Chapter 16 The Cultivation Universe
Decillions of light-years away.
Cultivation Universe.
The cultivation universe is a world where beings use various techniques and methods to raise their power; these techniques help mediators to absorb divine energy from their surroundings.
The more divine energy one accumulates, the stronger one becomes; some use superior techniques than others to get energy faster and breakthrough realms.
There are trillions of cultivation worlds and timelines, different characters, and powerful entities with unknown abilities. But what makes this universe more intriguing is that they also have realms, the more substantial powers living in higher realms as the weaker ones live in low dimensions of these realms.
Talent in this world is everything; all these cultivated powers and entities were mortals before becoming immortals or sages. The more talent you have for understanding techniques and concepts, the faster you grow. Even if you give a mortal the most potent cultivation books, it's just as useless as giving a hunter a fishing hook if they do not have the talent.
And here, life spans depend on their realms, the higher their cultivation bases, the more life spans they obtain. Some cross the threshold of immortals as they have millions and billions of life spans.
One of the cultivation worlds.
This cultivation world is not very different from the others. As usual, there are universes, planets, and continents; and on these continents, there are kingdoms and empires. Mortals or cultivators ruled these empires or kingdoms; to mortals, to become a cultivator has been their life goal as being a cultivator meant power, wealth, long life, and for men to have harems. Still, most women did for the beauty because a cultivator can use their spiritual energy to stagnate their aging bodies and maintain their youth.
The Eastern continent of the broken world, It's called broken because demons from another dimension invaded this planet ten thousand years ago, leading to war between demons and humans, causing this world to crack. Many influential figures died, but some remained alive and created many legacies and inheritances for future generations and descendants.
Ju empire.
The Ju empire is one of the strongest empires on the Eastern continent; they defeated many other kingdoms and became more assertive with more powerhouses.
As always, empires exist because of powerhouses, from families.
One of the influential families of the Ju empire is the Shi family. The Shi family participated in many wars and helped the Empire grow powerful, but with every battle, they lost more strong family members, and so began the decline of the Shi family.
The Shi family is now the weakest in the Ju empire. Their patriarch is a fourth-stage spirit awakening realm cultivator, which was less powerful than other families or the emperor.
There are ten realms in the broken world. Qi condensation, body refinement, mind accumulation, spirit awakening, spirit king, spirit emperor, divine spirit, emperor, sage, and half-immortal.
The Shi family lost their businesses and spirit core mines as they needed cultivation resources and alchemy pills. Each pill costs over 50 spirit stones or 1000 silver coins, or 100 gold coins.
The Shi family.
An older man that looked in his fifties sat at a chair facing the entrance of a meeting room. On his right were his family members, but on his other were people dressed in blue silk robes with a white line on both shoulders.
" Shi family patriarch, from the Bei family, have come to claim your granddaughter and help the Shi family rise again."
A burly man on the left spoke with arrogance as if speaking to his servant. Four people were in his group; two were servants, and the other was a respected member of the Bei family.
"Bei Jun, you are going too far; how dare you act arrogant in my Shi family and speak rubbish?"
The Shi patriarch said as he released his spirit qi all over the room; the servants of the Bei family felt the immense pressure as they were forced to kneel, the man not even reacting to the pressure as he spoke.
" Everyone knows the Shi family can barely afford their food expenses, so why shouldn't I be arrogant? You have been stuck at the spirit awakening fourth state for the last ten years, and to dispel your poison, you need at least a fourth stage alchemist or poison cleaning pill, which costs over 100,000 spirit stones."
The Shi patriarch had an ugly expression as he knew all of it was true; ten years ago, he got attacked by assassins, and he was able to kill them, but he was poisoned later, affecting his activation growth. And the pill to dispel the poison cost 100,000 spirit stones; he didn't even have enough resources for his family, let alone afford a pill like that.
The man got up, his people following him as his voice ranted out.
" I will give you three days to contemplate."
They walked out moments later. The shi family patriarch spat blood.
"Patriarch, you pushed yourself too hard trying to release your spiritual energy."
Rushing to the patriarch, a woman said hurriedly as she held a concerned face."
"Am fine; go and check on your daughter and make sure she's okay; she has been in her room cultivating for three days now; she might encounter some backlash."
Listening to her father, shi meng, the only lasting blood of the shi family patriarch, went as her father asked; she married a strong man, and he became part of the shi family, but he was killed in a war.
In a small courtyard not too far from the meeting hall, a garden of flowers surrounded a house; the garden supplemented the beauty of the flowers as sun rays shined on them. The house was not big. Golden lights could be seen sparkling inside the room as it tried to get out; moments later, the light died as a Shi meng knocked on the door.
"Ling'er, you have cultivated for three days straight without eating; why don't you come out and have something to eat?"
Moments later, the door opened, and a stunning girl who looked 22 came out.
She had golden hair and snow-like skin; she portrayed the elegance of a queen.
"Mother, I know people from the Bei family came to ask for my hand in marriage, and grandfather had to push himself."
She spoke sadly as she already knew what her mother was about to say; she was at the right level of the spiritual awakening realm as she could use her senses to scan her environment. She once met a woman who portrayed the elegance of a fairy as that woman gave her a cultivation technique that could help her cultivate faster. She also could see destiny for a short period, but it required immense qi to use.
"Linger, the sect selection competition is in two weeks. Are you sure you don't want to join a sect? With your talent, even sect masters will fight to have you as their disciple."
"Mother, even if they took me as their disciple, it will only take a matter of time before they get suspicious of how a girl from a declining family was able to cultivate spiritual awakening before turning 25 and what cultivation technique I am using. They will think our family has some powerful inheritance hidden, so they will use any excuse to take advantage of our family and maybe kill us all."
"Ling'er, how do you know all this?"
Shi meng asked with a panic expression; how does her daughter know all this when she hasn't visited any place except the beast mountain range where she trains?
"I cultivate a technique called 'The Dao of Destiny.'
It allows me to know rough information about the future and avoid it, but I can only use it once every three days as it consumes almost all my energy."
Hearing her daughter's words, Shi meng understood that her daughter might have stumbled upon an encounter in which she inherited this cultivation skill.
"Mother, I will be training in the beast mountain range; if you need me, use the family emergency talisman."
Shi Ling spoke as she slowly rose to the air and flew towards the west of the Ju empire where the beast resides.
She told her mother the truth but not all of it. When she used her cultivation skill before her mother came, she saw herself going to the mountain range. But after a beast was about to attack her, everything vanished, and her skill was deactivated as if she had died but not really. So she planned to see what caused her divine king realm cultivation technique to stop acting without controlling it. She thought it must be something or a treasure above the divine king realm to cause such reactions. So she headed for the range.