Cultivation Cultivation System

Flourishing Essence World Cultivation System

This was a method created by the Supreme God of Life. Initially it was designed to be a way to replenish resources on worlds that had been overconsumed by cultivators. Worlds that had a few scant scraps of spiritual life left. It never managed to spread beyond their apprentice who betrayed them having been corrupted and controlled by the Supreme God of Worldly Core. The cultivation method, their life’s work, was lost to the ages. The only copy of it, a dusty old book from the outside, was cast into chaos and landed on one of the many realms in the cosmos.

Before the practitioner can start to take in Qi, they must first strengthen their body and meditate in order to open themselves up to the world. The strengthening of the body will produce a fragment of Vital Qi, which will resonate with the Qi in nature and will allow the practitioner to actively attract it into their body. This stage is mostly similar to any other cultivation method at this point, though does not involve any special materials or physiques.

Threefold Earthly Authority Stages:

This is where the cultivation path will start properly. The first three stages of this cultivation method is setting the foundation for the future. They are called the Threefold Earthly Authority stages. In the first stage, the practitioner must immerse themselves in a body of water. The deeper this body the better. Slowly they will draw the Water Attuned Qi into their body. This will flow through their body and must be directed to the Lower Dantian below their navel. Doing this will naturally make them quicker on their feet, and will begin to form a spiritual sea within their soul. Once the sea is formed, they can move onto the next step.

The cultivator will now need to move to a place with large amounts of Earth Attuned Qi. This should only have small amounts of Metal Attunement mixed in. Somewhere such as the top of a hill would be a good place to acquire such Qi. The cultivator will once again draw in this Qi into their body, directing this Qi to their middle dantian near their heart. At this point in time, it is important that the water and earth Qi not mix. As the Earth Qi fills the Dantian, the cultivator's durability will increase, as will their physical strength. While weaker than a pure body cultivator, they will be at least double the strength of other cultivators.

For the final step, the cultivator must make use of their more durable body, and immerse themselves in fire. Without the Earth Qi their body would burn, and without the water Qi their skin would dry up. It is for this reason that this is the last step. While immersed in the fire, they must take in the Flame Attuned Qi. This cannot be the vicious Qi that comes from the planet’s core, but rather must be the fleeting warmth of fire that life has sought in the cold. Not violent, but free. This Qi will be directed to the Dantian inside the cultivators head. Doing this will give the cultivator great stamina. Their energy will move with far more energy and respond quickly. While this stage is still progressing, the Fire Qi should not mix with either of the other Qi’s.

Half-Step Garden Stage:

Before the cultivator can finish the Threefold Earthly Authority Stages, they must complete one last step, that focuses entirely on the control they have over their energies. This cannot be considered its own stage, but once it is complete the cultivator can be considered to have taken half a step into the next stage. The cultivator will finally begin to mix the energies present within their three Dantian. First they must ensure that each Dantian is equal to one another. No dantian can be greater or lesser in strength than either other. Once this is certain, the cultivator will direct the energies to flow through a specific unique set of pathways until they connect to each other. Through this connection the Water Qi will flow upwards to nourish the Earth Qi, while at the same time the Flame Qi will send its heat downwards and warm the Earth Qi. Within the cultivator’s soul, a hazy landmass will begin to form. Fresh damp soil will sit below a mild sun. Several rivers may appear to flow through this land. If observed closely, one can note that this land is slightly illusionary.

Blossoming Essence Garden Stages:

With the land formed, it is now time for the cultivator to fill it with life. The cultivator will truly live up to their name, and must begin to plant seeds throughout the real world. The seeds will grow underground, and the moment they break through the surface, these seeds will produce a tiny amount of Flawless Life Qi. The cultivator must absorb a fragment of this Qi. They cannot take too much, as doing so would damage the seedling thus producing a slight aura of death. This aura would taint the Life Qi, and harm the Garden. Each fragment of Flawless Life Qi will enter into the land within the cultivator’s soul. If the cultivator is too slow to absorb the Life Qi, it will begin to mix with the Qi of the world and lose it’s purity. By the end of this stage, after many thousands of plants have bloomed, the soil within the Garden will be vibrant with Life Qi. Despite this, no life is yet present within the Garden.

