Chapter 545 Cultivation is never easy
The complexity of Immortal Cultivation was so great, that there existed numerous methods just to achieve each level.
There are different ways to gather Qi for QI Condensation, and there are also numerous techniques that can be done to establish one's Foundation for Foundation Establishment. Obviously, there are also numerous methods to reach the Dao Core Stage, which Alex is aiming to achieve right now.
"Hm… according to this book, I must first learn how to break my Dao Foundation before trying to achieve the Dao Core Stage…" Alex mused as he closed the book that he held. "Tsk, the author of this cultivation method must be really a sadist for making me do this. Destroy my Dao Foundation like it's just candy? Man, this cultivation method could really kill me for real in the future…"
He had been reading this book for a few minutes already, and he had just finished reading it by the 5-minute mark. Once he was done reading it, the first thing that Alex did was to complain, which was showcased by the words that he just uttered.
"Tsk, when I read the Volumes 1 and 2 of the Yin-Yang Duality Percept Method, I was immediately hooked by its contents. After all, who in their right minds would reject a cultivation method that can let your reach the Ninth Stage? Certainly not me…" Alex suddenly sighed, as if he was lamenting about his decision. "But now that I trained this cultivation method? I'm not really sure that it will be easy…"
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After Alex obtained countless treasures from the Great TImeMaster at the Immortal World, the first thing that he did was to look for an Immortal Cultivation Method that will suit his power. This was hard for him before, as there were just numerous manuals that promised him with smooth cultivation.
After a few hours of searching however, Alex stopped what he was doing after finding two books that immediately piqued his interest.
These books were respectively the Volumes 1 and 2 of the Yin-Yang Duality Percept Method, although at that time, their titles were still blocked.
Even when Alex was suspicious about the weird nature of these two books before, once he read their contents, he quickly decided to use these books for his Immortal Cultivation.
After all, these books discussed a unique way of cultivation, one which relies on an individual's comprehension on the concept of Duality.
Ice-Fire, Life-Death, Light-Darkness, Space-Time, Inside-Outside, and many more ere examples of the Duality Concept existing here in reality. All of them were omnipresent in the Multiverse, and it will be hard to avoid even a single part of them.
Once a cultivator manages to attune himself with these concepts using the Yin-Yang Duality Percept Method, he can fuse these concepts with himself, which will lead to astonishing abilities that transcend convention!
With these kind of benefits brought by this method, Alex did not hesitate to rebuild his Immortal Cultivation from scratch. He willingly broke his foundation, allowing him to restart Qi Condensation, this time with the new cultivation method as his guide.
But once he had started cultivating it, he immediately realized something.
As it turns out, cultivating this new method was actually extremely difficult…
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"The Volume 1 is all about Qi Condensation. It talks about how I must properly attune myself with nature while drawing in Qi towards my body. It is only through this way that I can make my Qi as pure as possible." Alex thought as he let out a tired sigh. "Once I did that, my Qi will have to be separated into two halves."
"The first half of my Qi will be imbued with an essence of anything related to fire. As for the second half of my Qi, it will be imbued with an essence of anything related to ice. By doing that, I will have two types of Qi inside my body. Once is Fire Qi, while the other is Ice Qi. Doing this method will lead to the formation of the first Duality Concept inside my body, which is the Ice-Fire Duality."
Alex let out more sigh at this time, as his body seemed to tremble from the words that he just said. It was as if he had some bad memories invoked at this point, something that made him feel extremely unpleasant.
"Sigh… the separation of my Qi and turning them into Fire-Type Qi and Ice-Type Qi are just easy. After all, there's Essence Flames and Cosmic Ices that are present on my treasure stockpile. I just fused one Essence Flame and one Cosmic Ice on my Qi, and boom! I already had Fire QI and Ice Qi. However, that was when the difficult part started…"
"As it turns out, making my Fire QI and Ice Qi coexist inside my body is extremely difficult, to the point that my body was near the point of explosion. Tsk, I almost died 10 times just from making my Fire QI and Ice Qi touch each other! 10 times!" If Alex could look angry, then he could be doing that right now. "I only succeeded on making them coexist after I used my other Power Systems to force them to stay together. But even with that, I still had some internal injuries!"
