Cultivating in Honkai!

It is currently midnight. Teaching Bronya and Seele took longer than I thought. It was fine when I showed Kiana the circulation and let her do it herself. She managed to do it in three tries. Turns out, that wasn't the case with others.

Bronya learned more with analogy based on modern knowledge. Seele preferred having to listen to the actual eastern 'terms' of cultivation, showing an intuitive understanding of it. She actually caught up with Bronya in terms of progress.

Finally, there is Kiana.

She is undergoing a qi cultivation session. She wanted to stay late up at night and make some progress.

My best bet is she's feeling pressured with the other two. Cultivation is different from her Valkyrie classes, after all. The progress it brings is far more drastic compared to Kiana sleeping in classes and slacking off on homework.

Her sole advantage compared to the two is her physique being stronger than typical Qi Refining people. Her previously strengthened body due to honkai plus the early stage benefits stacked together.

…

I closed my eyes and entered the golden orb space. I did my typical check-in and created eight new techniques. All of them are different qi cultivation techniques based on different elements.

That's right, eight.

Ever since the breakthrough to the late stage, my capacity increased from six to eight thousand-page long books. The texts are written within a quarter of a fingernail. Its contents are long and arduous.

I realized the 'mental burden' it should have brought.

Keyword: should.

Fu Hua had to discard her memories into "feathers" that act as mind seals. It goes to show that living a long time takes a lot of toll even to a MANTIS like Fu Hua. 

I have well-over five hundred techniques. I expected these techniques to do the same… yet it did not.

I don't know if the orb's helping me carry the burden or that the burden got reduced to a small percent.

I shook my thoughts as I exited. The familiar bedroom greeted my eyes. Consequently, eight brand new techniques popped out of my mind one-by-one.

[Xingchen Devouring Method]. Utilizing the power of twenty-eight main constellations ever-present in all worlds…

[Changsheng Wood Art]. Choosing the right spiritual plant, sharing progress with them…

[Nine Dragons Heaven Purple Qi]. Instead of utilizing the purple qi for changes, it is used to strengthen one's body…

…

…

I did my usual cross-referencing. I tried to look at the similarities of these techniques. There are a lot of implied meanings I discovered by doing so.

It dawned on me.

These eight techniques have more in common than just the meridian circulation. I can perfectly recall the techniques' contents. All the techniques have a point in common.

All of them…

They seek to utilize the Spirit Root's strengths to the greatest degree. They form a connection between it and the technique.

Once a perfect fit is made, cultivation will become instinctive. The small success of all techniques are somewhat limited, but they all strive in this direction.

That's how cultivators manage to cultivate for years straight!

Like a doorknob, something clicked inside my mind. It turned into a haze. Numerous changes began to occur. My mind instinctively moved to apply these changes. A throbbing came from my Spirit Roots as spiritual qi actively circulated throughout my body.

I don't know what happened next. It felt like I was in a dream. I know the entirety of the [Xiutian Sutra] but practical application is needed in real life. It's like turning theories into practice. It is up to me to do it.

When I snapped out of it, a brand new feeling emerged from my heart. An empty space appeared inside my meridians. It is a brand new function of my qi cultivation technique.

"Xiutian Art…"

Once you get started with it, this technique grants the capacity to have numerous job-exclusive specialties. 

Having a Sword Heart boosts cultivation speed and grants lethality for a sword cultivator.

Having a Natal Spiritual Flame boosts cultivation speed and shares the flames' characteristics with the user.

Every other characteristic gives a cultivation speed boost while giving out talents of sorts. [Xiutian Jue] forcibly creates a harmonious cycle, thereby allowing the said cultivator to have all instead of one.

It is a protagonist-level technique, I must say.

As for its characteristics during the "Small Success" at Qi Refining, a notable one is cultivation while sleeping. It turns cultivation into a part of "habit", thus all you need is to enter the state once. I don't even have to restart a new process once a session ends.

Finally, there is the defining characteristic of the technique.

[Xiutian Art]'s full name is [Xiutian Yin-Yang Art] (lit. Unparalleled Immortal Yin-Yang Art). It involves the practice of yin-yang of the ten elements… but that's not all.

It allows someone to form a taoist connection with a person of the opposite sex. That's the yin-yang part.

What it does is very simple. Once you form a connection with someone of great karma with you, you progress as long as your partner does. The same happens to vice versa.

If I form a connection with Kiana, her progress in cultivation equates to my progress in cultivation; the same goes opposite ways.

[Xiutian Art]'s greatest goal, however, is to turn an entire world into your cultivation companion. Trees, rock, beasts, demons, humans… their progress contributes to your progress.

Even if something happens to the other end, you won't get affected. 

Its main intention is to form a cycle out of yin and yang.

The yin progresses;

The yang gets rewarded;

The same is true when reversed.

Whenever Kiana progresses, it spawns something called a "Gift of Tao". Taking it increases my own realm. The same goes if I make progress. I can send a "Gift of Tao" to Kiana. It is akin to Experience Potions. To create it, we need to make progress in cultivation.

In short, it's the most broken cheat to exist in all heavens.

I tried to create another technique similar to it, only to fail. The golden orb deems it to be the strongest technique to exist in the category of the ten elements.

"Hm..?"

Just then, I faced another realization.

The [Xinhai Sutra] has the word wuji (boundlessness) on it. When the yin ang yang causes creation, won't it…

…

I felt another impending breakthrough.

It seems like I will sleep much later today…

*****

April 2, 2012.

At exactly 10:00 AM, the Salt Lake base greeted a new visitor.

Shi Tian stood in a daze. Tesla examined his reaction and nodded. They are inside an air hangar used to teach rookies to pilot a Titan.

"Well. I expected you to throw up."

"...That was teleportation?"

"Mn. How cool, right?"

"Yes…"

It took a few seconds for his dizziness to stop. He was picked up by Tesla. She gave him a bracelet of sorts. Then, the spatial displacement through the Sea of Quanta's infamous quantum entanglement happened.

From Siberia's snowy and somewhat dreary sky to Salt Lake's bright skies signifying spring, it only took a minute.

"Honkai…"

"You will be fighting a simulated version of those honkai beasts. It will stop once you are in danger."

"...You have those?"

Tesla merely let out a laugh when she saw Shi Tian's expression.

'I thought only Schicksal had those… but yeah. Anything's possible.'

He swallowed his previous judgement. Anti-Entropy is much more capable than he thought.

The two left the room. Shi Tian saw a bunch of people with headgear. Their chairs are akin to a large chair filled with technology he could not understand.

Tesla caught up on his interest and explained:

"Most of the operational Titans are controlled remotely to prevent casualties. There are only a few complex units that require actual pilots. It's either human pilots or artificial intelligence."

"Your red mech…"

"It's a custom-made one. Being transported in harsh places without a proper place to stay…"

She can still remember the harsh Siberian environment back then. She almost turned into a sculpture even with a thick fur coat. The Sixth Divine Key allowed her to keep her youth. It did not give her superhuman capabilities akin to the valkyries.

'Women love to hold their grudges well.' 

Shi Tian noted this very well.

*****

A/N: Bonus Chapter.