Chapter 0189
It only took a minute for Bei Ting Mao to enter his sea of consciousness.
His spirits were always welcoming him before kept their distance.
“It has come to this hasn’t it?” Bei Ting Mao’s earth spirit asked. Although this tone of voice was steady as a mountain, Bei Ting Mao can sense a hidden sadness underneath the calm exterior.
“I made my choice back then. It hasn’t changed now.” Bei Ting Mao refuted.
Bei Ting Mao was not an ungrateful person. When his dan tian broke, everyone turned their backs on him. His parents never tried to find a cure for his broken dan tian. They switch their expectations from him to his brother. His brother took the chance to shine under the limelight. He never thought how blindingly bright the light could be. His clan pushed him down, bullied and demeaned him.
His friends. When his cultivation was destroyed, his friends were the first to run. There is no need to mention his master and his sect.
They raised him up when he was a genius and pushed him down when he became a waste. No one extended a helping hand when he needed them the most.
When he fought and nearly fell to his inner demons, it was his spirits help him, pull him out of hell and shown him another way.
Bei Ting Mao made his choice to cultivate the heart as his immortal path then and he had never regretted it.
“You never made a choice. It was forced down your throat. You either had to swallow the humiliation or take a chance with us.” The words were acerbic and cutting. Bei Ting Mao’s metal spirits always had a sharp tongue and vicious words to accompany it. Though his words hurt more than a knife to the heart, it was painfully true.
“It was a choice and I’ve made it then.” Bei Ting Mao insisted.
“But now you have another choice.”
Bei Ting Mao remain silent. Tempest told him his spirits were repairing his dan tian. He could cultivate the body as his immortal path once again.
“You are wavering.” Truth truthfully hurt.
“I am not wavering. I am lost.” This time it was the spirits who showed a hurt expression. It is their solemn duty to love and guide their mortal on their cultivation path. It pains them more than anything to hear their mortal say they hate them or they are lost. It means the spirits weren’t doing their duty, serving their purpose.
“How are you lost?”
“You never told me it was possible to combine mage spells with swordsmanship. You told me I need to understand the laws of metal and earth but you never told me why or how to apply the laws. You told me to enter the Eternal Spirit Guild but you never told me why. I don’t know why I am here or what path I should take to proceed forward. What am I if not lost?”
Bei Ting Mao learned a lot from his teammates. He learned the spirits love their mortals but they are not without their own goals and agendas.
Bei Ting Mao needs to dig for those goals and agendas and see if they aligned with his own wants and needs. He would only be a puppet under the spirits’ control if he followed their instructions mindlessly.
Although they grant him grace, he shouldn’t sacrifice his entire life to their cause. He’d be nothing more than a tool if he did.
“What do you wish to know?”
“What do you want from me? Graden, Fenix, Li Ming and maybe Tempest’s spirits kept secrets from their mortal. The only mage whose spirit was completely honest with him was Starm and that is because as the Son of Origin no secrets can be kept from him.”
“Their spirits kept secrets from their mortal for their own good. Have you considered that?” Bei Ting Mao’s earth spirit asked.
“I have and I acknowledge that some secrets should be kept but that is their relationship. It is not the relationship I want with you. So I ask you again, what do you want from me?”
“A chance.”
“A chance?”
“Have you ever wondered why there aren’t more Match Body and Heart cultivators?”
“Is that what you call cultivators with the same affinities and spirit veins?”
“Yes.”
“I thought it was just rare.” Bei Ting Mao answered honestly. There were no reasons to lie with his spirits.
“It was not rare. We, the spirits, made a choice not to appear in front of our mortals should he or she have the same spirit veins as his or her affinities, or at least not in the domain where cultivating the body is the immortal path of choice.
“You felt it haven’t you? The pain of being thrown aside.”
Bei Ting Mao nodded. He experienced first hand how his family, clan, friends, and master threw him aside once his usefulness was gone.
It hurts. It hurts more than being cut by a thousand knives. He can heal from those wounds. The wounds of the heart are harder to deal without. If he didn’t fight with his inner demons, the wound in Bei Ting Mao’s heart would have never healed.
