Slaying the Self to Seize One's Fate

"Cultivation?"

Hu Ma hadn't expected Old Abacus to give that answer.

Cultivation went hand in hand with one's abilities.

The human limit was Three Pillar Cultivation, but there were ways to grant yourself Four Pillar Cultivation, or even more.

Of course, cultivation mattered. When it came down to a fight for your life, the more cultivation you had, the longer you could hold out. But that was only when both sides practiced similar arts and had comparable abilities. When your arts were sufficiently profound and your techniques sufficiently refined, cultivation could even seem rather useless.

Take Hu Ma, for example. Whether he walked the path of ghosts or kept the year, both were the most profound arts. When he fought others, victory usually came quickly; he never had to reach the point of competing in cultivation.

Besides, there were plenty of people in this world skilled at cultivating their power. Some could gain an extra two pillars of cultivation through insects alone. Meng Family's Great Master had Nine Pillar Cultivation. None of that seemed to match what Old Abacus was saying.

"It's the orthodox way!"

As if he'd seen what Hu Ma was thinking, Old Abacus lowered his voice. "This is different from the living stakes I told you about before. It's an upright, inward-seeking method of fighting for your life with your own body."

At that, Hu Ma's heart stirred. "What's the orthodox way? And what are the unorthodox ways?"

"Every path you've ever seen is unorthodox."

Old Abacus sighed. "The road to the bridge only appeared after Lord Tai Sui descended into the world. But cultivating your power was a method practitioners of all paths had possessed long before that."

"It was just much simpler back then than it is now. You could gain cultivation by killing. One