"Alright I think I know what the issue is with your cultivation. Your mana is too pure. Typical mana contains impurities from the world. These could be anything from negative thoughts from mortals to demonic energy leaking into the atmosphere. However, your mana contains non of these impurities, it simply exists in it's purest form.
Now that we know the issue, I may have a solution for you. You'll need to cultivate your body. I have a body cultivation technique with me that you can use and i'll go gather some resources from the sect for you to speed up the process.
Body refinement or Body cultivation is centered around strengthening the body. It is broken up into several stages of mastery, each with 5 levels:
Minor success - This is the initial stage of body refinement and the cultivator's physical strength rivals those in the Foundation Establishment realm.
Major success - This is the second stage of body refinement and the cultivator's physical strength rivals those in the Core Formation realm.
Mastery - This is the third and final stage of body refinement and the cultivator's physical strength rivals those in the Nascent Soul realm.
Once reaching Mastery in body refinement, cultivators will switch over to traditional cultivation as any further progress won't be worth their time. While body refinement is useful in the early stages of cultivation, once you enter the Nascent soul stage, all attacks you will be facing will carry soul energy. These soul based attacks are the bane of body cultivators as they have no defense aginst them which is why most decide to move away from body refinement and try to strengthen their soul."
"But master, what happens when the cultivator catches up in their traditional cultivation, would they not go back to focusing on body refinement? If that's the case Mastery shouldn't be the last stage."
"You're right but I don't have access to information about higher realms, remember that i'm only in the Nascent Soul realm myself and not particularly focused on body refinement.
Anyways, the reason I think body refinement could work for you is that upon reaching each stage, your body will expel impurities. So if you were to reach the Minor success realm, then in theory you should feel less resistance from your mana.
In the mean time, i'll do some research on my end in the sect's records to see if I can find any more information on your situation."
"Ok thank you master! I'll go back to my house to start learning the Body refinement technique."
Faldon waved his hand dismissively, "Go ahead, i'll send you the resources for speeding up your progress when I get them."
At that, James got up, bowed and then went back to his house. He checked the Mentorship feature screen but there were no changes so he left it alone for now. Once back inside his house, James took out the new Body refinement technique and started to learn it.
The technique was not hard to learn at all. It revolved around a set of exercises designed to increase his bodies strength and endurance. Once his body reached a certain threshold, it would produce a new type of energy known as Qi. Using the Qi his body produced, he would then have to direct it into his Blood, Skin, Muscles, Organs and then finally Bones.
James noticed the similarities between Body refinement and establishing a foundation. Both required the cultivator to use a type of energy to enhance their body though the effects were different. Qi and Mana seemed to affect the body in different ways also establishing a foundation only required the bones to be reinforced with mana and not the entire body.
If we were to think about physical stats, then Qi would allow the cultivator to increase their base number through addition while Mana will multiply that base number. In theory, cultivators would end up with the same or close to the same strength when choosing either path but those that cultivate both paths will become far stronger than other cultivators in the same realm.
James spent the next 4 days following the new Body Refinement technique and soon noticed the difference. He became noticably more muscular, he was able to run faster and his reflexes sharpened.
On this day, Faldon finally sent over the resources he promised. He also gave James instructions on how to use them. They were a large batch of herbs and the instructions Faldon gave him were to mix a small amount of them into his bath daily. The herbs each had different properties, some had healing effects, some had strengthening effects and some had very specific effects like skin hardening. Taking a bath with a mix of these herbs every day would allow the body to absorb their medicinal properties and speed up James' body cultivation by months.
The next 4 months passed uneventfully. James would train in the Body Refinement technique in the morning, have Sword and Hand to Hand combat practice with his Senior sister Liz after lunch, train in Body Refinement again in the afternoon and then bathe at night.
James had tried to set a new Mentorship session for his combat practice with Liz a couple times but it seemed once a session was set, it could not be changed until it was completed.
Waking up from a restful sleep, James stretched and then began his morning routine. His movements appeared similar to Tai Chi, slow and methodical with an emphasis on breath control.
An hour into his training, something changed. He suddenly felt very sick, bent over and started to throw up. Unlike what you'd expect, what came out of James' mouth was a black, sludge like substance with a rotten smell. The smell alone was so bad that it made James feel even more sick. James spent the next 20 minutes vomiting more and more of this black substance, forming a small pool at his feet. When James seemed to have finished, he heard a sound that made him forget the disgusting ordeal he just went through…
*Ding*
Congratulations Host on achieving Minor Success in Body Refinement.