“Tine, think of a brand name you’d like to use for the material. You might want to create your own fashion line during this next year. If you do, we will showcase it independently from the competition fashion show.”

“What is a brand name?”

I’d had this discussion with members before when we had decided to market the comm devices. I had hoped the concept would catch on after that, but it seemed I would have to continue prodding people into creating and using a brand to identify their creations with their mark.

Gwen explained the concept quickly, and no Cultivator, even one stuck at Body Refinement Realm, was stupid. Once it had been explained, Tine nodded in agreement; his face flushed in excitement, his eyes already beginning to stare blankly into space as ideas began to spark.

“Who is next, Gwen?”

“Bob and Toi would like to discuss integrating the Spirit summoning circles into the structure of the Dojo,” she replied, opening the floor for the next item.

I hadn’t realized that Toi and Bob had had enough time to come up with new ideas relating to the Spirit ritual, but I wasn’t surprised. I’d known Toi was working with him on the Spirit ritual building I’d asked to be built to use as bait for those Cultivators spying on me, but with their capture, that was no longer necessary.

“We came up with an idea to use the honeycomb pattern of construction we used for the Dojo to add five buildings, each interspersed between the five points of the existing array. This will allow us to add the spiritual energy that the soul-summoning chambers will produce into the matrix of energy the Dojo produces,” Bob began.

“Bob’s architectural ideas incorporating array gathering and aspected Qi are fascinating,” Toi continued. “I can’t be certain, but I don’t believe anything like this was ever accomplished before. By adding the excess spiritual energies to the balancing array, you have installed, you may be able to increase the efficiency of your closed-door cultivation chambers by orders of magnitude.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to find the more highly inscribed chambers more efficient and just as conducive to cultivation as anything you can find at Four Element Sect.”

“Toi may be right, but all I can promise right now is that adding this new feature will do nothing to decrease the stability and efficiency of the arrays already placed and working.

“It will be hard to tell how effective and efficient an increase might be, but preliminary tests conducted on a small model show the concept is workable and that the spiritual energy does something to boost the output of balanced Qi the array releases,” Bob added excitedly as he placed a jade token on the table and activated an illusion of a model that showed what the Dojo would like after the new buildings were in place.

The Dojo was centered, with five new buildings placed equidistant from the center. Each building was connected with channels that ran from building to building in a circle and to the main building in the center. It looked vaguely like the spokes of a wheel, with the outer area serving as the boundary.

“If you notice,” he continued highlighting a graph that had also been displayed, “we have been able to track the improvements.

“What changes will be needed to be done to the central building?” I asked.

“None,” Bob assured me. “When we built the Dojo, we included sockets that would allow any additions without ripping the building apart. The five spirit chambers can be inserted with a runic plug.”

“This will allow the spirit energy to be gathered and mixed with the main containment field that is stabilizing the five disparate Qi affinities.”

“Why won’t the spiritual energy affect the balance that Ming and Bao have managed to create?”

“Spiritual energy doesn’t work in the same manner as aspected Qi,” Toi explained. “Spirit energy is already part of Qi, part of every aspect and element. What this will do is work somewhat like a gathering array.

“The spiritual energy will be absorbed by each element, allowing for a better harmony between each element.”

“There is just one problem,” Ming interrupted, “Toi’s idea won’t have enough energy to empower each building fully. We will need to find five individuals to contract with a spirit, assigning each to a building to monitor and power a spirit collection array when supply runs low.”

“Permanently?” I asked in disbelief.

“No, only until the spiritual garden that Bob will build on the second floor matures enough for the plants to supply that energy.”

“The spiritual energy from each building must be equalized, so an accumulator will need to be installed to store the spiritual energy and release it from each building at a constant stream,” Toi added.

“That brings us to another issue,” Bao, the female Cultivator who headed the Herbal department, interjected. “The spiritual plants required to make the flux needed to be embedded in the runic patterns cannot be sourced from existing supplies.

“Toi has explained that they require a specific environment to grow, one that mimics the conditions you found in the Mystic Realm.

“She did mention that you have seeds for each plant, but again the conditions needed for the plants to grow need to be nurtured in a specific environment. One rich in spiritual energy and infused with ice aspected Qi.

“We can build arrays into the greenhouses on the second floor for both conditions, but again we need someone who has formed a contract with a spirit to fill the greenhouses with spiritual energy.”

“Toi, do we have enough of that plant growing in my inner world to provide the materials for the flux?” I asked her, using our spirit link so we could speak without anyone hearing.

“Not enough,” she replied.

“We will have, once this first crop is harvested. We could increase the yield if we could use an herbalist inside the torc, but I gather from this private discussion that you don’t want that known?”

I hadn’t shared the information about the spatial world contained within the torc with anyone, not even Gwen or Zui. It wasn’t that I was worried anyone here might covet the item and attempt to steal it, but if two people knew about a secret, chances were that soon after, that secret would become common knowledge.

I trusted those people in this room that I had worked with often, but there were new faces, people I had barely met. Tine, for example, had plainly stated that he had approached the Dojo only because he wanted to work with the spider silk we produced.

He may come to be as reliable as Gwen, but for now, I would act as if he was a wandering Cultivator. Here for whatever advantage he could gain, and off when he had squeezed every advantage the materials he could source gave him.

“Not yet, anyway,” I agreed.

“Perhaps once I reach the peak of Nascent Soul Realm cultivation, I can reconsider my decision. But for now, there are too many mysteries around the origin of the torc. The one that stands out the most is the Golden Lodoicea.

“How that plant was nurtured within the torc and fell into the hands of a group of smugglers suggests a connection exists there. Until I find out where the Golden Lodoicea originated and who is behind that cohort of smugglers, it is safer to keep it secret.”

“How soon before the soul-summoning building we have already begun to build is finished?” I asked, returning my attention to the meeting.

“A day,” Bob replied.

“Maybe two,” Ming hedged.

“Zui, Gwen, send out a request for any volunteers interested in forming a spirit contract and a position maintaining the soul-summoning chambers and greenhouses we will construct.

“Let them know they will be asked to pledge a Cultivator’s oath to do no harm and can only resign from their position when another person has been trained.”

“You are making this offer available to non-cultivators too?” Gwen asked in surprise.

“Yes.

“Toi is confident that as long as an individual has enough internal Qi to activate common Qi artifacts, they will have enough to form a spirit contract. I plan to allow those under the age of awakening to form a contract at some point too. I hope that adding a spirit companion will have a marked difference in how many people awaken and how much stronger those that awaken with a spirit companion might be.”