Chapter 78 - Seventy Seven - Formulas for Success (1/2)
The five main roots had many developed formulas or methods for cultivation. This was to be expected. Those with one of the five elements as their root were considered to have the most potential and talent. Naturally, this was mainly so when they just had a lone root and to have just one root was not an uncommon thing amongst Cultivators, just it was more common to have two.
Most secondary roots also had a fair few formulas for each; they were not too difficult to create as relative passages were usually taken from those methods meant for the main root in their making. For example, the method that Cole was cultivating was derived from Chang Min's; Cole's sand and rock roots derived from the main Earth root after all.
But there was also exceptions to this, such as Dexter's lightning root. That root, though considered secondary was not so simple. The lightning root was found not to derive from the five main elements, but was not a main element itself and was not as strong and versatile as them either. Still it could be considered a cut above other secondary roots, thus research had developed cultivation methods in its favour regardless.
However, when it came to tertiary roots or body roots, the options thinned to next to nothing. Body roots were looked down upon for very few were considered useful, plus those who had a body root as well as another root would find their cultivation slower, sluggish. Like comparing a turtle upon land to a turtle within the water and this only worsened with an increased number of roots. Thus they became known as waste roots, unhelpful and useless. For Cultivators, it was also the most common variety of root.
Ren Zexian had a body root, the cursed body root and were it not for his Master's more enlightened views of the world, he would likely have been prevented from stepping on the path of cultivation before his foot had the chance to fall. As it was, he experienced much disdain and oppression, those with better talent and luck believing seeing as he would never become much, he might as well give up his allotment of pills and resources to them. Becoming a scholar of cultivation methods had been due to hoping to improve his lot, to understand his own body, meridians and just maybe figure out how he might cultivate better.
He'd quickly become absorbed in learning to the point that ten years passed by before he finally put down his books to take a breath. The majority of those that he had enrolled in the Sect with had progressed, moved on or had been encouraged to leave. Only the untalented and most stubborn remained and were mixed in with a fresh batch of young, hopeful faces. Ren Zexian had not been deterred and carried on his studies, while cultivating at the snail's pace. His breakthrough of cultivation had followed an epiphany of the mind.
Cultivator roots were the stem of a plant, the innersea its root-crop, while the meridians were the leaves bathing in sunlight, taking it in and circulating spiritual energy. This was a ridiculously simple evaluation, but it was not without some truth. Just that the root could be one, it could be three or more, but there was only one root-crop, thus the energy from the leaves must pass through as many stems as there were to reach the bud. The stems were also entwined, passing through each other, dependant on each other as well. One could not hope to just pass the energy through one stem alone or the others would wither, the energy pouring into them would no longer reach the root-crop, thus it would take longer for the whole plant to blooms and even then, the flower might grow flawed.
However, this was the normal approach when it came to Cultivators with body roots; these burdensome stems were ignored. The formula for cultivation must take into consideration all roots and their elemental types for the best results or immortality would be forever out of the reach of those with waste or multiple roots.
Ren Zexian had been practicing a fire based method with wind influence, drawing the energies into his body, refining it within his meridians and roots before storing it in his inner sea. But the fire was impure, producing too much smoke, not settling in his sea as if something was amiss.
The curse root was somewhat derived, it was believed, from the dark root which had always been linked to the earth root. Ren Zexian felt this evaluation was flawed. Darkness was the absence of light and light came from fire... he wrote a thesis upon it and was ridiculed. Disregarding his theory, he came to believe that the curse root was not derived from neither earth nor fire, but more was a mutation though he could not say what from.
His cursed body made his fire burn black and air blow more sharply. It was volatile, dangerous and uncontrolled, even without the spiritual energy developing the root. It took him another five years to figure out a formula that could draw energy into this root cleanly. The root had somewhat withered and he'd risked taking pills to reopen the blocked passages, the spiritual energy had blazed through his body causing increasing agony with every minute he cultivated. He had barely endured. However, after that bitter night, he had noticed that the fire in his belly was burning less brightly, yet less wildly and the air above it was no longer so thick with smog.