← Chapter 5 | Index | Chapter 7 →
Over the next few hundred years, I slowly dispersed drops of blood to various monsters. Not enough to have a repeat of the Bird Incident. Though it certainly made the wilds a lot more dangerous! I stopped, though.
The boost it provided to the spirit beasts was too contained. The beast that took in the blood would achieve significant gains, but that didn’t really pass down. Don’t get me wrong! Some of it did pass down.
In fact, the longer they lived with the blood, the more got passed to any offspring. Seems the blood works like an external boost that the spirit beast has to actively incorporate before it becomes inherent.
Which sucks because the power always goes to their heads!
I, uh, I went on a little longer with the tests than I probably should have, but I did figure out what was happening! The blood boosted everything about them, including their minds. Except, where would all that new mental power come from? Well, it wasn’t inherent, so obviously it comes from outside. In specific, the extra mental ability comes from whatever the blood came from.
So, you’ve got this newly buffed spirit beast with the instincts of a beast at least a couple of magnitudes stronger. Arrogant doesn’t even begin to describe them! So they die to hubris and pride.
All of which is interesting to know and gives me a warning of what could be a problem in the future. Don’t need to think too hard on what it would mean for someone to bargain to be smarter with a devil or equivalent.
So instead of boosting the beasts, I just poke them towards the humans. Which, in hindsight, is a lot easier. My spirit veins attract the beasts, or rather, denser Qi does, which forms around my veins. So, all I have to do? Poke up a spirit vein nearby a human settlement! Bingo bango, they’re going to tango!
This uh, wasn’t kind to the humans. Sort of went down in their oral history as the Era of Darkness. They hardly lit fires in fear of attracting attention.
But it worked!
The first human to put things together was Ver Firetender. Sitting around his village’s hidden campfire and listening to the stories, he put some things together. A shame that only I will remember him as his breakthrough caused my spirit veins to improve in quality. See, while he was the first, his village got destroyed well before his discovery was passed around.
Good thing that over the next century. Well, more like 80 years. Don’t want to undersell their achievements!
People across my surface and some under as it seems all that moving around of my spirit veins had left an absolute mess of caves, all discovered how to take the first step. All it took was the rampant killing of beasts who were about to become spirit beasts and their subsequent butchering.
Did I mention that I didn’t actually know the specifics on how it worked? Kinda wished I had as all this likely wasn’t necessary.
I had thought that the beasts naturally absorbed Qi and awakened their bodies. My goal with the beasts? Having the humans observe them and figure out some animal-based martial arts or learn how to “breathe like a tiger”. Maybe someday they will!
For the first step, though? Anyone can take it, irrespective of talent or skill. All it takes is to take it.
Sounds stupid, right? How can a beast know to take the step when the humans were stumped by it despite so much effort and thought being put into it? Well, that is exactly the problem. Beasts didn’t think about it.
Once a beast has enough Qi saturating their body, without any thought, some will automatically take the needed step. Humans worried, pondered, thought, and puzzled over the matter. They assumed there had to be More to it, especially those who came from realms that got invaded. After all, the invaders aren’t exactly going to tell them the secret. The opposite, in fact. They obfuscated the matter!
So after years of trying to find what made the spirit beasts different? People finally gave up trying to complicate things and let it happen. Boom. They stepped onto the path of cultivation!
Now, admittedly, this is a little simplified. They still need to gather enough Qi to saturate their bodies. But guess who just spent years shoving spirit veins down their throats to attract spirit beasts to them? So yeah, even average people could take the step by the time they’re 25, 30 on the outside.
Of course, the first step didn’t magically make them all cultivators. Oh, now, I’m sure that once people get around to naming and categorizing things, this step will simply be labeled as a person’s “awakening” or some such. After all, given what they’re saying, it mostly gives you a sense for Qi. Some claim a boost to their strength? But I think that is a matter of some people being more talented than others.
Anyway, you would think this would represent some kind of mass awakening. That everyone would take that step! Well, as proven by the fact that not all beasts become spirit beasts, this isn’t the case. Some people simply don’t bother. Which, because the first step only provides a sense for Qi? Well, I don’t blame them.
Except I need every one of them awakened to Qi so someone can figure out what the next step is! I certainly don’t know. Though some of the spirit beasts have managed it. Even if I suspect that is more a matter of blind accumulation. None of them have experienced a qualitative change yet?
Maybe with enough accumulation, they’ll change quantity into quality? For the moment, I’m assuming that is the invertible step that needs taken. It is possible there simply isn’t enough Qi?
I only have so many spirit veins. Sure, the qualitative improvement from Ver taking the first step was a onetime boost. As more people take the first step, I grow more spirit veins. Though the new ones are at the quality they had been before Ver.
Also, this new growth of spirit veins wasn’t going to be an endless gravy boat for me. Each new vein required more people to take the step and seemed to be going exponential. Though these two data points definitely reveals that my growth is inherently tied to the growth of those living on me.
Oh, and the spirit beasts don’t seem to be doing anything for me? Though I had already assumed that, given I got nothing for all those primordial beasts. Maybe someday this will change?
Plus, it’s not like I can ignore them. They’re the pressure, the outside force that is pushing my humans. I don’t remember much, but I get the feeling that left to their own devices, my humans will hide knowledge of how to cultivate. That those who arrive at the next step will constantly try to pull the ladder up behind them.
Oh, sure, given time? It will leak or others will discover it anew. But beasts don’t care about any of that! So if the humans begin to stagnate a little too much? Well, I’ve already shown that I can guide the spirit beasts. I can certainly do it again.
Though I suspect there will come a time when I can’t move my main spirit veins around willy-nilly. It was almost imperceptible and even now? Might be my imagination, but it feels like my higher-quality veins have a bit of drag to them as I move them.
A worry for the future. Right now? I need to figure out how to get the humans to care about Qi. A few generations have passed since they discovered how to take the first step and they’re mostly using Qi sensitivity to Avoid Qi! Avoid it!
How are they supposed to figure out cultivation if they now require fifty years to simply awaken to Qi?
Oh, I don’t blame them for this. It isn’t hard to connect higher Qi density with higher spirit beast density.
Eh, they’ll get curious. I don’t need to push this step, especially when I’m still getting decent gains from them taking the first step. Maybe I’ll be more pushy when I stop gaining so many spirit veins? Then again, I’ll end up saturating the land if I’m not careful. Though there is a good bit of sea to put them in.
Which actually isn’t the worst idea. What’s a sea without some sea monsters? I’m not really sure how the edge of my realm will look to humans as to me it is just an edge, but I don’t really “see” things like a human. At the very least, I am most certainly not depending on light or else the deeper caves would be quite the problem for me.
Not a big problem, mind you. Though being able to keep track of all the subterranean beasts is nice.
← Chapter 5 | Index | Chapter 7 →