Chapter 100: Rapid Progress

Back in his bedroom, George finally let out his frustration with the bureaucrats of Karada, who had shown such slowness and incompetence on the intelligence front: “Is this world really that shallow when it comes to intelligence plots and conspiracies? Are the Knights of the Duchy of Nohan too proud to play such petty tricks, so they were caught off guard when they actually faced them? And that court Mage, the Ocean of Arcane had already taken up most of his life’s meaning. Plus, living in such an environment for so long, it was inevitable that he would be affected in this area.”

“I hope that after this lesson, these Knight-style bureaucrats will finally change!” George comforted himself with low spirits, all alone.

After calming his mind and clearing away distractions, George began his daily routine of Visualization and meditation. Due to certain special reasons, George had already been able to practice the Primordial Qi Great Grappling while performing the Doumu Yuanjun Visualization Method. Because of this, George began to pay attention to a question he had not cared about much in the past. His knowledge was vast and mixed, with different systems that did not belong to one another. In the past, he had to cultivate them separately, and the total time spent was getting harder and harder for George to bear.

After all, George was not a true hermit living deep in the mountains far from the world. The chaos of the mortal world was hard to avoid. Besides, he still had the Knight training of this world, so the time left for him to cultivate the systems of The East was not much.

The solution was not missing: First, he could cultivate the Jade Pillar Golden Body Technique and also train his Divine Soul to the level where it could gather and scatter as one, controlling objects in mid-air. Only then could he avoid the effect of sleep on the human body. When that time came, he could use Visualization to replace sleep, which would be like gaining a huge amount of time out of thin air. But how could he say that both of these could only be achieved after his Spirit and Flesh realms were raised? Regarding the cultivation of the Divine Soul, George had gone through a great outbreak of heart demons before. Although it could not be said that disaster brought good fortune, good and bad were intertwined. He had lost the Great One Visualization Method he had practiced for many years, but one foot had already stepped into this realm. However, the Jade Pillar Golden Body Technique really required a lot of slow and steady accumulation, and the road ahead was still very long.

Second, he could summarize and organize his knowledge, take what he needed, and merge them into one system that suited him best. Although this path of merging hundreds of schools to form his own system was George’s future goal, with his current knowledge and understanding, he probably could not achieve this for a long time in the future. The only time he had a flash of inspiration was a breakthrough in his footwork, but the subsequent system provided by the System did not contain what he truly needed. In short, this path looked very beautiful, but for now, it was just like a flower in the mirror or the moon in the water: visible but unattainable.

To his surprise, the Blessing of Order he had received in the Temple of Justice earlier had helped George greatly on a certain level. The power from the Mechanical Realm had built a semi-independent framework and energy cycle within George’s body. This thing was like a conformal fuel tank or an optional external pod on a fighter jet, becoming a part of George’s body that was both integral and independent. It brought George his unique strange power, but it also brought benefits that even the inventor might not have expected.

First, the biggest beneficiary was the Primordial Qi Great Grappling. After the mutation of the power system in this world and the whole process, the main power source of the Primordial Qi Great Grappling that George practiced came from a pair of Essence Spirits attached to his Soul. It had been said before that these Essence Spirits needed to be watered with Spiritual Qi generated from the essence of bloodline and will, and finally grow strong under the light of the Spirit Light where the Soul and human nature merged. But more importantly, they absorbed the information flow from the void to perfect and optimize themselves.

The information flow that the Essence Spirits could absorb before was like scattered fragments in the void. To analyze and classify them, then summarize them into a system, and finally integrate them into oneself, the effort required was probably not small! Although all of this was done by the Essence Spirits themselves relying on instinct, without George worrying about it, the efficiency was really too low to be satisfactory. But after accepting the Blessing of Order, a crack opened in the door of the Mechanical Realm. Through this crack, the complete and continuous information flow of the Mechanical Realm became the prey of that pair of Essence Spirits.

Let’s put it this way: it is like a Blacksmith forging a weapon. Is it more time-consuming for him to start from mining, smelt the iron ingots step by step, and finally forge them into shape? Or is it more time-consuming for someone to provide the iron ingots for him, so he only needs to forge them into shape? Anyone with eyes can see the answer. But while bringing benefits, there were also unavoidable costs. If the method of obtaining the information flow before was slow, it had great inclusiveness. But now, since most of the information flow came from the Mechanical Realm, the growth of the Essence Spirits also showed a clear bias. It was like a pool of clear water mixed with a large amount of dye, and the water in the pool affected by the dye was no longer clear as before.

