Suddenly Penny sticks her head back into the room and says one final thing, “Oh and don’t think I’m an idiot who doesn’t know about the states of matter. I tried that as a base but it wasn’t the key.” and then leaves for real this time.

‘Well of course it couldn’t be that simple. It is called cultivation after all. The only time I have ever heard of something like that being simple is when it is a trap. Anyway, it is somewhat obvious that directly comparing a core to ice or water is wrong. It is denser but those are actually lower energy states. It is only a hint though. Wait no. The hint was “Vapor to Water to Ice. Same thing but different states.” but not that the two sentences were directly connected. Sure you could see the second sentence to be just referring to water but what if it wasn’t? Instead of thinking of it as the states of Energy what if it meant the States of energy, the three together and not just one? Qi, Mana, and Energy are all part of the same whole.’

Time passes and Jason ponders. He seems to have a sudden moment of clarity and chases it. ‘Mana to Energy to Qi! Mana is the gas of energy. It spreads out and fills all the space it can. Qi is the solid state of energy. It is put into a specific thing and can keep an edge. Finally Energy is the liquid. It flows through the body which is like a bucket for it. At least once the body is trained that is. My blood vessels couldn’t hold the Energy at first until I plugged the leaks. The difference between energy and water is that it has a hard time staying liquid. If anything I would compare Qi and Mana to a couple of crystals that are made of the same material but different structures. You touch the liquid Energy with one of the two and it starts to “crystalize” into whatever it touched. I don’t need to think of how to Solidify something but rather just how to keep the liquid in one spot. But that wouldn’t explain why that would protect it from turning into one of the other two. It might be not quite so close to the crystallization idea I had, but that felt right.’

Jason takes his time on this. Likely this will shape how far he can go in the future. Soon though he has reached a dead end. ‘I can’t think of anyway to prevent the crystallization of my Energy once Qi or Mana gets into my body. It isn’t like I can avoid killing things with either of them in it. Even the air has all these energies just floating around... in... it...’

Quickly upon this sudden realization Jason focuses on the surrounding space. Soon he can tell that it was true. The air had all three energies just floating around in it. From his original thoughts this should be possible. This means something changes when it enters a body. First though he needs to figure out why breathing in the energies didn’t cause a problem. After meditating on his breathing the answer comes to him. The difference is whether the energy is owned by a will. All the loose stuff in the air can almost be called mana as it is so diffuse. Just by breathing it in the energy will convert to whatever the main state of energy in him is. At the moment he has Energy so that is what it become. Likely the only reason the energy gained from monsters even matters is it hadn’t diffused into the environment before it is taken.

‘Of course, as always the purity matters in cultivation. Anyone that tries to take someone else's cultivation whole will always face problems. I sadly need to go kill another dang turtle.’

No time to waste Jason rushes out of the guild and towards the beach again. Another quick hunting montage and he has a turtle trapped and down to the last hit. Sitting next to it he calms his mind. A quick smack and he focuses fully on his body and its energy. Soon a rush of something beyond his sense goes into him. Along with what he assumes is the ‘experience’ there are also small packets of Energy woven into it. All this new Energy though feels wrong and he soon sees why. It isn’t his Energy but quickly after circulating in his system this rogue Energy is filtered and converted. Now that he can feel this cycle a realization dawns upon him and the feeling of control envelopes him.

Suddenly Jason is thrown into a white room. Along with the change of scenery he can feel a constant stream of Experience and Energy streaming into him like when he had killed the turtle. Opening his eyes he quickly notices that in front of him is [Starlight].

She smiles then greets him, “Well hello there traveller. I thought you would take a bit more time before coming before me. My duty this time is to witness you combining your knowledge into the Energetic Body Reinforcement skill. Sadly you may not leave to your own realm before completing this or you give up the chance. We don’t want you to cheat on this. I am also here to make sure you don’t break any of the soft rules such as breaking the rules of conservation. Your type has tried it before. While the System doesn’t mind a little bit of pulling gold from air or infinite energy, there are some restrictions on the speed you do it at and what you have to pay for it.”

Jason thinks for a moment before asking, “So I just need to guide this constant stream of xp and energy how I want it to go?”

[Starlight] smirks a bit and shakes her finger at him, “You won’t get anything more from me. Being vague and trying to get me to fill in the gaps isn’t allowed. Also I neither admit nor deny that you are feeling ‘experience’ right now.”

Jason sighs to himself. He wasn’t expecting much but hope springs eternal. Buckling down he starts to play with his control over this energy stream. After awhile he realizes something. Maybe it is because of his blood based cultivation system or just how the game works, but it is much easier to get the energy and experience to follow his blood. Round and round it goes but where to lead it now.

‘I need to keep it away from the heart until all the foreign energy is filtered. With that in mind let’s see what happens if I send it through the kidneys in a cycle’. After a few cycles go by Jason notices it working, ‘Okay as the energy goes through this cycle it gets purer and purer. Can I get it to just send the pure Energy to my heart?’

