Chapter 0131

“Sweetie, Starm, Starmy, Starmie.” Ah, Starmie! Pika pika. Wait no, Misty’s Pokémon doesn’t say pika pika. A pika pika says pika pika while Starmie says… what does Starmie say? Even though they were together for several seasons and who knows how many regions, Starmie doesn’t get a lot of screen time. It’s all the electric rodent’s fault! Yep, yep.

Rodents are mean dirty creatures who sneak around in the kitchen eating the food that should have been rightfully hers! And if there had been an electric rodent stealing her food, then she’ll see who has the higher voltage, a True Daughter of Storm or a yellow rodent.

Yep yep.

“All your food belongs to me,” Tempest said what she thought was a sinister voice, but she never realizes how hard it is for a little girl to truly be sinister.

Chomp!

“Oooouuuuucccchhhh!” Tempest yelled and let lose her instinct. She tries to throw the token bun off of her, but the little boy knew what she was going to do. He clung to her as his life depended on it. The token bun also shoves a massive amount a power through one side of her body while draining said power through the other side.

Head nanny Fenix jumped into the fray and separated the two squabbling children. She was glad they were able to get a quiet room in the Assignment Center.

All new teams had to register their team names after they had accepted assignments for the guild. The members of the group are still in the process of getting to know each other. Things tend to get rowdy during this time period. After replacing the furniture in the lobby of the Assignment Center, a few dozen times, the Eternal Spirit Guild started issuing tokens for private rooms to new groups.

The rooms were just four walls made out of materials that can repair itself should the mages fight among themselves. It saves them a lot of money in the long run.

“What the hell were you doing to crazy brat?” Tempest raged at the token bun. The other members of her group thought she was mad about the tiny bite token bun gave her, so they closed ranks around the boy.

“Tempest, calm down. A little bit isn’t going hurt you.” Yu Li Ming tried to appease Tempest but only got a glare in return.

“He was worried about your weird mumbling.”

“Yes, he only wanted to bring you back to reality. Talking to yourself isn’t healthy.”

“It isn’t the bite I’m mad about.” Tempest explained to the group. “It is the power he circulated through me. I want to know what he was doing!”

“What power are you talking about?” Everyone was confused about the situation. They saw Starm bite Tempest. They did not sense a surge of power coursing through Tempest, though it doesn’t say much considering the senses of a mage isn’t attuned until later in their cultivation, if at all.

Bei Ting Mao has the best sensing ability among the group, or so they thought because Tempest and Starm had better sensing abilities than he does, didn’t feel a surge of power and said so.

“I know what Sis Tempest is talking about.” Starm pushed his way to stand between Tempest and the rest of the group. He grabbed Tempest’s hand. The same surge of power circulated through Tempest’s body again. “It is this power.”

“Ahhhhh!” This time the power circulating through her body brought her down to her knees. Unlike the previous injection of power, the power surging through Tempest wreck havoc on her mana, causing it to riot. Tempest felt like she was being electrocuted, drowning and suffocating at the same time. She couldn’t stop the feeling nor could she do anything about it.

Thankfully, it only lasts for a moment.

“What is going on Starm?” Fenix asked the question that was on everyone’s mind.

“I can boost the power of mages,” Starm said shyly. He furtively glances at everyone before looking down in embarrassment.

“I knew little Starm was amazing.” Yu Li Ming leaned down and poked Starms cheeks. The token bun was getting cuter by the day.

“We hit the jackpot. A mage who can boost the power of other mages is rare.” Fenix said before lifting up the token bun for a smooch. Graden and Bei Ting Mao stood to the side, contemplating the ramification of Starm’s revelation.

Bei Ting Mao was wondering if Starm can use his ability to speed up the healing process the spirits were performing on his body. Once his dan tian is fixed, his cultivation speed will double since he has both earth and metal spirit veins and affinities.

Graden thought the process went on a different route than Bei Ting Mao. He was worried about other mages finding out about Starm’s ability. As Fenix had said, the ability to boost another mage’s power is rare. Often, the power boost lasts for a limited amount of time, but given Starm is the Son of Origin, there is a high probability the power boost could be permanent. There are mages that would go to great lengths to exploit the token bun and it is their responsibility as his group mates to protect him.

“You didn’t explain everything you little twerp.” Tempest grouched from her supine position on the floor. It was merely for a moment, but she hasn’t recovered from the torture token bun put her through.

Token bun squirmed out of the Fenix’s hug. He lowered his head in shame. Starm hunched his back and tighten his shoulders, trying to make himself invisible. From time to time, he’d sneak a peek at the expression of the people around him. All he saw was a gentle expression filled with patience and confusion. They were waiting for further explanation.

