2 Modifying a cultivation technique?

"Wow, you're shining!" a little girl suddenly exclaimed with a voice like a tinkle bell. "Big brother Nie Li, are you cultivating?

'I'm shining?' Nie Li opened his eyes only to see Nie Yu and Xiao Yun enter the room.

Soon the corners of his mouth curled up as he thought of that. A practitioner's body emitting a cyan glow was a sign of a talented individual or of a strong soul force - close to that of 1-star Bronze rank.

But in Nie Li's mind, with his knowledge of the novel, it should probably be because his soul force was incredibly pure and dense, having a strong foundation, all thanks to practicing the Heavenly God Technique chant, and not being strong. After all, in the past he practiced for hours, but he never managed to produce a cyan glow.

At this moment Nie Yu was looking at him curiously with large eyes, and Nie Li looked back at her.

Xiao Yun, who was currently carrying a bowl of warm soup, also appeared quite shocked by what she just saw.

"Xiao Li, how did you do it?" Xiao Yun asked, expression of disbelief.

Being questioned like that, Nie Li appeared somewhat speechless. After a moment's lag, he replied, "I simply cultivated…"

This kind of answer seemed to be good enough, because after a few seconds, Nie Li's mother's expression changed from a shocked to a joyous one. "That's great, Xiao Li! Weren't you unable to cultivate soul force? Did something change? Did you have some kind of breakthrough?"

"Well, I don't know… But my cultivation is now faster," Nie Li vaguely replied; one couldn't go wrong with that.

Xiao Yun's smile deepened as she looked at Nie Li for a while.

"Alright, alright. That's great, but eat up first! Practice later!" Xiao Yun said and placed the bowl of soup at a counter beside the bed.

Gazing at Nie Li, she thought, 'It would be great if we had a Bronze rank Demon Spiritualist in the family, but I shouldn't place too heavy responsibilities on Little Li. Just becoming a Bronze rank Fighter would be good enough.'

In the entire Heavenly Marks Family there are only a few Demon Spiritualists. As for Fighters: there were less than 70, majority of them at Bronze rank. Becoming a Bronze rank practitioner, whether a Fighter or a Demon Spiritualist, wasn't an easy thing to accomplish. Fighters alone already have a high status in the village with a total population of a few thousand, and it could be considered a success if Nie Li could become one rather than live as a farmer like them.

At this moment Nie Li got up from bed while ignoring the pain in his chest.

"Thank you." Nie Li got up to the counter and began eating the meat stew absentmindedly.

The stew was flavorful and thick, having a lot of meat in it and little vegetables.

In his heart Nie Li knew this stew was made from demon beast meat. Every year practitioners of Glory City kill thousands of demon beasts outside and thousands of tons of meat are still left in the wild to rot. Although Nie Li's family was poor, there was no lack of food in Glory City.

"Slow down, Xiao Li, or you'll end up choking." Xiao Yun chuckled as she watched Nie Li wolf down the soup, before leaving.

Nie Li didn't react and instead continued eating. He could feel his stomach rumbling, as it apparently didn't receive any food for quite a while. Due to the discovery of the effectiveness of the Heavenly God Technique chant, he didn't really feel like eating, but it is simply that he wanted to quickly become strong that he ate without reservation.

Xiao Yun soon left the room and brought Nie Yu with her, leaving Nie Li by himself again.

After Nie Li finished the stew, he wiped his mouth with a piece of cloth and went to sit on his bed again. He closed his eyes and resumed cultivating with the Heavenly God Technique, causing his soul realm to rotate rapidly.

Xiao Yun had come again in a while and asked if Nie Li wanted seconds, to which Nie Li concurred.

After eating again and cultivating for a few minutes in total, Nie Li opened his eyes. Even if Heavenly God Technique was supposed to be the slowest among the top-tier techniques, his progress should still be incomparable to the standards of Glory City.

Nie Li originally thought that he was destined for several years of a difficult life, but now a new world of possibilities opened in front of him. Although he didn't have ridiculous cheats or millions of books and techniques in his head, Heavenly God Technique's first chapter might be more than enough.

In the end, it turned out that cultivating in this world was as simple as chanting lines with profound truths of the universe. Nie Li found it quite laughable, but that was the reality of his situation. If only this single chant allows him to reach all the way to Legend rank, then just thanks to knowing it, his future achievements during his time in Glory City or the Tiny World will be unimaginable.

