All through dinner Wang Ha Yon continued pointing out different people and telling him about who they were and why they were important to know. After finishing his food Mo Shin Yun's head was spinning with all the information he had gotten, he even felt a little dizzy. Everything he had read about earlier was still fresh in his head and now all the gossip on top of that he was losing his mind trying to remember everything he was told at some point he just gave up. Still nodding and smiling as Wang Ha Yon was talking, he only listened to half of what she was saying his mind circling about the book he still wanted to read. Surprisingly even while constantly talking Wang Ha Yon managed to finish her food. With a sigh, the girl looked at her empty plate before getting up. "I have to return to the hospital pavilion but it was really good seeing you." She bid her farewell. Mo Shin Yun smiled watching the girl leave. She really was something else how could one girl have that much information about everyone. Someday maybe she would come in handy if he needed to find dirt on one of the disciples but right now listening to her was exhausting.

After diner Mo Shin Yun returned to his small hut. With a small bucket in hand, he went to get some water from the freshwater spring taking back one of the big basins since he was already at it. When he put the basin down and filled it with the first bucket of water he realized he would need to run back and forth quite a few times to fill it up completely and he would need to find some warm water as well since he really wasn't in the mood to take a cold bath. With a deep sigh, he walked back to the spring getting another bucket. As he was carrying it two girls were walking towards him. Quickly making way, he overheard them talking. "I need to get a new heating stone my current one is out of energy but we are only allowed to get two a month." One girl whined while the other agreed to her. "Let's just ask the senior overlooking the small stall maybe..." He couldn't hear the last part of the sentence as they walked away but he still got enough information.

While filling up his next bucket of water he looked around to see if he could find a small stall anywhere and really there it was a little hidden in the lush green surrounding the spring was a small window in the stone with something resembling a selling table underneath it. Those must be the heating stones. Walking over he saw the display table filled with small red glowing stones. "Identification." The disciple standing behind the display table inside the small stone cave spoke up as he saw him approach. Mo Shin Yun quickly took out his identification tablet. Looking at it the disciple smiled.

"Welcome to the ShuCha division. You can get two heating stones a month they can be used for many different things but remember they also get drained every time you used them if you want more than two a month you can either earn points by working or doing different odd jobs for the teachers or you can just buy them in town. And keep in mind you need your points for different things as well so don't spend them all on heating stones." With that, the disciple returned the identification plate and handed Mo Shin Yun a small heating stone. The stone wasn't emitting any heat it seemed it needed to be activated. Since he didn't want to ask the disciple about it, he just thanked him and took the stone returning to his room with the next bucket of water.

Running back and forth a few more times the bath was finally filled and Mo Shin Yun started experimenting with the heating stone. Since he had no idea how they worked he was carefully moving it around in his hand to take a close look at it. "Well let's see either I make a fool of myself or this works." Carefully Mo Shin Yun held the stone into the water. At first, nothing happened but then he could feel the stone emitting a soft heat and as he held his hand in the water, he could feel it heating up rather quickly. After just a few seconds Mo Shin Yun pulled the stone back out drying it with a cloth he had found in the drawer and that he finally took a bath.

After the bath Mo Shin Yun sat down at the desk in the inner room taking out the book, he had borrowed from the library. It wasn't big but it was filled with information. When he first borrowed it, he had quickly skimmed over it and it really explained all the basics for ShuCha. Opening the first chapter Mo Shin Yun started reading soon totally absorbed by the content. This world was getting more fascinating with each line he was reading and with each page, he turned he was more intrigued by ShuCha.

Apparently, ShuCha was the cultivation through cooking but it wasn't just cooking. ShuCha was based on four main principles and was sorted into three main branches. The four principals were: Energy Conservation, Spiritual Division, Cultivation Evaluation and Soul Foundation. Every cultivation was based on these four principles.

Energy Conservation was the principal of all living things refining and processing spiritual energy. In this world, everything is surrounded by spiritual energy even after the great war and the reduction of spiritual energy in the air it still was there and every type of plant gathers and refines spiritual energy through their roots. Animals then will eat those plants and further refine that energy as they digest the plants. Those animals will then be eaten by predators further refining the spiritual energy. This principle was the foundation of ShuCha since without the spiritual energy being gathered and refined there wouldn't be any spiritual ingredients.

Spiritual Division meant the process of preparation. Since the spiritual energy in the ingredients was raw it needed to be processed through different steps separating the spiritual energy and the wild energy which build the cultivation foundation of spiritual beasts. This was the most important progress of ShuCha. This was also why not just anyone was able to become a ShuCha practitioner. To be able to go through this process two different kinds of soul energy were needed. One was the elemental soul energy only ShuCha practitioners had and the other was undivided soul energy which both ShuCha practitioners and Priests possessed.

Cultivation Evaluation was what he would be faced with tomorrow for the first time during his classes. This was the principle of elemental soul energy. A soul could only have one elemental energy and through the ritual of Soul Evaluation, the soul element could be determent. Fire, Earth, Water, Wood and Metal were the five elements whose powers a soul could possess. Depending on the soul element the branches of ShuCha one could cultivate also changed. Within the three main branches were countless different smaller branches all of which depended on a different soul element to cultivate.

The last principal was the Soul Foundation which was basically just the idea that different coloured souls could only reach their representative level of cultivation. There were some legends about elevating one's soul colour but even before the great war stories like that had only been legends. Thus, one could only rely on their current soul colour and do the best they could within their limits.

