That said, he curiously looked at another book, "Basics of Cultivation," and couldn't help but lick his lip. How long had it been since he started to feel like a caged bird?
No matter how wide one's wings are, as long as they bind themselves in one place, under four walls, or in little spaces, their limits would be set. However, Ethan didn't want to live in a bondage of limits. He wanted freedom beyond life and death. Beyond any constraints not set upon himself, not by himself.
As he was reading, Scarlett moved in her sleep and wrapped her hands around his waist. He smiled, patting her hair without taking his gaze off the book.
After a long time, he sighed. "...Scarr, the path before us is wide and long."
She was dead asleep, and he could only sigh.
Cultivation was a wide road indeed, which began by creating and manifesting Halos around oneself.
Unlike Earth, the world they were in, the Immortal World, had a force of energy that was omnipresent throughout heaven and earth—World Essence.
Force of energy that was so absurdly strong and nourishing on its own that it made the whole world much stronger than places like Earth. From its foundation itself, according to the book's terms.
But at the same time, this power was very chaotic if someone tried to touch upon it. Like fire, warm and cozy at a distance and burning at touch. Just to a far more extreme level.
It was absolutely not meant for mortals to manipulate or even glean into. A single speck of it can cause a human to blast into nothingness. However, usually, it was omnipresent yet nonexistent at the same time and didn't interact with lifeforms unless they interacted with it on their own.
Nonetheless, throughout the ages, lifeforms have found ways to control even such chaotic power.
By absorbing inferior qualities of the World's Essence into oneself, a creature could grow stronger and more adapted to it. Little by little, they get used to the inferior powers until, one day, they become capable of absorbing the actual World Essence directly into their bodies.
They split the World Essence into five inferior qualities of itself:
Colorless Essence, Bronze Essence, Iron Essence, Silver Essence, and Gold Essence. Beyond Gold Essence laid the ultimate level of Essence: World Essence, also known as Purple Essence.
And by absorbing the most inferior, cultivators start on their journey and become stronger and stronger to a level of power that was beyond Ethan's imagination. They grow closer and closer to controlling the true World Essence, the foundation of the world itself.
The book even said:
If you become capable of absorbing World Essence directly into your body, you can reach the level of a Mortal God. Surpassing mortal boundaries.
That was a being who was beyond anything Ethan could grasp now!!
Excitement growing, he read a bit more. How do the people even cultivate?
Cultivators use special techniques or equipment to tame the chaotic World Essence and turn it into its most basic form, called Colorless Essence.
By absorbing Colorless Essence, they create a glowing ring of energy around their heads, which is termed a Colorless Halo—a sign of the power they wield behind their mortal appearance.
When a person has one Colorless Halo, they're known as a Colorless Halo Stage Cultivator. If they manage to form three Halos around their heads, they are at the peak of that stage.
The next step is to imbue Bronze Essence to one of their Colorless Halos, which then makes their Colorless Halo evolve into Bronze Halo, also Evolving their bodies into Bronze Halo Cultivators.
Then, Iron, Silver, and Gold.
This process of refining and enhancing their Essence continues until they can handle manipulating the pure World Essence itself.
When their Halos are beyond Gold and have a purple tinge to them, that is when they are ready to become Mortal Gods. At that point, they absorb the Final Halos into their physical body and become one with it, becoming a true revered Mortal God.
There were more details, but the book mentioned in one line, 'not to get too bogged down by details of higher stages and only focus on things that immediately mattered,' so he didn't delve too much into it. Haste made waste, after all.
He didn't have to delve too much to know what mattered.
For him and Scarlett, their path of progression was already clear.
They first had to eat a Pill of Comprehension and become one with their Heritage to create something called a True Physique, then get on with manifesting their first Colorless Halo.
There were also some unique techniques in his hand that he could only cultivate after he ate the Pill. Which Ethan noted too.
In the end, he couldn't help but fantasize a bit.
A Halo not only represented the amount of energy a person had, but each Halo enhanced a cultivator's physique to unholy levels. Each Halo made their bodies more powerful.
