Regressor Sect Master

Two weeks after regression

Core Disciple Yavin Redaxe trembled as he watched the Sect Master work in the alchemy workshop.

As far as he knew, the master worked alone, so the fact that he was summoned to the alchemy workshop initially struck him with fear. Was the Sect Master upset with his investigation report? Was there some clue he was supposed to find?

Or was this punishment of some kind?

“Fourth realm.” Tundra said as he assessed Yavin Redaxe’s meridians. “Fire-Water dual element spirit roots, both at the Middle-grade. Fascinating.”

The Core Disciple gulped as Tundra let go of his wrist.

“Help me clean up the workshop and I’ll give you a pill for your contributions.” The Sect Master said.

Yavin wasn’t sure whether that was a punishment or an opportunity. Maybe both. He nodded, because there was nothing else to say. “Yes, Sect Master.”

***

Tundra was relatively pleased at how Yavin helped him with the really messy workshop. Over the years, his tastes and thinking about how an alchemy workshop should be organized evolved. Some of them, because of insights he gained from his various experiments.

As strange as it sounds, not all pills are from finding old books or scrolls. After all, pills must have been invented at some point in time, and during his later years when the sect was in the upper tier, he began to have a surplus of resources.

Enough for him to begin doing his own experiments, discover profound truths about the nature of materials and invent new pills altogether.

It was an unusual irony for master alchemists that one had to be rich and powerful to learn and try new things, but in order to be rich and powerful, an alchemist had to bring something new to the market.

One of the things he wanted to hoard, subtly, was the materials needed to purge Zuja worms. He didn’t want to let the Zuja cult know he knew how to do it. That was a risk, and it’s likely the Zuja wouldn’t make such large moves, because it painted a target on their backs.

At this point, 10,000 years ago, the orthodox sects were still powerful.

There were easily twenty 10th realm masters, almost all of them members of the Great Sects. Perhaps a few more like Patriarch Whitedragon who had the power to briefly enter into the 11th realm. In fact, it wouldn’t even be difficult for Tundra to speculate about the other great cultivators that could.

Zuja’s cult spent centuries whittling down the strength of the Great Sects, and he wondered briefly how much of the conflicts between sects were engineered by these cults in the shadows. Creating 10th realm masters is an effort that required a few millennia of investment, or, in Tundra’s case, it took him almost 6,000 years from the 9th to the 10th realm.

The workshop was reorganized by some kind of unknown nature, and Yavin, a natural combat-focused cultivator, didn’t understand it. To him, alchemy was high magic, and is unfathomable as the great voids.

“Good job, Yavin. Here’s a pill I made yesterday, the Sunset Root Soul Enhancement Pill. It should help you balance the conflicting natures of your spirit root. Eat it now, and let me observe how it affects you. You may need a supplementary pill depending on the reaction.”

“Balance the nature?” Yavin stared at the strange orange pill, and consumed it immediately. He immediately felt the Fire and Water energies of his soul swirl and mix.

All this while, Yavin had learned how to only open one of them at the same time, and alternating between the spirit roots for cultivation was a slow, deliberate process. When he cultivated, there were days he focused on the Fire-side of the Spirit Roots, and shut off the Water Spirit Roots entirely.

Tundra then narrated, as he often did as a 10,700 year old sect master. He was a naggy old man who loved to talk about theory. It was always a shame he didn’t do that for his own children.

“Cultivation is a multi-step process. A cultivator, through his cultivation methods, pulls energy from the world around him, or from pills. A cultivation method that focuses on channeling the energy stored in pills, is usually not optimal at absorbing energies from the outside world.”

Yavin winced as he felt his spirit roots feel like they were boiling. It was a spiritual sensation, and though his physical body was fine, the pain was primal.

“After the energies were brought into the body, and into the entrances, then, a cultivator must suck in that energy into his spirit. That is what the spirit roots do. It is the door. The drain. The entrance to the soul. The energies of the body must then be moved into the soul. Again, cultivation methods arrange and sort the energies, and try to guide them through that door. Each door has a different shape, a different angle. Some cultivation methods are better at this, some are less proficient.”

