In the middle of nowhere, surrounded by endless darkness, a lone mind was positioned nowhere in particular.

As there was nothing around, there was no relative location to give him a position. Floating here for eternity. For all he knew he was already wasting away.

He already tried to reconnect with his body, but no tugging sensation came. At first he panicked and thought he actually died before even tasting cultivation. And yet the panic was redundant. There was no reason to concern himself with something out of his control.

But when the boredom almost overwhelmed him, the tugging sensation came back. Although this time it was not familiar. It felt forceful. And at the end of that connection was most certainly not his body.

The pulling subsided and he was overwhelmed with sensory information, overwhelming his mind? Brain? Whatever, he was overwhelmed.

Then everything set into places as his mind translate the information.

Every color imaginable conjured into a harmony of flowers and plants, in a Japanese style Zen garden. The Sky was a Deep Cobalt blue, no cloud in sight. The building at his back was a Japanese or Chinese clan Compound in the typical style of rounded and spiky roofs and some cloth or something as walls.

Although his eyes were looking away from the building, he had a clear picture of how it looked. Actually, he had a 360 degree field of view, stretched and bizarre looking and yet perfectly comprehensible.

The Compound was huge with a wall surrounding it. His body sat at the edge of said compound and he could see Farms with workers on them, feeling like his shower.

Another set of buildings close by pulsated Ambient Essence in something like smoke.

When reaching high above it dispersed and was nothing but undistinguishable Ambient Essence.

Everything was fascinating, not only the primitive way they lived with essence, but also that he was able to see everything without looking.

It was such a strange feeling.

His actual eyes could see a thin foggy substance in the air, thick and oily and yet it it moved like wind.

It was the same Ambient Essence, but under his eyes it looked completely different.

Before he could enjoy the view further, the owner of the body closed his eyes and all the sensory information was gone.

A weird feeling to get your senses blocked off.

There was nothing but darkness again, but a moment later everything changed.

A body was floating in midair, like a giant omnipotent god. It stood in space surrounded by a breathtaking view of a universe filled with Stars, galaxies and nebula.

But what drew his eyes were the millions, if not billions, of lines going through every part of the omni god. A sun blazing with power sat at the navel. And thick conduits connected the sun with every part of its body, especially the Trunk and Fruit. The Fruit was less impressive, as it was a complete blank to his imaginary eyes.

Not enough time to analyse it more, the sun suddenly pulsed once and a wave of energy passed through conduits. Suddenly feeling air enter his lungs, he realized he could feel parts of his body again. The core and the network to be specific. Then, when the initial wave passed through all conduits, painting a mandala of no words, the core pulses again.

But this time the wave never stopped.

Qi moved in millions of individual patters, creating a symphony of little circles and spirals everywhere.

It was incomprehensible but still a beautiful sight.

The main part, he couldn’t see but feel inside his borrowed real body, was the Qi moving from Core to Trunk, and then both connected to the Fruit.

All the other parts were irrelevant. The conduits between Core and Trunk were brimming with power feeding the Fruit.

But the only relevant part was his Core, Trunk, Fruit connection. The rest was nothing but vanity.

A Majestic Tree, inside his body. Reaching the figurative heavens, And literally connect Earth and Sky, Body and Soul.

He figured it out, he understood. Some novels defy the heaven, others break them. Some don’t even try to reach anything specific, but get farmed like cattle to create powerhouses.

But this world, his novel, was trying to reach the heavens. Not literally, as they probably have intergalactic travel, or between Realities. But to grow in height and power, to touch the unreachable. Just for the sake of it?

It felt boring and yet like there is no better goal. Anything else would be presumption and a lie to oneself. To achieve the impossible is a worthy goal.

Finding his way back to reality, or rather inside someones head and body. He continued to feel the steady flow of Qi. Core out, Trunk through, into Fruit. Were it went afterwards was a good question, but he already had a good idea as the core never stopped brimming with power.

This was cycling, and it was a cultivators way to grow in power and potential.

He was ready to sit here and watch this Cultivation for days, maybe even months, but suddenly felt the core stop.

The last wave of power coursed through its body, almost everything still in the body move to the trunk and then to the fruit, vanishing.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

His eyes opened and he tried to physically flinch by the feeling of having your eyes open by someone else. But he utterly failed, his body not moving an inch.

Suddenly, a deep and unfamiliar voice came out of HIS mouth.

“Enjoyed the show?”

Without time to mentally react to that, his body once again began to draw on its core. But this time it was not possible to follow. The only thing he felt was power and then he saw the man step forward.

He missed the part where he stood up but it was too late, space bended around him in a weird way and finally his scenery changed.

He stood in the middle of space, looking at an orange sun and a few planetary bodies orbiting it. They were all yet again clearly visible through eyes that don’t exist! Even when his body was facing the sun!

Somehow not noticing, a small blue planet came into his peripheral view. An eerily familiar blue planet. He was no genius in geography, but there was no mistaken italies boot. or the yellow Africa and its delta. Even the Pyramids of Gizah were visible to his eyes.

And he couldn't miss the half crested white ball next to it.

It was a magnificent sight. And yet he had no time to enjoy what many people would never see with their own eyes. Especially not in 256k or something with 1000 frames per second and a zoom feature capable of seeing stone per stone from space.

“Good luck little Boy, Don't disappoint me.”

Was the last thing he heard before everything went dark again.

***

Zach tried to open his eyes but flinched at the light that was still on. A pulsating headache followed afterwards.

