Chapter 10: Soul Searching
Dying in alternate dimensions really makes you appreciate the finer points of soul cultivation. I mean, most cultivators my age are obsessing over their spiritual essence stats or showing off their fancy inner world formations. Me? I'm trying to figure out why my soul essence got drop-kicked into single digits after an impromptu interdimensional field trip.
"The optimization process is complete," Azure announced as I trudged back from a particularly grueling herb garden session. Senior Sister Chen had not been amused by my absence. "Would you like to see the combined cultivation method I've developed?"
I flopped onto my meditation cushion, still picking spiritual herb fragments out of my hair. "Hit me. Though maybe leave out the spreadsheets this time?"
"But the efficiency calculations are the best part!" Azure materialized in my inner world, now sporting what looked suspiciously like reading glasses. "I've analyzed all seventeen soul cultivation methods from the library and combined their most compatible elements into what I'm calling the Tri-Essence Harmony Method!"
Status Update: Soul Essence: 18/300 (Slightly less pathetic)
Spiritual Essence: 220/246 (Cost of optimization)
Physical Essence: 215/215 (Still hanging in there)
"Fascinating name," I said dryly. "Any chance it'll help me not die horribly next time I accidentally world-hop?"
"That's the beauty of it!" Azure conjured up a glowing diagram that looked like a three-dimensional Venn diagram had a baby with a sacred mandala. "Most cultivation methods at the Qi Condensation stage focus on either spiritual or physical development. Soul cultivation is considered too advanced or too risky for beginners."