Hana signaled for her team to continue; Mata ferried over the final batch of cream-colored dough his team painstakingly made with Lord Brother Shi’s guidance. The dough was purely made using one-hundred percent spiritual energy manipulation! The large dough blob landed safely on the transparent ‘table’.
Hana opened her eyes slowly.
This time they were sparkling like a pair of emeralds! The color was a match with the Primordial Queen Mother’s six compound eyes! An eerie aura enveloped the area as she looked around with those beautiful eyes!
At the same time, loud drones could be heard from thousands of Elemental Fiends surrounding them, making all the spirit avians and freshwater creatures shivered uneasily. The Elemental Fiends were behaving weirdly as if they were praying in a trance. Were they getting aggressive due to hunger? That notion alone made the weaker ones jittered in nervousness. They dearly hoped that the Mistress could truly rein in these hungry-looking scary spirit insects when the time comes. They were too young to die! However, the spirit birds gaze at these excited ‘food’ with interest, hoping that they would err somehow. They could reap these ones like candies when the opportunity presents itself!
Hana ignored all the commotion and proceeded to knead the dough using her two hands, divided it into two, then into four, then into six, then into twelve, then into twenty-four rapidly. After a while, twenty-four tiny balls of doughs were presented on the transparent ‘table’. Afterward, she combined everything again into a lump of dough. Everyone was confused, and their faces showed ‘What abstruse art is this about, this time?’
…
In the Soul Domain Hall.
Did you see how it’s done, Q-chan?
At the moment, Hana was merging with the white-greyish star representing the Elemental Fiend Primordial Queen Mother.
Previously, she had asked her to join them outside, but the Queen Mother expressed how dangerous it was for her to appear in the open air, especially when surrounded by spirit avians, the natural predators of Elemental Fiends. If she dies, cultivating a new mature Queen would take tens of years before the hive could operate as usual. Hence, Hana got this brazen idea to try establishing a soul-link immediately so that she could share her senses with her cute Q-chan. She pitied Q-chan, who was left alone inside the house like a hikikomori. She dearly wanted the Queen Mother to join in on the fun too.
Hana wasn’t sure whether it depended on the species or something, but when she attempted to connect to Q-chan at the soul level, it happened almost seamlessly! To her surprise, they could easily achieve a true Soul-link without the need to break her heart demon to boot. Hana suspected that it might be due to the Elemental Fiend Queen Mother’s high attainment in a branch of soul-technique, which made them compatible in some way, though she wasn’t too sure specifically. The specifics didn’t really matter to her.
Yyy.. yes… Q-chan answered in a daze.
Her reply came a little slow. Hana wasn’t the only one who was surprised by the link formed. Q-chan had borrowed Hana’s eyes to see the view outside and was quite overwhelmed with the new perspective!
Come, let’s redo. This time, use my eyes and Micro Control from your place. Don’t use the children. Just use your own strength for once, Q-chan. I know you can. Hana wanted Q-chan to hands-on for once and genuinely get involved.
As you wish, Mistress… We… I will do my best. To someone whose life revolved around a community, the word ‘I’ was something very new to her. She reveled in her own individuality and felt deeply affected by it in a most complicated way. Q-chan’s response was getting clearer in such a short time; Hana was genuinely impressed with Q-chan’s extraordinary progress. It seemed that proximity helped a lot in improving Q-chan’s proficiency in Beast language. It was only a night and a day since they returned from the Waterwave Clan!
…
Tension filled the air as the creatures silently observed the Mistress intensely, trying to figure out what this was all about.
Little did the others know that Hana simply wanted to repeat the process of making the dough balls in front of Q-chan so that she too, won’t be left behind. The kind-hearted aunty also picked the more complicated route of preparation to let everyone in the team to involve themselves in the process. She knew it will be highly beneficial for all of them as a whole, especially when working together during mass-syncing.
The Mistress’ eyes turned glowing emerald again.
This time, the lump of cream-colored dough automatically moved about and divided itself in the air, just above the translucent bubble ‘table’ without the Mistress touching them with her own hands. The Mistress was doing nothing, but that pair of emerald-green eyes were moving left and right, following the movement of the dough lump, which was currently midair. The dough lump was divided into tiny doughballs, just like before. The only difference was, they were levitating midair as opposed to being manhandled rigorously by the Mistress on the surface of the transparent bubble table.
In no time, twenty-four identical dough balls appeared.
They followed the same route as the first batch; covered with homemade rice flour paste, entered the levitating bubble filled with clear oil, and landed safely on the pink plate after a few minutes. Total automation!
Now, there were thirty-four Spiritual Getuk Ubis!
Hana and co., “…”
The freshwater creatures and levitating spirit avians, “…”
The thousands of small birds who knew nothing, “???” They couldn’t understand the sudden, highly tensed atmosphere, but were slowly ushered to the side. Large spirit avians shamelessly replaced their location and came nearer bit by bit, hoping upon hoping. Hoping for what? Only they knew.
Hana tested the waters by raising her voice and exclaimed in a dignified manner befitting the main Lord of the Serpent’s Lair, “Who wants these Getuk Ubis for one spirit crystal each!?”
“SCREEEEEEE!!!!” The silence was immediately pierced by shrill screechings. The shameless birds in the sky screeched loudly with excitement!
They have one spirit crystal!
Although some of them didn’t need spirit food with low spirituality, their descendants definitely need them!
Herbs containing spirituality were gentle for the body, highly digestible, and provide a much better absorption as compared to spirit crystals. Hence, one can only digest around ten to thirty percent of spiritual energy from a spirit crystal as compared to sixty to eighty percent from natural treasures such as herbs with spiritual energy. In comparison, spiritual energy from spirit crystals was more virulent and could potentially cause injury or backlash if the user’s level was too low. These tiny round things emitted a much gentler spirituality as compared to spirit herbs!
