SCC Chapter 1-5

Levels of cultivation

Body refinement- Cultivators will strengthen their bodies to the physical peak before they begin their actual journey through cultivation. Most view this as less important and not truly cultivation. Most skip this process. Body refinement is possible to do even after you begin the next steps along the way. The higher your cultivation the harder to make changes to your body.

Qi condensation- Begin to condense the qi inside your body. This is where you decide on your cultivation method. 10 ranks to this level and every level you improve increases your lifespan by 10 years. The average cultivator takes five years per level while the gifted are expected to do them in one. Complete geniuses are expected to do it even faster than that and will be compared to other geniuses who have done it faster in the past.

Foundation Establishment- Begin to spread the qi through chakra points inside your body. Early, middle, late, and peak are the ranks. Each rank increases the chakra points opened and the more someone can open the higher their potential is thought to be with the max being sixteen each rank capping out at sixty-four at peak. Each chakra point increases the qi that can flow through your body with more chakra points allowing more control.

Core formation- Begin to form a core somewhere inside your body. Early, middle, late, and peak are the ranks. Depending on where you form your core will change your methods of growth and the beneficial effects you gain from it. The heart, stomach, blood and muscle, and brain are the core locations. All locations increase strength and lifespan. Those at this rank will normally be called their core position cultivators(IE he’s a heart cultivator).

Nascent Soul- Break your core creating a secondary soul inside your body to strengthen with your qi. Cracked, chipped, crushed, and soul are the ranks. Each step has a significant chance of going wrong or failure. Each increase in rank floods your body with all the stored qi in your core strengthening it even further while also increasing lifespan. The creation of an unblemished soul is for the preparation for the final stage possible before ascending.

Great ascension/Divine tribulation- Undergo tribulations in an attempt to ascend to the spiritual world. Every tribulation will cause damage to your body and cause your possible death. The number of tribulations that you survive affects your stage after ascending(allegedly). Every tribulation shortens the lifespan. 

Other ways to improve beyond cultivation

Fighting techniques- There are an almost countless number of fighting techniques cultivators can use to do many things. Most cultivators choose an offensive, defensive, movement, and support technique to fight other cultivators with. A good fighting technique could be the difference in winning or losing a fight and some techniques were designed to counter others. Most techniques won't allow a person to defeat someone higher ranking than themselves. 

Alchemy- A rank 1 alchemist can compete with those a rank higher than themselves. Alchemy also creates pills that can be used to increase cultivation speed while the pills that provide temporary boosts are the reason a lower-ranked alchemist can compete with a higher-ranked cultivator.

Formation master- A rank 1 formation master can compete with two opponents of the same rank as themselves. A formation master can also lay down arrays to increase the speed at which they can cultivate. The defensive and offensive arrays are what allow the formation master to compete with more people.

Graded weapons- A graded weapon gives an advantage to someone fighting against a cultivator of the same level. If two middle foundation establishment cultivators were to fight, if one had a graded weapon they would be assumed to win that fight. Each grade allows them to compete with increasing ranks as a rank 2 graded weapon is thought to allow a middle foundation establishment cultivator to compete with a late foundation establishment cultivator.

Dao- Dao practitioners fall outside of the normal scaling. A Dao of serenity might receive no advantage while the Dao of war could possibly beat someone three ranks higher than themself. Dao is the hardest subject to judge and more cultivators have died underestimating someone of a lower rank with a dao that made them stronger than anything else. Comprehending a Dao is extremely difficult and many have spent most of their lives attempting to do so with no success.

Weapon intent- Somewhat similar to killing intent and mostly known for ‘sword intent’ but can be done with other weapons. A dangerous aura is emitted from a weapon or person that makes others feel as if they’re about to be attacked. Higher-ranking weapon intent can even manifest physical attacks from their intent to attack people. Weapon intent is the catch-all term while most practice sword intent some practice mace, dagger, or spear instead. Those who can use weapon intent can compete one rank higher while those who can use physical manifestation weapon intent can defeat those two ranks higher than themselves.

Spiritual roots- Determines innate talent and elemental specialization(if they have one) before they even start. A minimum level of spiritual roots is required to even begin cultivating and there are possible methods to nourish spiritual roots or even alter them. Several cultivation methods, pills, and formations can alter the spiritual roots inside someone.

