And besides the fact that humanity had accidentally gotten closer to creating better weapons and medicine, there were also several other interesting breathing methods being developed. The Trade Families in particular had begun producing some rather unique methods, although Gaia was not particularly surprised by most of them. The Arcidiacono family was perhaps the clearest example, as they had predictably moved in the direction of beast taming, just as they had always been inclined to do. Their entire family had always had a connection to animals, so it was only natural that their cultivation path would eventually develop around that relationship.
Their breathing method essentially involved ripping apart a piece of their own soul and granting it to an animal of their choosing. That piece of soul was then implanted within the animal, creating a bond between the human and the beast that would remain for as long as they lived. And boy, was that painful. Gaia was still perplexed by the fact that humans had managed to come up with something like this at all, because she was not entirely convinced that a human should have been able to think of such a method on their own. Yet somehow, they had managed to do exactly that.
It was also the breathing method that had forced Gaia's subconscious to interfere the most in order to make the process safe and workable. The basic concept had been sound, but the details had been dangerously close to becoming fatal. The soul was not something humans could simply tear apart without consequences, and the process required extremely careful control to prevent permanent damage. Still, the Arcidiacono family had eventually achieved it, and their method now allowed their bonded animals to participate in cultivation alongside them.
The effects on the animals were equally impressive. Because they possessed a piece of a human soul, they became connected to human civilization in a way that ordinary beasts were not. They could cultivate alongside their partners, and the animals themselves grew much faster than they otherwise would have. Gaia was not surprised by the general direction of the development, because she had always known that beast taming would eventually move toward something like this. If humans wanted their beasts to become strong enough to remain relevant beside them, some kind of deeper connection would eventually be necessary.
What surprised Gaia was the method they had chosen to create that connection. They had gone straight for the soul, despite the enormous risks involved. In some ways, however, it was also the most effective solution available to them. The soul provided a direct connection between the human and the beast, allowing both sides to benefit from the relationship instead of simply treating the animal as another resource or weapon. It was crude, dangerous, and painful, but it worked.
The Arcidiacono family had initially wanted to follow the path that appeared in so many beast-taming cultivation novels. Their original idea was to store animals inside their own souls, creating a habitat within the soul where their beasts could live and grow. Eventually, they imagined that this internal habitat might even develop into something resembling a secret realm. Gaia was not going to rule the possibility out forever, because such a path could theoretically exist under the right circumstances.
However, making that idea work would require the development of an enormous number of laws and systems that humanity did not yet understand. The only realistic way to create something like that at the moment would be to have an entire civilization focus on developing the necessary path. Gaia was not prepared to make humanity dedicate itself to such a narrow goal, nor did she believe that doing so was currently in the best interests of humanity as a whole. Perhaps much later, when the Arcidiacono family itself had become far stronger, they could attempt to create such a path.
But not now. For the moment, the family had chosen the simpler solution of sacrificing a piece of their own soul to establish a permanent bond. In Gaia's opinion, that was already bordering on insanity, but it was also undeniably clever. The soul fragment gave the beast a direct connection to its human partner, while also establishing a connection to humanity itself through the piece of human soul embedded within it.
Unfortunately, that soul fragment came with a significant price. The soul could not simply heal itself after losing a piece of itself, meaning that the human cultivator would need at least a year to fully recover. During that period, they would also be considerably weaker and more vulnerable to attacks that targeted the soul. It was an enormous disadvantage, especially for a family that was deliberately creating a cultivation method around something so dangerous.
Yet the benefits were equally significant. Because the beast contained a genuine piece of human soul that was willingly connected to humanity, it became part of humanity's civilization in a way that ordinary animals could not. Its free will could contribute to human cultural energy, allowing the beast to benefit from the civilization it had become connected to. The relationship was not merely symbolic; it had real effects on the way both sides developed.
The bond also meant that the human and beast were deeply intertwined. Their cultivation could therefore support one another, allowing the animals to grow considerably faster than they otherwise would have. Since the beasts did not possess professions that could directly help them cultivate their souls, the bond itself became an extremely important method of development. Through their connection with humans, they gained access to an entirely new avenue of growth.
