Until now, Nate had discovered the presence of Qi and started to circulate the energy along his meridians, making it easier for his body to gather Qi. His practice with his mother and siblings wasn’t much different, but the scope was extended thanks to his spiritual senses.

Over the years, this practice had allowed Nate to improve the flow of energies within his body, therefore attuning his body to Qi and making it much easier for Qi to flow through it. Then, he had another breakthrough, finding a way to manipulate Qi more directly than by using his body’s activity as a medium.

It meant practically that he could now direct Qi where he wanted it to go. Either in an object, like a seed or in a specific part of his body, like an unopened meridian.

While until now Nate had been limited in the number of meridians he had, now he could open the others. His twelve primary meridians were already opened, but only two were among the eight extraordinary ones. This could change.

The young cultivator’s first step toward this goal was to imbue Qi into seeds, either directly or through a medium.

It was just as important as a goal to enhance plants than as training for opening his other meridians. The process in itself wasn’t too difficult for the child. What was hard was to find the proper dosage.

Spring had already passed barely a month ago. Flower Moon, the next full moon after Awakening Moon, had appeared only a couple of days ago. Because of that, the Qi was starting to get heavily tainted in Yang. It made the task easier and harder since Yang tended to get overbearing. Thus, it becomes a case of too much of a good thing that became a bad one. The trick was to direct only a minute amount of Qi into the seeds, as they would otherwise get destroyed. On the other hand, not needing to use a large amount of Qi meant Nate could try many times. He first tried using the smallest seeds available, like one from berries or flowers.

Then, while he held several of them in his hands, he started cultivating as usual. He believed that having Qi move along a path would make it easier to divert Qi if too much was being funnelled into the seeds. Having many seeds would also decrease the difficulty, as it should allow to split the flow of Qi into many paths.

Rather than imbuing Qi into the seeds, it was more correct to say that, at this point, Nate was trying to bathe the items in Qi. An action through which those seeds would retain some amount of Qi in their shell.

This first trial was a bust, and Nate was forced to admit he had to change his approach. Using only a small amount of Qi was much more complicated than he thought. Splitting the flow of energy into many paths was even more challenging.

As such, he took the opposite approach. A larger vessel would be needed since precise control of Qi into a tiny seed wasn’t possible. One that could handle a flow of Qi larger than its needs. For that, Nate thought of using vegetables grown from roots. Instead of a tiny seed containing a compacted plant form, roots also had nutrients, which Nate hoped would serve as a buffer.

His experiment thus changed to using potatoes instead of seeds from flowers and berries. While much less efficient, it also became easier to get some success. Although Nate did waste a few of those potatoes, turning them into shrivelled black rocks, he managed to grow Qi-infused germs onto a few before noon.

Still, Nate was a long way from his intended goal. While he no doubt wanted to create new and more potent ingredients for alchemy, it was only a way to help his cultivation. Alchemy, no matter how useful, would still be a supportive tool. One to make his end goal of seeking Immortality easier.

At noon, as usual, everyone reunited in the main courtyard. Everyone that was around, that is. Which meant the youngest mothers, whose babies still need their undivided attention. But also a few other adults whose work was either within the confines of the family’s residence or in a nearby building within the City. Then, of course, the wounded and ancestors, whose bodies forced them to stay inside their residences. Finally, all the children under seven years old and some older ones.

Children seven years old and older were deemed old enough to help their families. Either to learn a craft, assist at the farms, or be sent to train so they could become warriors by the time they were fifteen. Each discipline was supervised by the relevant Hall, either Life, Death, Craft or Trade. For physical training, dojos were opened here and there at the behest of the sects. Each served as a recruitment pool, allowing the children to join the sects independently of their families.

For the Starstrong Clan, it meant their children would be expected to join the Blaze Sect, as it was the one overlooking this section of the City. While only the City’s core was divided by the sects, over the years, their influence could still be felt in the rest of the City.

“There you are, Nate. Did you also spend your whole morning tending to the garden today?” Asked Laellia as she saw the young boy enter the courtyard. She was carrying a sleeping Allik in her arms while Nilah held her hand and that of Stelia.