He was about to give up and continue sleeping on the floor when resolve and the promise of a warm and soft bed reignited his willpower.

Falling down on his bed, a memory of seeing Earth from space came into his mind.

But the thoughts did not continue further as true sleep got a hold of him and he drifted of into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, or rather afternoon as it was 3 pm when he woke up, he sat in his room checking his sketches and rereading the guidebook. It sounded so elaborate and complicated. And yet he was certain that it was simple. The (Epic) portion of the guidebook gave him 3 words to sum up cultivation. Or the beginning of it. But cultivation is build on a foundation which is the beginning.

There was still the 4th point missing and he had no idea what it say mean. Well some ideas at least but nothing for certain... Goddamn tyrannical and secretive superpowers.

Going over it one last time, after he had a nice lunch, he thought about his next plan.

He stood up and went to the bathroom, ready to take a shower!

He sat on the ground, crossed-legged in a meditative position. Warm water covering him with a blanket of comfort. It was the perfect place to sit for hours and figure this out.

His mother was working late so she wouldn’t question why he was showering for hours. The reaction of water and skin was also a problem, but that was something for future Zach to deal.

Sitting in the shower and calming his mind for an enternaty there was suddenly another sensation entering his mind.

Like a thick substance surrounding him and almost inhabiting his movement. But when he broke the meditative pose to test it out he felt no resistance.

The feeling slowly vanished and he cursed himself for being so foolish and breaking his meditation.

Going painstakenly back to meditating after he found some succes, he was once again surrounded by the substance.

This time he calmed his body and took in an intentional and deep breath.

Feeling the strange substance entering his mouth and throat. The moment he felt it touch his tounge he gagged, but he realised it was nothing but his own feeling. There was no sense of touch or taste. It wasn’t even tangible.

He figured it was Ambient Essence but there was only one way to confirm it.

The strange substance reached his lungs reacting with a tingling sensation. Relishing the sensation for a bit he let out a heavy breath.

He felt reinvigorated, almost reborn like he just ascended to immortality. Was that it? Was it this easy?

But when he opened his eyes to relish the sensation he felt lightheaded and saw his vision blacken.

Once again finding himself on the brink of collapsing.

That is really embarrassing, but luckily no one saw him or would ever find out it.

Regaining some semblance of dignity he remembered the entity closing its eyes and shutting of its sensations to picture an inner image.

He wasn’t really sure if he was able to do that.

Reading novels always felt like experiences and memories rather than text on paper, or a phone, there was never any real picture in his head being formed.

Focusing inwards and shutting of the white noise of the shower, he attempted to form an inner picture.

It took quite a while but when he was close to falling asleep, his red vision through his closed eyes turned black.

His brain noticed the reaction and his mind woke up again, he almost cursed himself for breaking his meditation again when the black image formed the outlines of a person.

No sun, no magnificent Omnigod, not even conduits were there. Just a grey outline of a person in complete darkness.

Figuring it doesn’t really matter right now he continued his Breathing exercise. As he himself dubbed it excitingly.

The warm water and the constant white noise made going back into a trance state to feel Ambient Essence much easier.

He took a deep Breath

In a deep trance he got ready to study how his lungs would react. As he was unable to visualise real parts of his body, he was stuck with waiting for the Ambient Essence to do its thing. Also equal to a heaviness in his lungs with a slight tingling.

It tingled like electricity running through his lungs, but it was not painful.

Slowly the Ambient Essence diminished with the heaviness and tingling.

When he felt close to another pathetic “Ascension” he exhaled and checked his Progress once again.

It was still black, no core no conduits. Disappointed, he turned back to breathing Essence.

But before he turned away from his inner picture, a small sparkling caught his eyes. A small, almost non existential, light was positioned at his navel.

The birth of his core. His sweet little baby core. It was adorable and PROGRESS!

His cycling continued with a rekindled fire.

***

Waking him up from his deep meditation was a door being slammed shut. That meant he had been cycling for around 7 hours. How?

His mother came home and the bath was full of steam, he was completly confused how the water was still warm as he hoped the cold water would wake him up early enough.

He removed the covers and saw nothing but white. The whole bathroom was full of steam, limiting view distance to about a meter.I

It looked kind of familiar. Like a Steambath. Aren't they supposed to help with your lungs? A thought for later.

He couldn’t even see the door 2 meters away. His hands felt saggy and numb and panic coursed through his body.

The window slammed open and he started swing a towel above his head, looking like a naked cavemen throwing a tantrum.

This was going to be some Waterbill...

***

Comfortable on his bed, a smile of his success was plastered on Zacharys face.

Crosslegged and focused he started to meditate and trying to enter his Inner Cultivation Tree, as yours truly dubbed it.

At his navel, a bright blue pearl shone.

Small strands extending out of Sapphire, as he dubbed his core for some weird Chuunibyou reason, and going in every direction. It looked like Roots. Or a parasite fungi to be honest.

And yet, his smile widened even further.

His lungs were also visible now, they had light outlines with 2 strands on each. Probably heading for his Core.

To celebrate his progress he went for some gaming. And he could swear he was better, but maybe because of his success.

At the back of his head, he still remember the 5 Days left to Finish forming his Core and Network.

And read the rest of the guidebook to integrate into the system. Equipping for a 2 week journey into his cellar and way more stuff he didn’t even realise yet.

And also a god like entity, or maybe just a foot soldier he had no idea nor scale about how powerful that guy was, was paying attention to him.

Later he went to sleep and anxiety bubbled in his stomach.