“Is there a problem, Kai?” Relay asked. He observed Kai slipping into quiet meditation; his eyes closed more frequently over the last few days. He understood doing so while actively concentrating on a complex task, but he had been doing so more regularly during odd times, in the middle of conversations, or gazing out into the starscape.
Kai’s eyes flicked open, going wide, then settling into normality.
“I don’t know. I’m tired. I feel tired. I can control this body as I will, yet this body is tired. I’ve imagined myself energized, it worked for a while, but the effects are diminishing. I’ve been imagining stimulants tea and coffee, then drinking them, that worked for a while but isn’t anymore.”
“We’re almost there,” Relay encouraged as he hovered in place, his blue orb thrumming. “We’ve amassed stores of raw material and completed preliminary research into the organic modifications. The protective shell is nearly complete. I’ve even secured enough material to fabricate an avatar for myself.”
Kai nodded. It was becoming harder and harder to think, but Relay was correct. The most challenging work was done; twelve hours of building microns using the God’s Eye skill had forced him to deplete every core. Five times he stopped to refine and refill each one before starting again. But he got it done. He looked at the display that showed the steady progress of his micron assemblers.
He had a combination of inorganic and organic microns being manufactured. The job of exploring the immediate surroundings, transporting and sorting resources, and building containers to store them was assigned to mechanical microns. Organics he tasks with purging his body of toxins, removing damaged cells, and priming his system to receive the cellular modifications.
There wasn’t much choice. It didn’t matter what he wanted, mechanical, organic, or advanced; he didn’t have enough energy to create atoms from nothing. He was forced to use what resources he had on hand or could gather from the area close to him. And since he was surrounded by the flesh of spiritual beasts, the largest of which had somehow combined its flesh with various minerals and metals, the most straightforward course was to use everything. It did take more effort to create multiple assemblers, but it was worth it.
“I know,” Kai looked at his friend, “I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with.” The Eternal has hesitantly broached the subject of an avatar with him since to create one would require an exception to the tactile telegraphy prohibition he established. So they revisited the ban and created some fail-safes; distant microns would go into hibernation when they lost connection to the controller. This prevented the problem of autonomous routine locking that might result in tragic accidents.
Kai swiped the screen, flipping through the plans for the organic modifications. Systematically modifying every cell in his body caused him anxiety, but he saw little choice. They had almost no oxygen, so creating an alternative metabolic process to respiration was mandatory. He’d wanted to replace respiration entirely; lungs occupied an ample space in his chest cavity, space he could repurpose for more efficient metabolic organs.
Relay had rightfully reminded him that if he replaced his lungs with organs that depended on his spiritual energy, then any progeny that lacked a supply of spiritual energy would be stillborn. Even though he was only seven, he wouldn’t be seven forever; eventually, he might want children. So the lungs stayed, forcing him to redesign.
He looked at the new biological blueprint. He’d added not one new metabolic process but two. I may be becoming obsessed with symmetry. He chuckled quietly.
His new design created two small organs, each a micron assembler near his heart. These temporary organs would soon become vestigial and be removed if everything went according to plan. One created microns to handle genome editing and the other created protein assemblers. Together they were his get-out-of-death plan, his revival protocol. The revival of dead cells was simple. You had to remove unrepairable necrotic tissue and toxins and supply the cell with sufficient energy stores.
You’re almost there. Just a few more details. Kai tried to motivate himself. He swiped the biological blueprint aside; it was as good as he could make it. Every molecule had been double and triple-checked by the two of them.
A three-dimensional model of his body appeared on the screen. Since he was creating gene editing microns, Relay suggested he change his appearance, a disguise in case he ever ran into the Celestial Temple again. Kai thought he might have thought of this had not been so exhausted.
Kai reviewed the edits he’d previously made; facial structure altered, eye color changed, hair density changed, skin lightened. There wasn’t anything extreme; he wanted to blend into the population when needed. He was just vacillating on eye color.
“Amber or Blue,” Kai asked. “I like how the blue eyes look when I use my soul light, almost like a dark golden blue, but amber is striking, and if I’m quick can use my soul light without being obvious about it.”
