Theon emerged from his days-long study, his mind sharper than ever before. The fog that had clouded his thoughts—the invisible barrier that had stifled him for so long—had finally dissolved. Knowledge, potent and illuminating, now coursed through him.
He was currently on Serenera, a second planer world. Worlds were classified in strength by 'planes', 'planes' as a measurement of strength were also used for Lu as well as cultivation, with the upper limit being the 9th plane.
Serenera being a 2nd plane world meant that the limit of Lu cultivation within it was the second plane. There were also 9 planes of Lu cultivation with each having 3 realms within them with three steps each, for a total of 9 levels for each plane of cultivation.
The 1st plane for Lu cultivation was called the fundamental plane and as you progressed through it you would gain basic internal Lu control, then a basic strength increase and then you would open your soul aperture.
The 2nd plane was called the material plane where throughout the whole plane each level would lead to you unblocking your meridians and then subsequently you would form your nodes, points of extremely dense Lu used to solidify the flow and structure of your meridians. These two realms were called the foundational planes. From the 2nd plane on the information in the documents became considerably less detailed.
Beyond the 2nd plane was where the information provided by the control room started to get uncertain. The third and fourth planes comprised the Resonance Realm, where whispers spoke of a core forming within the cultivator while 5th and 6th planes were together called the unification realm. Beyond that there was no information on the 7th and 8th planes, let alone the 9th.
Beyond Lu cultivation there was also body and soul cultivation. Each had 5 stages and would strengthen the cultivated part as you progressed. And just like Lu cultivation, there was no set cultivation method, the method of doing so was entirely dependent on the user.
A mad glint in his eyes, Theon thought about all of the unexplainable phenomena he had encountered while he was on Serenera, piecing it all together.
The reason he had gotten stronger, seemingly inexplicably, was because of the zombies. Zombies, like all things, were beings of Lu. But unlike intelligent races that wielded meridians or beasts that condensed power into crystals, the undead lacked the will to harness their energy effectively. So upon their deaths their harnessed Lu would, now without a vessel, escape to the surroundings and try to attach to something else.
And it had just so happened that the [Momentus Flow Art] was particularly proficient at passively accumulating Lu in the surroundings to maintain the momentum and flow inside its practitioners meridians.
'If only I had known sooner.' After all, he had just gotten lucky that Lu had chosen to cling to him and let him absorb it. Had Theon consciously cultivated the Lu, he'd be far stronger by now and have much less to worry about.
Additionally, now Theon knew what the black, shadowy tendrils of the tiger-like creature were. They came from his beast crystal.
Unlike humanoids, beasts could not cultivate Lu through meridians. Instead, they had to come up with an alternate way to accumulate power and still be able to rival humans. The method they forcefully evolved into was beast crystals.
Beast crystals were the condensation of the beasts bloodline, their primary strength, allowing their bloodline to more actively interact with Lu and utilize it to strengthen themselves, their bodies and their bloodlines.
Most beast crystals would strengthen the physique and intuition of a beast, but rarely—very rarely—they mutated, allowing a beast crystal talent to manifest in such an outward manner. So of course Theon had faced that one case his first time facing a beast.
He exhaled sharply, pushing the memory aside. Right now, he had a more pressing mystery to solve.
Theon once again referred to the records, adjusting his breathing—slower, deeper—and focusing on the subtle pressure points along his skin. Then, like a dam cracking, he felt it.
Lu surged through him, wild and untamed, crashing against the walls of his meridians like a river in a storm. Gritting his teeth, Theon wrestled control, guiding the energy toward his fingertips.
A crackle. A spark.
Then—lightning.
A jagged arc of electricity leapt from his fingers, weaving between them like a living thread. Theon stared, pulse quickening.
'Interesting.…'
It seemed as if the lightning that had latched onto him from the fuse box had taken residence in his meridians. This, of course, wasn't meant to naturally happen. This meant one thing, Theon had a talent related to electricity, and it was most probably his meridians.
But that wasn't the strangest part.
His meridians weren't just unblocked—they were flowing, smooth as polished stone. That defied all logic. He had just reached the 1st level of the first plane and felt the existence of his meridians, how could his meridians, which should be opened throughout the 2nd plane, be flowing perfectly?
He retraced his steps since arriving on Serenera. .
It seemed as though through passively absorbing the zombies' excess let out Lu, he had reached a certain level within his cultivation. Though, what this level was he couldn't tell, because he had apparently surpassed it.
'Since I haven't been consciously taking in Lu and cultivating it means that this was something external. The zombie Lu could only take me so far, especially with me having killed a limited amount.'
After all, if it was so easy to cultivate that just killing a few zombies could let you reach high in the first plane with just minimal, unconscious effort, how could anyone be stuck in the first plane ?
His gaze dropped to the fading sparks on his palm.
'The only other thing is the lightning flowing in my meridians.'
'It seems as if when they entered my meridians, not only did they ravage any impurities that they came across, they also seem to be slowly dissipating into neutral Lu, letting me absorb and cultivate in the most effective way possible with Lu entering directly into my meridians.'
Though this didn't solve Theon's questions as to how far his cultivation was, in fact it only further complicated it. Where exactly was he in his cultivation?
The final part of cultivation on the first plane was creating the soul sea.
The final stage of the 1st plane was the awakening of the soul sea—a reservoir of spiritual Lu that marked the transition from mortal to true cultivator. But souls were fragile. Damage to them was near irreversible, and cultivating them required methods so rare even the Sylvain Empire, Serenera's rulers, possessed none.
Theon didn't know whether or not his soul sea was unlocked. After all, he had no concrete way of telling his cultivating progress as he had never been conscious of it.
Alongside revealing to Theon what cultivation level he was, inspecting his soul would also do something very beneficial, reveal to him one of his talents.
There were a total of 6 talents for cultivators: meridians, soul, bloodlines, physique, pupils and innate nodes.
Meridians, soul, physique and pupil talents were mostly random. Though, they could be influenced by one of the predetermined talents, bloodlines.
The other non-random talent was the innate node. The Innate Node, however, was unique—a crystallization of one's entire being, manifesting sometime during the second plane. Innate nodes ranged from simple basic strength boosts to an entire technique.
Talents would mostly determine the path of a cultivator in their journey so knowing what they were would be essential. Right now, Theon knew his meridians were related to lightning and the only other one he could find out without specific tests was the soul.
Though he didn't know if he had a soul sea, he also didn't know his cultivation level, meaning he could have cultivated to a high enough level to have opened his soul sea.
A seasoned cultivator would have laughed at his naivety. Did he think breaching the soul sea was as simple as breathing? So easy that Theon could have done it without noticing? If it were, the world wouldn't be drowning in mortals.
But Theon didn't know that.
So, with the manual's guidance, he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and focused on the space behind his brow—where the soul was said to reside.