Above the spirit mud phase, the climb toward true power was a long and arduous ladder.
Beyond that initial mire lay the spirit formation phase, followed by the spirit foundation phase, spirit expansion phase, spirit strengthening phase, spirit enhancement phase, spirit evolution phase, spirit purification phase, spirit advancement phase, spirit phantom phase, and finally, the last legendary phase: the spirit ascension phase.
In this isolated corner of the world, even the individuals considered transcendent geniuses would mostly find themselves stalled at the spirit foundation phase.
They believed that with each natural upgrade in spirit power level, the spirit would simply enhance itself and enter a higher stage as a matter of course.
But if things were left to such a passive progression, the highest phase any spirit master in this current world could hope to reach was limited to spirit enhancement or, at the very absolute best, the spirit evolution phase.
William knew that to be able to ascend higher than his past life strength, he needed to reach those final, vaulted phases. If he wanted even a ghost of a chance against that treacherous nine-tailed fox, he had to reach at least the spirit advancement phase.
However, raising one's spirit grade through technique wasn't a major obstacle for someone with his vast, encyclopedic knowledge.
The main problem lay in the path he would select. Once a spirit master selected the path of their future spirit form and integrated with a monster spirit, they wouldn't be able to easily change it. It was a commitment of the soul.
Even those born with innate spirits, like Berry, still had a chance to modify and refine their spirits all the way to the top. But their choices would always be constrained by the innate spirit they were born with; they were building on a pre-existing foundation.
Despite the fact that spirit masters here in the academy would consider mud-phased masters like William weak and failures, William knew that in the outside world, they were often considered the luckiest of all.
Because they were born with "nothing," they had all the paths opened for their spirits to develop. They were blank canvases, not limited or steered by the narrow inherited spirits of their ancestors.
People like Berry were significantly limited in comparison. For example, she had a twin spirit, and even with that extraordinary gift, she couldn't merge with earth-based or even water or ice-based monster spirits.
Her two spirits were fire-based. An earth-based monster spirit would only serve to hinder and dampen the berserk, brutal nature of her fiery spirits.
As for water or ice-based monster spirits, it was common knowledge how those elements reacted with fire—they would lead to a spiritual backlash that could cripple her meridians.
The only choices for her were limited to fire, light, darkness, and thunder-based monster spirits.
One had to know that fire-based monster spirits were commonly found in the wild, but the other three types were like gold found in mud. They were rare, extremely valuable, and notoriously difficult to kill.
When looking at Berry's situation, even with how common fire monsters were, not all of them were suitable for her growth. After all, she possessed double high-end fire-based spirits within her.
Low-level or even mediocre-level fiery monster spirits wouldn't provide her with anything of value; they would be like pouring a bucket of water into an ocean.
Her options were strictly limited to the mid and top-grade fiery monster spirits. And those types were significantly harder to find and much harder to kill in the wild.
So, in the world of cultivation, sometimes a blessing might come as a curse, and a curse—like being born with a mud spirit—could be a blessing.
As for William, he didn't even consider fire-based monster spirits for his own foundation. If he had to choose, he would aim exclusively for those rare spirits: thunder, light, or darkness.
Selecting the first spirit monster to integrate with wasn't a decision to be made lightly or in haste. It was much better for William to select a rare type based monster spirit than a common one, regardless of the difficulty.
The base spirit he merged with now would determine almost everything about his potential later on. If he limited himself to fire, water, or earth-based monster spirits, he would face immense difficulties and spiritual "walls" when trying to reach the higher phases.
Selecting a rare monster spirit was superior because they weren't just rare; they were also flexible and overbearing against common monster spirits.
If he selected a light-based monster spirit, for example, as his base spirit, he could add fire, water, ice, earth, and even wind-based monster spirits later in his journey without ever worrying about conflicts or elemental rejections. Light was a universal carrier.
He remembered the nine-tailed fox vividly. That creature had a darkness-based spirit, one that had helped it create its bloody legend and rise to power.
It was also one of the primary reasons behind the fox's superiority over almost every enemy it faced. Even William, in his past life, had lost partially because of this fundamental difference in spirit quality. Darkness devoured, corrupted, and obscured.
So, when considering what type his spirit would eventually be, William couldn't help but crave light or lightning.
Light was the direct nemesis of dark-based spirits, capable of piercing through any shadow. And lightning? Lightning possessed a unique, useful purification effect that could burn away the taint of darkness as well.
He was planning for his battle of revenge against that damn fox in the far-fetched future, even if he was in such a weak state of power right now!
To anyone else, a porter dreaming of slaying a legendary nine-tailed fox would be the height of insanity, but William possessed a soul that had once looked down upon the world. He knew that the longest journey began with a single, calculated step, and that step required the perfect elemental foundation.
