Chapter 717: The Unavoidable Path of Body Cultivation
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 717: The Unavoidable Path of Body Cultivation
Space itself was torn asunder and pierced by a force that defied all logic, boring a hole from the Void straight into the Main World Core World.
The terrifying spatial fluctuations drew many Transcendent Witches out of their laboratories, their heads popping out to see what was happening.
However, these Transcendent Witches had experienced the Void rifts caused by Great Spellbooks several times before. While they were sensitive to the disturbance, this scale... was still far from the level of a Great Spellbook.
Furthermore, the space in the Experimental Zone was specially reinforced and encrypted. Many witches couldn't even perceive who had caused the commotion.
Ultimately, they had no choice but to return to their work.
Meanwhile...
Inside my laboratory, Yi Rui and the others had already retreated to the corners. Mentor Belica and a group of other mentors stood before them, shielding them while their eyes remained fixed on the scene in front of them.
The object of their focus... was a Totem!
It had to be said that even as well-traveled Transcendent Witches, it didn't mean they had much insight into Totems. This was especially true for a self-realized Totem, which was something they couldn't possibly have mastered.
Compared to this, the Totems they had spent years researching and studying seemed incredibly fragile.
I stood in the center of the laboratory, protected by special spatial reinforcement equipment. Strange textures, vastly different from runes, constantly flickered around my body.
This was the Totem "manifested" by my Self-Awakened Body Cultivation power. I was using it as a medium to continuously reveal the other half of the Totem that belonged to my Self-Generated Mana.
However, due to my lack of understanding regarding Totems, every step I took was extremely cautious. Yet, the more careful I was, the more the manifested Totem seemed to tear rifts into the Void.
I was forced to constantly borrow the power of my Domain to shield myself, ensuring the rifts didn't cause me harm.
What seemed like a simple attempt ended up taking far longer than I had anticipated.
I had originally thought an hour or two would be enough, but an entire day passed before the Totem was finally fully revealed.
Yes—it took that long just to fully uncover the concept of the Totem.
Looking at the now-complete Totem, the feeling it gave me was entirely different.
When it was fully manifested and left undisturbed, it barely pierced the Void or created rifts at all.
Compared to runes, this kind of pattern belonged to a completely different concept.
If a rune were in front of me, I could discern its meaning. But a Totem was more like a surface manifestation of a deeper effect being exerted.
To use an analogy, let’s take firearms.
A rune is like having the gun right in front of me. I can see its parameters; with deep study, I can learn the dimensions of every part, and from those dimensions, I can understand the manufacturing process. Once assembled, I understand that it can fire bullets to cause kinetic penetration damage.
Runes are a path of cognition. Any parameter, dimension, effect, or even projected power is information that a rune can express.
Therefore, by imitating and learning runes, one can manufacture the same firearm.
However, the information expressed by a Totem is different: it is the decibel level of the gun being cocked, the radius of the blast when the bullet fires, the brightness of the muzzle flash, and the number of shell casings ejected from the side.
This is also a way to perceive the firearm, analogous to the pattern-effect of a Totem.
But this path of cognition is meaningless to study on its own; you cannot build a gun just by learning these things.
Therefore... a Totem is a way of perceiving a firearm from a different perspective after you have already mastered the ability to build one!
This was why people made the curious comparison of runes and Totems being like translations of different languages.
In truth, they were the same thing.
"Xiao Han, may I record the patterns of these Totems?" Mentor Belica asked, her tone carrying a hint of a request.
"Of course." I nodded, then looked at the mentors who were staring intently. "But I should warn you—recording these patterns is essentially meaningless."
"It’s fine, it’s fine. We just want to record them to broaden our horizons."
"Alright then."
I nodded and let them record.
Meanwhile, I sank my consciousness into the perspective of the Totem.
After revealing the complete Totem, I realized that my previous understanding—the "firearm analogy"—was merely the most superficial way of perceiving it.
There were many more things echoing in my mind that couldn't be put into words.
I discovered that the deeper my understanding of Self-Awakened Body Cultivation and Self-Generated Mana became, the deeper my comprehension of the Totem grew!
So this was the correct way to learn and understand Totems!
You don't learn a Totem by studying the Totem itself; you learn the things outside the Totem. The deeper your cognition of a subject, the more profound the meaning expressed by the Totem becomes.
It’s like seeing a beautiful painting with a sublime atmosphere. If I want to learn how to capture that atmosphere, I can't just "study atmosphere." The correct path is to learn basic drawing, composition, coloring, expression, and brushwork...
