“I see they stopped bothering you.” Anna smiled as she noticed her half brother slouching over the tavern’s table. She found him coming here almost every other day, hoping for the two women of the Blackshore family to give him attention once more.
But that didn’t happen. Instead, Clarissa and Clara lavished their attention on Core Disciple Yavin Redaxe, and her half brother could only stew in jealousy.
What could he do? When it came to cultivation, he was nothing. When it came to intellect, he was nothing. When it came to looks, he was nothing. Hell, even when it came to personality, he was shit next to the Core Disciple. The only good thing that he had was a name he inherited.
If Anna were the two ambitious girls, she’d made the same choice. Disciple Yavin Redaxe was a superior husband candidate, much better objectively in almost every measure or form.
The half brother, the same Evan Mistburn Fox, decided to ignore her. There was really no rule requiring him to respond. Anna didn't mind his reluctance to reply and sat next to him.
“How does it feel, Evan?”
The same Evan didn’t want to reply. He was jealous.
“Must be terrible, isn’t it? You’ve had a good time so far because all the girls in this town are not cultivators. But to have the attention of real beauties, and then to lose them, it must be quite painful.”
Evan didn’t reply. He pretended to sleep as if he drank too much.
“I know you’re awake. You’re not going to get me to go away by pretending.”
“Why must you gloat?” Evan turned to face Anna just as suddenly. “Is it funny for you, Anna? That your half brother is drinking his misery away? Is it funny to see me have hope that my luck’s finally turning, only for it to be snuffed out because the two beauties decide to choose someone else?”
“Yes. It is hilarious.” Anna sat and actually laughed. There were undercurrents of unhappiness among them anyway, and she loved annoying that branch of the family. Evan’s older brother, Edison, was a prick to deal with.
Evan’s face went from shock that Anna actually did laugh at him. How could she?! But then it went to sadness, because what was on Anna’s face after her laughter was pity.
“Laugh. Laugh at me. Laugh at me for thinking that the two girls actually wanted me.” Evan said and then ordered another urn of spirit wine. “Happy?’
Anna looked at him, and felt pity. “You’ve got the spirit roots to cultivate. If you were a wee bit more motivated and demonstrated some ability, I’m sure the ladies would come back to you.”
“Are- are you trying to motivate me to cultivate?” Evan’s face was red. He didn’t like to be pitied.
The eldest daughter nodded. “Yes. Yes I am. Though it is quite hilarious to see you wallow in misery, I am still your elder half-sister, and the half-sister part of me thinks your current state is pathetic. Get your damned act together.”
“What the hell.”
“I gained three minor stages since I worked harder. Look at you, squandering the gift of your good spiritual roots. What is your problem?”
“Because I hate all of this. Why can't women love for the sake of love?” Evan lamented as he somehow drank a quarter of the new urn of wine. “Why must the world be so cruel to those of us that just want to love someone wholeheartedly?”
Anna rolled her eyes. There was a streak of naivety that ran through the Mistburn descendants that really annoyed her. “What world do you live in, Evan?”
“Why is it all about cultivation? Why is it all about power?” Evan said. His words slurred and his breath stank.
“Because without it, we would not be here.” Anna countered, and took a step back. How the two women of the Blackshore family put up with his breath still amazed her.
“Father loved his first wife. Father also loves Lady Gale very much. Is it too much for me to ask for love?”
Anna didn’t know how to deal with his naivety. “You’ve been reading too much of those mortal books. Reality does not work like that. They love our father because of his power.”
“Really? Is it that simple?” Evan’s reaction and emotions switched just as suddenly.
“Yes. It is. Phoenixes do not choose lizards for mates. They look for dragons. If you are not a dragon, be one.” Anna stated. “Or settle and be content with your place in society. Be content with where you are in life.”
Evan glared at Anna as if she offended him. “I hate how you make it sound like it’s wrong to be contented with where I am in society!”
“If you truly are content with life, you wouldn’t wallow in misery. You’re not. Don’t pretend otherwise.” Anna wondered why she continued this conversation. Maybe it was just something about his miserable state that compelled her to say something now.
“Curse those two ladies for letting me taste the joys of affection and attention, and then taking it away from me!” Evan then shifted the blame to the two girls.
“Weak.” Anna’s frown deepened, and she felt a streak of anger boiling underneath it all “If you can’t control yourself, don’t blame others for it.”
