Starlight Life Of The Sage

"So you're telling me that the energy here amplifies the effects of Body Cultivation?" Zara asked. Her eyes were wide and her hands trembled. She had wondered how her teacher was faring, and the story so far broke her heart. To learn that her Teacher ended up on Earth, a world without any spiritual energy, and had to live as a mere mortal until he died… The news almost made her weep.

When all of the disciples sent him off, they did so against his will, and they made him suffer. Zara wondered, for a moment, if one of the 12 had sabotaged the shield to make it go off course. Their Teacher was supposed to reincarnate into the child of a pregnant woman they chose, but things went wrong...

"Yes. I think I can help guide you, too, in switching out your Qi cultivation base over to a Mana base," said Cara.

"I have a ton of ingredients in my Space Ring, we can use alchemy from our world to facilitate the changes," said Zara, "And then I can absorb mana here while also studying this world's alchemy too. How long do you think it'll take to replace my Qi with Mana?"

"Probably at least two months. Three at the most, though. Even with this body having particularly low talents in Body Cultivation, I achieved this much in three years from scratch. Your body is already refined once, so it'll go fast. We'll need a Minor Convergence Pill, three Absolute Barrier Pills, and one Yin Heaven Pill."

"I have one Minor Convergence Pill already," replied Zara, "And I have the ingredients to refine the others. It'll take me about a day to slog through that while making sure the environment doesn't cause problems…"

"Then I'll continue training. I think I can break through the first Zong Rung and create my first Crack."

The two met each other's eyes and they nodded. Zara set up a temporary workshop just outside of the large tree, and Cara moved to the location of the leylines she repaired months ago to cultivate, finding her connection to her Contracted Spirit at its strongest there. It would help her siphon Mana to facilitate her cultivation.

Cara wanted to enter the first Rung of the Zong realm, also known as the First Crack. Breaking through to the Zong realm was known as 'Laying the egg', and to advance in the realm, one needed to hatch that egg. The realm beyond Zong was called Yuan, Soul Building, or Yolk. One needed to hatch their golden core in order to reveal their Nascent Soul.

In order to hatch her core, Cara first needed to crack it. There were 9 Rungs in the Zong realm, but a person technically only needed to reach the first Rung before they could attempt to transcend the realm entirely. To do so was risky, though. The more cracks a person formed the easier it would be for their Nascent Soul to hatch, and the stronger their foundations and potential in the higher realms would be.

Cara intended to crack her core at least six times, to reach at least the sixth Rung, before she would try to breakthrough. Ideally she wanted to go for nine, to achieve perfection, but with her body's talent such a thing would be difficult.

Yuan tier in body cultivation differed slightly in that it forged a union between the body and the soul. It was the first step in reaching an immortal body. Once one reached Yuan tier in outer cultivation, so long as their soul was intact, their body could recover from most injuries, even fatal ones.

-

To crack the core required an inlet of energy, a flow if you will, that could match the energy pressure between the inside and outside of the body. It required tremendous control and expertise, and usually it required an impetus.

Cara smiled. She wasn't certain why she didn't need to use her pills to break through to the Zong realm, but she was thankful for it. Now she had her pills to use to advance to the first Rung, instead! She popped several into her mouth and immediately took up a lotus position to diffuse the medical energy.

A tremendous swirl of mana formed, and Cara started to absorb it liberally. She felt the Earth Spirit beneath her push more energy into her body, helping with her cultivation still. The connection felt intimate and strong, like a bond between a loyal dog and their master. The trees swayed and flowers bloomed as excess mana formed. The clearing glowed with life.

Cara grit her teeth as she began manipulating the energy. She recognized the pressure inside her body and she worked at it, trying to minimize it while also maximizing the pressure just outside of it. She felt the immense power of her Body Cultivation waver, for a moment, and a golden zigzag pattern appeared on her skin, radially converging from her bellybutton. Her beast-skin clothes ripped to shreds in the formed winds, and her body glowed with a golden light.

