The feeling of advancing to Nascent Soul was unlike any of the previous breakthroughs, Augus felt more connected to the world. The more obvious change was his perception of spiritual energy, he could see what seemed to be disturbances in the air or different colors, nothing big, if he didn’t concentrate he would barely notice them. But they were there and if he focused he could somewhat see how they interacted, though he didn’t know what was interacting with what exactly.

  Augus guessed they were some kind of elemental spiritual energy, mainly because there was quite the concentration of turquoise and jet black [#343434] around him and the walls of the tower. So those should be lightning related, why was he seeing it as two colors was beyond him for now.

  Although Augus wanted to release his Nascent Soul to look through it, his cultivation technique warned him otherwise. Though it didn’t say why it did say that it could be done in most places, just not in the place of one’s recent breakthrough. Which might have something to do with this elemental spiritual energy around Augus, it may be damaging to his Nascent Soul or it just may be because he needed a bit of rest before doing so, he would need to ask around to know.

  Aside from this Augus looked into where his dantian once was and found that there was a rainbow colored, flowering ball. Like the one inside his Inner World just without the shining, from what he tested this was the new permanent entrance and exit of his Inner World. If he left it open the ball would bloom, if he closed it the ball would close and look like his now-absent dantian, with a rainbow pattern.

  His body had also changed, though not that much as he didn’t focus on a body-related technique nor he paid much attention to tempering his body during his cultivation. It just felt more responsive and a tad more solid; stronger, more resistant and probably more enduring, though seated as he was he couldn’t know for now.

  His meridians and apertures were improved a lot on the other hand, though Augus knew it was part of every breakthrough to Nascent soul, his meridians felt more durable and after a little testing, capable of dealing with a lot more spiritual energy. His apertures now had an automatic filtering of the energy too, which thanks to his cultivation technique seemed powered by electricity, they also had expanded, allowing Augus to absorb a lot more energy at once.

  After doing a few more quick checks Augus stood up and left his cultivation chamber to a surprising sunrise. His breakthrough and subsequent check seemed to have taken all night, while to Augus it appeared to be just a few hours. He did notice that despite him not eating for a whole day he wasn’t hungry, maybe because of his breakthrough and all the spiritual energy he absorbed or maybe he just needed less food to function now.

  That wouldn’t deter him from stuffing his mouth, one of the mundane pleasures he wanted to maintain was eating, even though in his cultivation journey they would be less and less relevant. While Augus could have gone to a cafe for that he preferred to go back to his home and eat while reassuring his parents about his advance.

  When he arrived he found his parents eating breakfast and while they didn’t seem outwardly worried he could feel, through his enhanced senses, how they relaxed after seeing him. Though having worried them didn’t sit right with Augus, he was also happy about it, as it meant that despite his now more advanced cultivation they still looked out for him. ‘You will always be your parents baby’ seemed to be a common saying among cultivators (and non-cultivators) for a reason, despite his new strength that didn’t bar a parents worry over their child’s well being.

  After a warm welcome Augus had a hearty breakfast full of grease and bread and only then did he get to experiment his new realm.

  Now that he was in the spiritual safety of his room he could release his Nascent Soul to the outside world. The experience was jarring to say the least, for starters his body went “unconscious” while Augus’s mind remained awake, only now it was attached to his Nascent Soul.

  Augus didn’t have the headspace to worry about that little (?) detail as the perspective from his Nascent soul was nothing like anything he had felt before. He didn’t see like before, probably because in this form he didn’t have eyes in the fleshy sense, he “saw” with something of an enhanced spiritual vision.

  Like the one he developed with his breakthrough that allowed him to see the “elemental spiritual energy” just that this new vision was only through the spiritual energy lenses.

  There wasn’t really matter anymore, only the fluctuating energies.

  Which made orienting himself difficult, his only reference point was his body as there was a string connecting the Nascent Soul to it. The thing about that was that his body wasn’t “visible” either, if Augus looked at his body what he saw was a shadow made of spiritual energy with a rainbow colored ball where it’s belly would be.

  Which only made the “color” of spiritual energy stand out more, as it wasn’t really colored, it was kind of transparent but in the sense that if you dropped white tint into water it was still somewhat transparent.

  Though that particular “color” seemed to be present only on his body as the surrounding spiritual energy was of all kinds of colors. There was red, brown, green, dark blue, gray, bright yellow and a green so black it almost didn’t seem green (#222b13).

  In terms of concentration the most abundant around him seemed to be three; gray, bright yellow and brown. When Augus looked down, at least he thought it was down as he hadn’t felt himself rotate, he found a concentration of mostly brown with some gray. When he looked up on the other hand he found a different mix, some shades of lightning, judging by the colors, green and dark blue.