Spirit beast- A person can tame a spirit beast to assist them, most often in combat but in other ways as well. Spirit beasts often have cores which make them targets for cultivators as they can take the core and absorb the qi from them. Forming a contract with a spirit beast will bind its soul to yours and depending on the type of contract one or both participants can be severely weakened or die if the other does.

Demonic cultivation- This is the catch-all term for those who seek power by any means necessary. Demonic cultivators often use cultivation methods that allow them to grow rapidly at the cost of constantly harming, siphoning, or killing other cultivators. Demonic cultivators often use techniques that allow them to breach the rank barrier. Some techniques would be potential burning, self-harming, or lifespan expending to use.

Feng Shui- The elemental interaction of the five elements. Thought of to be mostly useless compared to other specializations like alchemy or formations. Feng shui can increase the cultivation speed or increase the strength of elemental techniques. Provides no bonus while fighting and thus is often overlooked even in most families, sects, or buildings. 

Chapter 02

I spat out another mouthful of blood as I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. Over six hundred years of cultivation, countless resources, and the blood, sweat, and effort of many, many lower-ranked disciples finally reached the nascent soul realm. I had become the first nascent soul realm cultivator in the entire eastern region. Well, the only known true nascent soul cultivator anyway.

So when I finally felt the jubilation of my ascension to the final rank before attempting ascension, I was struck low by the three other peak sect masters in the eastern region. The medicine that would have smoothed the process was poisoned, the formation that should ease the fresh soul instead held it firmly, and finally, my closest friend and confidant, the person I trusted the most, the person I openly loved, who I never thought would betray me, struck me the single moment of defenselessness as I broke through to true nascent soul stage.

All of my defenses were down, and there was no spirit beast as he had to guard against outsiders' interference. My body weakened to the point that even a foundation establishment cultivator could strike me down but the nascent soul cultivators only stood around slowly watching me die. There was no life-saving technique or divine artifact that could save me at this point, I was dead. How long had Li Chunhua hid her schemes from me? She was the woman I lusted for in my younger days then became rivals as we grew older. How many years did she plan to betray me? One hundred? Two hundred? Five hundred? No, the truth is she was using me from the beginning and the moment I outgrew the others I was too much of a threat to them.

Inadequacy. The three other peak sect masters were jealous of my progress, I was the first true nascent soul cultivator in the eastern region in over a thousand years. Someone with a weaker spiritual root had overtaken the ‘prodigies’ in terms of cultivation. The four of us together worked together to create an era of peace. An era of people solely focused on cultivation but I hadn’t seen them working behind the scenes to kill me and take everything of value I had.

 My brain worked overtime trying to think of a way to survive this, to live and kill them. They had waited until my core had finally became a soul so I couldn’t even destroy my brain core to cause an explosion. I couldn’t use offensive or defensive techniques, the formation was designed to counter all my known high-ranking techniques but… As my brain kept thinking, something drew me to a completely useless technique I learned on a whim.

At the time the technique didn’t make sense to me. It was a technique that could send items back into the past but the weight heavily affected the usage. Anything over a catty in weight took far too much qi to send back even at the cracked core nascent soul stage… What if I didn’t send an item… But my newly created pure soul. If I was truly lucky, I could go back a few hours and completely bypass the nascent soul process. I was going to burn my current raggedy soul to send myself back.

I couldn’t help but smirk, the single ounce of gloating had all three of my betrayers rushing to behead me before I could do whatever I found so funny. It was already too late, the technique being instantaneous, everything faded to white as I felt my soul burn. The technique going to work right away.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I woke up and felt awful which shouldn’t have been possible. My strengthened body could only feel wounds but these weren’t wounds. It was the aches and pains of sleeping on a straw mat, the smell of shit so unfamiliar to my nose that it took me a few moments to recognize the scent as I finally open my eyes and look around.

I didn’t recognize it, why was I sleeping in a stable? I heard a woman call for me. “Sun Wu! Sun Wu, breakfast is ready? You must prepare for the spiritual roots test today!” I still couldn’t wrap my head around what was happening. My brain barely working almost as if my brain core didn’t exist anymore. I knew from becoming a true nascent soul that the bonus to my mental processing should still exist even as the core was destroyed for the nascent soul. 

