Creating a Cultivation Method

After listening to Old Long's words, Long Xuan felt a faint stir of excitement. Creating a cultivation method was as difficult as ascending to heaven for others, but for him, it was entirely possible. The method of grinding out Gu Recipes could likewise be applied to grinding out cultivation methods.

The Ten Extremity Physique was fatal when it appeared in others, yet on him, it had instead become an opportunity. In his hands, the Ten Extremity Physique might shine brilliantly in this world and become the foundation of his invincibility. He clenched his fist.

His most urgent task now was to create a cultivation method suited to the Ten Extremity Physique as quickly as possible. With a cultivation method, his cultivation speed could be increased further.

Nothing was more important than this. Long Xuan immediately decided to make creating his own cultivation method his next project. He was determined to create an unprecedented cultivation method, so that his journey to this world would not have been in vain.

Though that was what he thought inside, Long Xuan put on a deeply despondent expression. After speaking to Old Long to take his leave, he departed in a daze, looking as though his soul had left him.

After returning to his residence, Long Xuan sat down in a chair, spread a sheet of white paper across the table, and held his brush as he sank into deep thought, his brows tightly furrowed.

Based on his understanding of this world's cultivation methods, a complete cultivation method had three components: spiritual power circulation routes, cultivation method divine abilities, and matching spiritual arts. These three components were also called the Three Essentials of Cultivation Methods.

Of course, Long Xuan's "Scripture of Longevity" was a health-preserving cultivation method, not a cultivation method for cultivation, and did not belong to this system.

If one wanted to create a cultivation method, a trash-tier method only needed to consider the spiritual power circulation routes. The other two parts could be ignored.

But if one wanted to create a powerful cultivation method, none of the Three Essentials of Cultivation Methods could be missing.

The spiritual power circulation routes determined the speed of cultivation. They also determined the attribute and strength of one's spiritual power.

Even with the same attribute, spiritual power could vary in strength because of different cultivation methods.

There were also distinctions of superiority and inferiority among different attributes. Mutated Spiritual Power was always stronger than basic spiritual power, and even among different kinds of Mutated Spiritual Power, the gap could be as vast as heaven and earth.

Poison Spiritual Power, Star Spiritual Power, Dragon Spiritual Power, Earth Spiritual Power... all attributes other than the seven systems of metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, and lightning belonged to Mutated Spiritual Power.

And how one cultivated Mutated Spiritual Power was also determined by the first part of a cultivation method.

Divine abilities were the special traits of cultivation methods. Some cultivation methods produced spiritual power purer than that of other methods. Some produced larger Spirit Seas, granting spiritual power reserves far beyond those of cultivators at the same level.

There were even cultivation methods that could cultivate five Spirit Seas, making one invincible among those of the same level. Such special traits were the divine abilities of cultivation methods.

Even the life-extending trait of the "Scripture of Longevity" counted as a divine ability.

Matching spiritual arts were a cultivation method's means of attack. A cultivation method's matching spiritual arts differed from the universal spiritual arts that anyone could learn.

The spiritual power cultivated by every cultivation method was unique. Even cultivation methods that cultivated spiritual power of the same attribute could differ as greatly as heaven and earth.

The diversity of spiritual power naturally affected how well it suited spiritual arts. When the same spiritual art was used by people cultivating different methods, its power would be completely different. Thus, spiritual arts had differing degrees of compatibility with different cultivation methods.

And it was exceedingly difficult for compatibility to reach one hundred percent, unless the matching spiritual art had been custom-made for that cultivation method by the same creator.

Precisely because matching spiritual arts and their cultivation methods often had one hundred percent compatibility, matching spiritual arts were certainly stronger than universal spiritual arts.

That was why powerful cultivation methods had to create matching spiritual arts. Otherwise, no matter how powerful the cultivation method was, it would merely be a paper tiger with strength it could not fully wield.

Of course, the attack methods of spiritual arts were vastly different from the abilities of Gu Insects.

Spiritual arts were offensive abilities unleashed by circulating spiritual power, whereas Gu Insects' abilities were innate talents. Innate talents could not be imitated in the form of spiritual arts.

For example, a Gu Insect's mind-reading art, a Gu Insect's spatial teleportation art, a Gu Insect's precognition art, a Gu Insect's time-reversal art...

