Calculating Cultivation

I was brought into the same operating room that the Sect Leader and Elder Healer Meihui had put the astral soul stabilizer into my body. Elder Li Fu and Elder Liu Chen were both there as well. I got up on the operating table and laid down.

“The essence has a slight instability,” the Sect Leader said while he held up a large vial of glowing red liquid. He then passed it around to the other elders who took a look.

“It required that instability, in order to increase the potency from the sample I was given,” Elder Liu Chen replied without hesitation or concern. “It should work. His soul is remarkably stable. Also, the decreased stability of the sample is optimal for allowing a triple path. The Pill of Peace will handle the resulting effects.”

“That would lock him into that path, but it is no matter,” the Sect Leader said. I wanted to speak up, but I didn’t have the authority or right to even question medical decisions made on my behalf. That was the bad thing about having to work with old fossils. I hated it, but if I wanted their help, then I had no choice.

“Well, he has managed to get a third of the required ingredients. I am sure he will figure out the last two,” Elder Li Fu said. I was going to succeed. I was on this path, and I couldn’t get off.

“My concern is the implantation process. It needs to be fused with his physical body,” Elder Healer Meihui said and looked over me. “The research on such a procedure is limited.”

“But it is possible?” the Sect Leader asked her. That seemed like a good thing to figure before I was laying on the operating table.

“It is,” Elder Liu Chen resolutely declared.

“The concern are his organs. The risk of organ failure is something I haven’t found a way to mitigate. It could lead to long term complications from the essence itself,” Elder Healer Meihui countered. That seemed like an important issue.

“His cultivation should be able to handle the strain? Lesser cultivators undergo this procedure?” the Sect Leader asked.

“With more stable refined rank 6 beast essence. This is well made, but incredibly volatile,” she gestured at the vial the Sect Leader was holding that seemed to pulse with red light. “You couldn’t have made it more stable?” she turned and asked Elder Liu Chen.

“It wasn’t possible. The blood needed to be stimulated heavily and then the essence gathered from it. Any less stimulation and such a harvest would not be possible,” he replied calmly and directly.

“The stress on his physical body will be immense, even with his cultivation,” Elder Healer Meihui countered.

“A pill?” the Sect Leader asked her.

“Might offset the issue slightly, but the problem is also, that the beast used isn’t dead. Until it is killed and its spirit dispersed, it is not a sound procedure,” Elder Healer Meihui said and there was silence at that. I did not like the idea of an enemy for no reason. I should have insisted that the Sect Leader find other rank 6 refined beast essence, but it was too late now. I wanted an advantage later on.

“The Pill of Peace will give him time. The instability and the lingering resentment are minor issues. Just think what impact it could have on a martial Dao. That is much more important,” Elder Liu said with excitement.

“What do you think Yuan Zhou?” Elder Li turned to ask me along with everyone else.

“Will I live, and will these issues be permanent?” I asked.

“Live yes. But the instability will force untold stress on your organs. Including your mind. The best outcome would be you killing the rank 6 beast, which would fully suppress any issues. Normally the Sect Leader would have done such a task, but then there would have been long term hidden dangers, that would surge up once he died. Using the essence of a beast you injured and will one day kill sorts that hidden danger out. What cultivator in the Foundation Establishment stage can fight a 6 sixth rank beast and live?” Elder Li Fu shook his head as he explained.

“The beast essence will enhance your body, but it will also surge to try and corrupt you. The inherited memories will batter against your mind and war with your soul. The beast must die before you attempt to break through the bottleneck. If you get close enough, you will sense each other. If someone else kills it, then you taking the blood will counter things hopefully, but we cannot say. Your organs will be under a great amount of strain, but with your cultivation and the astral soul stabilizer you won’t die, but there will be pain,” Elder Li Fu finished explaining.

“Then it is fine. I can’t stop now? Can I?” I asked. The old monsters all shook their heads. I could technically stop, but then my cultivation would have issues. Their time and energy investing into something like this was not simple. It wasn’t peer pressure, but elder pressure. “Then let’s move forward with the beast essence.”

