After a short time of cleaning up the lab, with James choosing to avoid contact with anything remotely suspicious looking, his body finally began to calm down and he and Skay returned to the courtyard.

In the paved courtyard was a handful of odd gadgets like strange looking cameras and metal antennae on tripods, which seemed very poorly wired together with a mish-mash of bizarre electronics sticking out of them and connecting to a single advanced looking laptop on a wooden desk running some undecipherable program.

An ancient looking corpse with gaunt wrinkled grey skin and long snow white hair sat hunched over on a seat in the courtyard. If this corpse had even a single breath of air left to take no one would ever be able to tell as its dead glassy eyes just stared straight ahead peering into the void between life and death.

“Harvy stop fucking sitting around you useless piece of crap I need you to...” The moment they arrived Skay left no time for the corpse to enjoy this moment of peace in death and it jolted as if shocked by an electric current the moment Skay began lashing at his soul and giving out instructions.

“Hmmm. I’d have thought he’d actually be dead by now. Old Madman how long do you think it’ll take before his heart actually stops beating?” James asked as he observed their science experiment rigidly trying to stand up like some rusted piece of machinery fighting frozen joints.

Skay looked over his Black-Pad then walked up and took Harvy’s pulse. After a moment a strange look passed through his eye’s and he began poking and prodding his slowly moving cadaver.

“Muwahaha. His heart seems to have slowed it’s beating to within an inch of death long ago my boy! In fact whatever’s still moving this lifeless corpse is beyond even my ability to comprehend ... momentarily.”

With that, Skay started searching through a bag on the floor filled with an assortment of random equipment rescued from the debris of the base, until he pulled out what looked like an adrenaline syringe. He then unceremoniously and with no warning pulled the cap off and stabbed in into the chest of the very dead looking carcass.

In just a few moments the corpse’s body reacted and for the first time since yesterday James noticed it blink and then rubbing its eyes it started mumbling about a nightmare until it looked down and saw the massive syringe being pulled out of its chest by Old Skay. The tiredness in his dazed eyes quickly reverted to fear and as the adrenaline fired up his body’s life signs again the flickering candle flame representing his soul dimmed to the size of a lit match.

James made no effort to try and discover just what must be going on inside the head of poor young Harvy and instead made his way towards Jessy’s room. As he passed by he noticed a servant moving towards their guest rooms from the mansion pushing a cart holding a series of bread’s, roasted meats, fruits and nuts and a whole variety of other foods.

Unable to stop himself he diverted towards the servant and politely took control of the food cart then knocking on Jessy’s door in passing yelled. “Jessy you bitch! Breakfast in the courtyard.”

Thus without further ado a constantly enraged Jessy joined the ever stoic James and the endlessly cursing Mad Dr. Skay in the courtyard and for the first time the trio sat together and began to discuss their plans.

As they ate James chose to distract Jessy from her rage by informing her of some of the things he’d learnt of this world so far followed by the upcoming decision she’d have to make in regards to if she wanted to start training with the clan.

Jessy and James politely chose to ignore last night’s brief tryst because they both knew inside even before it’d begun that such a thing was entirely a stress relieving event and in no way matched their emotions regarding each other.

For James, who was in the past rather randy already, that incredibly brief and forceful love making event relieved more built up tension and stress than an entire day of drinking fine liquor, bathing in a spa and enjoying fine foods.

In much the same manner, Jessy felt no great emotional changes towards James after the incident and readily recognised it as her seeking an outlet for all her pent up emotions and stress.

They both refused to admit to themselves or each other that thanks to James’ new found spirit energy it was the most explosive orgasm they’d ever had, but with their present opinions of each other they would probably take that secret to their grave.

It wasn’t too long after they’d finished eating that Hao, whom James had recently learnt was actually the present Family Head, who essentially controlled the Clan, arrived at the courtyard carrying a series of small books illustrating a whole manner of oddities.

Before they began, Jessy and Hao began a short debate regarding her conditions for swearing an oath until at last they settled on a deal in which she would be assigned under the direct supervision of Dr. Skay and answer only to him as a lab assistant. James cringed slightly when the Old Freak brought up this possibility and he then laughed coldly inside when Jessy jumped at the chance to avoid full blown servitude to the clan in exchange for assisting the good Dr. Franken ... Dr. Skay for as long as his oath remained in effect.

Once they began scanning through the books the trio noticed a few contained odd breathing patterns that when maintained normally, allowed your mind to wield significantly greater control over your spirit power. These where referred to as breathing techniques and are one of the most important things any early cultivators must learn about and practice.

