A Spar

Gather the Qi, compress it, push it to a higher grade, feed the Soul, and repeat. Those are the sacred basics of Cultivation.

Depending on the individual talent and Realm of Cultivation, there is a limit to how many times this action can be repeated each day. In a way, reality itself limits the speed at which a Cultivator can advance, forcing everybody to remain at a similar speed of growth.

If optimized completely, a genius and a dolt will grow at the same speed, for many decades, however, when the talent runs out, one of them will continue at the same pace, while the other one will slow down to a crawl and eventually stop, stuck there for the rest of his life.

And while the Cultivation speed remains the same, that is not so with strength. Cultivation amplifies the base, what is already there, and the Realms then compound that strength at different rates. While two can reach the Golden Core Realm at the same time, if there is a difference in talent, there too will be a great chasm between the two in speed, strength, and endurance acquired.

For example, while the dolt might be able to use one ultimate move against his opponent, the genius will be able to do the same dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of times in some cases. The two will be incomparable in all but the Realm.

- Basics of Cultivation, First Chapter - Introduction to Reality

***

Gather the Qi, compress it, push it to a higher grade, feed the Soul, and repeat. Those were the sacred basic rules of Cultivation.

Gerald broke those sacred rules. He had killed the Wind Tiger, absorbed its fallen Soul, refined it, and feed himself with it. The Soul of the Howler fully merged with him, and because of it, he was closing in on the stage of Essence Accumulation IX.

The beast was probably just below the Nascent Soul Realm, judging by its strength and how it didn't use any Soul attacks, and now years of its hard work became his. He did not grin this time, instead simply breathed out a satisfied sigh and closed his eyes. He sat on his bed back at home, plucking out the filth that was brought into his Soul, piece by piece.

It appeared there was no free meal, and he had to work for it even if his ability felt a bit like a cheat.

But, a few hours later, he was done. His Soul shrunk a tiny bit, but it was still much greater than the day prior. He was done, but he did not stop. Since he needed a bit more to advance to the next level, he began manual Cultivation. It was slower, so much slower than killing, but it was a steady stream of gains, with no impurities to speak of. The night was long, and his gains, many.

***

The chirping of birds woke me up and I rose from my bed with a slow yawn. I didn't even remember falling asleep after a full night of Cultivation, but I felt great!

The great boon from yesterday really helped me get some motivation to do stuff.

Ah, but I spent quite a bit of money yesterday as well. I had to buy a new pair of clothes as well as some medicine for my wounds. I got some sort of cream that promoted healing and I have smeared it all over my chest. Looking at it in the daylight, my body looked like a chessboard with all the scars. It had already started, huh? Well, at least they weren't on my face this time.

The salve was a bit itchy though, but I guess I knew that when I bought it. I couldn't afford to buy anything better as this one already cost 10 SSS. A goddamn rip-off I say. Luckily I didn't spend much money through the last month so I still got some left.

But! Today was the day! I was finally going to make a proper bathroom! I couldn't believe it, I was so excited! Modern luxury, here we go!

***

Enthusiasm was good, but Gerald quickly realized he didn't really know much about shaping or working with clay. The best he could do was make a sorry excuse for a bowl. Even with Telekinesis, he couldn't make the clay blob behave as he wanted. And Che Erie, the only guy that knew how to work with the stuff, was busy in the mine who-knows-where. He had to wait for the evening to ask the guy for some advice.

And so he decided to prepare the plumbing first. Making a tube out of stone didn't seem too difficult to make, so he went back to his quarry and began cutting long blocks of gray rock.

Once they were freed from the Formation, he could finally use his Earth magic on them and shape the rock however he wanted.

It took him many hours, most of the day actually, but in the end, he made ten two-meter-long tubes, about 15-centimeter diameter. It should be enough for even the biggest of shits.

Now, the question was where to drain it. He had his house underneath a cliff, and the mountain continued up from there, but on the other opposite side was the rest of the newcomer village.

He would have to make hundreds of meters of plumbing extra if he wanted to go that way.