“Very well, but he will need a Calming and Restorative Pills just in case,” Elder Healer Meihui looked at the Sect Leader.

“I will pay for twenty each, and no more. He will have to regulate their use carefully,” the Sect Leader said.

“Then I have no more objections. The blood will be placed directly into his heart. Hold him down,” the Healer said. I felt hands clamp down on my body and keep me pinned to the table. “This will hurt quite a bit.” She dragged a finger along my chest, causing it to open around my heart.

I closed my eyes since I didn’t want to watch. “Needle. Let’s attach the vial. Good. Now the injection,” she said. That was when I heart felt like it would burst out of my chest.

“Ahhh!” I screamed.

“Now to just close him up. And done,” Elder Healer Meihui said.

“You went with the heart, not the bones, interesting,” Elder Liu said.

“The bones might produce blood, but this is essence. Since the astral soul stabilizer is in his lower torso, having the heart act as a focal point for the essence will allow him to calm himself and strengthen his physicality. The Pill of Peace will impact the mind,” she explained.

“Oh, how interesting. I can see how that would be much more interesting than trying integrate it into his bones. And allow more direct control over the essence. A good choice, I would say and there are case studies, so not a complete unknown. Too bad we didn’t put the astral soul stabilizer and essence in his mind.”

“The inherited memories would destroy him,” the Sect Leader said.

“Perhaps, but we could have done all three procedures at once. If he didn’t explode, it would have been amazing,” Elder Liu said.

“Are you okay Yuan Zhou?” Elder Li asked me.

“I…my heart feels like it wants to explode. It is beating so fast. My blood is pounding in my ears,” I replied.

“Enforced meditation and no pills for at least ten days. If he starts taking any pills at the start, then he will never manage the essence,” Elder Healer Meihui said. They all began removing their hands from me. There was no blood on my chest. Cultivation surgery was a lot more barbaric and advanced at the same time compared to Earth surgery.

It was over in a few minutes, but they didn’t put the person to sleep they were operating on. I wanted to go for their throats and rip them out. Why did I think that? I rubbed my head.

“Problem?” the Sect Leader asked me.

“I was thinking I should leap at and rip out your throats,” I explained.

“Inherited memories. No matter what, don’t draw on them, no matter how much you think you will gain insight. Anyone who has attempted that, has died horribly or gone mad. We are not beasts,” the Sect Leader said.

“Yes, Sect Leader. I think I should meditate and adjust,” I replied.

“First, align a mote with your body, since that was the entire purpose of this, just one,” the Sect Leader said. I focused on a mote I would use to build a body channel. I focused on pushing it to align with my body. The opposite direction of aligning it with my soul. I felt it snap into place. My heart surged and I gasped.

Elder Healer Meihui slapped a hand on my forehead and another on my chest. “The essence is surging.”

“Interesting, interesting. Beasts practice an offshoot of body cultivation. Or the paths are similar enough to cause a reaction. Align a mote with your soul,” Elder Liu said, and the Sect Leader nodded at this. I did this and there were no issues or feeling like my heart was going to explode.

“The pushback of body cultivation is being channeled into his heart. The bones might have been better,” Elder Healer Meihui said. That wasn’t good!

“It is fine. He is young and his cultivation is strong. But no more than one mote at a time for Body cultivation. Only 170,000 motes will be aligned with the Body method. So not that bad. He will just have to cultivate them diligently. Once he has the Pill of Peace he can speed up. It only took a two minutes to align one body mote, so he can go quickly regardless,” Elder Liu said. That was less than two years of focused cultivating.

“You are dismissed disciple. Meditate for ten days, no cultivation. Then you may cultivate as you see fit. I will give you your pills then. I am also commanding you to practice your martial stances every day. Just as aligning motes with your soul enhances your soul. Aligning motes with your body will enhance your body. Ensure that you understand your strength,” the Sect Leader command.

