“Gen, learn from this, but do not copy this madness. Forgive me, senior,” he told the man after I explained a bit more.
“It seems very complex,” Gen replied, and Wen Xue shook his head.
“This is beyond complex. This is something that no one would ever dare attempt. One mistake, one error, and it will be a disaster. What senior Yuan Zhou has done is go beyond in every area. To push the boundaries of what is possible. The research and knowledge he develops will either change how future disciples cultivate or will be a warning for others who think to take this path,” Wen Xue explained.
“It is risky, I know that. But I believe I have a handle on everything but the fourth stage. But I wanted to get both of your advice on certain aspects of my plan, specifically doing partial alignment to quickly lock in the motes before aligning them fully for the second stage,” I explained.
“It is not possible,” Wu Changying said. I turned towards her. “If a mote isn’t fully aligned, the alignment degrades quickly. It was something I considered as well.”
“How quickly?” I asked.
“About a year. With fewer motes, it might be possible to partially align them all and then proceed, but you wouldn’t save time. With as many motes as you have, it would be impossible,” she replied.
“I see,” I said with a nod. That wasn’t good. There was silence at that. “Well, it is something I will figure out, regardless. I have some other ideas that might work for aligning motes quickly.” I would use free motes to pin a mote in place so that way it didn’t disrupt the rest of the motes as it was aligned. Like forming a shield wall. If that didn’t work, then I would be in actual trouble. “What about elemental attunement? I was considering earth,”
“That would be a good choice. That and water are the easiest to take in energy from the surroundings, but the resources you will need would be immense,” Wu Changying explained. “In the sect manual at the back, there is a list of prices. You would need one earth attuned pill per channel. Each of those costs 500 sect points.”
“I was thinking if there would be other elements?” I asked, and Wen Xue let out a groan.
“Other elements? Where would you get the energy? People have tried weird things, but straying from the common ones is a bad idea,” he said.
“Even if you find a resource, you would need to refine it. That takes the most time. Most people either use spirit rock or spirit water and refine that energy to form their channels. Anyone can carve channels quickly, but you need that elemental attunement for dao understanding when you form your true soul. If you don’t have that, then your cultivation path would end quickly in the later stages,” Wu Changying explained.
“How does the refining work exactly?” I asked.
“You would draw in the elemental energy to drill out your channels. There is a level of quality, but it can’t be measured easily either. That is why it is rarely discussed, but a cultivator can feel if a channel is elementally attuned. From my understanding, there are five grades of attunement. Standard, which is the least people can do. Aligned, which is optimal, and you can sense the elemental attunement lock in.”
“Aligned is what most aim for. But after that is Focused, where your energy unconsciously will take on aspects of the element and the element will bleed into your core from your channels. Then there is Attuned, which is where all techniques you use will be based on that element, but are much stronger once you reach the fourth stage. This is the stage needed to use a valve structure and use techniques. Allowing the energy to flow through the walls of your channels, back as you need it. Finally, there is Perfect, which is where you will get physical benefits leaking over from the element.” I had seen those terms before, but it was nice to have a concise summary.
“But it isn’t like Qi Pills, where you can just swallow more to make progress. You would need a higher quality pill or material. Those would be more expensive. If all your channels aren’t at a certain level, then you will be unbalanced, which causes issues for the fourth stage.”
“I see. The tomes in the library did not mention all of this,” I said.
“Because it is considered common knowledge and covered by the lectures in the next few days. No one goes beyond Aligned for elemental attunement. And using something non-standard would mean there would be no pills to purchase. That means you would have to find something to refine, in your case, a mountain of things to refine,” she replied.
“Also, triangular channels are odd. How will you drill them? You can’t drill a triangular hole.” I heard Gen bite back a laugh at that. Shut up, you idiot. “And that is not even considering the fourth stage. The amount of energy you would require filling up your cores is immense. The cost is so mind-boggling that I feel sick thinking about it.” Wu Changying finished her rant, huffing a bit. The granny that didn’t look like a granny clearly had some powerful feelings.
“Well, I have faith I can work things out. Any advice on my meridian design on what would be best?” I asked.