“Amber is a recessive variation of brown we find in your current genome; blue isn’t. Blue would be a better disguise.”
Kai toggled between blue and amber, his lips curling down into a frown. He didn’t care, but selecting a color for a subjective visual preference seemed frivolous. Using soul light covertly, under the right circumstances, seemed more practical. He dialed in the amber hue, lightening his eyes until they looked golden.
He reviewed his body again. There was nothing obvious he wanted to change. It all looked good.
Kai’s hand hovered over the confirmation interface. He looked at his golden eyes; they did stand out quite a bit. Eh. He confirmed his selections and locked them in.
“Have you thought of your new name?” Relay asked. Keeping Sun Kai after going through the process of changing his appearance would defeat the point.
“Ahja,” Kai replied, “I’ll be Ahja Kai. I like Kai, which seems to be a common given name; Ahja will be my family name.” He knew it was sentimental, but he’d regretted so quickly abandoning his family name. “What about you? Think of a name yet?”
“I have been trying to think of something mysterious, but nothing has impressed me so far.” Relay hovered in place. The Eternal was being quite secretive about his avatar. “I still think we should have a story about who you are, who I am. Nothing overly detailed, just some basics. I could be an ancestor spirit; you can be a young traveling master.”
Kai yawned and closed his eyes before opening them again. “I’ll let you figure that out; I think I’m done.” Kai stumbled to the dais and took a seated position.
“You know, if this works out, I’m probably going to sleep for a long time,” Kai said hopefully.
Relay watched him take his position and ready himself.
“Do not worry, Kai. The plan is good. The chance of success is high. I can handle anything that comes up.”
Kai swallowed and, with a thought, summoned a small screen in front of him.
Cellular Repair: 99.899%
Cellular Debris Cleared: 99.922%
Criteria for revival protocol exceeded.
Initiate revival protocol?
[Yes] [No]
“I’ll leave it in your hands then,” he smiled and pressed “Yes.”
----------------------------------------
“We’re rich!” Bao exclaimed. She leaped around the mounds of ore stockpiled at their camp, picking up ore here and stones there. There was a pile of star metal, lunar steel, celestial steel, different elemental ores, and blood ore. There was even a small pile of spirit stones of different elemental affinities.
They had been working for five days, digging down towards the center. They might have gone further faster had they not been distracted by the rare ores and minerals.
Ai sat, in her cultivation posture, looking at the scene. Her eye twitched as she watched the noble Bao act like a child at play. She could understand her enthusiasm to a degree; they had found a trove of treasures, too much. Where Bao saw only riches, Ai saw only troubles.
They found enough spirit stones for either Yunfie or Bao to advance a realm. Of spiritual ores, they found enough that, should they get a reasonable price, they might all be able to advance a realm. She looked at the piles of ore. That was if they traded it on the open market in a major trade city. They would be lucky to get half its worth if they turned it in for merit at their Temple.
The problem was their priestess-in-training, with her vow of silence. It wasn’t so much the silence that was the problem; the real problem was that her way, the skills that allowed her to gain foresight, required her never to lie. She would be under a vow of silence for as long as she was in the foundation realm, after which she would have proven capable of restraining her speech. Then she would be free to speak and trusted never to lie and still be discreet.
However, if Song was questioned by the head priestess, as she would no doubt be upon their return, she would inevitably pry the truth from her. Then there was Yunfie; she and Song belonged to the Hana clan, and while their relationship was strong, Song was considered one of the Hana elite and was being groomed to inherit the leadership.
Would Yunfie be able to keep a shared secret if disclosing it meant possibly dislodging Song from her trajectory? Then there was how they would go about trading the ore and stones, how they could do it and do so anonymously, she didn’t know. If they were tracked, they might attract the wrong attention. If a core cultivator intended to pry their secrets from them, how would they survive it? That or what if they tried to blackmail them if they found out they were of the Lunar Temple?
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Ai watched Bao kissing a spirit stone and frowned. Problems. All she saw were problems.
