Prologue 1 (Part 2) Universal Fundamentals of Cultivation.

"You know that you could have done this earlier, right?" Mako Nini was on the couch and had already handed a drink to Kazu Nini who stared at the ceiling as she rubbed her throat in remembrance. "You are the one who chose to underestimate yourself."

The younger Pixie did not answer.

Mako Nini sighed, "You will see the benefits later, not now."

Still no answer.

"What is with the clay dolls, anyway?"

"Leave my clay dolls, ALONE!" She coughed and the pain all over her body blossomed like a flower, a lesser feeling of what she experienced right before she passed out, after the extreme heat had winked away.

Mako Nini studied her, "that was quite the reaction, I am sincerely just curious."

She took a deep breath, expecting pain to blossom with each sound she released; an expectation that became true. "I am going to be making figurines, I like them, don't ask." She grimaced more from the memory of pain, but a lesser version pain was there nonetheless.

"Sheesh, it is not like I am harming you. I am only trying to get to know more." She shook her head. "Adolescents these days, always bottle their feelings."

She said nothing to this, wondering if she should continue cultivation or not. "What was that?"

"It is called a Heavenly Tribulation and it differs per the person and the occasion."

"Still have not said what it is." It seemed to be fading away but she stayed on the couch, no point in agitating the pain.

"Let's put it like this. Heaven prefers balance where man prefers accumulation." She paused, "imagine it as a sort of ecosystem."

"So what?" her anger brought the pain back from her twisting of her face so she maintained a tranquil one. "Does this not prove my point that cultivation is pointless masochism?"

"Okay then look at it like this, heaven likes to bless but sometimes sacrifices have to be made." She shrugged her shoulders, "when you want to eat food, you spend money. You want to pass exams, you read."

"This is the last of it, right?"

"Well, no. It will happen after each Trilogy. The potential you will unluck after each Trilogy will only increase."

Kazu Nini squeezed an expression of horror in her face, disregarding the throbbing face and dropped her head back to rest.

"It is not that frequent, so you really need not worry." Sensing her silence again, she asked a question. "What is the Cultivation System?"

Kazu Nini was going to laugh in sarcasm but the thought alone hurt, Kazu Nini was going to squeeze out anger and scream, and she could walk away, but all these choices would be pain. Thus, she sighed, "A trilogy has three stages of ten levels each. And it seems," she turned to eye her aunty, "there is a tribulation at the end of each trilogy?"

Mako Nini facepalmed. "You tire me." She went to attend to what was cooking on the fire.

"Cultivation is tiring."

"You can't be tired of cultivation; you were born 10,441. How old are you? 16? You just started." She slapped the Unawakened Animal Fish on a tray and began chopping it. Mako Nini then put a bowl to which she sprinkled salt, poured pepper, not forgetting garlic and ginger. After turning repeatedly, she bathed the pieces of fish in the bowl of mixed spices, after washing them of course. Now she placed everything in the popping pan of oil.

"I might just forgive you because of your cooking."

She laughed, "cheeky brat."

"To clarify though, the reason you feel like there is a beating heart in my stomach is that the Ko-jin core is developing there?"

"Yes, and tendrils are growing there to connect with your organs."

"Wow, how magnificent." She was only quiet or a while. "And what exactly is the point of this Trilogy?"

Mako Nini thought the girl was asking the same question of frustration again but realized what she was saying. "The first Trilogy, the Divine Genesis Trilogy, simply helps the body adapt to its first limit break. So that means getting it used to the flow of ko-jin in the body. Like I have told you over the years, Ko-jin is like the blood of cultivation, its systems and its spine. It enables the supernatural, its fuel. And, it also helps with a general upgrade of the body, both physical – from flesh to bones - and metaphysical – soul and spirit."

"Give me an actual reason to cultivate, though." Her voice sounded like she was crying and now she did not mind the pain anymore, it was almost a dull throb now.

"Tell you what?" she turned over the pieces of fish that sizzled in the pan. "If you can cultivate, seriously this time, I promise to fund your dolls." She turned the fish over again. "If, you take it seriously."

Kazu Nini, ignored the almost tingling sensation of tendrils in her body and reached to her pockets where the dolls were. One was like a bear and the other like a cheetah, another was like bird, the last like a killer whale. Closing her eyes, she spoke. "Fine, I will."

Mako Nini kept on turning it over until she was satisfied. Now, she reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a crate of eggs, cracking some then whisking them into another mixture of spices. "Great!" she almost squealed and Kazu Nini could still not see the reason for her excitement.

With the timing of when Mako Nini planned to help her, it might be a while so she would have to plan her aunty helping her into future plans but now, she was satisfied that the older Pixie would no longer complain about her clay molding. Or, so she hoped. "What of things like regeneration? Speed and all that?"

"I said upgrade, so yes, it is part of it." She was done with the fried eggs, that used the same oil of the fish and reached again for the spaghetti noodles. "But wait for the tendrils to be connected properly, a bad foundation ruins you later on. Wait at least 12 hours, and at most, a day and a half"

She had already decided it would be a day she would wait and also wanted to say that she would not see why she would be doing this later on but she held tightly to her clay dolls and eased her mind with their every contour and just their presence.

