The Mech Touch

The Lady of the Night continued to sit in the middle other meditation room while she gently held Veronica on her lap.

Though the resurrected woman did not like it that her child had chosen to dad her cat form with metal, she at least managed to do a decent job of making her exterior feel warm and filled with life.

Veronica almost squinted and purred. Her silvery tail swished with contentment as she enjoyed a moment that she had never been able to experience for a long time.

No matter how many setbacks and difficulties Ves experienced in the past, what mattered the most was that her mother had returned to life.

That was worth almost everything.

Cultivation..." Her mother's ethereal and slightly echoing voice spoke. "Cultivation is a large and all-encompassing subject. I can treat you like a novice and give you a shallow and simplified description of its meaning, but you are not a child anymore. You are a Senior Mech Designer, and more besides. You have already touched the greater truths of out universe. I believe it is more appropriate to give you a more general and truthful overview from my own perspective. It is a story that not many leaders from the Five Scrolls Compact and related organizations want people to know. This is because the truth pierces through a great number of falsehoods that serve as their foundation."

That sounded... interesting. Veronica grew more and more eager to know what her mother had learned through her own lifetime.

"What is cultivation, exactly?" The cyborg cat asked.

"Good question. I think the clearest way to understand the answer is to become aware of the goals that people pursue when they engage in cultivation. What is the goal and meaning of cultivation?"

"To become more powerful." Veronica immediately replied.

Cynthia smiled and scratched the cat behind the ears. "Not quite, my dear. It is an important goal, but only serves to complement the main purpose. You see, what cultivators yearn the most is to live forever. That is an overwhelming desire of all humans."

"Immortal." Veronica uttered the word. "Those Compact cultists often use this word. You as well. What's up with that? Have you truly become immortal now that you have reached your current state of existence?"

No." Cynthia frankly admitted as she continued to stroke Veronica's back. "This is one truth that many people at the top do not wish to share to the masses. The real truth is that I am still far from becoming inextinguishable. I can still be killed, and I must still endure periodic challenges to prove that I deserve to continue living. I am only functionally immortal. My physical body does not age and is no longer vulnerable to common ailments that beset normal humans. I can also resist much stronger attacks and prepare more life-saving measures."

Ves grew disappointed with her answer. It turned out that despite proclaiming herself to be a so-called 'immortal god', she could still lose her life!

She lied!

"The System taught me that there exists a post-divinity state that people can reach. Are you one of these 'True Gods', mother?"

Cynthia nodded. "I am, although there are many different terms for this level of existence. There are many methods to become a True God, and different inheritances and traditions interpret it differently. No matter what, everyone who becomes a True God has become entirely different from before. AH pre-divinity existences are ants in front of a single True God. At the very least, that was supposed to be the case."

"...What do you mean by that, mother?"

"You will understand later." She said. "Back to the topic at hand, when you engage in anything that falls under the category of cultivation, always remind yourself that the ultimate goal is to become undying and inextinguishable."

"Has anyone managed to reach this ultimate state of existence?"

Cynthia shook her head. "I have heard myths and legends, but.. I have not seen anyone who has succeeded There are more powerful True Gods that can still be slain by getting struck with a strong enough attack. So long as this remains possible, even the strongest cultivators are ultimately flawed."

"I see." Veronica frowned as she thought about this matter. "I don't think it is a good idea to solely focus on becoming immortal when you are still as weak as a chicken. Is this why the pursuit of power has become such an obsession to all of those delusional Compact cultists and alien gods?" "That is true. Power may be a means to an end, but it has become a necessity due to the countless dangers that cultivators must endure in order to survive their Journey to ascension. To understand why cultivation is always accompanied with peril, you must understand what it takes to become immortal. What is the resource that anyone must use in order to transcend their mortality?"

"Spiritual energy." Ves replied. "Though I have heard you and other people use different terms."

"Most of the inheritances that I am knowledgeable in tend to call it qi, mana or the power of heaven and earth." The mother explained. "These words do not always translate well to modern human standard language as they are filled with deeper meanings in the languages they originate from. Cultivation is an ancient practice. It is older beyond your belief and it has emerged in many different cultures throughout many different time periods. Regardless of these differences, they are all united by their interaction to a common resource, which you call spiritual energy. Now think about this further. Where does spiritual energy come from? How is it produced?"

Veronica briefly paused in order to compose her answer.

"From what I have observed, spiritual energy is produced by sentient organisms going about their day. As long as life has reached a certain level of complexity of thought and emotion, any life form can produce spiritual energy. This is what I assumed for a long time. I never really considered whether there are other sources of spiritual energy until I came into contact with Messier 87. That galaxy is radiating so much of this resource that it should be impossible for it to be produced by aliens alone."

