Calculating Cultivation

I sat in the chamber cultivating. Slowly digging out my channels. When I had first restarted decades ago, it had been really difficult at first, but then quite easy. My soul was a bit softer than it was before. The venom had done work.

Day after day, year after year, decade after decade, I slowly carved out my channels, gates, and meridians, one by one. The Displacement Channel Carver, quickly helping me progress through the process.

The chamber itself was very similar to the one back in the Cloudy Moon Sect, but in a building instead of underground. Also built with metal instead of stone. But the small size, the metal table to lay on, and the darkness were all familiar to me.

I had a lot of time to think while I was cultivating. While the process wasn’t mindless, there were certain parts that required less focus than others. After repeating them several times, I could afford to let my mind wander slightly as I thought about other things.

Like how long cultivation took. While I was gaining life, it was incredibly slow. After the first decade, I felt mentally drained, but forced myself to keep going. There was no shortcut to this part of the process. Well there was a shortcut, the Displacement Channel Carver, but there was no way to get a greater shortcut in the third stage of cultivation.

It didn’t feel like a shortcut with how many channels I had to carve out. While I had headaches about my cultivation, it never felt as tedious as it did right now. At least with the second stage I could be out and about doing other things. But I needed the force energy rich environment in order to attune my channels and meridians.

I could feel the energy seeping in as my cultivation progressed, becoming more attuned with the concept of Force. While I knew it from a technical standpoint, and could feel force on me, I was becoming much more sensitive to this type of energy.

It was a slow process, as I became more in tune of with the energy. Even my sight began to improve. I could see incredibly thin lines of energy drifting through the air, like spider webbing. I could still see the motes of Qi, and feel the energy of the world, but I began to see it.

As my cultivation progressed, I could see the lines of energy in the chamber. Think structured lines flowing all over the place. These lines would be drawn into my channels, and I could feel the energy sinking into my channels. It was a slow process, but there wasn’t anything else to do, but think and feel the energy around me while cultivating.

Over time, I could work out that most of the energy was Force energy. During the few moments I left the chamber, I saw other lines of energy floating about. There were different colors and feelings to them. These wisps of energy were what decided my level of attunement. Regular cultivators would only struggle to pull in a few wisps of their desired type of energy and there might be other types as well.

The thick concentration of energy inundating me, was what allowed me to have perfect attunement and keep up my rapid base. I could see strands breaking apart and others floating out of the chamber. Even with all the knowledge and ability the Imperial Sect had, there was a limit to their capability. My eyes that could see energy still reigned supreme.

Looking at the energy floating around was a magical experience. But like any experience, it quickly began to wear thin, and lost its appeal after a decade. This was why cultivators struggled. While cultivators were expected to endure long periods of cultivation, it was mind numbing. There was nothing I could do to speed things up. I also couldn’t afford to risk my cultivation.

At least with the fourth stage, it would be far easier to use items to get drops to fuel my cultivation. I would need a lot of resources, but at least I wouldn’t be stuck in a chamber decade after decade. The previous sessions of cultivation felt like nothing compared to what I had to endure. If one didn’t have the mentality of an aesthetic monk, there was no chance of progressing.

I could also see why people would become demonic cultivators. Just kill to become stronger. No sitting around for decades at a time. The tedium wore down on me.

Another thing I experienced was the ever increasing awareness of every portion of my body as my cultivation cut through my soul. My cultivation was so thick and dense, my entire body was subjected to my cultivation efforts, as the channels snaked through my body.

It wasn’t pain that I could feel, just a greater awareness of everything my soul connected to. I could feel my heartbeat. My blood flow. The twitch of my muscles. All of it came into my awareness. The long time my cultivation took at least gave me the time to adapt to my body and being able to feel everything inside of it.

If it had happened all at once, it would have been incredibly scary, and disturbing. I also began to feel the differences between my channels aligned to body, mind, or soul. Each of them gave off a different feeling. The channels aligned with my body, gave off a feeling of strength and durability. They felt more solid than my other channels.

The channels aligned with my mind, had a wispier feel. I felt I could sense the energy around them better. As for the channels aligned with my soul, they felt somewhere in between the other two. It was a hard feeling to put into words, but just something I slowly picked up on over the decades.