“Yes, Sect Leader,” I said, and they left.

I got changed and made my way to a meditation room inside the Sect Leader’s home. A plain stone underground chamber, with no light. I would leave to use the bathroom and get food but spent all my time in the dark stone meditation room. It wasn’t enforced isolation or meditation.

During this time, I focused on trying to still my heart. It wanted to get excited at the slightest stimulus. Once my ten days were up, I had some semblance of control. When I practiced using my sword, it was much harder to stop getting over excited as I felt my blood rush through me. Everything felt clearer, and easier to do.

“Catch,” Martial Elder Lei tossed me a wooden training sword. I caught it easily and then I put my actual blade away. “We are going to spar. Go all out,” he told me.

I nodded at this and raised the practice sword at him. He had a practice sword as well. I hadn’t sparred before with him. Since my goal wasn’t to fight other cultivators, but beasts. Fighting beasts was about precision and just hitting them. They had no defense besides their body.

But cultivators were different and harder to defeat. I stepped forward and began attacking Martial Elder Lei. He casually blocked my attacks. I felt angrier and angrier. How dare he block me! I kept going and going, my form getting sloppier, but I had to hit him. I took bigger and bigger risks, leaving myself open to a counter attack but I didn’t care. I couldn’t care.

“Bah!” I let out a gasp when he drove the tip of his wooden sword into my gut. I went tumbling to the ground. I was suddenly pinned to the ground with muscled arms pushing down on my shoulders. “Let me go! I will kill you!” I roared out. I was slapped across the face and my head went into a daze.

“I…what…” I didn’t understand what just had happened. The hands released me, and Martial Elder Lei got up.

“The Sect Leader was concerned this would happen. Refined beast essence is risky for this very reason. While you fought with the power of a stage 3 cultivator, your sword technique quickly degraded to that of a mewling babe. Beasts do not have sword techniques. Their instincts are incompatible with yours.” I nodded at this as I slowly got up.

“I lost control in the first minute,” I muttered.

“The good news, is that you recognized it and snapped out. Better to learn this here than out in the wilderness. If you must fight, then you will need to take a Calming Pill.” Pain then went through my body and I collapsed to my knees. Blood began to leak out of my mouth. “And a Restorative Pill.” I quickly took one of each. My heart calmed down and my body began to feel better.

“It only happened during the spar. Can I train to not succumb to the essence?” I asked.

“Yes, but it isn’t worthwhile for the time it would take. You have 19 more chances with the pills you have.” They were kind of expensive, only a rank 3 beast core each. My sense of wealth was completely messed up. The main issue was that the pills would become less effective the more I took. After the first 20 I would have to start taking two of each at once to get enough of an effect. That would risk poisoning and damaging my cultivation.

“Any way I can break out of that state on my own?” I asked.

“No. That is why it is incredibly dangerous. No more fighting, unless it can’t be helped. That includes hunting beasts. Once you have the Pill of Peace, then the issue should be resolved for a long time,” I nodded at this.

“Thank you, Martial Elder Lei,” I said and bowed.

“Well, you fought a rank 6 beast, lived, and even wounded it. Consider myself impressed. Also, if the Sect manages to grow blue moon orchids, then they can be used to enhance cultivator’s ability to use more advanced techniques safely. It will allow us to increase our martial power. And don’t worry, you will get the same benefit from the Pill of Peace, even better than just using the blue moon orchid in isolation.” I nodded at this and was dismissed.

It seemed the elders’ opinions of me had improved quite a bit. I guess coming back a second time with resources would do that. The flower was a rank 6 treasure, which implied it could be used up to the sixth stage of cultivation.

Now I just had the red sun rose, and much harder to get, green ocean lily. The first I could purchase from the Blazing Sun Sect, but the second was something that was rarely found. Well, it was time to go one of the two places where all cultivation ingredients eventually made their way to, Imperial City, the home of the Imperial Sect and immortals.