At this point, Yavin wasn’t listening. He was in too much pain.

“Then, once that energy gets through the door, a cultivator must shape the energy, and add it to his soul. Depending on which realm, what he needs to do at this point is different. For the lower realms, it is as simple as adding the energies to the burning soul, to grow the sun within our spirit. To fill our spirit with energy. In the later realms, it is about forming structures, and creating your own world within your soul.”

Yavin struggled as the burning sensation was overwhelming. He grit his teeth, trying to withstand it. At this point, the pain was so vivid that all his other senses were secondary.

“So, in that framework, we come to you, with two different doors, each suited for a different element.” Tundra lectured, as he naturally reverted to his old master’s mode. “The very first thing to do is to find you a cultivation method suited for your conflicting elements. The next is to prepare your soul such that it doesn’t fight the two elements. The Sunset Root Soul Enhancement Pill has origins in the root that emerges only in the Sunset’s glow, next to the ocean. A root of both sun and sea, it is nature’s way of merging both fire and water. We’ve exploited this natural ability to make this pill, so this pill will help create a temporary barrier to separate your two elemental energies.”

The Core Disciple winced as he felt something in his spirit, a barrier, as if his soul was split in two. A thin film. It separated the fire spirit root and water spirit root in his soul.

Without it, the two elements would come in contact, and neutralize each other, nullifying any cultivation progress.

“With this, you no longer have to only open one spirit root at the time, but you must pay attention to when the barrier fades, and come back to me for more of this pill.”

Yavin barely heard it, as his head was drenched in sweat, his body vibrated with a buzz. It took him another 30 minutes of just breathing before he felt the pain fade from his body, and he looked at his sect master.

“You didn’t hear any of that, did you?” Tundra said, realizing that Yavin stared at him blankly, unsure what to do.

He immediately knelt on the floor, his head almost slamming the ground below. “This disciple is useless!”

The old Tundra would’ve kicked him for incompetence. But age has mellowed him greatly, and he sighed. “I will repeat for your benefit. Listen well.”

***

 

Tundra worked in the alchemy halls, leaving the workshop only for his scheduled lectures for his descendants. At night, he called his wives to him, and helped them with their cultivation.

It was strange to help others cultivate after so long. He spent so many years cultivating alone as the Sect Master, that he was briefly uncomfortable with others around. But these were his wives, and if he couldn’t cultivate with them, who could he cultivate with?

And it was not only him that had to adapt. He also realized it was difficult for his wives, too.

They were not used to him around. Not like this.

“Husband, is this alright, will we not disturb your cultivation?” Elly asked uncomfortably on the first day of their planned cultivation. They were just all seated in a circle, close, but not touching.

He laughed. If the presence of his wives could disturb his cultivation, he should be embarrassed of himself. A man who once reached the 10th realm, unable to cultivate when his wives are around, would be laughed at by his peers. “Yes. In fact, my presence will help.”

Celestia sat opposite him, while Elly and Marin took one side.

“Alright. There are some things I’ve learned in my dream.” Tundra smiled, as his energies stretched into the world around him. Elly’s spirit root was water. Marin was Earth. Celestia was wood. Tundra’s own was Metal. In a way, the only primary element they missed was Fire.

He manipulated the energies in the surroundings, sorted them, and began to redirect them towards his wives. His three wives immediately realized what was happening.

There were little sparks in the air, as Tundra went a step further. He took the elemental energies, and packed them together. In normal instances, they would immediately break apart. But his own energies forced them together.

Creating dense clumps.

He saved them two steps.

One, from the filtration of the energies. Most cultivators focused on a certain element, when forming their soul and growing their cultivation. Usually, this was the same element as their spirit roots, though exceptions existed.

Two, was the process of compacting energies to fit through the spirit roots. The spirit roots, or the door between the spirit and the body, is usually small, and it’s even smaller for those with low-grade spirit roots. With smaller doors, the cultivator has to compress the energy much more, in order to fit the energy through the door.

