Ava remained silent for a moment before she said, ‘What is Astral energy?’

Cense again stared at her as if she was a country bumpkin replied, ‘It is a very rare attribute of Qi, very powerful but highly destructive, no cultivator in recorded history has been able to truly harness it without a tool like myself, the only beings who have been known in being able to manipulate Astral Qi are a race known as Astral Beasts, calamity level beings who had caused untold destruction until all of the most powerful beings in the universe had to join hands to deal with them. Even then countless experts fell until they were finally defeated and drove back to the Astral Realm.’

Cense explanation only gave her more questions as she said, ‘Wait didn’t you just say I can possible harness it too? What does that make me?’

The spirit only gave her an irritating looking smirk that made his face appear even more punchable as he said, ‘Not an Astral Beast for one. They are born magnitudes stronger than you, and are practically mindless, all they care about is destruction and wiping out all life… as for you, well apart from being a bit ugly, are barely more dangerous than a fly in your current state.’

Ava shot the spirit a hateful glare but before she can voice any complaints Cense interjected and continued his explanation.

‘When the Astral Beasts launched a full scale attack to the rest of the universe, they would corrupt the very environment, making it practically uninhabitable for most beings, Astral Qi is very destructive, you need to constantly use elemental force to shield your self from its effects, and the stronger an Astral Beast is, the purer their Qi, making it drain a cultivators reserves faster to protect themselves from it. Portions of the Universe has been infested by such Qi, and I’m not sure how your soul ended up in such a place… but it’s practically a death sentence for most, as Astral Qi is usually very volatile and destructive, a weak soul like yours should have been crushed.’

‘So is that why that being took an interest me?’ Ava said finally realising why she seemed to have been chosen after all this time. After all if she was so talentless, then why bother with the effort to send her here with an annoying talking artefact like Cense. 

A look of delight filled Cense features as he did a mocking clap saying, ‘Well done… looks like your not completely brainless after all, I thought the whole re born as an infant thing reverted you back into one for a moment there.’

If the spirit noticed Ava’s obvious death glare, it sure didn’t seem like it as he continued his explanation joyfully.

‘Let’s just say that being was able to evaluate the potential for your soul and he saw something he only found in Astral Beasts, an affinity for Astral Qi, and that piqued his interest because why would such a small, weak, insignificant little soul that came from a land void of elemental force have an affinity of a Qi type thought impossible for any other race apart from the astral beings. You don’t know it yet but your potential… if you can build your foundation from Astral Qi, then your elemental force will be stronger than practically any other cultivator at the same level.’ Cense said.

Although the spirit was a complete fool he sure did have a knack for explaining things. 

Ava decided to ignore her desire to throw in a few sarcastic retorts and be petty towards the spirit who clearly seemed more excited than he liked to admit about her being able to use this Astral Qi deciding to humour him said, ‘And how can I go about using this Astral Qi?’

Again Cense looked at if her if she asked the most stupidest question in the world replied, ‘Well, me of course! My main use is to store and contain Astral Qi, my former creator and master spent countless resources to design an artefact built for this purpose to use Astral Qi in his experiments. Unfortunately there was no success despite his best efforts, any being infused with Astral Qi, no matter what method only ended up becoming insane or imploding, meeting a horrendous, agonising end. Of course I’m sure that everything will of course all go differently with you, I think’

‘Right…’ Ava replied not feeling at all confident about the spirits assurances. 

Did she even want to risk her new life in this way? Even if she had low talent she suppose she can just train using her pure effort, it’s not as if her life was in horrifying danger or anything.

Cense noticing her doubt from her distrustful expression decided to interject, ‘I bet your thinking, your new life is smooth and everything? That you won’t need to rely on Astral Qi, and you do t need to use any of those natural abilities or yours… well your wrong, this world is not for the weak and with your awful talent, you won’t be able to rely on yourself to become strong enough to avoid the dangers coming. Let’s just say you’re not in the safest of positions right now and like it or not I’m the best chance you’ll have at both you, your new family making it through this alive. That being you met, don’t think because he granted you this new life because that he is some benevolent all-kind god, there is a catch and he sent you here for a purpose, to become of use to him. If you stall and don’t use what I’m intended to be used for you, both of us will meet a miserable end, I’m in as bad of a spot as you are and I do not want to fail. I’m one failure away from being smelted down into the materials I was built from since I’m more of use in that way if I can’t help you fulfil your potential.’

The spirit wreaked of desperation as he pleaded towards her. She could just ignore him, he’s insulted her this entire time after all and doesn’t look like the most trustworthy of sources. 

However staring into his eyes she knew he was right, there was something strange about her birth here, the elven tribe seemed harmonious at the moment however she couldn’t help but feel this was the calm before the storm. 

‘So how do I get about using Astral Qi?’ Ava asked causing the spirit for the first time to let out a bright sincere smile.

‘Come over and sit by the Altar and I’ll show you,’ replied the spirit.

Ava followed the spirits instructions and sat beside the altar hoping that the damn spirit was right about her being able to harness Astral Qi.