Cultivation used to be a simple affair, a young cultivator would – either guided by an elder or on their own – scrape their way into the initial realms of cultivation and experience the bliss of the breakthrough, that moment where they go from a mere Mortal to something… no longer such.
Their life-span would increase with every such breakthrough from the initial realms of Qi-Intake all the way until they broke free of the shackles of time itself and become something more, something infinite and unending – or so the legends go.
But as times do the ages change and with the development of cultivation so too did what the Mortals of the realm refer to as 'technology' but it was only when the cultivators of the Era began to realise the convenience of the combination of the two that history began to take a turn for the unique, known as 'Cul-Tech' to most.
Towns grew into cities; cities grew into mega-cities and with the combination of formations and alchemy the world grew bigger and yet smaller for all those involved. The original sects and schools of the cultivation world diverged and developed into corporations, the royal families of old became the countering forces of the Government that whilst elected superficially were run like the Dynasties of old.
But even that was not enough for those on the pursuit of cultivation, there was always something else to take… something else to give.
But it was only after several millennia that a 'Genius' developed a new form of Cul-Tech, 'Life-Span.'
The idea was simple, a cultivator would use the lifespan they gained from a breakthrough to pay for items, the very energy of life itself could be used to power entire cities, space-travel, wars, weapons… and breakthroughs.
That my friends, is where our story picks up – one thousand years after the combined effort of every major power in the world to implement 'Life-Span' as the driving force of Cultivation Civilization itself, where the greed of humans knows no bounds in the pursuit of infinite life when lifespan is nothing but a currency to be traded.
"97:342:11" Installed under the skin illuminated by a simple hue Lukes' time was divided as simply as could be – Year, Day, Hour.
The three words that all nine-trillion citizens of the Empire lived by, "That's 10s."
"10s? It was only 5 yesterday!" Luke almost couldn't contain his anger as he glared up at the shopkeeper. "New Time-Tax, I pay more – you pay more." The man didn't even stutter in reply, likely having had the same conversation many times today already.
Luke gritted his teeth and pulled out a small blue coin and held it to his wrist, in an instant it felt like something had left his body, but only slightly. The stone glowed as a small "20" appeared on the surface.
"Happy doing business with you, kid." The man happily swiped the coin from his hand and handed over a small bag of vegetables.
Without a second to spare Luke started to sprint his way back towards the lower-city, moving his Qi to activate a basic-movement technique. Similar scenes were happening all around him, rarely was a person so leisurely to walk the streets of the city lest they waste precious time.
"Tch, hopefully I can loosen the bottleneck this time." Luke had been stagnant at the peak of the sixth realm of Qi-Intake for the last two months, another breakthrough would boost his wealth by a whole 10 years! Just thinking about it almost made him giddy.
Luke had been born into the poorer side of the Megacity Misty-Eye ran by the Seven Clouds Corporation, but his parents had been fortunate enough to breakthrough to the Foundation Stage and put a mortgage down on a small home in the slums that Luke had inherited since their death.
The current rate of repayment had been set at 5 years per month, plus utilities and his own cultivation Luke had been burning through his own lifespan at an increased rate just trying to survive. Taking odd jobs where necessary and resorting to… more criminal activities when he got desperate, no-one living in the slums was free of guilt whether that be stolen goods or blood on their hands.
Before he knew it he had already arrived home, the rusted spirit-iron door looking as uninteresting and hidden as possible. A purposeful look from someone living alone in one of the poorer areas, the less you stand out the more chances you have of surviving.
Just as Luke was about to reach out to place his key in the lock he stopped, almost by instinct every hair in his body froze and stood on end as he slowly retracted the key and placed his eye down to the lock, there it was – a piece of alchemy clay fitted within the keyhole.
"F*cking scavengers." He cursed under his breath as he used a small knife infused with Qi to dig out the lock, the lock mechanism had been specially made by an Expert-Alchemist which made the key almost impossible to replicate unless present but small trinkets like the clay could be placed in the door-way to transmit the imprint of the key over a distance to allow for easy-entry into a property, it was especially useful for the weaker scavengers who were unable to simply tear down the walls infused with formations or those that weren't willing to cause a scene for a possibly smaller pay-off than running from the Patrols, a ruckus that big would undoubtedly make them come to the slums.
Finally locking the door behind him Luke relaxed, the "sense" he had experienced was something he had since a child and it had saved him many times since he had lost the protection of his parents. They once called it a "special physique" even if it was only one of the minor-level, something was better than nothing and one that allowed him to sense danger in a place as treacherous as the slums was without a doubt all he could ask for.
Throwing the vegetables into the small-fridge he hurriedly sat down to begin circulating his cultivation technique, he had been stagnant on the edge of a breakthrough for far too long and he had a feeling… as he had the day before… that today would be the day.
"Just a hair's breadth." He mused to himself before sensing the Qi circulating his body and beginning the assault on his Dantian. It was like a torrent of energy trying to breakthrough a dam that had already shown signs of breaking, all it needed was just that final push…
And yet no amount of energy was enough to finally allow the waters to rush through.
"Just… a little… more!"
With some slight hesitation Luke urged the energy stored in his arm towards his Dantian, "10 minutes. No more, no less." Like the final straw the energy poured through the dam with a single crack, then two, then three until finally the cycle was complete.
"7th Realm of Qi-Intake! Complete!"
[Realm Increase Detected – Updating Life-Span…] A robotic beep echoed in Luke's mind almost the instant his breakthrough was finished.
"Shit." A torrent of pain suddenly assaulted his body as a vortex formed at his wrist causing that same life-energy that had helped his breakthrough to be sucked straight out of his meridians before being balled together and disappearing into the timer.
"97:342:05"
"101:342:05"
"107:342:05"
There of course there's no such thing as a pain-free gain in a world like this…