The reason being that once you learn to calmly enter a state of meditation and ‘enter your spirit realm’ as it was described by Hao then the quality of your breathing technique combined with your innate martial and elemental talent would affect the rate at which your body began to gather spirit energy from its surroundings.

When he was a explaining this he gave a strange look at James causing him to shiver and continued to explain.

“Also in this world there are a great number of naturally occurring plants and materials that spend hundreds to thousands of years and sometimes even longer spans of time innately absorbing the Spirit Energy of their surroundings. Cultivators like us can refine their innately absorbed spirit energy and rapidly increase our cultivation progress. The battle for cultivation resources is incredibly fierce.

“In the future you may come a across a strange number of oddities, born from an inanimate object or some plant and animal life absorbing spirit energy and developing spirit properties. Many fall into collective categories such as Spirit Beasts, Spirit Herbs, Spirit Plants, Spirit Minerals, Spirit Stones and some other various terms I’m sure you’ll eventually hear about later.

“For example the Golden Grain Fly’s that you swallowed in route to the city are a difficult to catch Spirit Animal that generally have absorbed spirit energy for tens to hundreds of years. Having eaten them is also considered a great fortune for young cultivators even in the True Spirit Realm but in your case would have been a death sentence had we not had the Extreme Yin Pool on our mansion grounds.”

At this point James face blanched a little and then his eyebrow rose slightly. “You called it a ‘Spirit Animal’ is that somehow different from a ‘Spirit Beast’?”

Hao nodded his head a few times and said some “Good Good’s”. He quietly considered how rare it was to be teaching a quick disciple for once.

Although being the Head of the Clan and rarely taking time to personally teach disciples he made an exception this time solely because of little ‘Jay’ as he’d intimately started calling him in his head. If James were aware of this he’d immediately throw everything aside, pack a bag with some of his equipment launched through the Gateway and start hiking in the direction of the next closest city, spirit beasts and bandits be damned!

Hao then continued on in his lecture. Narrowly avoiding letting his inner nickname for James spill out with a shielding cough. “You’re right little Jayhem! junior, Spirit Animals are creatures that have started gathering Spirit Energy but have yet to develop any true consciousness. They’re just wild animals with no true thoughts of their own and only instinct. Depending on the animal they may eventually break through and develop a soul but the level of cultivation needed for such a thing varies drastically based on the life form. The Golden Grain Fly for example will probably never develop consciousness even if it flies around absorbing spirit energy for a million years and even after its cultivation has risen significantly. Those little blue Forest Hoppers on the other hand are born with a soul and considered Spirit Beasts from birth. As such the more energy they gather the stronger their soul becomes until they can form a True Spirit. Although considering how weak their species soul is and their total lack of affinity to any element, it’s rare to see them evolve their cultivation.”

Finally he returned to explaining some of the books. Including the breathing techniques and a number of books on different visualisation techniques for meditation to ‘view your spirit realm’, there where a number of ‘martial’ techniques. Martial in the sense that they describe methods of applying spirit energy within the body to achieve amazing feats of power and help a cultivator affect the natural laws in their surroundings. Similar to if you could move stuff with your mind, pointing your finger at it when you move it would be a useful ‘crutch’ that allows your mind to achieve the same effect for half the effort.

There were a great number of basic techniques for applying spirit energy within the body from kicks and punches to odd methods of stepping that increased your running speed or agility in battle. Some of which James had noticed when arriving. There was also one more interesting martial book that described the spirit aura which was that strange pressure he felt weighing down on him the first time they met Hao and his disciples.

According to the literature and Skay’s explanations after examining it, your aura is essentially the manifestation of your spirit energy outside your own body, without the use of a martial technique. Its control and power is limited only by the sheer force of your will-power and the amount of spirit energy you have at your disposal. It’s most interesting use in James’ opinion wasn’t the ability to pressure others or even to manifest your element outside of your body, but it’s use to shield you from damage if worn like an armour over the skin. If your aura can cover fifty square meters when you release it and can pressure a commoner to the ground imagine how much damage reduction it would have if compressed to the thinness of a piece of cloth and covering your body.

The moment James had this thought he swore to himself he’d find a way to achieve this goal. Although the book mentioned it to be almost completely impossible James refused to let some book tell him how to live his life. He’d master this life saving technique no matter what!

While James was excitedly envisioning himself wearing invincible body armour Skay was going absolutely ballistic over the meditation techniques. He was constantly writing notes in his Black-Pad muttering about ‘brain chemistry alterations’ and ‘self-hypnosis mind altering’ along with various other phrases James chose to try and ignore.

