Cultivation

Elements
There are five elements that exist in the world: Fire, Wind, Earth, Water, and Lightning. It is generally believed that a person undergoes the awakening of their element on their eighth birthday, while this is true most of the time there have been exceptions, such as Calron awakening to the lightning element a few months before his eighth birthday due the the bird-shaped locket.
 * Fire - A fire element could be cultivated near hot places like a desert or in later stages, near a volcano. There were not a lot of risks involved, as a desert was a relatively safe environment, albeit there was a danger of thirst and scarcity of water, but if fully prepared, it was completely safe.
 * Wind -
 * Earth -
 * Water - Water’s essence is a light pale blue color and it has a gentle and soothing aura. A water elementalist at the Spiritual stage had to immerse himself inside a lake or a river, and continuously let his body absorb the Water essence during the point of breakthrough to successfully advance to the Vajra stage.
 * Azure lightning - Tyrannical. Merges with the mortal body upon reaching Vajra stage.
 * Lightning - Lightning is said to be the weakest of all the elements, as a lightning elementalist could only paralyze an opponent. It was too weak to actually land fatal blows, and against a stronger opponent, the paralyzing attack would hardly deter them for longer than a moment. Throughout the records of history, there had never been a lightning cultivator who had ever managed to make a breakthrough after the Spiritual stage. The tyranny of the lightning that exists in nature is not as meek and powerless as the essence of lightning cultivators. With both speed and power under its dominance, even nature trembles when hearing the roaring sound of thunder.

Breakthroughs required an immense amount of elemental essence, so cultivators would have to go to an environment where their element’s essence was rich in quantity. A lightning elementalist, therefore, could only cultivate near thunderstorms, as a large cloud of thunder was the only time lightning would appear.

Although using an element is not the only method for killing one’s opponent, against higher ranked cultivators who had bodies stronger than steel, normal weapons were completely useless.

Even if elementalists did not have to practice Martial Arts for cultivating, a true expert in the continent of Agatha would always practice at least one form of Martial Art, as it provided a greater destructive power when combined with the elemental essence.

Although the technique is now forbidden, during the age of war, elementalists would sometimes sacrifice their entire cultivation for a single moment of tremendous power.

Essence
Appearance depends on the element a person possesses, brown for Earth, pale blue for Water and gold for Lightning. Azure for azure lightning.

A cultivator can exert intense pressure on those with a with a weaker cultivation base using his essence.

To cultivate your essence you need to first, sit in a meditative position with your hands forming a teardrop shape with just your fingertips touching. Place both hands near your navel, and start breathing in a three step variation, with the first breath deep, then exhale quickly, and finally take in another deep breath. You draw your essence towards your core every time you breathe in, as this will direct it from your surroundings and into your body.