Next were the three main branches of ShuCha. Those were pretty easy to differentiate since Mo Shin Yun found that they were similar to differentiations made in his previous world regarding food. The first was cooking the second was baking and the last was refreshment refining. Those were not the official names for those branches but after reading about them Mo Shin Yun quickly gave them those names since those branches were essentially that.

The first branch was the preparation of savoury food. While the second was the perpetration of snacks, sweets and pastries. And the last branch was mostly just the preparation and distillation of alcohol but it also included other non-alcoholic drinks like juice making and sirup thickening and things like that. Right now, Mo Shin Yun didn't have to make a decision about which of the branches he wanted to follow since the first three levels of cultivation required to learn the basics of all three branches before even being able to specialize in one of those. After choosing a main branch most ShuCha practitioners would specialize even more following one of the many side branches.

After reading all this information Mo Shin Yun let out a deep sigh. He didn't yet finish the book but the rest was more or less the same as one of those basic cooking books found on earth. They gave an overview of different types of ingredients and technics for cooking. Since Mo Shin Yun did have some interest in cooking in his previous life, he had seen cooking books like that before. With a big yawn, he looked up out of the small window over the desk. It was already dark and his head was feeling heavy from all the information he had learned today stretching his back he decided that this is all for today and with a hum, he fell face-first onto his bed.

The next morning Mo Shin Yun was woken up by the sounds of his neighbours waking up and gathering in front of their rooms talking with each other. After a short look outside Mo Shin Yun was about to bury himself under the pillows. It was just about sunrise and he really wasn't used to getting up early. But then he remembered that today was the first day of class. With an unhappy murmuring, he got up and ready to leave.

Lucky for him some of his neighbours were attending the same introduction class as him so he didn't have to stumble around trying to find his classroom instead he enjoyed laughing and joking with the others as they found their way to the main building. It was at least four stories high and was massive. Mo Shin Yun couldn't help but tilled his head back to look up at the building. "Hurry or we will be late." Someone rushed him as they all walked towards a small side door to enter. The building had a massively big front door but according to rumours the door hasn't been opened in decades and everyone only used the small side door.

Going through the door and into the building was like entering a different world. The whole place felt cramped and busy. Every hallway was lined with bookshelves and cupboards most of which were filled with random stuff. The building layout itself was like a maze. Some rooms had up to seven doors while some had not even one and the only way to enter was by going up a level and then back down a staircase leading right into the room. It was amazing how anyone was able to find their way in this place.

"Left. We need to go left." – "No. We need to go right." Nobody was sure where to go and they were completely lost right now. Mo Shin Yun let out a deep sigh as he started to look around to see if there was any map of the place, of course, there wasn't. As they were trying to find their way fighting over which direction to go suddenly, they heard someone laughing behind them. "Are you on your way to the introduction classes?" A voice asked them still sounding amused.

Turning around they were faced with a rather ethereal looking person. It wasn't clear if it was a boy or a girl and if you tried to look closely it felt like the person was a little transparent. "Yes, we are." One of the boys answered. Mo Shin Yun really had the urge to try touching the person to see if they were real but he had to mind his manner. "Well, if you follow me, I can show you the way." The person spoke and turned around walking down the hallway they just came from.

After turns twists and going up and downstairs for some time they finally reached the introduction course classroom on the first floor. The person smiled at them before disappearing into the hallway again. "I think that was a ghost." Someone whispered right away breaking the ice as everyone started to talk. Mo Shin Yun sighed as he sat down after finding some space on the floor. The room wasn't big but completely empty making it feel bigger. Cushions were the only thing inside the room and everyone started gathering in small circles sitting on the cushions.

"What do you think?" One of the guys turned to Mo Shin Yun asking for his opinion on the ghost. "Honestly I don't think that was a ghost while they were leading us through the hallways, I got a chance to accidentally bump into them and it felt like a person." Mo Shin Yun spoke up turning the whole discussion around. "See I told you it wasn't a ghost." Some smiled victoriously while others sighed in defeat.

"Quiet." Suddenly a voice rang out from what they presumed to be the front of the room. "Welcome to the Ritual of Cultivation Evaluation. Today we will try to evoke the different elements within your soul." The voice continued after everyone finally quieted down and turned their attention. The voice belonged to a man with bright red-, yellow- and orange-coloured robes. They were inlaid with golden threat making it look like flames were moving over his cloth whenever he moved.

"You are all familiar with the principle of Cultivation Evaluation, right? For those of you who just shook their heads go read up on it after today. But here is the basic principle. Those with the capabilities of becoming ShuCha practitioners all have an affinity to one of the five elements. It can always only be one so today in order to find which one you will undergo the Cultivation Evaluation ritual. I will give you a short introduction about the different meditations you have to undergo and then I will start with the fire evocation. After that, those of you who weren't successful will continue with the Earth evocation and so on until you found your soul element."

The man explained before giving them all a stern look and with a wave of his hand a big black book appeared in his hands. Mo Shin Yun quietly listened to the teacher's explanation about the different evocations. He tried to keep up as much as possible since he really didn't want to stand out. After giving a short overview of the evocation Han Shu Yan, the teacher, asked them all to line up. "I will now hand out soul search pills. They will help you build your soul energy core making it possible for you to evoke your element."