Starm opens his mouth several times to explain, but the words won’t come out. Starm moved his arms around trying to express himself using body language but it just reinforces the notion everyone had of him as a dead fish on the chopping block.

Kind hearted Yu Li Ming gathered the boy put in her arms and comfort him. “Amazing abilities have consequences. There is nothing wrong with it. Calm down and take your time. No one here will scold you Starm.”

“Speak for yourself. I will scold him. I will definitely scold him.”

““““Tempest!””””

“What?” Tempest asked, unfazed by the consensus censors of her group. “You guys need to know, and he ain’t speaking.”

“Can’t you see he’s trying his best.” Yu Li Ming defended Starm.

“Don’t haunt me when his best leads to your death.”

“I won’t be haunting anyone because I won’t be dying. Once I become an immortal, the first thing I’ll do is give you the beating you deserve.”

“Ha! You’ll have to cross the threshold before I do. Once I become an immortal, I’ll knock some sense into your head. Then you’d realize your place in the world - beneath my foot.”

“Like I’ll give you a chance. I don’t need to wait until I become an immortal. I’ll give you a beating now.”

“Sis Tempest don’t fight.” Starm got in between the two.

“You traitor. You only have eyes for your Sis Tempest. What about me?”

“I’m small. I have to hide behind the biggest back. You are weak right now.” Starm’s eyes began to glow as he said, “It is the nature of water to go with the flow, but you have forgotten, a powerful river can cut through mountains. No matter how a river bends, it is still a river. You must find the river inside of you before you can become an ocean.”

Yu Li Ming stiffens at Starm’s word. She understood what he was trying to tell her. She didn’t want to face the issues right now. Yu Li Ming is an equivalent of a 12-year-old. She may understand her issues, but she doesn’t have the physical and mental maturity to solve the issues.

“I did it again, didn’t I?” Starm asked looking ashamed of his ability.

“Yep. Now you know why I don’t go blabbing about things better left alone.” Tempest said in a superior tone.

“Sorry, Sis Tempest, I’ll do better.”

“Forget about her. Why are you trying to shove your powers into me? It hurts.”

Starm took a deep breath before explaining about himself.

Everyone calls the spirit of origin the spirit of origin, but to the spirits they have another name, the spirit of balance. The spirit of origin starts the process whether it be creation or destruction. They are the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning. They are intricately tied to creation and destruction.

The spirit of origin has a unique position in the cosmic balance of the world, or it can be said they decide what should be the balance of the world. Due to their unique position, their mortals can not cultivate like other mages.

The spirit of origin can not absorb ambient mana and convert it into mana for their mortals like the other spirits. Instead, they channel mana from the spiritual plane directly into the bodies of other mages and combine the mana from the spiritual plane with the ambient mana in the air then reabsorbed into the bodies of their mortal.

The reabsorbed mana can take on two forms depending on the elemental composition of the mage they use a filter: creation mana or destruction mana. Furthermore, they must balance the mana they have inside their bodies or they will explode from the excess mana they have.

A solution can be found for any problem given enough time. The solution the spirit of origin came up is to store the power in the other mages and take it when they need it.

“You’re using us to cultivate?” Bei Ting Mao asked in a dangerous voice. Yu Li Ming took a cautious step back. Stealing the qi, or in this case, mana is what cultivators from the demonic faction would do. The righteous sect abhors the practice, and they would hunt down any demonic cultivators they see.

“It’s more like dual cultivation than what you’re thinking,” Starm replied. He dare not look at the cultivators from the Heavenly Mountains. Theirs is a culture steeped in tradition and righteous. They label anything different from their point of view as evil and can be killed without hesitation.

“It is still a matter of theft. I don’t know about the others, but I don’t want my mana to be stolen.” The words were gentle for Bei Ting Mao. After his dan tian was destroyed, he tried all different methods to start cultivating again. During that time, he had suffered much humiliation. He risked everything for the chance to train as a mage. Now that he knows he can train both as a mage and a cultivator, he is going to double, no triple his effort in cultivation. He does not want all his hard earn progress to be stolen, even by Starm.

“Then don’t sleep with any mages.”

“What?”

“You people from the Heavenly Mountains don’t know? Yeah, from the looks on your face, you guys don’t know.” Fenix giggled.“We mages go over to the Heavenly Mountains all the time to drain the mana out of your cultivators.”

““What?”” Bei Ting Mao and Yu Li Ming shouted at the same time. They never heard of this before.

“Yes.” Graden confirmed Fenix’s word. “Except it is not what you are thinking. Male mages go over there and marry as many compatible women as they could. During the act of copulating, the mage can drain the mana out of the woman’s body. You don’t notice because you don’t use mana. The mage drains mana, not qi. Even if you did know about it, what can you do? The act is between a husband and his wife. If you were to make a fuss, then the Magus Alliance can declare war on you all because you do the same thing with your furnace dao companion.”

