Extra's Strategy: Cultivate Protagonists, Become Invincible-Chapter 163: Kong Ye’s Info-dump

"The most important part of Mystic Art cultivation is enhancing your foundation tower. Think of cultivation as a building under construction.

"First and foremost, the base, or in other words, the foundation, must be built properly, while keeping in mind that the rest of the building’s stability would depend on it.

"If you build a narrow, shallow foundation on a tiny land, maybe you can build one or two small rooms on it, which will be cramped and uncomfortable to use, shabby to look at, and dangerous to occupy. Not to mention, a shallow foundation will never allow you to build higher floors.

"If you forcibly do so, one tiny earthquake, one half-decent flood, or even mere passage of time can make it crumble! Similarly, for your foundation tower, such disasters can come in the form of spiritual attacks, qi deviations, and mental demons!"

"BOOM, the power you have cultivated throughout your life will be gone just like that. So if you are intelligent enough to understand this, you’ll definitely build a better foundation for your Mystic Arts.

"Now imagine a foundation covering more than a hundred square meters of land, delving more than a dozen meters underground to lay a firm footing for the building in the future.

"Even if you build a skyscraper with dozens of floors, your foundation can support the building. You’ll have many large rooms on each floor that are comfortable to live in. You can imagine these rooms as the potential of your cultivation techniques.

"Vertically, each block will represent the growth of your Mystic Art at each layer. The horizontal growth represents the multiplicity of your practice, equivalent to the number of Mystic Arts you cultivate and how distinct their domains are.

"Naturally, you must make sure to build sturdy, reliable rooms on the lower floors, which represent the beginning layers of your Mystic Arts. Otherwise, you risk losing a room on the ground floor, which would simply waste the entire foundation for that technique, thus destroying much of your potential.

"Of course, all of this is but an analogy. Not every foundation tower here will follow such a strict and streamlined development. Anomalies and deviations will appear based on your own spiritual growth, perception, and willpower to some extent."

As Elder Kong Ye stopped to let the weight of his words sink in, a hand rose from the ’elite’ category of his class. Mu Ran stood up and asked a question.

"Elder, if an enemy manages to peek into our spiritual world and see the state of our foundation tower, will he be able to figure out the weaknesses of our Mystic Arts foundation?"

"Correct." Kong Ye nodded. "But the precondition is that the invasive peek has to be a pretty powerful Mystic Art itself, and few cultivators under the Soul Reformation can execute such a technique. Connecting two spiritual worlds requires a powerful soul."

"Does a cultivator of the Monastic Path have a chance then, even without reaching the Soul Reformation realm?" Mu Ran asked. Kong Ye looked a bit troubled as he thought about it.

"Monastic Path indeed strengthens the soul and the spiritual world. It lays down an incredible foundation for the Soul Reformation realm if one succeeds in cultivating a technique in this path. So it does open that possibility."

"Thank you, Elder." Mu Ran sat back down and started scribbling on a parchment furiously. Kong Ye stared at him suspiciously for a moment before continuing his lecture.

"In essence, advancing each layer on our Mystic Arts allows us to build one floor after another in that foundation tower. Now, the next thing a young cultivator is often concerned with is how many Mystic Arts they should cultivate.

"As I’ve said before, each Mystic Art can potentially create a distinct room inside your foundation tower. On the ground floor, each room is a foundation for that Mystic Art.

"Theoretically, the more Mystic Arts you cultivate, the bigger and better your foundation becomes, because different techniques give you powers in different domains.

"The more you learn, the wider your grasp gets over higher-level Mystic Arts and esoteric concepts of nature and spirit. This grows your overall potential as a cultivator qualitatively and quantitatively, depending on your choice of Arts.

"But practically, it’s useless to cultivate dozens of techniques, because they will waste your time by keeping you confined within the lower realms of cultivation for a long time, which can lead to the loss of your youth and potential. You won’t even live long enough to reach the truly impactful realms to increase your longevity.

"One may ask, how about I cultivate one Mystic Art to a very high level, break through to the Soul Reformation realm, and then practice a lot of techniques from scratch with my extended longevity? This can expand my foundation, right? If only the answer was that easy...

"After you refine yourself under the heavenly tribulation for a Mystic Art at its peak, your foundation tower will become a sealed building. You won’t even be able to produce the true effects of any Mystic Art you cultivate later on. Compared to the refined arts, they’ll be little more than cheap tricks in your hands!

"This is why you must cultivate multiple Mystic Arts before breaking through to the Soul Reformation realm. Don’t be in a rush to cultivate any of your Mystic Art to their peak. Focus on extending the number of rooms in your foundation tower. You can do it by simultaneously cultivating multiple Mystic Arts in distinctly different domains of power."

"The trend around here is to cultivate three to five techniques, which should produce three to five rooms if you can choose wisely. Each of these rooms will encompass a domain of your potential in the future, once you build more floors on them. Is the path ahead clear now, my disciples?

"First, choose your primary Mystic Art from the archives, one which will represent your value as a cultivator. It will be the technique you cultivate the most. So pick something relatively simple, and always keep it a layer ahead of your other techniques. Of course, you must not let yourself cultivate its final layer.

"Then start with your secondary techniques one by one, making them all reach the peak of their potential at the same time, so that you can summon a heavenly tribulation for all of your Mystic Arts at once!

"For pure Mystic Artists, they have to give up a part of the tribulation benefits to refine their Physique. In this process, they’ll transform their body into a vessel strong enough to survive the cultivation in the next stage, the Soul Reformation realm.

"This sacrifice is the drawback of not cultivating the body till then. Of course, if you cultivate the Martial Path alongside the Mystic Arts, you won’t need to give up those tribulation benefits. This is why many affluent disciples of big sects cultivate two paths at once! Double the cultivation equals double the benefits!

"Alright, we’ve strayed from our original topic. So let’s put that discussion aside for the future and start with our routine sessions. Close your eyes and start absorbing qi."

With Elder Kong Ye’s command, all the disciples in the great hall started their qi cycles, their minds still reeling from the precious knowledge they’d acquired today.

"That felt like an info dump. But damn, this stuff is so interesting!" Han Xuhan muttered to himself.

"Now that I think about it, both Mu Ran and Xuanyuan Zhou cultivate not just Mystic Arts and the Martial Path, but also Monasticism! I saw that during the third challenge inside the Holy Land!

"If two paths can produce this much benefit from the heavenly tribulation, what will be the effect of cultivating all three paths at once?"

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