Developing

When he began, Ace discovered that teaching people wasn't as easy as he expected.

Perhaps because they were simple people without an ounce of complex knowledge in their minds, but the twenty young men had a hard time learning all the details of papermaking.

It took Ace almost a year to make the twenty people capable of crafting acceptable paper that could be used and preserved for long periods.

Crafting pen and ink wasn't difficult, though, and they learned after a few tries.

After all of them learned the craft, Ace began to select a few young children from the village, they needed to be at most six years old to be selected by him.

In the end, he formed a class of thirty young children to be taught. All of them were between five and six years old.

He made a large cave in the stone wall of the ravine to be the classroom and even made a lot of stone seats and tables. It was quite easy for him since his aura could crush and even cut ordinary stones with ease.

He gave all the children a set of ink, paper, and pens, and began to slowly teach them how to read and write. As a blackboard, he used a large slab of wood covered in beeswax, where he could write large words and later on erase them by heating the beeswax.

The children were very naughty, but all of them didn't dare to disobey and cause trouble, Ace scared them enough by showing his power and making a few vain threats.

Moreover, when they were at home after classes, their parents would urge them to study hard, always promising a bright future for them.

Ace taught their parents how to make wood boards covered in beeswax for the kids to practice writing, and they happily accepted his teachings.

Although paper was better, ink couldn't be erased. But what was written on beeswax could be erased by simply heating it.

Ace was surprised by the difficulty of teaching the children, they were like clueless flies that understood very little in every class. But he knew it was natural since their environment was just that bad.

It took him two whole years until the kids could barely write and read simple words and phrases, but Ace was already satisfied by it.

In those almost three years since he broke through, he had very little progress in his practice, his aura's amount increased very little. He was a bit dishearted, but he knew it was natural for it to be like this, he had to be patient.

After another two years of hard work, from the original thirty kids, only twenty-five remained, and five died of sickness.

But those twenty-five could write and read with fluency, they could even understand complex texts written by Ace and began to learn mathematics and geometry from him.

Because they already had a foundation, it wasn't too difficult for him to teach those things, and it only took the kids two years to be capable of doing almost all basic operations and even some algebra, they also learned basic geometry without much problem.

Another two kids died of sickness during that time, but the other kids grew up well and were all healthy, they would likely have a long life ahead of them.

After entering puberty, those kids began to grow their ideas and began to try and use the knowledge they gained in everyday life, but it was still very rudimentary.

Ace knew it was about time and began to teach them some basic concepts and knowledge about human biology, the kids were marveled by the knowledge and couldn't extricate themselves.

Slowly, Ace also incorporated knowledge about classic physics in the classes, so the children would have some common sense.

After three more years of teaching, and looking at the smart and knowledgeable kids in from of him, Ace felt proud. He never saw kids so applied to learn as them even in his previous world.

But perhaps, it was the result of their expectation of supernatural power.

The kids were about fourteen and fifteen years old, and all of them had a different bearing compared to the other villagers.

"I know you are all eager to learn my magical methods, but first..." Ace said to them with a smile, "I will give you a test, learn how to make paper, ink, and pens, from the workers I first taught the craft. After learning it, compile your understanding in an organized book, completely summarized, in at most a year!

"All of you have to write a book by yourselves, it's an individual test!"

The youngsters were excited and one of them asked, "If we pass... will the great teacher pass the methods to us?"

"Didn't I just say it?" Ace clicked his tongue.

They were overjoyed and began to discuss amongst themselves.

"Silence!" Ace said with a frown, "I don't remember saying the class ended?"

Everyone was silent and trembling.

"Alright, you can leave," Ace grinned and waved his hand.

The youngsters left the classroom like the wind, and Ace could listen to their excited voices even when they were far away.

"I need to give them proper care," Ace muttered and massaged his temples, "It's still too little, I need to spread knowledge further!"

He knew that there were some villages close by, but they rarely contacted each other out of fear. He wanted his students to spread the knowledge he gave them to other villages, only by doing it could he reach his goal of changing the human race standing in that world.

He took out a blank book and a pen and began to write on the cover... "Cultivation of power."

He began to call what he practiced as cultivation, but not of immortality, but of power!

He had long since summarized a simplified method for ordinary humans to get started with cultivation, starting from a simple mental method to control one's soul power to drawing the spiritual energy to refine mana.

He wrote carefully on how humans could slowly open their meridians by engraving instincts on their soul power, and how they could reach the Apprentice Realm, and then to the following Realms...