The energy from the process of the destruction the real reason that your mental faculties don’t diminish from destroying your brain core. No, as I slowly began to check my body I noticed more things… These hands didn’t appear to be mine, they were too flimsy. I had muscular arms while these ones were so thin I could touch my fingers around my wrist.

What did the lady say again? I hadn’t even realized she said spiritual roots test, for who? I wondered which one of my children was up for their spiritual root test. I would have to have the woman flogged for speaking to me so casually though, it was a stain on my honor to be spoken to so casually. What else was she talking about? Food? I hadn’t needed to eat food for over six hundred years. Since the middle-rank of the foundation establishment stage. I could have stopped at the early-rank but had consumed food after for mostly pleasure, I didn’t miss not needing to defecate or urinate after I did stop consuming food though.

Why would I need to consume food? No, why would I be hungry right now? The feeling was so foreign to me that I didn’t recognize it until I thought about it more. What was happening? I looked around for a weapon as I made my way towards the voice. Going into the house and looking at the back of the woman who was hunched over a stove brought back long-forgotten memories.

It was more the faint remembrance of senses. The smell of the burning wood in winter. The cold water I had to bathe myself with at the river. The taste of the most delicious foods that even the sect couldn’t reach. The warm hands picked me up and reached around me to give me a big hug. I had forgotten her face. It had been over six hundred years since I last seen her. The woman cooking food in front of me was my mother.

Tears began to fall down my face as I involuntarily cried from the overwhelming emotions going through me. I had gone back into the past over six hundred years. I was six hundred and seventy years old, people have their spiritual roots tested at fifteen. I had gone back six hundred and fifty-five years. I felt… Defeated. Centuries of cultivation all to have it stripped away from me at the final step and I was given a chance to start all over again.

I couldn’t help but be frustrated by the situation, my adolescent body was still full of chemicals that worked against a brain that hadn’t had them for hundreds of years. My mother turned towards me with a bowl of soup, and fresh eggs piled on top. She handed me the bowl as she began running her hand through my hair. I began eating mechanically as she whispered. “Oh, Sun Wu, you don’t have to be scared. Many don’t have spiritual roots strong enough to be selected. If that happens then you’ll just come back home and keep working on the farm, you hear me?”

I couldn’t help but look down, tears falling into my soup as I kept eating and thought about how bad this situation really was… I could start over knowing who my enemies were from the start. I could start cultivating with all the knowledge I had previously, being able to avoid all the pitfalls and problems while hiding my true strength. Choosing a different path than I had previously, one of slow meticulous growth because of my spiritual root which made me need to learn many other methods to fight with those above my cultivation rank. I was now growing more excited at the thought and that feeling kept growing.

Chapter 03

I walked up onto the podium, wondering if this newly formed soul held any changes to my spiritual roots than it previously had. Would all the changes I made hold true or would I have to upgrade my spiritual root again from the start? As I placed my hand on the orb and revealed my rank and color, it was a mixture of both. The man looked surprised as he wrote something down before speaking. “High rank, true neutral. I haven’t seen a spiritual root like this ever before. What tough luck kid.”

In my previous life, I had a mid-rank true neutral spiritual root. The higher the rank the better, the more pure the color the better. Mid-rank was good but not great the true neutral color sounded good but it was actually mid-tier as well. It meant I could cultivate any method without needing to choose a specific element but at the cost of slower growth. Thankfully I was an entire rank higher so I would cultivate at a much faster rate than in my first life.

The cultivator knew this and if I had a high-rank pure element spiritual root then my life would have been far easier. I would have been given the best cultivation resources while becoming an inner disciple of the sect or even been picked as a disciple of a sect elder. The truth was, I was happy to get such a ‘lackluster’ spiritual root.

It meant I could go under the radar even though my cultivation speed was much higher than other mid-ranked spiritual root cultivators or high-ranked cultivators with fewer pure elements. Someone with a peak-rank and pure element was a one-in-a-million chance. They would essentially win the lottery… So why did so few of them reach the higher ranks of cultivation? They should be able to easily reach it. Once again it was mostly out of fear and jealousy.