Jessy on the other hand was madly in love with the martial technique books as she flushed with excitement imagining herself beating James into a sloppy paste with the Pressure of the Sea punching technique or the Thousand Crushing Waves kicking technique, it almost looked like she was getting a sexual thrill out of the idea.

Seeing their fanatical reactions Hao then smiled and pulled out three elongated pink fruits that looked like bananas except with the soft pink skin of a peach. Throwing one to each Jessy and Skay he then slowly approached James with a very strange look in his eyes and after licking his lips he began explaining. “Before you each start choosing techniques you’ll need to eat this Spirit Fruit. It’s a quite common fruit with a very gentle spirit energy used to give enough spirit energy to a mortal for them to test their elemental affinities. Now Junior James just slide your mouth over it and take a bite.” Hao started approaching James with the phallic shaped fruit at waist height and thrusting it forwards along with the motion of his hips.

James visibly paled and couldn’t back away fast enough. His dead eyes stared at Hao and he coldly replied. “I won’t need it. I’ve already got spirit power so should be fine to test my affinity without it.”

Hao was visibly upset at missing this opportunity to live out one of his twisted inner fantasies but said nothing as he dejectedly slid the fruit back into his robe. With a cough he brushed aside this rejection as he then pulled out three equally cut lengths of pale withered tree branches and handed them to the trio.

“Cough! Well then, this is a branch from a spirit tree called the Tree of Elements. What you have to do is try and envision yourself pouring some spirit power into the branch.”

Skay started poking, twisting and bending the branch in all sorts of ways as he started mumbling aloud. “Interesting. So we just envision our spirit power. I suspect the manner in which a person envisions a foreign power greatly affects the nature of their affinity. I’ll have to run some tests...” finally he looked at James and grinned. “Boy, you’ve already proved that you have the lightning element so if my guess isn’t wrong then you most likely envision spirit power as some sort of bioelectrical energy produced by your body which acts exactly like normal electron flow electricity correct?”

James eyed this Mad Scientist suspiciously but still nodded an affirmation.

Skay’s grin towards James grew somewhat madder. “Boy, this time, try and envision everything you know about some other law. Say gases for example and envision your spirit power acting as a gas.”

With that said Skay’s expression changed as he started to envision something of which James didn’t even want to guess while staring intently at his stick.

James then glanced down at his own branch and started to envision his spirit power as a gaseous nebular inside his body. Like a gas it filled its container with every particle trying to separate equal distance from the others. He imagined how it acted when under pressure and when released from pressure and envisioned it flowing through his body like tempestuous storm clouds until finally he began to release it into the branch.

Soon the branch grew healthy and thick from its pale withered state into a rich green colour and a gale force wind blew out around him like a mini-cyclone pushing everyone back. The drooling broken zombie that stood nearby fell flat on its back like a rigid tree falling to the ground. Jessy and Skay were both forced back a good 4 or 5 steps and even Hao, who was standing the closest and had a level of cultivation James couldn’t imagine, was forced back a step.

Hao’s eyes glowed brightly after the mini-cyclone dispersed leaving the rather very ruffled looking James standing there holding a green stick. Soon the stick once again withered back to its pale dead state.

To say Hao was surprised would be an understatement. In all his hundred or so years of life and all the elemental affinity tests he’d seen he’d never once seen a Tree of the Elements branch react so strongly. Even the strongest wind element reaction he’d seen from a spirit barrier disciple was only enough to shuffle his robe a little and said strongest was considered a genius amongst his peers in the Clan.

Hao’s shock didn’t end there however, as very soon the stick in Skay’s hand lit up with resplendent bright light and the rays of the sun intensified to shine down upon Skay like some holy being descended upon the mortal world. All other light was dim in his presence as he glowed with resplendent white light. It was so moving that had Skay not been wearing an absolutely evil, shit eating grin and his filthy lab coat, he might have been passed off as some sagely Angel.

Hao’s eyes bulged forth from there sockets as he watched this reaction from the element testing branch.

Jessy having seen the mind blowing results of these two decided she wouldn’t lose. Having been a hydraulics fitter in her past world she tried her best to calm her mind and imagine what the nature of her spirit energy was, just as she was starting to envision it like ultra-high pressure fluid James walked up behind her.