“The hexagon choice is the most stable, but since you clearly want the most outlandish option possible, then you need an inverse wave cone design for your meridian,” she said. She went over to my desk and picked up a blank piece of paper I had set down in the stack I had brought with me.
She quickly sketched out a ripple patterned cone. “A nightmare to construct, but it allows for the maximum capture of energy into your channels. The horizontal wave pattern is for you to vibrate slightly to force the energy inside your channels. But the motes needed are far higher compared to your basic hexagon pattern to develop the wave structure.”
“Thank you Wu Changying. I will have to investigate this. What about valves on the core?” I asked.
“Don’t do it, and no one has come up with a temporary valve, since you want to be constantly drawing in energy. People have tried pressure chambers between the core and their channels, but those couldn’t gain more pressure than the channels provided, and you can’t have valves as part of your soul you turn on and off. You will need to reach the level of Attuned, which is normally impossible for a regular cultivator, but with your valve structure, you will need that to use techniques,” she explained.
“Complex mechanisms do not work when constructing with motes,” she said. I nodded at this.
“Well, there is the option of staggered channel valves,” Wen Xue said. Everyone looked at him and he cleared his throat before continuing. “You place valves along your channels with increasing stiffness towards the core. Once your channel has enough energy, it will push into the next part of the channel,” he explained.
“It prevents backflow and helps level out the energy intake into a core. The trouble is constructing all those valves and the initial pressure to push through the first one. That is why it was never deemed as workable,” he replied.
“With the number of channels you have, the number of valves would be immense. But three valves, one near the meridian, one at the core, and one at the midway point. The hard part is setting up the resistances for each without testing beforehand.”
“You can’t test, which is why no one does it. One mistake and they are worthless, or you can’t take in energy. That is why if you use valves, you will need at least ten on each channel from the least resistance, with each one a step up incrementally,” Wu Changying said.
“Yes, but ten is excessive, oh never mind. Yes, it would be optimal for your aims,” Wen Xue said. I didn’t know if I should be thankful or offended.
“Ten would be the optimal number to get the pressure you are aiming for. The best valve design is the four fold locking mechanism. It easily opens and closes without issue but is complex,” Wu Changying said and drew out a diagram for me. I looked it over. It would easily take 80 motes to construct. At 1,302 channels and 10 valves each, that would mean another 104,160 motes.
The meridian inverse cone design would up the mote count from 18 per meridian to 300. That was 367,164 more motes. So about 471,000 motes total. That was about two years more of work, but it was doable.
“About 471,000 more motes. That is doable in two years,” I replied.
“Senior Yuan Zhou, please don’t take this the wrong way, but with these designs, you will not even get past the second stage,” Wen Xue said.
“I understand, and will confirm these plans with Elder Li Fu, but I thank you both for your advice. This has been a tremendous help to several problems,” I replied. Wu Changying just shook her head.
“Senior Yuan Zhou, if you ever make it past the fourth stage, then your path forward will be much easier. But this…. I can understand why the elders’ doubt. Is there no way I can convince you to turn away from this madness?” Wu Changying asked me.
I shook my head. “I will take the best possible path. If I fail, then my genius just wasn’t enough,” I replied.
“Then I wish you luck and will say nothing to dissuade you,” Wu Changying replied.
“Is there a way to test for energy types in a material or the environment?” I asked.
“No. An elder can sense such things, and when you become attuned, you can. That is why resources are carefully selected and pills carefully made for the third stage.” I nodded at this.
“But what if you want to pick something uncommon to use?” I asked.
“Then you need to be familiar with that alignment of energy. When cultivators step into the third stage, the pills they take make them familiar with such things. Or there are special chambers if you can afford them to focus the energy on you for a short period of time, so you can feel it.”
“But then you could try to draw in energy that isn’t aligned by experiencing multiple types of energy?” I asked.
Wu Changying shook her head. “Sensing like that is impossible before the fourth stage. Even if you could, you would still need significant amounts of that energy type. The Cloudy Moon Sect only supports earth and water,” she replied.
“Thank you for explaining all this to me,” I told her.
