Gong Lu woke to darkness. However, after half a second of confusion, he remembered the words of the suited woman. Apparently, he was in the womb.

Gong Lu silently thanked the gods that he had protection from what he assumed would otherwise be a sticky, foul mess.

Strangely, he wasn't nauseous or disoriented at all. Gong Lu found that quite unusual, considering the fact that the woman hadn't really said at all that he might not be subject to the disorientation of the movement, but he quickly moved on.

Gong Lu quickly found a new piece of information in his mind. Evidently, the decision of purchasing the cultivation techniques for each of his martial spirits was correct, because he knew every inch of each of his three new cultivation techniques.

The first one was Infinite Force. This cultivation technique was not only one of the best in existence, but it was also perfectly suited for his Force-affinity martial spirit. Infinite Force focused on overwhelming strength and a large amount and density of the Qi. Cultivating it would allow him to become near unrivaled in his cultivation realm, and that was just the first technique of his three.

His second technique was Unyielding Bastion. This cultivation technique not only gave unbreakable defense to the cultivator and highly condensed one's Earth Qi, but also mystically added a rebound effect to one's Qi and body. It was insane, and easily on the same level as Infinite Force.

His third technique was Legacy of the Immortal. It, as the name suggested, made him essentially immortal. Compared to the quantity and density of the Life Qi, Legacy of the Immortal focused on the purity of the Qi. It basically only focused on self-regeneration, and due to the lack of branching into healing and buffing others, Legacy of the Immortal was unrivaled in terms of self-healing. It also granted a body with insanely high regeneration.

Through comparing his three cultivation techniques, Gong Lu came to a conclusion. There were three measurements of Qi: quantity, density, and purity. While the quantity determined how much Qi a spirit realm had and affected one's capacity, the quality determined how many impurities were in Qi and affected its potency. Density was how tightly packed Qi was, and it also changed the Qi's potency, but also served another, more complex use.

Imagine a box. Now, that box could only hold so much air, which was Qi. While the quantity determined how big that box was, and the quality determined the purity of the air inside that box, the density was how much air could fit inside a certain area, changing how much air could be stored without even changing the size of the box. For example, if one had low density, they'd only be able to fit a comparitively small amount of air inside the box. However, if one had significantly higher density, despite the two boxes being the same size, the latter box would be able to fit much more air.

Gong Lu's cultivation techniques focused on different things. Infinite Force used a combination of high quantity and medium-high density, Unyielding Bastion focused on extreme density and medium purity, while Legacy of the Immortal had divine purity, with there being absolutely no impurities at the peak.

This affected the specialization of Gong Lu's cultivation techniques and also was a factor in his fighting style. As it was, his cultivation techniques did not only suit his martial spirits very well, but also his fighting style. His Force affinity, as the affinity he would be used the highest amount of during battle, had to have a high amount and density in order for his Force spirit realm to be able to withstand the expenditure, at the loss of some potency. His Earth affinity, in comparison, did not have to be used much, and only for defense, which, although it depended on the strength of the attacker, did not take a large amount of Qi, resulting in the curernt specialization of density and purity. Density would not only grant a good amount of Qi, but also synergize with Earth affinity Qi and increase its base defense. So, it was also a good fit. Gong Lu's Life Qi was the one he would be using the least, but when he needed it, the potency would need to be very high. Logically, if an attack could break through his defense, then the injury caused would be great, as the opponent woul have to be very powerful. As such, to fit his low consumption yet high potency, Legacy of the Immortals focused solely on Qi purity. It also synergized with Life Qi, and without high purity, Gong Lu would definitely be feeling the pain. This was because the more impurities in one's Life Qi, both the potency of the Qi was decreased and when a wound was healed, impurities where left in the wound, hence Gong Lu's great need for exreme purity, but not much else.

Well, Gong Lu hadn't much to do but start cultivating...

He decided to begin with the Infinite Force technique, because strength could be concealed, but defense couldn't, and regeneration was utterly pointless if he was so weak he was killed in one shot.

