Chapter 149 - Hardship Never Ends
The basic concealment formation was only the beginning of Yaan’s study into formations. Even though this concealment formation was only a basic formation, that wasn’t important. The important point, was that reaching this stage and successfully setting up this formation in such a short period of time, whilst properly comprehending all of the underlying principles, forced Yaan to burn through his Psyche Power at a monstrous rate.
He still retained plenty of Psyche Power within his Sea of Consciousness, actually using up all of his Psyche Power just by studying would be quite the task. It was easier to burn through his Psyche Power by training under torturous conditions, since this gruelling method forced him to rely on his Psyche Power to strengthen his mind and will in order to endure the pain. Even so, this slower, seemingly tamer method had a very notable purpose to it.
Psyche Power could not be cultivated and grown indefinitely using a single method without end. If he tried to only cultivate his Psyche Power using the Grey Mist Pressure Chamber, Yaan would quickly encounter a bottleneck, preventing him from progressing further and thus drastically reducing the beneficial use of this chamber.
He could switch to other ‘self-torture’ methods of course, in fact, he intended to eventually do just this after building those formations for himself. However, the self-torture method of cultivation still could not be relied upon solely if he wanted to properly cultivate the path of Psyche Power.
It almost seemed obvious in a sense, but to cultivate the mind, it was essential to study!
Psyche Power was an ethereal power, a power born from the connection between wisdom, knowledge and sentience in the Sea of Consciousness. Self-torture was excellent for increasing the strength of one’s sentience, thickening the sturdy walls in the Sea of Consciousness. Perhaps, enduring this sort of torment could also grow an individual’s wisdom too. However, this method could not improve a person’s knowledge.
To grow his knowledge, Yaan needed to learn new information. The art of formations was so complex and intricate, that studying it was guaranteed to rapidly develop his knowledge, causing many more memories to manifest within his Sea of Consciousness in the form of white droplets.
Studying formations would also naturally help to develop his wisdom as his base understanding of the art grew, strengthening the very fabric of the Sea of Consciousness itself.
As such, Yaan’s cultivation from hereon took on two aspects; the study of formations, and training within the Grey Mist Pressure Chamber.
For one straight month, Yaan delved deeply into the study of formations, spending one hundred percent of his time, focus and energy on this endeavour.
After setting up the basic detection formation, he soon completed the basic offensive, defensive, concealment and combination formations. After building up some experience with setting up these formations, but also with controlling, deconstructing and re-building the formations in different locations, Yaan was ready to further his learning by delving into more complex formations.
He was given multiple books to read by the Immortal Ancestor, all detailing the construction of various formations. Whenever Yaan had questions, the immortal answered them. Sometimes, when Yaan was clearly going down the wrong path and misunderstanding something, the immortal would speak up, redirecting Yaan back towards the correct path.
This sort of learning environment, combined with the pressure that Yaan felt due to the threat of death looming over his head, allowed him to develop rapidly.
By the end of this one month period, Yaan had managed to exhaust and recover his Psyche Power multiple times just by studying. This was quite incredible and showed just how diligent and focussed he remained throughout this period of time. On top of this, his understanding of formations had already reached the level of a typical formations master who had been studying with relatively high diligence for five years.
Was Yaan just shockingly talented in the art of formations, to make five years worth of progress in a single month?
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Not particularly. His ‘talent’ in this regard was not bad, but nor was it anything ground breaking.
In the first place, the study of formations relied on intelligence more so than ‘talent’. In a sense, having talent in the art of formations simply meant that a person was able to make more effective usage of their intelligence.
In terms of objective intelligence, not taking into account the experiences and understanding that could only come with age, Yaan’s intelligence was far higher than any typical Foundation Step cultivator!
This was the power of psyche cultivation. At first, this path of cultivation had some minor benefits, but the true advantages were not obvious. The further Yaan walked along his path, the more blatant these advantages would become.
Of course, another reason for his rapid progress was due to his shocking level of diligence. Others who possessed a Psyche Power cultivation equivalent to Yaan might not have the determination to force themselves to focus so intensely for such a long period of time.
For Yaan, however, this one month period was practically blissful compared to what came next.
“Tch…” Yaan gritted his teeth as the Grey Mist Pressure Chamber was activated once again.