[Maybe a septic tank? I could just dig a hole…]

It was unfortunate that the entire mountain was locked under the Formation or he could be done with the dig in a matter of minutes. But, if nothing else worked, it was something to think about at least.

The sky was painted orange from the evening sun when a bunch of guys and gals came back to the camp. Among them Alyx and Che were chatting, the latter grinning from ear to ear and showing some muscle on his arms.

The young lad expanded significantly during the last month, and his chest and shoulders grew like crazy from daily work. His skin also darkened from long days of laboring in the sun, but he seemed happy and full of energy.

Chity came back a few minutes after them, having finished his odd jobs for the Sect. His body was visibly developing too, though he was quite well-built even before joining the Sect.

Everyone was active among the young generation and they were growing at envious speeds. Good food, hard work, and plentiful rest were crucial for rapid growth.

Gerald just hoped he could gain a head or two in height to return to his prime. But the Elders he had seen were all giants, so there was probably nothing to fear. Cultivation was growth after all. The physical size was probably something minor to influence.

He decided to look into Body Cultivation in more detail next time he had the chance.

***

During our evening chats around the fire, I asked Che for help with clay. No matter what I did with it, I couldn't get the consistency right. It was always either cracking or sagging, and he laughed at my inability to figure it out.

He then offered his expertise and began kneading it like a piece of dough. He didn't even add anything, and after a few minutes, the blob of clay was done. It was firm but not hard, soft but not runny. It was perfect for work!

How the hell he did it, I had no clue.

"It's all in the wrist, man." That's what he said. Translation anyone? … Oh well, it doesn't matter.

[Thanks bro, I appreciate it.] I stored the clay in my pouch for later use. We ate some of the tiger meat I brought so there was a bit of space left.

"Don't worry about it." Che waved it off in good nature. "But what's with you? Always in your house."

Oh yeah… I guess I haven't been as active the last few weeks. Someone was bound to notice. [I was just studying stuff. I got a manual on glaive techniques.]

I took my Toothpick out of the pouch and showed a few moves. I believe I finally deciphered all of the moves, but I just wasn't too familiar with them yet.

"Oh, hey! That looks pretty good! We should have a spar sometime." Chity Boru obviously wanted to compare himself to me to see if he could beat me after his warrior training. Or maybe he was just interested in my moves. I couldn't say I didn't feel the same. I also wanted to see what he had learned.

[There's still some light, we can fight right now.]

"Great!" He enthusiastically agreed and jumped to his feet.

We made some space in front of my house and I burned a line in the grass to mark the designated area.

"No magic, right?" Chity said and pulled out his sword. He took a wider stance and held the blade firmly in his hand.

[Sure.] Magic would ruin the point of this exchange anyway. I didn't even reinforce my body this time as that would be complete overkill, not to mention unfair.

"Ready? Begin!"

At Che's command, we jumped into the fray. I'm not going to lie, we were both quite clumsy at first, more just flailing around with our weapons than anything. Chity because he wasn't used to fighting a glaive with a longer reach, and me because it was my first time using the moves against an actual opponent. I have to say, Living Fortress Martial Art was way more complicated than I expected.

But we soon got into a rhythm, striking and blocking, and while Chity was on the offensive, I remained focused on defense alone.

There was another Martial Art if you could call it that, that I was using. This one was a movement technique called Wind Walk, designed to fake out the opponent with unpredictable movements. It was something I have created in the Before with inspiration I got from some of my enemies.

I never had a proper opportunity to test it out, so this spar was great! I danced around Chity's blade and deflected his strikes.

All the jabs and slashes were easy to read as his movements were still too obvious as he prepared his swing. I guessed with time he would get much better, especially after he gains a bit more strength. Even though he was quite strong for a young lad, real combat was still quite exhausting.

From the outside, you would think we were equally matched, but I was holding back significantly, and even utilizing just the Wind Walk technique, I could avoid most of his advancements. Chity's moves were quickly becoming increasingly sluggish, and that's when I decided to stop the fight.

