Xu Long awoke the next day early in the morning only to see a small spirit fox sleeping deeply on his chest, not wanting to wake her, as he knew how mentally exhausting his mother’s lessons could be, he gently picked her up and set her down on the very soft fur rug that was her usual spot. He crept away, grabbing his robe off the privacy screen and putting it on as he walked away stealthily, yet full of excitement. Excitement because today he was finally going to start delving into cultivation, even going so far as to learn the cultivation technique that he would most likely be using. Although he couldn’t start practicing right away, just the thought of collecting all this information beforehand so that he could start the second that he was both able and permitted to, left him almost overwhelmed with excitement.
He had to admit, living up to his mother’s expectations that he was mature enough not to start cultivating as soon as he was able, was going to be a difficult endeavor. He had no plans to break her trust, of course, but the palpable excitement and anticipation he felt was very real and intense, he had been waiting for this moment for 7 years now, the thought of waiting 3 more was almost maddening. He was hoping beyond hope that his earlier than usual entrance into puberty would allow him to be among the outlier boys that could begin at 15 and was encouraged by the fact that recent talks with his mother and Old Wu had alluded to that being a likely possibility.
He walked all the way to his mother’s residence, his head abuzz with excitement for the future and anticipation about what he would learn today. His mother’s room was just across from his old room, it was a very modest affair not dissimilar to his previous room just with a meticulously maintained garden attached. He often wondered why she maintained this garden considering this entire valley was technically her garden, plus he had never actually seen her tend to it and was pretty sure she maintained it the same way she maintained the whole valley.
Shaking these distracting thoughts out of his head, he took a breath so as not to make his eagerness so glaringly obvious, and walked into the room. Little good that did him, as soon as he walked in and saw the smirk on his mother’s face and the look in her eyes, he knew that she knew, but luckily she had the decency not to say what they were both thinking out loud. She gestured her head towards the seat opposite her as she started to pour her customary tea.
“I know you are eager to get started on the cultivation technique Long’er, however, I am going to have to disappoint you and begin with a general explanation of the cultivation technique landscape so that you have the information necessary to understand why Wu Zhong and I are recommending this particular technique for you.”
Even though she could feel the disappointment radiating off of him he hid it well on his face, yet another example of him growing up. This beautiful young man sitting in front of her filled her with ambivalence, she was full of love and pride when she thought of how far he had come and everything he had accomplished, but she also wanted her cute little boy back, the one who wore his heart on his sleeve because he didn’t have a reason not to. They grow up too fast.
Pulling herself out of her inner melancholy lest the impatient anticipation that her son had clamped down on exploded from the pressure. She began. “You know about the foundational cultivation technique that is spread throughout the realm that I mentioned many years ago, correct?”
Seeing her son nod, she continued. “It is called foundational for a reason, but that name is also a misnomer, it is actually a simplification of the original foundational cultivation technique, designed to be as usable by as many people as possible and spread far and wide so that they may do so. The original foundational cultivation technique, however, is named quite correctly as all other cultivation techniques in the realm stem from it. It is believed by most who care to speculate, myself included, that it was bestowed by the Immortal Realm at some point in the early history of the realm.”
Smiling when she saw the look on his face after she said that. “I can tell what you want to ask, Long’er. ‘Why, if it was bestowed by the Immortal Realm doesn’t everybody just cultivate with it instead of creating offshoots of it?’...How did I do?”
Shaking his head. “Is there really a need to show off Mother?”
“Always…anyway, to answer ‘your’ question simply, the main reason is the many forms that qi takes and the rather extensive benefits one obtains by specializing. To answer your question not so simply, the foundational cultivation technique fosters neutral qi, often also referred to as pure qi, in the body of the cultivator. This has the considerable benefit of allowing the cultivator the flexibility to determine the path that they will walk at a much later point in their cultivation journey, and a great deal of flexibility in the choice of arts that they may master. It also, as you may have surmised from all this talk of flexibility, allows the practitioner to transition to another cultivation technique, not without any difficulties mind you, but most cultivation techniques have a very short list of compatible techniques that can be switched to, if they have any at all.