“When a cultivator chose their immortal path, they rarely chose to cultivate the heart if they didn’t have to. It was too unpredictable and stupid to depend on the whimsy of the spirits for their cultivation.
“In a Matched Body and Heart cultivator, they would cultivate the body and use us to boost their cultivation. When we become useless, they throw us away, lock us in the deepest darkest corner of their minds and throw away the key. It might take centuries, millennia or eons but they did it. They could never stand to have their cultivation control by sentient spirits outside of their control.
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“We love you but we can’t live like that. We can be friends, mentors, masters, guides, allies… but we will never be a tool. You mention us using you as a tool, but have you ever thought about the other way around, where the humans use us as their tools?”
Bei Ting Mao can sense his spirits’ pain. They weren’t lying. He can sense in the depths of his heart. They weren’t lying!
“I used you didn’t I? In one of my lifetimes, I was a Matched Body and Heart cultivator and I used you, didn’t I?” Shamed washed over Bei Ting Mao as the thought of the pain he inflicted on his spirits, the beings that love and care for him the most.
“No. We left her. We left her and vow to never be a tool for our mortal again. It is why we hid when your family tests your affinities. We knew you were going to be a Match Body and Heart cultivator and we didn’t want to be second class. If your dan tian wasn’t destroyed and you were suffering, we would have never made ourselves known.”
“And now? What do you want now?”
“You have a choice now. You can go back and cultivate the body as your immortal path. You can go back to being the cultivator you always envision yourself to be. We would never take the choice away from you.”
“What would happen to you if I chose to cultivate the body as my immortal path?”
“We would return the spiritual plane.” Bei Ting Mao’s earth spirit said resolutely.
Many cultivators thought the spirits were almighty, all knowing and all powerful.
The spirits exist at the dawn of creation. They have enough wisdom and knowledge to run circles around a newborn cultivator. They also control the rate of a mage’s cultivation. With the odds stacked against them, mages tend to follow the spirits' guidance.
The few mages who realized the extent of the affections the spirits had for them use it against them. They knew the spirits loved them too much to truly harm them so they take advantage of that love and imprison the spirits or worse yet, use the spirits as their personal energy source.
They drain the spirits of their energy even after being repeatedly warned that cultivators, immortal or not, can’t handle raw elemental mana.
The initial boost in power gives the cultivator a high, similar to the drugs Tempest fears, and they get addicted to the power. It was only much later did they realized how much damage the raw elemental mana they took did to them. By then it was too late.
Love can reduce the most stalwart intelligent beings into putty.
“And what if I cultivate the heart as my immortal path? What would you do?” Bei Ting Mao pressed. He had to know. They are asking him to make a decision that might affect all of them. He had to know.
“Then you cultivate the heart as your immortal path. Everything will remain as it is now.” Bei Ting Mao’s earth spirit said simply.
Although his earth spirits may act as if he doesn’t care about the choice Bei Ting Mao made, Bei Ting Mao notice the subtle signs of tension.
Bei Ting Mao’s earth spirits tried to hold himself casually, steady, as earth spirits were renowned for. He could not keep the tension out of his too straight back or stop his hand from clenching.
As for Bei Ting Mao’s metal spirit, it was dull, subdued. Oh, the sharp intent and biting words were still there, but it was all a mask.
Bei Ting Mao berate himself for not noticing the signs of their anxiety. He was depressed his observational skills were lacking and at the same time, he was pleased. The spirits cared for him in their own way and calm and stoic as he might be, he still wants some signs they care for him. He doesn’t want to be betrayed again.
Bei Ting Mao regret he put them through this but he has to know.
“And what if I do both?”
““Do both?”” Both Bei Ting Mao’s earth and metal spirits asked with a confused expression.
“You two are so stupid and set in your ways. Have you ever considered a mortal that can cultivate both the body and the heart as equals? The body can’t function without the heart and the heart needs the body to fulfill its purpose.” Bei Ting Mao admonish the two old dogs who can’t learn new tricks.
