31 - Chapter 30 - Day 1814
“Before you tell me how strong you are,” said Adya. “I need you to walk me through how cultivation works, and its stages. As they say, context is king.”
“As you wish my lady.” said Jarel a little nonplussed, he was not sure why she wanted him to go over the basics, when he felt she already knew a lot more than most. ”As I was told, things have changed, since the system came to this world. The process and steps used to be different before.”
“Why would they teach you about what came before?” interrupted Adya. “And there are those who remember a time before the system?”
“There are those who will live for a million years or even longer if they become a system recognised god,” answered Jarel, “I have heard rumours of a few that are still around from the time the system first arrived. No idea if that is just talk.”
Knowing her luck, not only were they still around, but she would need to deal with them at some point, thought Adya bitterly. “Ok we can discuss history at some other time. Tell me about how cultivation currently works.” she said.
“Well the way the system catalogues the stages, and the way that we were taught is different, so please bear with me my lady.” said Jarel. “The system marks everyone with an active system as having a cultivation stage of initiate. Then as they step through the realms, it uses numbers and letters starting at Rank 2 F, going all the way to Rank 10 SSS. There are rumours that there is a Rank 11, but no one has ever confirmed its existence. While the system seems to quantify the results of cultivation, it does not aid it in any way. The only requirement for the status to update to the next rank is to increase the density of your mana by 1 rank. If you don’t know what that is, it is when you compress your mana pool to 1/10th. The mana takes on a new form, and becomes much more potent. Though you do lose 90% of your mana pool. Then you have to grow your pool again, however much you can, before attempting to compress it again. If you grow your pool too much, then you may never be able to reach the next level.”
That was certainly a lot of information to take in for Adya. She motioned for Jarel to continue.
“Now in the old days, people did not have natural access to mana, or Qi as they used to call it before the system,” said Jarel. ”So the people had to strengthen their bodies to withstand the caustic nature of it, then gather enough Qi before they could stabilise it. The process of stabilisation created natural meridians. Only then could then form a core.”
Adya translated that in her head as Body refinement, Qi gathering, Foundation stabilisation, then core formation. That was the way she had progressed in her previous life too. If the pattern held true, then after that would be the forming of the nascent soul.
“Now, after the system, a lot of things have changed.” continued Jarel. “Mana was available to everyone, and was no longer caustic. The bodies of everyone had been tempered and refined. Also Qi, or Mana as it became known, no longer had to be gathered, and was regenerated in the body automatically.”
“So the first step is now to form a core. That is done by taking as much mana as a person can control and condense it into a core. At the same time, it has to be compressed enough to increase the density to tier 2.” said Jarel, now in full lecture mode, not that Adya minded. She idly noted that Dexter was hanging on to every word.
“Since the foundation no longer needs to be formed, the next step is to manually create the meridians. This is a lot harder than it used to be, as cultivators have to understand the designs and then implement them. This required condensing and using the mana to form it, and stabilise it as you go. Since tier 2 mana would just dissolve back into the pool, it requires tier 3 mana to form the meridians, with the core being upgraded last.”
“What are the actual steps called now?” asked Adya
“So you start as an initiate, then core formation, then meridian drawing, then mana stabilisation, then nascent soul creation, then comes soul enhancement,” he replied. “I don’t know the steps beyond that as I am working on creating my nascent soul.”
So at least the first five steps matched with her knowledge, just changed around due to the system. Also the way they progressed was so different here, they actually reduced their core size during the compression, where she had gone the other way by increasing the core size 10 fold as well as compressing the mana. So her core strength should be considered abnormal. He was stage 5, she wondered how large his core capacity was.
“If you don’t mind telling me,” she asked rather than ordered. “I understand that you have mana at tier 5 density, but what is the total capacity as shown on your status?”
“I would rather tell you what is normal my lady, “ he responded sheepishly. “Most people maintain a core size of 1M mana. They then slowly grow it to 10M, before compressing it for the next stage back to 1M.”
So even though Adya was tier 2, her capacity was actually half way through tier 3 already. Once she had completed her meridians, she would be able to fight against an early tier 4, even without compressing her mana. She would need to think about how she wanted to progress. She was also happy to hear, due to system interference, the core was not fixed in size and could be grown over time, though she suspected this to be a slow and arduous process.
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“Talk to me about core creation and meridian drawing,” said Adya. “How is that supposed to work exactly?” Adya was interested in how things were done in this world and she had a good example. If Jarel had been trained since he was a child, then he should have a wealth of knowledge, at least in the lower realms. Also, it would be good if Dexter showed an interest, then she would push him towards becoming a cultivator. One of the ways of protecting her family would be to become a cultivator clan, but that would also expose them to the political machinations of other clans and sects.
