Rae's POV

"Okay, Rae you are now in the nascent soul stage. This is one of the most pivotal stages in our qi cultivation journey. I too am currently at this stage."

"Wait master didn't you transcend this stage to go to the next?"

"Well, I tried too but transcending this stage is not like how we transcend the others."

"Why do you say that master?'

"That is because for you to transcend this stage, you will need to go through a tribulation."

"A tribulation! Why?".

"Because after this stage you will slowly be losing your mortal body and gaining an immortal one."

"But don't I already have an immortal body?"

"Right, you are a vampire, I suppose you do but the immortal body I am talking about is not the same as yours"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that what you have now is an earthly body but once you transcend the nascent soul stage you will gain a heavenly one."

"Heavenly one? Could you be more specific, I mean isn't that a bit vague?"

"I don't know how better to explain "

"Okay, so does that mean that you failed your tribulation last time that is why you have not transcended?"

"Yes... That's why it took me time to come back, you see failing a tribulation is costly and could be even fatal."

"Wait what?"

"Yeah, but don't worry about it you don't really need to transcend past this stage as you will be able to perform a domain projection and soul manipulation with the level of qi cultivation you gain in this stage."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you will be leaving this place soon enough."

"Great. So can we start?"

"Yes of course but before we begin let me just quickly explain what a nascent soul...

Do you remember what you gained through the previous stage?"

"Do you mean the core formation stage?" "Yes."

"... I gained my three Dantian or cores."

"Yes, those dantian are going to play an important role in the Nascent soul formation. As you know the Dantian are located at your forehead, your chest and your core. These places now bare the qi seeds to form a quasi-independent form known as the nascent soul. It is developed through condensing and refining your essence in those three points."

" Wait is the nascent soul an actual soul?"

"Well, not really it is more of taking pieces of your soul by which you strengthen your inner strength with them so as to enable you to transcend your mortal might."

"So it is more of a battery than anything."

"I suppose you can think of it that way but that is an oversimplification of the thing."

"Alright, let's get to it."

"Okay you will first refine each of the Dantian individually, beginning with the top, then the middle then the bottom one. Once you reach peak refinement with each you will need to join them at the center of your body which is the solar plexus. This will then born your nascent soul after that is when you will have to go through a tribulation to transcend into the soul transformation stage. But as I said that is not necessary for you."

"But is there a problem if I do try to transcend to the next stage."

"Well, there is no problem in fact I would like you to but unfortunately for you, it won't be of any additional value to you in the material plane."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"That is because as you start to develop your heavenly body your entry into the material plane may be barred."

"Barred?"

"Yes, didn't you see it in my memories? As I was moving towards the final stages of dragon cultivation that is deity stages I could no longer inhabit my mortal body, that is why it withered away and died. I found a loophole to this and that is to leave all the excess power here in the astral plane."

"But why does having such a body cause problems in the material plane?"

"Because its heavenly nature causes an imbalance in the material plane which is the mortal plane. I am sure you saw it once with your former master."

"You mean, Spider lady?"

"Yes, I am sure her presence in your plane causes rifts and cracks to be formed on the ground maybe slight earthquakes here and there, at worst she could have caused multiple disasters to happen all over the plane but I don't think it ever got to that point."

Now that she mentions it Freya did something similar to that with her whole monster rampage while we were still in the material plane...

"I get it now so if I do manage to transcend I will still have to leave that excess power here in this realm, wait is that why you still wanted me to come back to the plane even after gaining domain projection and soul manipulation?"

"Yes, that is part of it... You will know once you come back to this plane again but for now, focus on refinement of your dantian."

"Okay, will do."

"I will also focus on my ascension to gain a heavenly immortal body, can't let a little tribulation hinder me."

"But, wait master what about using the symphony thing won't it help you too?"

"I am afraid not, it only worked for you because that was your truth I have my own truth which I have to work on."

"My truth? What do you mean?"

"It's essentially how you see the universe... You will understand sooner or later."

"Okay let's work on our cultivation then."

"Yeah, see you in a few months."

