Ch 16: Growing up quietly

I sorta managed to get my head together by the age of 6 this time. While I was still seen as a strange child, I wasn’t as useless as my previous childhoods. My parents took advantage of the fact that I seemed to understand them from an early age, and was fairly obedient. Thus I ended up with a reputation of being a quiet and obedient child. Makes me think I’m getting better at this whole reincarnation thing.

“It kinda worries me that Davis is so quiet.”

“I’m just glad he’s so easy to deal with. His siblings are so much work to take care of. Just the other day, I had to deal with Brad getting lost in the fields!”

While I didn’t make any friends among other children, the adults seemed to like me, so life wasn’t hard, even if we were rather poor. However, I realized there was a really important decision to be made: how did I want to cultivate? On top of this was a really important self-identity thing to figure out: Was I a boy or girl? Or something else entirely? 

That last question might seem odd. Sure my body was clearly male at the moment, but I know now that I don’t have to be stuck with what I’m born as. Plus, I know from things I’d read in my life on earth, that some people may be born with the wrong body. There’s supposed to be something called Gender Dysphoria that people stuck in the wrong body experience. While I can’t really say I’ve experienced that, I’ve had a long history of not really being in touch with my own feelings.

Thus I decided my assignment for this life was to get to know myself. I’d spent my first life (in this world) just learning the basics of cultivation, and learning how to turn those basics against my enemies. My second life was spent mastering water ki, and formations. This life I wanted to focus on soul. Normally soul refinement is done fairly late, but I’m pretty sure a huge part of it is just knowing one’s own self.

Besides, I’ve got enough mastery of the basics of cultivation, that it’d take at least a decade and a half to even reach the point where I can do any interesting experiments. So, if I want to learn anything right now, it has to be something I don’t already know about, that I can do right away. Introspection is the obvious choice. I don’t need books or teachers for that.

“Sometimes I wonder just what he’s thinking about, sitting in the corner like that.”

“You ever think of just asking? Hey, Davis, what are you thinking about?”

“What exactly makes ‘me’ me and not you?”

“... I’m not even sure what you mean by that.”

“I’m not sure what I mean by that either.”

Ch 17: The Child Cultivator

“You really are lucky to have Davis as your son.”

“If only my other sons were as obedient. Tomas at least is showing some signs of maturity now.”

“Is it true that Davis started cultivating?”

“Is that what he’s doing when he sits like that? How could that be true? We’ve not had any cultivators visit for him to learn from.”

“How else could he be so strong? Just 10 years old, and he’s as strong as a grown man!”

“Hey, do you think you could convince him to teach me?”

That got my attention. I had been cultivating, and was now enhanced enough to overhear lots of conversations, even without trying. The only reason I’d not tried to teach anyone, was because I didn’t really think anyone would listen.

“You’d listen to the teachings of a child?”

“Even if he just tried something weird, it clearly worked. I’d like a chance to try too.”

“Haha! Yeah, if it works for you Hedrick, let us know so we can try too!”

“He’s just a kid! Don’t get your hopes up!”

Ch 18: We meet again

Tessa’s View

Finally found her after 17 years! For some reason if I went too fast, I’d lose my sense of direction, so I had to go slow. Yet Alice was so far away! I know there’s a god involved, so I can’t help but wonder if they were trying to slow me down. While it wasn’t as bad as the first time, when I thought I’d never see her again, I still get very lonely without her. The way she rambles on and on about whatever her latest idea is... I missed it.

Still, as much as I love her and idolize her, I wasn’t expecting to find the beginnings of a new sect with her in charge. She insisted she wasn’t starting a sect, but it was obvious everyone treated her like a sect leader. 

“I’m just teaching people cultivation, and trying to improve the fields. That’s hardly enough to call this a sect.”

---

“I see you’re a girl again.”

“Yeah, um, not exactly. I have a lot to say… about me, and you, and us, but mostly about me.”

“Why don’t we go somewhere a little more private?”

“Right, um, I’ve got a place.”

---

“Wow, you have a tree fort? Did you shape the tree itself to make this?”

“Yeah. I’ve got Wood, Earth, and Water veins this time. Learned a few new things because of it.”

“What is the bath is for? The water looks too dirty for it to be for cleaning.”