I stopped in Half Moon City before leaving. It was time to speak to someone I hadn’t spoken to in a long time. I made my way to middle class homes in the city. They were nice, but nothing compared to the family estate I grew up on.

Knocking on the door early in the morning, I heard movement behind it. “One moment,” a deep male voice said. Then it was pulled open. My fourth brother was standing in front of me. His once prodigious bulk had faded and he looked tired and worn.

“Master Cultivator,” he said and bowed deeply after seeing my robe. He knew who I was, but insulting me would be courting death.

“I have come to speak to you and your wife fourth brother,” I replied to Yuan Niu. He got a pinched look on his face. “Is there a problem?” I asked.

“She ran away,” he said. “Come in. Tea?” he asked me as he led me to the kitchen, and I took a seat at the table.

“Who did she run away with?” I asked.

“To another city. I went to retrieve her, but the caravan was attacked by a rank 3 beast. She was eaten.” I froze up at that. “She was upset that I wasn’t rich, and she didn’t have the lifestyle she envisioned. She wanted to run back to Imperial City.”

“Her name was Hou Jiaying, daughter of Hou Guiren?” I asked to confirm.

“Yes. A letter was already sent to him, letting him know of her death and the events that happened,” my fourth brother said as he poured me some tea. “I was an idiot brother.” I opened my mouth and then closed it.

He had still stolen 80,000 taels from me and basically pissed them into the wind. I had come here hoping to use his wife as a connection to Imperial City, but clearly it was closed off. “You are forgiven,” I told him.

“But not forgotten,” he added, and I nodded at this.

“I will not be able to trust you with business ever again, or any money,” I told him and he nodded at this and sipped his tea.

“I understand. I won’t beg. I have a decent life. I handle various work crews that repair buildings in the city. What about you? I heard rumors that you became the personal disciple of the Sect Leader?” he asked me.

“I have brother. It started with being tossed into the astral plane to certain death in order to fix my cultivation,” I told him of my adventures as I drank disgusting tea. I sipped it to be polite and to heal old wounds.

After an hour, he had to go to work and was already a bit late. I walked with him to his job, to give him some face and gave him a head nod in goodbye in front of his co-workers. That would hopefully make things easier on him. After that I visited my family members and checked on my company.

There were no issues. Everyone was doing quite well, but people were looking older. My nieces and nephews were growing up quickly. There was one meeting that was more important than all the rest combined.

“Brother,” my sister, a grown woman, greeted me. “Still taller,” she said with a grin. I rolled my eyes.

“Indeed, sister. But nothing compared to the massive beasts I have battled in the wilderness,” I replied.

“Yao Zhou greets Master Cultivator,” her son quickly bowed deeply and formally. I was 30 years old, and her kid was 9 years old.

“Yao Lan greets Master Cultivator,” her 7 year old daughter greeted me as well.

“They are cute,” I replied.

“I was thinking Yao Zhou would become a cultivator. She shows diligence and patience,” my sister said.

“And your son?” I asked.

“He will be heir to the Yao family if he works hard.” She looked at her son.

“Yes mother, I won’t let you down,” he said. She smiled and gave him a hug. Yao Lan was looking at me nervously.

“Well you have the funds to pay for her gathering motes,” I replied.

“To get started. I was hoping you fund her entire cultivation,” my sister said.

“And the Yao family, your husband?” I asked, since he wasn’t around.

“They want me to have another son and have them become a cultivator. But Yao Yan, can do it,” her mother said. I turned to the child in question.

“Yao Yan, cultivation is a long and hard journey. Don’t look at your mother. Are you truly serious about wanting to cultivate. Your mother chose to get married. You have options, other than cultivation,” I told her.

“I…I want to be a cultivator!” she proudly declared. The sheer cuteness even impacted my ice cold heart. I nodded at this declaration.

“Then let it be witnessed as a declaration to the heavens and the earth!” I declared with a sweeping gesture. My sister let out a giggle.

