Ten months have passed since Mei first came to their house. Amelia has grown very attached to her. Castiel also tried his hardest to smile in front of Amelia. She really changed for the better. Somehow seeing her smile and laugh each day also lessened the frequency of his nightmares.
In the last two months, Castiel has barely felt any improvement in his body. It was about time he went back to the spire.
“Mei, can you please do me a favor? Can you come tomorrow and stay with Ame for a few hours?” He asked Mei. Tomorrow was a weekend and she had never come to their house on a weekend.
“Sure. Why the sudden request?”
“I need to go to the spire tomorrow.”
“Ohhhhhh. Will you ever tell me why you still have not started accumulating mana?”
“One day. Maybe.” He replied. He didn’t want her to worry about him.
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One can only access the private library if they have made a significant contribution to society. Nothing is up for sale in the private library.
Public library, the spire. The librarian was an old man with literally one foot in the grave.
“Hi, what is the best non-elemental cultivation technique you have?”
The old man snapped his fingers and two books came flying from somewhere in the library to the old man’s hands
“These are the best non-elemental cultivation techniques in the empire. You only have access to their descriptions unless you buy them.” The old man said as he handed him the two books.
Fire force pre-cultivation method: Elemental affinity required - none. Can break through to pinnacle bone-forging. Can transition to Fire Force Art which can help you break through to Nascent soul with infused fire element. Suitable for people who have less than or equal to 5 degrees of fire elemental affinity. Price - 1 gold.
Furious Thunder pre-cultivation method: Elemental affinity required - none. Can break through to pinnacle bone-forging. Can transition to Furious Thunder Art which can help you break through to Nascent soul with infused fire element. Suitable for people who have less than or equal to 7 degrees of thunder elemental affinity. Price - 1 gold 20 silver.
Training in thunder element cultivation techniques is a very painful process. So unless one has a very high thunder element affinity, it is advised to train in some other elements till pinnacle bone forging and then transition to thunder element cultivation methods.
1 gold is the average yearly income for two income mortal family. You might think this is cheap for a cultivation method but advancement in civilization has made basic cultivation even cheaper. Basic cultivation methods that can help break through to pinnacle bone-forging usually cost 10 to 50 silver but these two cultivation methods are special cases.
“I have a special circumstance. I cannot transition to any higher elemental cultivation technique after bone-forging. Do you have anything better for my circumstance?”
“I have one book here that can help you break through to pinnacle golden core but there is no cultivation method in the empire that can help you after that.” The old man looked at him with pity as he gave him another book.
Fundamentals of God: Elemental affinity - none. Can break through to pinnacle golden core. Found in an ancient ruin. Fundamentals of Man is derived from this book. It is advised to only train in this method till pinnacle bone-forging and then transition to some other elemental cultivation technique. Price - free.
“I'll choose this. How much for Basic Sword Art - one handed, Basic Sword Art - two handed, Quick Draw, and Quick Sheath?”
“Basic Sword Art is free but Quick Draw and Quick Sheath are 150 primary mana stones each. After you have viewed each page for at least one minute, the book will automatically turn to dust.”
It seemed fitting in his mind to take revenge with the same weapon as his mother used. Quick Draw and Quick Sheath are skills refined and improved by countless Sword Emperors throughout cultivation history. Sword Emperors are those that have formed their own sword domain irrespective of their cultivation level. A high proficiency in Quick Draw can even decide the outcome between Nirvana cultivators. There are a lot of other powerful sword skills but they all have associated elemental affinity requirements.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
His mother left him with around 900 primary mana stones. Spending 300 on just two skills alone did hurt but he had no other choice. If he wanted to become powerful with just sword arts alone, he would have to make some sacrifices.
He bought a simple damascus steel katana for 40 silver from a weapon’s store. The weapon was 3 feet long with a blade length of 2 feet. It weighed about a kilogram. It was smaller and lighter than the average katana accounting for his currently short stature and cultivation level. He put the weapon on his back since he didn’t have enough height to hang the sword on his waist.
He found a place to sit and started reading the Fundamentals of God to plan his next steps.
