods, you won't be able to use them with your current strength."

Zen laughed. He knew that the cyan dragon had sensed his eagerness to learn any new cultivation method, but he had to act like he was not that interested. "Hey, I never asked for anything in return. Besides, I have never agreed to give you Tia's share. But since you're offering, who am I to resist? I'll accept it with pleasure," Zen said laughing.

"You're a cunning but smart boy! Fine! I'll teach you a set of rune-making methods. It's one of the best attainments we dragons have acquired in runic learning," the cyan dragon said proudly.

He had long planned to teach Zen something useful. Imparting even a little part of his broad knowledge to Zen would benefit the latter a lot. But he had held the thought for a while since Zen's low refining stage would limit his ability to grasp or exert the cyan dragon's inheritance.

But seeing the improvement in Zen's strength and his stable cultivation base, he finally decided to teach Zen the methods of writing runes. After all, runes were widely used in this world and could be applied to many different fields. If Zen would become a runic expert, he could deal with many troublesome situations without the help of the cyan dragon.