  Through simple association he connected each color to an element, aside from lightning the colors seemed to match each one element. Fire was red (because of course), earth was brown, air was green, metal was gray, water was dark blue, light he assumed was bright yellow and darkness would be black brown. The last two he figured because he couldn’t associate a dark color with light nor darkness with a yellow so bright.

  His inability to do anything with these energies reminded him that he didn’t even have a cultivation technique for his current realm, which lead him to remember he had to report his advancement to the Emergency contact program and Instructor Dominic.

  As such Augus went back to his body or tried to at least, as simply touching it did nothing. He tried various ways ranging from diving into the rainbow ball to focusing really hard into going back to his body.

  It was only after he remembered how his Nascent Soul connected with his body that he tried and succeeded returning by coping the position his body was in and letting the Nascent Soul and his body “merge” once again.

  This resulted in Augus suddenly opening his eyes and standing up from his bed. He inspected his surrounding and found he could see material things again instead of pure energies.

  With his body in control again Augus dialed Dominic’s number to inform his of his breakthrough, he didn’t answer though so Augus left him a voice message detailing his success and to call him when he was available.

  On the other hand, the Emergency contact project had to be informed in person, which gave Augus an excuse to visit it’s headquarters. The headquarters were located on the non-defined border between the normal residential district and the city’s last line of defense composed of the houses of Nascent Soul and higher cultivators.

  Augus arrived there shortly after exiting his house thanks to his increased cultivation, what would have been a half hour sprint as a Golden World had transformed into a 5 minutes stroll. He arrived quite early because of this so he expected the place to be barren.

  Augus was understandably surprised when he entered what looked like a sect courtyard and found it teeming with activity. The place had at the middle a training ground for about 50 people so not too big, with buildings surrounding it.

  After Augus presented his identification he was led through a hallway into this training ground, though he didn’t enter but was instead led by bureaucrats through a sidewalk into an office.

  Here Augus had to, again, present himself and his affiliation to the project before anything else, only then the conversation started with one of the managers of the project.

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  “So mister Augus, what can we do for you today?”

  “I want to report of my breakthrough to Nascent Soul to the Emergency Contact project.”

  “Wonderful, how long ago was this breakthrough?”

  “Yesterday.”

  “Oh, quite the speedy report then.”

  When Augus was about to answer his phone ringed, he was about to hang up and put it in silence mode until he noticed the caller’s name, it was Dominic calling back to him.

  “Excuse me, I have to take this call.”

  Though some irritation seeped through, the manager kept his amicable face, “No worries.”

  “Instructor, I didn’t expect you to call me back so soon.”

  “With news like these I had to. Congratulations Augus, I expected you would take longer to reach Nascent Soul realm.”

  “I took advantage of a passing storm to accomplish it. But enough of me, when would ne a good time to visit the barracks?”

  “If you are not busy right now.”

  “Maybe after lunch, I’m at the Emergency contact project headquarters right now.” Seeing the look of alarm in the manager’s face when he mentioned the project so casually Augus decided to put the phone on speaker to avoid misunderstandings.

  “Even better then, now that you are a Nascent Soul you can formally take on the project as an Assignment. Is there a manager with you?”

  “Yes Instructor, you are on speaker now so they hear you.”

  “Good, good morning manager, I’m Dominic Bull from the 7th garrison of the northern wall.” Something in the instructor’s introduction must be important because the manager suddenly straightened his posture and tensed all his body after hearing it.

  Dominic continued. “I would like to formally put an assignment for Augus to work on a project with the specifications I will send later today, clear?”

  “Yes sir, everything’s clear, anything else you will like me to handle?”

  “Not for now, in the specifications mail I will send anything else I may need.”

  “Understood, have a nice day sir.”

  “Mmm. Augus, finish your business there and come over when you are done, we have some things to talk about.” It seemed these things wouldn’t be just pleasantries or paperwork as he seemed reluctant to give details.

  “Sure Instructor, I will see you later then.”

  Dominic ended the call and Augus pocketed his phone, when he was about to resume the bureaucratic talk, the manager instead cut all the bullshit and got the papers he needed to sign and fill out. After explaining each one to Augus he let him go saying he would take care of the “boring paperwork” so that Augus wouldn’t make the Instructor wait.

  “I will have to ask the instructor why a bureaucrat was so tense around him…” Augus didn’t voice this doubt as asking the manager would probably only result in further avoidance from the topic. More than Augus’s expedite approval would suggest at least.

  As such Augus found himself half an hour later with Instructor Dominic at the entrance of the barracks. With him as a guide they made their way through until they reached Instructor Dominic’s office.

  The office had a chaotic organization with which Augus could relate, the wasn’t anything messy about the room but things like paperwork were stacked haphazardly in a tower on one corner of the main desk. On the opposite corner there was a decent sized stack of books whose tittles all related to formations from what Augus’s enhanced senses could tell.