According to the technique, he first had to close his eyes and attempt to sense the Force affinity Qi in the air, as well as the personal spirit realm. Normally, this would have to be done after going through the process of awakening, but Gong Lu's martial spirits were already unlocked, as well as his spirit realm, resulting in him being able to find them and awaken them personally. Normally, an external tool had to be used to open up the spirit realm and awaken the martial spirits, but Gong Lu was exempt from this rule. The reason for this was that the spirit realm was sealed due to the impurity of the outside world, and the martial spirits were sleeping until they were awakened due to the limited consciousness of the person. This was the reason one's martial spirits would awaken once one reached a certain age, but the spirit realm was still sealed, resulting in an unbearable, itchy feeling. But since Gong Lu hadn't even been in the outside world, there were no impurities present to seal the spirit realm, and as for the martial spirits, was there even a need to mention the actual age of consciousness, nullifying the reason of martial spirits going to sleep. But now that those problems were out of the window, all that was left was for him to sense them.

Gong Lu had terrifying perception abilities, honed through years of practice and special exercise. His senses were also sharpened through cruel training methods, resulting in a mind that was very sharp and was able to grasp most concepts very quickly.

However, it still took him about an hour to begin sensing his internal spirit realm. Gong Lu knew it was all worth it, though, when he saw what was inside his three spirit realms.

Inside his first spirit realm, which seemed to be in a dimension separate from his reality, sat a huge titan. Gong Lu found it safe to assume that this huge bronze-skinned, incredibly muscled figure was the Empyrean Might Titan. After observing for the proper amount of time - which meant a minute or so of circling around the titan and making various observations, all of which were most certainly scientific - Gong Lu sat his spiritual consciousnes manifestation down and attempted to sense the Force affinity particles that he assumed were present.

The reason he did so inside his spirit realm instead of the outside world was because according to the instinctual knowledge, his cultivation techniques all suggested that if his martial spirit was strong enough, it would be easier to sense the Force affinity Qi near the martial spirit in question instead of in the outside world. This was because when a martial spirit reached a certain point of power, they became so good that they automatically absorbed Force Qi and placed it within the spirit realm. Despite this Qi not being compressed or purified, it does not affect the cultivation of the practitioner at all, as the Qi is not absorbed by the spirit realm, but instead just harvested from the surroundings and brought into the spirit realm to just wait there.

This, in fact, could hypothetically serve as a tremendous boon to all infants if they had martial spirits whose power met the prerequisites. If not for the martial spirit going to sleep due to the premature consciousness an infant had, then the child in question would begin cultivation only to find an insanely large amount of Qi already laying in wait inside their spirit realm.

Of course, this absorption could be consciously turned on and off, lest it be a dead giveaway as to the power of the martial spirit of the cultivator. Other people who were sensitive to the flows of the Qi of the same affinity as the holder of the powerful martial spirit could sense the absorption and make conclusion based off of that. Imagine if this happened to Gong Lu when he was an infant: a nearby Earth, Force, or Life affinity cultivator seeing the absorption process coming from a month-old infant. Thankfully, while he was in the womb, Gong Lu wouldn't have to worry about anything because the aura of his mother would mask the absorption.

But all of that aside, within five minutes, Gong Lu successfully grasped and found the existence of the Force Qi in his spirit realm. Upon doing this, it was as if the doors to a whole new world were opened and Gong Lu was momentarily overwhelmed.

He recovered quickly, however, and gladly started the next step in the Infinite Force cultivation method, which was condensing, purifying, and then shaping the Qi(keep in mind that the fact that his cultivation method doesn't focus on purification of Qi does not mean that it completely omit the process, it just uses it less).

Due to the power of his martial spirit, despite only being awake for around 15 minutes, Gong Lu already had a relatively large amount of Force Qi in his spirit realm. As such, he wouldn't need to worry about gathering Qi from the outside world for a bit.

The condensing process was a bit awkward at first. Gong Lu took about a tenth of all the Force particles present in his spirit realm and... did nothing. See, while he had managed to sense them, Gong Lu was not able to control the Qi particles temporarily. However, that was nothing practice couldn't solve!

A few minutes later, Gong Lu was relatively proficient with controlling Qi, so he could try again and begin to cultivate.

Gong Lu had no idea of how fast he was. Even when a child was awakened externally, resulting in a lack of a need to find the spirit realm, it took them around a day of meditation to begin sensing Qi, and at least two days of constant practice to be able to control Qi semi-proficiently. In comparison, while Gong Lu had not yet reached the level of semi-proficiency, he was getting there rather quickly. Of course, all of this was unknown by Gong Lu.

