Mortal humans seek connection but are rarely happy because of doubt. They could spend their entire lives trying to validate their relationships and never be content. Spiritual connectivity would give them that, but it is something that even cultivators struggle to understand. Did you know that when a human betrays another, that spiritual connection—faith in their relationship—is disrupted. Women seem more sensitive toward those disruptions, and the men call it a woman’s intuition.

~Aine, Goddess of Love and Vengeance

Arrow after arrow flew from the crew bow, and Crow’s fingertips were raw from the repetitive action. They processed every beast he downed on the spot, and the choicest cuts of meats were taken away.

Once that was complete, he spent hours concocting alchemical solutions. At first, he tried to resist. These seemed like pointless tasks to the point he was questioning his sanity.

“Why am I doing all this?”

“Keep working, slave,” a burly man-like creature said. The beast looked like a wooden puppet with godly muscles and wielded a leather strap that he used liberally against Crow. While the strap didn’t break his skin, getting hit with it wasn’t pleasant. It only took a dozen strikes before Crow got a sense of when he’d be punished. Mostly if he took a rest for too long or a task wasn’t completed in a timely manner. Besides, they’d leave him alone as long as he worked like a dog.

“Pump the bellows, trash.”

“What fucking bellows?” Crow growled, unsure what the fuck was happening and getting angrier by the minute.

“Hmph,” the wooden jerk grunted and pointed at a cave with enough fire billowing out that even Crow winced. A stack of wood rested by the entrance, and a unique airflow system was created to keep the fire as hot as possible. If it weren’t contained in the cave, which made a natural oven, it wouldn’t even be possible to raise the heat to this level.

“What the hell is above this thing?” Crow asked. Sweat covered his entire body, and he’d long stripped down to his undergarments.

“Hot springs. The ma’am is relaxing, so keep the heat steady and don’t disturb her.”

“The ma’am?” Crow suddenly felt like everything was making sense. Leisure and pain, Hooligan was reaping the benefits of his hard work.

The understanding didn’t clear up his confusion. What kind of challenge was this?

Knowing why he was completing these tasks, he took part without needing to be scolded. Once the wood was used up, he chopped trees to replace the stock he used. Since he was meant to labor, he didn’t bother putting on his clothes, either.

Hunting for meat, cooking, and cleaning all the dishes—he found it cathartic and stopped complaining. Once he finished that, he had to wash clothes, heat the hot springs, and provide for whatever the ma’am asked for while working himself to the bone. He slept long after Hooligan did and woke up before her. It was a grueling experience, caring for someone to this extent.

Days blurred until Crow really felt like a slave. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t understand what he was supposed to do. Thinking through everything, maybe it wasn’t about him but Hooligan. Once he understood the pain, he embraced it. Menial chores were a type of tempering, and Crow felt his connection to the things he was doing had grown.

Chop. Chop. Chop.

Crow’s ax cut down tree after tree, and because his Body was in prime shape, it was a mindless task. One day, while chopping trees, he suddenly felt another energy, but it was hard to put into words. There was a force, some hidden power, hidden within the mundane. A warmth suffused his entire being, which made him feel small and, at the same time, large enough to consume the whole world.

Lost in the feeling, he felt himself drifting from his body. It was like how he entered his Soulverse, but distinctly different because he was not moving his consciousness internally. Thin filaments spread out across a vast void of darkness, and at points, those fine threads, like spider silk, connected at a confluence of light—or life. Crow was sure that each orb of light was something living.

It was strange to see the orbs moving and the threads constantly shifting, but he underestimated the vastness of this place. The lights were so far apart that attempting to reach them would weaken the link between him and his body. Crow was sure that this place was beyond dangerous for someone still relying on a mortal body.

While contemplating, an orb of light approached him, and he drifted toward it out of curiosity. The moment they connected, he knew it was Hooligan. In this place, communication existed without the use of words. It was a series of impressions, thoughts, and wants. There was a purity in it, and no thoughts were hidden.

Hooligan’s reservations toward Crow melted away when she felt his true thoughts. He didn’t hide anything from her, and tears rolled out her eyes while her body floated in the hot springs. She wasn’t aware that the scars on her face were gone.

Through her pampering, she achieved the same state of mind Crow had. They escaped their body into the Spirit Realm in which all things were connected. Knowing how dangerous it was for inexperienced people to come to this place, he gently pushed Hooligan’s consciousness back into her body. Once he was sure she was safe, he also entered his meat sack and felt dirtier than ever.

The uncomfortable feeling he recognized as his flawed mortality. His Body hadn’t reached perfection and was far from achieving an immortal state. Crow couldn’t believe his one experience harnessing his Spirit brought him a higher level of success than his Body cultivation.

Spirit cultivation was more manageable now that he understood how it was supposed to work. To put it in perspective, Mind cultivation was about increasing his consciousness or mental power. He primarily did this through willpower, learning, and understanding the Truths. Body was about reforming his body with origin energy through the use of his chakras. It allowed him to shed the weakened mortal version of his physical form. Like the primordial gods, their Soul was the final union after perfecting Mind, Body, and Spirit. As such, a perfected Soul could manifest a body from energy—the perfected form of his physical presence.

From that perspective, Spirit was about cultivating the energy that existed in the connections between all things. This was the hidden power he discovered, and only through sharing that connection could Spirit grow in strength. The short time he spent connected with Hooligan opened up a new world.

Even his vision had changed. Now, provided what he looked at didn’t have a higher order of intelligence to block him, he could see the connection between an object and its environment.

Ecology. Spirit was the missing link to understanding how an actual ecology worked. The connected bonds were how things could survive, provided they were balanced. Before, he instinctively intimated the connections, but it wasn’t perfect. This connectivity was the true miracle of the universe. It was also the key to unlocking another mystery Crow had always wanted to find an answer—Rosdoe.

Spirit was the influencing factor between a person and a place. It could bring a place to life because of the people that influenced it, and in turn, a town like Rosdoe could affect the people who remained there long enough.

The connection he felt with Rosdoe was because of a Spiritual bonding—he left his mark on that town, and it left a mark on him. The touch was subtle; unless a person knew to look for it, they’d never notice the bond they created with a place and its people. He felt it was especially strong for the soldiers who bled and fought alongside each other because their very essence soaked the ground upon which Rosdoe stood. If Rosdoe had a heart, then it pumped the blood of its warriors. Its mind was composed of the cumulative experiences of all the people who resided there. Knowing all this, Crow felt that Rosdoe was alive—all cities and places were. They carried a spiritual essence that he could no longer dismiss.

Spirit was a power unlike anything he’d expected. Crow was so immersed in the sensation that he hadn’t realized the challenge had been completed. He wasn’t the only one marveling at the new understanding because Hooligan was reaching out as if to touch the bond she saw between her and Crow.

Sensing the fluctuation, he turned to look and was stunned by what he saw. Hooligan was beyond pretty. Her tanned face was smooth and without a single blemish. His hand reached up to touch her face, and his fingers tingled from the sensation of caressing her soft face.

“Your face,” he whispered. “You need to cover it. No one may see it.”

“What the fuck? Asshole!”

Crow chuckled and grabbed her hands. Raising them to her face, he let her feel the smooth, supple flesh. Shocked, her hands groped all around her face in a frenzy. She was so panicked that Crow grabbed her hands again to stop her from hurting herself.