Cultivating in Honkai!

The Purple Mansion Realm is the third of the ten levels of immortal cultivation. It is the "transitionary phase" to the Golden Core Realm.

It is related to the development of the soul and spiritual qi.

Qi Refining fillls up the dantians. It has gaseous spiritual qi.

Foundation Establishment merges them into a flawless dantian. It has liquid spiritual qi.

Purple Mansion turns the flawless dantian into a crystal dantian. The liquid spiritual qi contains dao rhymes. It can be said it is the crystal form of a true Golden Core.

At this point, Spirit Roots no longer just attract and absorb spiritual qi. It is partially combined into the crystal dantian. It then gives birth to the first Dao Rhymes needed by the Purple Mansion Realm.

The goal of this realm is to thoroughly saturate the crystal dantian with spiritual qi and Dao Rhymes alike.

Starting from Foundation Establishment, Qi is the main path of cultivation, and as such, tribulations only occur in Qi breakthroughs. The Body and Mind are exempt from tribulations.

Shi Tian vaguely sensed the changes of his Qi realm.

Then, he shifted his focus on the breakthrough of his mental cultivation. The breakthrough of Qi cultivation stimulated his mind, causing him to break the last barrier of the Early Purple Mansion Realm.

Soon, his spiritual consciousness range expanded to five hundred miles. The connection of his mind to his soul was automatically disconnected.

Shi Tian opened his eyes.

"Cultivating to this realm…"

He admits.

The tribulation he faced sucked. But, it also brought countless opportunities for growth. The positive effects of honkai are maximized. There is also the rapid progress over his mental cultivation.

"Fu…"

He calmed down.

Now that his Body, Mind, and Qi are all in the Purple Mansion Realm, he felt very complicated.

A single disaster outweighed his seven months of progress.

There is a good reason why the Sons of Destiny preferred life and death struggles. Along with dangers are opportunities. Acquiring an opportunity is akin to soaring to the sky.

Shi Tian's opportunity is the honkai itself. Without its presence, he would have been stuck on the standard cultivation speeds.

Foundation Establishment takes several years to be perfected as a high grade Spirit Root. Purple Mansion is longer than that.

Now, he has achieved years of progress in less than a hundred days.

"Without external disasters, stable cultivation is much better…"

*****

The world experienced a period of peace.

There are no major disasters that occurred ever since the false alarm of a major eruption. The smaller honkai eruptions are handled by Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, respectively.

When it comes to the said organizations, things are anything but peaceful.

The Kaslana Family Head who had gone AWOL appeared last year. Internally, the Kaslana Family wanted to capture him. There are rumors afloat that Siegfried Kaslana cooperated with Anti-Entropy. Political reasons prompted them to issue a capture order for him.

After years of absence, Siegfried appeared and clashed with a Valkyrie Squad in Shenzhou. He managed to throw their pursuit off. Even the former S Rank Valkyrie, Theresa Apocalypse, was alarmed.

That appearance triggered a wave of overt and covert battles between Schicksal and Anti-Entropy.

"I must be hit by karma or something…"

Siegfried sighed as he sat on the couch. Opposite him is Raiden Ryoma. The latter threw a bottle of beer at him.

"You deserve it."

"Maybe I do."

"Remove the maybe. You really do."

The Kaslana Family did not know that Siegfried lived right under their noses. This mansion is located in the Far East.

"Now, it's my baby girl's turn to run off somewhere."

Ryoma let out a laugh. Fate is truly ironic.

After Siegfried got saved by Kiana last year, she disappeared for long periods of time. It is now Siegfried's turn to experience what Kiana did.

"Heh. She saved your sorry ass. She has grown up already."

Siegfried fell silent.

Every time he thinks of the events of last year, he still feels a little surreal.

Kiana managed to defeat Sirin. She now possessed complete control over the Second Herrscher Core.

All of it occurred during her journey.

She is now similar to the Sovereign of Anti-Entropy, a Herrscher who sides with humanity.

Such an achievement is nothing short of unbelievable. As such, Siegfried wanted to know the full story. That was the least he could do.

"She even met a boy he likes!"

"You deserve all of that." Ryoma laughed for the nth time. "I pamper my daughter all the time. I let her learn new lessons, but I won't neglect her."

"Wouldn't she let you pamper her anymore?"

"That's a different story. She has grown up too."

"..."

No matter how Siegfried argued, he lost. It made him realize his shortcomings more and more. His failure to the two Kianas made up a big regret.

"That boy… Did Welt say anything about him?" Siegfried asked.

"No. You know he disappeared at some point."

He looked at Ryoma and saw nothing unusual.

'For an entire year… they did not talk about him. Not even to Ryoma…'

Kiana met a boy she "likes". He helped her deal with the problems she faced.

Siegfried once tried to ask Welt Yang about the boy. He was then pushed to ask Kiana, who looked gloomy at the mention of him. He has not asked her anymore since then. Siegfried had a hunch something bad happened during Sirin's reawakening.

This continued for an entire year.

"The boy's name… Shi Tian. I looked it up in the registry. Nothing of such appeared." Ryoma explained. "It's not surprising. There are too many undocumented people due to honkai. Maybe the boy and your daughter parted ways?"

"Did you find his traces?"

"No. He disappeared out of thin air."

It was Ryoma's turn to sense something unusual.

"...I tried to ask other sources. I even brought it up to Doctor Tesla. The thing is… he knows her personally."

Kiana's supposed "crush" turned more mysterious in Siegfried's eyes.

*****

A fairyland is created within the imaginary space.

The place where all physical laws collide has an energy. It is the source of honkai energy. It is the very same energy that sustains the existence of the Imaginary Tree and its mechanisms, the Imaginary Energy.

Kiana abused the [Two Phase Art] very well. It created a peak fourth grade spirit vein. The imaginary space thus turned into a place filled with spiritual qi. All sorts of dao rhymes are contained within the spiritual qi.

Rumble-!

A thunder tribulation brewed atop her head. Kiana opened her eyes. Her battlesuit remained the same as the Herrscher of the Void. Her loose hair swayed.

Honkai energy began to surge out of nowhere. Her Herrscher Core is put into action.

After a year of studying, she can use it to perform the higher-level spells in the [Taixu World Rendering Sutra]. She used the Herrscher Core to "cheat" and use spells she could not cast with her current cultivator capabilities.

Kiana's right hand made a grabbing motion.

Crackle-!

Hum-!

An invisible force began to compress the tribulation cloud. Lines of white crack appeared on its body.

Twelve seconds later, the cloud dissipated into spots of light. These are all attracted to Kiana. Each light spot she touched represented an increase of her Qi cultivation.

"Purple Mansion…" She muttered. "Is it enough?"

Kiana did not receive a response.

She did not mind it. Her eyes moved towards her Herrscher Core. It is surrounded by a faint aurora curtain. It is the [Sword Light Refraction] left behind by Shi Tian. It is where he poured all the power he received from his lifespan.

It trapped Sirin inside the Herrscher Core. At the same time, it allowed Kiana to access the Core's power without restraints. She became the sole controller of the Core.

"It's enough."

Kiana ended up answering her own question.

It is her form of self-affirmation.

"I will definitely find you..!"

Her figure set out for yet another search.

*****

A/N: Wows. We reached the powerstone threshold. There'll be two chapters tomorrow ;)