Legend of Niyonika

The Elemental Realms (Ch.13)

~Man - a being in search of meaning~

-Plato

And yet she considers me a rival? Why?" Niyonika asked in amusement, Raila passed Niyonika a baffled look, probably because she could not understand what Niyonika found amusing about the situation.

"Naturally it is because of big sister's looks. Big sister is the renowned No 1 beauty across the entire Seyr Empire. Big sister may not have outstanding strength, but big sister's popularity is not any lower than that of Yana due to big sister's unrivalled looks." Raila explained, Niyonika nodded in understanding.

'Ah...so it was like this?' Niyonika thought to herself, shaking her head slightly.

Physical beauty was truly a troublesome thing. It could attract you unreasonable enemies.

"You mentioned something about an elemental novice realm? What exactly is that?" Niyonika asked as she was yet to hear anything of that sort during her conversation with the five brother disciples.

"Big sister, in the Elemental god continent, cultivation strength is divided into elemental realms. The Elemental realms are: Elemental potential, Elemental Novice, Elemental warrior, Elemental Lord, Elemental saint, Elemental immortal and Elemental God."

"Each of these elemental realms have a difference as great as heaven and earth between them and each realm is divided into ten levels and the ten levels are further divided into low level, mid level high level and peak."

"Low level is deemed the beginning, mid level is progress, high level is sufficient knowledge and peak level is excellent mastery. This applies to each of the ten levels of all the elemental realms as one would have to cultivate past low level, mid level, high level and peak level to breakthrough to the next level of that elemental realm, once a cultivator has broken through all ten levels of an elemental realm, the cultivator then steps into the next elemental realm."

"The Elemental potential realm is the innate talent all elementals posses, hence it is not truly considered to be an elemental realm as all elementals are naturally born with elemental potential. Beyond the Elemental potential realm is the elemental novice realm, this can also be considered as being half a step to becoming a true elemental. The general age range for achieving this realm is between ages thirteen to eighteen."

"The No 1 among the top ten outer disciples is said to have reached the peak of the fifth level of the elemental novice realm at eighteen years of age and is already half a step into the sixth level, this kind of talent can be considered above standard."

"At sixteen, Yana is at the peak of the third level of the Elemental Novice realm and is equally half a step into the fourth level, at this rate, she is expected to have achieved the sixth or seventh level of the Elemental Novice realm by eighteen years of age, this kind of talent is also decently rare."

"Once a cultivator successfully cultivates all ten levels of the Elemental Novice realm and finally steps into the Elemental warrior realm, only then can a cultivator truly be called an elemental." Raina explained dutifully, Niyonika nodded quietly, slowly processing the knowledge.

'The cultivation process of this elemental god continent is quite complicated.' Niyonika pondered to herself.

"What level am I?" Niyonika asked curiously although she did not expect much as Raila had already made it clear she was lacking in the talent regard.

"Big sister is at the mid stage of the first level of the elemental Novice realm, although this talent is not considered too bad for a fifteen year old but when compared with the other geniuses, it is...well..." Raila trailed off, not wanting to say any offensive words.

"Not worth mentioning right? However why is that so? if this Yana is at the peak level of the third stage at sixteen, this means I still have a year before getting to her age, what is the guarantee that I will not also breakthrough to the third stage in a year?" Niyonika asked in puzzlement, a year was plenty of time after all, anything could happen during that duration of time.

"Ah...big sister's memories are truly completely gone!" Raila exclaimed sadly, Niyonika raised a brow at her reaction.

"Did I say something wrong?" Niyonika asked slowly, Raila nodded fervently.

"Yes big sister! The cultivation realms are not so easy. I mentioned before that the difference between two realms is like the difference between heaven and earth. This is not an understatement at all. It takes years of diligent cultivation for even the most talented cultivators to progress from one realm to another... and as for the ten levels of the cultivation realms? The disparity in strengths are equally huge!"

"Even if there were three of himself, a cultivator in the first level of the elemental novice realm would be utterly defeated by a cultivator in the second level, not to mention if it was a difference between two elemental realms!" Raila informed.

"Ah...the difference in strength is that much?" Niyonika asked in surprise, Raila nodded.

"Not only that, but even between cultivators in the same level of a particular elemental realm still have differences in strength based on the low, mid, high and peak stages. A cultivator at the peak of a certain elemental realm would easily defeat cultivators at the high level and below." Raila further explained, Niyonika was slightly amazed by this information.

"In addition to this, big sister's cultivation speed is naturally slow hence should big sister dedicate all your effort to cultivation, the only possibility within this one year would be to breakthrough to the high level of the first level of the elemental novice realm." Raila's words although hesitant were honest, not with any intentions of putting Niyonika down but simply giving her a realistic assessment out of deep concern and Niyonika appreciated this quality in the petite female.

"This is quite a saddening revelation, is this why you are also hesitant to participate in the ranking contest?" Niyonika asked curiously, Raila lowered her gaze in shame.