“Naaaate!” “Naate!” The two girls barrelled towards their brother as soon as they saw him, forcing Nate to intervene. Nilah had tried to follow her older sister but could not run as fast. As he wanted to move forward to catch his youngest sister, Nate spun Stelia in his arms as they met, letting her hang on his back. Then he caught Nilah before she fell.

“Yes, Aunty, we’re going to have a lot of berries, maybe even before the Honey Moon. I thought I could try to make some wine. Nice to see you too, Stelia, Nilah! Did you have a nice morning?”

Stolen story; please report.

“Really? That’s great. Remember to ask your mom still. She might prefer to keep them whole.”

“It was booring!” “Bowiiing!” “I wanted to help Aunty make clothes, but gardening is much better.” Nilah’s younger age did show, but copying her sister did help a lot in getting her to talk.

“I will, Aunty, don’t worry. You didn’t give up, sis. It’s already very good.” On that, Nate was quite proud. Indeed, until recently, his sister often came to see him in the middle of the day while she was supposed to be elsewhere. That she managed to stay the whole morning focused on one activity she didn’t like much was a nice improvement.

“What clothes did you start making?” He then asked while looking at his aunt.

“I want her to make some new clothes for herself and Nilah. They’re growing a bit fast. At least it isn’t as fast as you, young man! Only she needs to practice a bit while making other clothes before that.”

“I tried to leave… Aunty didn’t let me…”

“Ahah! I will stay with you tomorrow so we can learn together, alright? I also made my clothes with Aunty last year.”

“Not this time, Nate. You should keep yourself busy in the garden, alright?” At that, Laellia was smiling in what Nate believed was an apology. It made sense to him that she would want Stelia to not depend on him too much.

“Can’t I just go help you in the garden?” Although Stelia’s pouting made it tempting to agree with her, Nate didn’t want to oppose his aunt.

“Not until you finished what you started. Don’t you want to wear your own clothes? Or maybe even make a gift for Mama and Papa?”

“I do! But gardening is much funnier!”“Well, the happier Aunty is with what you do, the more likely you will be allowed to join me, okay? For now, let’s eat!

“’ ooood!!” She might not talk much, but at least Nilah knew what mattered.

The meal was a boisterous affair, with most children unable to stay still for a long time. Those who did were, in large part, sleeping. Nate, Stelia and Nilah were the odd ones on this. Or rather, Nate was the odd one. Stelia only wanted to stay with her brother, while Nilah followed her sister.

A good change brought to the meals over the years was in its diversity. While before, they almost always ate the same broth of overcooked vegetables with a strip of jerky, living in the City had changed much of that. They had more ingredients, like cereals and more fruits and vegetables, and their cooking skills had also massively improved.

That on this day, they were eating some kind of flatbread with a stew was a testament to how far away was their previous lifestyle.

Before, all meat had to be eaten or smoked and salted so that its scent wouldn’t attract beasts. Now, they were rearing beasts and birds, allowing them to keep the meat fresh until needed. It only amounted to the smallest, most inoffensive ones and thus wasn’t appreciated by the warriors. The belief that you could take part of the beast’s strength upon eating it was a reality in this world. Still, it made it easier to feed everyone while reducing the hunters’ burden.

As for fruits and vegetables, they had learned how to grow them efficiently, increasing the nutriments they provided. In some cases, it was also found that eating them raw was also possible. From what Nate knew and could observe, it was sometimes even a better option.

Then, of course, there was the appearance of cereals and how to transform them into flour, then bread. It was the most groundbreaking change to happen for Nate. For now, only flour had been made, but he believed yeast and alcohols would soon begin to appear if they hadn’t already outside of his knowledge. Having something other than flat and bland bread would be nice. For alcohol, it didn’t apply to him yet since fruit wine would still be the only thing he would get to drink, and he did not want to get drunk anytime soon. Most of the wine they had for now was light and more of a barely alcoholic fruit juice than wine.

