Magical Girl Cultivation

Magical Girl Cultivation - Valky and Nyanko Edition

It is said that to walk on the path of cultivation is to walk towards divinity and immortality. Well, this is one such path. The path of the magical girl.

First Stage: Forming Foundations
The first step on the path of this cultivation is to form the basis upon which you will build. At this stage, the mortal begins to take in Qi into their body. Ideally this will be vibrant life filled qi, from places where merriment happens. This joyful Qi cycles around the body of the newbie cultivator, filling every corner with energy. It strengthens the muscles and reinforces the bones. By the end of the Forming Foundation stage, a practitioner should be able to lift the equivalent of three men, and withstand far more damage. At the same time, the body of the mortal begins to change. They begin to become more feminine, and their body begins to regress in age if they are past a certain number of years. This goes true for both males and females. Any excess Yang Bodily Qi is slowly converted into that of pure Yin. You will not see males practising this method past the first stage. Not because they cannot, but rather because after the first stage there are no males. The reversing of age is not permanent and is a one-off occurrence that happens as the first stage is completed. Subsequent stages will maintain this youthfulness, however should the cultivator stop at this point they will continue to age as per normal.

Second Stage: Pure Core Condensation
Now that their foundation has been formed, the practitioner will begin to form their Pure Heart Core. Unlike most methods, the cultivator will not be forming their core inside of the typical dantians. Rather, the cultivator will channel their Qi to surround their heart. This core will take several weeks to form, as first the heart itself must absorb copious amounts of Life Qi. This will greatly strengthen the heart muscles until they are more resilient than any other part of the practitioners body. Once the heart has become strong enough, the creation of the Heart Shell shall begin. From now on, this is where the cultivator will store their qi. A tight weave of Qi threads will weave themselves around the heart, the white of their light mixing with the red of the heart to produce a bright pink colour. A perfect core will take the form of an artistic rendition of a heart. As they are forming this shell, they have the option of adding in a single type of elemental Qi into the structure. Doing this will add a ‘flavour’ of that element to their Qi. They will find it far more easy to convert their Qi into Qi of that affinity from then on. Once the weave is complete, the threads will meld together into a near seamless whole, bar a few equidistant pores through which Qi can enter and exit without trouble.

Third Stage: Karma Accumulation
One of the aspects that makes this cultivation method tempting to prideful cultivators who would otherwise go down ‘proper’ paths is the fact that this cultivation begins to touch on the profound laws of Karma very early on. Rather than accumulating Qi, the Cultivator will work to accumulate Righteous Karma. How they do this does not matter, nor does the speed at which they accumulate it. What is important is that they will perform acts of good, fight for justice, and help the helpless. This Righteous Karma will wash through their body and soul, purifying while also reinforcing it at the same time. In this same vein though, performing acts that create Negative Karma will cause it to wash through their body and remove that which they gained in proportional amounts. As one who is closer to Karma, even if they do not have any Righteous Karma yet stored, the Negative Karma will still serve to weaken their body. As the warriors of justice, the practitioner cannot simply decide when they will behave in accordance with advancing their method. Karma transcends the limits of time and will hold them to their covenant from the moment they have stepped on to the path. By the end of this stage the practitioner should be able to lift multiple tons with little effort.

Fourth Stage: Nascent Helper Materialisation
Where the previous stages made sure to utilise the power of the Body and the Qi, this stage focuses even further inwards, on the cultivator’s Soul. After being bathed in Righteous Qi from the previous stage, their soul should be exceedingly clear. This represents that the soul has been purified and has returned to a state akin to that of a newborn baby. Once it is at this point, it is time for the soul to grow. Spiritual energy will begin to be drawn in by the practitioner as they cultivate, nourishing their soul. With this nourishment it will begin to expand yet at the same time crystallise. At the position of their heart, a bub will begin to form. This is not an abnormality but in fact the desired effect. Within a relatively short span of time, this bud will grow and then split off. This bud will not take in spiritual energy from outside but will feed upon Spiritual Mist that emanates from the surface of the practitioner’s soul. As it feeds, the bud will simultaneously syphon off a portion of the Bodily Qi that flows through the Pure Heart Core. The Spiritual Mist will begin to change shape into an animal that reflects the practitioner the best, while the Bodily Qi will forge the Nascent Bub a physical body. At the end of this stage the soul bud will enter into the outside world as a Nascent Helper. They will provide assistance should the practitioner need it, and advise them on matters that may confuse them. Materialising this Nascent Helper comes with its own benefit, which is that the unique energy released as the spiritual being becomes physical will form a protective layer around the practitioner’s soul.

Fifth Stage: Core Materialisation
At this stage, with the help of their Nascent Helper, the practitioner will now begin to connect at a deeper level to the world. With the practitioner channelling their Qi, and the Helper manipulating the practitioner’s Karma, the pair will work together in order to fuse them together. The aura of Karma that would ordinarily surround the practitioner will be pulled towards the skin and mix with a layer of tightly bound Qi. This combination will start a profound interaction that leads to the formation of matter. A type of armour will be created that covers much of the practitioner, greatly increasing how durable they are. This interaction will also pave the way for the practitioner to touch the Laws of the world. To complete the armour they must infuse a Law into the set, which will imbue it with certain properties in line with the Law in question. This Mystic Mantle can then be stored and brought out by the practitioner with a simple exertion of will and a flash of light. The mantle has been known to affect other parts of the practitioner’s body while it is out, such as changing the colour of their hair or the proportions of their body. It is the so-called ‘magical girl transformation’.

