Chapter 12: Chapter 11 - Back to the Bottom Rung
Teyla was on cloud 9. She had finally broken through to the Soul Realm. Teylin, in typical fashion, had done so at the same time, but there was a difference. He had been after her! He claimed she could not know that, but she knew. Grandfather had been proud of them both as they displayed their 3 elements.
Teyla had gotten Fire, Light, and Wind; while Teylin had gotten Fire, Darkness, and Earth. Both having Fire was quite common in the Frey Clan. Wind was also a large portion, but Tri-elementals were considered Elite. Quad-elementals were good but the balancing act can be a headache. If one had all 4 basic elements then things were pretty good, but Light or Darkness could throw that balance off if it was not compatible with all of them. It was far more common to have that issue.
Teyla was looking forward to the celebratory feast. There was one wrinkle in her joy, she could not share it with one of the important people in her life. Lind Frey was the son of the grade 2 alchemist, Mira, but his father was an unknown foreigner. This was something largely frowned upon but not to the extent of expelling him from the clan. After her grandfather learned of Lind's potential, it was even less likely he would face issues.
Unfortunately, Heaven and Earth are cruel. Teylin had checked in from time to time and while Lind was not bullied, he was not well liked. Only another son of a foreigner, Kor, had befriended him. Teyla had thought about discouraging this, but she just did not have the heart to do it when she saw them together. They were laughing, having fun. She could not take that away.
As time passed, Linds' power proved he was of the strong. None could beat him in only a few short years in the Body Refining Realm. She had watched a few spars between Lind and Teylin and her brother confirmed Lind was impressive. Lind had superb control of his power and awareness of his surroundings. It was like he was born for combat, but she could never see Lind doing that. He was far too kind.
The shock had been full, then when the results of the mock tournament came out. Teyla knew Lind was protective, but he had apparently gone all out. The useless second son of the 2nd Elder had been flattened along with his lackeys. Instructor Garnt confirmed that Lind never broke a rule nor struck any permanent damage to any of his opponents. Physically, he was correct, but Shou had been a shell of a boy since that day.
She had seen him just stand there as if nothing mattered during training. Lind was not at those practices, and she had not been able to get to his courtyard as she was supposed to be stabilizing her foundation. She had, if a bit slower than planned.
Now, she was being called to Grandfather's study. Something must have come up. On her way, she passed a reflective surface and paused. Her gold tinged eyes smiled in joy at what she saw.
Although she would never be considered curvy, her face and body were excellent. The years had begun to fill out in the right places but not to excessive degrees. She knew her robes for everyday hid her looks, but she had noticed many admirers comment on her beauty. Even her fellow disciples in training commented on it, but some were being clever with insults. Still, Teyla was glad.
She was not one of those inflated gourds like the others wanted to be. She did not understand the appeal. They seemed troublesome. She already had to wrap up tightly for combat and that was annoying enough. Teyla moved on and finally found the golden door of the Grand Master emblazoned with the crimson bird in flight. Legend said it was modeled after one of the descendants of the phoenix, but she doubted it.
"Grandfather, I am here." Teyla just opened the door as the guards did not stop her but froze in shock. Her brother was already there, not a surprise, but there was another person she did not expect…Lind! He had grown taller but was still shorter than Teyla by a smidge. Teylin was already much taller than either of them but she expected to catch up to him a bit. Lind, clearly, would pass by them both at this rate.
"Ah, you are here. I was just saying we would wait for– Teyla, pay attention." Her Grandfather's voice snapped Teyla out of her shock. Why had she been shocked to see Lind? She moved forward before she recognized the feeling. Soul Realm. Lind was in the Soul Realm!
"You broke though?!" Teyla's voice made the decorations shake on the dark wood walls. One of the things cultivators had to learn was moderation of their Qi, otherwise they could accidentally channel it into the most mundane of tasks like opening a door, to enhancing a shout. The wince from everyone in the room told Teyla she had let her Qi enhance her voice.
"That is why I have called you here, but first." Her Grandfather touched a plate on his ornate wooden desk that flared with green light before Teyla felt the room change. She saw Lind swivel his head around and squint as if he was looking at something. "Now, if we can stop with the shouting, I will explain."
Teyla and Teylin had mirror images of shock on their faces. Teyla knew neither she nor her brother had inherited any talent, but Lind had 3! If not for being a 6 elemental, he would be the young master of the clan without argument!
Out of instinct, Teyla brought Lind into a hug. When he was smaller, he had looked so adorable it was hard not to lug him back to their courtyard to use as a teddy bear. Now, he was far too large but the forlorn look had tugged at her heart strings.
"As you can see, Lind has a lot to learn and I want you 2 to help him in your training class." Teyla froze. She had to have heard wrong, or was dreaming. It had to be one of those right. There was no way Lind, little Lind, would be in her class! As if reading her mind, her Grandfather sighed heavily and grabbed the bridge of his nose. His majestic crimson robes lined in gold seemed to fade in that gesture.
"I would like to emphasize you are there to HELP Lind not cuddle him when the mood takes you!" Teyla blushed crimson while Teylin was shaking off to the side. He was clearly finding all of it amusing but then he flashed his serious face.