After lunch, Nate returned to the garden, not before hugging his sisters and brother. He might love to spend time with his family, but he did spend some time with them every midday and evening and briefly in the morning. For now, Nate still needed to practice imbuing Qi into items, preferably with enough accuracy to infuse one tiny seed at a time on the first try. It was a faraway prospect, considering the best he could do was sometimes to produce Qi-infused potatoes.

As he kept trying over the afternoon, Nate made some pleasant discoveries. The most impactful was that infusing Qi into an item allowed him to inspect it with his spiritual senses. It enabled the budding cultivator to understand that the reason for which he could use his abilities on his mother and sibling was because they shared the same Yuan Qi. Thanks to that, all of them were connected in terms of energy, which made it possible for Nate to use abilities which he could otherwise only use on himself.

This new link also made it much easier to see what was happening inside the potato and to rectify his previous mistakes. It also allowed the young boy to notice that imbuing Qi, specifically Yang-attuned Qi, could speed up growth. It wasn’t something Nate had seen on his body, as many more factors than Qi influenced his growth.

In his current experiment, though, the benefits were huge. He could obtain a fully grown Qi-infused plant within a much shorter time frame. It wasn’t relevant at the moment, as it only reduced by half, from four months until potatoes could be harvested to two months. Still, getting some of the fastest-growing plants within a couple of weeks, or days even, would be possible. And that was only now that he had yet to become proficient in this technique.

There was just one major drawback to this. Nate couldn’t spend his Qi wilfully. He needed much longer to recover the same amount of Qi he spent. By mid-afternoon, after a dozen tries, Nate was forced to stop his experiments and instead devote time to recouping his losses. This implied staying immobile, as he had no idea how to cultivate without meditating. Since he would rather use his day to do other tasks, his cultivation was pushed back to a later time. Nate suspected he would need to spend all night cultivating to recover the Qi he used.

The few hours left until the evening were thus spent tending to the garden and helping his relatives in their tasks. All the while, Nate made a mental list of all the plants he believed could be used for alchemy. It mainly was those he already knew, which were used for their medicinal properties. And other less-known plants, like some varieties of mushrooms and tree sap or even some fruits. But also herbs which could be turned into oil.

Before long, it was once again time to reunite with everyone. This time, though, most of the Scotts were present. The only exceptions were the few hunters and most explorers who went away for several days. Whistler was one of them.

Indeed, Nate’s father had joined the explorers a couple of years ago, over which Diane couldn’t say if she were proud or sad. While before she could accept his role as a hunter and respect the fact it was an essential duty, his new position was much more selfish.

He had made that decision after the second Tournament, during which Kherson had allowed their family to rise. Since opportunities could be earned as an explorer, Whistler wanted to try his luck. If he had been younger, he could have joined the Sect’s dojos and become stronger thanks to them, but as it was, his only opportunity was to rely on his family and to work. Thus, he believed the job the more likely to help him was that of explorer. It might be high risk and reward, but any other choice would be too likely to lead to him relying on his partner.

And no matter how proud he was of Diane, seeing her more successful than him still stung a bit. He kept seeing others around him improving themselves, becoming richer or stronger, and he couldn’t accept not being part of this group of people. Convincing him that he was still young and could take his time rather than rush ahead of dangers was pointless, Whistler being much too stubborn to change his mind.

Even with the recent introduction of marriages, to make the unions more official, Whistler only saw that he needed to be powerful enough to provide and care for his family, but not the need to be present and alive. His focus was mainly on his daughter’s future dowries needing to be good enough to guarantee them a good partner and husband. One from a family that would also benefit their Clan.

Diane had tried multiple times to convince him otherwise without success. Her worries were most apparent in the evening, when most others returned, and her husband’s absence became even more noticeable. The best Nate could do was to be there and use his abilities so her worries didn’t turn into depression. To ensure she would quickly fall asleep while preventing her from having nightmares or bad dreams. Nobody ever said anything if she was seen sleeping much earlier than most, understanding that her duties and her husband’s absence took a toll on her mind.

Diane wasn’t the only one sleeping earlier this evening, as Stelia was also quite tired from having worked a good part of the day. As such, Nate didn’t go on the roof that night, preferring to meditate while hugging his sister, as it would be more efficient to recover the Qi he spent during the day.