Sixth Stage: Essence Refraction
Experiences shape who you are, and so the magical girl must use their experiences to give shape to their clones. Using the connection to the Laws of the world that they have gained from the Mystic Mantle, the practitioner will pour their experiences and Qi into their Pure Heart Core. This will produce ‘seeds’ within the heart that will flourish in accordance with the adventures they go on and the fates they encounter. It is during the period that a magical girl is usually seen most active, as they explore the world to further progress. It takes many adventures for a magical girl to refract even a single karmic clone, but once formed this clone will reflect a specific aspect of the practitioner or a particular path that they could have walked yet never did. This could take the form of a clone with a different personality trait, elemental speciality, weapons proficiency, or more. It is not unusual for the first clone to stand in stark contrast with the original, for such a different path is often the most obvious to see. Each karmic clone formed will have a connection to a different Law, which will provide a loop of feedback to the practitioner’s soul, strengthening each version of the practitioner. Each successive clone produced is exponentially harder than the last, and the maximum number of clones a magical girl can produce is said to be nine. Not all reach this number, however, as only three clones are needed before they can move on to the next stage.

Seventh Stage: Myriad Lives Distillation
With the creation of the clones now complete, the magical girl can move on to the next step in their journey. The original body will cycle their Qi through their body before passing it along to a clone. This clone will do the same, allowing the Qi to form a spiritual loop that passes through each clone in turn before returning back to the original. With each clone this Qi passes through, it is refined further and distilled with the unique properties of the Law and element that that clone carries. This allows it to take on the myriad qualities of the Karmic Clones. The Laws present at the core of each clone will strip away bits of the Qi until it is forced into its most fundamental essence that harmonises perfectly with the soul magical girl. This end product takes the form of a glowing liquid like energy named Golden Mana. Different from Qi, this Golden mana is extremely mutable, able to transform easily into any elemental affinity that went into its creation. Additionally, as the power of Law was infused into it, this energy is able to interact and affect the power of Law around the magical girl, creating mysterious effects not possible with normal Qi. Most commonly this takes the form of supernatural level of good fortune, due to the practitioners close connection to the workings of Karma.

Eighth Stage: Splitting Samsara
At this stage, the practitioner’s deep connection with the power of Law combined with their Golden Mana that lets them interact with said Laws affords them a look past the physical realm and into Samsara itself. With that gaze, they are able to see their connection to Samsara, and their place in destiny. Using the Golden Mana, they must separate life and death and split Samsara. By doing this they will be able to sever their connection with the destiny of the Heavens. But destiny must exist, and so rather than allow their connection to re-establish it, they will internalise that connection. The practitioner will bind their destiny to their Pure Heart Core and so become the master of their own destiny. This grants them freedom from the laws of Karma and Death. They walk alongside it rather than within it. This has numerous benefits, the least of which is far greater control over the power of Law with their Golden Mana. Having split life from death, they will become truly ageless. In the event that they are killed, their soul will travel through Reincarnation safely. Once they turn of age, their memories of their past life will return. The Karmic Clones will also be protected in Samsara and will each form into separate people who will go on to live their lives as normal. The practitioner must seek these clones out and reconnect with them if they wish to progress once more with this cultivation, though the clones may consequently be slightly more independent than previously.

Ninth Stage: Transmigrant Magnificence
With their connection to Reincarnation unbound, the magical girl uses their connection to their Karmic clones to draw upon the Karmic destiny of both their previous lives as well as their lives yet unlived. With this power, they will take control over the flow of Karma in the real world around them. While in this state, they are able manipulate reality and fate to some degree. Doing so incurs backlash from the heavens in proportion to the size of the changes they make. To progress further, the magical girl must condense their Karmic Destiny to its limit and then split it in twain. They must draw a divide between who they are and choose to be, and who they are not and will never become. The latter half will form into its own person. Only once they are able to make peace between those two halves their opposite will they unlock their full potential. From that moment onwards they will be able to enter two different kinds of super state at will. One making manifest the pure power of good, while one counterintuitively manifesting the power of evil they could have raught, now turned to use for righteousness. Each state is equal in power to the other, though each has their time and place to be used.

Tenth Stage: Reaching Divinity
The journey of this magical girl is nearly complete. They have formed their Pure Heart Core, created their Nascent Helper and Karmic Clones. They have separated themselves from Karma and Samsara, and taken their destiny into their own hands. Now it is time for them to ascend. The way to ascend appears at a glance to be simple yet it is harder than completing all of the previous steps combined. The magical girl must fuse together their light and their dark into one complete whole to form their own Karmic Laws which they will preside over. Once these laws are established, the magical girl will truly be eternal. Within the bounds of those Karmic Laws, they will be unbeatable to all bar those who similarly preside over their own Laws. The magical girl will have become a Goddess.