How long had it been since Shen last cultivated without worry? There was no crisis to manage, no mission to accomplish. Whatever was going to happen didn't depend on him. He was in a unique lull in his existence and found tranquility there.
Shen breathed.
Qi from the world entered his body and filled his dantian, where it was compressed and made his. He then moved it through his body according to the self-improved Rainfall Cultivation Method. As with all his techniques, he had adapted it to better fit his True Path.
The Concept of Rainfall was Water-based and closest to his Concept of Flow. The cultivation method flowed from Flow into everything else, almost nurturing his other Concepts as the qi did to his body. It was a shift in paradigm from his core Concepts being the central pillar of his Path on which his secondary Concepts rested. He always felt slightly confused at the beginning of every cultivation session but quickly overcame it.
In the past, he had failed to make his cultivation method perfect for his Path. It was only just good enough. The Feng Clan's Hurricane Martial Arts mixed Wind-based footwork and a Water-based cultivation method with their Spear fighting abilities to create something devastatingly powerful. Shen had kept that idea going because he also had Zephyr and Flow in his Path.
But it was time to evolve.
Now that he had the time and studied so many techniques in the antidron, even some cultivation ones, he had new ideas. Liya didn't look like she would find balance anytime soon, so he had the opportunity to put those ideas to the test.
He had never taken things slowly after starting to walk a True Path. His True Path denied anything that didn't fit it and changed many abilities almost automatically. He recalled his difficulty with the Tide-based spearmanship Liya had taught him. Not immediately making it better—according to his ideas—had been the limit of what his Path accepted.
But this would be his first time delving deep into a cultivation method to change it. He needed time to test it, see what worked and what could get better, and feed that back into a better version. Cultivation wasn't like a fighting ability that could be used and instantly assessed. Some of the things it did to his body took time to understand despite him being capable of noticing even the slightest changes to his cells.
Some would argue Shen had no business doing something like this. He didn't know what it felt like to be at C-rank and would be unable to determine what was required of him after he got there. He might believe he was improving his method but end up messing up.
However, he didn't care about the method after he got to C-rank. His goal was reaching the Qi Saturation step of his Fate Origin realm. Only then would he be able to survive the Harmonization Tribulation. Without that, he would be stuck at D-rank forever.
Qi Saturation meant having a body that could withstand however much qi he pushed into it for however long he wanted. It indirectly also increased his qi storage capacity significantly.
Currently, he could store enough qi to sustain his body at peak usage for ten minutes, not counting techniques that put his body at risk. That peak usage limited many of his movements to a point. Qi techniques didn't get indefinitely more powerful the more energy he pushed into them, but he couldn't even reach the max output of many of his moves. Moreover, even if he managed to get infinite qi, his body could only withstand four hours of continuous stress before getting crippled.
The issue was that Shen had long noticed he progressed too little when cultivating. It would take him centuries to attain Qi Saturation if nothing changed. He needed some form of enlightenment or to figure out the trick behind it.
The most likely way of accomplishing that on his own was by tweaking his cultivation method to be unique to his Path.
There was no danger of finding himself without a cultivation method at C-rank. The current Water-based Flow-improved Rainfall Cultivation Method was already part of his Path. He wouldn't forget it even if he changed completely. He would simply create a new method of a lower rank. But lower grade or not, it would still fit his Path better.
Spear was at the core of his Path, split between War, Combat, and Sharpness. The Flow of Water, the Zephyr of Wind, the Arc Flash of Lightning, and the Boundlessness of the Spear were secondary Concepts—or, in Liya's terms, support Concepts.
Shen envisioned it as an origin point with three pillars, one for each core Concept. Boundlessness surrounded it in a ball, and Zephyr—
No, that wouldn't work.
He envisioned it as a sphere of pure Boundlessness—
No, that was also a bad approach.
This part was crucial. Every particle of his qi contained his entire Path. It happened automatically when his qi became his, suggesting his Path was a force, not a construct. However, he had to understand at least one way his Concepts could coexist before venturing into using them all to improve his cultivation method and body in a way unique to him. He had inferred that from reading different cultivation methods in the antidron.
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His mind worked fast, and he attempted countless solutions every second. It wasn't that he couldn't imagine a structure containing all his Concepts, but he simply knew none would work. The result was never something that resonated with his Path.
Until, eventually, he did it.
In the final configuration, War, Combat, and Sharpness were spiral-like structures. They fit perfectly together, creating a solid sphere with three spiral holes that went to the center.
Each spiral continued outwards but, from then on, left a lot of space between their arms. That space was filled with spiral-like structures: Flow, Zephyr, and Arc Flash. Each had one arm that went into the central holes and extended into the middle of the core orb.
In the end, everything became a perfectly smooth and self-contained ball.