“What happens between a furnace dao companion and her husband is their issue.” Bei Ting Mao pointed out and Yu Li Ming agreed. They can’t say anything about the practice since they do the same.

“Indeed. The issue is between the mage husband and the wife he drains. Therefore, you can not interfere or risk an all out war from the combined might of the three other domains.” Graden nodded his head. He was glad they understood. “As for a female mage, all they have to do is walk into a brothel. There are no shortages of men who are willing to donate mana for a night with them.”

“I will never do such a thing!” Yu Li Ming protested. No wonder mages have a reputation for being loose!

“You won’t, but there are plenty of mages who will.” Fenix retorted. “And what is wrong with a woman having several husbands? If a man can have wives and concubine, why can’t a woman have multiple husbands? As long as you have the strength, anything is possible.”

“Do you not have the propriety as a woman?” Yu Li Ming was outrage at Fenix’s lack of morals.

“This is the propriety as a woman. The Magus Alliance, Ethereal Depths and Mysterious Wasteland operate on the notion the strong is right, regardless of gender. If you want to maintain your virtue, then why are you here? Only loose women or women abandon by their clans come to the other domains to train.” Fenix pointed out.

“I came here because my parents felt it was proper for me to accompany my fiancee here.”

“You’ve been duped,” Fenix sneered at Yu Li Ming’s gullibility.

Fenix was about to say more about the issue, but Tempest interrupts her. “As much as I want to debate the gender roles in the different society in the Cardinal Realm, it serves no purpose right now and I’m on a tight schedule. Starm continue with your explanation!”

Starm tried to shy away from the stares sent his way, but he knew he had to explain the situation correctly or he can never cultivate and he needs their help to cultivate.

“My cultivating method is similar to dual cultivation. No immoral behavior is involved. I just have to hold your hand. And I don’t steal the mana. I circulate it. All of us will benefit from the circulated mana because it is much purer than the mana your spirits have to work with. Your cultivation will increase at a faster rate too. Everyone wins.” Starm assured his groupmate. He opened his eyes wide, playing the innocent little boy card to try and convince the others.

“You forgot the most important part Starm!” Tempest yelled at the little boy, ruining the moment. “Your abilities make it easier to communicate with the spirits, thereby getting more attune the elemental nature.”

Smack.

“Why are you protesting a good thing like that?” Fenix went at it with Tempest. “Getting attuned to the elemental nature likes having an epiphany or enlightenment. It’s a major boost to cultivation! There are those who yearn for it day and night and spurn a gift presented to you on a silver platter. Are you an idiot?”

Three bright eyes lit up as they stare at the little boy. If this was the consequences of cultivating with Starm, forget about protesting, they’d pay money to cultivate with him.

Tempest is an anomaly in their eyes. Many strive to cultivate faster, learn more spells and skills, yet the stupid little girl is protesting! Did her parents drop her one too many times when she was a kid? Is her brain damage?

Tempest felt wrong by Fenix’s accusation. Tempest is a True Daughter of Storm. A True Child of the Elements has problems with too much power, not too little power. What Starm is doing is aggravating the delicate balance is her body. Her spirits had limited themselves to the utmost as to not harm Tempest and even then it already straining her body.

“Don’t hit Sis Tempest.”

“Starm, don’t defend her.” Yu Li Ming councils the token bun. “She doesn’t know what is good for her.”

“But is right to worry. My cultivation method can kill you.” Fenix stopped the minor physical altercation with Tempest at Starm’s words.

“Starm, why don’t explain everything sweetie.”

Starm didn’t need further coaxing from Yu Li Ming. “Everything must balance. With your affinities, the balance in your bodies can’t handle my power, so you’d die from the mana rioting in your bodies. Sis Tempest is the only one with the right affinities to regulate the mana I channel.”

“She is a wind water mage. How she can regulate the mana?”

Before Starm can mention her actual affinities, Tempest jumped into the conversation, “I may be a wind water mage, but I have a Resonance bond with Kataigida, who is a True Daughter of Storm. The after effects of the storms satisfy the creation and destruction nature needed to balance Starm’s power. The rain after the storm can help plants, grows or all destructions are left in its wake if the storm is too powerful.”

“Yes, that is it.” Starm agreed. It isn’t time yet to reveal Tempest’s secret. Starm gains nothing from telling the other Tempest is a True Daughter of Storm. He’d lose a big bargaining chip instead. “I can channel the mana through everyone, but I need Sis Tempest to regulate the mana.”

“And I won’t do it because it is really painful.” Tempest refused bluntly.

“Sis Tempest, I have your money from the charms sales.” Starm pulled out a small bag from his mage robe.

“Beloved Starmie, I’d love to help you cultivate.”