26 Cultivation
Shura sat with his eyes closed in his residence. The earlier destruction had vanished, appearing like it had never occurred in the first place.
A cultivator's mind was more resilient than a mortal's. If a mortal sat with his eyes closed, then he would soon fall asleep. It was a purely physiological thing. But a cultivator was different. No matter how long they kept their eyes closed, they would not become drowsy or fall asleep.
Although everything seemed how it was before the sudden attack, not everything remain unchanged.
The unexpected attack while he was in the middle of transforming into a Spirit Sovereign halted Shura's progress.
This was both good and bad. It was good because now Shura had more confidence that he was able to stay in the half-step Spirit Sovereign level and not become a full Spirit Sovereign right away. He had already gone through the process once. Now he knew what to do the next time.
The bad part was that Shura was still a Spirit Emperor. Although the wound he had received wasn't serious, the disruption to his cultivation base was real.
For the time being, he wouldn't be able to hope to even attain the power of a half-step Spirit Sovereign. What this meant in concrete terms was that he was going to have to stay in this continent for the time being, at least until his cultivation 'healed', and he was able to advance once more.
Although he wasn't even a half-step Spirit Sovereign, Shura's battle power was very, very strong already. He could probably run away from a Spirit Sovereign and kill a greatly weakened Spirit Sovereign. As for Spirit Emperors, there were no Spirit Emperors who were his equal.
Battle strength and capability based on cultivation were two different things. Being a Spirit Sovereign and being able to fight a Spirit Sovereign were two different things.
Although Shura was strong, he didn't have the innate capability that a Spirit Sovereign or even a half-step Spirit Sovereign possessed. That's why he was unable to teleport a distance greater than a single world. Such a great distance, only a greater cultivation stage would allow him to do so.
For the time being, Shura could only forget about going back. Although he was unwilling. There wasn't anything he could do. So he had to force himself to be concerned with other things instead.
But other than cultivating and increasing his strength, what else was there to do? What else had he ever done ever since becoming a cultivator?
The answer made Shura quiet for a few seconds. Nothing. There wasn't anything else aside from cultivating.
Cultivation used to be something that only others could enjoy. He wasn't able to cultivate. That thing that used to make him feel like an outcast and marginalized in society had changed. It had transformed into an obsession in which he pursued at all cost. As a result of that, he was now an all-powerful cultivator.
All the stories, the fancies, and the dreams of countless people he had seen in his sweat-filled youth had become a reality to him. None of those people had attained what he had, most of them were already dead due to the Great Destruction.
He was here. The naive youth who felt like discontent with life and yearning for more was gone. Only a powerful man who pursued power for power's sake remained.
Thinking about it, he couldn't help but become sad. Cultivation should be a good thing. It allowed one to live longer and to defend oneself from the hostile world and people. Living becomes more meaningful the more things one could do.
Perhaps the wrong wasn't cultivation, but his obsession with it? Yet, if one didn't obsess about cultivate and do it nonstop without a thought for other things, how would one attain any accomplishment from it?
Shura smiled. There were geniuses out there who didn't have to put their all into cultivating, yet they became powerful and continue to do so.
He knew he wasn't such a person. Was it good? Was it bad? Was it right or wrong? Such questions had no answers.
Shura retracted his mental awareness from the outside world. His mental awareness which had engulfed and observed the entire continent dissipated. His world became a normal world where only what he sensed existed. In this fashion, the world he saw was no different from a mortal's. The world that he was seeing or not seeing, in this case, was the same as the Shura who couldn't cultivate. Yet now everything changed and the world that he saw, smelled, felt, touched, and heard wasn't the same anymore.
…
Today, Shura went to attend court.
All the officials had respectful looks and postures as they saw Shura enter. The Grand Councillor who was in the middle of reading a decree stopped.
"As you were," Shura said.
Everyone had difficulty being 'as they were' with the emperor being present. None of them managed to be at ease right until the end. A few officials even stammered when they were talking or reading out loud.
Shura found it amusing, that all these grown and influential men were stammering like children in front of adults.
Shura talked to the Grand Chancellor alone after all the other officials left.
"How's the overall situation?" Shura asked.
"The people are not used to being united, Your Majesty. The mentality of 'us' and 'them' had been ingrained into everyone too deeply. It is difficult for those who used to be of different nations or enemies with one another to open up and cooperate," the Grand Chancellor said.
"Public and private matters are two different things. They can think or do whatever they want if it is their own matter. But it must not affect public matters, it must not affect the empire," Shura declared.
"That is how I see it as well, My Lord."
"What of the remnants of the old empires? I don't know much about managing an enormous bureaucracy and a nation the size of a continent, but surely there must be problems?"
The Grand Chancellor found it very odd that their emperor would concern himself with the matters of the world.
"There have been sporadic uprisings and innumerable guerilla forces on the move. To put them all down would require a drastic action that could affect the nation. We are dealing with them as they arise, thereby minimizing any impact they can have on the bigger picture."
Everything was as Shura had expected. His mental awareness had engulfed the whole continent on numerous occasions. He had seen all of this himself.
"Continue with what you think is best," Shura said.
Although he was an emperor in name, there really wasn't anything for him to do as an emperor. Could he really call himself an emperor? What was an emperor? Shura found it funny how the cultivation level he was in was called 'Spirit Emperor'. In what way was he an emperor, both in cultivation and worldly affair?
There was an equally ridiculous thing in cultivators who were of certain fame or strength titling themselves Monarchs or Emperors as well. Whether it was in the lower mortal realms like this continent, Short Continent, or Aggradise Continent, or even the higher realms.
Were those people really monarchs, or emperors? They were nothing more than self-important clowns. Real experts didn't need to style themselves as anything. An expert was strong and powerful in strength, the capability for violence and killing. What part of that was related to being a ruler? People with real strength didn't need those titles.
Shura thought he'd try being an emperor, that was why he had come to the court meeting. But it wasn't really interesting, so he changed his mind.
What other things were there to do?
There was no telling when he would have to face a powerful enemy in the future. Even if he couldn't cultivate, he should use his time wisely. He should spend his time increasing his strength in other ways.
Suddenly a thought occurred to Shura. It was like a light that had suddenly appeared in the midst of darkness. This light shone brighter and brighter until the entire darkness was dispelled.
He was going to craft his own peerless weapon, a supreme treasure for a supreme warrior.
Shura returned to his residence and sat down with his eyes closed. He once again entered the space of the supreme being's memories. Countless orbs of light appeared within the darkness.
As Shura had increased his cultivation, his soul and mind had become much much stronger. He was able to sense which orb contained which information. Shura's mind entered the orb that was related to the information about crafting equipment and weapons.
Shura came to know of everything that the supreme being knew about crafting tools.
"This supreme being's knowledge fragment is very convenient, even if it was incomplete. This person already knew so much with just a fraction of his total knowledge. Did the person's complete knowledge encapsulate every field?"
Having this supreme being's knowledge was very convenient. Shura now knew what to do to craft his peerless weapon. Of course, he was going to create a sword! A powerful and fearsome sword and it was going to be red all over.
As long as it was red, it would look more intimidating and powerful.
Although the materials that he could work with was limited to things that could only be found within a lower realm, it was still sufficient enough to craft a weapon that was unrivaled in the lower realm, and would still be useful in the higher realm.
Today was really special, Shura left his residence twice. On most days he wouldn't leave at all. The first time he went to the main palace, and on the second he went to the headquarter of the largest trading organization in the world. Their headquarter was, of course, in Skyward City.
