Lost in thought, I stared as the earth essence swirled around me.

  How exactly does one go about creating solid ground in a void?

  In cultivation novels, it always seemed so simple. The protagonist would wave their hand, and mountains would rise from nothing.

  The reality was unfortunately significantly more complicated.

  My first attempt at creating soil resulted in what looked like brown smoke. The earth essence had refused to coalesce, and instead spread out into wispy tendrils that dissipated into nothing.

  The second try wasn’t much better, this time the essence coalesced a little too well, the result was random chunks of matter that looked like floating asteroids rather than actual earth.

  “Master, perhaps you should try focusing on a single type of material first,” Azure suggested after my fifth failure produced something that looked suspiciously like mud soup.

  “Right, let’s start with basic dirty,” I replied, dispersing the floating globs with a frustrated wave. "That should be simple enough."

  It really wasn't.

  My next attempt created what one could call a dirt clod, if they were being generous, and if dirt clods were perfectly spherical and had the density of lead. The essence had condensed into a ball, about the size of my fist, and now just hung there in the void, refusing to spread out or take any other shape.

  “At least this time it’s solid,” I muttered, reaching out with my finger to poke it.

  When I touched the floating sphere, ripples of essence spread from the contact point.

  “The essence seems to want to maintain cohesion," Azure observed. "Perhaps a little too much?"

  So, I tried again, this time trying to create soil that was less cohesive and more loose. The result this time was a cloud of fine dust that threatened to scatter throughout my entire inner world before I hastily gathered it back together.

  “This is getting ridiculous,” I sighed as the dust reformed into another useless ball. “How can making dirty be this difficult? it’s literally just dirty!”

  Deciding to take a little break, I turned to Azure. “Why don’t you give it a try? You understand all of this theory better than I do.”

  “Inner world spirits are more like caretakers than creators," Azure smiled. "We can maintain what exists, offer guidance, but the actual shaping of the world must come from our masters."

  The smile on his face turned sad, which was an unusual experience for him. I stayed silent, letting him continue.

  “But for higher level cultivators, if their inner world is developed enough, then their inner world spirit can remain behind, which is when they’d gain the ability to manipulate things to a greater degree.”

  There was something in his tone that made me pause. It was the way he said it, not with longing, but with a subtle heaviness, which told me more than his words ever could. Unlike cultivators, who would do anything for power, it was clear that this wasn’t a responsibility that inner world spirits looked forward to gaining. The price, the loss of their master, was too high.

  “But master,” Azure continued, his expression brightening, returning to what I was more used to. “As your cultivation improves, and this world grows more complex, then I’ll naturally gain more ability to help you maintain it. It won’t be anything as dramatic as full creation, but it’ll be enough to fulfil my role as a caretaker properly.”

  I nodded. This was something I had always wondered about, how I would maintain my inner world when it one day grew to the size of a large city.

  Closing my eyes, I turned my focus back onto the immediate problem – manipulating earth essence.

  Looking back at my cultivation journey, whether it when manipulating vines or manipulating the red sun energy, I had learned that everything had its own way of moving that suited its nature. But with earth essence, I had focused on what I wanted it to be, I hadn’t stopped to understand what it was.

  My eyes snapped open.

  That was it.

  Instead of trying to force the earth essence into a tool without knowing anything about it, I should focus on figuring out its nature first.

  This time I closed my eyes to focus on the feeling of the element. Where wood qi felt alive and growing, earth essence was different. It was more patient, ancient. It didn’t resist being shaped, but at the same time, it wouldn’t be rushed either. It was similar to the mountains themselves; it moved on its own timeline.

  With that new understanding, my next attempt focused on forming stone rather than soil. After all, if earth essence is about patience and permanence, then maybe starting with something solid would make more sense, and hopefully be a lot easier.

  I gathered the essence and began compressing it into granite.