At the same time, Nie Li thought of trying to adjust the chant. After all, the chant that he practiced was in no way the original Heavenly God Technique but an English translation. The words he used were not the exact words that the creator of this technique, or the author of the novel, must have intended for it.

Nie Li stood up from his bed and went to the small study desk that was in the room and took out a piece of paper and a pen.

'<The Heavenly Dao shines. Heaven shrouds but cannot contain. The Great Dao envelopes but cannot dispute. Know all, perhaps, perhaps not>. If I translate it to this world's language, then it would be something like this…'

Nie Li translated the chant in his mind, writing it down. He then focused and chanted the rough translation of the Heavenly God Technique chant in this world's language.

The effect of this chant was once again amazing, however, it didn't seem any better than that of the English version if the two were compared; in fact, the effect could have even been worse.

'Hmm, if I used more accurate wording and adjusted the translation, the effect should be better,' Nie Li thought to himself and adjusted the translation a few times, trying to fit the original meaning more.

He then chanted the final translation. This time, the result was more similar to the English chant, but cultivating it felt a little less comfortable, in the end it didn't seem better.

As Nie Li thought about it, he came to a conclusion that the language that the practitioner used to chant a cultivation technique really shouldn't matter, but the underlying meaning behind the words or the practitioner's understanding of them. After all, there are supposed to be multiple ancient languages in this world - it was unlikely that ancient people used a different language to cultivate than they used in writing or everyday life.

Nie Li could now simply chant his top-tier technique in English and have his cultivation soar, but he decided to take it a step further.

'If a Cultivation Technique is as simple as a line of words representing or resonating with the truths of the universe, then I can adjust these lines to be closer to my understanding and knowledge of the world… Let's try it.'

The chant he remembered was: [The Heavenly Dao shines. Heaven shrouds but cannot contain. The Great Dao envelopes but cannot dispute. Know all, perhaps, perhaps not.]

Nie Li looked at the first sentence: The Heavenly Dao shines.

'Heavenly Dao, the Great Dao or simply Dao, in most cultivation worlds, at the true core of it, basically means the world and the rules of the world. Rivers flowing, apples falling down, trees growing, humans dying - this is Dao. Space existing, time passing - these are also Dao. When Demon Spiritualists use special techniques to overturn rivers and spit out flames - this is also Dao. When humans or cultivators try to understand the world, they cultivate Dao.'

'Dao in direct translation from Chinese means the way, the path or road, indicating the path upon which one travels or the act of traveling itself. With this in mind, The Heavenly Path could be further seen as the way of heaven, the path of all, the way and rules of the world, rules behind everything. In the end Heavenly Dao could be better described with these simple words - the rules of the world and the world itself, instead of using a riddle-word.'

'As for the word <shines>, it could be translated to: is magnificent, is grand, is brilliant, but most likely <shows the way>. Or this entire line could be: <The Heavenly Dao shows the way> or <The Heavenly Dao guides?> <The rules of the world show the path?>. The most simple and encompassing way would be…'

After a while Nie Li came up with an adjusted line, changing <The Heavenly Dao shines> to: <Dao is the rules of the world, Dao is the world itself.>

The underlying meaning of the first line being: the heavenly dao shows and teaches the way, the perfect path. Showing was replaced with being, as the line itself is telling the practitioner what Dao is and how he can find the path - by understanding the rules of the world!

Nie Li chanted the Heavenly God Technique chant once again, but with the change in the first line. As he did that, he found that it was slightly more comfortable this way and the cultivation effect seemed to be somewhat enhanced as well.

Then Nie Li chanted the original English chant again, but found that it was slightly inferior to his new version. Comparing it to when he chanted it earlier was too difficult, so he couldn't tell if it was his understanding of the cultivation technique that affected the outcome.

But regardless, he moved on to the next lines excitedly.

'The first line I see as: Heaven can cover or hide something from one's eyes or view, but it cannot block someone or cannot contain/ecompass/explain something.'

'As for the word <Heaven>, I am not sure how to understand it… Outside of the direct meaning, Heaven is usually judged to be the enemy of the cultivators, something that seeks balance in the world. Usually, the way of heaven is to take away surpluses while replenishing deficits, it emphasizes on balance. And the way of humans is exactly the opposite: it is to reduce the deficits and build up the surpluses, because cultivators focus on personal strength at the cost of the environment and other creatures or other humans. The two are complete opposites, and they are in conflict with each other. Thus in the cultivation worlds the act of cultivation is considered to go against the way of heaven, opposing one's short natural lifespan and weak body, the ignorance of the mind, and trying to raise higher as a being, and usually face Heaven's retribution in the form of calamities in return.'

