"W-where are the fire bats?" Sofie could not help but ask, as she had not seen any of them.

"There will not be any fire bats yet, they are deeper inside the fire cave and they will only really start to show up when we enter the tunnel towards the sect." The senior sister patiently answered Sofie, but it only ended up creating more questions.

"Tunnel?" Sofie tilted her head slightly, as a puzzled expression made its way onto her face. Tunnel? What tunnel? Were they not inside the fire cave?

"Ah, I forgot to mention this? The fire cave is reeeealy big and connects all over the sunfire mountain. This entrance to the fire cave happens to have a tunnel leading to the area just outside of the sect." The senior sister said, as both of them marvelled over how convenient the fire caves tunnel could be.

*****

With time slowly pa.s.sing, Sofie and the group of disciples from the scorching sun sect finally made their way to the entrance of the tunnel leading towards the scorching sun sect.

"Everyone, we will take a break here before entering the tunnel. We will move out again in half an hour!" The disciples stopped after hearing elder suns voice and soon gathered together in front of the tunnel.

Sofie looked at the disciples of the scorching sun sect jumping off the fire lizards and onto the burning grounds., followed by the hesitant children from Sofie's village.

Looking at the scene in front of her, Sofie had a sudden bad promotion and unconsciously tightened her grip on the fire lizard below her. She was not jumping into the fire qi below!

Sadly, Sofie's resistance proved to be worthless, as the senior sister behind her jumped down on the burning ground. "Are you coming off or do I have to carry you off?" The senior sister smiled kindly at Sofie, but Sofie was adamant in staying on the fire lizard.

"I-I'm fine, I will stay up here!" The response from Sofie did not please the senior sister at all, as a struggle soon ensued.

After a few minutes of struggle and some questionable glances from the other disciples, the senior sister finally managed to force Sofie off the fire lizard and onto the burning ground.

Sofie was not keen on encountering the "harmless" fire qi first hand. It was only when she felt the fire qi brus.h.i.+ng against her skin without harming her, that she was finally convinced that the low-level fire qi on the ground was harmless to her.

Having overcome her former fear for the fire qi on the ground, Sofie started to look around the gathering of people and realized that the disciples from the scorching sun sect, like the senior sister who sat on the fire lizard together with her, had gathered to sit together and chat.

The new disciples, who had yet to enter the sect on the other hand mostly just stood around the place staring at the ceiling of the fire cave or playing around with the fire qi on the ground by trying to touch it.

With nothing better to do and seeing that the senior sister already chatting with a group of senior brothers and sisters in the distance, Sofie decided to play around with the fire qi on the ground in front of her.

Trying to grab the fire qi, Sofie discovered to astonishment that the fire qi would dodge to the side in the last moment before she manged to touch it. Looking around, Sofie discovered another astonis.h.i.+ng thing. The fire qi on the ground was not touching any of the new disciples, but the senior disciples were different!

Sofie could see the fire qi slowly entering their body, never to return. Looking at the fire qi slowly enter the body of the different seniors in front of her, Sofie could only look on in amazement.

This was cultivation! Absorbing the myriad different forms of qi between the heaven and earth to strengthen the mortal body!

Sofie had heard her big sister talk about cultivating before but seeing it first hand and hearing about it was two completely different things.

Looking around the different senior disciples again, Sofie could see that the fire qi enters their body at different speeds. From what her big sister said, People at a higher cultivation realm would absorb qi faster than those at a lower realm. From this Sofie could see that all the people here had varying cultivation realms, as their absorption speed differed by a large margin from one another. Sofie even saw a senior brother with a crowd surrounding him as he sat down absorbing the fire qi in the cave 2 to 3 times faster than others.

Maybe you would get more popular if you had a high cultivation realm? Sofie thought to herself as she moved towards the front of the group.

She really wanted to see elder sun cultivate, just thinking about it, she got a little excited. From asking some of the senior disciples, Sofie learned that elder sun was a whole major realm above everyone here.

Sofie understood that cultivation was split up into many different major realms with each of the major realms split up further into several minor realms. Her big sister was called talented and strong because she managed to breakthrough the first major realm and enter the second major realm when she was only 12 years old!

From what Sofie understood, elder sun was at the second major realm, meaning her big sister reached the same level as an elder of the sect at only 12! Thinking this far, Sofie's admiration towards her big sister soared to an all new high.

As Sofie was caught up in her own imagination, she soon arrived at where elder sun was sitting in silence. Looking at the tranquil fire qi surrounding elder sun, Sofie was a little confused. Was elder sun maybe not cultivating?

Without feeling the pa.s.sage of time, Sofie sat down and observed elder sun sitting amidst the fire qi.

"What are you looking at little girl?" A voice interrupted her thoughts, as she slowly turned her eyes away from the fire qi surrounding elder sun and looked directly into his now open eyes.

With a slightly startled expression, Sofie looked around herself in a panic and discovered that the other disciples were slowly returning to their designated fire lizard.

"If there is something on your mind, do tell." Elder sun said as Sofie calmed herself down and looked back at elder sun again.

"I-it's just… W-when the senior brothers and sisters cultivated, they absorbed the fire qi in the surroundings, b-but I saw that you did not do this and was confused why you did not do this." Sofie decided to just ask what was on her mind and looked expectantly towards elder sun, hoping he would clear up her confusion.

Elder sun looked surprised for a moment before gently smiling towards Sofie "The reason why I did not absorb the fire qi around here, is because the second major realm does not need me to absorb the qi."

Elder sun mysteriously smiled as he signalled for her to return to the fire lizard she was riding on.

Sofie was confused by the explanation, but decided to return to the senior sister she rode with earlier.