I stayed until the last spec of earth had been sifted for clues. I doubted we would ever know what family those toddlers belonged to, but I didn't want to leave behind a mystery that could have been solved with some effort.

It would have been easier if there was a method for mass communication. But there was no way to communicate effectively with the entire city; word of mouth was still the most common form of communication. Our comm devices helped, but not everyone could afford to purchase them, and even for those that could, we had not researched a method to send out mass communications.

There were times like this when a System would come in handy or a News outlet. The city council had people who worked for them to spread news, but I doubted the efficacy of that. The population had grown exponentially, with the Empire offloading the poorest of its citizens. And too many of the newly immigrated people were still suspicious and angry about the Empire's decision to unload them.

I would have my research team develop a way to send out mass messages, but I also needed something more. I decided it was time for journalism and newspapers to be introduced to Onkei. With the comm devices in place, news articles from Xiwang could be gathered, printed, and disseminated across the island.

I would have Gwen set aside funds for anyone interested and, in the meantime, hire the local population to provide proof of concept for the enterprise. Businesses would have to be shown the value of advertising, and I would have to stress the importance of truth in reporting.

I refused to allow conspiracy theories and gossip to proliferate. There were ways for news organizations to provide entertainment without pandering to our baser natures. Serial chapters of fiction that could be included might be the most profitable. Words of fiction didn't exist on Shijie, at least not on the island or in the Empire, so relaxing reading a LitRPG in the evening paper might jump-start publishing ventures.

Using a medium like quartz or jade might be feasible to use for book sales, but it didn't seem practical or sustainable. The paper could be made from trees that we could grow in spatially expanded fields. With a suitable array, those trees could attain decades of growth in as little as a year, and farming them would have no repercussions for the environment.

It is one of the reasons Lord Chon's decisions to clear-cut the forests made no sense. It was easier and safer to use spatial farms.

That was another project to add to the long list of innovations and changes I wanted to introduce to the kingdom. I wanted our farmers to have access to those spatial environments. Temperature, water, and weather could be controlled by those devices. That should allow for a much greater harvest and make it easier to grow genetically enhanced varieties.

Those were all things that I could work toward; for now, I needed to figure out a way to keep my brother and sister safe.

It was already an issue that they had become Cultivators so young and with such a strange spirit root. But to find out that Cultists might also be targeting them was frightening.

I had thought about it as we searched and cleansed the dungeon Ja Fiat had created, and I thought I might have a solution. I just wasn't sure my parents would agree with it.

"I'm sorry, Jai," Alpha said, refusing my request, "but the pod space the Hindel created is genetically sealed. It was designed to allow a safe area to raise our young. If there was a way for someone, not Hindel, to enter that space, they could decimate our species, so we never evolved to allow for that eventuality.

"There is no way to fortify the pod space or create defensive or offensive measures inside that space. The area is robust enough to survive if only one Hindel lives and is linked, but it is not so stable that it can withstand a disturbance of Qi fluctuations from within.

"Think of it more as a spatial anomaly whose only function is to create a living environment and concentrate the ambient Qi found in the ocean into a concentrated slurry of energy that allows our young to begin cultivating the moment they are born.

"That concentrated Qi would be deadly for anyone, not Hindel."

"It seems I am going to have to establish a Sect instead," I mused. It was another idea I had considered. There could be anonymity within the conformity of a Sect.

"I wonder if the Hindel might be interested in establishing such an organization?"

That question had come as much of a surprise to me as it had to the Alpha. I had never considered asking the Hindel to provide Cultivators to take Elder positions in my Clan or House, even after I had become a Voice, so why had I asked her to help with a Sect?

To have them form a Sect? One that merged the resources I had acquired from the Mystic Realm, the Four Element Sect, and the few techniques the Empire offered for free might solve my problem, especially if they allowed me to use the Sect to experiment. To figure out if what happened with Geon and Syha could be repeated with other children.

My brother and sister needed to be taught to be treated as Cultivators. To learn how to control their growing strength, nurtured and guided as they grew more powerful than most of the world. I was not too fond of the idea of treating them as an experiment, but I had to consider how they advanced and if that would be useful.

They could serve as the first class of a program that would train and raise young Cultivators responsibly. I knew I would be repeating the accident that allowed them to awaken; if I didn't, others would.

My kingdom and my people needed every advantage they could gain if they were to compete with the world at large. We were protected somewhat in our isolation, but that protection was tenuous at best.

I had already introduced significant advances that combined technology with Qi resources and intended to continue those advances. But I couldn't be the only person or nation doing so.

Ja Fiat's attempt to use what might be considered a prototype escape talisman had given me another goal to aim towards. Teleportation, flying swords, and movement skills were part and parcel of the fictional cultivation world I'd read in my past life. I didn't believe for a moment that those abilities couldn't be reproduced here.

The Elves might not have discovered those techniques yet. But I was confident that it was only a matter of time. And time for a Cultivator, especially an Elven Cultivator, was something they had plenty of.

"The Hindel do have people that might be willing to help, people you could consider Elders. Those that have advanced far enough with their Cultivation to become complacent. Often, these people retreat to the deepest ocean trenches to take advantage of the Qi density found there, but some find that choice stifling.

"It might be possible to entice a few people to help train a new Voice's siblings and, in the process, develop a Sect that shares Hindel knowledge, skills, and professional techniques.

"I doubt they would stay much longer than a century, but if we cycle those interested in the idea at the century mark, it should be possible for you to train enough Cultivators to take over at some point."

"You would be willing to share Hindel skills and techniques with those who apply and are accepted?" I asked for clarity; I needed to understand precisely what Alpha was offering.

"Not everything, but enough information, techniques, and skills to allow your people some mastery over what we would offer.

"Your people are better with Alchemy, Blacksmithing, and Arrays. But I believe the Hindel people are just as capable of crafting formations, spatial creations, healing, and inscriptions. Plus, we can offer the skills to read the fluctuations in the world's Qi, anticipate and prepare for future events, understand Karmic ramifications, and track Mystic Realms.

"The Empire has their own forecasters, but they are pale imitators compared to the Hindel. We have learned to see the Karmic threads that abound across the planet. Our entire civilization is invested in maintaining that Karmic balance.

"It was that balance that encouraged us to offer you the position of Voice, and because the scales of balance between our two people are still tilted in your favor, what will allow us to create a Sect for you that will share some of our knowledge."

I wasn't a good enough actress to pretend I didn't know what she was speaking about. My [Dao Partner], Cien, had gained much by tying her fortune to mine. She had gained enough insight into ice and lightning that she had entered closed-door cultivation to coalesce the enlightenment she had gained.

The Hindel had already created a new pod space that had been seeded with natural treasures related to ice and lightning. Cien had already agreed to donate her genetic material once she had incorporated her new knowledge into the very cells of her body.

She was undergoing a Qi baptism, something similar to our awakening ceremony, that would reforge her body and make her new affinity a part of who she was. The changes would affect her ovaries, and any child she conceived would have a better than fifty-fifty chance of gaining one or both of the new affinities.

Cien would be the mother of a new type of Hindel. With the Sect I had suggested sharing skills and techniques, these new Hindel would gain access to our libraries containing knowledge, skills, and techniques that dealt with their new affinities with lightning and ice.