Evan finished the wine, and then slumped. “Go away.”
This time, Anna decided she said her bit, and decided to leave. Saying more would not help.
***
“Lord Cultivator!” Tundra walked on the market streets of his Verdant Leaf Town, when he was attracted to a strange pill marketed by a peddler. The peddler had a pale skin commonly seen from the Northerners. “Would you be interested in a selection of pills from the far north?”
Tundra stopped, and stared at the peddler. The peddler shrunk slightly.
“Ah, I mean no offense, Lord Cultivator! We have here a selection of pills from the far north, made from the dew and snow collected from the bountiful spirit lands of the Northwind Snowfields! The pure energies of the Northwind Snowfields gathered to create this beautiful mind enhancement pill! If you ever thought your already supremely talented and exceptional child ever needed a little more of his gifts, please, try one of these [Snowleaf Mind Clarity Pill]!”
All of that was just rubbish, but the pill itself was real. He did recall asking one of his core disciples to procure these pills, but it seemed the heavens have moved ahead and made it happen.
“How much for these?”
“Three hundred spirit stones, Lord Cultivator.” The peddler said.
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“You’re overcharging.” Tundra countered, even though it was a paltry sum for someone of his wealth. Powerful pills were often measured in tens of thousands of spirit stones. Still, in his first life, it should be about a hundred at most.
“I traveled really far to sell this! I heard from the merchants that there were interested parties in this city!”
“Hundred.” Tundra insisted.
“Two hundred. It’s my best price!” The peddler countered.
“Hundred and ten. And no more. This pill should be a hundred at most, but I’m giving you ten more for making it all the way here.”
The peddler frowned, and sighed. “Very well.”
Tundra returned to his workshop with the pills, and began to study them. For a master alchemist, he had a solid grasp on all the aspects of alchemy, but alchemy and pills was an extensively vast field. There were areas of focus where cultivators and alchemists found their niche.
He sat there and slowly deconstructed the components of the [Snowleaf Mind Clarity Pill], and it was fairly easy to comprehend how it all worked. He sat in the room and studied.
Three weeks passed as he studied the pills.
It was only occasionally interrupted by his wives’ visits. It was an old habit. Whenever he got a pill he rarely made, he would often study it for weeks and months. It was how he learned how to make his own pills, especially since pill recipes are often not passed around and even when they did, they were usually incorrect. Alchemists guarded their recipes ferociously, and almost never wrote down their best pills.
Celestia walked in one evening only to find him writing notes as he completed his studies on one of the dissected Snowleaf Mind Clarity Pill. “What is this?”
“Ah. This is a mind clarity pill. I am just deconstructing the pill’s effects and I plan to make better versions. I should be able to start working on it soon.”
The mind is a physical object that exists in the physical realm, but as a cultivator ascends into the higher realms, a replica, or a twin is born within the spirit. It is through this spiritual twin that cultivators in the higher realms gain the ability to generate their body from almost nothingness, should their spirit survive the destruction of the body.
These pills operated through targeting a physical part of the body. There were certain kinds of qualities contained within the raw materials that amplified the mind’s flexibility, and its effects on the spiritual side was relatively minor.
Things that involved the mind and spirit for the human kind were often tricky to create, because they were made through a balanced union of the five primary elements, in addition to the amplifying effects of the natural raw materials. Some races had a certain primary element bias, and the pills needed to reflect that, but for humans, the great primordial mother blessed man with a balance of the five primaries.
Still, Tundra persisted. For the talented, these sort of pills were pretty close to useless. After all, who would need such a thing when they became useless by the 4th or 5th realm.
The natural state of the physical body is important to a cultivator’s progress only in the lower realms. A healthy body is one that is aligned to it’s spirit, it’s five elements in balance. To heal, to grow, all in the right proportions and balance.
If he has to pour a mountain of elixirs into his children to eke out a droplet of talent, so be it.
After another week of testing and brewing, he took what he learned from the [Snowleaf Mind Clarity Pill], and finally made his first ten experimental [Mind Expansion Pill], and decided to summon his children for the experiment. It’s effects should be strongest on those in the 1st to 3rd realm, but it’s efficacy would be weakened by the 4th and 5th realm, and totally useless on those in the 6th.
***
“Show me your progress.” Tundra stated to his descendants.
