Chapter 91
Another Lucky Break
Tobias had not lied to Patriarch Lee. Because of Yin Hao's luck, they managed to tap every source of sage realm herbs on the continent for the Civil Realm. There was nothing he could do to increase the amount of miasma that a nascent soul realm cultivator produced there. There might have been ways he could tweak other realms, but that did not mean he could get access to those places or that he wanted to. So, he was happy to focus his attention on helping his family.
Most of the Divine Council were now infected in the Civil Realm, and Peace Master So had begun transforming the realms of the Great Clans and sects, preparing for the future, while his father waged a silent slander campaign against the Divine Council's actions. Only two other members hadn't become infected and entered the Civil Realm: The Matriarch of Mist Sect and the Matriarch of the Chow Clan. The upper echelons of The Three Kingdoms were in turmoil, but most hadn't noticed.
For once, Tobias didn't care.
This was someone else's problem.
Tobias happily sat across from his grandpa, sharing a cup of Three Towns Tea. The old man had finally returned it to its original glory. There were subtle differences in flavour that made it even more delightful than the previous generation. Tobias could even enhance his taste buds beyond human norms, revealing layers that were previously absent. It was a truly wonderful experience.
Tobias put down his cup and poured another while his grandpa did the same behind the barrier. "I'm curious to see if you can improve your cultivation while you're infected."
Grandpa Finch paused. "It's my understanding that becoming infected damaged our foundation."
There was a brief moment between when someone was infected and when the sage realm spirit herb suppressed the destructive nature of the miasma within them. During this time, any tempering of the body or meridians achieved through cultivation pills or cycling elemental chi was damaged. The trace elements left within the body that improved a cultivator were held together by chi, and the introduction of miasma broke these bonds.
Tobias drank his tea. "It did, which is why I asked you all to perform cleansing cycles to remove as many of the impurities left behind as you could. However, the infection is now supressed so I'm curious about what will happen if you try to repair your foundation."
"Are you curious to see if it will work, or are you curious to see if it will help us?"
"Both. The amount of miasma in your body is determined by the strength of your cultivation. The miasma within you is less than when you were first infected, due to the damage. This suggests that the levels can fluctuate."
"Is this why you've had us practicing cultivation exercises since we became infected?"
"No. I want to track how much your skills have improved as your divinity grows. No one has ever been able to accurately research this, so it was the perfect opportunity to do so."
Tobias's clan had spent the entire war in Cloud City. During that time, the Cultivation Academy and his relatives lived side by side, working together in the spirit gardens. When people live side by side and work together, romantic interest quickly follows. Dozens of disciples had married into his clan and returned with them to the Three Step Hills to practice his family's cultivation method.
Those members of his family who stayed behind in Cloud City then met the second generation of disciples, including cultivators with exceptional divinity. More marriages followed.
The data these former disciples had collected was outstanding. Tobias had combed through it over the past ten days, piecing everything together. It had provided a wealth of new insights, like the fact that improving your ability to perform an exercise increased the amount of miasma you released. This was independent of the increase that occurred from your rising divinity.
Grandpa Finch sighed. "I suppose you want me to begin now."
Tobias smiled. "I'll let you finish your tea. I'm not a monster."
"How considerate of you."
They shared a chuckle.
When they were done with their tea, Tobias removed a bottle of his family's body-meridian-expanding pills from his storage ring, which he'd asked his second cousin's wife to prepare. She had a divinity of nine, so hadn't become infected yet. The pills attuned body meridians to wood chi and contained spirit willow dao. They were the foundation of his family's cultivation method.
Tobias had already tested whether the sage realm spirit herbs could recognise whether the pills were beneficial to their source of miasma. They couldn't. So, he removed a rice ball from his storage ring.
The barrier vanished, and Tobias floated both the pill and the food over to his grandpa.
Grandpa Finch started eating the rice ball while staring at the pills. "Are these the higher divinity pills?"
Tobias nodded.