You don't study the "artistic conception" directly.
Totems worked on the same principle.
The more solid your "basics" are, the closer your expressed artistic conception will be to what you desire.
A Totem is merely the final artistic conception—the expressed result—rather than the path of learning.
Those who "learned" Totems through other means were merely outliers; it was like... tracing.
But tracing without a foundation can never compare to an original work of art backed by deep heritage and fundamentals.
With this single realization, I gained an understanding of Totems that others could not fathom.
However, if I wanted to explain it, I could only do so through metaphors and analogies that others could grasp.
Since no one else could teach me in the field of Totems anymore, I was qualified enough to define these cognitions myself.
Since these cognitions served me, I could naturally define them however I liked.
Thus, I divided the learning stages of Totems into two: Basics and Expansion.
Basics are like learning to paint. Only when the foundation is solid can you paint whatever you wish; that is the Perfection of the Basics.
It is also the beginning of Expansion.
Expansion is the artistic conception. Only with sufficient aesthetic sense can one create the desired atmosphere.
Taking my Self-Awakened Body Cultivation as an example: the deeper my cognition of it, reaching a state of Perfect Mastery, the more profound my understanding of the Totem power of Self-Awakened Body Cultivation would be.
At that point, when I used the power of Self-Awakened Body Cultivation, it wouldn't just be the original power of Body Cultivation, but would also include the added power of the Totem.
Currently, my cognition of Self-Awakened Body Cultivation was limited to physical strength, the foundation of the Five Senses, Heart Sense, and a prototype of Time Sense.
But with the cognition of these abilities, my understanding of the Totem also covered these areas. If I didn't pursue absolute perfection of power, I could already augment my strength with the Totem right now.
However... I shouldn't be focusing on Self-Awakened Body Cultivation right now, but rather on Self-Generated Mana.
My understanding of Self-Generated Mana was still stuck at the stage of "mana produced by the self," as simple and clear as its name suggested.
This seemed entirely different from Self-Awakened Body Cultivation, as the latter's breadth was far greater than that of Self-Generated Mana.
This pattern reminded me of... the Resurrection Spell.
It also led me to a hypothesis.
Could Self-Generated Mana itself be a part of Self-Awakened Body Cultivation—or Body Cultivation in general? Perhaps this ability was split off and defined separately as Self-Generated Mana. Otherwise, it wouldn't explain why its effect was so singular.
Furthermore, in the beginning, this ability was structured upon Self-Awakened Body Cultivation.
This model was just like the Resurrection Spell!
The Resurrection Spell was an absolute Prototype Spell. Every derivative resurrection spell used it as its origin.
You could say the Resurrection Spell was garbage, but you couldn't mock its potential for development.
My initial Self-Awakened Body Cultivation was like the Resurrection Spell—a prototype with no features, just a qualification.
But after I mastered Self-Awakened Body Cultivation, through exploration and experimentation, I discovered I could exert absolute dominance over my own body.
Then, under Sister Bai's influence, the advancement path for Five Senses Perception was born, followed by the Heart Sense Domain, Time Sense...
All of these were born with Self-Awakened Body Cultivation as the prototype and foundation.
It was just like those derivative Resurrection Spells: Incubation Rebirth, Reincarnation, Incubation Derivation, and so on. They all used the Resurrection Spell as their prototype.
Even if these derivative resurrection spells were independent of the original spell, their structural core could never escape it.
The Resurrection Spell was the "Unique Prototype" among all spells in the resurrection domain.
Those spells with independent resurrection effects were like... Self-Generated Mana.
It had become independent of Self-Awakened Body Cultivation!
It felt as if the Resurrection Spell had been combined with an additional "delay technique" to create a derivative "Self-Resurrection Spell."
Self-Awakened Body Cultivation must have also had some mana-related technique added to it to give birth to Self-Generated Mana.
One mustn't forget that among the Witch Projects, there was a specific one: the Mana Project!
The fact that the concept of Mana wasn't categorized as a basic like Self-Generated Mana, but was listed as a separate project, proved that it was a special technique.
Similarly, the Body Cultivation practiced by the orcs and others must have incorporated some technique that allowed them to cultivate "Qi and Blood."
In that case, the "Internal Energy" that served as the foundation of Body Cultivation should be considered a system formed from the most basic "force-exertion techniques."
