(Those who forgot the basics of the cultivation system should read Chapter 14 to refresh their minds.)
***
It was noon, and the Black Forest had grown hot from freezing. The temperature shift throughout mornings and nights was indeed night and day.
Scarlett had woken up and was reading the dictionary to learn more of the language while lying on his lap in the bed. Ethan was also reading something else, his focus deeply enraptured.
There was an open packet of banana chips on their side, and Ethan fed her some at regular intervals.
His one hand would gently enter the packet, take one yellow chip out, and put it into her mouth. When he was too late to give her one more chip, she would hum, and Ethan would get to work again.
Suddenly, Scarlett paused as he put the chip against her nose instead of her mouth. She easily ate it with a shift of her head but squinted at him.
"What happened, Slave? Something interesting?"
Ethan's spatial cognition was out of the world. He always had a sense of his surroundings, even without trying, due to his familiarity with dimensions. There was no way he would miss her mouth if he weren't lost in deep thought.
"Something interesting…" Ethan sighed. " We can now start cultivating, but to become Cultivators, we will have to get some Colorless Essence and create the manifestation of a Halo.
"We need to distill the World Essence into its inferior forms, and there are many ways to do it, but it's all a bunch of jargon, and I don't understand shit about how to make an Essence Distiller—a machine sort of thing that could help us distill the World Essence into Colorless Essence. Only after using it can we start cultivating; if we absorb World Essence directly, we will explode."
Scarlett took a breath. "Do you think we would be helpless against actual cultivators of that stage if we were to meet one now? They are the weakest of the bunch, right?"
"I do think so. We probably would struggle to survive. They are described as having superhuman physicality and also enhanced mental and physical performance overall.
"If we consider our bodies, we would barely be equal to athletes. We can't make thick trees break with a punch in this world, but they can. Most of them are even said to have cultivated their own Abilities.
"Maybe YOU do stand a chance in a fight, but I'll probably be weak and useless against them as I am.
"My Dimensional Abilities tend to become a waste around higher-stage cultivators, and without them, I would only have an athletic body. Fuck, I'll die if you throw a fireball at me if I only have my body.
"I did gain a super offensive Ability when my Heritage evolved into a True Physique that might work, but I am not sure it would be useful without actually trying it against a higher-stage cultivator."
Scarlett mused.
"You really do grow super weak if I minus those Dimensional Abilities." Thinking of it, she blanched slightly, "You would stand no chance to survive."
Ethan nodded.
"So I will always be stronger than my equals but useless against people who are of higher cultivation than me… if it goes like this," he said, "but the Dimensional Immortal Sect is not a sect where its students are that weak against higher cultivators—they have many ways mentioned through which not only me but you too could build a rock-hard foundation to grow as a cultivator."
"Then isn't it good?" she questioned.
Ethan nodded on that, too.
"But there is one technique mentioned that a person MUST practice before they become a Cultivator. I am hesitating on whether to practice it…" He sighed, looking at a particular bamboo scroll he had taken out of his Pocket. "The technique would elevate my strength a lot, even before becoming a cultivator, and there is not much need for materials, but it has a peculiar condition."
Scarlett immediately perked up. "What condition? What does the technique do?"
Ethan fed her another chip, and she gulped it down.
He said: "It is a technique called the [Dao Partner Art], and it is extremely powerful. It is a technique that no one in the whole world knows as of now, as Senior Gu Yuntian created it before he died inside the ship.
"It was supposedly an era-changing cultivation technique, and there is even a red warning in it: 'If you reveal this technique to the world, everyone will come to kill and take it from you.'"
Scarlett was amazed, but he continued.
"The higher the stage of cultivation you are in, the less chance of successfully practicing the technique. A mortal has an (80%) chance of success, and a Colorless Halo Cultivator has (30%) chance, and a Mortal God has less than (1%). If we don't practice it now, we will probably never do, and it is too amazing to miss out on."
Scarlett frowned in intrigue.
Was it even a choice? They were going to cultivate it!
"What does it do again?" she asked.
"It needs two people to cultivate it—we already meet the condition. Our cultivation will intrinsically become one and the same if we succeed.
"There are three levels to the Technique; if we successfully practice level 1, our cultivations will become one. We will always have bodies twice as strong as an average cultivator because it will intrinsically link us into a connection that I don't understand."
Ethan didn't explain the rest of the levels for now, but if they reached level 2 of the Technique—which was much harder than reaching level 1—they would be able to use each other's abilities.
He could use her Devour Abilities, and she could use his Dimensional Abilities. This was Gu Yuntian's greatest masterpiece. If he reached level 3 of the Technique, Scarlett and he would Evolve as a lifeform once again.
They were no longer normal humans anyway. They were True Physique holders, and that already put them in a different league from normal cultivators.
If they reached level 3, which was an in-theory level that Gu Yuntian himself hadn't put much detail into, both of the practitioners of the Technique would evolve once again. They would become something even beyond True Physique Cultivators.