LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 151: Cultivating Properly
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The Walpurgis ended soon after that battle closed, the main issues having already been spoken about and the naming honour given to Rimuru. He was sweating internally and externally about it, constantly questioning me on whether I had any input, I rebuffed him constantly. His deadline was by the end of the week, five days away. Honestly it wasn't that bad, all he had to do was contact Guy and let him know what the name he came up with was. Everyone else sucked at name making so we forced it onto him with the last decision of Walpurgis.
Speaking of Walpurgis, Dr Paradox didn't stay with me... He decided to go an speak with Guy about topics that were most likely similar to what he had told me before we even went. Getting back from Walpurgis I was tired beyond comprehension. My brain had been working overtime and the constant perceptiveness that I needed to have was exhausting. It was no wonder why they made sure the meetings were a long time apart from each other.
Meetings was another thing that we all had to suffer through after Walpurgis. Re-examining our position with Luminous and Ainz now that they were both in the picture. Ainz would no doubt reveal himself and Nazerick to the world soon enough, Luminous would be guaranteed to try and capitalise off of this new event somehow... My mind was already tired from the demon lord meeting, it only got worse with these.
Eventually we all came to the consensus that to counter the growing chaos of politics we needed to all get more powerful. We needed to start promoting our worth subordinates into Demon Lord-hood. Shuna was my first choice, Souei following quickly behind as they both would be massively useful to Tempest and would also make me feel more secure; Shuna was also my wife, so it made sense!
After all of that hubbub however, Yuna summoned the rest of the Primordial Demons that weren't already summoned. The Primordial of White, Blanc. Primordial of Violet, Ultima. Before I could see who they are and how they are, Yuna ran away with them in hand, her tongue poking out at me as she shouted loudly towards me: "You can't have them!" Blinking in confusion along with the two Primordials, I simply stood there as she whisked them away with alacrity uncharacteristic. Soon I was being swept away by Milim who wanted attention and Shuna who was wanting to spend time with me and ask questions, and I quickly ignored the strange actions of Yuna. We went home and started talking, conversing on some of the stuff that happened, with Milim laughing at me as I showed my anger at being toyed with by Guy. It lead to an unusually heated session last night that continued on into the late hours of the morning, when we all went to sleep.
And now... I awoke in me and my wives bed, completely naked except for my hand adornment; The Ring. My meditation was peaceful at the very least and most of the cultivation had taken affect on my stats. A wall had appeared with regards to my meditative cultivation since my ascension to Demonic Overlord. Today, I intended to quell this wall and stomp all over it for good measure. With that intent I stretched my hands out and attempted to pull myself up, only to feel the privates of my women within my grasp...
Let's just say I stayed laying down for a while, just enjoying the moment and the squirms I received as I moved my fingers every now and then. Both of them were dead asleep still but definitely having good dreams, that was for sure. Eventually dragging myself away using my wings to propel myself up over the end of the massive queen sized bed. My goal for today was to be rid of this 'wall'.
'Morgan, will my cultivation effect my power level with my skills?'
|Possibly. Your guess is as good as my own.|
'Thanks for that...'
|I am not the knower of all information, everyone and everything has limits.|
Walking downstairs whilst summoning my clothes onto my body I slowly moved towards the couch where there were numerous comfortable pillows. Arranging them beneath me so that my ass would be comfortable during the forced meditation, I began to extend my vision into the magicules coming into my mouth and nose. Millions of individual magicule clumps were harvested into my body every second. Elements of all kinds were swept away and devoured by my cells and biology.
There it was, underneath the very intake of magicules... A bastion of my level in cultivation, a foundation that was as strong as the planet itself, mayhap even the universe that I lived in, itself. Focus defined and refined, I started to poke my senses into the wall. It was achievable by manifesting the thought of my own body touching a wall, feeling it, smelling it, tasting it, hearing it... understanding it. My resolve grew rapidly as I began to feel grooves in the wall, small imperfections that were caused by the incomplete technique of my cultivation. It needed to be fixed. Understanding how to was the problem, I spent several minutes contemplating the issue as my 'hands' in my spiritual vision felt more and more goo slowly slipping out from the wall.
'Maybe, the wall isn't something to break, but something to reinforce and coalesce into a full structure... Like old teachings on Earth...'
'My Mind is a Palace.'
Thinking back to my old world and universe once again I also started to remember that one's foundations, in these Eastern ways of gaining power, was strengthened and reinforce by the intent and elements caste into the very actions of cultivation. Perhaps this was also the reason for my faults in the wall itself, what I conceptualised as my foundations. Seconds, minutes, hours passed... or it seemed like it as time became inconsequential to me in but a fleeting moment of its embrace. Then, like thunder following the crack of lightning, a voice began to sound within my mind... A man's voice so wizened and old that one would wonder if they were the representation of time itself. Then the voice changed to that of a young man, one who is about to start his journey for knowledge, but they stayed consistent.
