Chapter Seventeen: Immortality
After Lacy revealed that she had learned to sense both earth qi and wood qi during the fire ant stampede—which the instructors told the recruits not to worry about because wildfires were known to go out on their own—Peegra made it very clear that they would focus her training on those three elements for the time being without bothering to try sensing the others. In his eyes, she was already so talented that she was close to being a genius, someone whom all organizations of Yellowvine, and even the large clans, sects, and businesses of the capital would fight for.
That answered her earlier questions about how much of her talents to reveal: only three elements, for now. She might practice others in secret if she discovered she could easily wield more, but she could never let others know. It was a scenario she considered likely based on what the Deity told her and the vampires’ reactions to her supposed spirit root, which she figured was the sphere in her soul.
So she agreed to spend her days honing her qi control with water, earth, and wood. She could have focused solely on one element at a time, but practicing all of them was just more fun. And being in a world without the internet, video games, and YouTube…fun was hard to find. Lacy had long since become acquainted with boredom.
Then one early morning, just as the camp was preparing to pack up and continue their steady march, Mai Mosa dropped from the sky in front of Lacy with his usual halberd and a sword in his other hand, handle extended outward toward her.
“I am bringing the young spirit Seed on her first hunt,” he declared loud enough for the entire camp to hear. Then he gestured with his chin for her to take the sword, so she did, holding it in her left while she held her standard-issue spear in her right. It wasn’t her first time holding one in this new life, but she’d never really wielded one. It was a simple shortsword with a small hand guard and no decorations. Mass produced for unexceptional guards just like the shortspear, likely. She supposed it was to give her another option.
“The hunt will transpire faster if I carry you to a beast,” Mai Mosa said with a smirk as he twirled his halberd.
Lacy just kind of stared at the big man.
“That…sounds dangerous. Moving at high speeds could hurt me, and what if something attacks us?”
Mai Mosa shrugged.
“Twas just a suggestion, though not untrue.”
Lacy also shrugged, tempted to witness a Sapling body cultivator’s power.
“Sure. A piggyback ride, or what?”
Of course, the man had wanted to carry her in his arms like she was a goddamn cartoon princess, but she refused. So instead, she received the most exciting piggyback ride of her life. The man carried a huge halberd in one hand and a woman on his back, yet his steps were fluid. Swift and agile didn’t come close to describing his mobility!
And a spirit beast snake did drop out of a tree to attack them—one a little too powerful for Lacy to take on—but Mai Mosa barely needed to slow in order to end it with a single punch.
Yellowvine’s Guardian ran for what felt like only a couple minutes before he slowed and let Lacy down in front of a tall, seemingly flightless bird that tried fleeing but was boxed in by the much faster body Sapling human. He side-stepped with ease so that he was always in front of the bird, forcing it to turn around and run at Lacy.
“Kill the beast!” the man ordered, before adding, “It is already frightened, so it should not put up much of a fight.”
Lacy wasted a precious few seconds gaping at the man’s audacity for just throwing her into her first fight without any weapons training, but she shook her head and focused. She had an image of what she wanted to be in her head. A mighty dual cultivator who both rained hellfire upon her enemies and cut them down with a blade. Someone who could determine her own fate.
The giant, almost prehistoric-looking bird veered to avoid her but Lacy was having none of that, even when it tried suppressing her with its aura. She was here to spill blood! So with the Sapling’s help she put herself directly in its path, dropped the sword to raise her spear, and—
She overestimated her reaction time and underestimated the bird’s speed. It blew past her, but not before contemptuously kicking her aside with its broad, flat claws. The air in Lacy’s lungs escaped as her chest exploded with pain, almost exactly like when she’d gotten punched in the sternum by some asshole in middle school.
Mai Mosa appeared to catch her, but he quickly laid her down on the ground before becoming a blur again. Moments later all Lacy could hear besides her own pained groans was indignant squawking.
When the pain and discomfort abated enough for Lacy to gather herself she stood on shaky legs to find the Guardian patiently waiting…with the 5-foot-tall bird held tightly in his hands, one gripping its neck and one its feet, holding it up horizontally.
“You could do nothing against even a relatively weak beast as this,” he said without any expression. Before Lacy could reply he continued, “That is not a judgment on you, little spirit cultivator. You have not had the time to train your spirit skills and techniques, so I did not expect any prowess in that regard. This was a demonstration of how even a weak beast’s power is above what a mortal human has. It would take a small party of armed and trained mortals to slay this grounded bird beast without injuries.”
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He let all of that sink in as Lacy caught her breath.
“I am entirely confident that after receiving weapon training and awakening as a body Seed you would be capable of felling this creature, but you have a long road ahead of you until that can happen. It is difficult to become a capable body Seed, much more so to be a capable dual cultivator, Lacy. I want you to remember this encounter and every encounter you will be forced to have from now. I hope you will change your mind and focus solely on spirit cultivation for your own wellbeing.”
Lacy opened her mouth to speak, but he asked her a question first.
“I imagine you have been informed that cultivators must hunt spirit beasts. Are you aware of exactly why?”
Lacy closed her mouth. She did know…but she wasn’t supposed to. Peegra and the instructors had all warned her that as a cultivator she would soon need to go hunting regardless of whether she had learned to fight, but they hadn’t said why.
“Because…it’s the law? It’s a…cultivator’s…duty to create…a safe world for normal people?” Lacy feigned ignorance, replying in-between breaths.
Mai Mosa smirked, still easily holding up the struggling beast Seed.
