.
I woke in the morning to find Little Jia snuggled up to me in my futon. This might have been questionable, but she was in her pupper form, with two out of four paws in the air and her little head laying on my chest.
Jia is actually a very complex being. Parts of her consciousness never sleep, and other parts aren’t truly consciousness at all, but rather autonomous systems that run this and that. Some of her is present in her main body, but the majority is spread out, here and there, throughout this small world.
Some day in the distant future, when she is ready to move on from this role, I will either evacuate this world and end it, or create another assistant to manage it, and all of these things will merge, combining to become the growth that she has earned over the millennia. At that time, she will experience a significant upgrade, with almost complete certainty of reaching Auspicious Beast level. At least, that’s what I hoped for her when I gave her this job to begin with, but I believe she has already achieved it.
Despite all that, in the middle, however superintelligent, is a spirit beast who is still a member of the dog clade. Part of a dog’s definition, as with a human, is to experience a regular sleep cycle. She probably only dreams lucid dreams at this point, but she must dream from time to time, just as I must.
However, those extra systems allow her to wake as soon as those systems notice her partner (me) awakening, so her eyes came open as soon as I looked down at her.
“Good Morning,” I told her.
Good Morning, Commander! she said while stretching her body out. At maximum stretch, all four paws and nose to tail, she began reporting, The locals are attempting to investigate the mountain entrance. I have inflicted nine serious injuries, and they have currently withdrawn beyond the distance that I am allowing them to believe is my maximum range. Is it okay to continue the status quo?
I was fully connected to the time and location of this world now, so I knew it was roughly sixteen hours of my subjective reality since I left them behind out there. For them, it was one seventieth of that time, or only about fourteen minutes. It might be a while before they gave up.
By the time she ended that speech, she had rolled over and laid her chin on my chest. With my fingers stroking the fur on the back of her neck, I said, “Try to keep things from escalating. I’ll have the Fairy King stop them, the next time I visit the castle.”
Your companions all engaged in sexual activities during the night. Do you wish to have a companion at night as well?
I froze in shock. What was this girl proposing, exactly?
“Ah… first of all, don’t inform me or anyone else about the sex life of any residents in the future, please. That’s none of my business.”
She grew a puzzled look, with her head tipping and her ears perking.
In the old days, Jia had not achieved this level of ‘human’ interaction. As a spirit beast, she simply acted as a dog, albeit one that could communicate in simple terms, and in voice mode, she had been more of a barely personified computer than anything else. So this was not the sort of conversation we would have had in the past.
Then I noticed something, “Wait a minute. Dilorè engaged… with whom?”
You just told me not to inform you, Commander.
I grimaced. I had a need to know in this case. Dilorè needed to keep her hands off these particular mortals, so…
Feeling a little hypocritical, I said, “In a case where I specifically ask, please answer.”
Two nights ago, when she experimented with being affectionate with the serving girls looking after her needs, they decided to cooperate. We have many visual records left behind from the old days that we have studied over the years. After we acquired human forms, we tried out the things that we saw in them, so they were interested in trying them with an outsider.
My Servants were mortals, and they had mortal entertainments with them, which would have included ancient porn. Cringing slightly, I looked down at her with concern. “Exactly who were you suggesting as a companion for me?”
There are several on the serving staff who would be quite eager, Commander. If you desire, I can serve as well, but I am… uncomfortable with the idea, for some reason.
Chuckling out of relief, I scritched her behind the ear while saying, “I’m pretty uncomfortable with that idea myself. And no, I do not need a companion. Where I live in my current lifetime, I am considered too young for it.”
Do you wish to take breakfast now, Commander?
“I’m going to go soak in the pool,” I said, finally getting up. “Bring me something light, out there. Tea, toast and jam would be fine.”
I didn’t think to wonder about the locations of the others until I was already in the garden pond. I could hear something as I soaked and extended my senses, to discover Ryuu in the backyard of a house on a terrace below mine. Chiara was in the kitchen of the same house, making breakfast.
He was doing his morning exercise routine, swinging that massive blade in various patterns. He uses a body strengthening skill to manage it, and the blade can make some frightening whooshing sounds as he slashes it around.
Investigating a bit longer, I discovered Dilorè in the neighboring house, still curled up in bed with a couple of servant girls. Like Jia, they were spirit constructs who had begun their existence as spirit beasts, so I considered teasing Dilorè about it later. I decided against it, though. Once a spirit beast begins wearing an intelligent lifeform’s appearance, we treat them as the equals of Immortals in the Fundamental Realm, so what she was doing really wasn’t considered improper. As long as they did it as humans, mind you.
Jia, in her human form, appeared with a tray and placed it on the terra cotta rim of the pond next to where I was sitting. As she poured the tea for me, I flipped over so I could get my toast. As I picked it up, I told her, “I want everyone to meet at my gallery in an hour. Can you inform them?”
“Certainly, Commander,” she said with a smile, setting the teapot down.
“You’re the world manager, Jia. Is it not bothersome, having to wait on me as well?”