Mako Nini chopped pieces of pork frozen in a plastic bowl from the mart and added them to the oil before removing it from the pan and watching the spaghetti boil before increasing the heat to such a crescendo that Kazu began sweating not long after. "I'll be back," the older lady went upstairs and Kazu held the clay dolls to her face as if they were endeared to her heart strings.

"Don't mind her, I will never let you go."

Kazu came back down with three books and placed them on the dining before reducing the heat on her cooking food, then returning the pan to its own boiling space, she threw the spaghetti into it, turning it until it was done. Carrying two plates of spaghetti, eggs, fish and pork, sprinkled with green leaves, she approached her niece placing both plates on the table but did not hand her the food. When she came back with the three books, she looked expectantly at Kazu Nini.

"I am getting scared."

"Silly thing." She raised the books up, "these are cultivation manuals, they each represent a specialty."

Kazu Nini was going to cry but she had already agreed to Mako Nini's previous suggestion. "Which one has to do with Clay molding?"

"The first one," Mako Nini ignored her, "is the basics and general for starting cultivation. The second one helps a Pixie to find a Law she is good at and capitalize on it, while the last one solely improves the understanding and control of glass."

"Does understanding laws have to do with clay molding?"

She concealed her anger with vocal consideration, "Lets, see… if you find a law that has to do with clay, maybe starting with soil and ending up with tectonic plates."

"Not interested in Tectonic plates, I like soil. Clay soil in particular. What of glass?"

"Glass is made from the fusion of soil and fire so yeah, that has soil in it."

"Then I guess we have a winner, then."

"I forgot to tell you that you only have one option."

"Not changing my mind."

She hung her had low, "I can't keep doing this for you Kazu, life is tough and thus, sacrificing a choice is vital as it happens sometimes in life. This will help you be able to make better decisions from henceforth."

Kazu Nini did not answer and stuck with her stubborn face that painfully reminded her of the girl's parents. "Okay, now you have 2 out of 3 choices."

"Fundamentals."

Mako Nini swallowed. "I can teach you that."

"I promised to cultivate, trust me. Please."

The older Pixie held her eyes and grudgingly took the last book away with evident disappointment. Grabbing the girl's food she said with the blandest face ever, "open."

"Wait, please," Kazu turns to her side, squinting in pain. "What would have happened if I failed?"

Mako paused, "a good result would be permanent disability."

Kazu Nini considered that with eyes like saucers, in surprise, "and if bad?"

"Death." She swallowed, "you needed the experience. If I had intervened, I could have gotten part of your blessings or might even been eradicated."

She brought out her figurines and hugged them for comfort, strangely happy on the inside. "Why did you not tell me?"

"I would apologize but you did not need the distraction." She watched the girl's brows furrow. "And I have a backup, if anything would have gone wrong."

"Anything like my health."

"You can't die around me. It won't happen. Ever."

There was a silence and Kazu Nini turned back before saying. "I am hungry. Feed me."

"Brat."

***

A day after - a Sunday - Kazu Nini sat up from the couch at about 1:00 pm in the afternoon from a blanket that had kept her warm. Her clay figurines had been atop her chest, as she had talked to them last night like she does every night, and she had not moved from that position as if she had lay in a coffin. The six of them were carefully tucked in her pocket, although after what she had experimentally done the night before this one, they could not be hurt or broken except if the perpetrator had at least 250 kg of strength.

She picked up the book which had been left on the glass table stool where had food had been placed on after she was done yesterday and began reading. Her eyes instantly got used to it from her high mental energy so she was sure she had picked, 'Universal Fundamentals of Cultivation.'

Gleaning through the table of contents, she was excited.

1. What is cultivation?.................................10

2. How to get started....................................…19

3. What to do after the first broken limit..................…..28

4. What to focus on in the first stages.....................….35

5. Basic enhancement tricks..............................…47

i. Explosive strength...............................48

ii. Explosive Speed..............................…..52

iii. Explosive Pace...................................56

iv. Inner Healing.................................….60

v. Quick Strength...................................64

vi. Quick Speed....................................67

vii. Quick Pace....................................…71

viii. Complete Healing................................76

ix. Instant Strength...................................79

x. Instant Speed.....................................84

xi. Instant Pace....................................….88

xii. Regeneration.................................….92

xiii. Blur Strength.................................…..105

xiv. Blur Speed....................................…115

xv. Blur Pace.....................................125

Ignoring the other chapters, she went directly to Chapter 5 then skimmed through until she reached index iv.

*Healing happens in the body when platelets gather to a wound and close it up, Healing happens in a sick person when…* [1]

She frowned, maybe what she needed was regeneration. Reaching index v., what stopped her though was a warning.

*DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REACH HERE IF THE PREVIOUS PRICIPLES HAVE NOT BEEN UNDERSTOOD AS BODY CAN BE PERMANENTLY SCARRED OR DESTROYED.*

Kazu Nini paused but went on nonetheless.

*Regeneration is recovery of body parts…*

She smiled because this was what she wanted but, there was a process to it that she had to learn. Groaning because she was tired of reading books, as acing 90% of her tests had meant a lot of looking at and understanding books, she braced herself and began study from the first chapter.

[1.]

* would be used to show italics. And I will use them for thoughts, memories, techniques, emphasis and points of interest.