There was no sudden flash of insight, no knowledge out of nowhere. Instead, the feelings came from laying down on a metal table year after year, slowly carving out my channels and feeling everything about myself come into clearer focus.

I had thought writing a thesis was hard work. I had thought getting all the materials for my cultivation was hard work. But all of it paled in comparison to having to cultivate decade after decade. I often wished I could create some kind of energy-based intelligence to cultivate on my behalf.

Just strap on a patch, connected to some kind of central intelligence and power source, and have ones cultivation done for you. Heck, if I had a second Displacement Channel Carver, I could have carved two channels at once, to go twice as fast. It would have put an immense strain on my body, and the chances of a mistake would increase exponentially, but cultivation was incredibly tedious.

After the first three decades, I wished to go out and start firing my gun at demonic cultivators. By the sixth decade, I was leaning into the idea that I was in a state of death. Cultivation land was just me coming to accept that and this was dying.

One thing I did decide on, that I had to, to keep myself sane, was that I would never go into a long period of isolation like this ever again, unless there was no other choice. It had been a mistake to work harder and not smarter. To not look for any kind of automation or studying arrays and formations more in depth to create some kind of Artificial Intelligence.

That was my strength from Earth, which was what my thesis had been about. Leveraging a large source of knowledge to handle an incredibly tedious task or using an AI to manage traffic lights. I just needed an AI to manage my cultivation. There was nothing like that in Imperial City, or it was kept secret by the Imperial Sect. Instead, if the knowledge to create something like this was anywhere, it would be out in the Firmament.

After reading the books by Elder Song, it had become clear how long and tedious the higher stages of cultivation were. No wonder why there was a very self-sufficient mindset required of cultivators and handouts or shortcuts were looked down on in the first stage of cultivation. If one got tired of collecting motes, they would have given up instantly at the later stages.

Also, after six decades of cultivation, every mortal I had known was dead. There was no way they would live beyond 120 years. I had doubted my seniors about letting go in the past, but I had an unconventional first and second stage of cultivation. Going out and traveling, had never really prepared me for the endless grind that was required of me to progress to the next stage.

Even the time I spent cultivating the third stage in the sect, hadn’t been mentally exhausting. At least there, when I left, I would have been able to check up on things. I only spent a day to switch out supplies when I left the chamber here in the Imperial Sect, not wanting to risk them saying I was finished. While I could have tried to take a longer break, if I didn’t keep going I wouldn’t have the mental energy to restart.

The halfway point was seven decades of straight cultivation. It almost felt like a bad joke. I had spent a total of 80 years now cultivating the third stage. That was as much time as my first and second life. It was an insane amount of time. Once I finished the third stage, a fourth stage cultivator would live between 900 and 1,500 years.

I had no idea how long I would live with my unique cultivation. It could be longer or shorter. There was no clear information beyond the general guidelines for how long people lived. While there were attempts to quantify things, there had been no definitive proof, in any manner, since there were too many variations of cultivation and people.

When I finally left the chamber and was done with the third stage, I would be 200 years old. That would give me 700 to 1,300 years of life. That was enough for ten lifetimes. I just had to endure the incredible boredom of cultivation and just cultivation decade after decade.

By my tenth decade of cultivation, one century, I was thinking demonic cultivation might even be a good idea. This was worse than anything else. I had to resist the urge to self-sabotage. Like jumping from one channel to another before completing the one I was working on. I suspected a lot of other cultivators just half-assed things to hurry things up more quickly.

No wonder why the first bottleneck failure rate was so high. This wasn’t a sprint, and calling this a marathon was a joke. It was a test of sheer mental endurance. To keep my focus day after day, to carve out all of my 1,304 channels. I had given up counting the finished ones long ago and didn’t care to count. The only thing I could force myself to focus on in regard to my cultivation was carving out the next channel, then next one, and then the one after that.

How the first cultivator had ever figured any of this out was a complete mystery. I could see one genius figuring out the next stage every so often, but even then, this was a soul crushing nightmare. This was the kind of mental torment you give your worst enemies to make them hate life itself. There was no exaggeration in this comparison, with how I had to endure.

By the final decade, I couldn’t wait for all this to be over. It was a struggle to keep my steady pace. I wanted to go faster, but I was already going as fast as I could without taking obscene and pointless risks.

