Starting Cultivation

"Xiantian lifeform?" Chojusen asked.

[Read the Dao Origin book. The first section should tell you what you want to know.]

Chojusen took a look at the book of Dao Origin and was greeted with some explanations on the power structure of this higher universe. He read that he would have to pass from the Xiantian Stage and past the Void Stage to get access to the second section of the book. Along with this information, the book of Dao Origin explained what it itself was.

Chojusen didn't understand what the term "Akashic Records" meant, so the system had to explain it to him. [Obviously, you don't know what an Akashic Records is. It was something you would only have learned about after reaching the peak of power in the plane below this one. Anyways, the term Akashic Records, refers to a record of all the things in one plane. The book of Dao Origin keeps track of all the Daos ever conceived and trained in, as well as their level compared to the Ultimate set of Chaosverse Omega Daos.]

"So, I know you're supposed to be helping me understand what all these new words and concepts mean, but honestly, you're just creating more question than answering..."

[...You understand that everyone has their own unique Dao. right?]

"Yes?"

[Where do these Daos come from again?]

"Laws?"

[Right, so for the previous universe you were in, that might have been the case, but here in this plane of existence, they come directly from the entire Omniverse. Are you following me so far?]

"What is an Omniverse?"

[*Sigh* Ok. So you know that within a multiverse there are countless universes. Right?]

"Mhmm."

[Well, in the omniverse there are as many multiverses as there are universes to a multiverse. It's the highest scale for measuring cosmic entities.]

"Ok I think I understand a bit more, but what does this have to do with Daos again?"

[Like I was saying, because the Laws in this universe come directly from the omniverse, there is no conceivable way for cultivators to master the laws and then create their own Dao thereafter. Thus the pioneers of cultivation created a system where you avoid learning the Laws for the most part, and start working on your Dao from the get go.]

"So, I guess your point is that this book, Dao Origin, keeps track of every person's Dao?"

[YES. And you understand why this is important right?]

"Because I can't learn the laws of the Omniverse directly… I have to compare and experiment by testing my Dao against the insights of others?"

[There's hope for you after all...] Chojusen couldn't see it, but the system was currently crying tears of hope.

"Well, if that's the case, I guess I better start building up my immortal foundation and divine body. Lets see… Step one: Build a Violet Palace within the Dantian. Mhmm… I need elemental essence?"

Chojusen lifted his hands and drew in a wisp of Nihility from the endless source all around him. He used his understanding of the principles of transmutation to convert the pure nihility into small drops of pure elemental essence. It took him a couple seconds to create one drop and he needed five drops — one for each of the principle elements; earth, water, fire, metal, and wood — to create one drop of elemental essence. He kept this refining process up for a couple hours until he had around 10 kg of elemental essence.

Chojusen figured this would be enough for creating a flawless Zifu, as the Dao Origin book specified that even the most talented cultivators used a tenth of a kilogram to construct their Violet Palaces. The extra amount was on account that he might be more talented than the most talented before him, since he had the system.

Chojusen took his little bucket's worth of liquid elemental essence and drank it; and action that would cause most cultivators to look at him like he was an idiot. Where would one find a novice who actually dared to drink pure elemental essence with no previously established cultivation? However, Chojusen didn't seem to have any side effects from drinking the essence.

He looked calm on this outside, but within his Dantian, a storm was brewing. His originally empty and desolate Dantian began to form thick white clouds and elemental essence rained down from the sky. Even though Chojusen drank a small 10 kg bucket of elemental essence, he drank a highly purified version of it comparable to a sea's worth of normal elemental essence.

As the energy was processed by his Dantian and transformed into regular elemental essence, a small sea was formed in his Dantian. When the elemental essence rain stopped, Chojusen could be seen in the real world dumbfounded. He didn't even reach the size of an ocean with 10 kgs of his elemental essence and none of that essence was used to build up his divine body either!

Chojusen restarted his elemental essence brewing technique and was happy to see that he could use his new cultivation base to speed up the process; now he was making a 1 kg of elemental essence every minute, and since the process mostly relied on his insights into the Dao of Nihility, Chojusen barely spent any of his new Ki. 100 minutes later, Chojusen had 100 kgs of elemental essence.

This time Chojusen drank half of it and waited to see if that would be enough for both cultivation paths. It wasn't enough… but it was getting closer. Chojusen drank another 30 kgs of elemental essence and could finally feel his Dantian start to give of some resistance. He drank a couple more kilograms of elemental essence, 1 kg at a time, until he finally completed his Ki Refining Zifu with 99 kgs of elemental essence; his Zifu Foundation had the depth and capacity of a liquid planet...

For the body refining section of the Dao Origin book, Chojusen found a technique that used Nihility Dao principles to create divine tattoos on his body. These tattoos would hold his divine energy and allow him to use the abilities of a divine body.

With a complete Zifu Foundation created for his Ki Refining cultivation, Chojusen could create elemental essence a ridiculous rate. However, he only created enough to have 100 kgs again and accurate guessed that he would use the same amount for his Body Refining path as he had for the Ki Refining path.

When he was done, Chojusen had a bunch of odd barcode-like lines all over his body; he looked like you could scan him as an item from a of a grocery store, back in Rias' home universe.

Moving on… Step two was create myriad manifestations within the Zifu, as a Wanxiang Adept. To do this, Chojusen would have to have at least one Dao at the level of Intent, else his foundation would crumble and he would cripple himself. He didn't know what level his Daos were at the moment, since he created them from the laws of a lower universe, but they shouldn't be that bad since they are based off of complete laws; albeit, weak laws from an inferior plane of existence.

Chojusen checked his Dao of Nihility against the Daos of other Wanxiang Adepts recorded within the book of Dao Origins. Chojusen's Dao of Nihility was second to none and for good reason; there were barely any living beings capable of sensing Nihility at such a low level. Since his Dao of Nihility was clearly better than other Wanxiang Adepts, Chojusen could enter the stage with no problems, but first, he wanted to see how he would fare against those above Wanxiang.

He flipped the pages of the book of Dao Origins and looked through the section for Primal Daoists and once again, he had the best Dao; it wasn't even fair to think of these Daos on the same level as Chojusen. After flipping to the Void Stage, Chojusen could start to see some interesting interpretations of the Dao of Nihility, but they all felt like he was way out of their league. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep checking against higher levels as he needed to transcend the Void Stage to keep going.

Back to cultivating~

Chojusen took a couple hours to create a comical 100,000 kgs of elemental essence and took a deep breath before sucking in pieces, 1,000 kgs at a time. When he used up all of his essence, the skies of his Dantian were now littered with stars; so numerous, they were impossible to count.

Seeing this result caused black lines to spawn on Chojusen's face. This was just the worst level of manifestations, and it took 100,000 kgs to get here? How many more… How many more kilograms would he need to take in to complete the next two levels?

At least his cultivation improved, meaning the rate at which he could create elemental essence improved as well. Chojusen stood in the space of Nihility for a couple more hours before stopping with 1 Million kilograms of elemental essence. Surely this would be enough for the next two levels… right?