"…It was only after I made them coexist that I was able to finish the guide in Volume 1. But even with my success, I found no happiness at all. After all, the author of this cultivation method said that Volume 1 will just be easy…" Alex then snorted, as if he just heard something irritating. "Easy? Easy my ass! I almost died from it! How could this s**t be easy? Maybe it's easy for the author, since he has a body that can easily accommodate different types of Qi. But for me? I am just a normal Immortal Cultivator! Forcing different types of Qi inside my body will of course be difficult!!!!"
"If it weren't for the fact that I gained useful abilities after reaching the Peak Qi Condensation, I could have stopped using this method already. Lucky for you, author. The benefits of your cultivation method far outweighs the risk. Now, even if I don't like to risk my immortal cultivation, I have no choice but to use this cultivation method since it is hella powerful…"
Upon reaching this line of thought, Alex shook his head as if he was trying to erase some bad memories inside his head. He then slumped his shoulders as he began inscribing a formation on the floor.
"If the Volume 1 of the Yin-Yang Duality Percept Method is for QI Condenstoian, the Volume 2 on the other hand talks about Foundation Establishment. In this volume, it was discussed how I should build my Foundation and on how I should apply more Duality Concepts inside it-""
Alex's body visibly shuddered, making him almost falter from writing on the floor. This shudder only lasted for a second however, which allowed him to resume writing.
"To reach the Foundaotin Establishment Stage, I must first destroy all the Qi that I condensed in my dantian. Once I did that, I will then consume a Foundation Establishment Pill that will catalyze a reaction with my Qi. That will lead to the creation of my Dao Foundation…."
"Once my Dao Foundation has been established, I will then have to lace it with the Daos that I have comprehended. The more Daos that I have comprehended, the better it will be. In my case, since I ponder on the concepts of Duality, I will have to lace my Dao Foundation with Daos related to Duality…"
"As I already had experience with the Ice-Fire concept, I was able to easily comprehend its Dao. This Dao, which I called as the Ice-Fire Dao, obviously was the first Dao that I laced in my Dao Foundation…."
"I did not stop after that. With all the free time that I have before, I began to force myself to comprehend more Duality Concepts so that I can get more Daos. After all, Volume 2 states that the more Daos that I can lace with my Dao Foundation, the better it will be for me on the future…."
"But how in the f**king hell can I just easily comprehend a lot of Daos in a short time? The author of course had no problem with that, since his body allowed him to comprehend Duality Concepts easily. As for me? I have to rely on consuming treasures and my own mental prowess just to emulate that…."
Alex's finger hovered in the air as he finished the last portion of the formation that he was writing. Once this has happened, Alex retracted his hand. He then began pulling out numerous objects from his Storage, which all emanated a rich aura comparable to that of precious treasures
Seeing these objects made Alex's body more tense, with the disk that he made earlier suddenly trembling in his hands.
"With all the free time that I had before, I was able to comprehend 4 more Duality Concepts. One is the Space-Time Dao, which I obtained after training with Alina. The second one is the Life-Death Dao, which I got from observing Queen Mother's life force and Professor Frances' research on death."
"The third one is the Real-Unreal Dao, which I comprehended from my experience in the Esper World. As for the fourth and final Dao, it is the Body-Soul Dao. How did I comprehend that again? Oh right, it's from all the soul and body shenanigans that I faced before…"
"All in all, that gives me 5 Daos of Duality laced in my Dao Foundation. Ice-Fire, Space-Time, Life-Death, Real-Unreal, and Body-Soul…. According to Volume 2, this amount of Daos is just average."
Alex seemed to be mildly irritated by this line of thought, as he began placing his items on the formation with a grumbling expression on his face.
"Hmph, so what if it is average? There's still a chance for me to comprehend more Duality Daos in the future, so having 5 right now is just fine. I still have a lot of time left to live, so 5 is really just okay!"
"Hong~"
The formation on the floor suddenly lit up once Alex had completed placing all the items on its nodes. This change brought forth a transformation in the air, which made the disk on Alex's hands to tremble more.
Alex ignored this change as he sat back on the floor, with his mind now preoccupied not by the past, but by his impending future.
"Now that I have reached the peak of Foundation Establishment, it is time for me to break through the Dao Core Stage. It's a good thing that I found and read the Volume 3 already. Now, all that I have to do is just break through, and hope that nothing bad will happen…"