Hana, “=______=” How shameless can these birds be? They weren’t part of the deal, nor should be within the picture at all. As opposed to the birds, the freshwater creatures were extremely quiet. Don’t they need these? So weird!
…Your friends didn’t need these? Should we open to the avians? Hana asked her pets, specifically the four freshwater creatures who just joined their team.
..Err, Mistress, you might not hear it, but everyone was shouting like crazy, saying they want one. Gramps Alpy replied while his mouth twitched in exasperation.
Bubble Language was not within the spectrum of some landbeasts’ hearing. However, spiritual beasts with sensitive hearing senses wouldn’t have a problem. Bubble Language was just a branch of the common universal Beast Language. One who knew the Beast Language could always understand the branches of other specific languages such as the Bubble Language, the Serpent Language, or the Avian Language. It’s like a Kedahan, a Kelantanese, a Johorean, or even a Sarawakian (1) will all understand the Malaysian language since it was the primary mother language.
Ah? Really ah? Haha... Hana laughed bashfully to cover her embarrassment. Can’t blame her for being normal and couldn’t hear fishes talk. She was just a normal aunty who likes to fight with fishmongers for discounts two months ago. If not, she’d be a fish whisperer already.
…
An announcement was made to the freshwater creatures below and avian above. It comprised of the eligibility to buy the highly sought after ‘Spiritual Getuk Ubi’, which was said to be able to boost up ones’ cultivation to a high degree!
It was being announced by the Lord Shiro of the Serpent’s Lair;
To be eligible to purchase one Getuk Ubi, one must have the following criteria;
- Cultivation level must be within initial low to medium-high. Nobles are prohibited.
- Must know how to play Dam Haji and its rules.
- Must be able to play Dam Haji regardless of winning or losing.
- Must pay one low-tiered Spiritual Crystal.
- Can only buy for yourself; one Getuk Ubi only per individual. Cannot buy for others or give/sell to others.
- No snatching is allowed.
Once the announcement was made, many of the Young Masters and Misses who scorned the mind-sharpening technique immediately felt deep regret. They thought that they could buy anything with Spirit Crystals, or even buy the advancement meals from others, as long as they pay more. It seemed that the Serpent’s Lair wanted to implement a fair system outwardly, but inwardly, it heavily skewed towards the servants’ faction. The shameless Spirit Avian who didn’t know to return home were the most unlucky! They have been ousted out from fighting for the resources from the very beginning. They never heard about Dam Haji! What technique was that?!
From a hundred plus freshwater creatures present at the clearing, around fifty plus was eligible, with thirty-nine comprised of the Servant’s faction, while fourteen were from the Elite faction. One other reason was the fact that the majority of the servants had lower cultivation level as compared to the elitists due to the lack of resources. At the moment, they had the Spiritual Crystals needed since all of the crystals they earned were kept by Gramps Alpy, who acted as their treasurer. The wise turtle had established something like a welfare association to care for all from Servant’s faction by working together to earn and grow stronger together as a group. Hence, no one was worried that they might not have enough!
“Hmm… There’s still more than twenty-six.” Hana bemused while massaging her head. How should she cut off more of them without hurting their feelings? She had automatically deducted ten Getuk Ubis from the list when considering that she had to give each one to her pets, excluding Kuro. Only fourteen Getuk Ubis were for sale.
“Alright, from your group, the ones who could manifest at least one spiritual strand could come forward.” Shiro at the side barked out instructions to the freshwater creatures in tow. Some looked frustrated, while others looked relieved. Hana did this to reward the ones who had higher talent with spiritual energy manipulation, or at least was hardworking enough. Truthfully, her requirements weren’t high at all.
Eleven stayed in line. Their faces were proud, and they puffed up their chests high with elation. The majority of them were from the Servant’s faction. Only three came from the Elite’s faction; in contrast, their faces were dark with resentment.
Hana walked over and pulled another three at random from the ones who stepped out just now. This time, she chose the cute ones regardless of their faction. A tiny mud crab with flowery designs on its exoskeleton shell, a graceful white silvery fish with shiny purplish pink eyes, and a handsome light green frog with a white unihorn. From a glance, everyone could see Hana’s aesthetical preferences and felt quite rueful why they were not born the way the Mistress would like.
“You guys are lucky to receive the favor of the Mistress. Better work hard in the future. This luck might not befall you ever again.”
Thus, Hana instructed Chomper to be their team’s treasurer, collecting Spirit Crystals in exchange for Getuk Ubis. The snakehead fish showed how touched he was as he haphazardly obliged, earning a warm smile from Hana and even Shiro. Each freshwater creatures received their very own Getuk Ubi with deep gratitude; they carefully held their very first Spirit Advancement Meal and smell it deeply.
“No worries, friends, we still have another set of Che Mek Molek coming in. Let’s just complete it in the evening, alright. I’m a bit tired. The ones who receive the Getuk Ubi, line up in grid form, ten meters from each other. The others, go to the side. I need to observe the findings of this round.”
It’s time to check the potency of the Getuk Ubi!!!
Authors’ Note:
- .. Kedahan, a Kelantanese, a Johorean, or even a Sarawakian = different region of Malaysia with different dialect of Malaysian language. Some dialects are very extreme until it sounded like a totally different language; Malaysians from different part couldn’t understand them unless they specifically learn, but these people will always understand the standard Malaysian language since it was taught in schools nationwide.