He then started whispering dirty secrets and erotic tales into her ear. Jessy’s face flushed red, lighting up her cute freckles as she tried to block him out. After a few moments of getting her worked up he pressed closer against her back wrapping his hands around her waist and started whispering more fervently. “Imagine your spirit energy is like your unbridled lust Jess. Think of all your hot desires and needs rushing around your body like a storm of desperation. An untameable, uncontrollable desire. Think about your spirit energy as all the pent up sexually frustration you’ve ever had, all your twisted sexual fantasies and all your wildest sexual experiences.” While whispering these filthy thoughts into her head his hands began to roam her body until finally just as she was about to lose her focus he snuck a hand into her robe and employed his lightning fast hand speed while rubbing her pussy and whispering even more fervently. “Now Jessy! Pour all your uncontrollable suppressed sexual needs, desires and fantasies into the stick!”

As the sudden shock of having her pussy openly molested in public and all the filthy, hot thoughts James had been filling her head with, she unwittingly let out some spirit power into the stick. It was just a tiny little bit, but the moment it left her body she felt some sick sense of fulfilment and then it rushed out like a breached dam into the stick. The moment the branch started growing from its withered state James started shooting backwards, grabbing the doctor on the way.

Skay was dumbfounded as James just suddenly manhandled him without warning while retreating away from Jessy rapidly, but before he could make a fuss he saw a pink glowing translucent flame envelope Jessy and a sweet hypnotic aroma filled the air around her causing even his old and withered loins to stir.

By the time this phenomena ended, James had already dragged Skay back a good forty metres and his eyes were gleaming brightly as he began to laugh madly then leaned in to whisper conspiratorially to Skay with a hand held tightly over his shoulder. “Hahahaha! Did you see that, you crazy old goat?! I had this thought while you were explaining the elements but it didn’t truly come to fruition in my mind until you shared your thoughts on how one’s method of envisioning their spirit energy was the trigger to its nature. What if it isn’t just a matter of ones understanding of natural laws like physics or chemistry that affects your affinity? What if every law you can think of, even the abstract laws of greed, wrath and lust can be envisioned when you’re thinking about your spirit power. Who better than a 21st century, beautiful, sexually repressed young lady to envision their understanding of lust and desire as spirit power! The only reason these ‘emotional’ laws are so rare is because all these backward superstitious hicks have believed since the dawn of time that there’s only 4 major elements and all the rare elements they could never understand because they weren’t born with it so they don’t even try!”

As he was speaking with Skay, Jessy was going through a number of interesting emotions. She felt a quite ashamed of herself for starters. Followed by incredibly horny. But most importantly the feeling she had as her spirit energy was released was beyond comprehension. For that entire short moment she couldn’t move a muscle because her entire body was tensed in a shuddering orgasm. Never did she imagine that releasing her spirit energy like this would be such a life changing experience and all past orgasms were just a shadow of this one true glorious release.

On the other hand Hao who was a man of many suppressed sexual desires instantly stained his robe with cum when the fluctuations of Jessy’s natural law spread out. The only thing that stopped his knees from buckling under the intensity of his climax was his staunch will power as he cycled his own spirit energy through his body to try and eliminate the effects.

The previously lifeless corpse that had earlier been knocked over by James was now flipping out uncontrollably on the ground as the already large splotch on his robe continued to expand. Clearly he was still in the midst of an orgasm even after Jessy’s natural law had dissipated. In fact it looked like his orgasm was so prolonged he was in pain as his hips kept violently and rigidly thrusting into the air like someone was defibrillating his crotch.

Skay’s eyes filled with madness as his laughter slowly progressed from a low chuckled to a maniacal laughter that echoed across the mansion grounds sending shivers through even the Elders.

So maddened by his lack of foresight on this subject, he immediately pulled out his Black-Pad and began deleting and re-writing notes furiously.

James returned to the courtyard with his element stick as his mind spun furiously. ‘Just how many things do I understand well enough to exhibit such a strong reaction? The element of wind is a reflection of the laws of gases and how they react. I learnt the basics of the three forms of matter in high school but it was still enough to get a strong reaction out of the stick. If I did the other two forms of matter ... or rather the other two elements of earth and water I could probably display a similar feat of understanding. What about lightning. I understand electricity better than anything. If I actually used it on the stick I’m afraid I might actually be engulfed in a bolt of lightning from the sky and blown away as ashes.’

At this point he looked upwards at the clear blue sky and the three ever stable suns. ‘No that’s unlikely, there’s no clouds out. But what if I could create clouds? That would be a combination of two natural laws. Liquid forming a gaseous vapour and then condensing so perhaps I’d even need heat or radiation or whatever ... but it’s still just liquid particles acting like a gas so perhaps It would be possible to achieve the same result with just the water element, perhaps it just needs more spirit power? Then again, even if wanted to, I don’t know if I can activate two separate elements simultaneously and I can’t even materialise my spirit energy outside my body yet.’