They would become a sect elder's disciple. Rapidly climb the ranks of cultivation until they reach the same as their teacher. Then the teacher would kill them once they knew they’d be surpassed by their disciple. This was of course the most likely thing to happen, some of the elders would gracefully allow their student to surpass them… But that was rare. One of the very few instances was a member of the four great sect leaders I was part of.

That person ended up taking his teacher as a dual cultivation partner… Then he ripped the cultivation from her body by making her a living cauldron. I was going to kill him for it, that is borderline demonic cultivator actions if you ask me. The other two sect leaders talked me out of killing him for it. The only reason anyone knew is he was gloating about it to his disciples. Even with that much of an advantage, being born with a peak spiritual root he still lost to me at reaching true nascent soul.

That was because I spent most of my life cultivating or gathering resources to cultivate or work on methods of fighting above my weight class so I could kill my enemies to keep cultivating. I had probably spent ninety-nine percent of my life solely focused on cultivation… I most certainly wasn’t going to do that again in this life. I had spent most of my previous life sitting in different rooms gathering qi, slowly absorbing spirit stones, or gathering ingredients for alchemy pills. I wasn’t going to do any of that this time around.

That being said, I waited for everyone else to be tested. There were six others and I hadn’t remembered any of them so they must have not been too important. I was realizing very rapidly that my lack of a brain core had thoroughly shot my ability to remember things from my previous life. Sure I could remember the dozens if not hundreds of techniques my sect taught, all the methods of cultivating I used, and many of the methods I had never used and even ones my students used but it was the little things I forgot. People's faces, the food they served at the sect I was going to join. 

As a brain cultivator previously, I’d have been able to think about that person and remember almost every single detail of them down to their favorite color they didn’t even tell me but I deduced through context clues. Brain cultivators weren’t often picked as the vast majority chose heart or stomach, both providing benefits most would prefer over the mental boost forming a brain core.

Heart cultivators could temporarily boost their own strength while stomach cultivators could expend qi to heal wounds, both were thought of to be far more important than thinking faster. If the heart was a relatively uncommon choice, blood and muscle were thought to be almost a joke choice. Blood and muscle core cultivators were slightly stronger but the boost was much smaller than the temporary boost heart cores gave. For combat, the heart cores made far more sense than blood and heart did.

The test finally concluded and the six were chosen. I was getting slightly more looks than I would have expected, I think my calm demeanor was throwing them off as all of them were almost vibrating from excitement. That was fair, their lives were going to change forever the moment we entered that sect. Judging by the lack of me remembering any of them they would cultivate for as long as they could before fading into obscurity.

We all flew on a gigantic sword which now that I knew other forms of transportation seemed extremely silly. Out of everything to transport us, this was chosen to give new cultivators a sense of awe. I just wondered how many freshly picked cultivators fell to their death because they didn’t balance perfectly and weren’t worth saving from plunging to their death.

I had a calm hand on the cultivator's sleeve, it wasn’t enough to be punished for but if the worst did happen I wouldn’t die the same day I restarted my life. It might have been my paranoid mind, but the cultivator didn’t notice how on guard I was, showing that he was still in the first few decades of his journey. Soon he’d learn to always keep his guard up.

Once again as we landed, several other groups of cultivators were showing up at the same time. As excited as everyone was I knew soon they’d grow bored by all the paperwork we needed to do. I wondered if I would get placed in the same cultivation block as I previously got even though my spiritual root was an entire rank higher. As I read my house number I was shocked to see that it was the same.

My best guess is only those deemed worthy were removed from the list while everyone else was already registered when they used the orb and had their spiritual root scanned. Even though I ranked high my true neutral to elements nature turned off any potential elders. We were handed thirty low-grade spirit stones, told about the services the sect provided and then all of us were left to our own devices.

People often think that cultivators are constantly fighting to gain strength but that couldn’t be further from the truth. People really only fight over resources and right now we don’t have anything worth fighting for. I just needed to hide my spirit stones as soon as I got to my home because I knew what was going to happen in just an hour. The new cultivators were going to be hazed and the monthly spirit stones they were given would be taken from them.