Cynthia smiled in approval. "That is a good observation. What you have described is one of the reasons why this energy can be described as the power of 'heaven and earth'. The 'earth' portion can be interpreted as the spiritual energy produced by the weak and mortal organisms that typically but not always live on planets. The 'heaven' portion can be seen as the spiritual energy produced by more powerful, transcendent, immortal or primordial structures of our universe. When combined, they make up the common resource that fuels many cultivation methods." The cyborg cat narrowed her eyes as she took in this information.

"Back in the Milky Way, I have never noticed this so-called heaven' power being produced by anything great aside from a really old sword. It is only after the Red Ocean got displaced next to Messier 87 that this has changed. Is E energy radiation the power of heaven in the model that you have described?"

"You can see it that way." Cynthia replied. "The Milky Way used to resemble Messier 87 in the past, but a calamity has occurred in the past that has... broken its root. This is why cultivation has become so rare and distorted for humans. What happens when the resource that everyone depends upon to grow stronger and live forever becomes scarce?"

"...I guess a lot of cultivators will end up dying."

"Energy is not infinite in this universe. As long as that is the case, every cultivator must compete against other cultivators if they wish to pursue immortality and the power that comes with it. Cultivation is therefore a struggle. It is a struggle against one's own mortal shackles. It is a struggle against the barriers of the universe. It is a struggle against the competition of other cultivators. So long as energy remains a scarce resource, it is inevitable for many cultivators to halt their progress or perish along the way."

This was pretty easy to understand for Ves. He already endured a lot of competition in other forms, from the mech market to the conflicts between different human states.

The current extinction war between red humanity and the indigenous alien races of the Red Ocean was another struggle for resources when it came down to it. Humanity wanted to take over the entire dwarf galaxy and enjoy all of its riches while the aliens wanted to preserve what they originally owned.

"It makes sense." Veronica spoke as she rolled her body and presented her belly for mother to rub. "For a long time, the human race suffered from a severe shortage of this resource. What little means we have to generate it is extremely limited. It is only after the Red Ocean moved over to M87's orbit that this has changed. Spiritual energy has become abundant. Ail of red humanity has access to E energy radiation, but the problem is that few people really know what to do with it. What is the process of cultivation?"

This was another big question, and one that could be answered in many different ways.

Cynthia idly rubbed the cyborg cat's belly as she prepared her response.

"Before I go into specifics, I want you to understand the general rules and methods behind every cultivation method or technique. First, you need to understand that everyone is different. There are differences between aliens and humans. There are differences between humans themselves. Each of these differences affect one's propensity, talent and upper limits. There are many mech pilots and mech designers who are unable to make it too far in their respective professions. The more progress you make, the more demands that subsequent cultivation imposes on you. This is why it is always important to make careful choices. Many are irreversible."

The cat nodded even as she relaxed under her mother's pampering.

"I get it. So what does the process of cultivation look like?"

"Many individuals who begin to cultivate, that is deliberately absorbing the power of heaven and earth to transcend their own limitations and chase after immortality, are usually weak and mortal. It is difficult for fleeting and vulnerable organisms to evolve into True Gods. It is almost impossible for ordinary biological organisms to grow into True Gods by eating and sleeping. Humans such as the people around us must therefore employ special means in order to defy the life limitations set by genes and birth."

Cultivation was a struggle that always began with the cultivators themselves. People did not start out as inextinguishable and all-powerful. They had to go through a long Journey of growth and evolution before they could get close to their desired end states!

"So what do all of these people do?" Veronica asked.

"They employ cultivation methods." Her mother replied. "They come in endless different forms. The power of heaven and earth is all-encompassing and can be utilized in many different ways. The common goal of every cultivation method is to allow a weak and mortal existence to become a True God or greater. They do this in many different ways. An infinite number of cultivation methods can exist for countless different species. I happen to know many of them myself, although I am unable to impart many of them to you due to... an ancient form of copyright protection."

Ves grew a little bit bummed by that. He looked forward to getting his hands on these powerful and highly developed inheritances so that he could figure out how he couki make his mechs and hopefully himself stronger!

"However, no matter how many of them exist, they can all be classified into several broad categories." His mother continued. "This is not knowledge that is fully taught by the Compact or other cultivator groups. I have summed this up after meeting with a broad spectrum of different humans and aliens who have employed many different methods to attain power and longevity. They are as follows..."