Each of his core Concepts occupied as much overall space as the other, precisely three times as much as his secondary Concepts. There was a perfect balance there. Every Concept touched all others in equal amounts.
In other words, Spear was in the middle, and its presence was the strongest in his Path. It was the most fundamental part. Everything else depended on and was greatly affected by it. Water, Wind, and Lightning affected mostly each other but weren't completely alienated from his core. They were also critical to his Path, as reflected by the arms that pierced his core Concepts to touch on his Path's point of origin.
And then, an endless thin beam, Boundlessness, stabbed into and through that perfection.
Boundlessness couldn't be contained. Having it follow any rule or proportion would be anathema to its very existence. Shen didn't even think too much before making Boundlessness take that form and randomly picking the place he pierced. He only made sure it also went through the point of origin.
That was the best depiction of his Path that he could create. Even after everything eventually morphed into Laws, there would be nothing wrong.
Preparing for the future was obvious in hindsight. Qi Saturation was only the physical step required to break through to the next realm. He only mastered his Concepts to move forth into Laws. He had only one Spear in his Path, so how could his core have three spears, as he had attempted with the pillars? He had to prepare everything for that in a way befitting his beliefs and Path.
More importantly, Path Institution was another step of the Fate Origin realm. Shen had thought it was about taking the last Concept into his Path and permanently cementing it that way. However, there was more to it. A step hidden within another.
This.
Shen's soul trembled as soon as he recognized that pieced sphere as his Path's final form. His perspective was set in an even firmer way than when he started walking a True Path. From now on, everything he did that involved his Path would be seen from the lens of that imaginary construct.
He immediately knew the drawbacks.
His Path was perfectly balanced. Therefore, he wouldn't be able to deal with serious imbalances. Every single Law in his Path would have to be improved more or less together. His core Laws would also always need to be stronger than his secondary Laws, or his core might not support the weight of everything else.
Boundlessness was exempt, of course. He could do whatever he wanted with it. Whether that would bring consequences or not, he couldn't tell.
The drawbacks weren't pleasant, but there were many advantages that more than made up for it.
Every part of his Path supported every other aspect—even Boundlessness! Improving his understanding of any Law would collectively push all others to greatness, though he wasn't sure how. Also, it would be almost impossible for his Path to go astray. It was too tightly blended together. In fact, his mind would gain excellent resistance against any form of invasion, even against B-ranks, be it from being overwhelmed by a Law or mental compulsion.
All that would have to wait until he reached the Ethereal Harmonization realm, of course, but merely realizing all that seemed to change something in Shen. He had defined his Path—and by extension, himself—more clearly than ever. He now knew even better who he was and what he aspired to become.
And just like that, he knew how to reach the Qi Saturation step.
His Path had become a perfectly balanced whole that could cover everything he was, body, mind, and soul. He could easily point out the issues with his current body. It wasn't fully compatible with that image. He had to fix that.
In theory, Shen could do that at once. He had changed himself after achieving a True Path. However, that image was new, and he didn't fully understand what it could do to his body or how it would change his moves. For now, it was still an idea. He could only fully comprehend what it was and meant by experiencing it.
The best way to accomplish that? Slowly changing himself and feeling the differences. Also known as cultivation.
He had gone full circle.
He laughed self-deprecatingly. All along, the answer on how to move forward had been right below his nose. He had simply been misguided by his previous accomplishments, believing he had concluded his Path Institution when he took the last Concept into his Path.
He could tell the cultivation manual had been purposefully unclear because this step shouldn't be hushed. Shen had felt the need to change his cultivation method. That should be the signal that he was ready for that final step.
Liya had said that making information too easily accessible removed one of the ways of honing one's willpower. On top of that, cultivators had to deal with tribulations. They had to be fully prepared and sure of themselves, or they would die. Letting them take certain steps only when their Path demanded it was the easiest and maybe even best way to ensure they didn't overestimate themselves.
So, Shen had to create a cultivation method that fit his Path's Image. Slowly, he would shift his body, soul, and even qi, to perfectly match it. At the same time, after each step, he would review all his techniques and slowly adapt them to his new self.
He estimated it would take him a few months at most to finish the process as long as he cultivated about one hour every day. If nothing went wrong, he might even be done within weeks.
With newfound determination, he started using everything he knew to adapt his cultivation method.
Despite his advantages, developing a crude but usable version took three days. Without his Image, it would've been impossible. He laughed again at how naive he had been.
He immediately used that crude method. He found countless issues, but it became much easier to fix them now that he could feel things instead of only theorizing.
Another three days later, every problem he could spot, old and new, was patched. From now on, he would still find issues here and there, but only as he understood his Image.
Shen was ready.
He cultivated with gusto, heading straight toward Qi Saturation.