Chapter 17: Cultivation Plan

Chapter 17: Cultivation Plan Gen, learn from this, but do not copy this madness. Forgive me, senior, he told the man after I explained a bit more. It seems very complex, Gen replied, and Wen Xue shook his head. This is beyond complex. This is something that no one would ever dare attempt. One mistake, one error, and it will be a disaster. What senior Yuan Zhou has done is go beyond in every area. To push the boundaries of what is possible. The research and knowledge he develops will either change how future disciples cultivate or will be a warning for others who think to take this path, Wen Xue explained. It is risky, I know that. But I believe I have a handle on everything but the fourth stage. But I wanted to get both of your advice on certain aspects of my plan, specifically doing partial alignment to quickly lock in the motes before aligning them fully for the second stage, I explained. It is not possible, Wu Changying said. I turned towards her. If a mote isnt fully aligned, the alignment degrades quickly. It was something I considered as well. How quickly? I asked. About a year. With fewer motes, it might be possible to partially align them all and then proceed, but you wouldnt save time. With as many motes as you have, it would be impossible, she replied. I see, I said with a nod. That wasnt good. There was silence at that. Well, it is something I will figure out, regardless. I have some other ideas that might work for aligning motes quickly. I would use free motes to pin a mote in place so that way it didnt disrupt the rest of the motes as it was aligned. Like forming a shield wall. If that didnt work, then I would be in actual trouble. What about elemental attunement? I was considering earth, That would be a good choice. That and water are the easiest to take in energy from the surroundings, but the resources you will need would be immense, Wu Changying explained. In the sect manual at the back, there is a list of prices. You would need one earth attuned pill per channel. Each of those costs 500 sect points. I was thinking if there would be other elements? I asked, and Wen Xue let out a groan. Other elements? Where would you get the energy? People have tried weird things, but straying from the common ones is a bad idea, he said. Even if you find a resource, you would need to refine it. That takes the most time. Most people either use spirit rock or spirit water and refine that energy to form their channels. Anyone can carve channels quickly, but you need that elemental attunement for dao understanding when you form your true soul. If you dont have that, then your cultivation path would end quickly in the later stages, Wu Changying explained. How does the refining work exactly? I asked. You would draw in the elemental energy to drill out your channels. There is a level of quality, but it cant be measured easily either. That is why it is rarely discussed, but a cultivator can feel if a channel is elementally attuned. From my understanding, there are five grades of attunement. Standard, which is the least people can do. Aligned, which is optimal, and you can sense the elemental attunement lock in. Aligned is what most aim for. But after that is Focused, where your energy unconsciously will take on aspects of the element and the element will bleed into your core from your channels. Then there is Attuned, which is where all techniques you use will be based on that element, but are much stronger once you reach the fourth stage. This is the stage needed to use a valve structure and use techniques. Allowing the energy to flow through the walls of your channels, back as you need it. Finally, there is Perfect, which is where you will get physical benefits leaking over from the element. I had seen those terms before, but it was nice to have a concise summary. But it isnt like Qi Pills, where you can just swallow more to make progress. You would need a higher quality pill or material. Those would be more expensive. If all your channels arent at a certain level, then you will be unbalanced, which causes issues for the fourth stage. I see. The tomes in the library did not mention all of this, I said. Because it is considered common knowledge and covered by the lectures in the next few days. No one goes beyond Aligned for elemental attunement. And using something non-standard would mean there would be no pills to purchase. That means you would have to find something to refine, in your case, a mountain of things to refine, she replied. Also, triangular channels are odd. How will you drill them? You cant drill a triangular hole. I heard Gen bite back a laugh at that. Shut up, you idiot. And that is not even considering the fourth stage. The amount of energy you would require filling up your cores is immense. The cost is so mind-boggling that I feel sick thinking about it. Wu Changying finished her rant, huffing a bit. The granny that didnt look like a granny clearly had some powerful feelings. Well, I have faith I can work things out. Any advice on my meridian design on what would be best? I asked. The hexagon choice is the most stable, but since you clearly want the most outlandish option possible, then you need an inverse wave cone design for your meridian, she said. She went over to my desk and picked up a blank piece of paper I had set down in the stack I had brought with me. She quickly sketched out a ripple patterned cone. A nightmare to construct, but it allows for the maximum capture of energy into your channels. The horizontal wave pattern is for you to vibrate slightly to force the energy inside your channels. But the motes needed are far higher compared to your basic hexagon pattern to develop