Chapter 04

“Come out newcomers! Come greet your seniors!” I had thought about not showing my face but I didn’t want to turn my neighbors against me. If any knew I was a newcomer and told one of these higher ranks then I could be targeted in the future. As I exited the two other newcomers who were placed in this wing came out. The boy who thought he was a man had a cocky smirk on his face as he began to hold his hand out.

The boy looked at us while holding his hand out. As he did so he tapped his foot impatiently as he asked. “Well, I’m waiting. Where are your monthly spirit stones?” I blinked twice as I waited for the act to end. The man waited for someone to speak but no one did. He grew more irritated as he spoke. “Come on now! Don’t tell me someone else already took your spirit stones!” He looked upset and so did the four other cultivators behind him. 

I had decided it was long enough for him to not assume I was being rude before I spoke. “I used my spirit stones to purchase a cultivation method. I will be going back to cultivation now.” I bowed showing the respect a senior would expect from a lower rank person before leaving. I was trying to portray myself as someone who already knew the rules of the sect. I would have a less likely chance of being attacked for no reason if they thought I had a family member inside the sect already.

He would bully the two into giving away their spirit stones as he did to me the first time. If he did enter my home he would not find the stones unless he moved the boulder in the sand garden to find them hidden underneath. Those who lost their spirit stones would have to wait an entire month to start cultivating, I hadn’t known that you could get a free cultivation method but the vast majority of members purchase one more suited for them from the sect.

It was best to wait until you could get a method closely tied to your highest element. Then they’d wait and purchase techniques which would be a waste of resources at the lowest tier of cultivation. People who wasted their time-fighting at the qi condensation level wouldn’t make it very far in their cultivation path. A person they bullied one day could outrank them the next, the geniuses barreling through the first stage of cultivation and reaching foundation establishment in just a few years.

Revenge was ruthless and the quiet cultivator avoiding conflicts was far more common than the young master persona that wanted to slap everyone's face. Most people born into cultivation were solely focused on growing stronger, often helping their friends over stealing from random bypassers. The young masters did exist though. The only female sect master of the four great sects in the future had a young master persona.

Li Chunhua would have died a dozen times over if she wasn’t so attractive. In three years she would join the sect and in a single month she’d become an inner disciple and grow rapidly out of my reach. I’d only get to look at her from afar for decades until I caught up to her cultivation level, constantly chasing her cultivation so I could stay in her cultivation circles.

Li Chunhua was the reason I had become the first true nascent soul cultivator in the eastern region in over a thousand years. I spent most of my life trying to keep up with her so that she might deem me a worthy partner. So when she stabbed me in the back literally, I felt completely defeated. Now I was going to do as I pleased and that was making sure the three who betrayed me would regret it in this life. The biggest problem was that one was sixty years older than me, she was three years younger and the fourth would be born in another sixteen years.

It meant I would need to wait at least three years to get my revenge on the first enemy and I was thinking about possibly taking the fourth sect leader's mother as my concubine before he was born and possibly becoming his father. I’d have to find her, I think she was a foundation establishment cultivator who got pregnant on accident and treated her child shit for fifteen years until she found out he had a peak-rank perfect element spiritual root. That is about all I knew of her story and her life was most likely ended by her son when he grew strong enough.

It got me thinking about my enemies again… All three of them were beautiful. The oldest, Emo Shuaige, tricked a sword maiden into dropping her guard and giving her treasure grade rank three weapons to him where he slew her and took over her sect. Li Chunhua managed to talk herself out of many situations that would have killed less beautiful cultivators. She probably slept around for benefits, growing stronger by taking the rod of someone stronger than herself. The final boy, Huang Jingyu, who hadn’t been born yet was the worst. He was peerlessly handsome, convincing many beauties to his bedroom. The heirs he had claimed reached triple digits before I stopped keeping track of them. 

I wasn’t known for my good looks, the best way to describe me was plain looking. It was an unfortunate side effect that the cultivation method I chose didn’t slow my appearance from aging. I was six hundred years and my gray hair and a long beard that made me look like an aged cultivator made me more different than my opponents as they all kept their looks even centuries later. That wasn’t going to happen this time, I would retain my appearance and would do things to make sure I was handsome in the future. 