“...no?” Bei Ting Mao’s earth spirit tentatively said.
“Then consider me the first. I’ve already thought of away. You’ve seen me combine spells with my swordsmanship. I can go further if I learn how to combine qi, mana and my sword technique together. For this, I need your guidance.” Bei Ting Mao passionately implored his spirits.
“... do you mean it? To cultivate the body and heart at the same time?” Bei Ting Mao’s earth spirits asked in the same humble disbelieving tone. It was as if they couldn’t believe Bei Ting Mao’s words. Hope and doubt mixed together as the spirits looked at their mortal.
“I mean it.” Bei Ting Mao reaffirmed.
“Then get the Firworn Sand, Trialis Ore, Fertile Soil of Zen and the Blood Crystal Ore.”
“That…” Bei Ting Mao hesitates. He knew it was a good chance to get treasures from the chaotic rift and he should take advantage of it as much as he can, but given Tempest’s personality, getting his hands on four treasures might be a bit hard.
“We know it is hard. Cultivators need two earth type treasures and two metal type treasures of the same strength if they want to train both the body and heart at the same time. It is part of the reason why cultivators find it hard to maintain the equality between body and heart. It is also one of the reasons why many would abandon this path.” Bei Ting Mao’s earth spirits explained.
“I’ll get it.” Bei Ting Mao said with a firm resolution. The spirits had given him too much. Walking the difficult path cultivating both the body and heart equally is a small price to pay for their efforts.
“It is hard.”
“I know.” Bei Ting Mao said those words and left his sea of consciousness. He didn’t hesitate once he made up his mind. He was going to get the four treasures mentioned and cultivate the body and heart at the same time.
When Bei Ting Mao came to he realizes getting the treasure from Tempest wasn’t a hard thing to do after all. It was because of Graden and Starm.
“I want this and this and this. That red orb looks nice. I’ll take that too. This black rock is ugly and probably isn’t worth anything. I’ll take it off your hands, Big Sis Tempest.” Starm spoke in a saccharine sweet voice anyone would give into. Except for Tempest.
“Like hell do I believe your bullsh*t. Give me those treasures back you little thief.”
“Big Sis Tempest, how can you call your little Starm a thief?” Starm asked with teary eyes, looking worse than an abused puppy tossed out in the rain to die.
Sadly, Tempest isn’t one to care about cute and cuddly things if that cute and cuddly thing is Starm. “Taking without paying is called stealing.”
“Who says I am not paying? Here.” Starm hand Tempest 12 jade token with his name on it for the 13 treasures he took. “These tokens are good for one appraisal from me.”
“Like hell, I need your services!” Tempest yelled.
“You are going to need my help,” Starm said with a seriousness of a sage predicting the future. “Maybe not now, but in the future, you will need my help. By then I might not be able to move without a valid reason or maybe I’m not inclined to move without a reason. This will be your reason.”
It was eerie how Starm spoke. He was like a wise sage handing out advice, a real fortune teller predicting the future, a god reading the plans of heaven.
Tempest shut up and took the tokens. She dare not in front of this side of Starm.
Bei Ting Mao leaped up and grabbed the treasures he needed, the Firworn Sand, Trialis Ore, Fertile Soil of Zen and the Blood Crystal Ore.
“Hey!” Tempest yelled, angry that another thief had robbed her.
Bei Ting Mao inscribed his name on three jade tokens and handed it to Tempest. “This is my payment for the treasures I’m taking. You might not need a skilled crafter right now, but you will in the future.”
“I already have a good weapon. In fact, your weapon came from me!” Tempest growled out.
“Then what about talisman, auxiliary gear or armor? Do you not need them?”
“Ahhh. Hell. 30 jade tokens! You don’t have a fire for crafting so your potential is crap! I’m losing out asking for only 30 jade tokens.” Tempest growled in frustration as she saw four treasures slip out of her grasp.
“Done!”
That is how Bei Ting Mao was able to get the treasures he needed to cultivate the body and heart at the same.
Of course, how much he later regret the deal he made today, only he would know.