Cultivator’s Second Heart
Magic and cultivation were a long journey which would take years to master. Many died even before they reached halfway through the top and many were not able to reach the top simply due to the incompetence of everyone around them.
Such a long journey begins with the awakening of the Mind Sea—a cultivator's second heart, in a metaphorical sense.
Leo was in the midst of awakening this very Mind Sea. The formation of it lay in between the middle of his brows, at the glabella. This was where the energy from the shrubs was converging towards and accumulating.
Having years of experience at hand, channeling this rampant rushing energy in his body towards his glabella was an easy task. It only took a couple of minutes and once finished, the energy began condensing, taking the shape of a sphere.
Slowly, the condensation changed to expansion as a clear sphere came into existence. Leo's consciousness was sucked right into it.
A flash of darkness was followed by a world of white. Up, down, left, right, it was all white. Color slowly seeped into this world, dyeing it a sagely green.
On the outside, the cave glowed brighter with each passing second as life, heaven, earth, and spiritual essence seeped inside from all directions.
A vortex of essences formed above the heads of Leo, Ellyse, and Everett, converging right at their glabellas and entering their Mind Sea.
Ellyse was shocked beyond belief as she had a firsthand experience of cultivation. Hailing from a world of mortals where magic or cultivation wasn't the norm, the current situation had shattered her entire worldview.
Despite having thousands of thoughts, Ellyse put them all in the back of her mind and focused on channeling the essences in her Mind Sea as Leo had asked her to. One wrong move could cost her heavily so she had to be careful and attentive.
Everett did not face any problems and with Leo's instructions, any potential problems that he may have faced were all resolved before they even came up.
Leo finished channeling the life, heaven, and earth essence into his Mind Sea in a day's time, successfully undergoing his awakening.
The Mind Sea had emerald green water and sky, officially making Leo step onto the journey of magic and cultivation, turning him into an Initial Jade-stage Rank 1.
A normal person would rejoice at this stage and think they had finally turned into cultivators, however, what they failed to understand were the consequences of it.
Nature gave people a limited lifespan for a reason. Trying to change it meant going against nature. Tribulations were hence a common occurrence at every realm as nature did not want everyone to turn into immortals.
Although it was disheartening to know this, one should be aware that nature always followed balance. If it gives you resistance, in return you are blessed with immense benefits if you pass those hurdles.
One wouldn't get tribulations without a Mind Sea. Having awakened it successfully now, nature would start its onslaught. What type of tribulation would occur was always unknown as it differed for each person.
There are certain people who wouldn't get a single tribulation purely because they were loved by nature and were the chosen one types—kids who had a destiny to be the greatest and do good karma. This was just one group, there were many more.
One should also note that for some reason, nature kept the awakening process simple. Literally anyone could walk onto the path of cultivation if they consumed these Awakening Shrubs. They grew commonly around the world and worked only once. There was an age criteria of being 17-19 years old. If one was below or above it, they would not awaken no matter how much shrubs they consumed.
Mortals around the world had no knowledge of this despite the shrubs commonly growing like weeds. If someone were to accidentally consume it and awaken, they would die in the tribulation. On the off chance that they do survive, someone from the Ten Great Families or the Six Major Sects would come to recruit them as such type of people were usually destined to achieve greatness.
To be of the right age and to consume such a shrub, the possibility of such a thing happening among mortals was close to zero. Just think about it. One sees a lot of plants, trees, leaves, weeds on a daily basis. Does it ever cross one's mind that they should eat them?
The knowledge of this was restricted by the cultivators for the mortals' own good… is what they all say. In reality, having mortals cultivate would result in tons of variables that may snowball and eventually cause a downfall of some high ranking family or clan.
Families did have a way of tracking down the newly awakened mortals, but there were times when their destiny was so strong that it was next to impossible to find them. On the off chance that they do find them, there was no guarantee of capturing the mortal unscathed.
The awakening process was simple and costed next to nothing.
Nature made it available for everyone yet at the same time rejected their advances through tribulation. It was quite contradictory and no one knew why such was the case. It was one of those philosophical questions that had no right answer. Questions like: What is life? What is the purpose of living? Why does one exist?
Leo waited for a few more minutes, and as expected, strange fluctuations occurred in his Mind Sea.
The tribulation was here.
Rumble… Rumble…
The green sky turned dark as clouds formed within it. Thunder rumbled and bright flashes of lightning crackled.
Leo took a deep breath and prepared himself for the onslaught. This was the easiest tribulation, but also one of the toughest as one's body was not tuned for cultivation yet. There was not a single ounce of magic within oneself and coming into contact with it for the first time, it was difficult to channel it.
Leo was a regressor and had years of experience yet he still couldn't change anything about the current situation. Experience meant nothing when his physique wasn't the same.
The situation was equivalent to doing a hundred pushups. The spirit was willing but the flesh would give up after thirty to forty reps as the muscles get fatigued.
After a few seconds of rumbling, a bolt of lightning descended down in the green sky, burning the waters within and causing a tremor.
Leo felt a sharp pain in his head and grunted. He quickly channeled the multiple essences from around his surroundings into his Mind Sea and tried to fix the hole in the waters.
Lighting crackled again and pierced the green sky, descending into the waters and burning a hole in it.
Beads of sweat dropped from Leo's forehead as he pulled as much essences as he could and channeled it in his body.
One couldn't simply pull essences and send it to the Mind Sea to fix things. A person had to channel it through a proper pathway within their body and then into their Mind Sea. The reason for this was that the essences were too concentrated and powerful. Their energy had to be lowered before sending inside the Mind Sea otherwise it would do more harm than good.
While channeling the essences throughout the body, it is slowly absorbed and the energy is lowered. The entry point of it can be anywhere a person wants. Most preferred it to enter from the area slightly lower to their navel and Leo followed the same teachings.
He could channel the energy from some other entry point but why go through such a hassle? One shouldn't change something which was working fine and doesn't require any change.
He briefed all these points to Ellyse and Everett beforehand. Had he not done so, they would surely have some serious issues and could even die.
The tribulation inside Leo's Mind Sea was slowly intensifying. There didn't seem to be an end to it and Leo could only preserve and continue fixing the mess these bolts were creating.