  The instructor didn’t even seem to acknowledge the office and just took a seat in one of the couches close to a corner and gestured for Augus to take the seat opposite from him.

  After Augus took a seat and focused on Instructor Dominic the latter finally talked. “Well, the main reason I wanted you here is not because of the project, not yet at least. As a newly ascended Nascent Soul there are some imperative things you need to know that your school didn’t have the chance to cover.”

  After a quick nod of acknowledgment from Augus, Dominic continued. “Let’s start from the basics then, I assume you have experienced the Nascent Soul’s Spirit View?”

  “If you mean the colorful energies that appeared when I deployed my Nascent Soul, then yes I have.”

  Augus heard Dominic murmur before his actual answer, “Deploy? In my times we just called it release.” With a brief cough the instructor resumed. “Then this will be easier to explain. Firstly, you should know that Nascent Soul cultivation is dependent on the elements you can perceive, which are the elements you can see the most clearly?”

  The question seemed weird to Augus, no energy seemed particularly dull or blurry to him so he didn’t know what the baseline was. “Sir I don’t think I understand your question, all the elements seem quite clear to my senses.”

  This halted Dominic’s small tick on his leg. “What do you mean clear? Are there no blurry segments or opaque colors in your senses?”

  “No sir, though now that you mention it Lightning’s energies seems a bit brighter than the rest.”

  “So a standard affinity with all elements with a minor emphasis on Lightning? Now that’s rare.”

  “Excuse me, sir, what are these affinities?”

  “Ah right, sorry. Affinities refer to the ease a cultivator can use this element in their cultivation journey, either for techniques or for cultivation, a higher affinity means a faster dominion of the element.”

  “We usually measure them by how clearly their Nascent soul can perceive the energies, normally aside from two to four the rest are pretty blurry if visible at all. Your case is quite rare but not unique so we have an idea of what it means.”

  “Excuse me, what are those affinities used for then?”

  “That needs a longer explanation. First we need to go back to the earlier realms, from Qi condensation to Golden Core you were able to change technique with each breakthrough without problem. As a Nascent Soul this changes.

  “On one side you need a cultivation technique that follows your affinities, if you didn’t have Air affinity for example you wouldn’t be able to even begin to cultivate a technique focused on the Air element.

  “On the other side you can’t change your cultivation casually anymore, aside from the requirements on affinity if you want to change your cultivation technique at any moment you will need to go through a period of adaptation.

  “Which will leave you effectively stuck in your progress, regardless of your realm, at least for a while in some cases maybe even regress your progress.

  “This comes from the fact that cultivation techniques are no longer just a method of gathering energy or cleaning your cultivation components. Starting from Nascent soul you need to start comprehending the Tao/Dao.”

  “The what now?”

  “The Tao/Dao, an old word that refers to ‘the path’ or ‘the way’ that has been adapted for cultivation purposes. In essence it refers to the individual comprehension of some of the components of reality.” He really stressed the importance of individual, most likely there was some story about collective comprehension that didn’t turn well.

  “That seems quite… esoteric.”

  “You don’t know the half of it. In simple words, you have to analyze and question what the elements are. A series of unending questions that aims to understand what is the element. Some approach it from a negative perspective.”

  “Negative?”

  “You answer what Fire is not, for example, after you have defined everything that is not Fire all that’s left has to be Fire. This method is not very popular because, as you can see, it’s very tedious.” Augus’s reticence must have showed on his face, he really didn’t like this method of repetitive discard.

  “The most popular method, although there are various others, is the unending whys. Why is a lightning shaped fire bolt not Lightning, why is Lightning a separate element, why is Lightning dual colored, why does lightning need water to form, etc.”

  Augus liked this approach a lot more, as it seemed to resonate with some childhood tendencies.

  “I can see why changing techniques is not recommended, it would be a start from zero to focus on a new element.”

  “Pretty much, though some understanding can be passed on its usually not much. Because of this cultivation techniques do not end with a realm. The one that you choose will accompany you beyond Body reformation if it’s good enough.”

  After a pause left so that Augus could digest all this information Dominic dropped his largest bomb yet.

  “Because of this I recommend you refrain from selecting a cultivation technique until after our project is done.”

  “Wha- Why??”

  “Because after receiving the rewarded points you will be able to get the cultivation technique most suited for you instead of the one you can afford.”

  Despite Augus’s resistance to spend weeks to months without a cultivation technique he couldn’t really argue. If the technique will accompany him for so long, rushing will only harm him in the long run. It would set him back if he had to change his technique a year or two in just to save a month or two now.

  As such Augus could only agree. “Haa, understood, let’s get on with the project then.”