“It’s not dirt, it’s soil. A mixture of water and soil, inside a tree. This helps me get the right mix of ki types for my affinity.”

“So, what is it you wanted to say?”

“Oh, um… I wasn’t born a girl this time. Instead… well… I did a lot of introspection and tried to really understand who I am deep inside. I am a girl, or a woman, I guess, and even when I was born in the body of a boy, I’d always been female in my core self. I just wasn’t aware of it before. Thankfully, with what I learned last time, remaking my body isn’t too hard anymore.”

“Well, I’ve only ever known you as a girl, so this doesn’t seem strange to me.”

“Ah, yeah, I guess it wouldn’t.”

“So, what else? This wasn’t the only thing you wanted to say, right?”

“... I love you… Tessa.”

“I love you too!”

“A little hard to speak with you hugging me this tightly.”

“Sorry, got carried away.”

“I just don’t know if it’s the same kind of love as how you feel.”

“What do you mean?”

“My love is different from what I’ve read about in stories and books. Romantic love in stories always seems so possessive. I don’t feel possessive at all. If anything, I want to share you, so others can love and enjoy you as much as I do. I’ve never read of anyone loving like that before. I want to share everything I am with you. I don’t want to hide, or keep secrets. So, I’m trying to bare everything, even if it’s not normal, even if it’s weird and strange. I hope you can accept it all, and still love me.”

“I admit, that’s a bit much to take in all at once. However, I can say one thing for sure: I don’t love you any less for what you’ve shared with me.”

---

Now I’m the one feeling awkward, but after making Tessa wait over three decades for an answer, I guess it’s only fair.

Ch 19: Lessons

I was pleasantly surprised that people seemed to respect me even more after I grew up to be a woman instead of a man like they had expected. It’s not like there isn’t still sexism in this world, after all. My father explained that it’s because only a great cultivator can change their body. So, I guess ordinary people see it as a sign of greatness that I’m not bound by what nature gave me. Cultivation worlds really are different.

---

“Have you seen her? That green hair? She’s like a forest spirit from the old legends!”

“The one who’d turned this land into a land of plenty long ago? Hopefully she doesn’t meet the same end as the forest spirit in the legends did.”

---

Teaching cultivation proved to be an interesting experience. Despite being the teacher, and not the student, I learned a lot from doing it. By paying attention to what other people had difficulty with, and what they found easy, I was able to get a better understanding of why cultivation is normally taught in such a poor manner. 

The standard method of cultivation is the easiest and fastest method for most people to gain strength. Unfortunately for those who follow that method, they can expect to eventually hit a major roadblock caused by a mismatch between what they’ve learned to do, and their true self. 

One of the methods to overcome the problem is to change oneself to match what was learned. I suspect this is why the top ranks are so dominated by cruelty. Much of what is taught is violent and cruel, because it is designed for winning fights. So much of cultivation culture is controlled by the desire to win duels, and dominate others that people become corrupted by the very power they seek.

It’s a bit of a self-reinforcing cycle. People who succeed convince others their method is the best, so people use it and those who succeed either change to suit the method, or already started out suited for it. I’m certain there are other paths, but to break this world from the current one, I’ll have to spread new knowledge and ideas.

Thus, I chose to teach a set of very basic lessons, focused on what I considered the most important things to understand: how to gather and refine ki; how to refine the body; and how to learn about, understand, and refine one’s soul. On top of this I stressed the importance of finding their own personal path. If everyone forges their own path, instead of just following others, there should be more variety in the future. This world needs people to explore more of what’s possible than just what’s been done before.

Of course, I also included some basic lessons on how to use ki to improve the environment, and how much that mattered for cultivation. If everyone helps the land grow, instead of just taking from it, everyone will benefit from it in the long run.

Ch 20: Elements

Tessa’s view

As usual, Alice manages to defy the norm. Mass producing books, and giving them away, is something I’ve not seen anyone do before. Yet it’s exactly the sort of thing I’ve come to expect from her. It’s not just the books either, her casual disregard for keeping secrets will result in the techniques of paper making, book binding, and the printing press spreading quickly. Other than Alice, I’ve never heard of an inventor who would freely share their knowledge like this. Normally they cautiously guard their knowledge, keeping it a secret to make money with. Not that Alice has need of money when the entire village practically worships her.