  The first attempt resulted in what looked like a child’s clay project rather than actual rock. The surface was uneven and rough, with weird swirling patterns that definitely didn’t occur in nature, and when I tried to adjust it, the whole thing crumbled into gravel. Another failure…

  “Remember, real stone forms under specific conditions,” Azure suggested. “pressure, heat, time…”

  Right. It would be easier to replicate the process that created it naturally as opposed to creating it directly. This adjustment really helped, my next attempt went much better. I layered the essence carefully, compressing it while maintain the proper crystalline structure, and gradually, a small piece of genuine-looking granite formed.

  Building on that success, I gave another attempt at creating soil, but with a twist.

  I focused on wood essence first, it was the essence I was most familiar with. I began creating the forms of simple plants: grass, leaves, and roots. Without life energy they were merely just shapes, hollow imitations of living things, but that was fine with what I had in mind.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I broke them down and mixed them with the mineral components, and the result actually looked like proper soil. Rich, dark, and crumbly. It was the kind of earth that would even make herbalists like Lin Mei envious.

  “Now, it was time for the real challenge,” I murmured, looking down at my floating samples of stone and soil, “creating actual ground.”

  I started from a single point, focusing on building up layers, just like real geological formations. The stones came first; they provided a solid foundation. Then came the looser substances like rock, gravel, and soul. Gradually, a flat disc of earth began to form and spread outward.

  “That’s good so far,” Azure commented. “Though, you might want to add some variety to the terrain, perfectly flat ground rarely occurs in nature.”

  He did have a point. I adjusted my method, experimenting with subtle variations in elevation to give the terrain a more natural appearance. It was nothing dramatic, some small rises and dips across the surface, just enough to break the monotony.

  “Remember,” Azure cautioned as he watched me work, “this control over earth essence only applies within your inner world. Don’t expect to go around throwing rocks around in the realm world just because you can shape terrain here.”

  “I know,” I replied while smoothing out a particularly stubborn bump. “It’s completely different. This is more like programming the rules for how earth should behave in this universe. As for manipulating earth qi in outside world, that would require completely different techniques and level of mastery.”

  “Exactly,” Azure nodded, pleased that I hadn’t let the success get to my head. “Though, your understanding of how earth essence moves might give you some insight if ever do decide to learn earth-based cultivation arts.”

  While it would be nice to use earth-based techniques, with the red sun energy, blue sun energy, and wood qi, I already had enough on my plate.

  I moved onto expanding the ground until it filled roughly a quarter of my inner world’s volume. That was enough space to work while leaving room for other features.

  “Now, let’s make this more organised, dividing it into sections will make it easier to keep track of everything.”

  Using the Genesis Seed as the center point, I mentally divided the space into four separate quadrants. The ground I had just created occupied most of what I know deemed the South-West section, though some of it did spill over into the South-East quadrant.

  “It seems the Genesis Seed approves,” Azure noted.

  He was right. The massive tree-like structure had eagerly extended its root into the newly formed earth, anchoring itself firmly Both, the red and blue suns also seemed intrigued, they had drifted closer, their earlier rivalry forgotten in favour of watching the world-building process.

  “What would you like to have as the basic layout?” Azure asked.

  “We need natural boundaries between the sections,” I replied, considering the space carefully. “Valleys or rivers would work, but without gravity…”

  Azure’s earlier explanation about how water would just float without proper forces to keep it in place came to mind.

  “Maybe we should begin with depressions in the earth,” Azure suggested. “We can always add water later after we’ve established physical laws, but for now, the terrain itself can mark the divisions.”

  Yeah, that would do for now.

  Beginning from the Genesis Seed’s position at the center, I carved out four great valleys, stretching them outward like the spokes of a wheel.

  "This area will be for mountains,” I gestured to the north-western section. "Proper mountains, not just hills. If we're building a world, let's make it impressive."

  My newfound confidence lasted approximately three seconds before shattering.

  Instead of the majestic peak I had envisioned, my first attempt at a mountain looked like a child's sandcastle after a wave hit it. It was a lumpy, misshapen mass that rose about ten meters before collapsing in on itself.

  But the failure didn’t deter me.