Cultivation methods existed, naturally, to help guide this process of compacting energy. Cultivation chambers existed for the same purpose, they generated denser versions of energy, which allowed a cultivator to gain more from the same period of time.

The three wives gobbled up the energies made for them.

He might’ve sped up their cultivation ten times, no, maybe twenty times this way. He hoped, in his heart, that he would at least see his wives in the 5th realm, and they’d be able to live a lot longer, and they’d have more time to spend with each other.

At the 5th realm, they’d live to 3,200 years.

***

It was morning when they were done with their first night of cultivation, and already, all three could feel a tangible difference in their spirit. For Elly and Marin, both in the 3rd realm, they knew another night of cultivation was all they needed to break through another stage. It’s even possible that they’d reach the 4th realm after a single month.

“Did you know he could do that?” Elly stared at Celestia, and Celestia shook her head.

“No. I did not know that Tundra knew how to replicate the effects of a cultivation chamber.”

“He should do that for our kids. Especially those approaching the end of their lifespan.” Marin said. “They will benefit greatly from it, and- and I need to think about what we should do.”

“What is there to think?” Elly looked at Marin. “We just come here every night and keep cultivating.”

“Not that, you stupid woman.” Marin countered. “We need to think about whether this is really the best way to use his ability. Don’t you think he can essentially push someone from a nobody to at least the 4th realm just by spending time with them and force them to cultivate together? Celestia, do you think he knows how to build a cultivation chamber?”

“It’s possible.”

“Ask him. You’re the closest to him.” Marin said. “It’s a powerful bargaining tool, and if he could build it in our family homes-”

Elly stared at her co-wife. “Is that what it is about? Benefits for your Eastheart family?”

Marin nodded. “Yes. Think about it. If he could build one each for both our families, our families would gain strength.”

Elly immediately looked at Celestia, recognising the merits of her fellow co-wife’s statement. “Would you please ask him?”

Celestia gulped, unsure why the two wives asked him. “I will ask, but it might be better if you two also ask him yourself.”

Marin thought about it for a moment. “Do you think this old Tundra wants more children? I’d be happy to bear more of his children if that’s what he wants.”

Celestia didn’t know why but she blushed. The thought of trading children for benefits seemed like such a calculative way of doing things. She didn’t even know whether that would work. “I- I have the sense that he wants something else from us.”

“Does he want me to warm his bed again? It’s been a while since I last did the deed, but I suppose a cultivation chamber would be more than worth it.” Elly thought for a moment.

Celestia frowned. “I think our husband is not like that. Not- not anymore. I think he wants something else from us.”

Elly and Marin both seemed unsure what Celestia referred to. In their minds, men were simple. Men liked beautiful women to serve them. It was why every woman from the large sects and cults, should they lack in the raw strength of cultivation, devoted their time elsewhere and trained in the finer arts, such as serving tea, playing music, dance, and the arts of pleasing a man in private, so that one day, should they stumble upon a man of high station who has an interest, they could rise to the moment and win his affections.

The world was patriarchal, and women who didn’t have raw strength, had to think differently and play to their feminine charms.

In Elly and Marin’s case, their union with Tundra was political. They did their duties, and he did his. So they remain married. In a world where laws are enforced by sects, there really was no concept of divorce. A man could marry a thousand times, and a woman could marry a thousand men. What mattered was whether the two had the strength to back up their status.

“What are you talking about?” Marin asked.

“I think he genuinely wants our company.” Celestia said. She didn’t know why she had that instinct, that what her husband wanted from them was not their nightly service or their bodies, but having them around. To her, it felt like he wanted their genuine affections.

Elly and Marin looked at Celestia. They wanted to say she was crazy. But then again, much has changed. “You really think so? He’s- he’s never such a person.” Marin asked.

Celestia nodded. “Don’t take my word as true. But it is what I feel.”

The 4th and 5th wives looked at each other, both deep in thought. Elly sighed. She would need time to process her thoughts. “I’ll go back to my room to rest.”

“Same.”

Celestia looked back at Tundra’s quarters. He was probably in the alchemy workshop, making pills for the elders.