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I sense the vast river of time. It flows ceaselessly, a current neither swift nor slow, yet always moving, always changing. We stand in its waters, but our grasp of it is an illusion. We hold to time as if it can be captured, yet the moment our hands close, it slips away like the wind through the trees.
Time is not a line drawn in the sand, as we are taught, nor a circle as others believe. It is the breath of the Tao itself, both within us and beyond us, a pulse of the eternal. We mark it with numbers, with days and years, but time cares little for such distinctions. What is a second to a tree, a decade to a mountain, or an age to the stars?
In my seeking, I have learned that to chase time is to lose it. To dwell on the past is to become entangled in roots, and to fixate on the future is to be lost in clouds. Both past and future are shadows of the mind. There is only the present, the ungraspable now that forever shifts. In the present, time ceases to be an enemy; it becomes the unfolding of life itself.
But what is this present, this fleeting instant that we so rarely perceive? It is the space between the beats of the heart, the pause between breaths. It is the Tao revealing itself to those who are still enough to listen, to see the unbroken thread that weaves all things together. Time is not a sequence of events but the continuous motion of existence, where everything and nothing change at once.
And so, I begin to see—time is not something to conquer, nor something that conquers us. It is not a force that carries us helplessly forward. It is not even a path we walk. Time simply is, and it flows through us as we flow through it. To be one with time is to be one with the Tao. It is to be in harmony with the rise and fall, the growth and decay, the endless cycles of the world.
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My foundation made a resounding boom within my senses, unnoticeable to everyone else but me. Cells within rumbled and started to sear as my organs felt as if on fire, my mind drawing blank in pain as that same foundation that i was latched onto grew, towered, thrust upwards! The force of a million men slammed down onto my senses and caused me to strain. No image of reality was granted to me, only the foundation and the constant crowing of prayer-like Sutras. This wasn't the end however as the voice on time slowly was taken over by one more feminine, a woman who wore red robes of the purest colour of blood. Her hair was pitch white within my mind as her eyes looked like an endless looping void of hunger.
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As I gaze upon the world, I see that all things consume and are consumed in return. This is the natural way, the cycle that binds us all. To consume is not merely to take, but to give in turn, as the earth consumes the fallen leaves, and from their decay, new life springs forth.
In our hunger, we seek to sustain ourselves, yet rarely do we pause to see that we too are part of this great exchange. We consume the fruit of the tree, but we are also consumed by time, by the elements, by the very breath we draw. There is no consumption without transformation, and no transformation without release. What we take, we must return, for this is the law of the Tao.
I have learned that consumption is neither good nor evil, but simply the rhythm of life. The bird consumes the worm, the worm consumes the earth, and the earth consumes the fallen bird. The cycle is endless, and within it, nothing is truly lost. The Tao teaches us to see the whole of this dance, not just the moment of taking but the inevitability of giving, of becoming part of the cycle ourselves.
Consumption is a force of renewal. The fire consumes the wood, and in its ashes, new growth is born. The sun consumes the darkness with its light, only to be consumed by the night again. Even our desires, which seem to devour us, can become the seeds of wisdom if we understand their place in the cycle. To consume without understanding is to be devoured by greed, but to consume with awareness is to honour the flow of the Tao.
In my reflection, I see that we are all both the eater and the eaten. Our bodies, like the leaves in autumn, will one day return to the earth, and from them, new life will rise. To resist this truth is to live in fear, to cling to the illusion of possession. But to embrace it is to know peace, for in the cycle of consumption, there is no true loss, only transformation!
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Sounds of shifting stone transmitted to my ears despite the distinct lack of actual stone being moved. My foundation grew taller, my eyes watching it tower upwards from the bead that it once was and unleashing a torrent of black, green, red, blue, white, grey and gold. The essences that I had found so far... Immediately after I had grown comfortable with what was happening my mind shifted once more, more colours joining in... Silver, Blood Red, Purple and Shadow.
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The Tao is everything... Time Eternal and the Current
The Tao is balance... Transformation
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Final words of wisdom were deposited into my soul instantly, my body feeling ecstasy as my soul hummed in relief. Ultimate Skills became more powerful and strengthened under my new found power. Magicules that were being consumed were also expunged by me soon after as I deposited essences that were gathered in my foundation whilst taking what was needed for myself. Consumption was natural, one needed to give as well... So as such, my powers spread the influence of the Essences Raistlin had taught me, that my soul had taken deeply into itself.
Tensura would now slowly start to change... Something that even I did not know the full effects of. But, i felt a calmness about it all now. My comprehension of the tenets of the man's discoveries of time growing with every second as I replayed it within my mind endlessly.
"The Emperor... Yuuki... Ainz... All are merely children playing against a current that itself does not like being changed. I should make breakfast for my wives."
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I hope you all like this chapter... Took a bit to get a proper Cultivation feel!