Also unknown to him was the difficulty of the next segment of cultivation that he had to go through: condensing the Qi into a form. The form varied by cultivation technique, affinity, martial spirit, and insight, but there was one commonality between all of them: it was incredibly difficult. People who spent two days to control Qi semi-proficiently would spend at least a month in order to finally take this essential step in the path of cultivation.

But back to Gong Lu's plight.

After gaining a basic control over Qi, Gong Lu looked to the next step. The Infinite Force technique stated that for this step, Force affinity Qi would have to be condensed in order to create a shape; in this case, the weapon Gong Lu planned on using.

So, before anything else, that brought up an important question: what was Gong Lu going to use to fight?

Swords were out immediately, as the only reason they were so mainstream was because of their light weight and high speed and maneuverability. Since those were traits that Gong Lu did not look for, they were redundant. His fists would result in a lack of range, while the bow would end up in deficiencies at melee. As for why he could not specialize in two weapons at once, it would slow down his mastery of both of the weapons. Any kind of blunt weapons, so hammers, maces, clubs, and the like, would be too bulky to properly have the necessary reach without an excessive amount of weight. For example, a cultivation-appropriate mace that also had the necessary reach would not only be extremely heavy, but also extremely weight-inefficient, due to most of the weight being concentrated on the top. Polearms were also unfortunately out. If Gong Lu was to choose a polearm, then cultivators who focused on speed and offense would be able to close the distance all while crushing the defenses and restrictions Gong Lu would put up. Then, they would be able to get in close and completely counter the long polearm Gong Lu wielded.

Unless... He was able to put up restrictions that would attack the opponent as they were destroyed, or that had some kind of price attached to them that would tax the opponent if they breezed through them. For speed and offense specializations, they would break through the defense with their strong offense and get subsequently powerfully attacked, being unable to defend or dodge against the attack. For defense and attack specializations, they would undergo a battle of attrition with Gong Lu, which he would win due to having two spirit realms, so basically a separate container of Qi for both defense and offense. Speed and defense specializations would be unable to get past the defenses that Gong Lu would put up, and those that "specialized" in all three categories were not needed to be mentioned, since they would be mediocre in each of the categories due to the spreading of specialization.

So, with that fighting style, as long as Gong Lu was able to find the right techniques, a polearm would indeed be a good choice, with nullifiable cons and a high amount of pros. One of these pros would be the strength that would come along with a two-handed weapon, and the maneuverability that would come with two hands on the same handle at two different points. There would also be a good amount of reach, which was a good side. The only thing that Gong Lu would be somewhat helpless again would be projectiles, but there had to be counters to every fighting style.

Now that Gong Lu had indeed settled on the fact that he would use a polearm, which polearm would he use?

He could use a spear, a halberd, a naginata, a guandao, a glaive, a lance, a war scythe, a wide variety of different weapons. But first off, strictly piercing weapons like the spear or lance were out. Their type of attacks was very limited, and if an opponent dodged the initial strike, Gong Lu would open up. He wanted a combination of slashing, piercing, and if he used enough strength, bludgeoning.

The first two criteria, slashing and piercing, narrowed it down quite a bit. Gong Lu was left with the list of halberds, guandaos, glaives, najginatas, and pudaos. Of these, Gong Lu did not like the halberd because of the very small size of the blade that was used for slashing, and, personally, he did not like the look of it. That was definitely not the main reason for it, though. The guandao, glaive, naginata, and pudao all had the same concept: a long, curved blade on top of a long pole, essentially a sword on a spear.

However, Gong Lu wanted to modify the weapon a little bit. To add more heft to the weapon and increase its slashing and blunt power, he wanted to make the center of the blade thicker. Using this should feel good to Gong Lu, but he would still need to learn how to use it.

Of course, before the actual combat, came the cultivation. Also, Gong Lu was still in the freaking womb!

Originally, Gong Lu was going to condense his modified guan dao in his spirit realm, but upon seeing the difficulty of this step, he decided to wait until he built of on the control of Force particles. In fact, Gong Lu wanted to allocate himself 2 and three quarters of a month for each affinity for building his control of the Qi.

This allotment of time was found through division of his time in the womb(9 months, he hoped) divided by his affinities(three, if you already forgot) with a good amount of time left over for formation of the core for each affinity.

So, Gong Lu had a very good amount of time to practice controlling his Qi. Now, how to practice was the actual question. Creativity would come in handy, though... That, Gong Lu knew.