"haha yeah, so what is it. I just move into the orb and a deal is made?"
"I won't explain all right now, just know if you do that you will follow rules and we can trust you. They're basic rules, you cannot go against the best interests of the sect knowingly. No lying to seniors without permission. All basic stuff and in return you will be a full member of the sect and I will teach you real modern cultivation."
Hou nodded then closed his eyes. He entered the astral world and moved this consciousness into the orb, passing through the astral unprotected for a second.
Hou felt something happen and he was suddenly back into his body, he opened his eyes and said,
"So that's it?"
"That's it, congratulations in joining Junior Hou" Nine Clouds Purple Miasma slightly bowed.
"Now before I teach you modern cultivation, how did you go into the astral world? That's a modern innovation..."
"Is that what it's called, in the writings it was just called the void and I only found a few uses. I could see through certain materials and kind of get a vague sense around me"
Hou made up some random name, making it seem the inheritance he found was some early experimenter with the astral world, when in reality it had nothing to do with the astral world.
"I see... Good good, you can access it easily, that will help when you cultivate. The basis of modern cultivation is a whole paradigm shift from the ancient ways. The ancient ways relied on spirits, as you do. While spirits can be powerful, they can be dealt with and stopped. As you probably noticed, I've stopped your spirits."
"Yes I did notice that, then how does modern cultivation work?"
"Modern cultivation requires me to explain a bit of theory and philosophy first. The Dao, you are aware of it, one part of the Dao is laws. The function of the world. These laws are what we modern cultivators focus on. Spirits are just laws given life by the Dao."
'This sounds really familiar, is this not just magic?'
Nine Clouds Purple Miasma continued,
"Instead of using inner worlds and spirits, now we in a way become the spirit. The consciousness, is a law. And through cultivating we can absorb different laws. Qi used to be used instead of the consciousness, a sort of world consciousness, to activate the spirits but now mental consciousness energy is used to expend laws. Then we accumulate laws and use them to change the world. We permanently use laws, placing them in the astral world. This means the inner world is not needed anymore."
'... Now this isn't...magic. This might even be stronger than magic, a combination of magic and traditional cultivation.'
"Now bring out that box I gave you, let me teach you to start absorbing those spirits you have."
Hou put his hand in his robe and pulled out the small wooden box. He placed it down and opened it, a translucent crystal laid there.
"This is a spirit stone. They are special types of stones that form that are able to contain laws. The special thing is that it can be absorbed into the body. Then we use the consciousness to release the laws."
"Why through the body, can we not just use it straight from the stone?" Hou asked genuinely.
"The body is not a shallow thing. The body has a dense connection with the soul and consciousness. The body is in the material world and can absorb the crystal, if it enters the abstract world... Well let me explain another thing. The world, everything around us, it is alive. It has feelings and rules it likes to maintain. One of those rules is for laws to exist in the astral world and to control them. The astral world is completely controlled by the world, trying to change it is inefficient and dangerous. Instead we absorb laws into a material, the spirit stone, so the laws can be used in the material world."
"I see, that makes a lot of sense!"
Nine Clouds Purple Miasma saw Hou's quick understanding and took the spirit stone out of the box,
"Now move the spirit will into the stone, it should be attracted"
Hou let out his inner world and moved a sun spirit will near the spirit stone. As soon as it was close, the spirit was sucked into the stone. The stone, in Nine Clouds Purple Miasma's hands, then changed colour.
It started to glow a bright yellow-orange and a heat started to radiate out from it.
"That's your first spirit stone, normally they aren't so strong but you used a full spirit will. Now just let it into your body. It should feel attracted to you. There's many theories why but personally I think it's because of the soul being a sort of gateway to the astral world and the laws are attracted."
Hou took the warm stone and picked it up from Nine Clouds Purple Miasma's hands. He held it close to his chest and he could feel it start to melt. The best starter dtonspread all over Hou's body.
Hou looked down his robe and saw a small crystal embedded onto his chest.
"Don't mess with it for now, rest for a day and acclimate to certain changes you might have. I'll teach you how to use it tomorrow."
With that Nine Clouds Purple Miasma disappeared with a puff of pinkish miasma again. Hou couldn't see him anywhere and then inspected his body.
'What 'changes'? Why speak so vague?'
Hou stood up and moved, he couldn't notice anything off with his body. Maybe he was a bit hot, but he didn't feel much.
As soon as Hou stepped onto the slightly moist grass outside his house, stream started to rise. From only the heat generated by his body, the water boiled!
'Is this the changes he was meaning!? This is just like my body, it was stronger than normal and now with a spirit stone (more laws) it has become hotter!'