  I dispersed the failed attempt and started again; this time my focus was on forming the mountain step by step. I began with the base, compressing the earth essence into dense stone, building up a foundation that spread over several hundred metres.

  When I was done with the second attempt, it looked marginally better, it actually looked like a mountain, albeit one that appeared to have been carved by a drunk sculptor using a hammer as a chisel. The slopes had random bulges and depressions that made no geological sense.

  "Master, real mountains are formed by incredible pressures over millions of years," Azure reminded me. "You're trying to replicate that process in minutes. Consider how the forces would actually shape the stone."

  That made me pause.

  I'd been thinking about mountains as singular objects, but that wasn’t necessarily true.

  Mountains were really the result of various forces working together: pressure, erosion, and volcanic activity to name a few. Even without having access to gravity, I could still apply those principles.

  Starting again, I began with tectonic movement. I visualized two great sheets of stone pressing against each other, and where they met, the rock folded and compressed, creating more realistic ridges and valleys.

  I then moved on to forming different types of stone that formed a mountain, using softer materials for the outer layers, while making the core with harder stone.

  When I was done, the mountain actually looked like it belonged in nature. The slopes had purpose to their angles, with clear signs of where water would eventually flow.

  “That’s a lot better, Master.”

  Encouraged by the success, I fell into a rhythm: create the foundation, layer the stone types, apply pressure, shape the weathering patterns.

  Each mountain came easier than the last, though I still had plenty of failures: one peak ended up looking like a giant mushroom, and another somehow developed what appeared to be stairs spiraling up its side.

  “That’s…interesting,” Azure commented diplomatically about the stairs.

  “…I got distracted thinking about access paths,” I admitted, quickly smoothing them away.

  Gradually, a proper mountain range took shape. Peaks naturally rose from their foundation, some, formed from harder stone, were sharp and jagged, while others, formed from softer stone, were more rounded and weathered. And the gaps between them formed deep valleys.

  Thinking about all the xianxia novel protagonists who always seemed to find mysterious treasures in mountain caves, I added complex cave systems. Even though they were currently empty, their twisting passages and hidden chambers would make perfect storage spaces in the future.

  Maybe one day, when I could create true beings, some lucky creature would stumble upon one of these caves and find some of the cultivation resources I had hidden away.

  After all, what proper cultivation world didn’t have its own share of hidden treasures that were there just waiting to be discovered, and become the golden finger needed to kickstart a young protagonist’s journey.

  Though hopefully, my creation would be smarter than the typical cultivation novel protagonist who walks into the most suspicious cave they could find.

  Once I was done with the north-western quadrant, I turned to its eastern companion.

  “We can turn this section into a garden,” I murmured. “Once we can actually grow things properly, we’ll need space to experiment with different plants.”

  When it came to herbs, I preferred to defer to Lin Mei, and she always emphasized the importance of proper preparation. Everything from the composition of the soil to drainage patterns had to be just right.

  Now that I understood how earth essence wanted to move, creating gentle slopes was easier. It took time and patience, but I guided the essence to let the terrain rise and fall in natural waves across the landscape. The undulation would create perfect drainage patterns for when we eventually added water to my inner world.

  “Excellent work, master,” Azure congratulated my success. “The natural flow of the land will serve well for different growing areas.”

  I was also pretty impressed with the final result; the hills were exactly as I had envisioned them. They were neither too steep nor too flat, some areas rose higher to create sheltered spaces, while others dipped into shallow valleys, which would be perfect for moisture-loving plants. After my earlier struggles with basic earth manipulation, it felt good to see my progress with handing earth essence.

  Next came the soil types, if creating basic dirt had been like trying to teach a stone to swim, then this was going to be like teaching that same stone to now dance. I would need to play around with the textures, compositions, minerals contents, and more…

  “Well,” I muttered, watching the essence twist and coil around me, “I’ve already hit rock bottom with that floating mud soup incident, I don’t think it’ll get any worse than that.”

  When I reached out to begin the first transformation, it immediately became clear just how wrong I was.