Daotian could sense the seriousness in Lin Hao's words. He jumped off Lin Hao's shoulder, flew in front of him, and raised a fist.
"What do you mean?" Lin Hao frowned and asked.
But he immediately understood the intention and bumped fists with Daotian.
"Pleasant cooperation. From now on, we're teammates," Daotian said with a smile.
"Yeah, but how exactly do you plan to help me cultivate? Could there really be a method to increase one's innate talent?" Lin Hao asked curiously.
According to the books he had read and his searches online, there had never been any recorded case of someone changing their cultivation talent.
Daotian thought for a moment, then nodded, but also shook his head slightly.
"It's possible, yes. But it won't increase by much."
Lin Hao's eyes widened, his pupils nearly popping out of their sockets. His jaw went slack, his mouth hanging open involuntarily.
This might be the truth, but it was still hard for him to accept immediately. He stammered, "You... you're serious?"
Daotian didn't hesitate and nodded. When it came to cultivation knowledge, his understanding was among the best in the world.
"Of course, it's true. Perhaps you don't fully understand how cultivation talent is calculated. Let me explain it simply..."
He then pointed at Lin Hao's body.
"Although 'cultivation talent' might seem like a single thing, it actually consists of three parts. They are: affinity with spiritual energy, the body's absorption capacity, and the soul's absorption capacity."
Daotian, like a profound master, projected an illustration from his palm to demonstrate what he was talking about.
"You've never absorbed spiritual energy before, so you might not understand it well. There's a lot of spiritual energy in nature, but in its basic state, it's not very useful. Affinity with spiritual energy is essentially your connection with nature, with the world. Use that connection to grasp the streams of spiritual energy, guide them, and gather them into spiritual power. What the body absorbs is spiritual power."
Lin Hao nodded and shook his head intermittently. These concepts were quite vague and a bit empty to him.
Daotian shook his head helplessly, thinking about how to explain it in a way that was easy to understand.
"You can think of it this way. It's like water, which can fundamentally transform between three states: solid, liquid, and gas. Among these three states, the solid state has the highest density, and the gaseous state has the lowest. The spiritual energy in nature is in a state with an even lower density than gas. So, you need to transform it into a gaseous state to become spiritual power."
On the projection, Daotian created a natural water cycle. Then came the illustration of spiritual energy.
Lin Hao frowned. He wasn't without knowledge. He felt that increasing the density of spiritual energy couldn't be that simple.
"How exactly is it done? Changing the state of water requires temperature, but what about spiritual energy? I don't think temperature affects it," he said doubtfully.
Daotian wasn't annoyed; on the contrary, he was pleased to have a 'student' who asked such questions.
He nodded, simulating the image of a ruler in his hand and pointing at the screen as if he were a teacher lecturing from a podium.
Lin Hao, who had been serious, now had a dark expression, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly at this feigned seriousness that was actually quite mocking.
Daotian ignored Lin Hao's expression and pointed to the illustration of spiritual energy.
The streams of spiritual energy moved around a body—a human figure. Then they slowly drew closer together and merged into a form with higher density.
"As you can see, this process doesn't require external factors like temperature. Affinity with spiritual energy refers to the ability to attract spiritual energy around the body. The faster and more you attract it, the quicker spiritual power will form."
Lin Hao nodded, then suddenly had a strange thought.
"Wait, if that's the case, why not gather many people to convert spiritual energy into spiritual power for one person to absorb? Wouldn't that quickly create a high-level cultivator?" he asked.
Daotian was slightly surprised by the question but immediately shook his head. The ruler pointed again at the human figure.
"Do you know what these streams of spiritual energy are gathering for?"
"Because that person is cultivating?" Lin Hao frowned as he answered, feeling like he already had the solution.
"I get it now!" he immediately exclaimed, as if everything had become clear.
A smart student brings joy to a teacher. Daotian felt that teaching someone who could learn and deduce like this wasn't bad at all.
"Oh? Tell me, what do you understand?" Daotian asked.
"Those spiritual energies come because of that person's affinity. Clearly, they are on their way to acknowledging that person as their future master. If that person doesn't receive this spiritual power, it will naturally dissipate back into spiritual energy. That's why, in the past hundred years, no one has successfully used others to accelerate their cultivation," Lin Hao said.
He felt that being properly taught was much better than reading some books that might not have been written by true experts.
"Not bad, you're using your brain well," Daotian nodded in approval.
If he had to explain everything for Lin Hao to understand, then the likelihood of him being helpful in the future would be almost zero.
Just as he was feeling happy about understanding more about cultivation, his mood was ruined by Daotian's incredibly irritating praise.
"If you don't know how to compliment people, then don't. Even a dog's bark might be more pleasant to hear than your praise."
Being compared unfavorably to a dog, Daotian didn't care. As always, he maintained his own unique arrogance.
"Hmph, suit yourself. You're not on the level to understand someone like me anyway."
"Stop talking nonsense. Hurry up and explain the next part," Lin Hao urged.
He couldn't be bothered to argue or engage in pointless debates with Daotian. But Daotian's knowledge was genuine, and he still wanted to hear it.
"Fine, next is about the body's absorption of spiritual power." As he spoke, Daotian projected an image of the human body.