He had studied formations until his mind was filled with a burning sensation, then used the immortal’s medicines to accelerate the recovery of his Psyche Power multiple times throughout the past month. At this point, his efficiency in studying was dropping noticeably, because his mind was in dire need of a break from this constant intense level of concentration.
Whilst Yaan was not really getting a ‘break’ by delving back into this self-inflicted torture style of training using the grey mist vortex, it was allowing his mind to recover its ability to focus on studies.
When Yaan trained within this formation which made use of the grey mist vortex, he endured the strain placed upon his body by the grey mist vortex until he lost consciousness. After a few minutes, his mind would be roused and awoken as it was healed by the reverse vortex.
Last time, this process was repeated until he lost consciousness for a few hours, then this cyclic training regime continued on until even Yaan’s heart was pushed to the brink of exhaustion, causing him to unknowingly manifest the incomplete pseudo-domain.
This time, Yaan was not going to train until such a point, as training until even his heart lost its ability to go on due to exhaustion, caused him to enter a deep slumber that wasted too much time. So instead, Yaan trained in the Grey Mist Pressure Chamber for two straight months, gradually building up and strengthening his body, before switching back to his study of formations.
Yaan noticed right away during his training within the grey mist that he was able to endure for much longer compared to before.
The first time that Yaan tried to endure the grey mist, he had lasted for just under an hour before passing out. After that, he was able to make it through another 36 cycles of pushing his body to the brink, before his mind and body finally could not take it any longer and he was forced to sleep for a few hours.
This time, Yaan endured for almost three hours through the first cycle of the grey mist’s onslaught! Following on from this, he actually made it through 56 cycles before his mind and body completely gave out.
This sort of improvement was incredible. Yaan had to admit that it was motivating and encouraged him to continue, though it’s not as if he needed this motivation in the first place when his life was already on the line here.
As the exhaustion accumulated, his ability to endure steadily decreased over time, until he could only make it through ten or so cycles near to the end of the two month training period.
As soon as these two months were over, his studies continued. He did not take any sort of break between these two strenuous activities.
Yaan’s eyes were bloodshot as he read through book after book on formations. He built up formations, took down formations, examined various formation resources, he practised using formations, he attempted to break formations with various formations methods…
Formations, formations, formations!
Yaan had always considered himself to be a focussed individual. He certainly possessed the necessary ‘one-track-mind’ quality which was essential for a cultivator to make sufficient progress. But even so…
This was truly mind numbing!
In a way, training with the grey mist vortex became a much needed break, allowing him to stop thinking about all things formations related…
At least, he always had this thought, until he stepped back into that grey mist vortex and was reminded of just how arduous this style of cultivation actually was.
When he lived like this, working without resting, there was really nothing in his life to look forwards to.
This did not discourage Yaan in the least, nor did he consider stopping for a single moment. In fact, he always felt that he could be working harder, doing more, and that every second not spent training was a second wasted.
Life was difficult, but Yaan did not care about this…he had no sympathy for himself and his own suffering.
When had his life ever been easy? Perhaps there were times when things were less intense, less pressing, less threatening, but life was never truly easy.
Yaan just wanted to continue on, to take another step forwards. He wanted to get through this ordeal, but not because he hoped that his life would become easier afterwards…he never lived with this expectation in mind.
He just wanted to keep moving forwards, no matter what this entailed. The difficulty of life did not discourage Yaan from pressing on. If anything, these many trying experiences served to temper his mind and heart, strengthening his resolve.
Most cultivators would endure trials and hardships because they held onto the goal of eventually reaching a better, more enjoyable, more comfortable future.
To cultivate arduously until they became an elder of their sect, then to enjoy the reverence of their juniors…
To cultivate diligently until they became an immortal, then to relax for the remainder of their long lifespan…
To cultivate through the present pain, then to enjoy the comfort of a better tomorrow…
This was a common mindset amongst cultivators, but Yaan was not like this. He fought through the pain of today, knowing that tomorrow would be filled with just as much hardship. He did not hope for a comfortable life, because all he knew was the adversity of the path towards power.
Although he did not yet know it, Yaan had already touched upon a state of mind that was only seen rarely in this world.
Yaan had already realised and accepted that the experience of life was like a ceaseless series of challenges. To stop accepting these challenges was to give up on life.
Yaan would not give up.