Everyone started to gather again in the courtyard. As Jessy was getting ready to blow her top at James for interrupting her during her element discovery, Hao was ready to start congratulating everyone on having such extraordinary talent and rare elemental affinities and the now once again lifeless corpse chose to remain lying down lifelessly. Before anyone could interrupt him though, James just tucked his stick away into his robes and started waving his hands around madly. First he needed to understand how the wind spirit energy effected his body and as such chose to try and circulate his spirit energy envisioning it as a gaseous nebula.

Soon, swishing could be heard as his hands sped up drastically and then he started jumping around in a chaotic manner strafing here and there and quickly shooting forward then backwards. It truly looked like he’d gone mad. Meanwhile, inside his head he was trying to catalogue the changes he felt while under the effects of this new spirit energy.

‘What the actual fuck? It feels like my body has become so light that if went sky diving I could just gently fall to the ground without even a parachute. Note to self, schedule in for skydiving. Hopefully they have like ... Flying Spirit Beast airlines or something. Interesting. Although it’s nowhere near as fast as when I use lightning spirit energy my speed has somewhat increased. Perhaps that’s a result of the weightlessness? I feel a great deal more nimble than when I’m using lightning so I guess more agile? No significant feeling of time dilation but it does feel like my reaction speed is a little higher.’

As this testing continued Jessy and Hao began to stare at him oddly until suddenly they saw the madman Skay also swishing his arms around madly and running back and forth.

After another few minutes of this they both stopped about the same time. Looked at each other strangely and then began excitedly discussing their results and completely ignoring everyone else as if they didn’t exist. By this time Jessy had reached her boiling point and marched towards James with and accusatory wrathful expression.

“James, you piece shit! You fucking dead eyed bastard! You ruined everything! Now I’m stuck with some weird fucking spirit power! You bastard!” Jessy began her rant. She then started poking a finger into his chest which was close to becoming a fist poking him in the eye socket.

Before her rant had even warmed up yet though Hao jumped in to defend his wet drea ... ahh disciple. “Little junior Jessy. You can’t blame junior brother James for the nature of your spirit energy. After all your natural affinity is born with you at birth and no one can change that. Also I don’t know why you’re so upset! Even though I’ve never heard of a spirit energy like yours before it’s one of the most powerful I’ve ever encountered. To attack the soul directly like that, sigh, even I couldn’t completely maintain my control and that’s just the power of it at the Spirit Barrier Stage. If you were at the same cultivation level as I am, I doubt I’d have remained conscious, let alone standing.”

James face changed to an innocent and offended expression as he started a guilt trip for Jessy. “That’s right Jess. You should be thanking me. I’ve helped you unlock your true hidden potential. With your natural affinity as a sluuu ... With your affinity to the nature of desire you’ll be an unbeatable opponent to anyone that’s ever even had the notion of sex.”

Skay then began nodding sagely. “Mmm ... yes, yes, the boys absolutely correct young lass. In fact, later on you’ll have to come to my lab so we can ahh ... test your spirit energy. Ahem. I’m sure Harvy will be glad to help you.”

At the mention of its name the dead body they had all been standing over while discussing this suddenly had a flicker of life in its glassy eyes. Jessy however immediately snuffed it out like stomping a roach to death. “Not on your life. I don’t want your pet zombie anywhere near me.”

They corpse’s eyes slowly dimmed again and it returned to its seemingly eternal rest in the middle of the courtyard.

After a great deal of discussion on the true meaning of gratitude Jessy was ruthlessly pressured back. Although James and Skay both new she had simply been an unexpected lab rat for them and they were definitely in an ethical grey zone here, this was Ascension Star and there was no one she could complain to even with Hao standing right next to her when it happened. After all, neither he or Jessy were aware of the intricacies the mad pair had just discovered regarding elements and spirit energy. Even if they were informed she could still do nothing because either she could just envision a new element or Hao would step in to defend James because ... well, for reasons...

After this short interlude they gathered back at the pile of books with Hao looking decidedly worried. “Unfortunately I only have a meditation technique and breathing technique that aligns with the element of wind. Junior brother Skay’s element of light is quite rare even in our entire Empire and I’m not even certain what junior sister Jessy’s element is.”

After saying as much Skay stepped forth. “You don’t need to worry about that. Just let me borrow all these books and I’ll work something out.” He then walked over and kicked lifeless body, gave him instructions and then he and James returned to the lab.