[NR] No Water Feature - Chapter 580

However, no matter how chaotic the Deep Wilds can be, it is still a place entire civilizations can live. So, not every moment is fraught with life-threatening danger. While changes like the local area had just gone through do cause chaos, the native beasts and monsters are more than used to this, so it doesn’t take long to calm down.

A calm that allows Jason a chance to finally relax and focus on himself once again. While a clearing in the Deep Wilds certainly isn’t the most peaceful position, this would be the third time in NeoRealm that he has had the chance to really stop and think about his path. More to the point, the first time doesn’t really count all that much, since he didn’t exactly stay in the starter town for all that long.

So for the first month, Jason focuses on self introspection. A month might seem like a long time, but to Jason, making sure he has laid down the best foundation he can is more important than such a short period of time. Nevermind the fact that with the time differential it only takes a fifth that long from his lifespan. Though more importantly, was confirming the next step.

In the bamboo kingdom, Jason had made plans for the next step. Not necessarily for his cultivation, but rather to ensure he has full control of himself. Because, as much as the System hates other people using mind control, it clearly doesn’t have a problem using such things itself.

While Jason was mostly certain that such tampering was heavily restricted when it came to players. Something on the level of the System surely has figured out workarounds or methods of expanding what it could do beyond what the original programmers would recognize. So, the threads in his body from which the System’s control radiates, need to be removed and replaced.

At least, that is what he had decided back in the bamboo kingdom. Jason looked over the concept again during his month of preparation and introspection. Could he just remove the lines and not replace them?

No. The answer was unequivocally no. While fundamentally different, they appeared to play a similar role in NeoRealm as meridians did irl. Sure, the lines didn’t seem to act at all like meridians, but at a conceptual level it all fit into place. In whatever dimension that NeoRealm existed in, you needed the threads to support a person’s power.

More than that, Jason had a sneaking suspicion that in any world outside of NeoRealm, the lines were much more important to a person’s power. As it was, the System seemed to handle the hard part of extending them and forming knots as needed. Outside, people probably have to cultivate the strings themselves. Whether this was a blessing or a curse for any one person was up for grabs.

However, for Jason? Even if the System’s method of twisting the threads and weaving the strings was some perfect formula, it could only be seen as a curse. Jason had once heard an old visiting master describe perfection once. To that old master, nothing was more abhorrent than the assumption of perfection, for it meant nothing.

Perfection was simply how others explained their lack of ability to improve further. That anyone trying to sell you the perfect solution was out to scam you. For a cultivator or even a mortal, what should be focused on is improving oneself and what is best for you.

Jason hadn’t really understood that at the time, but looking back it made enough sense that he was willing to follow the ideal. After all, if something was supposed to be perfect, any change would represent decay. To declare something perfect was either a lie or a statement that it couldn’t ever get better, stronger, more refined.

And these System controlled threads, strings, and knots? Like a crystal formation, they reeked of stagnation. For others in NeoRealm, they were the invisible underpinning of their power. For those outside of NeoRealm? Maybe they would cry and beg for the chance.

For Jason? They were a cage and he had already fidgeted with one part enough to open a hole and see outside of the box. His pinky finger, while still part of the System, had a much rougher knot from Jason’s inexpert handling.

There was only one thing now that kept him from getting to work. His irl cultivation. Better to clear another meridian before he began so his progress would regress. Thankfully, with a month of introspection behind him, another was almost complete and so he only had to wait another five days.

Well, seven days. He was ready after the five, technically, but there was one last task in NeoRealm itself to finish up. That of his own house. Not that the house part of it was all that extravagant.

It had three rooms. A living room, washroom, and bedroom. Oh, and a secret tunnel under the bathtub. Why under the bathtub? Well, have you ever heard of that before? Thought not. Everyone and their uncle knows to check under the bed and to tap the main rooms floorboards when searching. But who checks under the tub?

And where did this tunnel go? Nowhere far and it wasn’t some secret treasure cave or anything. In fact, Jason had already told the other two about it and asked if they wanted something similar. Because what it led to, was a simple cultivation cave.

And honestly? It sucked. A proper cultivation grotto would have numerous extra things. Stuff like proper sound insulation, better airflow, and sometimes if you’re really fancy, a water feature running through it.

Though there was one convenient feature that Jason managed to kludge together. While neither were impressive, he had manuals for two small scale rituals, the alarm ritual and the light ritual. Now, Jason wasn’t a formation expert in his last life and certainly hadn’t learned all that much about rituals in NeoRealm, but with those two he managed.

In particular, the light ritual had a hidden secret that allowed for things to come together. A way to tap into the world’s Energy instead of being powered by a person’s Energy. A much needed addition to create an Energy gathering ritual.