Repeatedly, time and time again, one after the other, he continued to grow stronger, all without increasing his Cultivation Realm, granting him a battle power that was more and more realm-defying, but now he couldn't grow any further!
He had more or less finished all the things that were on his list, while the others still left were more of curiosity than things that could truly allow him to grow, and because of that he could be said to have exhausted all of his ideas and to have hit a kind of 'barrier'.
A barrier that made it practically impossible to grow further without increasing his own Cultivation Realm.
At that moment 99.99% of cultivators would break through—actually, they would have broken through ages ago, the moment they could, as cultivation was generally the main path of strength, while those that seriously pursued 'secondary paths' to grow stronger within the same realm were the overwhelming minority.
After all, for a lot of people, what was the point of pursuing these 'secondary paths' when by simply increasing one cultivation realm they could crush all opposition?
Like if somebody was at the Peak of the Core Perfection Realm and went against Mikael, no matter how heaven-defying the latter was, and no matter how much of a 'trash' the opponent was, Mikael would still be crushed like a bug!
Because of this disparity and the cold logic behind it, the fact remained that growing stronger by pursuing 'secondary paths'—learning better and more numerous Cultivation Methods, Cultivation Techniques, strengthening one's Pure Foundation, increasing battle experience and countless other aspects—was far harder and far slower than simply increasing one cultivation realm.
Because of that the mainstream was focused on increasing cultivation while ignoring, or at best giving limited attention, to these 'secondary paths'.
But… did this mean that all cultivators were stupid and couldn't see the obvious benefits that pursuing these 'secondary paths' provided?
Obviously not!!!
It was just that for the overwhelming majority of cultivators, they didn't have a choice—for them, with inferior talents and comprehension, they couldn't afford to pursue these 'secondary paths' and could only focus their limited ability on the primary path that was cultivation.
Of course, all of that didn't include Mikael, who stood on the opposite end of the spectrum, his talents and comprehension were so overwhelming that he was able to learn 'everything' he could of these 'secondary paths' within his own cultivation realm.
***
Swish.
At that moment Mikael was seated in a meditative position within a beautiful, lush, natural clearing as he pondered the problems that arose after he reached his limits.
'If we go from a purely rational point of view, there are two paths forward.'
He raised two fingers, 'The first is to break through and increase my cultivation realm. This would bring with it an increase in strength which, while nice, isn't the main focus.'
'The real gain of going with this path is that my comprehension would "increase" as a direct result of the phenomena brought forth by a higher cultivation realm, the principle that "being higher allows one to see farther."'
'As for the negatives—' he took a small pause to rub his chin, 'there are many that could be named, but it can essentially be summarized as "solidifying my foundation," which means that I would "only" be as strong as I am currently in the 1st layer of the Spiritual Foundation Realm, and that would translate into weaker strength in the following realm compared to what I could achieve if I became even stronger in my current one!'
He lowered one of his fingers.
'As for the other path, it constitutes continuing to suppress my realm and to delve further into the "secondary paths," the benefits being obvious, because if I kept going then the only somewhat viable option would be to try to upgrade my Cultivation Arts, to raise them higher, to refine them, to push them toward an "higher realm so to say."'
'I would do so with a special focus on Cultivation Methods, because they are what truly matter for my foundation, while Cultivation Techniques are nothing more than the ways through which I can use the power I already possess!'
'If I do that, if I succeed in pushing my current Cultivation Arts to a higher level, then my foundation would become even stronger, my battle power for now and for the future would both rise further, and this idea—'
A thoughtful glint passed through his eyes while a hint of desire also surfaced, '...is particularly tempting, because right now I have no Soul Cultivation Method, and breaking through without one would leave me far weaker in that aspect, and consequently I am reluctant to break through!'
Shake.
Mikael shook his head as he let out a hollow laugh, "Seeing it like that, the choice seems sooo obvious, but unfortunately… not everything is this simple."
He murmured to himself before continuing with his thoughts, 'Unfortunately, while the benefits of suppressing my realm further are great, the downsides are just as horrifying as the benefits are amazing!'
'The main downside is that there isn't much I can do to continue growing stronger, the only somewhat viable path being to make my Cultivation Methods stronger, but the problem with this approach is… time!'
'The time it would take would become disproportionately high, because I wouldn't just need to comprehend Methods to Mastery, I would also need to carry out extensive research to upgrade them, to refine them, to make them better in such a way that they "evolve" to reach the Peak of the Core Formation Realm level, or ideally even higher.'
'Because of that, it would take even longer than the time it took me to comprehend them to Mastery, and this is made worse by the fact that they are already of high difficulty, and consequently upgrading them is hard, far harder than it would have been if they were, for example, at the Spiritual Foundation Realm!'
'And this is made even worse by the reality that the higher I progress on this "secondary path," the harder and more time-consuming it will become, especially once I attempt to forge them into Core Perfection Realm Methods, because at that moment the difficulty would instantly multiply!'