the wave structure. Thank you Wu Changying. I will have to investigate this. What about valves on the core? I asked. Dont do it, and no one has come up with a temporary valve, since you want to be constantly drawing in energy. People have tried pressure chambers between the core and their channels, but those couldnt gain more pressure than the channels provided, and you cant have valves as part of your soul you turn on and off. You will need to reach the level of Attuned, which is normally impossible for a regular cultivator, but with your valve structure, you will need that to use techniques, she explained. Complex mechanisms do not work when constructing with motes, she said. I nodded at this. Well, there is the option of staggered channel valves, Wen Xue said. Everyone looked at him and he cleared his throat before continuing. You place valves along your channels with increasing stiffness towards the core. Once your channel has enough energy, it will push into the next part of the channel, he explained. It prevents backflow and helps level out the energy intake into a core. The trouble is constructing all those valves and the initial pressure to push through the first one. That is why it was never deemed as workable, he replied. With the number of channels you have, the number of valves would be immense. But three valves, one near the meridian, one at the core, and one at the midway point. The hard part is setting up the resistances for each without testing beforehand. You cant test, which is why no one does it. One mistake and they are worthless, or you cant take in energy. That is why if you use valves, you will need at least ten on each channel from the least resistance, with each one a step up incrementally, Wu Changying said. Yes, but ten is excessive, oh never mind. Yes, it would be optimal for your aims, Wen Xue said. I didnt know if I should be thankful or offended. Ten would be the optimal number to get the pressure you are aiming for. The best valve design is the four fold locking mechanism. It easily opens and closes without issue but is complex, Wu Changying said and drew out a diagram for me. I looked it over. It would easily take 80 motes to construct. At 1,302 channels and 10 valves each, that would mean another 104,160 motes. The meridian inverse cone design would up the mote count from 18 per meridian to 300. That was 367,164 more motes. So about 471,000 motes total. That was about two years more of work, but it was doable. About 471,000 more motes. That is doable in two years, I replied. Senior Yuan Zhou, please dont take this the wrong way, but with these designs, you will not even get past the second stage, Wen Xue said. I understand, and will confirm these plans with Elder Li Fu, but I thank you both for your advice. This has been a tremendous help to several problems, I replied. Wu Changying just shook her head. The elemental plan is nothing special, but the resources you need will be immense. If you make it to the fourth stage with Focused level channels and meridians, then you will struggle to fill up your cores. If you wish to complete the cores before you die of old age, then you would need Attuned level channels and meridians with an abundant amount of resources. Earth is possible. But even there, you will struggle. The questions you had on using another element concern its abundance. There are sects who cultivate the air element or fire element, but they struggle to get the energy necessary. One does not easily handle fire and air is thin. As for more esoteric options. They are risky and the heavens would truly favor you to find a new one that works. Elders have looked long and hard for their disciples and descendants, but it is not something easily done. We align energy with the physical world. The new element idea you had might work slightly, but you would require a focusing chamber for such a thing. The cost of those is not cheap or undertaken lightly. Still, there is the barest possibility of potential there to use a force element. The only truly impressive thing and innovation is your idea to use other motes to pin the mote that is being aligned. If that works and you share it with the sect before your death, then I will award you 1,000 sect points. My eyes went wide at that. Thank you, Elder Li Fu, I bowed towards him. Dont get me wrong, disciple. I think what you're doing is madness and foolishness, but it will provide more insight for disciples after you. But a faster way for all to cultivate, shared before your death merits a reward. Everything else would be unique to you and a cultivation choice, not a universal method. I nodded at this. That made sense. Increasing the power of the sect was important to increase the chances of an immortal rising through their ranks. Also, this amused me. I rarely see something so interesting and so well presented. You can keep your sect points for this meeting, Elder Li Fu said. I bowed again and thanked him as he left. I packed up everything and returned to my room. He was clearly being nice and favoring me. I suspected he might hope that I succeeded or got far. If I did, it would be an enormous boon to the sect in just knowledge alone. They wouldnt feed me resources, but they were content to make my journey as easy as possible. Or perhaps Master Yi Rong had more pull than I first thought. Regardless, my cultivation plan had been signed off on. I wouldnt need to have a meeting after a year. While it was a checkup, it was also a chance for members to meet with new disciples and make sure they didnt have their heads up their ass. Paying for Elder Li Fu had been a way to skip ahead. But now I had 100 sect contribution points, which I planned to keep. What I