The Early Cultivator’s Guide to Cultivation

  by Rainbow Carp Enlightened

  Part 1: Spiritual Roots

  This text assumes that the reader has already been tested, and found to have spiritual roots of some kind. This testing can be incredibly informal, however, so the tester may have overlooked the reader, or perhaps ignored them on purpose, likely because they believe the user’s roots to be of too low quality to be of use. If, however, you have not yet been tested, or lack spiritual roots as the vast majority of people do, the book may still hold some value to you, as it will allow you to understand the basics of cultivation, and therefore more easily deal with the cultivators you meet.

  The most basic way to test for spiritual roots dates back around one thousand and six hundred years before this book was written, though the writer cannot know how far in the future this book is being read, and therefore cannot know how long ago it was for you. This was a crude method which was developed just after humanity learned about the existence of qi. At that time, the rich and powerful of society sought out knowledge of this new source of power, and learned to gather it into themselves, to focus it in order to enhance their natural abilities. The Buddhist monks and nuns learned that it could be imbued into their prayers and meditations as well, giving them an obvious and immediate effect.

  At that time those with power sought to become kings and rulers, so they would often release their power outside themselves to prove their superiority. It was found, however, that this didn’t work on everyone. Many people were able to resist to some degree, though those that practiced qi could eventually force them to submit.

  One doctor studied why around half the people had the ability to resist, even in the short term, and found that those that did had qi similar to a cultivator, but far weaker. This similarity was further studied and it was found that, in everyone with successful cultivation, their qi would almost always stick to at least one of four different types of items, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Water. He devised a test where a bit of each was put in front of those able to resist and, once they were taught push and gather qi, the most basic exercise, they could move the items as well. Because he hadn’t accounted for everyone with the ability he kept looking for materials which may be linked to those outliers who couldn’t move one of the items, and eventually found that a fragment of a meteor could be moved by those outliers, as could a rare type of earth known as ‘iron ore’ for the rare material ‘iron’ which left it when it was heated enough. He named the new class of material ‘metal’, and added it to the cycle of elements, thus completing it and fully explaining the ability.

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  He called this ‘sticky qi’ ability ‘spiritual roots’ as it allow one to place a root into the soil of the spiritual world, and spread his findings. Within a few hundred years everyone knew of his work and accepted it.

  Therefore the first test is simple. Arrange the five elements in front of you. If you cannot find one of them, most likely metal, as it is the most rare, then you may ignore it, but you will then not know if you have a root for that element.

  Once you have a sample of the elements, send your qi into them one at a time. the writer will not be covering how to do such a basic thing, but it is often as simple as touching your qi with your mind, then ordering it out of the body, like one would move a limb, or, to put it crudely, like one would urinate. Once your qi is in the object, try to draw it back into you. If the material moves, then you possess a spiritual root for that element, though the degree to which it moves determines the level of the root.

  Petty roots allow movement, but only the smallest bit of movement. They may make a candle flicker or a pebble wobble. Low roots can move it, but only the way a wet finger can move a slick object by sticking to it. Average roots may move it properly, but it can only move the smallest of objects. While moving the them with this type of root, your will use much qi. High spiritual roots will let you move the object properly, and with effort one may move reasonably heavy versions of the element. Master roots allow you to move objects comparable to a real weapon, like a club, or spear, or sword, as long as it is mostly made of the element. Heavenly roots refer to any root with allows the movement of a person, either directly through the use of Water to lift themselves, or indirectly, by lifting items attached to them. While a cultivator may grow stronger than that, few cultivators do, and there are no names for roots above that level.