“Ai,” Yunfie’s voice came from far away. “You have to see this.”
Ai stood and walked over to the shaft and looked down. She looked down the shaft and made out Song, surrounded by her glowing butterflies, and next to her, the small figure of Yunfie. It was far enough away that she couldn’t make out any details.
“Stand back,” Yunfie yelled, “I’m sending it up.”
She felt terrible for Yunfie. Each of them would take turns digging down, but no one could clear debris like Yunfie, so their youngest team member had been working, with only occasional breaks, for days. Ai stepped back and waited.
She felt a breeze blow by her, getting sucked into the shaft. Grains of sand and dirt rolled along the ground and fell down the long shaft. The wind increased speed until Ai had to brace herself against the galeforce wind sucking her into the shaft. Then it stopped, and a sudden blast of air shot out of the shaft; glass debris, dust, and something significant toppled through the air above her and landed with a heavy thunk 30 feet away.
At first glance, it was a large metal hook, but on closer inspection, it was a claw. Ai bent down and knocked on the claw. It was longer than she was tall and probably twice as heavy. It gave a deep thrumming vibration.
“Song found a full set, five.” the bright voice of the young cultivator sounded excited.
“Whoa,” Bao had taken a break from admiring her hoard to examine the new claw. “Is that a bear claw?”
“Oreclaw,” Ai correctly identified the beast, though she had never seen one this large. A divine spirit beast? The claws of an oreclaw were forged out of the densest metal the beast could find. This one claw was worth as much as all their other ores. And there were five. Ai shook her head. Problems.
“Wait,” Yunfie’s voice echoed from the shaft, her tone excited. “There’s something else here.”
Ai walked to the edge of the shaft and looked down again; down at the bottom, she could see the bright gleam of something highly polished.
“Coming down,” Bao yelled before jumping down the shaft. Ai rolled her eyes and stepped off, and fell. The wind pushed them down faster until, at the last moment, it reversed and slowed their descent.
They landed with a small puff of dust. In the center of the shaft, emerging from the floor, was a perfectly shaped dome of polished pale yellowish metal. In the center of the dome was the carved imprint of a hand.
Bao looked at Song, who was signing, “Help me uncover more; let’s see how big it is.”
Bao nodded to Ai before the three got to work. Bao with her hammer, Ai with some summoned earth creatures, and Song with her delicate glowing butterflies that seemed to fly through the earth, leaving tunnels in their wake.
When they had broken the ground around the dome, Yunfie summoned the wind to clear out the debris, revealing a buried sphere nearly the width of the shaft. The pale yellow metal was perfectly formed, cold, and heavy. A quick knock revealed no vibrations at all.
“Should we try putting our hand on the print?” Yunfie asked.
“Could it be a trap?” Ai countered. “You’ve heard the stories, secret treasures are never what they seem.”
“I’ve no idea what this seems to be.” Bao shrugged. She walked up the sphere. Half of the sphere lay beneath the surface, but Bao was tall enough to reach the handprint at the top. She placed her palm on the sculpted hand imprint.
Nothing happened.
“Did you use spiritual energy?” Yunfie asked. The small cultivator, covered in dust and sweat, smiled, revealing perfectly white teeth.
Bao shook her head and tried again; this time, she cycled some life energy into the sphere through the handprint. When nothing happened, she removed her hand. She was about to try again when the handprint disappeared. With sudden precision, four lines split the topmost portion of the sphere, opening like a lotus; the golden petals retreated inside. A circular section of the sphere, barely two handspans wide, opened to expose a small plinth on top of which a tiny fox pup lay curled upon itself, sleeping.
The pup's coat shimmered a golden yellow. The subtle motion from its breathing caused its coat to flash with occasional light specs; the effect was distinctly metallic. Around its neck was a collar made of thick square slabs of pale gold metal; each square slab was detailed with symbolic engravings.
Bao stepped back cautiously. The four looked at each other, then at the sleeping fox.
“It’s a spirit beast, right?” Bao broke the silence.
