Chapter 424: Breaking Down Cultivation Variants

Years after torturing crystalliers, Omilaena was starting to realize that her work hadn't been wasted, just slightly misguided. Everything was more connected than she had believed, and even crystal cultivation was proving essential to true understanding.

"Alright, crystals in one hand, acid in the other." Omilaena gestured at Cragrila impatiently. "Then I'm going to jab you in both arms."

"Is that strictly necessary?" The revolutionary crystallier regarded her suspiciously, as if she'd never really considered her on their side despite everything. And maybe because Omilaena wasn't very trustworthy.

"It's essential this time, I promise. Just a little blood from both sides."

So Cragrila used her opposite types of cultivation on opposite sides of her body - it was nice to have a subject who cooperated so easily. As thanks Omilaena drew a syringe of blood from each arm as painlessly as possible, then gestured for the other woman to stop while she pulled on her goggles and examined the results.

Normally blood contained an even mix of different energies in different forms: chakra fused to the blood itself, mana flowed alongside it in glowing particles, and qi was purely spiritual but left traces in cultivators. When a person used their power heavily, however, the entire body responded to the draw of power and their blood was temporarily infused with more energy. This was her next bid to see if she could resolve the mystery of two different cultivation systems.

"Anything?" Cragrila asked.

"Hold still and I'll let you know."

In theory, it shouldn't be possible. A person's soul had only one cultivation capacity, which was why someone like Zae Zin Nim just absorbed the qi out of crystals instead of developing crystal cultivation. The simultaneous presence of both crystal and acid cultivation was a real blow to that theory, and she both hated and loved it.

Sure enough, the two vials of blood were different. That might not mean anything, since of course different types of abilities would draw power differently. She had been able to distinguish different Western Wilds tribes, even different tattoos, just by subtle differences in how they carried their qi.

This difference didn't seem particularly exciting, just more chakra in one vial. Except... now that she thought about it, such a blunt difference actually might mean more than a subtle change. Deadwaste was almost devoid of chakra, so the difference would have been almost impossible to see there, but now the two types of cultivation looked distinctly different to her.

And if that was true, then it might all make sense...

"Question." Omilaena set down the syringes eagerly and looked at Cragrila. "Do the new acid cultivators have the same health problems as the old ones?"

"Well, not really, but that's no surprise." Cragrila eyed her strangely. "They used to be given limited food and forced to live in pits filled with acid fumes, so it's obvious that people will be in better health if they can practice the cultivation in a safer environment. Besides, we usually have them train Physique first so they won't be harmed accidentally."

"Wonderful. Hold on just a moment."

"Wait, do you know something?"

Omilaena ignored the old crystallier and instead went for a different, more alluring woman: she leaned out the door, saw Zin Nim still cultivating, and beckoned to her. Remarkably, the other woman came immediately, only looking up at her with a curious gaze.

"I need to draw a little blood," Omilaena told her. "We could be on the verge of discovering something essential."

"Very well." Zin Nim pushed back her sleeve to reveal one of those flawless white arms. Omilaena grasped her wrist, just the way she had enjoyed taking the other woman's elegant arms and pinning them to the bed so many times, and Zin Nim flushed a little. But this time she didn't tease, just quickly drew a vial of her blood.

It was pitch black, as always, but for once she wasn't interested in the Blackblood Physique. Instead she just looked for the signs of different forms of energy, analyzing not simply their presence but their exact levels. When she was finished, she pulled back and sighed in satisfaction.

"Fascinating..." Omilaena drew a syringe of her own blood and examined it. "Yes, that makes sense..."

"What?" Zin Nim glared at her, while Cragrila folded her arms and proved that she could manage a pretty decent glare of her own. Alright, maybe Omilaena had been showboating too much, but she was finally on to something.

Maybe they should pull in Kai, but the discovery was too intriguing to wait, and fun enough to repeat. Omilaena put her hands behind her back and tried to verbalize the thoughts that had been exploding through her mind.

"I've discovered why crystal cultivation is weaker than the cultivation you see on Cloudspire," Omilaena said, "and the reason is because they have fundamentally different shapes in the soul. But, ironically, the reason is that crystal cultivation is more pure than cultivation here."

Zin Nim folded her arms as well. "Explain."

"Cloudspire cultivators essentially use both mana and qi to fuel their cultivation, like they're tinder to ignite their qi. Or you could think about it as being a more complete system of cultivation: the crystal variety is only using a single type of energy, whereas the cultivation arts here use all three."

"So qi without other energy always turns into crystals?" Cragrila eyed her suspiciously as she spoke. "Would it take a different form if there was chakra, or whatever you're talking about, there too?"

"The crystals are a separate thing I'll get to in a moment, but otherwise you're right. Or I hope you are. Zin Nim, does this seem plausible?"

"It is... known that advanced cultivation must make use of chakra and mana without letting them pollute the purity of your qi." Zin Nim was scowling at nothing in particular. "But I also have the Coldfire Corona and the Pure Yin Shroud... are those weaker because I'm splitting my energies?"

"No, you remember what I said about the seven different aspects of power?"

Zin Nim nodded while Cragrila just looked confused. She was getting more and more lost, and Omilaena noticed, she was just too excited to care.

