“This place is saturated with air and water affinity,” Elder Arthit said, his words full of admiration. “You should consider asking Herbalist Hall for seeds to create a garden that contained the earth and fire aspects to have more elements available for the next time you hold a ceremony.”

“I thank the Elder for his suggestion. If you have time, there is a place that I have selected, a location I think would suit just that purpose perfectly. I wonder if the Elder might know of herbalists interested in creating a four-elemental garden?” I asked almost fawningly.

Any help I could get, especially help from such a notable person as Elder Arthit was appreciated. His position as part of Recruitment Hall meant he had more of an understanding of what people belonged to the Sect and what their talents did than perhaps any other Elder including the Patriarch.

The Elder was one of the higher-ranking members of the Four Element Sect, the second in command of Recruitment Hall. Once I’d informed Patriarch Umbra that I planned on holding awakening ceremonies throughout my Fief, he had contacted me. His advice had been helpful instead of condescending, and I was happy to accept both that advice and the people that came with him.

The Sect had decided to send four additional cultivators with him to observe. Each individual was aligned with either water, air, fire, and earth, and had agreed to help guide any new cultivator as they claimed their elemental affinity. Their offer of help was not without a price. They would get the first right of refusal for any cultivator that might awaken.

Four Element Sect would not have access to the billions of people that populated the Empire. It had been supplied with the resources and people as a foundation to prosper. The high-tier Sect would have to recruit from the island’s population to maintain that designation. In some ways that would be easier. The island was isolated enough that the Sect wouldn’t have to compete with other Sects to attract new members.

But it would take time before the entire island would become open and assessable to the Sect. By claiming a territory, I had begun the first step in the Sect putting down roots that would give it access to the populace at large. As more cultivators claimed territories, more testing and opportunity would become available for the people that lived here.

I had accepted Elder Arthit’s offer, mainly because this was the first time I would be in charge of the awakening event. Elder Arthit had been instructive without being overbearing and he had been instrumental in recruiting Sect personal personable enough to radiate comfort and assurance to the scared and wary young men and woman about to be tested.

I probably would have been fine without his help. The awakening stones were pretty idiot-proof. You had a young man or woman place a hand on a stone, then you waited. The stone created a feedback loop with the person testing, leeching some of the Qi that had settled within their bodies naturally.

The awakening stone worked like a defibrillator, using that Qi it had leeched and generated a Qi pulse that jump-started a Spirit Root, injecting filtered Qi in its purest form and stimulating the root into activity, acting as a catalyst to rouse it from dormancy. The tier of the root was already determined before being activated, it was formed and grown the same way as any other organ of the body, but it was impossible to tell what that tier is until that spark of Qi wakes it.

There had been attempts to surgically graft a superior Spirit Root to a person before the awakening ceremony, mostly by those rich enough or powerful enough to want to make sure their heirs woke to a high tier Spirit Root. Those attempts had failed every time, always with the death of the person whose Spirit Root was stolen, and the person that had been the recipient of the attempt.

Once a person had braved the awakening stone, Elder Arthit was kind enough to demonstrate the process for guiding a new cultivator to harmonize with an element, thankfully it too was easy enough. Each new cultivator would extend their newly acquired Qi perception, grasping and flailing as they searched the aether that surrounded them until a connection was made.

From their perspective, it would seem a subdued process, a gentle alignment of their soul with their element. For those of us that had already attuned our souls to the elements, it would seem more as if a person was drowning, flailing around in the aether as they tried to find purchase and purpose.

Each cultivator was fated to align with that element that vibrated with the same frequency as their soul, affinities could be gained, but that initial connection was instinctive. Those who would guide watched for that moment when a connection was formed. A burst of spiritual energy as the soul transformed from and vibrated with their newly acquired element.

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Once that connection was made, it was the person monitoring responsibility to smooth the newly formed connection, to toss a lifebuoy that would serve as an anchor, and calm the aether around the new cultivator until they have a firm grasp on the changes made to their souls.

The ceremony itself went smoothly. Even though there was an unusual number of people being processed. Five Sect members allowed those waiting to be quickly evaluated. For all my worry and anticipation, the day was not without promising results. Even though the chances of a person becoming a cultivator was slim, this first batch was rewarded with four people. Elder Arthit was happily surprised because one of the four, a young man had opened a Tin Spirit Root with a water affinity.