Right now cultivating would be a mistake. I needed to refine my body. I had chosen to start refining the second month I joined the sect, the cheap method I bought for thirty spirit stones was not even worth the paper it was written on. Only after I became a foundation establishment cultivator did I know I hurt myself. Most of the cultivation process could be summed up like that. Failing forwards.

With the knowledge I know now, I knew that starting to cultivate before you work on body refinement would be a detriment to your physical appearance. I hadn’t done any body refinement, as I deemed it a skippable step, but in the process crippled my future growth. Think of it like a vessel for holding an unstable liquid. The bigger the vessel, the stronger the vessel, the easier it is to hold more liquid. Even the first level of qi condensation would start to lock your body from changes. That’s why some cultivators can be fat even though they no longer eat, their body is locked into its form when they reach the foundation establishment stage.

So the first thing I needed to do… Was to get a good night's sleep, which is what I did. After sleeping and making sure the coast was clear, I left my building with my spirit stones to go and purchase the lowest-grade cauldron and ingredients to make a pill. I brought it back home and began to make the pill. These cauldrons tend to explode if misused and the collective impurities were higher than using a higher-grade cauldron.

I had to burn the cauldron near the end causing the temperature to spike to burn off the impurities but that didn’t always work. I pulled out the three pills and looked at them, rank 2 foundation breakthrough pills. It should have been impossible to make them with the lowest quality cauldron but because I was a rank 3 alchemist it was possible.

A large portion of cultivators take pills to gather qi, in the process they build up impurities. These pills could allow someone to break through the impurities or blockages developed from using them. It meant that they would never become anything more than a core formation cultivator but to those stuck for years, it could be the last chance to live. It would at least increase their lifespan by another fifty years by breaking through, many would pay their entire life savings for another fifty years of life. I tossed the three pills into the air before catching them. It was time to go sell them and begin my cultivation in earnest.

Chapter 05

I entered the pill pavilion and walked up to the front desk. The man behind the desk looked beyond bored. He was probably hoping the spirit stones he earned from this would make up for the time he wasted not cultivating. I pulled out the three pills and handed them forward for him to inspect. He pulled out an eyeglass, it was a treasured item that would tell him the value of the pill as he asked. “And what type of pill is this?”

I gave him my most disarming smile before mentioning it. “It’s a foundation breakthrough pill. My master made them on a whim as he was short on drinking funds.” The man kept using the eyeglass as he spoke. “These are rank 2, almost three. Your master lives here in the sect?” I couldn’t help but wonder at the odd question. “Uhh, y-yea. Why?”

The man still spoke non-challantly. “Well because if he does live here I think I’d know about him. We have no alchemists who are close to reaching rank 3 in the entire sect. Which is why I asked if he lived here to gauge if you were lying.” My eyes went wide as he had somehow figured it out. I had been making pills for so long it was hard to make them inferior on purpose and I hadn’t started my alchemy career until a few decades later.

I played it off like he caught me in a lie. “Well, he is a reclusive old man so he would rather not let himself be known in public…” I was trying to go for a hidden master vibe but even still I was already getting stared down by this random alchemist. “Fine, let's say I believe you. I’m taking ten percent off the final price of the pills to keep my silence. If it’s found out these pills are stolen I’m throwing you under the bus the second someone comes asking.” Is that what this is about? No, he was just a cheapskate trying to nickel and dime me out of the actual price.

If I let him push me around when settling the price now he might do so in the future. “So, you’re telling me you’re willing to risk the ire of a high-ranking alchemist by shortchanging him?... I mean, I guess that’s one way to get yourself killed.” The casual look on his face started to fade as he realized what he had done. If I was actually a runner for a high-ranking alchemist and shortchanged his helper then he was effectively short-changing the alchemist. The alchemist was most likely a far more powerful and prestigious person who could kill him on a whim and completely avoid punishment.

The receptionist began to panic. “W-wait! I was… Joking! Yes, joking! Sorry about that. Let me get you all of the spirit stones for these pills right away!” He fell off the chair as he ran to the stones in the back and began grabbing several sacks. If the price held true to those six hundred years in the future then I should have just made three hundred spirit stones in the process.