It was a shock when I finished a channel and mentally scanned my body for the next one. Where was the next one? I carefully began to check and each meridian and channel structure was carved out. I counted them all up. 1,304 was the final count. I was finished. I closed my eyes tightly as tears leaked out of them.

I didn’t know if they were tears of joy, sadness, or just an intense feeling coming to the surface. I was done. I was finally done. I took a long break, much longer than normal to stretch, eat, and use the waste bucket. I was shaking with glee as I walked around the table in the middle of the chamber. I could barely contain myself.

It had taken forever, and my brain wasn’t mush and there were no mistakes. I had done it. I had done it! I kept repeating that to myself over and over again in sheer joy. I probably just lazed about for a week inside the chamber in relief. Could have been less or more time, but I didn’t care. I was done with the channel carving. I couldn’t leave yet, there was one last step, but the worst of it was over. I also needed to calm down for the next part.

The last step was to clear out my cores and do cleanup around them. But with all the channels connecting into them, there wasn’t that much work. The edges were mostly defined. I just had to break them apart. The outer mind cores were much more tedious, and I had to make sure the channels going through it into the main core weren’t damaged.

After the four body and mind cores were cleared, I began to clear out the central body core. It wasn’t that difficult, and it was new. That was the exciting thing. It wasn’t clearing out another channel. Once the body core was cleared out, I mentally looked over my body, checking everything for a final time.

The Displacement Channel Carver was mostly used up as well. But it had served its purpose. I didn’t check just once, but ten times, over and over. Making sure every channel was correct. There was nothing lingering behind. Once I stepped into the fourth stage, I wouldn’t be able to make any more changes.

After all the work I had put into my cultivation, I wanted to be absolutely sure that everything was correct. There were a few minor touchups that I did, but nothing serious needed to be corrected. I was officially done with the third stage of my cultivation. I packed up my supplies from inside the chamber and activated an array singling I was done.

The energy in the chamber quickly decreased. I took the time to put on a martial robe and make sure it was on my body properly along with the rest of my clothing. After a couple of minutes I was dressed and the door opened. I stepped out of the chamber with a grin.

A mortal attendant was waiting for me. “Your session ended early, do you require assistance?”

“How early?” I asked.

“You had around half a year left,” they said.

“No assistance is required. My use for the chamber is over. I need to speak to Elder Healer Song before I leave so she can check me over,” I said.

“I will arrange for a message to be sent to her. We have a recovery room with food and drinks, if you would like to wait there?” the attendant asked me.

“Yes, please,” I replied. He led me there and I took a seat. In a couple of minutes incredibly delicious food that had energy was brought out. When the Imperial Sect fulfilled an agreement, they didn’t do half measures like skimping on the after care and celebrating my success. While good food might not seem like much, it was a balm on my soul after suffering for decades in the dark.

A couple of hours later, Elder Healer Song finally showed up. I quickly stood up and bowed to her. “So, you are finally done. Congratulations,” she said.

“Thank you, Elder Healer, I know you wanted to check up on me when I was done with the third stage,” I said, and she nodded. She came over and put a hand on my head and another on my gut. I felt her energy sweep through me and offered no resistance. After a full minute she finally let go.

“Impressive and insane. It took me that long to make sense of it all. That channel structure is a nightmare. But the triangular shape is sturdy, and it is well built. I don’t think there has been a more complex cultivation at the fourth stage, ever,” she said.

“So, no problems?” I asked.

“Not that I could tell. But I want to be here when you try to draw in energy for the fourth stage. You were right not to attempt it yet. Take a deep breath, open your meridians, and draw energy into you,” she said. I nodded and focused.

My breathing steadied and I felt trickles of energy enter me and trickle down into my channels. There would need to be more pressure to get past the gates. After ten minutes or so I finally stopped. Elder Healer Song put her hands on me once more and then she frowned.

“Is there a problem?” I asked.

“No. Your energy draw is impressive. Very impressive. The Suction Vortex is struggling though. If you hadn’t gotten it, you wouldn’t have been able to draw in anything,” she said.

“Wait? Really?”