For the next stage, the practitioner will have to paradoxically remove life in order to create it. The Garden is ready for life, and so life shall be added. The cultivator will begin to collect plants and must consume them whole, both in body and soul. As they do this, the plants will be reduced to their pure essence before instantaneously being rebuilt within the Garden. Each plant they consume will be faithfully reproduced one to one inside the Essence Garden. Once the plant has been stored within the garden, the soul of the cultivator will memorise it’s essence. From that moment on, the cultivator can spend Life Qi to produce additional copies of the plant within their Essence Garden. This is the so-called Blooming. The greater the lifeforce of the plant the cultivator is copying, the more life qi they must spend. However, at this stage the plants within the garden will also be producing life qi and thus the cultivator need no longer consume Flawless Life Qi from the outside world to replenish their Essence Garden. It is in this way that the technique begins to exhibit some of the brilliance that the Supreme God of Life foresaw. The essence of any plant species or specimen consumed by the cultivator will not truly be gone from creation for as long the cultivator exists. The garden is not yet perfect though. The plants consumed at this stage are forever locked to the moment they were added. They will not grow further.

This garden is not without it’s benefits for the cultivator. As the garden grows, so too does the strength of the practitioner. The Life Qi within the Garden is their Life Qi, their vitality. The Attuned Qi produced by the land and sun is their Attuned Qi, to obey their command without hesitation.

Dao Manifestation Stages:

While the previous stages focused on making the Essence Garden bloom, the last stages focus inverting fantasy and reality. They are the Dao Manifestation Stages.
The first part of this phase is for the cultivator to acquire four Spirit Beast Guardians. They must seek out and find four creatures that will act as defenders for their Essence Garden. With willing consent from these beasts, they will be absorbed by the cultivator and enter into the Garden. Their presence inside the Garden will bring about its own stability. By the very act of the beasts acknowledging the existence of the farm, the farm will be accepted as real by other beings under the heavens. This will move the farm from being a realm of pure spirit and bring it half a step into reality. With that bridge to reality comes a far greater level of solidity. After the beasts have become guardians, they will act to protect the Garden from foreign invasive forces. Anything targeting the farm will not be contending with just the cultivator, but with the cultivator backed by the strength of the four Spirit Beasts Guardians. This is a symbiotic relationship, and as the Garden grows in size and power, so too will the Beasts. It is possible for the Beasts to undergo qualitative evolutions in bloodlines as the Garden too evolves, by taking in the energies and traits of the plants within.

For the second-to-last stage, the practitioner will begin to touch on the profound laws of the Greater Dao. This is the first step to reaching Divinity, and also an important step for the Garden. To allow the plants within the Essence Garden to begin to grow and flourish, the practitioner will start to comprehend the Dao of Time. Once they have understood some of the initial laws of this Dao, they will integrate those laws into the Garden. From this moment onwards, time will begin to pass within the Essence Garden. Plants will age, reproduce and die. The cultivator need no longer devote life energy to producing more plants unless they wish to reproduce specific ones. Connecting to this Dao will also produce a World Heart at the center of this land, which will greatly expand the Garden in size. Outside of the Garden, comprehending the Dao of Time will allow the cultivator to make use of some of its mysteries.

The World Heart is the key to the final stage of this cultivation method. Rather than the Dao of Time, the cultivator will turn their attention to comprehending the Dao of The World, and taking it to completion. Their comprehension of this Dao will resonate with the World Heart within their soul. The World Heart will grow firmer and more powerful. Once the cultivator has understood the entirety of the Dao of The World they will ascend to Divinity. The divine and immortal energies produced during this event will flood the Blooming Essence Garden and bring it fully into reality. It will be a true world within the soul of the divine cultivator. Living beings will be able to enter and, more importantly, exit this space from that moment on.

This is not the end of the road of cultivation, but it is the end of this particular path. To progress further down the path of Divinity, the cultivator will have to find their own path.