With improved divinity, his grandpa could now practice the superior version of his family's cultivation method. They all could. Unless they ransacked their new realm, it was going to take them decades to produce the resources they all needed to reach the core realm, and that was with the current chi saturation. This would hopefully shrink the next time one of their spirit herbs had a breakthrough.
"It's strange," Grandpa Finch said. "I've been sitting here for months to improve my divinity, and I'm only just realising that I've become a true cultivator."
Tobias smiled. "That can be explained by old age."
Grandpa Finch snorted. "Another comment like that and I'll remind your mother you still aren't married."
"You are a vindictive old man."
His grandpa grinned as he threw the pill in his mouth and swallowed. He immediately closed his eyes and began cycling the chi from the pill through his body meridians.
Tobias rose to his feet and went to talk with his other relatives. His cultivation wasn't high enough to observe the changes on the other side of the barrier, so there was little reason to stay and watch the old man.
Tobias was listening to his cousin's daughter's husband's proposal on how their family could more effectively manage their personal gardens while trapped, when he sensed Yin Hao appear at the edge of his aura. The cultivator was speeding towards his family's realm, but he was coming from the wrong direction. He should have been coming from the Capitol, but he was coming from the border.
Tobias politely ended the conversation and rose to greet his guest.
Yin Hao was not a polite guest. The man barged into his clan's realm, appearing beside an unused sage realm spirit herb. The moment the barrier dropped, he entered.
Tobias did not fail to notice that the cultivator was injured as he walked over to the barrier. "Why are you here, Yin Hao?"
Yin Hao gave him a relaxed smile while holding his injured side. "The Divine Council withdrew my access to the Civil Realm, so I went home. When I arrived, I discovered three of the khan's heirs sitting in my decoy spirit garden."
"What's a decoy spirit garden?"
"It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a spirit garden you establish to hide your real one. I activated my illusion array, collected my valuables, and barely got out with my skin intact. Then I went to visit some old friends who might assist me."
"They turned you away."
"They all know about my little trick, and none of them are happy that I kept it to myself."
"Why not go to Peace Master So? He owes you."
"I did. He's willing to host me in his realm, but he can't allow me to plant my spirit garden there. Our daos conflict. And I don't have time-locked storage treasures like he does, and he can't store so many sage realm spirit herbs with his. He suggested I bring my garden here. Your family's cultivation is based on the dao of the spirit willow, so making this realm lucky won't affect it negatively, even if it does lose a little peace and tranquillity."
Tobias agreed with that.
Peace was achieved through active effort, not luck or chance. The two daos would have terrible interactions. Depending on how long the two gardens shared the same space, it could take decades or even centuries to repair the damage. Peace Master So would not be able to cultivate during that time, so he was never going to accept.
Yin Hao turned to Tobias's grandpa. "Why is that man trying to improve his foundation while infected?"
Tobias wanted to groan.
Yin Hao's luck was absurd.
Had he arrived an hour earlier or later, he wouldn't have seen anything. Instead, he arrived exactly when he needed to, to receive the greatest benefit. Tobias had wanted to keep this a secret if it were proven true. The fact that Yin Hao was here now confirmed that Tobias was onto something.
However, Tobias had also discovered that the man's luck worked both ways. There was rarely a situation in which his luck only came out in his favour. Instead, everyone involved experienced a lucky encounter to some degree, because this was the true nature of luck. Something couldn't be considered truly lucky unless everyone involved benefited, or personal tragedy was averted.
Tobias sighed. "It appears that I've made another potential discovery."
Yin Hao grinned. "I was wondering what all these unfortunately lucky events were leading to."
A diagram of the cultivation realm appeared in his hand, and he waved it before Tobias. Peace Master So had sent Tobias a different diagram for the eventual layout of the realm. This one likely included Yin Hao's spirit garden.
Tobias finished reading the layout. "Do you have the skill to do this?"
"You don't need skill when you have luck."
Tobias stared back, unenthused by his cocky attitude.
Yin Hao laughed at his annoyed expression. "However, skill does allow you to take advantage of the fortune luck brings. And I've been lucky enough to study under sage realm gatherers. I'm likely the most skilled gatherer alive today."