Focusing on the cycle he setup slowly something shows itself. He doesn’t have to separate out the converted Energy. After being fully filtered it actually keeps separate from the rest of it. Taking hold of this stream of pure Energy Jason guides it towards his heart. Before just sending it in though he decides if a little western medicine knowledge worked then mixing in some eastern couldn’t hurt either. As it reaches the heart, he focuses on the Pericardium, otherwise known as the “heart protector”. Sending the pure Energy and experience through there he hopes it will work as a last point of defense against any untoward things.

With this cycle finally completed Jason just let’s it run. Slowly he perfects the cycle. Nudging the blood to take one vessel over another. Making the energy stream to form whirlpools in the kidneys to help purify through a centrifugal force. Even something as simple as willing the Pericardium to work more like described in eastern medicine seem to improve things.

Finally Jason can’t find anything else to improve at the moment. There definitely is more but his control isn’t fine enough. It also isn’t like there isn’t any downsides. Through this cycle he will lose some experience. Though Jason figures if something is getting filtered out of it then it is probably a good thing to have it gone. Turning to [Starlight] he tells her, “Okay, this is as good as I can do at the moment.”

Nodding she says, “There doesn’t seem to be any troubles with your cycle. You didn’t even try like some to boost the amount of experience you got. Tell no one but that is a good thing for you. Anyway back to the world with you.” and suddenly Jason is back on the beach.

After getting up and dusting himself off Jason heads back to the guild and the training rooms. With this cycle he thinks that a core shouldn’t be too hard to form now. Sitting down he takes out a number of mature Energy herbs and places them around him in easy reach. If it is going to work, he might as well go all out on it.

Now ready he controls his energy to match the cycle. Soon most of his Energy is circling through his blood but it isn’t enough. He can feel that he needs all his energy. Slowly gather more a pressure builds. Finally only a small portion remains deep in his heart. With a last pull all Energy is now being filtered through the kidneys. Each cycle reduces the amount but purifies it. This still doesn’t feel right to him though. He can still pull in more. Then it dawns on him. He hasn’t purified his experience pool yet. Taking a mental hold on the xp he can barely feel Jason tries and pull it into the cycle. At first nothing changes but then

PAIN, Searing all encompassing Pain. A soul deep agony from every cell of his body as the xp slowly gets dragged out. Gritting his teeth Jason buckles down and pulls harder. In what seems much longer than it could have been he finally extracts it all. His body feels weak and empty now. It seems to barely contain the raging stream of energy. His blood vessels feel bloated and ready to burst while his kidneys are screaming bloody murder at his brain. Slowly though more and more gets filtered out. Finally just the purest of energy is flowing through the cycle.

Deciding he couldn’t do much more Jason first lets the xp flow to his heart. From there it diffuse to the rest of his body. With that out of the way he could now release the Energy. Despite that though he reaches for one of the herbs and stuffs it in his mouth.

A new rush of Energy enters the cycle as he swallows the herb but it isn’t enough for him. Slowly he eats the herbs laid out around him. Whenever his veins don’t feel pressured by the Energy another one goes into his mouth. Eventually with only a few herbs left the cycle is fully saturated with pure Energy.

Finally ready he lets it flow towards his heart. At first just a small stream, the thinnest of threads. As it gathers in the heart Jason slowly lets more flow in. A sphere of Power forms and grows. Eventually as it reaches the edges of the heart it seems about to destabilize. Clamping down on it he forces it to stop growing. The Energy flows faster and faster into the forming core. It rages against Jason’s control, trying to break out of his control and explode. Now not able to focus on the flow of Energy he has to focus fully on keeping the core together. Sharp pains radiate out from his heart but eventually all the energy has entered the core.

Without extra Energy coming in Jason focuses on shrinking the core. Slowly it condenses, becoming like a thick syrup. Then with almost a click it quickly reduces by itself to about the size of a pea. The core was formed.

‘Well that “Purity of energy” will probably be powerful in the future. Though it makes me worry about my level now. I did put my xp into the cycle. Better check my status then’

Akhier

Things I wanted to mention but didn’t:

The restrictions he had on setting up his cycle was partly because of his cultivation method but not directly so. Basically because he already knew the feeling of circulating Energy in his blood vessels so that was easier for him to do. In fact most people don’t even focus on how it works inside themselves even if they actually figure the control part out. They generally just try and work out how to get the most energy into themselves. Popular methods include the classic ‘whale’ style cultivation were they gulp down the surrounding areas energy through their mouth, Third Eye style that focuses on absorbing all they see (generally through an imagined ‘third eye’), and using the Acupoints to absorb energy. Players on the other hand have the most diverse set of methods and generally no one person will have a similar cycle to another unless they were directly tutored by an NPC. They tend to believe you get more out of going your own way.

The whole cycle thing is actually a bit uncommon with only about 10% of people who try to form a core having a chance to form it and many of those being NPCs. Most generally figure out how to form their core without getting that deep into the mechanics of it. The idea of being able to control the energy coming into your body isn't that wide spread. Jason just happens to have a bit of a leg up in this bit because of his cultivation background.