Four steps and 3 stars. Coming to a total of 12 different sub levels. These were the distinguished power levels of a Spiritknight. What determined what star you are at what the amount of dantians you have absorbed.

Take Darius for example. He absorbed two dantians, so technically he should be a two star Spiritknight of the 1st step. However Darius had no previous training in the spirit arts. The spirit arts were what allowed humanity to channel the energy gained from dantians to their advantage.

Lara had plenty of training from the best of the best, that coupled with her incredible talent, assured her mastery of her skills. Darius on the other hand was not in such a position.

Every dantian had a classification. There were thousands of classes for the thousands of spirits out there. Each class carried with it an assortment of skills. The primary skill and secondary skills. Lara had gotten a dantian of the skill class Binary. The primary skill gave her ambidexterity. The energy arms she grew were a spirit art she had learned from her father, Spirit Arm. It allowed one to manifest spirit energy in the form of an arm. That, accompanied by Binary, allowed her to form two arms.

When the first test was finished, the intention was to give the candidates dantians from creatures they had slain. If you had slain more than one creature, the examiners would choose the best one and give it to you.

Lady Katya, who was in charge of the exam faced an unforeseen circumstance, where a dantian created by one of the examinees exceeded one they had made from the spirit themselves. Unsure of what to do, she suddenly received orders from above to supply Darius with both Dantians.

Such an order was absurd from her point of view, because the human body was frail. One could only absorb one dantian at a time. Then after a long period of training and acclimatization the body would be ready to receive another one. An untrained body receiving two dantians at once? Lady Katya was sure this would lead to instant death.

Although Darius' show of brute strength and other skills was impressive, he still knew no spirit arts. Not even a prodigy like Katya could absorb two at once. Orders were however orders.

Not even Emperor Farlene had the authorization to order her around, so she was shocked when she received them on her mobile device. The clearance was far above anything she had ever seen.

After that she received further orders to allow a strange old man to take over the ritual rite. His identity was on a need to know basis and she didn't need to know. All she could do was accommodate him as best as she could as it was also stated in her orders to treat him with utmost respect and follow his orders as if he was her direct superior.

The old man presided over the ritual and did as required, passing Darius both dantians. The others were far too preoccupied with their own to look at others. In the control room, when Lady Katya saw Darius absorb two dantians she was gobsmacked.

"Good, good." Like a ghost the old man appeared next to her. Katya was a distinguished Spiritknight of the 3rd step but she couldn't even sense his presence. All she could tell came only from her eyes; a seemingly weak old man muttering good while stroking his beard.

"Just who is this old man? None of my other senses can pick him out." Lady Katya seemed calm on the outside but she was quite nervous on the inside. This old man was undoubtedly a powerhouse far stronger than she was.

His next orders were to gift the young man a hammer strap from the royal treasury. The order was carried out but Katya still raised a brow. Just what was this old man doing here? Who was he? How did Darius absorb two dantians? Lady Katya was plagued by a myriad of questions as she looked at the screen ahead.

The old man gave out a string of orders as to what he wanted to occur in the next exam. He had no doubt increased the difficulty by quite a bit, but who were they to object to orders from high above?

The old man grinned mischievously with both hands behind his back while Lady Katya's guards nervously continued to monitor the exam and their surroundings.

Everytime one ascended a star, a secondary ability was unlocked. Darius had two stars, so he had the primary indomitable skill and secondary indomitable skill, not to mention the primary skill from that odd monkey. Katya and her guards could not even tell what kind of spirits the monkey and the shrimp were, nor were they in any database they had access to.

So how on earth had they allowed spirits they didn't know to enter the exam room? As Lady Katya thought to the events that had unfolded, and the ones currently occurring, she could not help but cast a sideward glance at the old man and think, "A plot is afoot!"

...

Jade Sea Serpents were powerful spirits of the first step. They often varied in strength and abilities, which made them troublesome to deal with. You could never tell what class it was until the battle unfolded.

"To make it out alive we need to cooperate, so listen closely, we should each take a serpent each. I will deal with the two headed one while you-" Before Lara could finish her sentence, Darius had already bolted, "head for the other one..." Lara was not one used to being ignored, so she could not help but snort when she realized what had happened. Nevertheless she was battle-hardened and followed after Darius.

The islands were only a few hundred meters in diameter at most, so crossing them was quick. The serpents came from the waters onto the islands, each spirit moving with intent. It seemed as if each spirit already had a target as they split up when they neared the duo.

Darius could tell that the blood thirsty snake had it in for him, so he instinctively decided to dispatch it first.