No matter what, spiritual arts could not imitate such abilities through written means. Those had already gone beyond the scope of spiritual power. Merely changing spiritual power could never accomplish such abilities.

It could be understood this way: spiritual arts were martial arts moves, while Gu Insect abilities were fantasy moves—one low-spec, one high-spec.

Yet Gu cultivators had limits on the number of Gu Insects they could possess at once. Though spiritual arts were weaker, they were still something Gu cultivators had to learn.

Of course, spiritual arts in this world were exceedingly rare. If a small Gu cultivator Lineage possessed even a single spiritual art, it would treat it as a treasure that safeguarded the Lineage, an untransmitted secret.

In a sense, learning one more spiritual art was equivalent to gaining one more Gu Insect slot. Its strategic value was self-evident.

Long Xuan already had countless wild ideas about how to create his own spiritual arts. He also had a rough draft in mind for how to design Mutated Spiritual Power for a cultivation method.

For instance, in the anime from his previous life, multiple attributes could fuse to form a Bloodline Limit. Could spiritual power likewise fuse from multiple attributes to form Mutated Spiritual Power?

He did not know how Mutated Spiritual Power was formed in this world, but he believed it was entirely possible to research Mutated Spiritual Power through the fusion of multiple spiritual power attributes.

Yet although his thoughts were exploding with countless wondrous ideas, he had no idea where to begin. He did not even know what first word to write. He had absolutely no clue.

Ideas alone were not enough. He also needed to know how to realize them. Anyone could indulge in empty fantasies, but when it came to what to actually do, he was completely at a loss.

Creating a cultivation method was different from creating a Gu Recipe. Creating Gu Recipes involved a great deal of luck; one could muddle through it, and as long as one ground hard enough, one would eventually grind one out.

But cultivation methods could never be created through luck alone. One needed to read ten thousand volumes, understand many things, and learn many things.

Long Xuan was a small Rogue Cultivator who had never even seen a cultivation method. He had not even figured out the basics, so how could he possibly have the ability to create one?

To create a cultivation method, he had to draw upon a great number of cultivation methods. Shutting himself in and building a cart behind closed doors would never produce a good cultivation method; even grinding himself to the bone would be useless.

Thus, Long Xuan was stumped. In this world, people fiercely cherished their own worn brooms. How could cultivation methods be things he could obtain so easily?

Cultivation methods did occasionally appear on the stalls of Rogue Cultivators, but none displayed progress.

That meant those cultivation methods were riddled with errors and full of loopholes. His golden finger had not even detected them as cultivation methods. How could he dare use such trash as reference?

So Long Xuan had held it in for ages without managing to write a single word while trying to create his cultivation method. He was stuck on the very first word, nearly worrying himself into white hair.

At last, inspiration flashed through his mind. He thought of the Illusion Technique he had never used before: Origin Realm.

His first thought was whether he could use an Illusion Technique on someone to trick them into handing over their cultivation method.

But then he recalled that Origin Realm's defining feature was that it perfectly replicated scenes from the real world into an Illusion Realm. Everything within the Illusion Realm was exactly the same as reality, and those caught in it could not discover they had fallen under an Illusion Technique by finding differences from the real world. Thus, Long Xuan now had a different idea.

The more deeply he considered the traits of this Illusion Technique, the more he felt that it was anything but simple. How could an Illusion Technique produced by an Eye Gu so costly to create possibly be simple?

Come to think of it, he had forgotten to deeply develop Origin Realm. Origin Realm appeared to be merely a perfect Illusion Realm in which those caught within could find no flaws, but once he let his imagination run wild, he increasingly felt that this Illusion Technique could be developed into many more abilities.

For example, Illusion Techniques were all used on enemies. Could he broaden his thinking, break convention, and use an Illusion Technique on himself instead? Letting himself cast an Illusion Technique on himself, Long Xuan felt as though the door to a new world had opened.

What if he placed himself inside the library of a great power? Since the Illusion Realm was one hundred percent real, would the books inside also be real? Could he freeload on them in the Illusion Realm while the guardians of the real-world library remained completely unaware?

Long Xuan sucked in a cold breath. He felt as though he had found a bug. Could an ability that allowed him to easily steal the untransmitted secrets of great powers truly exist?

Did the Heavenly Dao know this ability could be used like this?

Had it overlooked something again...