Chapter 932: Future Plans P3

It had been countless years since the Mad Immortal’s rampage in Dadangar World.

And yet, even after so many centuries had passed, aven after the cultivation civilization of the subcontinent flourished anew, there were hardly any Nascent Soul Kings.

Even the Gu Poison King was a rare exception who existed many centuries ago. And one had to consider the fact that the Gu Poison King originally did not belong to this subcontinent.

This isolated land... possessed Core Formation Lords. Some of those Lords had even reached the late stage.

There were also records of cultivators traveling to the Shinayin Empire.

Yet none of them had successfully established themselves as Nascent Soul Kings.

Aksai had previously attributed it mostly to the leashed Dao Paths.

And that was certainly one of the reasons.

But it wasn’t the only one.

Now he understood the second major reason.

"The core cultivation techniques."

Aksai slowly exhaled.

"The native cultivators are using non-Connate techniques."

And because of that...

They weren’t refining their Intent from the beginning of their cultivation journey.

They were learning Innate Spirit Spells and constructing Innate Spirit Cubes.

They were spreading their comprehension across multiple elements and gaining versatility.

But they were also weakening the very foundation they would eventually need to shatter.

Aksai’s eyes became distant.

"So even if someone from the subcontinent somehow reaches the Shinayin Empire..."

He paused.

"Simply giving them better resources won’t solve the problem."

Their foundation was already established.

Their Intent wasn’t sufficiently refined.

Their Spirit Core hadn’t been prepared according to the principles required for a true Connate cultivation path.

And the leashed Dao Paths made matters even worse.

Two massive obstacles.

One external.

One internal.

Aksai looked at the jade scroll in his hand.

For the first time, he felt that he had glimpsed the true divide between the subcontinent and the wider cultivation world.

It wasn’t simply a difference in resources.

It wasn’t merely a difference in inheritance.

It wasn’t even just the difference between powerful and weak cultivators.

It was a difference in cultivation philosophy.

The subcontinent’s civilization had been redeveloped from scratch after a thorough destruction caused by the Mad Immortal. And it had recovered in a relatively short time.

But this targeted recovery process came at a cost.

Aksai picked up the bottle of Intent Refining Pills and carefully stored it away.

His expression was unusually serious.

"These things are far more valuable than I thought."

He had nearly thrown them into a corner because he couldn’t understand their purpose.

Now...

He considered them one of the most important resources he had obtained from Kalina.

And perhaps the most important realization wasn’t even the value of the pills.

It was what they had revealed.

The path toward the Nascent Soul realm wasn’t some distant mystery anymore.

At least, not entirely.

Aksai finally had a direction.

And for someone like him, having a direction was often more valuable than having a mountain of resources.

However, this form of realization tasted somewhat bitter.

This was perhaps the most frustrating realization Aksai had faced since stepping onto the path of cultivation.

His gaze remained fixed on the jade scroll, but his thoughts had already drifted elsewhere.

My own cultivation path...

Aksai had known by this point that his cultivation technique had a fundamental flaw.

Like almost everyone native to the isolated Dandagar Subcontinent, he cultivated a non-Connate core cultivation technique.

The technique itself was excellent.

The Sun Moon Stars Trifecta Tantra was considered a top-notch cultivation technique throughout the entire subcontinent. It was something Aksai had obtained with the help of the Green Glory Lord, and its profoundness had never disappointed him.

Yet there was one problem.

It was not a Connate technique.

And because of that, it didn’t possess a proper method for refining Intent and using it to etch Essence Equation Runes onto his Spirit Core.

Aksai’s brows furrowed.

This is becoming a serious problem.

His druidic bloodline had given him advantages that ordinary cultivators could only dream of. His multifaceted cultivation path had given him even more.

He currently possessed two Spirit Cores.

One was his original Spirit Core. The other was a Pseudo Core formed through the Verdant Beast’s Qi Shell Integration.

Under normal circumstances, such advantages should have given him a tremendous edge.

But they couldn’t completely compensate for the fundamental flaw in his cultivation technique.

He lacked a proper Intent-refining method.

And now, he was only a step away from becoming a late-stage Lord.

