Growing Pains 310 Book 2 Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Placing a Kingdom stone was much more involved. The ‘stone’ involved was actually a series of crystals that had been carved with an intricate design that allowed the crystals to funnel and filter Qi. The crystals were centered within a Qi-gathering array that required precision when scribing. One that allowed the natural ley lines of the area to siphon off the filtered Qi from the stone.

I needed to place the crystals in an ascending order, each crystal painstakingly attuned to a musical note. My craftsmen had created a series of Gongs that corresponded and represented the musical notes within an octave.

As each Gong was sounded, I used a specially prepared mallet to strike the crystal that was added to the formation until the vibrations between Gong and Crystal harmonized. Once the final note on the scale was struck and the last crystal placed, I used the mallets to strike a series of crystals, the resulting melody completed the process, and the Kingdom stone was keyed to those notes and that melody.

I hadn’t spent time learning an instrument of the notation for popular songs for this world. I’d listened to performances, and when I’d attended the banquet the Sect had hosted, I’d danced, but my dancing was more an interpretation of my martial techniques than anything else.

I had decided to use D G B G B A G E D as the melody that would protect the Kingdom stone. The notes were from a song popular before my death, a song that was timeless and had lasted for centuries. Ever since it was first written in 1772.

‘Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound’ may never become popular in this world, but it gave me a sense of satisfaction, a sense of rightness that was both surprising and comforting to know that a small piece of the world I had lived in would live on as part of this new Kingdom.

A Kingdom I had decided to call Onkei. The word meant grace, blessing, and benefit, traits, and virtues I hoped this new Kingdom would manage to achieve.

The world seemed to stop as the last note was struck, the sound eventually fading. I watched as the Qi within the array became concentrated, taking on a liquid form. That purified and filtered Qi began to pulse, reaching out and connecting with the adjoining array I was standing in.

The Kingdom stone was placed, the protections keyed to the musical notation I had struck, and the only thing left was to allow the gathered Qi to resonate with and attune to my Qi signature.

I sat in a lotus position and began to cultivate. My control over the [Transcend the Heavenly Footpath] cultivation technique has advanced over the years. Not so much that I didn’t have to pay exacting concentration on the energy as it followed the path I had practiced, but enough that I could use a small amount of my Dharmic mind to control the Qi that I was processing.

As the Kingdom stone concentrated the Qi that it was gathering, I focused on absorbing, ‘flavoring’ that Qi with my own signature, and releasing it into a third array. This third array was the trigger that would determine the land I would claim. 

It had taken weeks of exacting mathematical calculations to determine the direction, diameter, and exclusions that would fall under my rule. The process would have been much harder if the Empire had ever bothered to claim the island, but they hadn’t.

Probably because they didn’t believe anyone would bother. Except for the area around Four Element Sect and the Mystic Realm, the Empire had enough territory to expand and develop without focusing on a small island days, weeks, or months away from the mainland, depending on how you traveled.

I had made sure to exclude the Sect and the mountain the Sect had been built on, but the rest of Delph Island was fair game, and I set the boundaries of the Kingdom to include the island as well as a few miles of the surrounding ocean. The Hindel would have objected to that claim if I hadn’t agreed to accept the role of Voice. 

Becoming a Voice would be done after I completed establishing a Kingdom. The hardest part of what I was doing should have been finding and creating the crystals I needed. The crystals were a rare treasure. To find them, a Cultivator who focused on music and had perfect pitch was needed.

Most Cultivators who managed to find these types of crystals spent years searching, looking through mines, mountains, and shale formations. The crystals themselves were easy to locate once you were within range. They would react when a melody was played, somehow repeating each note.

Those deposits that were large enough to create a full octave of crystals were collected, the rest marked and left to mature. There wasn’t a large need for Kingdom formation crystals. It was the rarity, and tonal quality of the octave harvested that set the price.

The Hindel had been kind enough to gift me the set of crystals I was using. They had access to hydrothermal vents across the ocean floor. Vents that formed the crystals needed and that were easy to harvest. The technique for finding a full octave set differed underwater, but not by much.

The Hindel used a version of whale song to communicate, the echo and sonar effects of that song actually made finding the deposits easier, and those harvested of higher quality. 

 Alpha, her consort, and a few of the stronger members of her Pod were waiting and watching as I founded the Kingdom. My people had carved the intricate patterns and placed the runes to use the crystals the Alpha had donated, but forming a nation was a rare event, one the Hindel was happy to observe.

Once I was finished, Alpha would initiate the process that would give me access to the gestalt of minds that all Hindel gained at the moment of their maturity. I would become a Voice in truth, not just in name. A Voice amongst many. The first Elven Cultivator to have been granted that honor.

That thought was the last I remembered clearly before the pooled Qi energy in the third array reached a tipping point. The pressure had gradually built up until, like a dam that could no longer hold back the flood waters, it burst.

The freed Qi was the spark that ignited a change, a reaction that changed the electrovalent bond formed between the Qi, the land, and me. The energies released in such a large-scale reaction should have left devastion in its path, but the Law of Heaven, the rule of Dao contained and controlled the volatility of that reaction.

I had no idea what this change would mean for me, not until it happened. But the need to control my cultivation, keep the liquid-Qi flowing, and containing the flashback of ionization was only possible because of the exacting requirements of [Transcend the Heavenly Footpath].

I felt my Cultivation advance, as I fought to maintain control. My Dantian, meridians, and Qi channels expanding as I furiously cycled more and more energy to keep up with the demands that claiming a Kingdom demanded.

I should have failed. I was only at the mid-tier of Qi Gathering Realm. And I would have failed if Alpha hadn't offered a lifeline. Realizing what was happening, and my ability to control the energies that were released, she sent a feeder. A tendril of mental energy that allowed me to connect, to join the cacophony of minds that made up the Hindel gestalt.

The backlash I should have resulted in my death was shared across the minds of billions. It allowed me to succeed, and it triggered my advancement to the next stage of Cultivation.

The Heaven's responded to my affrontary, igniting in a tribulation that was tens of times more powerful than the one that I had survived when I reached the Qi Gathering Realm.

But just as the Hindel Gestalt allowed me to survive the tremendous energies released as the ionic bond between Qi was reformed and adapted to my Qi signature, the Gestalt shared in the dissolution of energies the Heavens released.

I survived.

Not exactly a comedy of errors that allowed for a rare opportunity. But the results of my attempt at wielding power  that was too strong for me to control was measurable.

I had stepped into the Nascent Soul Realm. Not only had I survived the tribulation and advanced, I had reached mid-tier, advancing a full realm.