Growing Pains 318 Book 2 Chapter 12

“How are they?” I asked.

I had been right in my hypothesis of what was happening to my younger brother and sister. They had formed a spirit root. One that had never been seen before. It was segmented, with the root branching out to form a connection to Iron, Cobalt, Copper, Silver, Tin, Platinum, and Gold.

The seven branches of their spirit root had formed a five-pointed star that had centered around the Dantian and used two of the branches to connect the Dantian and Qi channels. Spirit roots were universally found within this space, an offshoot from the Dantian that served as the bridge between Dantian and meridian channels.

Geon and Syha’s spirit roots served that purpose, but instead of connecting to a system that synchronized with one of the elements, the star they had formed added an aggregate of the electron count from each element.

Iron 26, Cobalt 27, Copper 29, Silver 47, Tin 50, Platinum 78, and Gold 79 combined for 336. The number divided by the seven branches of the root meant the children had a circuit with 48 meridians.

Higher than Silver, lower than Tin. It would be hard to understand what this unique configuration meant. Finding a cultivation technique for them to use might have been a problem if their spirits hadn’t evolved with them.

“They are fine, as healthy as you’d expect a newly ascended Body Refinement Realm cultivator to be,” Na assured me.

“Your parents, on the other hand,” she continued with a smile, “might need a week at a spa to recover from the shock.”

It wasn’t a bad idea. The Keep had been built with a spa, something the previous Lord hadn’t bothered to use, and I had only glanced at it to make sure it had been restored correctly and was functional.

It was used by staff and guards, but there was nothing stopping me from closing it to the public for a week and letting my parents be pampered. Gwen had found a staff that was talented in massage, facials, manicures, and pedicures. With the steam room, whirlpools, and mineral spring made available by the judicious use and placement of spatial arrays, the area could soothe the frayed nerves of even my anxious parents.

“Toi, what do their Spirits suggest we do about training them?” I asked, deciding I would make the offer of the spa retreat to my parents. “All children are given martial training and exercises to strengthen their bodies and minds, but are they going to be able to withstand the training a cultivator has to endure?”

Meditation, martial techniques that relied on punches and kicks, mental puzzles, and exercise was part of the mandatory education every Elven child was entitled to. The previous Lord had been as lackadaisical in making sure those education opportunities had been available as he had everything else the town needed that didn’t affect him.

But Geon and Syha had grown up near Flowing Water Sect. And for all the grievances and faults I had with the Sect and its habit of turning a blind eye when it came to cronyism and how young masters were treated, they had done an admirable job of making sure the town that supported the Sect was well run.

That included making sure children had teachers and resources that would help them develop the rudimentary skills needed to transition into cultivation. 

Sure, there were levels of resources that were offered. Those who had powerful backers who were wealthy or came from Clans and Houses that were well established received the lion’s share of the better quality resources.

But no child was ignored. The Sect had recognized long ago that there was no way to tell who the next genius might be related to. And if they destroyed their chances of recruiting such a child because of how they and their family had been treated, the Sect would be depriving itself of a talent needlessly.

The outer and inner disciples of the Sect, as well as the professions that trained and leveled there, produced enough lower quality resources and items to barely put a dent in the Sect’s profit margin by ‘donating’ those resources that would ensure the children of the town had a fair chance of ascending.

In any of the Wuxia novels I remembered reading on Royal Roads or Amazon, children had often been selected to start the path of cultivation. I hadn’t wondered why this world hadn’t followed those tropes, even if some of the training a child entering a Sect from one of those novels was something every Elven child might receive.

I had memories of this body’s life before I inhabited it. Those memories that dealt with different types of training. Even on the day of my testing, my father had spent the morning training with me, trying to squeeze out the last bit of increase to my strength and martial skills.

 “Their spirits have managed to speak with others from both sides of your lineage. The Wood Elf Spirits had nothing they could offer, but the Dark Elf side of your family practiced a form of cultivation called [Starflower Opens].

“It will allow Geon and Syha to open the seven chakras of their bodies: Crown, Third Eye, Throat, Heart, Solar Plexus, Sacral, and Root. These chakras will be tied to a corresponding spirit root branch and need to have the corresponding gem or stone grafted to satisfy the requirements of that cultivation technique. 

“The grafting of those gems, Quartz, Amethyst, Sodalite, Aventurine, Citrine, Carnelian, and Red Jasper will combine to form the crystal matrix needed to protect their Dantians.

“Their Spirits are certain that the affinities they resonate with and the techniques and cultivation resources that would work for you would work for them once they began practicing the [Starflower Opens] cultivation technique and bind their matrix.”

I listened to Toi’s explanation without interrupting, mostly because I was stunned. What did she mean when she said our heritage was a mix of Wood Elf and Dark Elf? Did others know that there were sub-species of Elves?  And if so, were there others? And how did a Wood Elf and Dark Elf compare to each other?

I had always known mother and father were hiding something about their families, and this explained why. 

The changes to Jai's childhood training, the events leading up to her acceptance into Flowing Water Sect, and her mother's lineage are all being edited and added to the early chapters of Renewal... I just wanted to let you know so you didn't think something strange was happening here.