As for the realm he was actually in, he still had not named it. He knew too little about how to advance further and had no inspiration for a name yet.

However, he only wanted to hand over that book after he decided on that name, just because.

He wrote everything he discovered and knew about cultivation in that book, excluding a few things that he still had doubts about. He made it organized so someone could start from the easy and then proceed to the hard.

When he finished, he had a flash of inspiration and thought about the long past, when he was still living an ordinary life.

He remembered the difference between xianxia and another kind of cultivation novel, martial cultivation. But that was not the main point, it was the fact that martial cultivation novels frequently had a realm named "Enlightenment Realm."

He knew very well that besides the fact he had enough energy, his state of mind was an equally important factor for his breakthrough into that nameless realm. Just accumulating enough energy wasn't enough to enter that realm.

Moreover, he had to be ruthless and risk everything during the breakthrough to reach success, and he almost failed. It was the first time he almost doomed himself since he started his practice.

Taking all of that into consideration, Ace decided the name of that realm, it would be called "Martial Enlightenment Realm."

Martial because he had to fight, struggle, and bet everything he had to advance. Enlightenment because he had to reach enough understanding about himself, about his true nature.

When he decided that name, Ace filled the blank spaces he had left in the book with it and was greatly amused.

He wondered if later on the world would call him something like "Martial Ancestor." He felt a change from the depths of his mind as if his state of mind had evolved.

Suddenly, he felt his aura stirring for some reason and a large amount of spiritual energy was attracted to him, forming a vortex. He didn't feel overwhelmed and instead, all of the spiritual energy was quickly either converted into aura or used as fuel for his other energies to grow, it was similar to a breakthrough but on a smaller scale.

When everything calmed down, he felt that his total amount of aura increased by about 20%, and his other energies also increased proportionally. Although it was a great increase, it clearly lacked the power of a breakthrough.

But it also gave him and the system new inspirations.

"Perhaps... this realm isn't about grinding?" Ace muttered to himself while adapting to the surge of power.

[When the host's state of mind was further condensed just now, the spiritual energy of the world seemed to react autonomously and turned easier to absorb and refine.]

"Do you have any idea about the reason?" Ace asked.

[Perhaps it's a kind of rule of this world? I don't know. But if this realm is really as the host thinks, it will be inefficient to grind slowly, it would be better to focus on improving your state of mind.]

"Indeed," Ace nodded and felt refreshed, "At least, I don't feel as lost as before. Even if I have no idea about how to improve my state of mind besides living as always."

[The host can try and focus on practicing the mental method. It has been a while since you focused on it. Improving the soul can indirectly help to improve the state of mind.]

Ace listened to the system and decided to focus on the mental method for a while to test things out.

Time passed strangely slowly that year, Ace was always doing his best in practice but saw little improvement.

When the time he gave to his students was running out, more and more gave him their own written books, full of their own insights and understanding.

Ace read all of the books with relish, savoring the pleasure of seeing his pupils grow to that point. By the end of that year, all of the students managed to give him a satisfying book.

One day, he assembled all of his students in the classroom and began to give them a lesson.

"You all did good, I approved all of your work," Ace praised them with a smile, making all of them feel proud.

"Do you know why I made you learn the craft of paper-making?" Ace then asked.

A student raised his hand in silence.

"You can speak," Ace nodded to him.

"Does the honorable teacher plan to make us teach it to other people?"

"You are spot on," Ace laughed, "But not now! I will first make sure you all have some ability to defend yourselves."

All students suddenly felt their hearts beating faster.

Ace grinned and took a book from his table and showed it to all the students, "This is what you have been expecting, the way to get as strong as me."

The student's blazing eyes almost made the book heat up.

"I was lazy and only wrote one book, so you must take turns to make copies, okay?" Ace said and suddenly threw the book in the air towards them.

The students panicked and all tried to catch the book before the others.

"It's mine!"

"Piss off!"

"No!"

"Haha!"

"Get off!"

Ace watched the confusion and laughed, he had no intention of stopping them.

But the students began to punch and kick each other out of the competition and finally obligated Ace to stop their fights.

"You are someone I have high hopes for, and you always had the best grades," Ace said and handed the book to a young girl, "Be careful and copy everything, including the smallest detail, heard me?"

"Yeah, teacher?" the young girl nodded eagerly, her face was full of bruises from the fight that just happened.

The others were so envious that their face turned red.

