Fruitful Cultivation

Bai Jingshen finally settled down in his own meditation chamber. He enjoyed the light flow of Qi brought by specially arranged array formations. After all the action he experienced over the last two months, Bai Jingshen was glad to cultivate in seclusion again. He slowly calmed down and took note of his own situation.

He thought about his goals for this cultivation session, as he thoroughly checked his body and mind. First, he decided to strengthen his illusionary core.

The former emperor focused his attention on his mind, as he improved the foundation of his White Illusion Arts. He carefully recalled everything that happened since finding the elven trials. Slowly he remembered the emotions joy, fear, or anger he felt, adding them to his core one by one. He was pleasantly surprised by his achievements this time. Especially the genuine fear he felt when confronted with the might of a dragon brought a big leap in his cultivation. However, looking at the end result he was once again reminded about how hard it was to cultivate the White Illusion Arts. Only many different experiences and hard work would be able to help him steadily advance. Still, he made genuine progress towards the minor-success-stage today.

After a fruitful cultivation session, Bai Jingshen calmed his White Illusion Arts down as he focused his attention on his body. As he wasn't deliberately urging his core energy to work, it had been silently dissolving the black shadow. By now it was only a clump of dark energy, waiting to strengthen Bai Jingshen's body. The former emperor grinned as he remembered one of the first teachings his father gave him. Danger and opportunity really existed together, but you also had to be able to take it. Shortly after he calmed down, as he started to push his core energy. Like a hungry predator it bounced on the last vestiges of the shadow. Bai Jingshen moaned it comfort, as he once again experienced the great feeling of strengthening his body. It only took him a few hours, until nothing of the dark energy was left.

Bai Jingshen felt full of power and jumped up in excitement. He punched the air a few times as he tried to estimate his strength. He was more and more pleased with his miraculous constitution. Doing a few light exercised, the former emperor estimated his physical strength to have reached the 5th stage of Qi Gathering.

Knowing that it wasn't good for his coordination if his cultivation lagged behind his body, Bai Jingshen now set his mind on reaching at least the 3rd stage next. After taking a relaxing break to adjust his state of mind, the young man set down cross-legged once more. He clearly felt the Qi flowing in his surroundings. Although this chamber was only providing small benefits, it was already many times better than most places outside. Therefore, Bai Jingshen was sure he would reach the 2nd stage in no time. The young man focused on his Dantian, grinning as he realized it was almost filled to the brim. There really was no better feeling than cultivating by hunting beasts.

In the Great Cultivation World there were many geniuses who were secretly 'flower vases'. They had an amazing advancement speed, and everything came easy to them. However, they never had to fight for real, leaving their foundations unstable. Even if their sect had special training grounds to strengthen their foundation and provided them with the most amazing martial arts, they would still loose against someone of similar strength, who had to face many hardships before.

This was one of the reasons, why White Illusion Sect cultivators had to leave the sect to train. Bai Jingshen understood this basic knowledge very well and had always looked down on those flower vases. Now that he reached New World, if he met someone like this, he would only be able to feel disdain. With the method of cultivating by hunting beasts, it should be almost impossible to grow up as a flower vase.

Because of his fights over the last few weeks, Bai Jingshen was also certain that he could quickly advance to the 3rd stage of Qi Gathering without risking a shaky foundation. His assumption soon proved correct, as he induced the outside Qi to completely fill his Dantian. Without any problems he compressed his Qi afterwards, smoothly reaching the 2nd stage. Therefore, he decided to directly continue, steadily absorbing Qi over the next week. A great feeling overcame him as Bai Jingshen soon reached the 3rd stage of the Qi Gathering Realm. The experienced veteran would like to continue, but he also knew how to show restraint. A stable cultivation was incomparably important if you wanted to go far on your path. Therefore, Bai Jingshen stopped at this point.

The young man was content with his increase in strength this time. His body and mind had reached a pristine condition as he finished his meditation. In high spirits he contemplated what to do next, when he remembered the elite program. Since it promised the best nurturing, Bai Jingshen figured he should check out what it entailed exactly. While slightly smiling about how used he became to the Rising Force World's technology by now, the young man asked his AI:

"General Mao. Glad to see you again. How long have I been meditating?"

"Glad to serve you, my Lord. You have been meditating for seven days, 13 hours and three minutes."

"Huh. I guess that's an alright speed. Did anything happen?"

"Sir Torren and Sir Sam wanted to see you, my Lord."

"Well, doesn't seem too urgent…

Anyways, can you introduce me to the elite program please?"

"Of course, my Lord. The elite program gathers Thobar Bionics' biggest talents of the young generation. Not only combatants can attend, but also other specialists. It provides a lot of martial arts, great training chambers and private teachers. The foundational education is provided for free, but in order to get the best treatment, you need to earn contribution points. The easiest way to get them is by doing missions. Those range from teaching others to hunting beasts or supporting other teams during their tasks outside. Sometimes missions will also be mandatory. If you reject those, you will lose points.

This concludes the basic information about the elite program."

After his AI explained the elite program, Bai Jingshen realized that it wasn't structured much differently to what he knew from sects. The normal martial arts provided would most likely not be that bad, but in order to get the best you had to work for it. At the same time those missions were surely based on their cultivation, meant to be additional training. He nodded his head after understanding these arrangements. Finally, being done with his seclusion, Bai Jingshen stood up and walked towards the common room, looking for Sam or Torren.

Not seeing any of his roommates, Bai Jingshen praised them inwardly for working hard, before grabbing something to eat. Although with his cultivation he could still go without eating for quite a while, he had always liked the feeling of gaining energy by devouring tasty spirit beast meat. Unfortunately, their kitchen only provided normal food, as his AI told him to pay for higher-quality meat.

He thought about it for a few seconds, before asking his AI about the respective prices. After analyzing the offered meals however, Bai Jingshen understood that meat which still contained Qi was extremely rare. Since immortal beasts lost their Qi after their death, only a few select races provided meat that still contained Qi. As he looked further into this matter out of interest, he also realized that not all beasts left usable materials behind after their death.

For example some of the pills he knew required the blood of certain beasts. Since they either didn't exist in this world or would loose their Qi and spirituality after death, alchemists had to search for substitutes. This was also a field the Scholar's Tower was interested in, but they were bested by the Great Cultivation World in this particular issue. Therefore, the Great Cultivation World's alchemists were once again greatly respected.

Bai Jingshen already rolled his eyes, as he remembered the time he visited different alchemists to discuss a solution for ascension with them. He never before had to suppress his urge to beat someone up so much in such a short time. He hoped to get to know some reasonable alchemists this time around. Although he himself had a lot of knowledge about pills, but he never trained his alchemy skills.

A few minutes later Bai Jingshen smiled slightly as he noticed that he lost himself in his research. The young man remembered the original purpose for coming to the kitchen. He grabbed something to eat, before changing from his uniform to comfy training clothes and finally heading towards the training grounds.