With so many examples, I could reasonably guess that Self-Generated Mana was a power system generated from "Self-Awakened Body Cultivation + Mana Techniques," which was then stripped away.
And this stripping was very thorough. They had lowered the threshold of "Self-Awakened Body Cultivation" to just "Body Cultivation."
Even now, Body Cultivation remained an unavoidable threshold.
However, the current path of Witchified Body Cultivation was a pre-designed route.
Advance to Transcendent, and receive the "Self-Generated Mana" gift package.
So, I realized there was no point in obsessing over the concept of Witchification anymore.
I either had to bypass Witchification, or use it only as a secondary aid; it could never be my primary force.
Regardless, the path of Body Cultivation was unavoidable.
"Xiao Han, did you gain anything?"
Seeing that I had calmed down and the power of the Totem was gradually being withdrawn, Belica stepped forward to ask.
"Yes, quite a lot. I understand many things now." I nodded and pushed away the stabilization instruments surrounding me.
At that moment, Yi Rui and the others emerged from behind Mentor Belica and the others.
"That’s great news. By the way, Xiao Han, are you hungry? It’s been so long and you haven't eaten. We ordered takeout; I'll go tell someone to pick it up."
"Thank you. I am actually hungry."
I nodded. Now that she mentioned it, I realized I had consumed a lot of energy. I had plenty of emergency food in my storage equipment, but compared to takeout... well, there was no contest.
I’m definitely choosing takeout!
After a short wait, a figure ran to the laboratory entrance. It was one of the students participating in the experiment. Although I hadn't spoken to her much, she seemed quite fast at running errands. After all, delivery people weren't allowed into this part of the Experimental Zone.
There was a lot of food—almost everyone had a portion.
"Eating takeout in the lab... this is a first for me~"
"Yeah, I vaguely remember being scolded by my mentor for ordering takeout and eating it at the lab entrance last time."
"Is that so? Do you still remember how I scolded you back then?" The mentor of the complaining teaching assistant walked up behind her and asked.
"Huh? I... I, Mentor, I wasn't speaking ill of you!"
"It’s decided. After we finish eating, you’ll be in charge of the cleanup. If I smell even a hint of food afterward, you’re finished. Understand? The laboratory must be kept absolutely clean! Do you have any idea how many odor molecules flooded the lab the moment you opened that box? You should be glad this is Xiao Han’s lab. If it were mine..."
"I know, I know!"
After she was scolded, we happily enjoyed the meal—or rather, a late-night snack.
In truth, laboratories had many regulations, but whether they were followed depended on the researchers.
After all, personal habits often took precedence over rules. Moreover, for witches with transcendent powers and spells, cleaning up stray particles was just a matter of a single spell.
"By the way, just out of curiosity, have any of you ever tried Body Cultivation?" I asked, sitting among the group as we ate.
"Body Cultivation? Never touched it. It seems like a lot of effort, so I never learned."
"Me neither. I’m more interested in spells."
Everyone present, including Yi Rui and the others, responded similarly. Unsurprisingly, none of them had any contact with Body Cultivation, except perhaps going to the gym to maintain their figures.
"Actually, I suggest you change your thinking. Body Cultivation is also a path for interpreting the Transcendent," I suggested.
"Since it’s your suggestion, Xiao Han, I can certainly set aside some time to look into it," Yi Rui said. With her lead, the others chimed in with their agreement.
"But I’m curious, Xiao Han, why the sudden suggestion?"
"Well... it’s a bit complicated to explain, but to put it simply, through my constant exploration of the Self-Generated Mana ability, I always find that Body Cultivation is an unavoidable threshold," I explained. "So, if we want to research Self-Generated Mana, it’s best if you all gain some experience with the power of Body Cultivation."
"Unavoidable?"
"But there are many Transcendent Witches who never touch Body Cultivation, yet they have Self-Generated Mana once they advance," someone questioned.
"Then have you ever considered that one of the processes of advancing to a Transcendent Witch—the so-called Witchification process—is actually just another special system of Body Cultivation?" I countered.
"What? Witchification is... Body Cultivation?!"
"Yes. Witchification is indeed an expression of Body Cultivation. Otherwise, why do you think your physical constitution strengthens as your degree of Witchification deepens? It’s just that Witchified Body Cultivation isn't the kind of Body Cultivation you’re familiar with."
This time it was Belica who spoke. Her words were final, saving me the need for further explanation. This was the "authority" that came from being a mentor.