“I’ve never heard of a golden starry fox beast,” Ai admitted. Beasts were a fascination of hers; she studied them so she could draw them. She knew of many fox types; this was not one of them.
As if on cue, the fox shivered before opening its mouth in a long yarn, his eyes still closed.
A sun ray found its way down the long shaft and fell across the baby golden fox as it began to stir from its slumber. It slowly extended its tiny legs and stretched its body, arching its back and flexing its paws. With a sudden movement, it opened its bright, curious eyes, revealing a striking golden hue. Fueled by its newfound energy, the baby fox lifted itself and sat upright. When it registered the presence of the others, its large ears perked up and rotated forward.
Ai observed something unusual about the fox. It looked like a fox but moved like a cat, stretching and flexing, sharp claws extending from its paws to scratch at the plinth.
“What was it doing inside this sphere?” Ai asked aloud. She tried to sense spiritual energy but felt nothing from it.
“Waiting,” the fox's small voice surprised everyone. The fox’s eyes shut halfway, but not before Yunfie could make out the vertical slits in the golden orbs.
He yawned once more, exposing his tiny pale gold canines. When done, he laid back down and closed his eyes. “Quite comfortably. I don’t suppose I could trouble you to leave me to it.”
Bao, who had been the closest, moved back. The four cultivators looked at each other; tension filled the air as they attempted to remain silent. Ai sent some hand signals to the others. One by one, they climbed up the shaft as silently as possible.
The fox tilted its head and watched them go before settling back down, returning to sleep.
Bao was the first to crest the top of the shaft. She flopped onto the ground, a cold sweat pouring from her brow. When Song came up after her, Bao pulled her down to the floor beside her.
“Curses,” she whispered, her eyes going wide in panic.
Ai and Yunfie joined them shortly afterward. Ai motioned for them to retreat from the shaft. The four slipped quietly away up the slopes. When they were a safe distance out, Bao broke the silence.
“Was that a legendary spirit beast?”
Spirit beasts didn’t gain the ability to speak until the mythical realm, and the only beast born in the mythical realm were legendary spirit beasts. Rare spirit beasts could reach the mythic level after hundreds of years, gaining the ability to speak, but the fox pup was not hundreds of years old.
“It has to be,” Ai confirmed. Born into the mythical realm, legendary ranked spirit beasts were terrifying. “No wonder I didn’t sense any spiritual energy from it.”
“It was so cute,” Yunfie’s eyes opened wide as she thought of the cute fox pup.
“It’s four realms higher than you!” Bao exclaimed. “It could sneeze and accidentally kill you.”
Song gestured emphatically, “Did you see the pale yellow sphere? Wasn’t it celesium?”
Celesium was the rarest of all the spiritual ores. More precious than gold or platinum. That much celesium, it was incalculable what it was worth.
“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Ai confessed. “Was the pup in the casket with the soulforger? Where did the sphere come from?” There were too many mysteries surrounding the soulforger. One thing was clear if the beast was protecting the soulforger, her team wouldn’t be able to steal the body away. They needed another approach.
“We either take what we found and flee,” Ai set out their options. “Maybe our failure will be overlooked with all the ores we mined.” That wasn’t likely. The high priestess had personally assigned them this mission.
“Or… the beast is still a baby. It knows little of the world. Maybe we can convince it to come with us and bring the soulforger’s body too?”
Silence spread out over the four of them. After a moment, Song gestured. Her hands formed quick movements.
“Or maybe we convince the fox to come with us, and we take the celesium and flee. Forget the Lunar Temple. We could all advance to the nascent soul realm with that much wealth. With that much, we could start a new clan.”
Ai's eyes rose to meet the face of the would-be priestess. Ai couldn’t see through her steel vow of silence, but Song’s eyes were set with resolve. Ai hadn’t expected Song to see quite that far.
“Leave the Lunar Temple?” Yunfie struggled with the idea.
“We could. It would be dangerous.” Bao clenched her jaw.
“Let’s take our time and figure out this little fox. Everything depends on that.” Ai concluded.
The four agreed and started hatching a plan.