Second, through this semi-independent cycle system, George’s Visualization Method, the Jade Elixir Return Pill Technique, and even the Primordial Qi Great Grappling he learned later all became connected. Before crossing over, George had not formally joined any Taoist sect. The methods he learned were just a patchwork of this and that. Although they had been verified by countless predecessors and did not conflict, they could not help each other during cultivation. The reason it was difficult rather than completely impossible was that the human body itself would produce mutual influence in different aspects. Just as a strong body made it easier for the Soul to be nourished by blood and Qi, a strong Soul made it easier to control the body.

And this sudden cycle appearing in George’s body was like a relatively flat post road, while the various Eastern methods George had practiced before were like several independent and remote small towns. Through this newly built post road, these small towns that were almost dead and did not visit each other now had connections. With connections came visits, with visits came trade, and with trade, the towns became more prosperous and lively.

Taking the three methods George was currently cultivating mainly as an example: through the network of the Blessing of Order, while George was performing the Doumu Yuanjun Visualization Method, the Essence Spirit of the Primordial Qi Great Grappling was also affected by it, and began to consciously collect information related to Doumu Yuanjun in the void. It then passed this information to George’s Spirit Platform through the cycle of the Blessing of Order. This allowed George to have better efficiency during Visualization, and he could also divide his attention to guide the cultivation of the Primordial Qi Great Grappling. Also, the endless starlight appearing in the Spirit Platform, after passing through the cycle, could also enhance the vitality of the physical body.

When cultivating the Jade Elixir Return Pill Technique, the Golden Core and Jade Elixir that were guided out could also be partially used in this cycle to promote the growth of the Divine Soul and Essence Spirits. And the Jade Elixir that had been affected by the Divine Soul and Essence Spirits had a better effect on purifying the body and strengthening the Spirit than before.

However, the Primordial Qi Great Grappling itself belonged to a type of technique, so when practicing it alone, it could not affect the first two. After all, the Doumu Yuanjun Visualization Method and the Jade Elixir Return Pill Technique could both be considered as the Body, while the Primordial Qi Great Grappling was merely the Use. Using the terminology from before crossing over, the former was the fundamental way to attain the Dao and long life, while the latter was a method to protect oneself and fight enemies.

Through this set of cycle systems, although these three were not organically integrated together, they had found a new path and created a beneficial connection. At least now, the Primordial Qi Great Grappling did not need to be practiced separately, which in a way was also a way to save a lot of time.

“I originally thought it would take at least ten days to start the condensation of the Nine Emperors, but now it looks like it can start in six days.” For the rapid improvement in cultivation efficiency in recent times, George came to this conclusion after carefully observing and comparing.

Being able to start condensing the Nine Emperors was a sign that the first stage of the Doumu Yuanjun Visualization Method cultivation was almost complete. The progress of the Visualization Method was completely different for everyone. However, with the foundation of the Great One he had before, switching to this method could be said to yield twice the result with half the effort. If it were an ordinary person who had never cultivated, even if they could successfully visualize, it would be impossible to complete the first stage without a few years of work. As for those with insufficient talent who could not visualize successfully, there was no need to mention them.

However, it was precisely because of this that George faced a major choice: “Should I choose the Heaven Emperor or the Ziwei among the two main stars?” As for the other seven stars of the Big Dipper, George had not considered them for now. After all, once the hardest and strongest one was dealt with, the others would be easier. And the first one condensed was his own main star, so the bonus effect was higher than the later ones. Of course, he should choose the best one that suited him.

The Heaven Emperor referred to the Gouchen Shangong Heaven Emperor Grand Emperor. In Taoist legends, he controlled the North and South Poles and the three talents of Heaven, Earth, and Man, commanded all stars, and presided over human military affairs.

Ziwei referred to the Zhongtian Ziwei North Pole Taibang Grand Emperor. In Taoist legends, he controlled the heavenly and earthly coordinates, led the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, all gods, and natural phenomena such as the four seasons and solar terms. He could call forth wind and rain, and command thunder, lightning, ghosts, and gods.

Their powers overlapped but were also different, and the overlapping parts all came from the control of stars. This had a very deep relationship with their mother, “Zhongtian Fanqi Doumu Yuanjun.” In a sense, they were originally assistants to Doumu Yuanjun to manage the stars. In the Doumu Yuanjun Visualization Method, they became two important hubs for controlling emotions and ways of thinking.

And condensing the Nine Emperors was also the beginning of the Doumu Yuanjun Visualization Method giving the user special abilities. This Visualization Method was a relatively systematic cultivation technique, with a path to the heavens and also protective supernatural powers.