“Hmmm, yes. Looking you over and what you could do in that short time, you would be considered a genius of genius without all the unique modifications to your cultivation. I would put your draw rate at 1 drop per year and up to 2 drops in a more energy rich environment,” she explained. If I lived another 1,000 years, that would be only 2,000 more drops at best. I needed 610,000 drops for my cultivation.

“No imbalances or other problems?” I asked.

“Nothing that I can see. The real risk is when you go past the solid stage and attempt to ignite your core by having over 10,000 drops in a single core. That will be a point of grave risk. Another thing is the imbalance of channels to the number of drops you need.”

Soul: 120,000/180 (4x) = 666.6

Body: 50,000/152 = 328.9

Mind: 20,000/108 (4x)= 185.2

I knew exactly what she was talking about. My soul cores required 120,000 drops each, but had 180 channels each. The largest ratio compared to my other two paths of cultivation.

“It is bad?” I asked.

“It is unknown. Once your cores fill up, it presents a major issue in terms of drawing in more energy for the other cores, without causing issues on your full ones. Don’t go beyond your plan for drops. What you are aiming for is the absolute limit, based on my research,” she said.

“Thank you for looking into this matter for me,” I replied.

“It is novel, which makes it interesting and worth some effort on my part. Your ratio for soul, body, and mind is 3.6, 1.7, to 1. It would have been better if it was a full one-to-one ratio across everything. But it won’t be instantly fatal. But you can’t go over the number of drops, that have been calculated. Whomever worked out that math from your sect is quite impressive,” she said.

“It was Elder Liu Chen,” I replied.

“I knew of him. A rare genius in terms of cultivation. Is design for your channels is both inspired and completely impractical. As for other medical advice, is to use techniques sparingly if at all possible. You will draw on your cores’ energy, which will slow down your cultivation. Each technique should be considered incredibly precious,” she said, and I nodded at this, since I already knew this information.

“Let me think on what else to warn you of. You already got my explanations on the later stages, but the biggest risk, will be the first bottleneck and the fifth stage in my opinion, if you can make it that far. While theoretically, what you have planned will work, I suggest you look for a treasure of some kind to increase your chances of success. I would suggest an Infinite Pill,” she said.

“What is that Elder Healer?” I asked.

“It stretches out a single moment into a day. Consuming it right before you attempt your breakthrough will give you more time. That will be what is working against you. You will have to do multiple tasks once you attempt to breakthrough to the fifth stage. Normal cultivators struggle with just one path of cultivation, you will be struggling with three.”

“That is why the Infinite Pill is a must if you hope to succeed. As for other treasures, I wouldn’t worry about them. With the number of drops that are needed for your breakthrough, if you get that many you will reach the fifth stage.”

“No issues?” I asked.

“There could be, but the headache will come in the Nascent stage afterwards. That will be incredibly tricky with three paths of cultivation. There is no guidance or advice I can give you there. You will be on your own,” she explained. “And unlike the earlier stages, your initial starting point is completely uncharted. The destination is known, but the path there, will be brand new. If I may ask, how do you plan to complete your fourth stage?”

“I plan to travel and look for opportunities,” I replied honestly while not giving away that I was headed for the Firmament.

“Ah, you are going to the Firmament, beyond the continent. Normally people do this in the later stages, but I suppose you have no choice.” She then went silent.

“Do you have any advice Elder Healer Song?” I asked hopefully.

“You have grown up in the mortal culture, and the cultivator culture. If you think of the peasant hovel you came from and Imperial City, the gap between Imperial City and the Forever City is just as wide. You will be less than a bug like senior cultivators who go to look for their fortune. Even with your unique cultivation, I would put your strength between the fourth and fifth stage of a regular cultivator.”

I gulped at that. I knew things were intense, but there was that much of a gap? It was even worse, since Imperial Sect members clearly had an air of being better than everyone else. “The Forever City? What is that like?” I asked.

“Despair. You will be lucky to find a job if anything. Most likely you will be kidnapped and used for research purposes. The first thing you must do is secure a backer of some kind. If you do not, then it will be open season on you. In addition, you must not give up anything you aren’t willing to give up. There will be no higher power you can appeal to or look to for assistance.” She gave me a smile as I frowned slightly.