“That is what we tell mortals for their own safety. No, the true reason is that we cultivators are no longer constrained by time, Lacy. How old do I look?”
Lacy gulped for theatric effect.
“Umm…you look about the same age as Instructor Poko. Around thirty-five? But I know you’re older. Everyone knows that cultivators age slowly.”
Again the man smirked.
“No, we do not age at all. We are immortal.”
He expected a big reaction, so Lacy gave him one, dropping her jaw and taking a step back before giving him a look that said she didn’t believe him.
“That can’t be,” she said softly.
“It can be because it is,” he said. “I am seventy-eight, Lacy. And so long as I continue hunting beasts of my caliber, I will look like this forever. That is why we hunt. We subsist off the souls of our enemies. It is a process that happens mostly automatically when we slay a spirit beast…or a cultivator in times of war. Our souls consume the souls of the fallen.”
Lacy was prepared for this conversation and brought up her mental list of unbelieving questions.
“But, but…why do we still eat, then?”
“Because we can in order to sustain our normal bodily functions. However, we can choose to burn our consumed souls faster in order to live without eating, defecating, or even sleeping. Since the moment you awakened as a spirit cultivator you have been aging normally, but the moment you take this spirit beast’s soul you will cease to age and have the option not to eat for a few days.”
“But…why doesn’t the government try to make everyone a body cultivator, then? The more immortals, the better, right? And the more people to fight off spirit beasts?”
“If only it were that simple,” the Guardian said. “Alas, while it is…technically possible to make many more people into body cultivators, it is simply not good for all people to have to endanger themselves by hunting spirit beasts. You can imagine how harsh and strict the training is according to rumors and testimonies, Lacy. Yet despite making sure only the most capable fighters become immortals, we still lose dozens every year to spirit beasts. We may not seem to have any limit to our ages, but few cultivators actually live long enough to see their great-grandchildren.”
“Dozens?” Lacy said, genuinely surprised this time. “Dozens die to spirit beasts every year? But the amount of recruits accepted every year is only…?”
“Not many,” the Guardian confirmed. “We train the best of the best, and so many still die. Usually due to lack of caution and hubris, but many perish at the claws of apex predators they had no chance of defeating. Most spirit beasts are herbivores, but even those can be quite powerful. You can see now that carnivorous beasts are more challenging foes than you gave them credit for, yes?”
“Yeah,” Lacy confirmed. “Wow. Okay, I think I understand.”
“I am glad. That is why, despite how much more powerful spirit cultivators could be as dual cultivators, we do not recommend that they attempt that path. The cultivation difficulty increases, but also the soul requirements. Dual cultivators die almost as often as regular body cultivators because of that. They need to hunt at least twice as often, seek out stronger beasts, or seek out twice as many beasts during their hunts. And that is just for weak dual cultivators. The stronger one is, the more souls they must consume. A very capable dual cultivator might find themself hunting once or twice a week. Even if the odds of an unfavorable outcome are less than a single percent, when given infinite time, death becomes an inevitability. That is why every body cultivator wishes they were a spirit cultivator. Deadlier powers, the immense value of their societal utility, and the automatic protection they gain in the form of body cultivators willing to give their lives to protect the spirit amongst them. Spirit cultivators live the longest of us.”
Lacy didn’t know how to respond, so she didn’t, idly nursing the bruise on her chest.
“Just think about that,” he sighed before gesturing to the bird held tightly in his hands. “Now kill it. A few slices to the neck should do it. Also, envelop its corpse with your aura. That is all you need.”
Lacy obeyed. She traded the spear for the sword—now understanding why he’d made her bring it—approached, lifted the sword high over her head, and swung down with her entire body’s weight, splattering some blood and crunching bone. But she hadn’t cut all the way through. The beast’s vertebrae were stronger than she’d thought. A second chop and she was done. Mai Mosa held the two halves closely together as the beast’s aura melted like snow on a warm window, and hers swooped in.
It was like nothing she had imagined.
Lacy could breathe for the first time! The bird’s soul slowly sank into hers through her aura, barely any resistance at all, and she consumed it with avarice. The soul dissolved in her like a sugar cube, but tasted even more amazing!
This was why Mai Mosa was so sure that she’d understand after doing it. Consuming the beast’s soul was so easy and rich! The energy, completely unlike qi, as different as electricity was from a perfectly cooked steak, became one with her. It integrated not just with her soul, but with her body. She could feel how her aging just…stopped. The soul was fuel for this mechanic, and she could turn it off if she wanted. But she didn’t, for now. Being 21 forever wasn’t optimal.
She did, however, turn off her need for food and sleep, and Mai Mosa’s expression shifted.
“You…are sure about that decision?”
It was weird how he could see so deeply into her spirit.
“Yes! I think having to hunt more is a perfectly reasonable cost for not having to eat, shit, and sleep!” Lacy replied intently. As a modern Earth woman brought to a world without modern luxuries, this mattered to her more than anything. She could even control changes in her hormonal cycles! NO MORE PERIODS!
The man sighed.
“I can tell you are not going to change your mind about this nor dual cultivation. A shame, but there is still time to convince you.”
“I get it, I really do,” Lacy said as the Guardian tossed the corpse halves aside. “You guys really do want what’s best for me, but…those koroths… I see them in my dreams. Nightmares. And they aren’t the only dangers in this world. I…want to be as strong as possible so that it never happens again.”
Of course, she didn’t actually have any nightmares, but as deeply as the man could see into her soul, he couldn’t seem to tell when she lied.
“Understandable. Then, I imagine you wish to slay more beasts before we return to the party?”
“Yes, please.”