But hoping was something, and really getting one of these two spirits was another. William's own experience about this forest from his past life was limited to the outer region only. He had spent his previous existence as a lowly servant, barely scraping by and never daring to venture into the untamed heart of the wilderness.
He had ventured deeper only on a single occasion, when he was running for his life when the world was falling apart during the great cataclysm.
Inside the outer region, he was sure there were no single light-based or lightning-based spirit monsters at all! Those elemental types were too refined, too pure to dwell in the muddy, mundane outskirts where common beasts roamed.
These monsters would be considered tyrannical even among their own kind. However, even if he didn't know the inner region of the forest personally, he still heard stories from disciples about their adventures there back when he was cleaning their quarters and polishing their boots.
He heard about the presence of few light and lightning-based monsters at some deep regions of this forest. But he never saw a detailed map about the deeper zones of the forest before ever in his past life.
Maps of the inner forest were guarded like state secrets by the Academy and the Great Clans, for they contained the locations of rare resources and powerful monster dens.
Even if he knew about these locations, getting there was a trouble in itself. The path would be blocked by hundreds of silver and bronze grade monsters. In addition to that, and by his current strength, he wouldn't stand a chance against any brutal monster of them.
One had to know that both types of monsters—light and lightning—were famous for their insane speed and devastating attack power.
They were the glass cannons of the monster world, capable of ending a fight before a spirit master could even summon their spirit.
Even if he was extremely lucky to find a white grade monster of either two spirits, William wouldn't be able to contend against it with his current strength. A white grade lightning monster could move faster than his eyes could track.
"I need to raise my spirit power first," he came to this conclusion, and so he didn't hurry to venture into the deeper parts of the forest immediately. He was a veteran of a thousand wars; he knew that courage without preparation was simply a fast way to die.
His aim for now was to hunt more monkeys and weaker monsters using the same method he used before. He moved through the canopy and the undergrowth like a ghost, his arrows finding the throats of unsuspecting beasts.
After staying in the outer region of the forest for an entire day, William finally killed thousands of these monsters and devoured their cores using the hidden technique of the fox.
His spirit power now was fifty-six. He got an increase of twenty-one spirit points during a single day. To any other cultivator, gaining twenty-one points in twenty-four hours would be a miracle beyond belief, but William's brow was furrowed in dissatisfaction.
"As I thought," after devouring the last batch of monkey cores, he stood and muttered to himself, "the higher my spirit power climbs, the weaker the effects of these cores will be."
It was the law of diminishing returns. To a puddle, a bucket of water is a flood; to a lake, it is barely a ripple. He was now sure that he could absorb the cores of any monsters he'd kill—the devouring ability was universal in its hunger.
He killed a few other types of monsters aside from the monkeys—scaled rabbits and iron-hide rats—and he was able to absorb their cores as well.
In the last few batches, he devoured over a thousand cores and yet only gained five spirit points. His rising speed was affected now by his increased spirit power. The low-quality white cores of the outer forest simply didn't contain enough concentrated essence to push his meridians further.
"I can't keep going on like this," as he reached this conclusion, he decided to exit the safe outer forest region and risk entering deeply inside. He needed higher-grade cores, and he needed them now.
The issue wasn't only for increasing his spirit power, but about his mud-phased spirit. He needed to elevate it before hitting the seventy-point mark.
In the higher realms of cultivation, it was a known fact that the transition from mud to a defined spirit form became exponentially more painful and dangerous after seventy points of raw power.
Doing so now would help him in increasing his spirit power faster, as a defined spirit acted as a more efficient engine for energy absorption. Also, he would be able to use his spirit during the fight, which would be a significant boost to his strength, granting him elemental or physical boons he currently lacked.
William started to walk deeper in the forest, while trying to be cautious when he reached areas he didn't recognise. The trees became gnarled and ancient, their roots twisting like sleeping serpents across the forest floor. The cheerful chirping of birds was replaced by a heavy, predatory silence.
He took out his sword and hung it over his waist, took out his bow and made an arrow always at the string. He was ready at any moment to welcome a fight once a monster would appear in front of him.
The bow wasn't as great as his sword—it was a standard issue academy bow—but it was still useful. Its main effect was to slightly boost speed and make the arrows move faster through the air.
Yet it didn't boost his strength or the power of the arrows themselves; it didn't have the enchantments to amplify his spirit power. William knew if the bow had either of these two effects, then it would be considered a silver or even a gold grade weapon instead.
He checked his gold sword before. It didn't only have a sharpness boost, but it also boosted strength and agility.
Just moving it around created a series of afterimages behind, the blue blade, humming with a low, resonant frequency.
And William was sure even if he fought a dark gold monster with it, the sharpness and strength boosted by the sword would leave behind a deep wound at such a monster. It was a weapon that could bridge the gap between grades.
Tick!