The Dimension

As Jacob sits on his bed cross legged, he ponders his cultivation path. In the body refinement stage, everyone has to make an energy cycle in their bodies. But, the area where you do so is not so limited. For example, you can make an energy cycle in just your hands, which will greatly increase the strength of your hands, but everything else won't benefit as much. You can even target just your fingers, or even just one finger, greatly increasing the power of that one finger.

Conversely, You could make an energy cycle in your arms, or even your whole body, but the larger the energy cycle, the less overall power, but it decreases the limit on the amount of techniques you can use. Smaller areas also use less resource wise compared to larger areas. Past Jacob, since his family had enough to fund him, chose to make an energy cycle that encompasses both of his arms.

Jacob currently is wondering if he should follow the same path. After a little hesitation, he starts forming an energy cycle the same as Past Jacob, because the experience from Past Jacob allows him to do it quicker, quickly regaining the previous progress. Yet, he quickly encounters a problem.

During cultivation, one must absorb the free floating energy in the universe, and refine it for their own use. Right now, he can sense the energy, but as he tries to pull the energy into his body, it is being pushed away as if his body rejects it.

He panics and opens the internet on his smart watch, looking for if anyone has encountered something similar. Search results quickly show up with a bunch of articles about something called 'Energy Rejection Disorder', Something that makes it so people cannot cultivate, he quickly skims through the article before calming down when he finds that it is something someone is born with.

After finding no more clues about what it could be, he tries again, to no success. After almost giving up hope, he received a response. But, it was not from the free floating energy common throughout the universe, but from within himself. Like a torrent, a light spot from near his navel, releases a surge of energy, filling his body like water into a water balloon.

Before he can comprehend what is going on, his mind seems to be sucked into that light spot and he loses consciousness.

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Jacob slowly wakes up, around him is a vast grassland, seemingly several miles in diameter. The only notable feature is a clear pond. He walks up to the pond to see it almost empty, only ⅕ of the way filled. When he got really close, his senses tingled. He realized it was universe energy, but much more pure and condensed than the stuff found floating in the air.

Not entirely sure of what was going on, but willing to take an opportunity when he sees it, Jacob starts to try and absorb this energy to make his energy cycle, only to find to his complete surprise that he already had a complete cycle flowing in his body. He carefully sensed it, and to his surprise, it was huge. If the one he had before could be described as a small stream, the one he has now is like a large raging river. Not only that, this one covered his whole body.

He glanced at the pond with the realization that whatever happened to him before was related to this pond and this dimension. He then decided to start on the second level of cultivation, 'Duza', also known as 'Dantian Refinement'. Dantian refinement is considered the true start of cultivation, because the body refinement Stage is just refining the body.

In Dantian Refinement, There are nine levels or 'Barriers'. One must use the energy in their energy cycle to break these barriers, increasing their natural energy storage and recovery rate. The main benefit of the energy cycle is to passively cultivate and restore energy, much weaker than actively cultivating, but still there.

If one sees an energy cycle as a river, then the dantian is an ocean. It is a very basic analogy, but one that is widely used. By making the ocean bigger, that means there is more room for the rivers to fill. Now, Jacob is going to break the first barrier and make his ocean. Mobilizing the energy cycle, he starts running it to smash into an area around his navel.

As the first energy torrent hits, his body shakes from the impact, and the first barrier is easily broken. Now in the center of his core, a circular 'glass' ball sits, filled with a fog like energy. He stops there, as it is usually advised against breaking through many levels quickly, as it can leave a shaky foundation.

As his energy cycle starts to passively fill his dantian, he watches the pond that is almost empty start to slowly refill. Out of curiosity, he starts to actively cultivate and watches as the slowly filling pond fills slower and slower the harder he cultivates. He realizes that this is where the energy he cultivates comes from.

He carefully senses the pond as it fills, and realizes that energy in the air slowly condenses and fills the pond. It fills faster than he passively cultivates, but at his max cultivation speed, it stagnates, and even slowly drains.

After that testing, he starts to wonder how to leave, but just as that thought appears, he is back sitting on his bed. His mind running quickly, he thinks to appear in the dimension again and instantly he is back. He then exits again and checks the time. He noticed that eight hours have passed.

It saddened him to realize that time still passes in that dimension. He then looked at the few textbooks on his desk, and then touched them while thinking about putting them in his dimension, and it really worked! They disappeared from his hands. He then thought about them again and they reappeared. He was exhilarated. Even now, spatial storage items are still rare and expensive.

He then starts to think about what else to test. He goes back into his dimension and tries to use his smartwatch to connect to the internet, and to his surprise, it still works. He then leaves and takes off his smartwatch and sets it to record himself as he goes into his dimension. He quickly comes out and checks the footage.

What he sees is him standing there one second, then the next second gone, then quickly back again. The quick time can almost confirm that there is no time dilations, which also saddens him. As he calms down, he belatedly realizes that he is covered in a thick black grime. He quickly hits the shower as he realizes this is the effect of completing the body refinement stage.

After he gets out of the shower he realizes his parents are already up. He quickly asked, "Mom, Dad, why are you up so early?" His mother smiled at him as she replied, "We still have to work, Are you ready to go back to school after break?" He then remembers that his school has a 7 day holiday break right now.

His parents still have to work though. His father owns a company and his mom is his secretary. He quickly bades them farewell with a hug. He makes a quick cereal breakfast, taking out an extra bowl for his sister, anticipating her being up soon. He ends up being right as she comes in wearing pajamas.

He offhandedly mentions his breakthrough, startling his sister. She looks at him wide eyed, "How did you break through! The doctor said your cultivation dissipated." He then responds, "I'm not sure, when I started cultivating last night, I realized all the energy I accumulated was still there, now that I was completely calm, I easily formed an energy cycle and broke through."

She then happily gets up and says, "Lets spar!" Jacob then looks at her with a raised eyebrow, "Dressed like that?" Dressed in cat pajamas, with silky black hair coming out of the hood, and bright green eyes staring right at him. He would have never realized they weren't siblings because he also possesses black hair and green eyes. Another aspect being is that she is pretty and he is handsome, so there was never a disconnect.

The only difference that is noticeable would be their cultivation talent, His sister was already at the 6th stage of dantian refinement, while he never broke through to dantian refinement until now. His sister quickly ran off to change, and he did so as well.