Some of them made small progress, a minor realm or stage increase. For their realm, it was pathetically slow, but Tundra decided not to comment. After his lecture on cultivation, he then began to assist a smaller selected group with their cultivation through energy condensation and compression.
This proved far more helpful for his children, but cultivation was after all two parts. Energy collection, which powers the soul, thus causes their realms to increase, and the shapes and forms created through mastery of cultivation methods and techniques within the soul, which governs how that power is expressed.
A cultivator’s realm essentially is the range of the raw ‘fuel’ and ‘space’ available to a cultivator.
After what he saw Celestia and Marin go through, he realized this approach was flawed. He didn’t feel that way in his first life because the disciples he had were all supremely talented and so, they were not bottlenecked by their understanding of the cultivation methods. Their limitations were instead in how fast they could grow their soul.
With his children and his wives, they had the opposite problem. Their understanding of cultivation methods and techniques were severely behind, and increasing their realm would certainly extend their lives and let them live longer, but it would not make them stronger cultivators as he hoped.
In his first life, he focused on the talented. Those already naturally gifted in their concepts and ideas. For these talented disciples, mind awakening elixirs would not help much, and may even be a drawback because these elixirs often came with side effects that hindered their ability to use other types of elixirs and pills for a while.
“Don’t pour good resources on middling talents.” Tundra remembered the words of another alchemist. “Someone who is only an average talent would benefit and grow one step, but someone who is a genius could benefit three, five, or even ten steps from the same source.”
It was certainly true. No. It was very true. It is just how their cultivator society worked. Those with talents benefited many times over. Just like how a sword in the hands of an average citizen is no threat, but the same weapon in the hands of a master is lethal. He looked at his children, and knew he would be going against conventional wisdom. Investing in his children would be to push a rock uphill.
It was so tempting to walk the old path he did. Just focus on those that had talent. Ignore his children for their lack of gifts. After all, if they lacked the natural disposition to challenge heavens, what could they ever amount to?
Do these talentless children deserve the pills he spent weeks making?
He shook his head. What was he thinking?
No.
His old instincts to just focus on what paid off more bubbled out again. His old habits were hard to shake.
No.
He must invest in his children and family. Even if it went against the part of him that wanted to maximize the benefits from the elixirs he made.
He cannot abandon them in this life. He looked at the struggling efforts of his children and grandchildren, and he needed to help them.
“Father?” Anna stared at the pill, surprised. Next to Anna were the few other children. Larian, Edison, and a few of his younger grandchildren.
“I want you to take this.” Tundra stilled his heart. His old instincts said this is wasteful. Making these pills was wasteful. He should be making better pills that he could trade for much more spirit stones, and buy a damned flying ship.
Anna stared suspiciously at the pill. “What is this?”
“A mind enhancing pill.” Tundra said. Mental flexibility should help them.
“Must we eat it?” Anna stared at the pill. She had never heard of it.
“Are you going to decline fortune when presented to you?” Tundra asked.
Edison interjected. “Yes. If it comes with strings attached.”
Tundra frowned. “It doesn’t. Take it, or someone else will.”
Anna decided to take it, and swallowed the pill. Tundra sensed the pill flow down into her body, and the pill disintegrated. It released the stored energies, and it flowed out throughout her body. In a way, a mind augmenting pill is just a form of body tempering. Body tempering is important in the lower realms, and the same is for the physical brain.
The sensation she experienced then should be similar to a splitting headache, as Anna began to sweat profusely. From what he understood of the pill’s effects, it will be about a week or two before Anna begins to see the benefits.
Edison stared at the pill, and then turned away. “I will not take it.”
“Then step aside.”
In total ten pills were given to some of his children and grandchildren, and they all began to experience similar symptoms as Anna.
“Go back to your rooms and rest. We will review it’s effects into a week.” Tundra stated, and those who took the pill quickly retreated. The pain in their head was slowly intensified. Their faces contorted trying to withstand the pain.
Edison watched them go, and looked back at his father. “Do you enjoy this, father?”
“Enjoy?” Tundra frowned. “Why would I?”
Edison looked at him, and Tundra didn’t really understand what was the expression he had. It was a mix of anger and disgust.
In his mind, Tundra’s old instincts fought with his new resolve. Edison was not worth investing in. He had a horrible personality and middling talent. He should leave him be.
His new resolve to fix his family battled it, he sighed. He’d have to talk to Elly. As his mother, maybe Elly could get through and find out what is wrong.