“It is not a secret. It is just that no one would dare do all of this together in such a scope. Your core design is insanely complex. I know the book you read that described it, but you just connected more channels, more everything. The real problem is the bottleneck at the fourth stage, the genius ender,” she replied.
“They really call it that?” Gen asked.
“Yes, we do. Since everyone gets stuck, they're trying to build up their core and you want to build four cores and a secondary fake core. Even if everything works perfectly with the rest of your cultivation and you attain Perfect grade for your elemental attunement, it will be the end. A blockade with no way to get over.” Wu Changying shook her head.
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“But they will immortalize your discoveries here. I even suspect multiple copies might be made and your tome given a place of prominence,” Wu Changying said.
“I hope I don’t perish that quickly,” I said but they all were silent. It was a tough crowd. After that, they all left with Wu Changying, saying she would be back in the morning.
I took the time to review the diagrams she had drawn. Both the inverse wave cone design and the four-fold locking mechanism. There was a higher concentration of motes around the sect, which was a good thing. I also had 100 pills packed away as well, but that was only 10,000 motes. I spent the rest of the evening getting everything out of my pack and setting it up in my room, including the framed picture by my sister.
I would need to investigate the two designs in more detail and take up another job and then I needed to get back to mote gathering. I would have to hustle to get it completed in two years, but I felt confident. The plan was to find the books about both designs in the library and pay for an advisory meeting with Elder Li Fu.
That meant getting my notes in order and making them clear for him to understand. There might be a critical flaw I was missing, and he seemed quite helpful. The next four lectures were on the basics of cultivation, common mistakes, and things to be mindful of.
There was good advice for how one should go about the process of aligning. I was going through the books in the library during this time as well, even the ones I had overlooked at first. Wu Changying had pointed out the ones she had gotten the information from and some others.
Once the five days were up, she left, and I got to work sweeping the stairs on my first day. It was tedious work, having to go up and down the mountain twice in one day, but it wasn’t that hard without a pack and taking it slow.
I made sure to be working as well. I noted a disciple came and checked on me during the day, marked something on a sheet of paper, and quickly left. A core disciple confirming people had done their tasks and weren’t focused on something else.
Once I was done, I reported back to the assignment hall and Fan. I got my point for the day since they had confirmed I was working. I asked for a job during the off days. He had seemed surprised but didn’t argue. I now tended to the garden paths that lined the side of the sect mountain.
That meant carrying bags of gravel that were delivered below and carefully laying them out on the garden paths where needed to fill in depressions. Also, removing weeds and maintaining their state. I had to spend eight hours on this task, minimum. Sweeping the stairs up and down twice, took about eight hours, which seemed to be the standard.
The sect didn’t mind if one of their members did chores all the time and stacked up sect points. We could only spend them in the sect. On top of that, everyone was an adult. If someone slacked off or didn’t do their job to pay the yearly fee, their cultivation would be crippled and we would throw them out.
It came down to, if you did your task, then you got paid and the sect didn’t micromanage you. If you slacked off, then they would act. Fan explained that if they didn’t run things like this, then the elders had to deal with stuff constantly, which they didn’t want to do. Also, if people were just allowed to cultivate, the sect wouldn’t be maintained.
So, while I could cash in spirit stones for sect points, it was much easier and cheaper to do chores instead. The base rate was one sect point for eight hours of labor. Some jobs were easier than others, but that came down to one’s status and connections.
Inner Disciple Fan was a master of these connections, knowing just how far to go when assigning people. Gen got shit processing duty. That meant moving shit out to the gardens as compost from various buildings. No one liked that job, so it was only six hours of work because of the number of shit barrels assigned, but it was considered the single worst job.
I considered it, but I wasn’t about to go wheeling around shit. Sweeping the steps, bringing up bags of gravel, and pulling weeds along the garden paths were more than enough. In the evenings, I would work on my mote design, slowly adding in the valves and restructuring everything as I built up sect contribution points.
It was very monotonous, but that was the point. The sect was free from distractions so people could focus on their cultivation in as much peace as possible. Once I had 200 contribution points, I paid off my first year ahead of time and paid for a meeting with Elder Li Fu.