“So for core formation, I was taught visualisation exercises,” started Jarel, “The idea is to visualise a core, the elders recommended a ball, as it is easier for most people. Some do use more complex shapes though. Then the idea is to hold that shape in your mind. Visualise the ball in the space your dantian should be, just below the navel, and then fill it with mana while compressing it all the time. You hold until the system gives you a notification of the change in mana density, at that point your core is formed.”
Adya scoffed internally at such a crude method, yes in this world it would work, and could be improved on, but the strength of the core would always be mediocre at best. The initial structure would need to be added to the outside of the core, making it bigger by layering. Her method allowed her to form a massive core, but more importantly she could fill up the core and keep filling it, knowing the structure was strong enough to hold and compress the mana for her. Once she had completed the other requirements, she would be able to step into the next tier easily and she would not have to sacrifice her core size. In fact, if she wanted to make her core bigger, which she did, then instead of holding the core size steady, she could push mana into her core and let it expand, much like adding water into a balloon. Then she would need to give it some time to stabilise at the new size before doing it again. Her core would give her much greater flexibility in the future. She wanted to do the same with forming her meridians, giving her the option of expanding them in the future.
“And for meridian forming?” asked Adya.
“You have to learn a pattern for the meridians,” replied Jarel. “That is part of the legacies, different meridian patterns allow for different techniques to be used. Once you have the pattern memorised, you draw a tendril of mana from the core, and push it out to create the meridians, compacting it with additional mana as you go. The pain is excruciating as you have to dig through your own body to form them.”
Again Adya found the method to be crude, especially based on her plans. Of course digging through your own body would be painful. She would have to review her plans, but she was not going to form her meridians in such a crude manner. The reason patterns were needed was most people were unaware of the full scale of the circulatory system. They had to create a crude imitation of the blood vessels to facilitate energy circulation. Her plan was to start with the blood vessels, and use them as a guide wire to create the meridians, that would give her much finer control over energy than a typical cultivator, yet it would have some down sides if she copied her circulatory system fully. She would need points from where she could release energy into the world, that was how skills worked, but generally there were no points where the body allowed someone to bleed. She would also need to do this with all three of her energy types and connect to all three cores that were spaced in different parts of her body. Of course, she would have to learn just what she could do as she was in uncharted territory, especially in relation to the willpower core.
“What is the purpose of the mana stabilisation realm?” asked Adya
“The mana stabilisation realm is required to fully merge the body and the meridians,” said Jarel. “It is also a chance to expand the meridians if they are found to be too narrow. Once that is done, then a circulation is started with the mana constantly moving through the meridians in a set pattern. Once the full network of meridians is able to maintain the mana circulation, then the stage is complete apart from increasing the density of the mana.”
“Enough questions about cultivation.” said Adya. “Tell me what is the difference between a sect and a clan.”
“A clan is one family or cultivators and their retainers,” said Jarel. “Technically the moment your retainers start cultivating, you are a sect formed around the clan. In practice a sect is considered to have a formal intake method for disciples. Formal teaching methods. Formal roles and organisations relating to cultivation and its associated pursuits like alchemy and formations.”
“What is the threshold to be recognised as a clan or a sect?” asked Adya “Are they treated differently?
“No, for the most part the same rules apply to sects and clans, the difference is in how the core is formed. In a sect everyone starts out as an outer disciple, then an inner disciple, core disciple, then an outer elder, inner elder, core elder, head of a hall, and sect head.” said Jarel. “While there is always going to be some corruption and nepotism, for the most part everyone in the sect is treated the same way and given access to the same level of resources.”
“In a clan the family is in control.” carried on Jarel. “The family decides who gets what resources, and a low tiered cultivator who was part of the family would hold higher status than a higher tiered cultivator who was a retainer.”
“The council of sects treats both the same in most things, but does have to slap down clans more often due to them creating entitled scions,” said Jarel. “The clans also tend to keep more to themselves and are overall weaker compared to the sects. The clans may have members who are individually stronger, but they don't usually have a lot of people at that power level. The sects might be slightly weaker in absolute cultivation, but have many more elders at that level. They are also able to gather resources faster, and so the sects tend to dominate the cultivator world more.”
“How are the levels decided?” asked Adya
“To be recognised as a full clan or sect, you need to have at least one person who has formed a nascent soul.” replied Jarel. ”Someone like me could form a clan or sect, but it would be considered a nascent one. You would not be taken seriously by any of the major sects or clans. If you have any rare resources, you would most likely be taken over very aggressively. After that it's straightforward. You need a tier 6 to be considered a small sect, a tier 7 to be considered a middle sect, a tier 8 to be considered a large sect, a tier 9 to be considered a peak sect. You need to have a tier 10 to take a seat on the council of sects.”