The past ten years helped me settle down. The 99,999 lives in the Heart Demon Tribulation may not have affected me much, but the experience is still there. The darkness I experienced inside IX resurfaced due to it, though it posed no troubles.
I fully accepted it now.
Everyone present at the conference has a darkness of their own. It showed during our discussions. It is precisely because they came to terms with it that they became their current selves.
Kiana herself used to say it. She fought for all that is beautiful, but it doesn't mean she disregarded/forgotten the ugly ones. The bad strengthens the good, just as much as there is despair before hope.
Worries, trauma, obsessions…
They are part of who we are.
This realization allowed me to reach the pinnacle of Divine Sword. An opportunity is all it takes to reach the next level, Karmic Severance Sword. I planned to reach it before attempting to pierce the 'fog' of the "Past", the one made by Fuli.
It is necessary not only because of Blade Mantra, but also to revert time and resurrect those who needed to be resurrected. Two things are tied to this one problem.
Anyways, there is still a lot of time left. 1,943 years is not a lot for the long-lived species outside, but it is more than enough for Earth to get prepared. The high grade Spirit Roots and my Partners can become high-level cultivators at this rate (i.e., minimum of Divine Transformation Realm). I am also looking forward to the sight of thousands of Nascent Soul Realm practitioners.
Buzz-!
Soon, I arrived at my first stop. The crackling of thunder never stopped on this mountain peak. Little did everyone know, it is but a projection from another spatial layer.
Hum-!
I tore a slit onto the void and stepped inside.
Crackle-!
Bam-!
I am greeted by two lightning cages clashing. One tried to disrupt the absurdly strong magnetic field of the latter. The two people fighting knew that breaking the attraction and repulsion of the lightning cages can decide the winner. It is no longer in the realm of physics but concept itself!
Boom-!
One of the cages shattered, leaving the remaining one to suppress the loser. Moments later, it is dispelled.
"Shishou."
Mei's lightning fast teleportation did not startle me. Her swift bow did. Her clothes are the same school uniform from decades ago. Its holding power… is not good.
"Tsk."
Queen Mei came from behind. She inherited Mei's Herrscher Battlesuit. Immediately, I asked her something.
"Does it not bother you wearing those high heels?"
"Hum..? I am not bothered by it."
I turned back to look at Mei, only to see her change into the exact same Battlesuit. Two identical Mei appeared.
Excuse me..?
Her eyes sparkled as if she wanted to be noticed.
"It looks good on the two of you. Giving its drawings to you is a worth-while effort."
As expected, Mei received the praise very well.
Just as we were talking about some things, a puddle of multi-colored ink emerged on the space we stood on. It quickly formed a human silhouette… Griseo.
"Greetings, teacher."
She spoke as she did an elegant bow.
"Teacher..? Shishou, is she…"
"Um. She is also my student."
Griseo's calm pupils glanced at Mei.
"Greetings, Senior."
For some reason, I heard Queen Mei's exasperated sigh. Mei and Griseo seemed fine on the surface, so it shouldn't be like that... maybe.
"Greetings. If you face any problems, you can consult me."
"En. I will trouble you, Senior."
Nothing bad happened. I led the discussion for some time before leaving. This query session took an entire week. My two students had a lot of questions to ask.
Hum-!
I stepped onto the real world once again. The date showed May 17, 2075. Out of curiosity, I checked the current census of immortal cultivators within the Federation's database. Theresa's account helped a lot in this regard.
======
Qi Refining: 4,900,200,093
Foundation Establishment: 780,001,500
Purple Mansion Realm: 50,890
Golden Core Realm: 2
Nascent Soul Realm: 21
Divine Transformation Realm: 1
=====
The current data matched the statistics. Around 30% to 40% of the populace are immortal cultivators. Out of these populations, less than 5% have middle grade spirit roots. The rest are low grade spirit roots.
The two people at the Golden Core Realm are the high grade Spirit Roots, Welt Yang and Chen Tianwu.
It is inevitable that the majority will be stuck at Qi Refining. The luckier ones can break through Foundation Establishment. Only the middle grade spirit roots can break the barrier to the Purple Mansion Realm. With Blade Mantra and the Honkai, the rate of breakthroughs are larger than expected. Still, this difficulty persists.
This is the truth of immortal cultivation. Every major realm is a chasm. It is inevitable most would perish before the two-thousand year deadline is reached. The Purple Mansion Realm, with 1,500 years of lifespan at minimum, is their sole option to reach the next era.
The bright side is Earth's growing population. Living spaces and resources are not a problem. Creating artificial planets from dwarf stars is not a big deal. So long as humans reproduce, the possibility of having spirit roots is there.
Moreover, we still have the Previous Era geniuses. I have a strong feeling Vill-V and Mobius have a lot of ideas to increase the rates of spirit roots. I, myself, have a lot of solutions to it. Only, they are resource-extensive. It's better to have them study it along with Imaginary and Quantum Energy to reduce costs and effort.
The basis of it comes from my capability of bringing them back.
Hum-!
Before I could enter Kiana's residence, she already opened the door. Her narrowed eyes sent warning signals in my mind.
"What did you do with aunt Theresa?"
…
Oops.
"I… didn't do anything bad."
"I never told you it was bad?"
"Remember the Tao Body awakening we did? Aunt Theresa's situation is similar to mine…"
I explained the ins and outs of Theresa's evolution to "Mega Theresa".
"She drank your blood…"
Kiana fell silent for a while.
"I feel it doesn't end there."
"That's the only thing we did."
"No. I mean… Aunt is acting strange whenever you are mentioned."
Moon…
Ultimate grade Spirit Roots…
Ten Lights Immortal Physique…
…and Nine Dragons Primordial Universe Body.
I think I got it.
It's bad news... relatively.
*****
A/N: Got cooked by uni. Bonus chapter from this week will be uploaded tomorrow.