"Oh, man! That was fun!" Chity exclaimed while wiping the sweat off his brow. "That was way better than fighting other weaklings. We should do it again sometime."

[Certainly!] I was in complete agreement. Testing your moves against an opponent was way better than training alone. People were unpredictable, and everyone had their own spin on things so it was a good way to train reaction speed and improvisation skills as well.

"What if we make an arena in the village for those that want to fight?" Che's suggestion was accepted with noises of interest and agreement from the rest.

It was a great idea. Even though less than 20 individuals decided to pick the way of battle, it could become a great source of entertainment and community bonding. There were many arenas across the Sect for that reason. Every time I went to the library I saw people exchanging flashy moves at the inauguration place.

Unfortunately, they were only Inner Disciples trading blows, most likely just showing off their moves. But there was no real power behind those blows as it was just a friendly spar.

While it was cool to see and they gave me many brilliant ideas, I would love to see the power of the Elders. I saw one of them walking on air, so their techniques must be awesome!

Unfortunately, apart from a war breaking out I probably won't get an opportunity to observe them.

***

Later in the evening, when the guys left, I went back inside and sat on the bed.

It was a simple bed frame made out of Ironbark wood and covered with dried straw as well as a sheet of cloth. Only now it had the soft fur of the Wind Tiger as well. I decided against making it into clothes as it would be too suspicious.

Someone at Foundation Building Realm generally shouldn't be able to take the beast down on his own. Especially a strong specimen like this one.

I relaxed my mind and gathered some Qi. Previously, before I even learned the existence of Cultivation prior to my death, I experienced some interesting magic, namely a Fire Barrier.

I now believe it was some sort of a primitive Formation, but that was beside the point. The main thing was that it was solid to the touch. Like a fiery membrane that would burn you if you tried to pass through it.

I have tried copying its form, creating something like a shield out of pure Qi. But while it held the desired shape, it had no substance. It was like mist. Completely ineffective at stopping anything.

However, now that my Qi went a notch higher, I began wondering if my creation would gain a more solid form.

Spreading my hands apart, I began gathering Qi between my fingers, and soon it became a visible gray mist. The mind power required to gather it was way lower than I remembered it, but then again, my Soul had grown stronger now.

The mist swirled and moved according to my will until it formed a ball. The shape seemed solid, but its edges were still a bit fuzzy. As I willed it, it shot towards the opposite wall, smashing into it with an audible thud, and immediately shattered and vanished from sight. It clearly wasn't that stable… yet.

But the sound… It was solid! At least partially.

I gathered my energy again and formed another shape, this one long and cylindrical. A stick.

Taking hold of it, it felt weird. It was solid, but there was no weight to it. It was like holding a piece of styrofoam, or aerogel. An utterly surreal feeling. I tried to poke my bed with it, but as soon as more than a minimal amount of force was applied, the stick broke, and turned back into Qi mist, before degrading into Base Qi and vanishing from sight.

[… So it's like that, huh?]

The one that killed me had a sword that conjured powerful blades of white light. And those were super solid, even more than steel. If I remember correctly he should have been in the Nascent Soul Realm, right? But that shouldn't be enough to conjure such…

Realization hit me.

He used a treasure to kill me! Damn it! It wasn't even his own power!

Now that I have learned a few things I have realized what was even happening back then. He had a Spirit Sword and some sort of body armor that was powered by Spirit stones. He used hundreds, even thousands of Spirit Stones worth of gear just to kill me?!

Fuck my life! So in the end I was murdered by a P2W guy? Those sons of bitches of Brilliant Sword Sect! Talk about fighting unfairly!

Ugh! This got me in a bad mood. I'll have to Cultivate faster and condense my Qi further so I can make those barriers and swords too! Just you wait! I'll be the strongest Cultivator there ever was!

A bit of hyperbole to psyche myself up.

I closed my eyes and tried to steady my racing mind. The night was still young, and I had my Soul to feed!