“So dramatic brother,” she said with a smile.

“Of course. She will have to work for it on her own.” I reached out and pulled out a rank 3 spirit stone from one of my spatial rings. “This is rank 3 spirit stone, worth 100,000 tael.” I tossed it at my sister who had to scramble a bit to catch it.

“Thank you brother,” she told me.

“I won’t help her out any more. I am still a disciple. When she enters the sect, I might be at the third stage of cultivation, but not the fourth. I cannot take her as a disciple and…there might be complications later on.”

“I am sure you will overcome them brother. Thank you. I wanted to give her a future that was closed to me,” she said.

“What?” I asked. “I would have helped you as well,” I replied.

“No brother, you did nothing wrong. I just don’t have the temperament for cultivation. But for her, it is a question of resources,” my sister explained.

“If there are any issues, send the letter to the sect. I am sure the Sect Leader will be paying attention,” I said.

“Nothing will happen, it is just… I want the best for my kids,” my sister said. I never had children, so I didn’t know. But it was understandable. “Thank you, brother.”

“Thank you, Master Cultivator,” the kids chorused.

“I will be gone once more. I already said my goodbyes to mother and father. But I am heading on another journey to Imperial City to get cultivation supplies,” I explained.

“I know you will succeed. You are the genius blessed by the heavens,” my sister said. With goodbyes said, I left her portion of the estate. A caravan would be too slow.

As I left the city, I noticed that the farmer Jian’s fields were filled with peppers. I smiled at the sight and the days I had spent wandering them to collect motes. I didn’t stop but kept running. I reached the outer city gate and passed without incident.

I switched out of my sect robe to travel clothes and put my sword on my back. My sect badge was hung on a metal chain around my neck as a necklace. My spatial rings were hidden under my shirt. Carrying a sword was one thing, but the rings would hint at wealth. I carried a small pack to make people think I didn’t have spatial rings.

It was time to see what the high-ranking sects were like, conduct business, and get rich. I rushed down the road towards the next city, while aligning a single mote to my body. Running along the road helped me focus as my heart beat furiously.

While I wanted to know more about the choice to put the essence into my heart, and not my bones, I had to pick and choose my battles. A lot of these choices had to do with the higher ranks of cultivation. Studying them was pointless for me, according to the Sect Leader. I had to get there and even if I did, my cultivation would be something that had never been seen before.

That was why I had to trust the instincts and research of the elders. Trying to understand anything after the first bottleneck was pointless until I crossed the bottleneck alive. Otherwise, it was just time I could be spending to try and get past the bottleneck instead.

It made sense but was annoying that I wasn’t able to make several decisions on my own. But the Sect Leader had made it clear, that while they were looking out for my best interests in terms of cultivation, that what I had done was so outside the norm, that insights of still living cultivators were needed to ensure I had some hope at the later stages.

I quickly went from one city to the next, sleeping in the wilderness. My pace was far faster than any carriage could travel. The occasional beast I ran across was easy enough to kill. Even though it got my heart pumping heavily each time and I got a headache from killing the beasts. The inherited memories were trying to leash me.

Beasts had a lot of innate instincts, like not killing each other. The essence inside of me was acting up, each time I struck down a beast and became more restless. Thankfully the fights were so quick, I didn’t succumb to a maddened state. It was a struggle sometimes and five times I had to take pills to heal the internal damage and calm down.

It took a year of hard traveling to finally arrive at the outer wall of the Imperial City. At least my spatial rings made things a lot easier during my travels. Unlike other cities, the sect was based in the center of the city, and the outer walls had a cultivator at them.

A glance at the cultivator showed they were in the second stage. I had put on my sect robes for my arrival. The outer walls were twice the height and appeared to be twice the thickness of other cities’ walls.

“Greetings cultivator, I am Zhong Hu, outer disciple of the Imperial Sect,” he said calmly with a soft smile but didn’t bow his head. The arrogance was quite strong, but even with my standing I was nothing to the Imperial Sect. Even their second stage outer disciples did not lower their heads to personal disciples of other sects.

