006 Unique Cultivation [Part 1]

  I watched the little bunny fight using my Mind’s Eye.

  What a marvelous ability.

  A skill that let me observe events from unseen distances, completely bypassing the restrictions of the mortal eye. It was a unique power I had recently crafted using my last remnants of quintessence—a power that should have been impossible in this world.

  Yet, I had created it.The cost? Just what was left of my Quintessence.

  [Name: Fu Shi

  Quintessence: 0

  Players: 1/1]

  That zero still stung.

  My precious quintessence, completely depleted. But it was worth it.

  I had to watch Bi Yuan’s fight—both as a learning opportunity and as an experiment. This was a crucial moment for shaping the future class system I envisioned.

  And what a spectacle it had been!

  When she had been thrown into the creek, I panicked.

  I thought—that’s it. She lost.

  But at the last second—

  The little bunny turned the tables.

  The fox was utterly annihilated.

  Sacred Ash was far stronger than I had anticipated. And when combined with Aura of Virtue and Divine Fortification? It was terrifying.

  Even as their creator, I had underestimated them.

  I had no spiritual root, no Dantian. No means of cultivating like a normal person.

  The old Fu Shi had made sure of that.

  His blatant antagonism toward the heavens had left me with a body completely severed from the natural energy of the world.

  But still—

  I had quintessence.

  And if I could wield it correctly, I wouldn’t need qi. I wouldn’t need conventional cultivation.

  I could create something new.

  A system of my own design, derived from the one I stole from the heavens..

  And the proof of concept?

  Bi Yuan.

  I wasn’t sure if I had reincarnated or transmigrated.

  Honestly? I didn’t care.

  I wasn’t the type to philosophize over fate or the cycle of reincarnation. The only thing that mattered was that I was alive.

  And that was enough.

  I shifted my attention back to Bi Yuan.

  She had fled from the Big Bad Croc like a scared rabbit—which, well, she was.

  But the croc…

  That thing was interesting.

  I turned my Mind’s Eye onto the crocodile.

  It was massive.

  Larger than any crocodile I had ever seen—easily the size of a bus.

  Its scales shimmered like a fusion of jade and brass, giving it an almost metallic sheen.

  If I left it alone, would it evolve into something even more monstrous? A dinosaur, maybe?

  It wasn’t a bad idea to make it a player…

  But I had doubts about its loyalty.

  It wasn’t as easy as just assigning a player status. A beast of that level… If it turned against me, the consequences would be severe.

  For now, I left it alone.

  I redirected my Mind’s Eye back to Bi Yuan.

  What I saw made me pause.

  She was slaughtering everything in sight.

  Chickens.

  Squirrels.

  Even the occasional unfortunate bird that got too close.

  I frowned.

  “It looks like she’s… farming.”

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The term slipped out of my mouth before I even realized it.

  Was this… natural?

  I mean, sure, Bi Yuan had always been an oddball, but she was fighting like a player.

  No—more than that.

  She was acting like a gamer.

  A bloodthirsty, EXP-hungry gamer.

  “Yuan’er… you’re going to be a menace in the future.”

  I sighed, but I couldn’t deny—

  I was entertained.

  I enjoyed watching her stomp on weaker creatures like some kind of unstoppable force.

  That realization unnerved me.

  I wasn’t always this… barbaric.

  Had I changed? Or had I always been like this, and just never noticed?

  I didn’t have the answer.

  I wanted to keep watching.

  I wanted to keep experimenting.

  But—

  The Mind’s Eye flickered.

  The world blurred.

  My vision darkened.

  And then—

  It shut off completely.

  My mental concentration had reached its limit.

  The ability had consumed what little quintessence I had left.

  “So, instead of qi… I have to rely on mental power, huh?”

  It made sense.

  I had created the Game Master System not by manipulating qi, but by using my mind.

  Meditation had been the key to forming it.

  And without a cultivation base, my mental strength was the only thing I had to rely on.

  That was fine.

  I could work with this.

  I sat in deep thought, piecing everything together.

  My body had no future.

  But my mind?

  That was my true power.

  I wasn’t a cultivator.

  I wasn’t a warrior.

  I wasn’t a mage.

  I was the Game Master.

  And I would make this world mine.

  Meditation was the most basic form of cultivation.

  For the weak, it was a starting point. For the powerful, it was a forgotten relic.

  In every level of cultivation, meditation remained a method that never lost its value.

  Yet, as cultivators grew stronger, they abandoned it.

  Why?

  Because their techniques became far superior.

