Growing Pains 332 Book 2 Chapter 26

I had blocked a few hours before the start of the day to consolidate my gains from reaching the Nascent Soul Realm. Besides the quantitative leap in power, an exponential increase that I was slowly coming to understand, I had gained another mind partition.

This partition was unique from any other I would gain as it was reserved solely for Cultivation. I was no longer restricted to cultivating manually. This section of my mind palace allowed me to automate the [Transcend the Heavenly Footpath] process. 

Just as importantly, because this section of my mind palace was focused on cultivation, there was no possibility for me to circle the Qi I gathered incorrectly. As long as my mind palace remained stable, my cultivation would proceed without pause.

Without this evolution to a Nascent Soul Realm Cultivators mind palace, a person would have to enter closed-door cultivation almost non-stop to have any measurable advances. A Nascent Soul Realm Cultivator was still too far removed from the Heavens to consider severe their earthly bonds. 

There was too much work left for me to cast aside the Karmic ties between me, my people, my kingdom, and my family. In time those ties would be diverted. Ascending the Heavens was as much about escaping the fetters of Karma as it was advancing cultivation.

As I moved from one form to another, working to add the new Katas I’d opened with my advancement, I thought back to Elder Cix. It had been his guidance that had gifted me with [Tessenjutsu]. The forms and Katas that had been included within that martial style had included an evolution of skills that had to be earned.

Each time I advanced a Realm, [Tessenjutsu] allowed me to practice a more refined set of empowered movements.

Advancing to the Nascent Soul Realm had opened up three new techniques. [Reap the Wind], [Winter’s Edge], and [Tempest Fury]. [Reap the Wind] and [Winter’s Bite] were area-effect attacks. [Reap the Wind] allowed me to create and control tornadoes, while [Winter’s Bite] allowed me to harness and contain the destructive power of a winter’s blizzard.

[Tempest Fury] was a single-target attack, but that mean it was weak. It combined every affinity I had aligned with into a slashing attack that was so much more powerful than a wing blade.

On their own, these movements were powerful enough, but now that I had gained minor enlightenment of the [Dao of Growth], the power of each movement had evolved to something stronger. By utilizing my understanding of [Growth] and [Movement], I was able to manage small micro-changes as I performed each skill, increased my efficiency, and perfected my ability.

As I practiced, each technique flowing into the next, I purified the instructions the token had shared. I made adjustments to muscles, Qi cycles, and precision of motion and growth that transformed my performance from something resembling a dance to something ethereal and esoteric.

I transitioned from controlling the elements I was aligned with to mastering those elements. They became more a part of who I was as a Cultivator. No longer a tool to call on, the elements merged into who I was. I reforged my techniques so that instead of directing each element, I was each element.

I had needed to implement a protection array I’d looted from the Mystic Realm. One powerful enough to withstand the destruction my Nascent Soul Realm was capable of. Without that protection, I would have destroyed the world around me. That might not have been a problem if I had trained in isolation, deep in the forest, or within one of the mountains, but I didn’t. 

I used the training grounds that came with the schematics the Clan House had been built on. Those plans were heavily borrowed from the Mystic Realm, but Bob, Ming, and Pling had scoured through the tokens I had looted to adept those schematics to conform more to the island’s environment.  

The original blueprints and arrays had been built around the ice and water elements. Onkei had few areas of snow and ice. What it did have was a bounty of wood, earth, and fire elemental Qi. Bob, Ming, and Pling were able to modify the arrays I’d plundered to take advantage of the local biosphere.

Spending time incorporating [Growth] into each of my martial techniques was relaxing. The tediousness, the need to concentrate and experiment on how much and in what way to add the unique energy, gave me a break from my responsibilities and my worries.

Father had seen the wisdom of sending Geon and Syha to a Sect right away, but Mother had balked at the suggestion. I had been forced to show her the bones of the toddlers we had discovered when apprehending Ja Fiat to finally convince her.

There had been tears, but thankfully there had never been accusations flung that Geon and Syha’s circumstances were my fault. I didn’t regret my actions, but dealing with the consequences of the choices was easier now that both parents had excepted the inevitable.

I would allow a town to blossom to support Three Waters Sect organically. I wouldn’t encourage that growth, but I wouldn’t stifle it either. I wanted to appear as hands-off as possible so that any attention that the Sect did draw was because the Hindel were members, not any unseemly attention I might pay the place.

I was a Voice of the Hindel, so allowing them the chance to create a Sect would seem a function of my position instead of a place where sanctuary could be offered to those that needed to hide from the world.

I expected the novelty of Hindel Cultivators and professions offering a place to train to garner attention, but that attention would be on the techniques and skills the Hindel offered, not on a group of children playing at Outer Sect members.

It would take a long while before the Sect became known. But in the world of Cultivation where disturbances in Qi, where the ability to read the threads of Karma was possible, sooner or later, the Sect would be discovered.

I hoped that Geon and Syha would both be adults when that happened. Just two more Cultivators lost among the many I hoped the kingdom would churn out with the addition of awakening food, contracted spirits, and members of a gestalt mind.