"If you want such privilege in the future, try to get better grades," Ace snorted at them and began to walk outside, "I'm leaving for a walk, I hope none of you causes trouble while I'm away."

After he left the classroom, Ace his himself was a few dozen meters away and observed everything in the classroom with his soul sense.

He wanted to see if someone would be so greedy and eager that their rationality would be trashed by the strong feelings.

The little girl didn't play around and quickly began to copy the book 'Cultivation of Power' into a blank book. She ignored everyone's stares and did her best to finish.

Ace was greatly satisfied by the little girl's action, despite it being a minor thing, just like a parent would feel proud of their children's small feats.

The little girl had always been his favorite student, she always showed a genius that surprised him.

Her name was Lin, and she was one of the youngest in the classroom. Despite being younger, the others feared her a lot, simply because they knew she was pampered by Ace frequently.

After a few hours, Lin finally copied the whole book and breathed a sigh of relief, she looked around and still didn't see her teacher.

"It's my turn!" a young boy got up from his seat and shouted.

"Why?" everyone else was eager to start another fight.

"Because I have the best grades after Lin, I deserve to be the second to copy the book!" the young boy explained his standpoint.

Some of them thought it was reasonable, while others didn't care.

"I agree with him," Lin said with a smile, surprising everyone.

"Are you trying to benefit your brother?" another girl asked with an annoyed tone.

"Honorable teacher made it so I was the first to copy the book because I had the best grades. Don't you all think he intends to reward those with better performances first?"

The good argument, coupled with their reluctance to pick a fight with Lin, made them struggle internally.

The boy who had the second-best grades took the opportunity and grabbed the book without giving a chance for the others to react.

"Anyway, everyone will be able to copy the book in the end, so why are we fighting?" he said while holding the book tightly.

His convincing words made the students finally decide to follow the rule of whoever had better grades would have priority.

A bit far away, Ace laughed dumbly and shook his head. He knew that the little boy was more clever than Lin only when it came to convincing people.

The one who had the second-best grades was named Cin, he was Lin's older brother. The pair of siblings looked alike from their long black hair to their clever blue eyes.

Knowing that his students would most likely not fight again, he found it boring and decided to return to the classroom.

"We greet honorable teacher," everyone got up from their seats and greeted him respectfully.

"You can sit," Ace nodded and gestured for them, he walked to his own table and sat beside it.

"Lin, why aren't you studying?" Ace asked after seeing that Lin wasn't reading the book she just copied.

"I... want to wait for my brother," she said with reluctance.

Ace smiled and gave her a meaningful look, "Why don't you offer your book for a colleague to copy?"

Many blazing eyes suddenly set their sight on Lin.

"Teacher..." Lin was almost crying but couldn't refuse, "Okay, but can I choose who?"

"The book is yours, you can decide on who can copy it."

Lin nodded weakly and offered the book to her friend, a young girl named Kei, she was one of those with the worst grades in the class.

When Cin finished writing his own copy, he didn't need Ace to remind him and lent his book to his friend.

Just like this, the time needed for everyone to get a copy shortened exponentially. He made it clear to all students that being altruistic can benefit everyone and themselves.

By helping others, they can avoid being the target of jealousy and get a nice shield called 'righteousness.' People would tend to support those on the considered 'right' side, even unconsciously.

When everyone eventually got a copy for themselves, they began to study it fervently. No one asked questions until the whole book was read.

Ace had an idea and decided to not answer their questions immediately, and instead made them ponder and discuss things among themselves to find the right answer.

In any case, he already made the book 'Cultivation of Power' as summarized and self-explanatory as possible. If they couldn't figure things out by themselves even with all available knowledge, it would be a waste of his efforts.

Of course, he still watched over them to make sure none of them made critical or even deadly mistakes. And many such cases occurred in the following days.

If not because he could sense their situation clearly with his soul sense and the help of the system, they would have suffered disastrous wounds or even died.

After pondering for a while, Ace decided to compile the most common, and most dangerous doubts of the students and their right answers in a separate book, he thought it would be useful later when they eventually began to teach other people.

Because they didn't have a system to help them, and Ace was always playing mysterious while documenting their struggles, the students took a long time to finally figure out the right way.

It took her three years for Lin to start to walk the right way, slowly walking the same path that Ace once walked. She was the first successful case in the class when it came to visualizing a soul point until it transformed into a star.

By reaching that point, she could finally control her soul power to some extent and began to guide spiritual energy into her energy core, to refine mana!

Finally, the second cultivator was born!