Cultivating in a New World
I hope you enjoy how this story will read now. The third time's the charm they say after all.
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On a summer night in the depths of Nimmer Forest, the air was clear, as the full moon shone on a beautiful green valley filled with silver and blue flowers that seemed to mystically shimmer in the moonlight, strange, yet faint, sounds of creatures were heard in the surroundings.
It was a peaceful sight. And amid such peace, space seemed to be kneaded like dough as it distorted more and more before it ripped apart. This created a black rift that spat out an illusory dark black figure. Its power was terrifying, but it seemed to be weakening rapidly, before losing its power and falling.
Instead of landing the figure passed through the ground the moment after. The spatial rift disappeared a minute later, leaving behind only the valley of mystical silver and blue flowers that swayed gently in the summer breeze that seemed undisturbed.
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Cely's consciousness slowly awakened as her senses were "returning", she tried to move but found herself unable to do so. Out of the blue, she was assaulted by a terrible headache, like her consciousness was being ripped apart before the pain disappeared as abruptly as it appeared.
'Sigh.', she sighed realizing what had happened.
She had died.
Although she didn't know why her soul wasn't captured, it made her feel relieved.
She was Cely, the strongest expert of Earth and its protector since times long forgotten. And before having died, she was ambushed by an enemy she had underestimated... A lot.
'I hope I can see him again.', she thought, thinking about the only one who had made her keep her sanity during her previous life.
She shook herself out of her thoughts shortly after and tried to move her body, only to feel awkward as all her "limbs" seemed... different and far more numerous. The number seemed uncountable even for herself. But, even though there were many, she could feel and control them all. Although, very slowly.
As she moved her new appendages she noticed resistance all around her, like she was digging through something, likely soil or another malleable substance that wasn't air or water.
'I seem to be surrounded by something, and yet, I feel perfectly fine. I do not need oxygen, though I still desire it, but I feel a kind of thirst and hunger, although they seem slightly different from normal.'
'My body is made out of an uncountable number of appendages that seem like tentacles, no, roots. What exactly did I reincarnate as?' Cely thought for a moment going through plants before coming across one thought that stuck with her. 'Mycelium!'
It was like a lamp turned on in her "brain" as she thought about it and felt it made perfect sense. Mycelia were the body of mushrooms, a long string of complicatedly entwined cells that can rapidly spread over kilometers long.
And from what she felt from the soil around her, she seemed to have been reincarnated in an area rich in Live Energy, Mana, and Qi. In this Plain, many kinds of energy had different attributes and uses but all were linked to the same source, Primordial Energy.
Primordial Energy is the basis of all matter and energy which is also why it is sometimes called Origin. Only Primordial Gods could control this purest and most basic kind of energy. Cely's killer was one of the Primordial Gods ruling over the Great Laws of the plane. Above the Primordial Gods seems to be the Creator of this Plain, who had disappeared uncountable years ago.
And now, Cely was at the bottom of the food chain again, in a world that was not hers, with dangers she did not know and reincarnated as a mushroom.
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Also, before continuing, here small scaling reference of what a "Plain" is:
Planet < Stars < Solar Systems < Nebulas < Galaxies < Galaxy Clusters < Universes < Dimensions < Plains < [???]
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After having finally completely organized her soul's memories Cely thought of what to do and immediately knew what. 'Cultivation!'
In this Plain, there were many ways of acquiring power. Some use Qi to cultivate, some use Mana to create Divine Cores, some use Life Energy to enhance their existence, some use Death Energy to cultivate undying bodies and souls to achieve greater power, and some use Blood to cultivate Blood Cores to increase their bloodline and power and many other ways, like transforming themself into monsters and half-monsters by cultivating demonic techniques.
The paths to the peak were seemingly endless, in fact, they technically were. Cely chose Killing Intent to condense the Transcendent Body of Slaughter like her husband. To do this and still retain rationality, the state of mind of the person needs to be on a terrifying level.
But she had succeeded. And she was only 4 minor realms away from attempting a breakthrough to the Primordial God Realm back then. Before the Primordial God Realm is the Transcendent God Realm or short Transcendent Realm.
She was a terrifying existence, but even though she was terrifying, in front of the Primordial Gods she was but a speck of dust on their clothes that could be snipped away at any time. The higher the Realm, the greater the distance between each realm.
This could easily be seen with the first Primordial God, Void, still not having broken through to the Creator God Realm even until now.
How did she know so much about those existences?
She got the information from trading with neighboring universes and dimensions near Earth.
But now, most of these things were further away than ever.
Thinking about this, her will grew firm as she finalized which methods to use to reach the peak.
She would use Qi to cultivate this time around. In her last life, she found out that her aptitude in this ascension method was at a terrifying 998. Aptitude in the different methods of ascension is, most of the time, determined by a number between 0 and 999. There is only one known being that has reached 1000 in any category, The One.
The One is the most talented existence in the plane, having reached the Primordial God Realm after only a million years. At that time, the most talented existences in its generation had reached the late stages of the Great God Realm. It was terrifying.
This is why, a year after ascending to the Primordial God Realm, The One was shattered into pieces by Void. One of the pieces, the main piece, was sealed and kept by Void, and the rest were scattered across the plane, with no traces of them being found, at least on the surface.
Getting herself out of this train of thought, she tried recalling the cultivation method she had obtained back then.
The first step is the Body Tempering Realm!
Before stepping on the road of most cultivation methods, the body needs to be strengthened and tempered first to make it possible to hold other energies. For this, one often uses their surrounding energy with Innate Life Energy to cleanse the cells. (Innate Life Energy represents the inborn lifespan of a living being. Undead use the Death Energy that accumulates for this same process.)
This is why it is important to start early in life, as beings with poor potential may not be able to balance the loss of lifespan by refining their Life Energy anymore.
Havíng thought about all of this, Cely adjusted her state and began concentrating. As her Life Energy began to circulate under the stimulation of her effort, her body's impurities slowly began to melt away. As her body is that of a newborn Mycelia, although she was a 'plant', her body had few accumulated impurities.
This led to her easily feeling the difference in strength from one day to the next. This, combined with her heaven-defying talent, led to her reaching the limit of the Body Tempering Realm in just three weeks.
Feeling how her body was now far easier to control and also far faster, she felt a sense of ecstasy and pride, but thinking of her enemy, it was quickly erased as her will became firm once again.
After the Body Tempering Realm, comes the Qi Gathering Realm and the Qi Refinement Realm. There are different Tiers of Existence that one can reach by cultivating. A Tier 1 existence can normally only temper their body to advance.
Tier 2 is known as the Energy Tier, as here things begin to absorb and refine energies with their bodies. During this process the Life Energy will be continuously refined, leading to an increase in lifespan.
Each following Tier serves a purpose to further strengthen oneself and build up to reach a new height. After the Energy Tier, these are the following Tiers:
Tier 3: Foundation
Tier 4: Core
Tier 5: Soul
Tier 6: 10 Realms of Mortal Transcendence (Immortal)
Tier 7: Demi Divinity (Demi-God)
Tier 8: Divinity Ascencion (God)
Tier 9: Divinity Tempering (Greater God)
Tier 10: Divinity Fusion (Transcendent God)
Tier 11: Origin Return (Primordial God)
Tier 12: Creation Origin (Creation God)
Each of these Tiers can be divided into multiple Realms depending on the path one chooses and the difference between each Tier becomes greater the further one walks.
Cely stopped thinking about this shortly after and stabilized her state of mind, before going back to cultivating.
It was time to step into the Qi Gathering Realm!