Wu Zhi arrived at his abode. He knew he couldn't go searching for a technique with a get up like his. He had to leave his bear cloak somewhere in his dorm. 'should I hang it up or should I use it as a rug. I should hang it up, I wouldn't want it to get dirty. I can also change my mind anytime I want so it doesn't really matter'. He washed up and made sure he was clean and that his robes were nice.
After he was prepared, he left to go to the library. It was high time he filled in some gaps in his knowledge about the wider world. To start with he was going to do research on later levels of cultivation and then artifacts and devices he didn't know about. "Hi, I'm looking for knowledge about foundation establishment and core formation as well as need to know knowledge about cultivation". As usual the librarian gave him a paper with a list of all the books that could be relevant to what he was looking for. With a quick glance he went on to grab some books that would be helpful to him. 'Basics of foundation establishment, basics of core formation, and lastly basic knowledge about the cultivation world'. He first read about foundation establishment.
"Foundation establishment is all about building and strengthening your foundation for later cultivation. Once your foundation is strong enough you can form a core. You build up your foundation through specific techniques, either building up the body, mind or soul. You can build up your body by using body refinement techniques. You can build up your mind by practicing spells and increasing your qi recovery rate, your qi purity rate, and how much qi your body can house. "Mind" in this sense is mostly related to your abilities concerning qi. Lastly is soul, the soul is the hardest to increase in strength and is rather vague at that. The easiest way to increase your soul strength is to find a technique that can do that. However such techniques are very rare and sought after, putting an astonishing price on their value. There are other ways of increasing soul strength however they're very rare and hard to find. Such as spiritual roots specialized in soul strength, spiritual medicine, spiritual fruits, natural artifacts, and more. It goes without saying that natural artifacts related to soul strength are the rarest but there are other more unorthodox methods to increasing soul strength. Levels don't exist in the foundation establishment as they did in qi refinement. As this entire stage of cultivation is about reaching a foundation strong enough to house a core. That is why this is the stage were peoples strength is the most vague. People in this realm will devote most of there time finding new and unique ways to increase either their "body", "mind", or "soul" in order to increase there foundation. Some techniques in this realm will take decades but others in this realm will use pills, medicine, or fruit to quickly move on to the next stage. It is imperative that you build a stronger foundation for later cultivation, that is why some people stall at this stage in hopes of building a better future for their cultivation. This is why despite the fact that qi refinement is an easier cultivation level to reach the majority of cultivators are in this realm". The book later went on to explain the do's and don'ts of this cultivation realm. Mostly explain the importance of not rushing your cultivation unless the need arises. It also explains that you can't or shouldn't be at this realm forever as your vitality and longevity are still limited. You wouldn't want to spend your whole life building up your foundation just to die of old age. Wu Zhi's takeaways on this all was that he was right to focus foundation. If he had a way to increase his lifespan he would even spend more time than the 200 years of total lifespan allotted to him in this realm. Particularly he found it interesting how much it talked about increasing your soul strength. It seemed that this was important, and probably the best way one could increase their foundation. It was a shame that he knew that this was out of his reach. As most likely this kind of technique would be monopolized by those in power, only to be given to the ones they trust. He could try to make his own, but that would be a fools errand, as he knew nothing about making a cultivation technique especially one related to the soul. One wrong move and he could go into qi deviation or worse. He learned how likely that was while making a cultivation technique through some context clues he found when he was younger. Next he went on to read about core formation.
"Core formation is a cultivation stage all about establishing your core and then refining it to strengthen yourself. Cultivators at this stage are notoriously hard to kill as nothing but a direct strike to the core will kill them. If they lose their head there body will grow back from its core, making the core the most protected place of a core formation cultivator. The core you form is entirely up to you however most if not all core formation experts will build a core related to their element. A person with a water element based spiritual root will build a water core. A person with a fire based spiritual root will build a fire core. Cultivation techniques at this stage are the most varied and the most sought after. It goes without saying that someone with a water core would look for a cultivation technique about refining water cores and the same with fire. This is why technique's in this realm are the hardest to create, hardest to find, and the hardest to master. This sometimes lead's people to cultivate what's called a neutral core, a core that can cultivate any element. However such a core is weaker than a elemental based core. Such experts are very weak compared to their peers and such a route should not be taken unless its a last resort. 'Huh', Wu Zhi was learning a lot more than he thought he would.