“Are your new elements why you look the way you do?”

“Yeah, with wood, earth, and water, I had to create a new formation that properly embodied and amplified the right concept. Once I figured out how to make the formation properly, I embedded it into my body and let it get reshaped into this.”

“I can see the wood and earth, your hair and eyes being green like the forest leaves, and your skin looking like the dark brown of good soil. I don’t see any influence of water affinity though.”

“It’s not three separate elements. It’s one concept. I wield the power of fertile wetlands. It’s really helped a lot with understanding how to improve crop yields.”

“I wonder if I should try making a formation for myself.”

“No, it’s too dangerous. You have too much fire ki. Until your body is strong enough to withstand the heat of molten metal without injury, it’s not safe to fuse your ki with it… fusion… how did I not realize it was fusion before?”

Once again, she’s gotten lost in thought.

“That’s what the next step is! It’s obvious now. How could I have not realized before that my formation was doing fusion? That’s how the body reformation works. I thought it was a variation on healing somehow… How can I add soul to the mix? That’s got to be the next step. Maybe if I… no, I don’t know any soul manipulation techniques. Perhaps there’s another way…”

Is she trying to skip steps again? She hasn’t even formed her foundation yet, and she’s already talking about soul techniques. The proper order:

Ki Collection

Body Refinement

Foundation Building

Ki Refinement

Core Formation

Soul Refinement

Body Reformation

Spark of Divinity

Unity

Ascension

Alice seems to defy this order entirely. She’s already doing Body Reformation, but she hasn’t done Foundation Building yet, merely Ki Collection. Yet, I’m pretty sure she is also doing Ki Refinement. Last time when she died, I think what she was doing would’ve put her into Core Formation had she succeeded, despite the fact that she was actually in Foundation building still.

The cultivation method Alice is teaching, involves doing Ki Collection, Body Refinement, and Ki Refinement all at the same time. On top of this, I’m pretty sure some of her lessons relate to the early parts of Soul Refinement, but I’ve not gotten to that stage yet, so I can’t be sure. I’m still in Ki Refinement. This is seriously going to be the weirdest sect I know of.

“Do you have any idea what my single concept is?”

“That’s really something you need to figure out for yourself.”

Ch 21: Ki

There is one thing I’ve had to pay attention to in this life, that I never worried about before: where exactly does ki come from when cultivating? In the past I’d always been in places designed for it, or I was just passing through and it wouldn’t matter much. However, in this life I was born in a poor farming village.

The biggest clue that there’s need for concern is actually Tessa’s method of draining ki from molten metal. She was ruining the metals involved. If drawing ki from farmland ruins the farmland, then we can’t afford to do that. This village depends on farmland.

As I’d been cultivating slowly myself, it wasn’t a big concern at first, as I knew I wasn’t putting any sort of burden on the environment. However, I realized it was something I needed to understand if I was to teach others. If everyone in the village cultivates, I need to understand the consequences, and how to avoid problems.

It felt weird to realize that I had a problem to deal with that was more basic than anything I’d studied before, despite my focus on what I thought were the basics of cultivation. What could possibly be more basic than where ki comes from? Ki is the foundation of all cultivation. It isn’t possible without ki.

Thankfully, in my studies, I learned that cultivation is not a zero sum system. All living things generate ki. In addition, ki comes up from the earth itself. The amount of ki a living thing will make is dependent upon how much capacity it has. The basics of cultivation is increasing the capacity for ki, and thus increasing the amount one generates. This is typically done by forcing the body to take in ki in excess of its current capacity.

While in theory it’s possible to take in too much and be seriously hurt, in practice it’s usually not possible to obtain too much (unless someone does something stupid like eating a Water Pearl while still in the ki collecting stage). Usually all one needs to worry about is taking in the wrong type of ki by accident. Ki that is too different from what the body has affinity to will cause harm (this is also why the ratio of elemental ki matters, but that’s not really the topic right now. If I start getting into the true nature of ki elements, I’d probably not stop for… sorry, back on topic).

The reason this matters, is because it influences farming. Basically, it’s possible to make plants cultivate by forcing ki of the right type into them. I have to be careful, as too much can kill them, and using the wrong ki type can also kill them. However, by making the plants stronger, they will release more ki into their surroundings over time, and create a better place for cultivating wood ki.