That made the situation even more troublesome.

Aksai had already advanced deeply into the Sun Moon Stars Trifecta Tantra.

He wasn’t a beginner who could simply discard his cultivation technique and start over.

Changing his core cultivation technique now would essentially mean abandoning everything he had accumulated and rebuilding his Core foundation from scratch.

It could delay me for centuries.

Aksai didn’t particularly fear the passage of time.

As a druid, his lifespan was absurd compared to ordinary Lords. A few centuries of delay weren’t enough to make him panic.

But the current circumstances were different.

The Dandagar Subcontinent was standing on the verge of impending chaos.

If he deliberately regressed to the Initial-stage Lord realm and remained here while his cultivation was weakened, he would essentially be painting a target on his back. Even if he were to consider leaving, he had to be in the late-stage Lord realm for absolute safety.

His current strength was one of the reasons he could move relatively freely.

If he suddenly became weaker...

Everyone who coveted his resources, secrets, and opportunities would become much more dangerous.

And even if I leave this place, where am I supposed to find a suitable Connate technique?

That was another problem.

A suitable Connate technique wasn’t something one could simply purchase from a marketplace in the Shinayin Empire.

Even if he somehow managed to find one compatible with his cultivation path through raids on imperial cultivators, there was another question.

Who would guide me?

Aksai’s expression became complicated.

The cultivation techniques developed within the Dandagar Subcontinent were relatively easy to understand.

That didn’t mean they were simple.

It meant they were comparatively forgiving.

As long as a cultivator was careful, maintained moderation, and proceeded slowly, they could advance through the Core Formation realm without external guidance.

That was precisely how someone like Aksai had managed to become a Core Formation Lord without ever having a proper master.

Nuri had been enough.

With his current cultivation technique and Nuri’s vast knowledge database, Aksai could find answers to almost every question that arose during his cultivation.

But Connate techniques were different. They dealt with something known as Intent, which was as abstract as forgotten dreams.

As such, such techniques weren’t something a cultivator could casually decipher by themselves.

They required guidance.

Even monstrous geniuses weren’t necessarily exempt from that requirement.

A single mistake during the transformation of one’s Spirit Core could cause cultivation deviation.

And once cultivation deviation occurred, the resulting injuries to the foundation could take an unimaginable amount of time to repair. And this was provided they could be repaired.

Aksai mentally calculated the consequences.

If he were to change to a Connate technique and attempt to learn it without legitimate external guidance, his cultivation would regress all the way back to the first level of the Core Formation realm.

Then he would have to rebuild everything.

Even in the best-case scenario, it would take him more than four centuries to return to his current cultivation level.

Four centuries...

Aksai’s expression twitched.

And that was already an optimistic calculation.

It assumed that everything went perfectly.

No cultivation deviation.

No serious injuries.

No unexpected bottlenecks.

No interference.

No problems with comprehending the new technique.

Even with Nuri’s assistance and his supplemented knowledge database, he could only shorten that period from roughly four centuries to around three.

Three centuries.

That was still an absurdly long time.

And returning to his current cultivation base wouldn’t even be the end.

He would still need to progress from there and once again reach the late-stage Lord realm.

That would require even more time.

Aksai’s expression gradually darkened.

This was the part that frustrated him the most.

He wasn’t afraid of cultivation taking a long time.

He wasn’t even afraid of rebuilding his foundation.

What frustrated him was that he had already walked so far along his current path.

He had spent countless years accumulating Spirit Essence.

He had painstakingly strengthened his Spirit Core.

He had built his current foundation step by step.

Now, just when he was about to cross into the late-stage Lord realm, he had discovered that the very technique carrying him there might eventually become an obstacle to his future.

If I had discovered this problem earlier, things would have been much simpler.

But there was no point in regretting it.

Aksai took a slow breath. He then shook his head before clenching his fists in his meditative Asana.

"Let’s not dwell on things I can’t solve yet and focus on checking the other jade scrolls first. I still have to count the many blessings given to me by my ’kind benefactors.’ Perhaps one of them was wise enough to solve this dilemma for me," Aksai thought to himself.

He then decided to move on to the next jade scroll.