really needed to do was to work out how to carve triangular channels. Time to throw out everything in my head and start again. I needed a wedge shape to hit the corners. So, the tip needed to be curved. Oh, I had been such an idiot. I realized the answer as I traced my finger over the wooden triangle in front of me. The cutting wedge would be oval shaped with pointed ends. The length would stretch from one end of the triangle to the other. As the blade turned around, it would also rotate about the center of the triangle. I got a piece of paper and carefully cut out the shape. I slowly rotated it around the block and laughed. The cutting blade spun around, and it also spun around the center of the circle at the same time. There were two types of spinning. That took care of the drill design for the third stage. I still needed to figure out a way to get a high quantity and quality of materials to attune to the element I chose and then the fourth stage. I had thought of using force or gravity as my element since it was everywhere. Elder Li Fu had pointed out there was no such thing as gravity or force materials. And even if there were, there would be no pills. I would blaze an alternative path. Other people had attempted something similar but made no progress and were forced to abandon it. The hardest part was getting started, but a focusing chamber to crush me might allow me to feel force type energy on my astral soul. Force energy was everywhere in my estimation, but the trick was harnessing enough quantities for my channels and meridians. It was time to visit the formation hall and learn about manipulating energy outside of cultivation. There was also the alchemy hall. Cultivators could pay sect contribution points to get materials for study and purchase supplies there. The basic materials were free, along with a bunch of basic literature. But anything more recent that had been written had a charge associated with it. Those sect contribution points went into the pocket who had written the book. I needed nothing recent, even if there were recent developments, since I needed to learn the basics. I spent several days reading through various formation books and it was complicated. A formation used sigils that resonated with energy itself in unique ways. All formations had an activation requirement, an effect, and then an ending. The activation requirement was the hard part. There were various materials, lists and lists of them. One needed the formation foundation material, the sigil writing liquid or material, and the sigils could change based on what you were using. Anyone could get an effect, but the real masters could get a lot for very little. That ratio decided a persons rank in formation crafting. A one-to-one ratio was considered poor, and they considered a five to one ratio apprentice rank. A ten to one ratio was master rank. And they considered a twenty to one ratio grandmaster rank. It got harder and harder to squeeze out energy and use it in the way one wanted in an efficient manner. Then there were numerous ways of measuring output. The standard test was with a basic light formation and then a formation of your own design to get certified with a rank by the formation hall. The real challenge was getting experience and materials to work with. That is where the costs started coming into play. Formations werent cheap and formation masters had invested in getting to that standard. But once someone was a master, then they would be hired to do things like security and privacy formations in the sect. Even more esoteric formations like the soul reflecting chamber required upkeep. An effect would also have a boundary of some kind. Getting a clean boundary was another sign of mastery. As for the ending, the less explosive it was, the more impressive you were. Masters could have formations collapse without explosions. There seemed to be a high risk of explosions with formations. I just needed one type of formation to do something specific. I went to the clerk of the formation hall. Greetings. How can I help you? the woman asked after seeing the symbol on my robe, which was the same as hers. I am here to set up a consultation meeting. I am looking for a specific formation to be made and wanted the idea of the possible costs and effectiveness of the formation. Specifically, creating an area with increased downwards pull, I said. Just the consultation? she asked. Yes, I dont have a good idea on what something like that would cost and wanted to speak to either an apprentice or a master. I would then consider purchasing the design, but I would need to hear the cost first. There is a difference between 10 sect points and 1,000 sect points, I said. Of course. Masters normally consult for 50 sect contribution points, while an apprentice would consult for 5 points. I want to set up two meetings then, one with a master and one with an apprentice, I explained. I can make the arrangements. Together or separately? Separately please, I said, trying to resist rolling my eyes at that question. I wanted at least two different opinions. If they varied by a lot, then I would get a third consultation. The appointments were made, and I left the formation hall. I didnt have the time or mental energy to work on formations. That was why I was going to look into contracting the work out. The meeting with Elder Li Fu had gone well, so I was optimistic that this would be a good way to get some quick answers to some important questions. There was no rush either, which was important. I didnt need to decide on my element until the third stage so I could afford to wait and planned to. I really wanted to see if a force chamber to generate force energy was viable.