"Each of those aspects can draw on all three forms of energy," Omilaena explained. "Just like the strongest Physiques will be fueled by chakra, qi, and mana together, the strongest forms of cultivation will also use all three. Anything that's lacking in one of those is, by necessity, weaker. Think of crystal cultivation as a blocked off part of the soul: it doesn't have enough room to expand, so its power is limited and runs into a limit before other forms."

"But the crystals are separate?" Cragrila asked.

"Right. They aren't just storage - the qi pills here might contain qi, or interact with qi, but they're just materials that hold the energy. With crystal cultivation, the two forms are actually unified. I think that 'pure' crystal cultivation alone would just be too weak to exist, or at least it wouldn't be a real power system. So, for whatever reason, it bled over into the Essence aspect of the soul. That is, we have qi fueling both the Cultivation and Elemental aspects of the soul, and the result is crystal cultivation."

Up to this point Zin Nim had been listening as if Omilaena was insulting her ancestors, but now real interest glimmered in her eyes. "Does that mean that other parts of their soul are going unused, and acid cultivation fills those parts?"

"Exactly!" Omilaena gripped her arm eagerly. "The acid cultivation works more like chakra arts: they merge with the acid and make it a part of themselves. I guess it could be the Essence aspect too, but then it would be more like other chakra arts, where they need to absorb different types of acid to get stronger."

"Then could someone have three different types of cultivation? A qi type, a chakra type, and a mana type? Would all three be severely limited?"

"They would probably be limited in some ways - after all, in Rosemount or Cloudspire where there's plenty of energy, you don't see anyone creating partial systems like this. But there might be advantages, too: qi powers tend to create temporary effects, whereas crystal cultivation can produce permanent objects, because it's only partially 'Cultivation' and partially 'Essence.' "

"Could you do it intentionally, and make three forms of cultivation that had equal strength to pure cultivation?"

"I think you'd see strange mergers trying that... hmm, I'd have to think about it. In any case, I'd guess that both crystal and acid cultivation already use some mana, because it's most common on Deadwaste, so they couldn't develop a third type. The soul is like this huge web of potentials that can be linked in various ways, but you can't ultimately change the web."

"So what does all that mean?" Cragrila had listened patiently enough, but now dragged Omilaena away from her beautiful theory to practicality.

"Honestly, I'll need more time to figure out applications." Omilaena could only shrug. "But there are possibilities, serious ones. I suspect that all abilities on Deadwaste aren't using every aspect they potentially could, which is why they're weaker. That's probably the best people can do given limited energy, but they have more hypothetical potential. Right now I'm thinking about Physique... Zin Nim, can you explain why cultivators here spit up so much blood but you don't?"

"I... presumed it was because of my improved Physique." Zin Nim shifted uncomfortably as she considered the question.

"No, I don't think that's it. Surely there must be advanced cultivation related to this... any advanced techniques using blood?"

"Of course, but I'm not sure they're relevant. When a cultivator grows strong enough, their blood is connected to their cultivation base, so of course-"

"That. Yes, it makes sense." Omilaena rubbed her temples as she considered. "You two, hit each other."

Cragrila stared flatly. "What? You mean sparring?"

"No, I mean kill one another for my sadistic amusement. Of course just a testing blow."

First Zin Nim struck Cragrila with a palm strike, holding back the vast majority of her strength so as not to kill the other woman, then they switched roles. As soon as Cragrila struck Zin Nim, it fit together. Everything went just as Omilaena had expected and she barely even needed her goggles in order to understand.

"Excellent. I always thought that it didn't make sense how so many injuries could produce mouthfuls of blood, and how those didn't seem like lethal internal injuries in most cases, but it makes sense. Cultivators have partially fused body and soul, so they're taking hostile energy as a physical blow. Might be messy, but it blunts the impact a bit, and no doubt there are the other sorts of techniques you mentioned. It's just another way of organizing the Physique and Cultivation aspects of the soul."

"Then what about the Blackblood Physique?" Zin Nim asked.

Dozens of potential answers welled up in Omilaena's throat, but for once she swallowed her speculation. For her this was a time to wildly consider possibilities, but this was Zin Nim's entire history of her body and it meant a great deal to her.

Instead of answering right away, Omilaena tapped her fingernails against her thigh while she considered what really mattered. "Have you ever seen people who went through the entire Blackblood Physique process?"

"Yes, two."

"And they didn't have an additional component to their soul?"

"I don't think so. The purpose is to strengthen your primary cultivation, so the dark blood is meant to be purified away."

"Then I'll need to think about this. Sorry, Zin Nim, but it's too early to do something this important with you." Omilaena whirled on Cragrila and pulled out another syringe with a grin. "You, on the other hand..."

Cragrila just sighed and bared her arms. "I'll trust that you know what you're doing. What are you going to do to me?"

"I'm going to drain your crystals, liquefy them, and inject them straight into your veins."

"That sounds like it would hurt."

"Oh, it definitely will. The pain of progress!"

(Happy new year, everyone. Cognosticon here. There is a ton going on behind the scenes, from publisher negotiations to new plans. At some point I may need to take a business week or change the schedule, but for now we press on. Thanks for your support.)