He handed me three sacks of spirit stones as he spoke. “Three hundred and sixty spirit stones here.” I wasn’t sure so I asked. “Aren’t the rank 2 breakthrough pills one hundred spirit stones?” He looked at me confused before saying. “No, perhaps if we had a surplus of them but these will sell right away because so few alchemists can make them.”

Oh, once again I had forgotten that in my sect alchemy and formation masters were taken more seriously. There were as many rank 2 alchemists as the entire sect had rank 1 alchemists. Because of that, there was a surplus of rank 1 and rank 2 pills. Even rank 3 pills weren’t uncommon. I was able to make rank 4 pills under the right circumstances but wasn’t considered a rank 4 alchemist.

As many attempts as I had, I just couldn’t make any of the known rank 4 pills, and only rank 3 pills that I had perfected could reach rank 4. I accepted the money and purchased a higher-ranking cauldron and the ingredients to make even more pills. As I rattled off a dozen ingredients I realized again that the price was lower than I thought it would be. With fewer alchemist ingredients being used the price would drop because of lack of demand. 

Even still, I spent a hundred and fifty spirit stones on the cauldron and ingredients. That brought me down to two hundred left. I took them leaving before heading to the local banking branch. The cost for a spirit card was thirty spirit stones, another monthly amount but with the card I wouldn’t have to worry about being stolen from. The three spirit stone maintenance cost was just another thing I would quickly forget about as I built up my wealth.

Taking my card I headed to the formation vendor next and bought the ingredients necessary for making the formations I needed. With the little amount of stones I had left, I bought home decorations for my house. It was all coming together in my head as I thought about my next steps. Making my way home before taking my old cauldron to the cultivator neighbor with big buck teeth. I remembered he would become a fledgling alchemist in the next few years and the lowest-rank cauldron wasn’t worth making soup to me now.

Getting some good karma now I just hoped he wouldn’t sell me out in the future if we needed to work together. Walking back I immediately began to make different pills. In the future cultivation pills would be a big base of my future progress. Making and consuming pills to cultivate was thought to be a waste and not a valid way to grow powerful but the pills I made were far weaker. Why would you want to make them weaker? Because that was the only way to remove the impurities from the pills.

A normal cultivation pill would cost about ten spirit stones to make but I could reduce the price down to five. The effect of my pills was only 20% effective in comparison to normal cultivation pills but they had virtually no impurities. It meant I could take them as often as I could make them with no negative side effects. To make money I could also produce twice the amount of normal cultivation pills as another alchemist to sell. Each pill sells for fifty spirit stones, giving a huge bonus to cultivation progress to those too lazy to cultivate.

Most people used cultivation-increasing pills instead of pills that gave cultivation. That is how I made up for my low progress, perfecting both recipes and spending more time cultivating than others to make up for my mid-rank true neutral spiritual root. I was starting an entire rank higher than I was previously. But now I wasn’t making either of those. I had formed twenty nutrient pills to consume to enhance my physique and two rank 1 spiritual root nourishing pills.

You could only consume one spiritual root nourishing pill for each rank but doing so now while I hadn’t even started cultivating will provide me with the most benefit. The pills were also extremely difficult to make and were worth two hundred spirit stones. I only needed one… So should I sell it or perhaps give it to a person I would need to get on my side… I thought about it more but couldn’t decide. Pills became less effective the longer you waited to consume them.

At the moment I needed friends more than spirit stones. Making the extremely difficult pill would also put a target on my back. I head to the brothel and ask around for another neutral cultivator. Neutral cultivators gained the most benefits from the pill as it increased the affinity with all elements on top of increasing the natural cultivation speed. 

If you consumed all three ranks it was equivalent to having an entire rank of speed more and the estimated increase in affinities was equivalent to 5% per pill. With five elements of the true neutral root, every single pill increased the affinities for each adding up to 25% overall. Someone with a high affinity like 90% would only get 1% or 2%. Only those who were from top-grade clans could afford to consume the pills before they started cultivating and that’s when you got the best effect from them. Every rank would reduce the effect of the pills more and more until you received no benefits from them at the end of the peak foundation establishment rank.