  Only at the pinnacle—the realm of the Perfect Immortal—did they realize its true worth.

  That’s why I thought—

  Maybe I could still cultivate… even without a Dantian.

  I had no spiritual root.

  I had no qi.

  But I had a mind.

  And if meditation could strengthen it—

  Then maybe… just maybe…

  I could cultivate my mind instead.

  It was a fascinating thought.

  I sat in a lotus position, taking a deep breath.

  I let my thoughts drift into stillness.

  I closed my eyes.

  I relaxed.

  I focused.

  I reached toward the calmness within—

  …

  …

  …

  …

  …

  …zzzzz Zzzzz zZZZ

  …zzzzz Zzzzz zZZZzzz ZzzZzZZZZ

  “Hik!”

  I—

  I fell asleep?

  I blinked.

  The sun had shifted. The air was cooler.

  A full day had passed just like that.

  Damn. That was… unexpected.

  I checked my system, searching for some kind of breakthrough—

  Meh.

  There was nothing at all.

  [Name: Fu Shi

  Quintessence: 1

  Players: 1/1]

  Wait.

  1 Quintessence?

  I had gained one.

  Did that mean… my quintessence was increasing on its own?

  I pondered for a moment.

  Was there a way to increase my income?

  A gut feeling told me that more players would boost my quintessence gain.

  But there was a problem.

  I had no idea how to get more players without spending quintessence in the first place.

  And there was a limiter in the subcomponent of ‘player.’

  [Players: 1/1]

  It couldn’t be that [0/1] was my maximum limit, right?

  Could I increase the cap? If so, would it allow me to gain more quintessence per day?

  For now, I won’t worry about it.

  My biggest priority should be learning how to operate quintessence or finding a way to fight back.

  Better yet—

  I needed a roadmap to a new cultivation path.

  Qi was out of the question.

  Quintessence? Too valuable to waste recklessly.

  That left me with one option—

  Mental Power.

  After all, Mind’s Eye had been created through mental concentration, not qi.

  If I could harness my mind, then maybe…

  I sat down again.

  This time, I was determined.

  I entered a meditative state.

  I focused on my thoughts.

  I urged my mental power to move.

  And then—

  I tried to activate Mind’s Eye.

  With sheer willpower alone.

  For days, I repeated the process.

  Little by little, I gained results.

  I used my quintessence sparingly, feeding small amounts into Mind’s Eye whenever I could.

  And with that—

  A whole new world unfolded before me.

  I magnified my vision, as if holding a lens to reality itself.

  And what I saw—

  Shook me to my core.

  The world was a web of cycles, all interconnected.

  Everywhere I looked, I saw life.

  The world was teeming with energy.

  Not just from living beings—but from death, from time, from the unseen forces that shaped existence.

  It was a flow of pure, raw essence.

  Something beyond qi.

  Something beyond conventional cultivation.

  Something… fundamental.

  I turned my Mind’s Eye onto my own spiritual artifacts.

  And I saw—

  Their blueprints.

  Every structure, every engravement, every mystical pattern embedded within them—

  Laid bare before me.

  “Hehehe…”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle.

  This is incredible…

  With this power, I could reverse-engineer anything.

  I could design weapons.

  I could create artifacts.

  This wasn’t just observation—

  This was understanding.

  I had seen the outside world.

  Now, it was time to look within.

  I turned Mind’s Eye inward—

  And I saw my soul.

  It was like peering through a microspore, except…

  It was psychedelic, a swirling cosmos of color and depth.

  It was vast.

  It was endless.

  I realized—

  This was my essence.

  My mental world.

  A plane of existence I had never accessed before.

  “This is a breakthrough.”

  I could see the structure of my own consciousness.

  The mind held depths and secrets that even cultivators never explored.

  Perhaps…

  The human mind contained profound mysteries that defied mortal understanding.

  Time passed mercilessly.

  Three months of solitude.

  Three months of mental cultivation.

  Three months of surviving off a little bunny’s generosity.

  And my bones… were feeling weaker each day.

  “Sheesh… I’m so old…”

  Ping!

  Bi Yuan has reached the maximum level.

  [Name: Bi Yuan

  Class: Paladin

  Level 20 (1st—Martial Tempering) (MAX LEVEL)

  Vitality: 100%

  Qi: 100%

  Stats: See more…

  Exp: 6500/6500]

  I stared.

  Then I blinked.

  Then I groaned.

  “That was fast…”

  Bi Yuan had maxed out her level way too quickly.

  Now what?

  I rubbed my temples, feeling the headache coming.

  I needed a solution.

  And fast.