[System Notice: For every increase in Source Cultivation realm - your existence becomes more powerful.]
[Essence evolves and is upgraded in accordance with your being.]
[Example: A Chaotic Fiendcelestial is a higher 'being' than most 'beings']
[System Hint: Source Cultivation can increase your aptitude for Cultivation in all areas.]
"Yes! This is what I needed!"
Formations class was much easier due to reaching his first level in Source Cultivation.
The early morning mists clung to the winding stone paths of the Thousand Peaks Cultivation Academy. From the foot of the mountain, its silhouette resembled a grand beast slumbering amidst the heavens, its towers and pavilions reaching toward the clouds like claws of divine ambition. The sun had only just begun to rise, and yet the academy was alive.
Sun Mo walked the stone path in silence, his hands tucked within the sleeves of his plain disciple robe. He had long memorized the layout of the academy, not from eagerness, but from years of repeated failure. This would mark his fifth year as a Trial Disciple. Many came and went. Few noticed him. None remembered.
In this world, cultivation determined one's place, and Thousand Peaks was the gate to greatness. Founded upon the ruins of the ancient battlefield where Emperor Yuan and a Phoenix that had reached the Mahayana Realm once clashed and then transcended, the academy had become a sanctuary and crucible for young cultivators across the Mortal Realm.
Five years ago, he had shown no talent in Dao cultivation. His qi sea was shallow, his affinity nearly nonexistent. While others refined spirit qi and formed their foundational cores, he felt nothing.
Source Cultivation was the act of resonating with one's entire Being—mind, body, soul, spirit, and identity—aligning the self with the Source, the origin of everything. It was not external mastery, but internal revelation. It did not refine qi, but awakened self-truth. It could not be forced. It had to be felt.
And once felt, it could never be forgotten.
Sun Mo's journey had not yet begun. He had not even truly cultivated. But the feeling—the elusive heartbeat of the Source—had brushed against him once.
And that was enough.
From that moment, he knew: his path would never be forged by heaven's laws, but by the echo that whispered to him when he was utterly alone.
Sun Mo stepped forward, not because he was strong, but because something inside him still resonated.
And that was where all things began.