Tobias watched as every member of his family turned to the nascent soul realm cultivation with undisguised interest.
"And I would be happy to share what I know while we're all trapped here waiting for the plague to pass."
Tobias relaxed and smiled. "You may balance our realm and stay as long as you like, Honorary Elder Yin Hao."
Yin Hao winced. "You're asking a little much for his."
Honorary Elders were required to protect the clan they served. This was usually in exchanged for resources to progress their cultivation and the ability to borrow their prestige. Yin Hao was technically supplying those resources himself, and their prestige was currently less than his.
Tobias continued to smile. "I'm sure this arrangement will come out in your favour. You're too lucky for me to take advantage of."
Yin Hao sighed. "This better be the luckiest damn encounter of my life or you'll live to regret it."
***
Yin Hao's luck was absurd. While trying to increase the water flow from the waterfall to expand the size of their realm, he accidentally uncovered a reservoir of depleted spirit water beneath the water table that fed the existing waterfall. Tobias stood beside Yin Hao, watching him manipulate the hillside so they could expand the garden to balance a realm that now had its own small spirit lake.
Spirit water acted like a magnet for chi. It pulled the surrounding chi towards it until it was saturated, then continued pulling more, raising the chi saturation of the surrounding area. This property was also useful for tonics and pills, but it drastically improved cultivation realms, functioning as a natural chi-gathering array. Mist Sect literally couldn't exist without the mist falls and its endless supply of spirit water.
Sadly, their reservoir was not unlimited. They had enough to create a small lake in the centre of their realm, and that was all. The waterfall would have to remain as a natural water source.
Tobias motioned to the lake far behind him. "How often do those sorts of things happen to you?"
"Not as often as you would think," Yin Hao replied. "There is more opportunity for luck to intervene when your cultivation is weaker. I've long since reached the limits of my potential, and the world has grown smaller, so my luck can rarely help me these days. Luck only improves your chances. It does not make the impossible possible."
"That doesn't explain how you found enough spirit water to make a lake? Spirit water springs don't just appear."
Yin Hao chuckled. "There are thousands of sealed spirit water reservoirs all over The Three Kingdoms. The 1st Emperor had them sealed during the Great Plague. Most of them are in the same condition as yours and are of little value. Its existence is likely why these hills were shaped into a natural formation. And the only reason it is of any value is that you have already transformed this region when you created this realm. The chi that you supply it with has made it a valuable resource, not the other way around. The only role my luck played in this was allowing me to notice it was there while not paying attention. How is your research coming along?"
"It's only been eleven days."
"You must have discovered something."
Tobias sighed because he hated to give answers before finishing his research. "Improving your foundation is clearly possible while being infected. Whether or not this has any adverse effects remains to be seen, but I doubt it does."
"Why?"
"The heavens have never shown any indication that they wish to harm us when we are doing as they wish. Every step we take to deal with the miasma the way the heavens wish us to is met with growth and improvement."
"The ghosts of every cultivator who failed to ascend just curse you."
Tobias chuckled. "Cultivators only curse the heavens because they don't understand their rules."
"What else have you discovered?"
Yin Hao was still smarting over becoming an honorary elder of his clan, looking for reasons to justify why his luck had turned on him.
"There is a consistent increase in the amount of miasma within you based on your foundation. However, having a stronger foundation doesn't increase the rate at which your divinity improves. It can actually lower the rate of improvement if you can't excrete the maximum amount of miasma that you can."
Tobias had discovered this because of Yin Hao. The Civil Realm had been paradise for him, while his clan's realm was a poor substitute. The only reason he was working so hard was so he could recreate the same environment as he'd had in the Civil Realm.
"Have you figured out why the cultivation pills are more effective?"
"No. It could be the presence of the miasma, or it could be the influence of immortal daos we cannot perceive. Figuring that out isn't a high priority. I would rather understand the inconsistency between the enhancement efficiency of near identical pills."
"I imagine that will take time?"
"It could take years."
"Well, I'm sure my luck will speed things along."