Gaia certainly thought the Arcidiacono family was crazy for attempting it. There was no way around that conclusion when she looked at what they had willingly done to their own souls. Still, she encouraged them to continue experimenting with the path and developing it further. Their willingness to create something of their own was exactly the sort of behavior she wanted to see from humanity.
Their fortune was flourishing because of it. Gaia rewarded their improvements and their courage to walk their own path, although she did not always do so consciously. These rewards were one of the subtle benefits she granted to humans who developed unique methods instead of simply copying existing ones. She did not even actively control this process; it was something that existed within her subconscious as a planet and as Gaia.
There was nothing she could consciously do to stop it. Humanity's experimentation itself was creating new possibilities, and those possibilities were becoming part of the foundation upon which future development could occur. Even methods that were flawed or dangerous could provide humanity with knowledge that would eventually lead somewhere useful. Gaia therefore allowed the Arcidiacono family to continue walking down their chosen path, even if she personally thought their first major breakthrough was completely insane.
Sadly, this also meant that some less-than-savory breathing methods were being attempted. One particularly disturbing example came from a tribe in the Amazon rainforest. They had been contacted around thirty years earlier after too many influencers with high-tech equipment began traveling into the territory of uncontacted tribes to film them and gather views. Eventually, the governments involved had made formal contact with the tribes and introduced them to the wider human world.
There had also been several other uncontacted tribes living on islands in the ocean. Those tribes were only introduced to humanity at large after they were teleported to the Trial, and that had caused an entirely different debacle. Unfortunately, they were now dead. Their islands contained no mana veins, and no other humans came to rescue them because the various countries involved were not particularly interested in those isolated populations.
Gaia could have intervened, but she did not have the time or the will to rescue every individual human who made a series of foolish decisions. The result was tragic, but it was also a consequence of humanity's own choices and the limitations of the world around them. Gaia could not personally save everyone who became stranded somewhere without the resources necessary to survive. Those tribes had therefore been wiped out.
The Amazon rainforest was different, however. There were mana veins scattered throughout the region, because large civilizations had existed there before they eventually disappeared. Gaia knew why those mana veins existed because the information had been recorded, but that history was not important to what was happening now. What mattered was that the tribes living there had access to mana and therefore had the opportunity to develop their own cultivation methods.
Unfortunately, those tribes were not exactly following the direction Gaia would have preferred. They had never truly modernized in the same way as the rest of humanity, and some had returned to cannibalistic practices. Worse, they had begun attempting to recreate something resembling the demonic cultivation paths described in cultivation novels.
Gaia did not like where they were going. They had already achieved a degree of success when experimenting on animals, because the free will of animals did not function in quite the same way as human free will and could not easily form cultural energy. That had allowed the tribes to experiment with methods that would have been considerably more dangerous when used on humans.
Eventually, however, they became more adventurous. Perhaps a little too adventurous. They discovered that they could sacrifice humans and drain all the blood from their bodies while forcing the mana contained within the blood to leave with it. Afterward, they would consume the blood and use the concentrated mana to dramatically boost their cultivation.
It worked. That was the problem.
The method was horrifying, but from a purely cultivation-focused perspective, it was effective. They had discovered a way to extract a large amount of mana from another human being and transfer that energy into themselves. It was everything that humanity stood against, yet it was still a genuine cultivation path.
Because they were creating a new path rather than simply copying an existing one, they were also gathering luck and fortune from their development. Gaia found that particularly irritating. She had to do everything in her power not to simply smite these fools where they stood, especially because she wanted humanity to discover them for itself.
At the same time, she was more than happy to let these people become something humanity could fight against. If humanity needed an enemy to unite against, Gaia would much rather let them fight people who had willingly chosen such a path than allow corrupted humans to fill that role. The tribe was developing something that Gaia deeply disliked, but it was still a new path created by human choice, and that meant it had a place within humanity's developing civilization.