Well, it is good to see that not much has changed at the moment, thought Arin as he completed his lap around the forest. The forest looked mostly the same as it had before, although now that he had Forest Stewardship, he could notice far more details than he had been able to before. Small changes in the vegetation, differences in the health of individual trees, and subtle variations in the way mana moved through the ecosystem were no longer things he simply walked past without noticing. The new skill had made his understanding of the forest considerably deeper, and Arin was beginning to appreciate just how much information he had been missing.
After finishing his patrol, Arin settled down to cultivate near the secret realm. The area around the portal was the most damaged part of the forest, so it made sense to cultivate there rather than somewhere that was already healthy. He had also discovered something particularly interesting about the Sonnenberg Breathing Technique while thinking about the skill he had just received. Their breathing method had partially copied the principle that cultivating within a forest could accelerate cultivation.
That discovery was excellent news for more than one reason. It meant that cultivating inside the forest was beneficial to the cultivator, but it also meant that the cultivator could benefit the forest in return. Arin was effectively establishing a cycle between himself and the surrounding ecosystem, with the forest providing him with an environment that supported cultivation while his cultivation helped maintain the forest. It was not a simple exchange, either, because the process became more effective when the vegetation around him remained active and vigorous.
With the vegetation around him active, Arin could feel the forest responding to his cultivation. His breathing technique pulled mana through his body while the surrounding plants continued their own natural processes. The interaction was subtle, but with Forest Stewardship now occupying his mind, he could recognize that something was happening between himself and the ecosystem. It was almost as if he had placed himself at the center of a small cycle, with the forest and his cultivation supporting one another.
That made cultivating near the secret realm particularly useful. The vegetation around the portal needed to remain active and vigilant because the secret realm itself was a threat to the surrounding environment. Even though there was currently no corruption energy radiating directly from the portal, its mere presence was still harmful to the health of the vegetation nearby. Arin could see the evidence clearly enough without needing the skill to point it out.
The entire hill where the portal was located was almost completely barren. There was barely any vegetation capable of establishing itself around the ominous portal, and the contrast with the surrounding forest was impossible to miss. Arin still found it strange that the hill had not simply washed away over time, especially considering how much rain fell in their region now that the global climate had returned to normal. The amount of rain their stretch of land received was enormous, and it continued throughout the year.
The rainfall had already made traveling toward the city considerably more dangerous. Their route passed through a swamp, and the swamp became particularly troublesome whenever it had rained heavily. What might have been an inconvenient stretch of land under normal conditions could become genuinely dangerous after enough rainfall. Arin did not personally mind the rain, but that did not mean he enjoyed dealing with the consequences of having so much water throughout the surrounding terrain.
If anything, the rain was useful for the greenhouse they had established over the forest. Their magic circle filtered the mana in the surrounding air, creating something that resembled a massive greenhouse effect over the forest. The increased moisture and controlled mana environment had helped the vegetation tremendously. It was another example of how the family had adapted to the world after the arrival of mana rather than simply trying to recreate the world that had existed before.
There was still something strange about the forest, though. Despite the favorable conditions and the fact that the family had done absolutely nothing to prevent it from spreading, the forest had not expanded beyond the boundary established after the planet's expansion. If anything, the family would have preferred the opposite. A larger healthy forest would have been beneficial to them in almost every conceivable way, yet the forest simply refused to expand past that boundary.
Arin found that behavior strange, but he had eventually accepted it as the will of the forest. The Sonnenbergs had never considered themselves masters of the forest in the sense of being able to command it to do whatever they wanted. They lived with it, protected it, and benefited from it, but they also understood that there were limits to how much they should interfere. If the forest wanted to remain where it was, they were not going to force it to spread.
That was also why they refused to simply plant more trees outside the boundary. Doing so might have created more woodland, but it would not have been the same as allowing a natural forest to develop on its own. The Sonnenbergs valued the forest precisely because it was natural, and deliberately creating an artificial forest would undermine part of what made their home special. They wanted the forest to grow because it wanted to grow, not because they had decided that more trees would be convenient.
Of course, Arin knew there was a slight contradiction in that belief. The family had introduced plants and vegetation into their forest that had not originally existed there. Some of those plants could have naturally existed somewhere else in their country before the Expansion of the Earth, but they had not originally been part of this particular forest. Technically, that meant the forest was no longer completely untouched or natural in the strictest sense of the word.
Still, the forest had accepted those plants. They had integrated into the ecosystem without causing the kind of disruption that would make their presence problematic, and the Sonnenbergs considered that good enough. Aside from those examples, they left the forest to develop naturally. They could influence it when necessary, but they did not want to turn it into an artificial environment that existed entirely according to human planning.
