Part 236: Treasure - by SaffronKit
No more faffing about, time to have a chat about...Treasures
Spiritual treasures, dao treasures, cultivation tools, they go by many names and yet all are essentially the same. They are treasures either refined by cultivators or formed naturally by the heavens that provide another lifeline any any cultivator able to use them. At their most basic levels, treasures can be as simple as a flaming sword to as complex as a mirror that can read the past, present and future. Treasures can be tools of all kinds, weapons, animal bones, rock or... you guessed it, a piece of a shit. There are literally so many different types of treasures that I'm not even going to bother trying to list them all.
For the most part dao spiritual treasures are created by cultivators to varying degrees of success, and after a certain level some treasures can gain their own spirit. This spirit, given enough time can also gain sentience, with some treasures so powerful initially the spirit is already sentient (if a bit childlike). Sometimes creating treasures is simply a part of being a cultivator that helps them advance on towards the Dao, sometimes it is an entirely separate Dao of cultivation to pursue with its own drawbacks (usually weaker overall combat power) and benefits (Lodsofemone), and anywhere in between. For now the game appears to fall on the 'every cultivator does it' side of the spectrum with some being more talented at it than others. We shall see out it turns out as the thread continues.
Now it bears mentioning, as you might be thinking "Well shit, if we find some kind of divine artifact we'll win the game ez!"... you'd be wrong. It is a very, very dangerous to acquire any treasure well above one's level, as it will incite other's greed and bring a disaster upon oneself or one's sect if news get out (it will get out). Not to mention a treasure of a level massively ahead of a cultivator's is more often than not impossible to use, at most a fraction of its power so it is even more pointless to keep it around. Treasures also most certainly lead to intersect wars and are generally one of the driving forces of any conflict while also being a part of them at the same time.