'But the two lines are connected. In one there is Heaven and in the other The Great Dao. If they are connected, <The Great Dao> could be judged as everything or the rules of the world like earlier mentioned, but then what is <Heaven>? I guess, most likely something arbitrary, like obstacles, such as problems or the randomness of life, or something from outside of our control, an interference of a higher power, or something outside of the <world>…'

'The chant is using the word <Heaven>, but this particular word doesn't help in understanding the profound truths of the world, it's too vague. I could also see it more directly as the sky with clouds… Usually looking up at the sky can be considered looking at a higher realm, higher power or achievements outside of mortal/mundane norm. The sky is blocking our path outward into the great universe, but in truth it is only covering the path, but doesn't completely block or stop us!'

Nie Li continued working on modifying his cultivation technique and frantically scribbling on the paper scroll in English.

Eventually he came up with a prototype chant with the profound truths of the universe:

[Dao is the rules of the world, Dao is the world itself. The sky that blocks our path is only an illusion. The world can be explained but not understood. To know all is impossible, for that is a man's nature; knowing is a matter of perspective.]

Nie Li chanted it silently in his mind as he thought of the meaning behind the words he chose, based on his scientific and spiritual knowledge from Earth.

At the same time Cyan glow enveloped his body, his soul force surged and absorbed huge amounts of energy. If compared to the first time Nie Li chanted the Heavenly God Technique, the effect was now on another level!

Nie Li repeated the chant a few times and was very satisfied with the effect, this self-modified cultivation technique was simply superior and better for him.

Unfortunately, there were no fireworks and a sudden Bronze rank breakthrough as he got intimate with his self-created technique, like some fanfictions made you believe. His cultivation technique was simply better.

After a moment Nie Li resumed to work on the cultivation chant to try and improve it further. He made various changes and modifications by the method of trial and error. However, as time passed, almost none of the changes he tried seemed to give any improvements. No matter what ideas or sentences Nie Li tried, he was unable to modify this technique any further.

When Nie Li decided to stop his final chant was simplified and changed to:

It was the version of the chant that Nie Li had the best results with. He had to accept that no matter what he tried now he was unable to improve his cultivation technique at all at this time. It seemed like this chant was near his limit of comprehension at this moment.

On one hand Nie Li was disappointed that his further efforts bore no fruit, but on the other he felt slightly happy that his personal cultivation technique reached such a high level that he now might not need to worry about making any minor improvements.

Nie Li then tested the original English Heavenly God Technique chant again.

The effect was still incredible and incomparable to the poor techniques of the Heavenly Marks family, but it was noticeably worse than his modified version and didn't feel as natural or comfortable.

'How should I call this new Cultivation Technique? I really hope it still offers the same perks as the original Heavenly God Technique in the form of a solid foundation and ability to merge with multiple Demon Spirits. Either way, the modified chant feels straight out better, more powerful and more comfortable to me, so I should probably cultivate it rather than that one line I read in a novel…'

In the end, the original chant that Nie Li remembered wasn't a cultivation technique he read on an ancient scroll, the Temporal Demon Spirit Book or received from reborn Nie Li, but was simply a translated line from a novel... His new technique seemed simply more suited for him, so he believed that he should practice it instead.

'For now, I'll call it the Heavenly Monarch Technique, as it's simply a bastardized and modified version of the Heavenly God Technique chant.'

Modifying a powerful Cultivation Technique was so simple that Nie Li felt too OP for a moment. It was too easy! Perhaps his scientific understanding of physics and the world would be his personal cheat in this world.

Next Nie Li thought of other ways that he can abuse his novel knowledge.

***

(AN: Nie Li with no real cheats and only his meta knowledge, with his bastardized cultivation technique chant from the novel being the only gimmick. What do you think of this kind of story? Nie Li could still accomplish a lot! And I could totally write this kind of story if I felt like it.)

(BTW the main love interest is Ning Er, but the MC would also try luck with Huyan Lanruo, Yang Xin, Ye Ziyun and even with Shen Xiu and maybe Sikong Hongyue. Ning Er is a brilliant waifu, but two brilliant waifus are better than one, right? And three are better than two...)

To be continued

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