Even if that was a somewhat questionable form of defense against the secret realm, the newly discovered benefit of their breathing method gave Arin some hope. Their forest could potentially recover far faster than they had originally expected. If cultivating inside it strengthened both the cultivator and the ecosystem, then the family could potentially use that relationship to help restore the damaged areas. They might even be able to encourage the forest's recovery without directly interfering with its natural development.
That possibility sounded excellent.
However, Arin knew that this was not something he could decide by himself. If the family wanted to make use of this discovery, it would become a matter for everyone to discuss and decide together. The forest belonged to the entire Sonnenberg family in a sense, and anything that could influence its long-term development required more than Arin simply deciding that it was a good idea. He would have to explain what he had discovered and let the family determine how they wanted to proceed.
I wonder what other wonderful breathing methods are out there, thought Arin as he stood up. The possibility was strangely exciting, especially after realizing how much variation could exist between different approaches to cultivation. He glanced back toward the ominous-looking portal on the hill before turning away from it. There was clearly much more to cultivation than he had originally understood.
Meanwhile, deep underground, Gaia was paying attention to something very different. Part of her mind was checking the subconscious processes she had assigned to monitor the development of the various breathing methods spreading throughout humanity. She was quite excited about the results, although she did not need to consciously watch every single development herself. Her subconscious could handle much of the monitoring while she focused her conscious attention elsewhere.
At the moment, Gaia was busy snooping around for corrupted humans among the American public and civil servants. That task required more of her direct attention, so she allowed the subconscious portion of her mind to continue observing the breathing methods. She had already learned that humanity was capable of producing an enormous amount of variation when given the opportunity. The sheer number of different approaches appearing across the world was making her increasingly pleased with the direction things were taking.
The results had been particularly satisfying because they appeared to prove that limiting the development of guns had been a worthwhile decision. The number of different breathing methods emerging across humanity was enormous, and Gaia could already see how that would eventually translate into a similarly enormous variety of classes and professions. As a planet, she was more than happy to encourage that kind of diversity.
The most important part was that not every path needed to be successful. Some breathing methods would inevitably prove unsustainable. Others might only work for a small number of people or fail to help someone progress very far. Gaia did not consider that a problem. The mere existence of those different paths would broaden the foundations of human knowledge, and that was valuable in itself.
Every failed method could still teach something.
Every unusual method could reveal a different interaction between mana and the human body. Every variation could potentially expose something that humanity had not understood before. Gaia benefited enormously from that expansion of knowledge because the information eventually became part of the foundation from which she could understand the world around her more deeply.
That was particularly important because Gaia knew that her knowledge had limits.
She was incredibly powerful, but power did not mean that she knew everything. Much of what she currently understood about mana had been given to her through the arrival of the System, which had awakened her and provided her with an enormous amount of information. Before that, her understanding of mana had been fundamentally different. She had existed for an unimaginably long time, but that did not mean she automatically understood every law governing the new reality.
Because of that, the generation of new knowledge was incredibly important to her. Humanity discovering new breathing methods gave her access to information that she might never have discovered by herself. Those discoveries could eventually help widen the foundations of her own understanding and potentially allow her to generate or understand new natural laws.
Gaia did not know exactly why she felt that this would become important. It was simply a deep feeling within her, one that she could not fully explain. However, she was powerful enough to understand that ignoring such a feeling would be foolish. If something deep within her was telling her that the development of diverse cultivation paths mattered, then she intended to pay attention.
That was one of the biggest reasons she had limited the development of guns. Gaia knew that no real government would willingly devote enormous resources toward developing an entirely new breathing method if its primary purpose was not related to military weapons like guns, if she did not limit their development. Even if such a government discovered something useful, there was no guarantee that anyone would take the research seriously if it did not provide an immediate military advantage.
The Sonnenbergs and the other Trade Families were different. They would continue experimenting regardless of what governments considered useful, and the same applied to various strange organizations scattered throughout the world. They would create their own techniques, investigate unusual paths, and experiment simply because they wanted to understand what was possible.
But Gaia did not believe it was healthy for an entire civilization to depend on only a handful of organizations for such discoveries. Humanity needed many different groups experimenting with cultivation rather than having all meaningful progress concentrated in a few isolated hands. That was the real reason she was so interested in watching these new breathing methods develop.
She wanted to see where they would lead.
The number of possibilities was enormous, and Gaia was genuinely excited to see what humanity would create with them. Different environments, different cultures, different organizations, and different individuals would inevitably produce different approaches. For Gaia, that variety was not a problem to be controlled.
It was an opportunity.