“Greatest. Power. Ever. What is this nonsense? What do you mean it does nothing? So, upon my breaking though I received a third eye, the most classic symbol of powerful and eccentric powers, yet it does nothing, other than allow qi to enter through. Well, this is disappointing. Guess there is only a posturing allure to it, and the need for a bigger blindfold. Back to cultivating then.”
Samuel was quite annoyed at the fact that the eye did nothing. This was not a case of him not being able to sense the effect of the eye, there was none. None. Rather than wallowing in his annoyance however, he decided to break through as fast as he possibly could.
Ten years later
Upon opening his eyes, Samuel tied his blindfold over them and left the room through teleportation. He was only capable of teleporting within a similar type of space, like realms, or a limited distance in the void. The limitations of the ability were not quite strict and it made for a neat form of transportation. When he reappeared, he was once again in front of Mike, just like last time.
“Samuel, you need to stop teleporting here! What if I were in the middle of vital research?”
“I sensed the situation inside before I entered, relax. I need help with how to break through to the Enlightenment Stage.”
“What? Are you already breaking through? It has not been more than ten years. Last time it took you 17,000 years to break through. How can the difference be this great?”
“Because I am great, obviously. This isn’t important. You are a person who has dedicated his life to research and discovering the truth, surely your understanding of the Enlightenment stage must be at the pinnacle of the universe. Can you help, or do I need to obtain the knowledge from elsewhere?”
“NO! No, don’t go elsewhere. I have done a lot of reflection on what you told me the last time, and the path I created is indeed flawed at the True Cultivation and Transcendence stages. However, my path of the Enlightenment Stage is flawless, and is the only correct way of cultivating it unless you want to re-cultivate repeatedly later in your life. Come, we need to enter my cultivation chamber for you to truly understand the knowledge I am about to impart to you. Come!”
Mike was unfathomably excited at the chance to help Samuel acquire cultivation knowledge. Not only because he was proud of his work and he was fond of Samuel, but also because he felt the need to prove himself to him after discovering his path was flawed.
“You don’t have to behave like this, it doesn’t discredit your work and intelligence that your path was slightly flawed.”
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“But…it does. The most fundamental knowledge I have based everything I am upon was flawed, as shown to me by you, a complete rooky. My pride was hurt, but more importantly, I started to doubt myself. If I was wrong about this, what else could I be wrong about? That is not something I can stand. It eats at my very being. It gnaws on my soul, tearing into everything that I am. I need to rectify my mistake. Although it is too late for the others I have harmed with my ignorance, you are the most talented individual I have ever seen. If I can guide your path to be that of perfection, I will have done the universe a great justice, and can thereafter preach the truth to the rest of the masses.”
“Alright.”
They soon arrived at Mike’s cultivation room. It was filled to the brim with runes and formations, creating a multitude of different effects, spanning from heightened concentration to energy gathering. The walls were not actually walls, rather they were bookshelves stacked with books and scrolls. These were not normal either. Although their size was standard, the amount of knowledge and words inside each one was equivalent to thousands of them.
“Quite some place you got for yourself here, Mike.”
“It is the bare minimum of what I can tolerate living in. I can’t bring out most of my possessions because of the laws of the Heavens, meaning I must settle for this. Let’s not continue to waste time here.”
Thousands of runes all lit up after him saying this. The feeling of concentration and enlightenment filled the room.
“Why do I feel like I can identify truths here?”
“It’s the effect of my Universe Under a Microscope formation. It allows clarity of the mind as well as opening the secrets of the universe to whoever enters it. The degree of the effects is vastly different depending on the person entering. One person might only be able to confirm certain things about themselves, another might be able to directly peer upon the origins of existence. Obviously, I am yet to encounter such an individual, but it is possible, I confirmed it using the formation.”
“How fascinating. Is this thing useful for breaking through to the Enlightenment stage?”
“Yes and no. The breakthrough to the Enlightenment stage is not the difficult part. What is difficult is reaching the condition to break through. What you need to do to reach the Enlightenment stage is use the dantian you have formed, shatter it, then condense it, to finally create a Universal Strand. You use whatever qi type or law you have a comprehension of and condense the Universal Strand, which allows you to comprehend laws further. It is the base upon which the rest of your cultivation rests upon. It is only less important than your soul when it comes to your future path. The problem with this method is that the Universal Strand is stuck with a certain law or laws which it cannot diverge from. Meaning, if you comprehend another law in the future, you will have to re-cultivate to make another strand. There is no way around this, which is problematic considering it becomes more and more difficult with every strand formed. Therefore, I concluded that only a Universal Strand which contains all the laws of the universe is acceptable, which led to the creation of this formation. A person of sufficient talent will be able to sense every law of the universe while creating the strand inside of the formation. That itself is not enough to engrave the strand with all the laws, seeing as you need to comprehend them to a certain extent. The formation will therefore be infusing the truths of the universe into your body, which won’t have any effect on someone who is not breaking through to the Enlightenment stage, but for those who are, it will force all the laws you sense into your forming Universal Strand.”
“Is it that simple?”
“It is that simple!”
“Well, here is my problem with that. My breakthroughs are normally quite…different. I am usually not in control, but it might be different for this one. However, as I breakthrough, I form a barrier around me naturally, and I don’t know if the formation can work through it. Do you think it can?”
“That is quite the conundrum indeed. I still reckon the best course of action is to break through here. If it works, it will be optimal, if it doesn’t, there will be no harm done. Hopefully it will work though.”
“Yes, hopefully it will.”
“Sit down right here and let’s start, Samuel.”