“There is no Imperial Sect in the Forever City. There are endless competing factions of all sorts. The fact you still need to eat, and drink will be a major hinderance. So, stock up on supplies, since it will be hard to find anything once you leave. I mean really stock up. As for everything else, that is up to you,” she said.

“Thank you Elder Healer Song for your advice, but what about leaving the city?” I asked.

“Not city, Forever City. It is one of the few things that unites the residents. The Imperial Sect are humble beggars to such powers. Do not insult the Forever City, since you will die without knowing why. Offense is easily given and not corrected. As for outside and the wider Firmament, that is death. Until you are an Immortal you are not qualified to even think of such a thing,” she said.

“What?! How can there be such a gap in power?” I asked.

“That is the nature of things. We are put a small island of peace in the wider Firmament. Such locations are rare and heavily guarded. The beasts are but a pale imitation of much greater dangers that lay beyond, too myriad and varied to count,” she explained.

“Yes, Elder Healer Song. Thank you again for your advice,” I replied.

“It is nothing. I hope you survive, for I have no doubt if you do, you will come back to me. I prefer payment to be in unique healing knowledge, but rare treasures are acceptable as well,” she said with a kind smile, hiding the shark beneath it.

“Of course, Elder Healer Song. If I need healing, my first thought would be you for all the help I have received.”

“If you do make it to the fifth stage, come back and I will give you a free check up and advice. It is unlikely, but to get this far and have the fortitude to see your cultivation through, well perhaps you are blessed by the heavens. A room will be provided for ten more days while you get on your feet, after that you are expected to depart,” she said and then left.

The attendant came back into the room and showed me to my temporary room. I collapsed on the comfortable bed reveling in the feeling of having made it this far. It was a major accomplishment that I was proud of. Sure, there were more challenges, but it was good to have challenges that stimulated me, rather than cultivating mindlessly.

Still the threat of traveling to the Firmament and this Forever City was worrying. Jiang Fengge’s had hints at a more urban area with his fights, but I had just thought it was a regular city. Imperial City was like a modern-day city. Would this be some kind of Dyson Sphere type city, surrounding a star of some kind?

If a city had a name like Forever City, it clearly was massive. The smallest was a planet sized city, while the largest was a Dyson Sphere. Such a city really would feel endless and forever. It would take a mortal’s lifetime to travel around the entire thing.

But this continent was part of the Firmament? That was another piece of information I didn’t understand. While Elder Healer Song was helpful and informative, pressing her too much didn’t seem like a good idea when she had already gone out of her way so much on my behalf.

Perhaps I should have offered to pay her for more questions, but then she might charge me in the future. Regardless, I would figure it out as things happened. I would also be following her advice and buying more spatial items to stock up on as many supplies as possible.

I would also need trade goods as well. Get a backer and then work out the value of things. Those would be my first two priorities in this Forever City.

As I got my supplies there was one last thing I needed to do before I left. I hadn’t forgotten about my revenge after all these years. I paid one rank 5 spirit stone to three different information brokers, to arrange to hire mortals in cities to sing a song of my devising. Each broker getting a different version of the song I had written up. I had decades to make it as humiliating as possible, while having a catchy rhythm.

It involved the demon Aoyin, donkeys, and questionable parentage. I wanted the song and tale of Aoyin having questionable relationships spread everywhere in the most humiliating manner possible. While the brokers were hesitant to take up my request, they all agreed in the end, since the pay was so good. I also had them monitor the others, to make sure they completed their task to spread the song and would be checking in on things. There was a promise to pay a rank 6 spirit stone if the song and story spread enough.

That was the issue with Aoyin, his reputation and I was going to savage it. Sure he was a demonic cultivator, but no one would dare insult him. There were clues in the song that it was me. Like the line, Aoyin’s Fang chipped and burned, his greed immense and spurned. The moon man was stronger than belief, and he had escaped Aoyin’s wrath like a leaf.

I also told the information brokers they could place all the blame on me if people made inquiries, but the songs needed to spread. I had no doubt once he heard them he would be steaming. But by then I would have escaped to the Firmament, and this Forever City.

Chasing after me would hopefully be difficult. At least that was the plan. It would be better to leave him alone, but I was pissed off with him. And this was the only way I could strike back at him. It was petty and probably a waste, but it was the only thing I could do at the moment to state my need for revenge.