As I bit into toast with cherry jam, she pooched out her lips slightly. “As if I’m going to let anyone else wait on you! You’re mine, Commander!”
I was taken slightly aback at how adamant she was. Once I had chewed and swallowed, I smirked a little and teased, “But they’re all such cuties! What if I want to watch them too?”
Deflating slightly, she sulked, “I will have the others serve you as well, if that’s what you wish, Commander.”
She truly looked disappointed. Then she added, protesting, “But I want to stay around you!”
I smiled and decided not to keep teasing her. “Okay. We’ll keep it this way, then.”
Little Jia honestly looked relieved.
“Do you need anything else, Commander?”
“Mm.” I had just taken another bite, so I had to chew and swallow. “When I finish this, I will be meditating for a while. Come get me when it’s time to dress me to go to the gallery.”
“Alright,” she agreed.
As I took a swallow of tea, I remembered I would be meditating outside, naked in the garden. I told her, “Also, alert me if either of my mortal companions comes looking for me here. I need to dress before greeting them. It’s fine to let Dilorè in, though.”
Once I had finished eating, I flipped onto my back once more and stretched out. The daylight felt wonderful, the water felt wonderful… for some reason, it felt right, so I transformed back into my maritime form and stretched my flukes out. Satisfied, I began experimenting yet again with Daq R’mion’s accumulation techniques, breathing in the spiritual energy.
The key, I decided, was the exceptional knowledge that he’d had in guiding the thin threads of essence, filaments less than an atom in width. They could never be seen in his world, only experienced by a mind that had trained itself in how to detect them. They didn’t exist in the world, but rather floated in the Void, attaching to the spiritual energy as it flowed out of the Spirit Realm into the Mortal Realm. In places where it was rich, the essence could be gathered with ease. In places where it was poor, a lifetime might only accumulate a thimble-full.
But that essence, once accumulated, could draw energy into itself, and that energy could be exerted as strength.
I had used his knowledge the previous day and increased the speed at which those threads gathered. But I could only do so for so long. Now that I was no longer gathering them into a nearly empty vessel, but rather trying to stuff more of them into a full one, I had to exert pressure to make the vessel expand to accept them. It would inflate, like a balloon, but it needed more pressure, the more it expanded.
The metaphor broke at that point, fortunately. Once expanded, it would gradually stabilize and adjust to its new size. Then I could repeat the process. Here in this rich environment, I could do it much more quickly than on Huade, but, just as I would never experience the rapid growth of the first days of having my spirit vessel on Huade again, I would never again experience the speed at which I grew yesterday. From here on out, it would be an effort.
It was still worthwhile coming here. No matter what, anything I could accomplish on Huade would happen faster here. And with Daq’s techniques, and with the greater skill I had at them thanks to Fan Li’s experience, I could accomplish a lot now.
With a shock, I came to a realization at this moment. In a way, I was now far more powerful than Senhion had been. Oh, I had a long way to go to catch up to her strength, to the sheer quantity of essence that she had built up in her vessel by the time she was hit by the Affliction. But Senhion never had the knowledge I had now, learned from Mortal Realm cultivation experts.
My trip through all those other lives had gained me real treasures. If, as Senhion, I had been able to apply this efficiency to my time in my small world, I might have become ready to Ascend two, perhaps three times during my four thousand years. Maybe more.
How would we have handled that? It would have made no sense to keep Ascending and making new Immortal bodies for myself, then Descending and re-inhabiting my Mortal Realm body. Could we have found a way for me to instead push my accumulated Spirit Essence into my original Immortal body so I could Descend again? Perhaps by the time we finished on Huade, I would have been able to Ascend to the First Harmonic Realm or beyond…
My reverie was broken by Jia informing me it was time. I inspected my spirit vessel and was satisfied with the growth I had added yesterday and this morning. I was almost certainly at the Juvenile stage already. On Huade, it would have taken me centuries to get to this point.
Taking care to keep it stable so I didn’t lose my gains of the past hour, I woke, returned to land form and rose out of the pond. To my surprise, I was surrounded by warm air as I stepped onto the grass. Then I realized Dilorè was coming in for landing.
“I have got to learn that trick,” I told her.
“I hear that Aunt Deharè isn’t able to teach you spells?” she asked.
I nodded. “I have to learn them through my Servants. I’ll have to see if Ceria knows it.”
“Not Chiara?”
“She doesn’t have Fire affinity,” I answered, shaking my head.
“Perhaps I can teach Ceria and she can teach you,” Dilorè offered.
Little Jia dressed me in culottes and a sleeveless white top that left my shoulders and upper back exposed before wrapping snuggly around my midriff. It was a perfect day for flying, so Dilorè and I took off.
As we rose, I spotted Ryuu and Chiara following a serving girl leading them to the same destination.
“We’re headed to the art gallery?” my cousin asked as we flew.
“That’s right,” I nodded.
“Why an art gallery?” she wondered.
“You’ll see soon enough.”