I can then use formations to move wood ki through other things to change the type. Passing the ki through the earth, can convert it to earth ki. Feeding it to a flame can create fire ki. Forcing ki to endure strong winds without letting it simply fly away, will convert it to wind ki (I’m pretty sure it could convert to wind even if I let it fly away, but then it’d be out of reach and not usable). Moving the ki through a lake changes it to water ki.

Thus, with formations and cultivating plants, it is possible to create an area with all the ki types needed for cultivation. While I did have to spend time not cultivating to create it, in the long run it should pay off for me too, not just for those I’m teaching cultivation too. Plus, I’ve managed to improve crop yields, and the ki infused crops taste so much better. While I don’t need to eat anymore, the improvement in taste was really nice when I first got it working.

Ch 22: What happens next?

Tessa’s view

This time around, I feel like I’m seeing a side of Alice I’d not really seen before. In the past she never really interacted with others. While she’d still not be considered very social, she’s interacting with others a lot more in this life than she had before. As I watched, I began to understand what she’d tried to tell me.

Alice is someone who loves to share the things that make her happy with others (especially those she cares about), in the hopes of seeing it make them happy too. Since she loves me, she wants to share all the things that make her happy with me. I’m one of the things that make her happy, and I’m pretty sure she even wants to share me with me, but doesn’t know how. It might not be the same as how I feel, but I think it’s good enough. 

“Hey, Alice?”

“Yeah?”

“I think I figured out my concept. I’m energetic earth. Fire is power and energy. Earth is stable and stubborn. I’m a stubborn fool who can’t sit still, and you are a pliable fool who will simply grow wherever you are. So I’ve decided to stop waiting.”

I kissed her. I explored her. I finally got to know the side of her I’d always wanted to see, but never had the guts to seek out. I took what I wanted, and shared more of myself with her than I ever have before. Alice showed me the happiest face I’ve ever seen on her, and I loved it.

I’m pretty sure I saw fruits hanging from her tree later that I’d not seen before.

Alice’s view

Oh wow. I feel like I’ve just had a whole new part of me opened up. Sudden enlightenment is pretty powerful stuff, and this one’s a doozy. I think I passed out for a few days, but when I woke, I had a much better sense of everything than before. It was like I could see everything around me, even a ways outside my tree house. Is this the divine sense? I’ve only just completed core formation. Divine sense isn’t supposed to be awoken until one steps into the Spark of Divinity.

If this is divine sense, then what’s this feeling of dread?

“Tessa, we need to evacuate everyone.”

---

“How can we just flee? We should defend the sect!”

“Don’t you remember what she’d always say? There is no sect, only knowledge! She wants us to spread her teachings and books as far and wide as we can.”

Ch 23: The wrong kind of attention

Leader Demina, of the Demonic Blood Sect’s view

Oh? They’ve almost fully evacuated? Did they somehow get word of our coming? No matter, it’s time to harvest this crop. We let them grow so we’d have a juicier meal when the time came. The land here is ripe for the ritual, and they don’t even have a proper defensive ward.

“Attack! Spill their blood! The power here shall be mine!”

“Their leader emerges!”

“Hah! A pitiful mid stage core? Once I’ve drained this land, I’ll have enough ki to begin building my spark of divinity!”

---

Tessa’s view

Damnit Alice, I hate leaving you behind like this. If not for your certainty that you’d be reborn, I’d insist on joining you in your fight for time. It hurts to know you’ll die again.

---

God’s view

I thought that if I put her out in the distant lands where cultivation was little more than a myth, because the land was too poor to support a sect, that I’d be able to ignore her for a century or two. I’d even made sure she didn’t have pure water veins, so she’d be limited in her ability to use her existing cultivation knowledge. Even if she were smart enough to leave, it’s hard to develop quickly without support from a sect, and I didn’t expect her to leave. She’s too passive.

Instead, when I check back after a century, not only is she already dead, I find she’s somehow done the impossible. She’s the founder of a now headless sect made up of wandering cultivators (and the place she was born is now a barren wasteland… again). Because they spread their teachings to all who will listen, they’ve even continued to grow in number long after her death. Almost all the wandering cultivators in that region are part of her sect now.