“All of the cultivation techniques that are derived from the foundational technique, however, have one thing in common, they are concentrated on fostering a specific type of qi. As long as the cultivator has an affinity for the chosen type of qi, the benefits of this kind of specialization are substantial, including slightly faster cultivation, ease of learning and performing compatible arts and lastly the most coveted benefit, the one that drives the adoption of these cultivation techniques, the significant increase in power of any compatible arts.
“Now, all these benefits may sound very tempting, and they are, but they do not come without any disadvantages. Firstly, the most obvious, the severe lack of flexibility that specialization brings and the subsequent general predictability of your arts, however, that can be overcome through raw power and a diverse set of compatible arts. The other main disadvantage is far more serious and insidious though, by necessity, a specialized cultivation technique involves substantially narrowing your options on the path that you may ultimately take, and just because your body has an affinity for a certain type of qi does not automatically mean that you yourself are suited to it. However, you will more likely than not find out about this deeper compatibility, or lack thereof, later in your cultivation journey, whereas a specialized cultivation technique, by design, is chosen right at the start of your journey.”
Xu Long was listening intently, absorbing every scrap of information, when he had a sudden thought. “Is that what happened to you?”
Silence, his mother was just looking at him, finally after a few moments of tenseness. “Wu Zhong has a big mouth.”
Wanting to defend the old man a bit, Xu Long plowed on despite his mother’s obvious annoyance at the topic. “He was explaining Xu Xing’s affinity and her uncanny ability to be at the right place at the right time, and was somewhat surprised that I was completely unaware that a major component of the Dao of the Stars is divination and fate. I am sure you can guess where the conversation went from there.”
Sighing, his mother rubbed the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. “I apologize Long’er, this is a sore topic of discussion for me, all of the hardships and misfortunes in my life can be traced back to this one factor. That being said, it is also responsible for the best things in my life, like you, and ultimately my reluctance to talk about it is no excuse to deny you information that you absolutely should have, I imagine that is the reason Wu Zhong decided to tell you.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Your inference is somewhat correct but also not entirely accurate. What you need to understand is that of all these derived cultivation techniques the most powerful are generally the ones that deal with the most rare and high concept forms of qi, and naturally these techniques are closely guarded secrets of those who possess them. Which is nearly universally the large and powerful clans, in fact these techniques are the reason for most of these clans' existence and continued prosperity. With these cultivation techniques being so important to the clan's power, you can imagine the lengths they go to to ensure that a significant proportion of their progeny have the highest chance of a good affinity to the qi that their particular cultivation technique requires. And the trouble that any such progeny who was born with said affinity would have trying to convince anyone that that particular path is not for them.”
Looking a little horrified, Xu Long asked. “You were forced to cultivate stellar qi?”
“Forced is too strong a word, ultimately no one can force another to cultivate, it will not go well, and they will not advance. It is more that I was manipulated and strongly hinted that I didn’t have any choice in the matter due to my affinity and that any misgivings I had about walking that path would go away with time and cultivation.”
Xu Long didn’t feel any better when he heard her answer. “I’m not sure why but that almost feels worse.”
“It is much worse, it is a betrayal of trust from the people you should be able to trust most, and unlike forcing, it can actually work and have consequences over the rest of your life. Had I not been far more extraordinary than they had ever assumed, I would never have made it past Core Formation.”
Xu Long had to smile at his mother’s casual arrogance, because he knew it was true. “I am sorry for bringing it up, Mother.”
“Don’t ever be sorry about asking me questions. Long'er. I had always, and still plan to tell you the full story when you are older, I suppose this tidbit is fine for now considering it is relevant to what we are supposed to be discussing.”
Xu Long had a sheepish grin on his face at the subtle dig at him derailing the lesson.
“To get back to the topic at hand, the end result of all this is that the foundational cultivation technique is largely associated with it’s simplified variant that proliferates through the mortal lands and the derivatives are the domain of the clans and the sects who almost universally practice and endorse the practice of these specialization focused cultivation techniques.
“That brings us, rather handily, to the caveat to all this, which comes about due to a limitation of the derived cultivation techniques, namely that they involve absorbing and refining specific types of qi that are found in nature, and so there cannot exist a derived cultivation technique for forms of qi that do not arise naturally.”