An internal cultivator would crack their golden core here and be done with it, but as an outer cultivator her body *was* her golden core, and she couldn't just crack open her body.

Instead she focused and withdrew her energy flows, bringing the storm outside within her, within her divine vessel. The lightning mark glowed on her skin, and a sound played that reminded Cara of shattering glass. Her vessel, the container for her soul, cracked once, hard. She bit her tongue to stop herself from screaming.

A tremendous surge of mana entered her body through the crack, and she g.r.o.a.n.e.d under the strain. The pain was enormous. To accomplish anything in Outer Cultivation required effort and pain, it required sacrifice.

The crack in Cara's vessel, once considered an injury in ancient times, was the path forward.

To evolve, to walk further down the Path, one had to give up something. There was no free lunch.

If a Cracked Core Cultivator did not advance their cultivation fast enough, if they failed to break through to the Yuan Stage, their lifespan would be drastically shortened; they often lived no longer than an ordinary mortal.

The more cracks they formed the shorter that lifespan would be. If one managed to achieve the perfect nine cracks, they would need to break through within a year to the next stage.

Cara's cultivation timer had begun.

-

Zara pulled an entire building from her Space Ring, and set it up just outside of the large tree her Teacher called home. The building that came out looked modern, with slate-style shingles running up the sides. The roof was ash-gray and well slanted, designed for a snowier environment. The stone walls radiated Spiritual Qi and seemed otherworldly, glowing with white light in the dark forest floor.

Golems of stone and wood emerged from the ground around the building. "Go, protect this forest from outsiders. If any human enters here, kill them with extreme prejudice. Leave only me and the young girl Cara."

Zara's command registered and the army of stone and wood vanished, each of them strong enough to wipe the country of Tin from the map.

A massacre started in the Soldier Garden. Any humans remaining inside the forest bounds never returned. Thankfully, most groups managed to leave in time. Only low level bandits and explorers died at the hands of the Golem Army.

Zara entered her workshop and took a deep breath. The air inside smelled of herbs and poultice. The interior was clean and modern, filled with glassware and other equipment. Surgical tubing, endless paperwork, and small machines littered the shelving on the sides. In the center, under an artificial Qi-powered light was a garden of herbs, each giving off a tremendous spiritual energy. Any country in Zara's home-world would go crazy for even a single plant from her personal collection.

There was one exception. In the center of the garden, protected by its own array, was a small flower. It wasn't a spiritual plant, nor did it have any special medical properties. It was a daisy, and it was the first gift her Teacher ever gave her.

"You're so pretty, little Zara, just like this flower, here. Don't be so hard on yourself. Your talent will bloom in time, so don't compare yourself to the others. Everyone has things they're good at, we just need to find yours~"

Her Teacher's words came back to her and she felt a stirring in her heart. Now, she could pay back all his love and kindness. She could monopolize him; she didn't need to share with the others…

For a moment, Zara even considered trying to slow down her Teacher's cultivation so they could stay in this world longer. After all, they could only return once her Teacher reached the Transformation stage.

She only entertained the idea for a moment. She decided she couldn't betray her Teacher like that, even if it meant they got to spend less time together. Her heart ached at the thought. She couldn't explain her strange new feelings. She couldn't explain why she wanted to treat her Teacher like a possession... But one thing she learned over the years was to never doubt herself or her own feelings. Her intuition told her there was a traitor among the Disciples, and if she brought back Teacher he would be in danger.

-

Zara prepared her pill concoction setup, laying each necessary ingredient out and priming them. A large cauldron appeared from her ring; it was black and lined with red metal. A fire poured from three diamond-shaped crystals, and the temperature in the workshop became uncomfortable.

Zara's every move was practiced and refined. Her skills were exemplary, and she showed her experience. Her skills, so profound, produced even high tier medical dregs. The leftovers from her refinements alone could help a lower tiered cultivator advance.

Zara bottled them up. She didn't know if any would be useful to her Teacher or not. She didn't know much about his Jade-Dragon cultivation technique.