"Hmm..."
Noah remained lost in thought for some time after Arthur had explained his plan to him. He lingered near the oven, pacing back and forth—an action that left the Radiance family, especially Arthur, feeling uneasy. With a sigh, Noah stopped and said:
— How powerful are the creatures that surround this city...?
"...That's hard to say..." replied Arthur thoughtfully.
"I'm not sure, but I estimate that the vast majority are in the Qi Condensation stage," answered Alice.
"Huh? And why do you say that, ma'am?"
"Ma'am...?" she cleared her throat before continuing, "Well, despite their strength, I don't believe that the people at the Moonlit Night Hall have advanced much further than that. It's only a supposition, but I suspect that the strongest among them are, at most, at the Foundation Establishment stage."
"That's an interesting assumption… but is there a reason behind it?"
"Even they aren't able to leave the city whenever they want, and whenever they do, the group always consists of the same people: the manager, who is the strongest, the butler, and another six. Everyone else stays in the city, and among them, there's no one stronger than Arthur."
"So it should be around the fourth cultivation stage, maybe—with luck—the fifth, right...? Well, then I suppose it won't be too difficult."
The Radiance family was astounded by these words—apparently, Noah is stronger than they had expected (after all, he also came from outside the city)—but what he said next only left them more confused:
— But I'm going to need those clothes I was wearing when I arrived here... You didn't throw them away, did you?
They couldn't understand how a set of clothes—now almost completely torn—could possibly help solve this problem, much less why Noah had started to shred them even more as soon as he had taken them in hand.
"You know, I didn't see many creatures on my way to this city... not living ones, at least," he said as he tore his old garment into long strips. "And partly, that happened thanks to these very clothes you're looking at."
"Is there... something special about them? Was it your uncle who gave them to you...?" Arthur asked apprehensively.
Noah paused for a moment at the mention of "uncle" and recalled that Arthur was referring to the Stellar Demon Wolf. He managed a small smile, continued working on the strips, and replied:
— Y-Yes... he said they would keep me safe, as long as I didn't come across any creature that was truly powerful.
"By 'truly powerful' you mean..."
"Well... something that might even be able to take on a semi-dragon, I suppose."
Noah saw neither perplexity nor astonishment on their faces—only doubt and confusion. That made him wonder if these people really didn't know what a dragon was, something he proceeded to question them about.
"No... there's no information about these creatures in the books," Alice responded. Noah also saw a spark of curiosity in her eyes—as if she wanted to learn more about it—despite not having asked.
"...Semi-dragons are enormous creatures, measuring kilometers in length. Their bodies are long and slender, just like a snake's. They breathe out a powerful fire from their mouths and can fly freely through the skies," he explained, recalling the only point of comparison he had—the black semi-dragon in his inventory.
"They can fly...?!" Sophia asked in awe, her eyes seemingly aglow—a sight that made Noah's heart leap when he saw her. "So they're at least at the Foundation Establishment stage, right?"
"Huh? Is it even possible to fly at the Foundation Establishment…?"
"According to the books, yes... but I've never seen it in person, so I can't be sure…"
[Yes, it is possible—and it's completely natural.]
'Yes, it's so natural that I hardly even knew about it…'
[You hardly use your own Qi since you reached that level—of course you wouldn't be able to notice the differences.]
[Once your body is truly healed, you'll see—flying is as natural for cultivators as breathing is for mortals.]
Noah continued the conversation after making a small mental comparison. If he—who was at the peak of the Foundation Establishment when he encountered the Stellar Demon Wolf—had felt a paralyzing fear, it was obvious that the creatures dominating the Demon Beast Forest were on a completely absurd level compared to the others. Not to mention that even lifeless or depleted of energy, the very sight of the injured body of the semi-dragon alone made him tremble just by being near it. Even though he didn't know exactly how strong that stage was, he couldn't see these creatures as being inferior to the Nascent Soul stage; he simply couldn't believe such a thing was possible.
"I'm not sure if they're at the Foundation Establishment... I believe they're even beyond that," he said, finally finishing the task of cutting the strips. "Something like the Nascent Soul, at the very least."
"Nascent Soul...?" The Radiance family exchanged confused glances. "What is that...?"
It was indeed a very small city, and Noah hadn't expected the scarcity of information in that place to be so extreme—he found it amazing that they were still alive even though they lived constantly surrounded by beasts.
He then proceeded to explain everything he knew about cultivation so far to the three of them—from Body Refinement up to Nascent Soul—detailing their characteristics and how to achieve such levels, all while tying some of the strips around his wrists and ankles.
They say that besides practicing cultivation, knowledge is what allows cultivators to evolve as magnificently as they do. Recognizing and understanding what lies above all— the Dao—opens up opportunities to expand one's abilities. Noah, of course, didn't have all that information either, but he had witnessed evolution firsthand through understanding.
If condensation is the goal, there's no way to evolve merely by absorbing ever more Qi. Arthur and Alice understood this after his explanation, as they felt their energies begin to fluctuate and spontaneously increase—as if the Qi from their surroundings were automatically seeping into them.
They sat on the floor to meditate—the opportunity was right at their fingertips, and there was no way not to seize it. If density and refinement were the objectives, they knew that the denser and more refined the Qi, the closer they would be to the pinnacle.
Arthur stopped after only a few hours; his illumination did not carry him past the fourth door of Qi Condensation—limitations imposed by his own body. Meanwhile, Alice's meditation lasted much longer—only ending three days later.
When she finally opened her eyes, she found herself just half a step away from something she had long thought unreachable in this lifetime—the Foundation Establishment, what she had always yearned for while growing up, her greatest dream.
Alice collapsed in tears into Arthur's arms the moment she awoke.