I had gone to some of the morning lectures, since I could just shift my work until after that. But most of them went over the same information or were just personal stories and insights. There wasn’t anything that useful, unfortunately. I needed direct advice and an evaluation. That meant paying for Elder Li Fu to look over my plan.
After making the payment, I was told to show up at a private meeting room the next day and wait for the elder to arrive. He would stay for at least one hour and if he wanted to stay more, that was up to him. I showed up early and got everything set up and laid out for my presentation.
Elder Li Fu entered and let out a small sigh when he saw me. “Junior greets Elder Li Fun,” I said with a bow. He took his seat and waved a hand for me to get on with things. I launched into a presentation on my cultivation plan, explaining my choices, and asking for confirmation if they were feasible.
“Since you have paid for my advice, I will be honest with you, Yuan Zhou. You are destined for failure. Each individual component makes sense. Even holistically, it makes a strange sort of sense. But the sheer audacity of your cultivation makes it impossible.” I was silent as Elder Li Fu continued to lambast me.
“Still, your designs are on point. I know of the inverse wave cone design for meridians. It is the best design possible to draw in energy, but the meridians have to be at the level of Focused for the element you are using, otherwise they will function poorly.” I didn’t know that, so that was important feedback.
“The four fold valve design that you have changed into a sixfold valve design is quite impressive. That type of valve is the best one out there. But it will impact the energy draw of future techniques. Having ten valves more so. To counter this, your elemental attunement will need to be much higher than normal if you wish to use techniques properly.”
“Your core design is complex. One mistake in building or connecting the channels will mean disaster. So, you will need to take care there. But the layout you have is a work of art and impressive. I can find no fault there. The triangular structure will give your channels strength, but like all triangular channels, carving them out will be quite a challenge.” I still haven't found a way to do that, which was pissing me off.
“The elemental plan is nothing special, but the resources you need will be immense. If you make it to the fourth stage with Focused level channels and meridians, then you will struggle to fill up your cores. If you wish to complete the cores before you die of old age, then you would need Attuned level channels and meridians with an abundant amount of resources.”
“Earth is possible. But even there, you will struggle. The questions you had on using another element concern its abundance. There are sects who cultivate the air element or fire element, but they struggle to get the energy necessary. One does not easily handle fire and air is thin.”
“As for more esoteric options. They are risky and the heavens would truly favor you to find a new one that works. Elders have looked long and hard for their disciples and descendants, but it is not something easily done.”
“We align energy with the physical world. The new element idea you had might work slightly, but you would require a focusing chamber for such a thing. The cost of those is not cheap or undertaken lightly. Still, there is the barest possibility of potential there to use a force element.”
“The only truly impressive thing and innovation is your idea to use other motes to pin the mote that is being aligned. If that works and you share it with the sect before your death, then I will award you 1,000 sect points.” My eyes went wide at that.
“Thank you, Elder Li Fu,” I bowed towards him.
“Don’t get me wrong, disciple. I think what you're doing is madness and foolishness, but it will provide more insight for disciples after you. But a faster way for all to cultivate, shared before your death merits a reward. Everything else would be unique to you and a cultivation choice, not a universal method.” I nodded at this. That made sense. Increasing the power of the sect was important to increase the chances of an immortal rising through their ranks.
“Also, this amused me. I rarely see something so interesting and so well presented. You can keep your sect points for this meeting,” Elder Li Fu said. I bowed again and thanked him as he left. I packed up everything and returned to my room.
He was clearly being nice and favoring me. I suspected he might hope that I succeeded or got far. If I did, it would be an enormous boon to the sect in just knowledge alone. They wouldn’t feed me resources, but they were content to make my journey as easy as possible. Or perhaps Master Yi Rong had more pull than I first thought.
Regardless, my cultivation plan had been signed off on. I wouldn’t need to have a meeting after a year. While it was a checkup, it was also a chance for members to meet with new disciples and make sure they didn’t have their heads up their ass. Paying for Elder Li Fu had been a way to skip ahead. But now I had 100 sect contribution points, which I planned to keep.
What I really needed to do was to work out how to carve triangular channels. Time to throw out everything in my head and start again. I needed a wedge shape to hit the corners. So, the tip needed to be curved.
