Chapter 58: Cultivation

How does one advance on the path to power?

The question was simple, but the answer—

It was subjective.

There were several ways to increase one’s power. A known fact.

But were all these ways secure?

Again, it was a subjective answer. If looked at closely, how could there be only one way to make oneself stronger?

Everyone doesn’t eat the same food, nor does every creature share the same anatomy.

Every creature has different systems inbuilt into their bodies that help them grow.

Even if you compare two similar creatures like humans and vampires—

Both walk on two legs and have mostly similar body structures, but…

Vampires can grow stronger by feeding on the blood of other living beings. Humans don’t have the same ability, but they are considered more adaptable than vampires.

The adaptability of humans has made them one of the strongest species on the planet, despite being inherently weak.

Human bodies are so fragile that they have to work to death just to match the physical abilities that other races are blessed with from birth.

It may sound unfair, but there’s always a balancing factor in the world. Humans are weak but adaptable, while vampires are strong but dependent on others for their survival.

Elves, on the other hand, have greater control over the mana in nature, but in return are cursed with weaker bodies.

Dwarves have the strongest and sturdiest physiques but are restrained by their height, and in most cases, their desires.

They are the only race with the lowest self-restraint. Always engaged in drinking and free-willed by nature, this had resulted in their entire race being reduced to nothing but blacksmiths.

Though they excel at their profession, they lost their advantage due to their mental weaknesses.

So if even similar-looking creatures are so vastly different, then what makes it so that every living being on this planet has to follow the same method while walking the path to greater power?

If the facts are analysed, then…

Increasing one’s power through constant cultivation by absorbing the mana in the surroundings was the best and most secure option the world had till today.

Constantly putting your body through combat to tire it out, and then replenishing the damage done to the body through mana absorption—this was the only method that could help one increase their core ranks safely.

But…

How do monsters grow stronger?

Do they also cultivate like humans and other races?

These questions still hadn’t been answered. Many scientists throughout history had tried to study cultivation patterns in monsters, but nothing of value could be found.

Monsters at lower ranks evolve simply by consuming other creatures. This was the only method discovered through all the research done till date.

But this method was found to be used by monsters only till the Diamond Rank. Monsters of higher ranks couldn’t be caught and studied.

Those were living calamities that brought only death and destruction.

Meeting one meant you either had to kill it or surrender yourself to the embrace of death.

To study a monster, one had to overpower it, then develop a cage strong enough to contain such a calamity.

Even after going through all that, researching them was near impossible, as monsters could easily snuff out the lives of researchers with mere power—just a bit of their bloodlust was enough.

So till date, the truth behind the cultivation of higher-ranked monsters remained an unsolved mystery.

Still, that didn’t deter the intelligent races from discovering more ways to increase their power.

Dark magic, cannibalism, organ transfer—there had been many methods found to be useful enough to increase one’s power.

But at the end of the day, most of them were labelled unethical and banned in all empires across the planet.

That only left the basic cultivation method available to all.

It wasn’t like the method itself was bad or ineffective… it was just slow.

One had to train for years to increase their core ranks, and only people with enough talent could aim for higher forms of power.

Even then, it became increasingly difficult for even the most gifted geniuses to progress further as they reached higher core ranks.

Still, being the only known safe way to cultivate left people with no choice.

This was the major reason cultivators were respected so much.

Even reaching the Bronze core was considered elite by many. Heck, having an Iron core itself was a sign of being blessed.

So one could just imagine reaching even higher ranks—Silver, Gold, Platinum…

Each rank was accompanied by an insane boost in strength, along with money, respect, and social power.

People with Platinum and above ranks were considered demigods by many.

And an Immortal was not just considered one—but such an entity was the very definition of a God.

Immortal—someone who had surpassed the limits of being a mortal.

These individuals could live for hundreds of years, provided they weren’t killed by other powerhouses of the world.

And what made them Immortal?

Cultivation till the Diamond Rank followed one simple rule—you trained your body to its limits and then cultivated through mana absorption from the surroundings.

This wasn’t easy, but it was simple.

You just had to repeat the same set of actions, and the result would be your power increasing by tiny amounts every time you cultivated.

Then, at some point, all these tiny power-ups would merge and make you capable of evolving to the next rank.

But this method was limited till reaching the Diamond core.

At that rank, one had to form six mana rings around their mana core—reaching Tier 6 of the Diamond Rank.

Reaching this level was, in itself, an enormous challenge.

But even if they reached it, the path further was even brutal.

The people at such level of strength were wise enough to know their limits.

That was why many individuals at the peak of the Diamond Rank never ranked up.

They simply didn’t have the courage to face the wall before them.

The wall to Immortality.

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