Chapter 0180

“Surprised?” Ventus asked gently.

“Yes, but it isn’t outside the realm of possibilities,” Tempest replied honestly. How many people go under the knife to look like their favorite stars? Too many to make it almost mainstream.

Tempest saw a man made it to the 10 o’clock news because he made himself look like Tom Arnold. Tempest never professed to be knowledgeable in psychology. She did wonder if this kind of obsession falls under normal psychology or abnormal psychology.

Given the spirits’ obsession with her soul, it should be too difficult to infer the spirits would mimic’s Tempest’s appearance, although an older version of her with different colorings.

Tempest examined Ventus very closely. Tempest was pleased with the face she saw. It was a nice oval face with a straight nose, thick full lips, pale white complexion, and a silvery green eyes. Ventus’ hair was the same color as her eyes, silvery green.

Mizu and Astrapi looked the same but with different colorings. Mizu has dark blue hair and eyes while Astrapi had silver hair and eyes.

“Astrapi is silver? Not yellow or white?” Tempest asked puzzled. Yellow has always been used to represent lightning. The Flash has a bolt of yellow lightning on his suit. Shazam has lightning on his suit as well. So why is Astrapi a silver goddess instead of a yellow goddess?

“Have you seen real lightning?” Astrapi answered with a question of her own.

Now that Tempest thought about it, real lightning is more white or silver instead of yellow. “Point taken.”

Tempest continued inspecting the spirits. Her eyes landed on the two mounds on their chest. Tempest rubbed her chin and nodded her head like an art connoisseur seeing a well crafted sculpture.

The boing boing factor was there. Those mounds weren’t mountains but it can’t be disparage as flat as an airport run away either. When the spirits move, there was a slight bounce to them, enough to make its presence known, but not enough to get in the way of fighting. All in all, she was pleased with what she saw.

Mizu and Astrapi ignored Tempest’s strange bouts of vanity.

Ventus smiled serenely before continuing with her explanation. “When you see your soul from our point of view, it isn’t strange for us to try and possess you.”

Tempest nodded in agreement. She’d try to possess her soul too.

“We tried different ways to obtain your soul. It didn’t work too well. You’d escape, die and reincarnate or your brilliance slowly fade until we had no choice but to let you go. Then we saw the other spirits attaching themselves to their chosen soul but instead of trying to imprison their mortal like we were doing, they tried to integrate themselves with the body.

“The human body rejects us and our power. Over time, we learned how to combine energy from the elemental plane and the ambient mana around our mortal then infusing it into our mortal. The changes from infusing mana into the body allow us to combine with our mortal.

“Over time, the mortals learned how to communicate with their spirits and the spirits taught them how to manipulate the mana and elements around them. This was the beginning of the mages and mage cultivation.”

“That’s it?” Tempest was very disappointed. In all the stories she read, the main character has to undergo trials and tribulations to power up yet as a mage all Tempest has to do is live long enough.

“It isn’t as easy as it sounds. How long do you think it takes for a mage to learn how to harness the mana in their body? How long do you think it takes a mage to conform their sea of consciousness in order for us to enter? How many hours and how much effort does it take for a mage to learn the language of the spirits? How long does it take -”

“Alright, I get it. Don’t disdain the effort of others because I have a cheat that handed me all the knowledge on a silver platter.” Tempest grouched. Ventus’ explanation was beginning to sound more like a lecture rather than an explanation.

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“Tempest, I’m saying this to make a point. Yes, you have a cheat that bypasses all the efforts most mages must put into for them to improve their cultivation, but your cheat has side effects. Because you have your cheat, you have to work harder to improve your physical and mental abilities along with your soul.

“Mages first learned how to absorb the mana in the air and fused it into their bodies. The process tempers their bodies. The stronger their bodies become the more mana they can handle. The more mana they can handle, the more power they can use.

“As a part of your so called ‘cheat,’ you have a body that does this automatically. Unless the other mage who spend time and effort to strengthen their bodies with mana, you infuse mana into your body just by breathing, but because the process has become automated, your body is much weaker than other mages. So, unlike regular mages, you actually start off with a weaker body that needs to be tempered.”