"Grandfather, while I admit Lind had proven himself an elite with his breakthrough, he also crossed the bad side of several Elders at the mock tournament." Teylin brought up a good point. The mock tournament usually might have minor bad blood, most Elders would just laugh it off and tell their scions to work harder, but Lind had flattened those 5 as if they were nothing. The revelation of his breakthrough would only be salt in the wounds.
"I have already addressed this. Did you think such problems escaped my notice?" The stern flash of Grand Master made all 3 kids remember this was an expert at the World Realm. One major realm above them and one of the most difficult realms to get to. Sky Realm was a distant dream for all of them in the Lotus Empire. It was said the Emperor was only at the peak of the World Realm himself.
"Then what is it you are asking of us, Grandfather?" Teyla brought the meeting back to the point. If the issue of Elder's feathers being ruffled was resolved, then what issue would Lind face aside from normal competition. Lind moved to separate himself and looked to her Grandfather only for the latter to nod.
The feeling of Qi in the room suddenly all flowed into Lind like a storm for a brief instant. He did not move but sweat broke out on his forehead until the storm passed.
"That is the problem. I need you 2 to be his partners in any training. No one can know he is an innate cultivator at this time. It would be highly…inconvenient." Teyla suddenly understood. Lind had little control at the moment over his talents. He had just broken through and needed to practice all of them until he controlled them rather than the other way around.
"Lind, can you step outside please. There is one last thing I need to cover with the twins but I know you want to get some more practice in. Just use the courtyard across the hall from here." Lind left and a more somber attitude came over the office.
"There is one last thing you 2 need to know, but Lind can never know this. Now, swear on Heaven and Earth to not disclose what we are about to discuss." Teyal paled. This was serious. A cultivator in the Soul Realm and above making such an oath could suffer serious consequences if it was ever broken. Teylin quickly swore and she followed his example.
Her Grandfather then began to fidget. He tried to start several times but no words came out before he finally stood up and looked away from them. He was looking at the Seal of Frey that hung over the Grand Masters room. The giant disc was draped in black to emphasize the gold and crimson.
"It is about Lind's father…"
****
Lind felt great strain getting his body under control. He spent every night just halting the Qi around his body with Soul Touch. It was incredibly hard but was having a side effect that was damned helpful. His mind's capacity was expanding. He had looked up the talents one could awaken as a cultivator and noted he likely had the common Imprint. Near perfect recall was very helpful to many cultivators and a lot of them had this skill.
Lind suspected this talent was more a product of cultivation than something like his other talents that were hit or miss. He also was shocked when he learned that Rebirth was a talent. It was not quite the same as his situation, but apparently it had happened that a cultivator reached the end of their life and was able to be reborn anew with their memories intact. Their body may not reflect their previous talent or leave the old body in the dust, but they universally blew through cultivation as if it was nothing.
The last part of his research was a review of what he should have paid more attention to the first time around. Now that he had broken through to a new major realm, Lind was back to the bottom rung of the ladder. This was going to repeat through all the known realms.
Body Refining Realm was the beginning of all, but mortals could stumble into this as Heaven and Earth are everywhere and cultivation has no set path. A technique will vastly improve efficiency and progress, but reaching tier 2 or 3 in Body Refining just being alive was feasible.
Soul Realm was the real kick off that required dedication and technique to combine or there was zero chance of ever reaching it. It was also where elemental tempering began. There were vast volumes devoted to the myriad combination of elements and techniques to go with them, but Lind was outside of that. He could not even control his tempering and cultivation for now so they were shelved regardless.
World Realm was where Granny and the Old Man were at. From what he could understand, that was technically the peak of the Sarth Continent that the Lotus Empire was a part of. There were 2 other major continents and a slew of islands but little was covered on them. No doubt that would come up later if needed. World Realm was a major watershed for cultivation. If you could make it there, you could set up your own clan or power if you so wished. There was a catch.
The first 2 major realms had 9 tiers, but World Realm only had 5. The reason was quality over quantity. The minor tiers were named Sand, Stone, Iron, Gold, and Diamond. Even just comparing the lowest tier to the highest was a joke. Even a Stone Tier World Realm could wipe the floor with dozens of peak Sand Tier let alone anything weaker. It was considered a transformative major realm for what came after, the legendary Sky Realm.
There was remarkably little on this Realm in the Frey Clan. Lind assumed it was because there was not even a Sky Realm in the Lotus Empire. The Emperor was a Diamond Tier World Realm. Supposedly there were no Gold Tier World Realms at the present moment in the Empire either. They apparently were killed in some war before Lind was born.
All of this info dump meant Lind was very much at the bottom rung of not only his current Realm, but of the world. Body Refining may be a Realm of cultivation but it was not considered a difficult one. He sighed as he continued to focus on training his Soul Touch. There had to be a better answer for tempering and cultivation issues than throttling his meridians. There just had to be.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
mythosarcana
mythosarcana Finally! This will be my stopping point for today. I see I misunderstood time diffence between Webnovel and where I am. I hope all are enjoying the revelation of the Realms here. There are more I assure you and I like to break things up. Please vote and comment. thank you for reading!
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