[NR] The Good Outcome - Chapter 745

Jason laughs, “Though more seriously, any meditation is a good place to start. Especially the cultivation technique I taught you. It doesn’t actually touch the soul. That would be irresponsible. However, being practiced at meditation prepares you for being able to do so later on.”

Rosha, “Wait a second! You both claim you should train the soul equally with the others, but also that you shouldn’t be touching it early on? How do you square that circle?”

Jason shrugs, “Do you start learning martial arts by getting taught complex katas or do you first learn how to punch? Or even more basic than that, you would learn how to make a fist even before being taught how to punch. Otherwise, you would hurt yourself.

“Think of meditation like learning how to make a fist. Except, unlike making a fist, you need a bit more practice to get there. Though there is also a tendency to limit soul techniques to higher realms, even if they would be useful earlier on. After all, the whole ‘power corrupts’ thing might be a bit of a simplification, but there is some truth to it. A more correct way to say it is that power reveals who you are. A weak yes-man sycophant who seems completely loyal to the sect might turn on a dime the second they gain even the merest dreg of power.

“You see a lot of that irl when it comes to those elevated to management. A decent worker can easily become a petty micromanaging tyrant with even a single person under them. So yeah, in my last life, sects tended to hold off on teaching stuff related to the soul until they had a measure of a disciple. Not that they won’t teach the petty tyrant. They’ll just make sure to get oaths or teach them specific techniques that either aren’t as powerful. My sect had a preference for techniques that you could only advance in with the right mindset. So yeah, either the recipient grows as a person or they stagnate. Either is fine, because even sects need pencil pushers and for some reason, most people able to flatten hills with a palm strike don’t like sitting around all day, doing paperwork.”

Courtney laughs, “And I bet when they do find a person who does like doing paperwork, they give them the good stuff. A person who enjoys that kind of thing is worth their weight in whatever valuable resource you want to mention.”

Jason smiles, “Only the successful places!”

Rosha, “Okay, fair enough. Now, when do we actually get to exercise our souls?”

Jason shrugs, “Right now we’re all dealing with clearing out meridians, though I’ve gotten into clearing the extraordinary meridians. To handle the soul safely? We aren’t looking at the next step, but rather the step after.”

Rosha, “Oh right, why don’t you have some specific steps and names for our cultivation? I looked up a few cultivation novels and they all seem to have the stages laid out with specific steps. So, like, yes, we’re in Meridian Clearing, but you don’t seem to be classifying it by how many meridians we’ve cleared. You referred to yourself as being at the peak, but not any steps before that, just how many you had cleared.”

Jason, “Because life isn’t always that clean. Anytime you see a very strict ladder of advancement, you’re looking at something either broadly incorrect or artificially enforced. You can see this even in NeoRealm where things are at least partially enforced by the System. However, even when technically everyone should end up with a similar level of power, you have people like me who manage to manipulate our stat totals. Because life likes to throw curveballs.

“Just consider the meridians. As humans, we have the twelve meridians. Now, it would be tempting to make each meridian cleared a step or maybe every two meridians because of our technique, which tries to balance the clearing of yin and yang meridians. Except, not everything is human and some beings have more or less principle meridians. I wouldn’t even be surprised to find a race without meridians at all!

“And don’t think being human removes these variances. Many of the most powerful physiques end up messing around with the number and position of meridians. Beyond that, sometimes an otherwise normal person will have more or less. That is why part of clearing the meridians is to keep going until you can’t sense anymore. Don’t get stuck when you’ve only cleared ten and can’t find anymore and certainly don’t stop if you’ve cleared twelve, yet still sense another pair.

“Now, I won’t say that later stages don’t end up being a bit more regular. It is simply at the ‘mortal’ stages where you are the most likely to have oddities. After all, Mother Nature loves to mess with things on both a small and large scale. If I was to write out this technique? The first few chapters would be a bunch of warnings on what to look out for. Because even for something that has been perfected over thousands of years, it is not actually perfect.”

Courtney, “Wait a second. You acted as if this would work perfectly fine for us when introducing it to us. Why am I only learning now that it could be wrong for us?”

Jason, “It literally can’t be wrong for us as humans on the planet where we live. Or rather, remember how I asked if either of you suffered from chronic health problems that don’t seem to have a source or had simply been weak since birth? Yeah, that was me filtering for problems that would make my technique a problem for you to practice.”

Courtney, “Why would that be enough?”

Jason shrugs, “Because humanity screwed up the world? It is not natural to have all those different powers floating around, especially the corrupting ones. To survive an environment like that requires a metaphysical structure that can handle a large variety of powers. Good thing for humanity, such structures do not need to be physically present and can instead be entirely metaphysical, coming from the soul itself. Otherwise, after the first couple portals were opened, there would have been a major die-off of humans. Potentially every child and elderly person and a complete failure to conceive going forward.

“Because yeah, this kind of stuff is serious business and that is the good outcome. After all, what if the portal instead led to a lower realm and then every newborn actually was a devil taking a chance to be reborn as in a mortal shell?”