That young man’s spirit root was only one tier lower than mine, and the Elder had been happy to offer him a position as an Outer Sect member. The Sect would eventually begin drawing new members from candidates across the island, and to find anyone of value among these first tested was miraculous. Once testing and nutritional guidance was implemented as children began their education, the Sect would have a better idea of what they could expect.

Elder Arthit hadn’t thought it likely to find anyone of worth in these first few years, mainly because the diet and nutrients that would have helped an individual develop a healthy spirit root evolve as they grew had never been prescribed.

The entire citizenry of the island was suffering under a severe disadvantage, living here without the resources or people needed to develop sound practices for each child to grow into their potential. No one born on this island had been given the free appraisal during their first year of school that citizens of the Empire were entitled to and accepted as a right and matter of course. None of them had access to an approved diet tailored to their body’s specific needs. A diet that would help them nurture a Spirit Root the appraisal would have identified.

That appraisal process wasn’t perfect, my own appraisal was proof of that. My testing when I had begun my education found I might become a cultivator, but one with only a Cobalt Spirit Root. Still, even with the chance of errors, the testing had a ninety percent accuracy rating, and I would be using those testing techniques from this point forward. It might still be too late for the older school children, those about to reach the age of maturity, but once I had this first round of awakening finished, I would make the appraisal testing mandatory throughout my territory.

Of the remaining three people that had managed to awaken a Spirit Root, two were Iron tiered and one was Cobalt. All were women, and each woman had an affinity with air. Useful, but their Spirit Roots were not powerful enough for Four Element Sect to waste time or resources on them.

Even on the mainland, they would have been hard-pressed to find a Sect to accept them. The young woman that was gifted with a Cobalt tier Spirit Root would probably have found a place, but the other two women would have been forced to scrounge resources. They would have been forced to accept the common manuals and techniques the Empire made free to every cultivator. The same manuals they would have to work with here.

“Your names?” I asked as I spent a few seconds examining each young woman. They were still lost to the wonder of what had happened to them. Their perception supplying them with the information they had never known existed before.

It would take a few days for them to acclimate, the main reason Sects allowed new members to remain in their family homes those first few days was because of this need to acclimate. For these first few days, it was easier to get control of the influx of new stimuli in a place where you were most comfortable and felt the safest.

“Jules,” the Cobalt-tiered young woman replied.

“An,” the oldest of the three answered next.

“Diane,” the last finally answered. She was the youngest and was having the hardest time learning to filter the new stimuli her Qi perception was bombarding her with. She’d get the hang of it, eventually.

An and Diane were both Iron tiered not the weakest cultivator, even an Iron-tiered cultivator could be deadly and advance through the realms if they were focused and determined enough. I thought Diane might be that type of cultivator. She was the most filled with wonder at the changes an awakened Spirit Root gave her, it was that sense of wonder that might allow her to really bloom.

Jules and An seemed more mercenary in their attitude. They were delighted, of course, but that delight was not in the mystery and magic of their new circumstance, it was more what being a cultivator might mean for them.

Without House or Clan to fall back on, they would have no choice but to become wandering cultivators. That was if I hadn’t planned on recruiting them. I had a need for any cultivator I could recruit, and enough cores from the Golden Lodoicea to purchase upgraded techniques and cultivation manuals to entice them.

I offered each young woman an uncommon Beast Taming cultivation technique as an inducement, a technique that each young woman had agreed to accept. Techniques that I would give, with the proviso that they accepted a position as a neophyte within my House. The position worked very similarly to that between Master and Outer Sect members as apprentices. The main difference was the ability to sever the relationship by either party for any reason, at any time.

A Master that claimed a Disciple entered into a lifelong contract. A contract that could not be severed without destroying the cultivators Dantian and Inner World. I might take a disciple once I reached the Nascent Soul Realm, but that was decades in the future, for now, I would offer the people I hoped to recruit a formal position as a neophyte. Each would have the chance to learn and grow supported by House Myche.

If they were hard-working enough, even if they never advanced past the Body Refinement Realm, I would offer them a permanent place as members of my House.