Chapter 4
After calming down from the excitement, Naoki Asakawa finally began to cultivate.
He reminded himself not to celebrate too early—there was no point opening the champagne at halftime. If he couldn't even manage the basic Qi Refining Technique, all his hopes would be crushed.
According to the manual, one of the key requirements for cultivation was something called *spiritual roots*.
Spiritual roots weren't tangible things—they were more like a metaphysical quality, something akin to the soul. They couldn't be seen or measured directly. But without spiritual roots, cultivation was impossible. Those without them would remain ordinary mortals their entire lives.
There were two main categories: the standard five-element roots—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—and the rarer mutant roots, such as wind, thunder, and ice.
Each root aligned with a specific type of cultivation. A fire root made one suited for fire techniques and spells. Same with the others. Techniques required matching roots to even begin learning them, while spells were more lenient but still greatly influenced by alignment. Practicing a technique or spell outside one's root type was possible, but inefficient and weak.
It reminded Naoki of chakra attributes in the ninja world. Ninjas typically used ninjutsu that matched their chakra nature. Practicing mismatched jutsu—like using fire when your chakra nature was wind—meant putting in twice the effort for half the result.
Interestingly, the Qi Refining Art stated that while having more roots sounded like a good thing, in the early stages of cultivation, fewer was actually better.
Cultivators with only one root had the fastest growth. These were known as *Heavenly Spiritual Roots*—the most ideal talent. They could quickly progress through the early stages, refining essence into qi and stepping into the realm of refining qi into spirit within just a few years.
Those with two roots were still considered talented, though a bit slower. With three roots, the gap became significant. It could take decades to break through, possibly not even within a single lifetime. As for four or five roots—called mixed spiritual roots—progress was painfully slow. Many couldn't even reach the second stage of cultivation.
However, things flipped in the later stages. Once a cultivator refined their qi into spirit and reached the peak of that stage, advancing further required a complete set of five-element roots. At that point, those with five roots held the advantage—assuming they'd made it that far. Most didn't.
Fortunately, the manual mentioned ways to artificially complete one's spiritual roots. That was a long-term concern though. For now, Naoki's first task was to find out if he had spiritual roots at all—and if so, how many.
The number of roots would determine his future potential.
The origin of the Qi Refining Art was unknown, but it had clearly been refined over countless generations. It was simple, without any powerful bonuses, but versatile—it didn't exclude anyone based on root type. Whether someone had normal or mutant roots, they could practice it.
Naoki carefully read through the first level of the technique, focused on refining essence into qi, and only began once he fully understood it.
"In cultivation, the foundation is essence, qi, and spirit," he muttered to himself. "Essence is the body. Qi is magical power. Spirit is the mind."
"The first step—refining essence into qi—is about transforming your bodily essence into magic power. Once you've formed your first strand of mana, you've officially stepped onto the path of cultivation."
Naoki found it strikingly similar to chakra training in the ninja world. There, ninjas extracted physical and mental energy to form chakra. Here, it was about refining bodily essence into mana. The parallels were clear.
However, once a cultivator reached the second stage—refining qi into spirit—they could begin absorbing the spiritual energy of the world directly, reducing strain on their body.
In the first stage, that wasn't possible. The natural energy was too wild to control and would do more harm than good. Only after developing spiritual awareness could a cultivator absorb it safely.
"This sounds a lot like Sage Mode from the ninja world," Naoki thought. "Sage chakra is formed by mixing physical energy, spiritual energy, and natural energy. It's way more powerful than regular chakra."
"Could the 'spiritual energy of heaven and earth' mentioned here be the same as natural energy in Sage Mode?"
"If I can break into the second realm, that's essentially the same as unlocking Sage Mode. At that point, I might be as strong as a Kage."
He shook his head to dispel the thoughts. This wasn't the time for fantasy. He cleared his mind, sat cross-legged on the bed, closed his eyes, and silently recited the incantation.
Then something changed.
He felt himself slipping into a strange state. The world faded. He became aware of something subtle moving through his body—tiny streams of air, like snakes, flowing along invisible paths in his body.
At the same time, in his mind's eye, the sky split with thunder. A bolt crashed down, striking the earth and igniting it into flame.
The storm raged. The sky was consumed by lightning, and the ground by fire. The two forces spread and engulfed everything in sight.
Naoki didn't know how long he was in that state. But eventually, when the lightning in the sky and the fire on the earth collided, he slowly woke up.
His eyes opened with a glint of disbelief and excitement.
"Looks like I have both fire and thunder spiritual roots," he muttered. "Even in a world of cultivators, that's rare. That makes me a genius."
He wasn't at the level of a Heavenly Spiritual Root, but dual mutant roots were still impressive—especially since both fire and thunder were aggressive, powerful types. His cultivation speed would only be slightly behind a true prodigy's. He had more than enough potential to reach the stage of refining qi into spirit.
Then he felt it—his first wisp of mana, flowing faintly through his meridians. It was weak, but it was real.
He smiled.
He had officially begun his journey.
And what he didn't yet realize was that being able to succeed on his very first attempt was incredibly rare. Even cultivators with excellent roots often failed several times before managing to form mana.
Naoki's talent… was far beyond what even he could imagine.
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