“I thought the spirits do all the work for me in this regard?”

“No, we provide the energy from the spiritual plane and mix it with the ambient mana. It is up to the mortal to absorb the mana and fuse it into their body. The process is similar to all the cultivation books you read on Earth. You didn’t notice it or assume we performed the task for you because your body is special.”

“Okay, that makes sense. You provide the energy and I do the work.” Tempest was somewhat relieved.

“Some work. All you have to do is breath and your body does the work for you.” Astrapi snorted. Really, their mortal hit the cultivation jackpot this time. Although her ‘cheat’ was somewhat arranged by them, they didn’t realize how well her body was suited to cultivate as a mage.

“Breathing is hard,” Tempest said with the wise air of an immortal sage.

Mizu took the chance to cuddle up against Tempest, lovingly holding her in her embrace, as a mother would. “Breathing is indeed hard.”

“Don’t coddle her Mizu.” Astrapi tried to scold Mizu but she should have known her words won’t have any effect on her companion.

“Breathing is hard. Do you know how many people die by drowning each year? Do you?” Mizu glared at Astrapi before turning her attention back at Tempest. “Still, Tempest, you understand that things obtained easily aren’t as valuable as things obtained through hard work. Most people take for granted things given to them for free. They don’t know how much effort the giver expends to be able to give the time to them.”

“Thanks for the reminder,” Tempest said dryly before segueing into her point. “What do you get out of this? I don’t buy it when you say it is because you love me.”

“You would trust us more if we said we could eventually obtain your soul if you cultivate through this method.” Astrapi’s cynical reply actually had Tempest nodding her head in agreement. She would believe the spirits more if they told her this cultivation method leaves a window for them to obtain her soul. “What do you take us for? A soul sucking corporation?”

“Now that you mention it…”

“Tempest, can you not view us in an evil light?” Astrapi asked.

“I see you as an alien. You have your own physiology, language, culture, and reasoning. You are too strange for me to understand and what I don’t understand, I will mistrust.”

“That sounded logical.”

“I am logical.”

“Not really,” Astrapi said dryly.

“I don’t think it is mistrust.” Ventus cut in. “I think you don’t like to owe anyone anything.”

Tempest remained silent. Ventus is partially right. She did mistrust the spirits because she doesn’t understand them. Their one sided affections towards her is an alien concept. Perhaps if she had a different mother, she’d understand what it meant to be loved unconditionally. At the same time, she didn’t want to owe the spirits anything. Tempest didn’t want a large obligation chaining her down.

“Tempest, you don’t have to worry. Mage cultivation is about an equal exchange. When a mage infuses their body with mana, a portion of the mana is made available to us for use. For us, cultivating with energy from the spiritual plane isn’t as good as cultivating with the mana we get from our mage.”

Tempest’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree as she grinned with satisfaction. “So, if I don’t cultivate, you guys don’t cultivate.”

“No. We cultivate and grow but at a slower rate.” Ventus corrected Tempest as her other two companions glower at her. While Mizu has tried her hardest to please Tempest and Astrapi acted unobtainable and distance all to attract Tempest’s attention, it took only a few words from Ventus to appease the cynical side of Tempest. They envied Ventus’ ability to soothe Tempest. Really. Envy.

“I see. You do get something out of this deal.” An unequal exchange bothers Tempest. If the spirits, the side getting gipped, decided they don’t want to be a part of the exchange anymore then there is nothing Tempest could do to change the fact. The scenario changes if the spirits had something to lose if the dissolve the exchange. It makes the exchange more binding since both sides lose if the exchange doesn’t go through.

“Okay, let me summarize the lecture so far. One, I have a cheat that allows me to cultivate just by breathing. Two, due to my cheat, I am physically weaker than most mages. Three, the benefits you receive from mana is greater than the energy from your plane.”

“Correct on all three counts.”

“Okay, then what does all of this have to do with the changes in my personality that Cardis hinted at?”