'Humans focus too much on matters of the flesh. Our earthly desires cloud our minds till we can't focus. If the system had not arrived, most of humanity's attention span would have weakened to the point that we could barely watch a video longer than five minutes.)
Cultivating was an arduous process, but cultivating the mind was especially strenuous and required a form of singular will.
The soul was halfway in between the body and the mind. It was part ephemeral part tangible. This was the bridge of existence that anchored the mind to the realm of matter. The soul was the vessel of the mind, hence it was extremely important, especially in the casting of spells and techniques. The soul is what controls energy that moves through the body and the environment. The soul achieves this control through soul force. Soul Force controls energy which results in cultivation.
Experts in matters of the soul had the ability to use bizarre skills such as curses and blessings which most beings are unable to block or comprehend. They can communicate with spiritual beings in other realms and can transcend dimensions in their astral forms.
Last but certainly not least was the body. The body was the vessel for the soul. Energy travels around the body, converting it cell by cell, atom by atom into a higher state of existence. This was cultivation. Those who focused on physical cultivation constituted the majority of fighters. There were mainly two types. Those who focused on the energy aspect such as mages etc., and those who focused mainly on the flesh such as martial artists.
The physical body exerted a force called Life Force that could exert a tangible effect on reality. There were countless uses for Life Force, such as healing, prolonging, lifespans, growth, increasing physical traits such as speed and strength, communicating with physical matter, and the list goes on.
The mind controlled the soul through intent. The soul controlled the body through soul force while the body controlled the environment through Life Force. This was cultivation in its simplest form.
Intent, Soul Force and Life Force. Bastian wasn't quite sure where he stood, but he was confident that his mind and soul body were lightyears ahead of his body. This was one of the reasons he fought as a mage, to focus on his talents first. He was not sure how to proceed on the warrior's path as his family was a family of mages
Thankfully Bastian had made a plan for the three states of cultivation. But it could only work if he was able to fuse the soul site and vault using the yin-yang network.
Kenshin used the Matrix to also process his past knowledge. Unlike Bastian, Kenshin was not much of a thinker. He was more intuitive than logical. Bastian seemed like he was intuitive but Kenshin knew better than anyone else how frightening his brother was. If there were two words Kenshin could use to describe Bastian, they would be, 'Cultivated Insanity.'
This was a conclusion Kenshin had come up with long ago. Hence Kenshin was not able to come up with many abilities like Bastian. The Matrix was designed to only improve what was there. Kenshin's talent was never in the analysis and creation of technical aspects like matrices and cultivation manuals. He studied, trained as he was told and executed it.
He only learned what was relevant for warriors. In his training, thinking too much about various topics unrelated to one's speciality was frowned upon.
'It weakens one's ability to focus their willpower...or so I thought.'
Bastian completely shattered that notion for the former Blind Disaster. So instead of creating multiple techniques, he focused on improving his own. Kenshin was after all a martial artist above everything else, improving his strengths while removing weaknesses was more important to him than creating new skills.
Martial techniques took more time to learn than spells and took even longer to Master. However, thankfully nature was fair and in turn, a mage's ability to learn a spell was related to their intelligence. There was no such thing as a mage powerhouse who was a fool.
While there were many different types of intelligence, mages had to have a good ability to analyze and interpret data. One could say a mage's ability to perform in Pure Mathematics was a reflection of their talent.
Warriors were limited by time and their bodies, mages were limited by resources and their minds. Hence Kenshin focused on his abilities, especially the ones he frequently used. He also used the matrix to take in all the knowledge he would have otherwise forgotten. Perhaps it was a page in a cultivation manual that he just happened to glance at fit only a fraction of a second.
Perhaps he had heard a conversation about a Martial technique spoken in the background and not paid attention. Perhaps it was a technique he had learned but had forgotten small important tips on how to perform it properly.
Kenshin then realized that his reservoir of knowledge had increased by fivefold. It was an incredible situation. He already knew far more than the average person, but now he was as knowledgeable as someone who had lived for centuries.
The process of 'going through the dream' seemed like hours to the blind swordsman, but in reality, it was only a few minutes long.