Growing Pains 312 Book 2 Chapter 6 (Patreon)

The first thing I checked when I woke was to check my spirit root and Dantian. If I had destroyed my cultivation, everything that I had done, everything that I had worked for would have been for nothing.

I was relieved to find everything still working, working with an efficiency I’d never possessed before. A quick trip into my inner sea explained the reason. The island that I had formed had grown, the ocean of Qi that lapped at the edges more turbulent and deeper.

I sat in lotus beneath my [Dao] pillar to circulate my Qi, to cycle one instance of [Transcend the Heavenly Footpath].

Everything was so much easier. Micro blockages that I hadn’t even realized existed had been cleansed, and the amount of Qi I cycled was staggering. I continued to cultivate, following the Qi as it traversed my meridian channels and my inner sea until I believed I understood what was different.

I was filtering and absorbing Qi at a rate that was at least a hundred times more effective than I had been. The only explanation I could come up with to explain this jump in cultivation capability was that I had progressed my Realm.

And by a significant amount. 

I didn’t remember the Kingdom claiming ritual transforming into a tribulation, but it must have at some point. I was firmly in the Nascent Soul Realm. And the only way to advance Realms was to defy Heaven.

‘Sister?’ Storm said, having waited until it was safe to interrupt my cultivation.

‘I’m fine,’ I said, watching as she approached the island to land next to me.

I was not the only one to change. Storm was larger and brimming with the raw energy of a newly evolved beast. She had tiered up, her evolution only confirming my belief that I had advanced.

‘Big fish people helped Sister. Lots and lots of voices swallowed the lightning. More voices than ancestor voices. Storm didn't like it and asked ancestors to block the voices. The ancestor said not to block voices for Sister. Sister would have to learn to block.”

I always got a chuckle out of how Storm referred to the Alpha and the Hindel. She knew they were people but still insisted on identifying them by focusing on the walrus part of their bodies.

‘Storm sorry could not protect Sister.’

The feelings of fear, helplessness, and worry that Storm was transmitting across her bond were heartfelt and honest. Her emotions brought me to tears, and I moved to embrace her.

It was harder to do than it had been. Storm had grown large enough that she stood taller than me, and I had to levitate a few feet off the ground in order to wrap my arms around her neck. At least my arms were able to reach around her neck completely, allowing me to bury my nose and breathe in the scent of rain and ozone that was her signature fragrance.

“Voice?” Alpha said, her voice reverberating within my inner sea. A faint echo created a harmonic resonance as I matched the sound of her voice with the mental impression that existed within the gestalt of minds that the Hindel controlled.

“Can you continue?”

I was confused by what she meant for a second before I realized that placing the Kingdom stone was only part of what I planned to accomplish this day. It seemed I had already joined the Hindel mind collective, how or when I would have to meditate on later, but there was still one last task. I still needed to bond with a [Dao Companion].

That might be problematic now. 

The Hindel I had selected before my advancement was at the Qi Gathering Realm. With my advancement to the Nascent Soul Realm, it would no longer be possible to establish a [Dao] link. We would need to search for someone new, someone at the Nascent Soul Realm if I wanted to establish a partnership between equals.

“I can,” I assured Alpha. My words comforting the rest gathered, those of my House that I had gathered to witness the founding of Onkei. “But we may have a problem. 

“I have progressed into the next Realm. I don’t believe it would be wise or fair to form a [Dao] partnership with any of the Hindel that we had interviewed and screened. How fast can a fresh batch of perspective companions be gathered?”

“That won’t be necessary,” Alpha replied with satisfaction. “As part of the mind hive of our people, we were able to share and siphon some of the power from your tribulation across the collective. 

“A number of Hindel were able to take advantage of this influx of energies to deny the Heavens their attack against you while increasing their rank. When I noticed what was happening, I focused a part of that energy on Cien."

It had taken some time to find Cien. The Hindel didn’t have great diversity when it came to Qi affinities, 99 percent of them aligned with water. I wanted a companion that would offer something that might elevate or expand my own affinities.

Her affinity for life Qi had been perfect, and I would have regretted losing this chance because I had out-leveled her by accident.

“Do Hindel always share their tribulation across the mind gestalt?” I wondered.

“Hindel do not need to endure a tribulation,” Alpha replied. “We are able to cross Realms without defying the Heavens. Our cultivation is predicated on our cores, much in the same manner as Storm tiered up.

“Your experience and the ability to spread Heaven’s wrath across the gestalt was the first time for either of our people. It was an enlightening experience, one that we will study.”

“If there are no side-effects from absorbing the energies the lightning released, then maybe we can add more Elves to the gestalt? At least long enough for them to survive a tribulation?” I suggested.

“Can a person join the hive mind and then be removed?”

If the Hindel were able to offer this benefit to my people, it would be a game changer. If every Cultivator that attempted an advance were guaranteed to succeed, it wouldn’t be long until my island nation could stand against even the Empire.

It might take centuries, even thousands of years, for that to happen, but as the life expectancy of Elven Cultivators grew with each breakthrough, a thousand years was a blink of an eye in the passage of each individual’s life.