A thoughtful look on his face, Xu Long asked. “You are talking about swords?”
His mother smiled at his question. “Indeed, the sword is a popular weapon in the cultivation world, but like most weapons it is wielded by those who practice many different forms of qi and are thus forced by this to split their focus or paint their Sword Dao with the qi of their cultivation technique. But the sword, unlike most other weapons, is also the domain of a particular and rare type of cultivator that focuses solely on the sword. The cultivation world at large calls them Sword Immortals.”
Xu Long’s ears were buzzing, he could feel it coming when his mother was building her explanation to a point and as soon as he heard her description he knew he would walk that path. But when she said the words Sword Immortal, he felt like something clicked in his mind, like there had been a void where the description of who he was, was supposed to go, human, mortal, cultivator, boy, man, son, brother, friend, they all somewhat fit but they also felt so lacking, so incomplete. Then he heard his mother say the words Sword Immortal and he knew that that is what he will be, what he is.
His mother watching the look on her son's face as she reached the conclusion of her explanation, simply smiled and waited a moment for him to process. After she thought him ready, she waved her hand over the table between them and materialized a rather ornate looking book.
Xu Long awoke from the revelry of his epiphany to look at the book his mother had just put in front of him, on the cover where two simple words embossed in gold, they read Clear Spring.
“Is this what I think it is?” Xu Long asked as he slowly reached out to touch it, seemingly wanting to make sure that it was real.
“Mm-hmm, this is the foundational cultivation technique. I can see that your mind is already made up, Long’er, but I still need to go over just what you are getting yourself into by choosing to go down this path.”
His hand stopped just above the book and he looked up at his mother, then he picked up the book and brought it before him. “That is where you are mistaken, Mother. I am not making a decision today, just learning more about the path that I have always been walking down. So by all means.”
Giving him a small smirk. “You know the first day you picked up a sword, Wu Zhong told me that you were a born Sword Immortal, at the time I thought he just meant that you were a natural with the sword, little did I know that he was being literal.”
Xu Long felt a swell of pride in his chest when he heard Old Wu’s judgment of him at such a young age. He leaned back in his chair, a hand resting on the cover of the cultivation technique that was his future, as he prepared to listen to his mother.
“You have heard the relative advantages of both the foundational cultivation technique and the specialization derivations, in practice what this means though, for the few who cultivate pure qi, is that they are disadvantaged a great deal in combat with their peers. This is especially so in the early realms where the advantages offered by specialization in qi are more pronounced, before they taper off into non-existence much later on the cultivation journey. Then there is the fact that as an aspiring Sword Immortal you also give up one of the main benefits that could at least give you the chance to level the playing field, namely, the freedom and flexibility with regards to arts. In essence you are committing to specialization, and all the disadvantages that brings, while also forfeiting one of the main advantages of said specialization.
“Picture a set of stairs, every step represents your power, everybody, regardless of technique, gets to take a step each time they advance their cultivation. However, those who cultivate a specific type of qi start anywhere from 1 to 3 stairs higher, and every third or fourth step they take with their cultivation they get to take an extra step for free. You can see things can get dire for you relatively quickly. All of those stairs that they are given extra, have to be made up for with your sword, your cultivation technique will only ever give you one step per advancement in your cultivation.”
Taking a pause to ensure that what she was saying had sunk in, all she saw looking back at her was indifferent determination, he did not seem phased at all by her dire pronouncements.
“Something else you need to understand, that I alluded to before, is the fact that there is no natural sword qi, but sword qi certainly exists. It is born through the intent and comprehension of each Sword Immortal, ultimately it cannot be taught, and should you fail to develop your own, not only will you be stalled at the lower realms of cultivation but you will be among the weakest of that cohort by virtue of your chosen cultivation technique.
“I hope you are picking up on the themes that dominate the choice to pursue the path of the Sword Immortal, it is the epitome of ‘all or nothing’ and whether you end up with the ‘all’ or the ‘nothing’ entirely depends on the sword in your hand and how well you both wield it and understand it.”
Xu Long smiled at his mother. “That sounds utterly perfect, shall we begin?”