'Not only because they would need to "cross" into a major realm, but especially because I have never had the time to properly study Core Perfection Cultivation Arts, and considering that I don't even have access to the floor where those Core Perfection Arts are stored, I would be without inspiration for my research, which would only multiply the difficulty even further!'
Howl.
The wind howled as leaves were sent flying, yet it didn't impact Mikael, who remained seated and continued on with his thoughts.
'The other option I could potentially consider would be to "stack" Cultivation Methods of the same attribute, just as I did with the Elemental Unity Path and the Sun-Moon Unity Technique, which would allow me to grow stronger without much research.'
'But not only do I lack the Contribution Points needed to "buy" further High Core Formation Realm Methods, even if I had, let's say, infinite Contribution Points, it wouldn't really change anything, because the most fundamental problem of this situation would still remain!'
'That fundamental problem being the fact that the higher the number of Cultivation Methods of the same type I have learned, the more the difficulty of comprehending additional ones increases exponentially!'
'With all of these negative factors taken into account, it wouldn't be surprising if it took me years to make real progress, and considering that my lifespan isn't infinite, is it really worth it?'
That was the real question Mikael was asking himself; everything else were just arguments that could tilt the balance toward yes or toward no, but in the end it all came down to this single point.
Mikael's lifespan stood at 300 years—100 years more than that of a normal 1st layer Spiritual Foundation Realm cultivator because of the 'maxing' he had carried out before entering the Akashic Records Universe.
But where exactly did his lifespan come into his calculations?
After all, it should really matter, for he could always suppress his realm until he was around 275 years old on that 300-year span, then break through, and use the additional 20 years granted by reaching the next layer to push even further…
He would, of course, become 'old' and no longer be much of a 'genius,' but what did that matter to Mikael? Logically, he shouldn't let himself be influenced by what others would think and should choose this path, as it was without a doubt the one with the highest potential…
After all, as long as he didn't reach the very end of his lifespan, did it truly matter how old he was before breaking through… right?
Wrong!
Lifespan deeply affects a cultivator in countless visible and invisible ways, it isn't just a 'number' where everything is fine so long as one breaks through before the end.
No, no, no—lifespan is more, far more than that!
A lifespan is something infinitely more complex than a simple number; it has multiple facets, and it can be divided into four distinct phases, these phases being:
Golden Period (0–30% of lifespan):
Talent, comprehension, and body, mind, soul, energy are at their absolute peak(they are at 100% and are entirely unaffected)
Cultivators breaking through during this window are considered "geniuses" and are at the peak of their potential.
Prime Period (30–50% of lifespan):
Body, Mind, Soul and Energy are still at their maximum and work at 100%
Talents, Cultivation Aptitude and Comprehension on the other hands began to to be affected and began to slowly decline.
Which mean a slower comprehension and what would previously came easily would take more efforts and time to comprehend
These negative effects are reversible with a breakthrough, as long as one lifespan returns in the Golden Period all negative would disappear because true decline hasn't set in yet.
Decline Period (50–80% of lifespan):
Body, Soul, Mind, Energy begins to truly age, even if appearance is preserved by Qi(which mean that power began to decline at this stage)
Talents, Cultivation Aptitude and Comprehension are semi-permanently affected—at that moment they won't return to Peak performance even if lifespan extends, only Heavenly Wonder or similar Cultivation Resources can succeed in restoring a cultivator to optimal ability.
This is why many sects push disciples hard to break through before this stage.
Withered Period (80–100% of lifespan):
Body, Soul, Mind and Energy began to rapidly weaken and even preserving one appearance through Qi became harder to impossible
Talent is effectively crippled unless heaven-defying resources are consumed(this is when a cultivator reach the end of their potential)
At that moment reversing the decline is extremely hard, only precious Heavenly Wonder can achieve it and successfully reverse the decline.
For the overwhelming majority of cultivators by reaching this Phase, their fate is inevitably one of slow decay before death.
Mikael understood perfectly well the weight of lifespan and the reality of these four phases, and so he knew he had to take them into account before making any decision.
Flop.
Mikael's last finger lowered as his gaze fixed itself upon the ground, while countless thoughts and possibilities surged and collided within his mind.
'Lifespan… mortality… immortality… breakthrough… strength… comprehension… weakness… foundation… Golden Period… Prime Period… genius… old… 300…'
In his eyes there seemed to flow endless streams of data, an illusion born of a mind that now wielded more computational power than any supercomputer, calculating millions of outcomes each instant as he weighed the two paths before him.
Author Note:
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———
'Small' introspection of Mikael as he weighs his options while at the same time we have some worldbuilding.
With the end passage I tried to make lifespan something more than just a number but something that has a real importance where when you are old your potential weakens and your prowess weakens while when you are at optimal age your potential at the max and all that…
———
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