 

After that I worked on refining the three dantian, the first one took me a month the next one half a month and the last one a quarter month. In total, it took about two months to refine three dantians each time going through the qi cultivation cycle. It then took me another month to merge them and form the nascent soul at my solar plexus.

***

"Master I have finally achieved it, I have a nascent soul."

"I can see that, I also finally managed to transcend this time. It has been four months since we last saw each other, well four months in here time is quite different out there...

It's now time I help you finally achieve your domain projection and soul manipulation."

"Finally."

"Okay, to begin with, you have three layers to your mind's Eye. This translates to you having three innate domains and while that might seem to be a good thing, it does have some of its drawbacks like you can't use a lower layer without activating the upper one."

"Wait do you mean I have to activate my first domain to use my second one?"

"Yes, as you know you have three minds eyes but only one can exist at a time so they have been merged into one forming layers within themselves. To activate the lower layers will need you to first activate your upper layers first, this will be quite an energy-consuming exercise."

" Yeah, I can already imagine."

"Don't fret though, your nascent soul should provide you with the necessary qi for now."

"So that's why you wanted me to develop the nascent soul first."

"Yeah... Okay now open your mind's eye to project your first domain."

"How do I do that?"

"You should be able to do it on instinct."

"...Yeah I don't think I can."

"... Ok, Maybe I should do a domain projection of my innate domain so that you can see and hopefully do the same."

"Yes please that would be very helpful."

"First I open my mind's eye, closing your two physical eyes is not a must but is really helpful to get you to really use your mind's eye. From there you channel your qi to your upper Dantian although this happens automatically when you are in your innate domain after seeing it. You then channel the qi in your middle dantian and expand it a bit outwards, using your bottom dantian you expand it further until you have reached the limits of the expansion then from there you use the qi to command the aether around to project your domain to the surrounding lands."

"Oh, so I need to open my mind's eye create a field of qi then use the qi to command the neighbouring aether but how much of the aether around can I command? And does this also include the aether within the qi field?"

"Well, that depends with the potency of your qi for me as you can see I can cover quite a region. This innate domain is called the spirit of the guardian. It allows me to conjure up a veil that uses the number of spirits within it and weaponize their abilities in the case of any hostility towards those deemed to be my allies. It also works for malevolent spirits like monsters and such. It can cleanse such spirits restoring them to a neutral state."

"Wow, that's cool what about your other domain?"

"You don't need to know about that... Anyway work on understanding your domain then once you learn about it project it outward. The information will come to you automatically once you tap into your innate domain."

"Okay... So first is to open my mind's eye, channel qi through my dantians, then use those dantians to project my innate domain outside."

"Yep."

"Okay let me try..."

Once I did what she said, it was like a door to a new world opened. Information that was not previously there spilled into me, I don't know how but I just knew what my first domain was, what its abilities were and all that, now comes the hard part which was to project it outwards. My master is a qi master who can easily manipulate her own as well as natural qi very easily but although I can manipulate qi I am not as efficient so the go-to is to use the mana field both with qi and aether to project my innate domain then from their own work on upscaling it as a whole as I would any other barrier.

***

I did it and it worked even better than I could imagine. My innate domain the creation lab took form and I was able to work with it well. 

"Your innate domain looks good, well I guess my tutelage ends here."

"Wait what? What about soul manipulation and my other domains."

"... Soul manipulation is a bit of a tricky thing for me to teach you but in all essence it's just infiltrating one's mind through their mind's eye and with that, you would have entered their soul. You already had done to me once. I would love to go into details but I think that is for you to explore. Your domains too are things that you should explore on your own as I told you before qi cultivation is about finding a balance between the physical and metaphysical and for that balance you need to explore your own truth."

"Is this it master?"

"I am afraid so with this you can finally prove to that woman your abilities and move on to the next point of the journey. Good luck to you Rae and see you soon."

"Thank you too master, and I will see you soon too."

With that Master left me and I was left there learning and exploring my first domain. I wanted to move to the second one but felt as if that would be too big of a burden for me.