Mortal Gods were said to be capable of moving tectonic plates with their kicks alone, destroying gigantic islands with mere punches.
He couldn't help but shiver at the thought. Even on Earth, S Rankers could barely destroy a huge building, and that strength couldn't even destroy a tree here.
The most intriguing part to him, however, was not the strength.
Strength didn't matter if you died.
It was the... longevity!
The book was vague about the other cultivation stages, but Mortal Gods could supposedly live for more than ten thousand years!
Some unique ones were even said to live for twenty thousand years.
In the silent cave, Ethan's eyes trembled slightly as he read the part. Scarlett's hand tightened around his waist, and he caressed it gently.
This was it.
He felt as if an urge to cry was rising up within him, but he held it back. From now on, he could no longer be so laid back. He couldn't start this journey with tears.
Now, he had a goal in life.
He wanted to be immortal!
He wanted to live forever!!
He wanted to do that with Scarlett!!!
Not because he was afraid of death but because he believed, he honestly believed, that living a mortal life was meaningless.
What does it matter if you were a god if you died in the end and everyone forgot about you?
Wasn't that the same as a dog? What was the difference?
God would die, and the dog would die the same.
They were not much different from shit in the gutter either. Shit existed and ceased to exist. Some might cringe at the stench, but it would fade and pass. Same as life.
He wanted to be immortal so that their life mattered. So that they were not shit in the gutter.
Ethan had always had that wish deep down. A sense of deep meaninglessness of his own existence. No money, no status mattered to him.
It was all meaningless. But there was no way out of it, and he now had a way.
Holding back the tears seemed a bit impossible. Crystalline drops slid past his eyelids and through his cheek, he rubbed them away with his hand.
He asked.
"Scarr, you asleep or pretending to be asleep?"
She didn't reply.
Ethan breathed out frosted air out of his lungs.
The black forest seemed to be growing colder.
It seemed to be the sort of place that grew colder at night and hot at light.
He could only sigh and, using a blanket, fall into the bed himself. Scarlett instinctively cuddled, falling deep into his chest as he himself pulled her closer to him.
Scarlett must have felt his unrest after a while, she woke up groggily.
Ethan couldn't sleep. He was like a child who had been thrown a new toy, a man who had been shown the way to his dreams. How could he sleep after that?
Cultivation, Spirit Formations, Pills, Heritages, True Physiques… Mortal Gods with millenniums of lifespan!
A world waiting for them to explore!
These were all new things to him; his heart yearned to explore them already, but there was no hurrying this. He could only do this methodically, step by step. Yet his heart couldn't stop yearning for new sights. For freedom.
As she opened her eyes, his face was inches from hers, eyes sparkling with excitement. He wore that unmistakable look of a child with a burning secret, eager and bursting to tell her something—just like the day he had excitedly shared his newfound power to teleport. She knew that look too well.
His childish side.
She sighed and removed her upper robes.
It revealed her huge milky white bosoms with two pink nipples to his eyes, which made his curious eyes instinctively move towards them, and his hand immediately fondled.
Scarlett smiled and pushed his face into her left breast, drowning him in a sea of softness and warmth. "Fall asleep, Ethe. I am too exhausted now. Tell me everything in the morning."
He wrapped his hand around her and brought her close to himself. Sinking his face deeper into her. She chuckled lightly and kissed the top of his head.
Then, silently, she fell asleep, leaving him to his own devices.
A long minute later, Ethan smiled. Then, his hand moved into her pants. She moaned slightly at the touch in her wilderness.
However, feeling the warm and slimy sensation under his hand, he didn't do much before his own fatigue seeped into his bones, and he fell asleep.
Their bodies entangled into a wholesome cuddle. They drifted into the realm of dreams.
His hand moved on its own, but he was asleep.
She squirmed slightly, but she was asleep too.
Meanwhile.
The emergency lamp, clinging to the cave wall, sputtered and flickered, then abruptly died, plunging the cavern into deep, unsettling darkness. Outside the cavern, a storm seemed to be brewing as the sound of rustling leaves and weeping birds echoed mutedly into the cave.