Oh, I had been such an idiot. I realized the answer as I traced my finger over the wooden triangle in front of me. The cutting wedge would be oval shaped with pointed ends. The length would stretch from one end of the triangle to the other.
As the blade turned around, it would also rotate about the center of the triangle. I got a piece of paper and carefully cut out the shape. I slowly rotated it around the block and laughed. The cutting blade spun around, and it also spun around the center of the circle at the same time. There were two types of spinning.
That took care of the drill design for the third stage. I still needed to figure out a way to get a high quantity and quality of materials to attune to the element I chose and then the fourth stage. I had thought of using force or gravity as my element since it was everywhere.
Elder Li Fu had pointed out there was no such thing as gravity or force materials. And even if there were, there would be no pills. I would blaze an alternative path. Other people had attempted something similar but made no progress and were forced to abandon it.
The hardest part was getting started, but a focusing chamber to crush me might allow me to feel force type energy on my astral soul. Force energy was everywhere in my estimation, but the trick was harnessing enough quantities for my channels and meridians.
It was time to visit the formation hall and learn about manipulating energy outside of cultivation. There was also the alchemy hall. Cultivators could pay sect contribution points to get materials for study and purchase supplies there.
The basic materials were free, along with a bunch of basic literature. But anything more recent that had been written had a charge associated with it. Those sect contribution points went into the pocket who had written the book.
I needed nothing recent, even if there were recent developments, since I needed to learn the basics. I spent several days reading through various formation books and it was complicated. A formation used sigils that resonated with energy itself in unique ways.
All formations had an activation requirement, an effect, and then an ending. The activation requirement was the hard part. There were various materials, lists and lists of them. One needed the formation foundation material, the sigil writing liquid or material, and the sigils could change based on what you were using.
Anyone could get an effect, but the real masters could get a lot for very little. That ratio decided a person’s rank in formation crafting. A one-to-one ratio was considered poor, and they considered a five to one ratio apprentice rank. A ten to one ratio was master rank. And they considered a twenty to one ratio grandmaster rank.
It got harder and harder to squeeze out energy and use it in the way one wanted in an efficient manner. Then there were numerous ways of measuring output. The standard test was with a basic light formation and then a formation of your own design to get certified with a rank by the formation hall.
The real challenge was getting experience and materials to work with. That is where the costs started coming into play. Formations weren’t cheap and formation masters had invested in getting to that standard.
But once someone was a master, then they would be hired to do things like security and privacy formations in the sect. Even more esoteric formations like the soul reflecting chamber required upkeep.
An effect would also have a boundary of some kind. Getting a clean boundary was another sign of mastery. As for the ending, the less explosive it was, the more impressive you were. Masters could have formations collapse without explosions. There seemed to be a high risk of explosions with formations.
I just needed one type of formation to do something specific. I went to the clerk of the formation hall. “Greetings. How can I help you?” the woman asked after seeing the symbol on my robe, which was the same as hers.
“I am here to set up a consultation meeting. I am looking for a specific formation to be made and wanted the idea of the possible costs and effectiveness of the formation. Specifically, creating an area with increased downwards pull,” I said.
“Just the consultation?” she asked.
“Yes, I don’t have a good idea on what something like that would cost and wanted to speak to either an apprentice or a master. I would then consider purchasing the design, but I would need to hear the cost first. There is a difference between 10 sect points and 1,000 sect points,” I said.
“Of course. Masters normally consult for 50 sect contribution points, while an apprentice would consult for 5 points.”
“I want to set up two meetings then, one with a master and one with an apprentice,” I explained.
“I can make the arrangements. Together or separately?”
“Separately please,” I said, trying to resist rolling my eyes at that question. I wanted at least two different opinions. If they varied by a lot, then I would get a third consultation. The appointments were made, and I left the formation hall.
I didn’t have the time or mental energy to work on formations. That was why I was going to look into contracting the work out. The meeting with Elder Li Fu had gone well, so I was optimistic that this would be a good way to get some quick answers to some important questions.
There was no rush either, which was important. I didn’t need to decide on my element until the third stage so I could afford to wait and planned to. I really wanted to see if a force chamber to generate force energy was viable.