Fundamentals of God's biggest advantage over other cultivation methods was in the qi gathering stage, well it held this advantage in anything related to accumulating mana. Someone cultivating in the Fundamentals of God would be able to breathe mana into their body and purify it with hundred percent efficiency. Any mana they ingest into their body, be it a pill or mana in the atmosphere, is converted into the body’s own mana with hundred percent efficiency. There is no other cultivation method known to man that can purify impurities in one’s own mana with hundred percent efficiency. But this cultivation method is also possibly the slowest at converting foreign mana to own mana. Only pills and fortunate encounters can overcome this obstacle.
In the bone-forging state, a person has to break every bone in their body at least once with their own mana pressure and heal it back with either their own mana or external help. If someone wants to forge a particular bone a second time, they have to infuse it with elemental mana or it will have no effect on the forging level. All elemental cultivation methods have a way to focus on some particular set of bones to forge them many times over. Fundamentals of God has no such feature. It is extremely comprehensive though. It provides a method to forge every bone in the body twice but that’s all.
In the golden core stage, all the mana in the body is compressed into a structure. The structure is usually a manifestation of the person’s element, personality and will. All elemental cultivation methods have a way to reforge their ribcage multiple times over for the sole purpose of placing the golden core inside it. Fundamentals of God places the core where the spine meets the brain. It has the weakness of being extremely vulnerable but it has an advantage that no other cultivation method has, ultimate control of mana. Cultivation after golden core consists of polishing your core structure so that it can hold more and more mana since the body is capable of storing only so much mana. That’s why the bone forging stage exists, to make the body strong enough to bear the mana intensity of a golden core.
-I don’t really need pills to accumulate mana during the qi gathering stage. Using this cultivation method, I can directly absorb mana from manastone without the disadvantage of wasting mana like other cultivation methods. I also don’t need to worry about the impurities.- He thought. Since he didn’t need any more resources, he went straight home.
When he reached home, it was in chaos. Toys all over the place. Mei and Amelia were sleeping on the floor with not a care in the world. His footsteps woke them up.
“Big brother!!!” Amelia came running and jumped into his arms.
“Big sister and I played soooo much today.” She spread her hands apart exaggeratedly to show how much she played. She was so lively compared to a year ago.
“What did you bring me?”
“Close your eyes first” Amelia closed her.
Castiel dragged a big panda plushie that could serve as a chair for small kids. He placed her on its belly.
“You can open your eyes now.” Amelia erupted into a series of giggles. She started jumping on the plushie excitedly.
“You are the best, brother.”
“Mei, I did not forget about you. I brought you your favorite rainbow dumplings.” Rainbow dumplings are a famous snack in the Serafin empire. It is a set of seven dumplings, each dumpling tasting different. It is rumored that no person has ever tasted the exact same set twice in their life.
“Did not forget about me or did not want to get a beating?” Mei headlocked him in her elbows as usual and started shit-talkng.
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Before he started accumulating mana, he needed to make sure he had absolutely no imperfections in his mortal body. He first memorized all the contents of all the books he brought today. The two books Quick Draw and Quick Sheath contained a series of body postures and mana flow directions. As soon as he turned the last page of the book, that book turned to dust instantly. -So this is how cultivation books are made sure to not circulate freely.- He thought.
His first order of business is to train in two handed basic sword art to see if he can improve further as a mortal. Quick draw and quick sheath require proficiency in one handed sword. He would need to be at least 5 feet 6 inches to use a katana with one hand. He was still only 5 feet 1 inch.
As soon as he took hit first according to the two handed basic sword art, he felt life he was finally kissed by the lady of destiny. It was an ethereal feeling. Like he had taken the swing hundreds of times before. He didn’t know what qi gathering felt like but he felt like waves of energy were coursing through his veins every time he swung his sword. He didn’t think practicing sword moves would be so easy and so……fun.
Two handed basic sword art had eighteen moves. These eighteen moves encompassed everything, even the blindspots in one’s vision. Every two handed sword sword skill can only be a variation of these eighteen moves with different mana flow networks.
Castiel only needed to use all the moves only thrice before he started making precise changes to suit his body. His daily discipline now had one more addition.