“Greetings Zhong Hu of the fabled Imperial Sect. I am Yuan Zhou. Personal Disciple of Sect Leader Jiang Fengge of the Cloudy Moon Sect,” I replied. I also didn’t bow my head.

“Give me one moment to confirm your identity,” he said and pulled out a large book from a spatial ring. The casual display of wealth was clearly a sign that I was now in the big leagues. A nearby caravan had arrived and was being handled by the mortal soldiers.

“Your master is listed as an ally of the Imperial Sect and the Cloudy Moon Sect is listed in good standing,” Zhong Hu said and put the book away. “This means there is no entry fee for you into Imperial City. Are you familiar with the rules?” he asked me.

“I would appreciate being reminded of them,” I said and Zhong Hu nodded at this.

“Very well. No violence. No techniques. No disturbing the peace. No theft. No insulting the immortals or the Imperial Sect. If you wish to converse with members of the Imperial Sect, then you need to submit an application which will be reviewed. Any questions?”

“And if I wanted to sell goods, or start a business?” I asked. Zhong Hu gave me a smile that reminded me of a shark that was about to eat a tiny little fish.

“You are more than welcome to. But selling or manufacturing cultivator goods requires a permit for each activity,” he replied.

“And how would I go about getting a permit?” I asked.

“Just one rank 3 spirit coin is enough for each permit,” he casually said. “And before you object, this price is one set by the Imperial Sect itself and will last for a 100 years. A wise investment for an aspiring cultivator.”

“And you can sell such things to me?” I asked surprised and suspicious.

“No. You will have to go to the Coinage Guild for such a thing. Oh, if you want identity papers, that will require a fee,” he said.

“I am guessing I need such papers to get these permits,” I replied.

“Of course. We can’t have any riff raff selling junk in Imperial City. We have standards.”

“How much?” I asked resignedly.

“Only one rank 1 spirit coin.” This time I flexed a bit and reached into my sleeve. A trick I had practiced on my trip and used my spatial ring to pull out a rank 1 spirit coin.

“Easily done,” I said and tossed it over to Zhong Hu who caught it. His eyes went wide at such a casual display. He really looked at me for the first time and seemed to realize how young I was. He inclined his head the smallest of fractions.

“I will get your papers right away Yuan Zhou.” After that I got my papers and was let through the outer walls. There was a small town at the gate, which supported the massive fields. The buildings reminded me of modern buildings. They were all made of concrete and glass, four or five stories tall. And this was just a town on the outer edge of Imperial City.

The first thing I needed to do was to meet up with Zheng Ting. It didn’t take long to find an information broker, paying out 100 tael, I got her address. She was based in the middle ring of Imperial City. They had streamlined even this, since she purchased property, her name was recorded. Any of the other plans to meet up weren’t needed thankfully since the issue could be resolved very quickly.

I hired a fast rickshaw for 500 tael. A cultivator pulled the rickshaw, which was surprising. But for the cost it made sense. I didn’t want to waste two days, with a regular carriage, and a rickshaw could enter the middle portion of Imperial City without issue. I was a bit impatient, and the amount of money was nothing to me.

Only in Imperial City could such a thing occur. Wealth was everything here. If you were poor and needed money to cultivate, then you struggled. I also noted the amount of motes in the air was lower than other locations.

As I was pulled to Imperial City, I saw the gleaming towers in the distance. My heart seized up in my chest. This was a modern city. The outer village was a clue. But seeing massive skyscrapers dominate the central portion of the city, with smaller buildings in the middle ring, was shocking.

When so much of the world lived in squalor and was so behind, the sheer breathtaking nature of Imperial City showed that I was a frog at the bottom of the well glimpsing the sun for the first time. A ramp led up to a gate that was situated in the middle of the wall into the middle portion of the city. There was no issue entering and I was quickly taken to where Zheng Ting was.