Fighting to be Kind in a Cultivation World

With everyone listening, I start my explanation of what happened.

“Do you guys remember that I told you I occasionally ‘know’ things? Things that I normally shouldn’t know?” The three of them have a clear look of confusion, probably because of their assumptions, but look at each other before nodding.

“Okay, so what I didn’t tell you guys… is that there is a limit on my ability. I can find more and more things using it.

“Similar to when I was able to tell you…” Taking a glance at Gong, “…about what had happened with those cultivators. Or that the statue was actually a living creature. Or, as you had seen, that there were three spies following us.

“However, the further I try to take this ability, the more ‘damage’ it does to me.”

I pause for a moment, to let them think on this. Ai opens her mouth to speak, a questioning look on her face.

Before she does though, Lin speaks up, “Wait… so that ability you were telling us about was real? That’s how you were figuring everything out?”

I nod to affirm it.

“Yea, though as you guys saw… I overused it. Not too much, but just enough that I basically was slowed down mentally and physically. There was also an absurd migraine, but the slowdown was what you guys could see.”

Ai, in thought, tries to ask her question again, but now Gong interrupts. “Why couldn’t you just use your healing ability on it? I mean, if you can heal me and Ai, couldn’t you fix something like this?”

This will have to be a vague answer, if I can manage it.

“Not exactly. My body naturally heals almost anything, but this specific damage can’t be healed that way. It heals, just at a much slower pace, and can’t be rushed. I also can’t treat the symptoms either, which makes it difficult to get around with my ability.”

Ai looks around, waiting for anyone to interrupt her again. She opens her mouth and pauses.

I think she was expecting someone to interrupt her again. The other two appear to be waiting for her to take the lead on this.

“So, you falling like that, wasn’t backlash due to overspending your energy on healing us and Gong?”

… Wait. What?

“I’m sorry, could you say… actually, never mind. I heard you correctly.”

I shake my head.

This must have been what they were concerned about.

“No, I actually have had no strain from that. In fact, if anything, helping you guys have made me even better at healing others. This sc- ability I use… I call it a scanning ability. It is the only thing that really physically affects me negatively.”

Ai has a very skeptical look on her face, but then Gong jumps in.

“Wait, so that means it wasn’t from maintaining the tame on the spiders?!”

Ah, so that’s why she looked dejected.

She probably was debating on whether we would have to remove the taming from the spiders. Especially after that last conversation with the Crane lady. It is a bit of a critical time for her.

I add, “No, you don’t have to worry about that. In fact, the more creatures I can tame, the better. It causes me no discomfort.”

Ai seems to look up and take my words the wrong way.

Ah, I should clarify…

“Let me…” Lin interrupts me, her face relaxing, “So, that means you are okay?”

Aw.

“Yeah. I’m okay Lin.” Gong, with that, seems to be more relaxed, but also appears to feel guilty.

“Gong, I know you had some concerns about the spider groups. Don’t worry, even if something came up regarding them, I would work with you to see how we could make it work.” She gives a smile in return, looking appeased.

There’s a pause in the room, as everyone dives into their own thoughts.

“So, what comes next?” Lin breaks the silence.

“Well, I want to get these seeds healed and planted. I also had an idea, that might save us all a bit of work, while being more efficient.”

I gesture to one spider that is randomly running about. “Once the seeds are actually planted and setup up, we can have the spiders do the actual farming for us.”

Everyone else pauses at the absurdity of the statement. I try to reinforce the idea, so it doesn’t sound as crazy. Gong seems to be more open to the idea, since she already uses them for non-standard purposes.

“Think of it this way, we already know that they can follow schedules and instructions from either me or Gong. With this, if we just make sure that they are taken care of correctly. The biggest issue I see is trying to have them above ground, but keeping them hidden. The best way around this, is to have them protected by spiders.” I take a breath.

“What do you think Gong, is this reasonable?”

She takes a moment to think on it.

“Yeah, I could definitely make it work. As you probably already know, I have the spiders do tasks I don’t pay attention to. Ever since they’ve been tamed though, they’ve been getting better and better at ‘figuring’ things out. I would swear that they are becoming more intelligent, but I’m a bit partial to them, honestly.

One thing I can say is that with the amount of spiders we have now and the traps they could have set, I believe we could secure a decent spot aboveground. This is while keeping it hidden and protected from anyone that might want to steal them. Barring cultivators, of course.”

I feel myself nodding.

It’s coming together. Time to lay another idea on them.

“Okay, are we in agreement to have this setup as soon as possible?” I see nods of agreement all around.

“Awesome, then I have one last thing I’ll be working on, while you guys are getting the aboveground farm setup. I want to take some extra seeds and ingredients we received, to see if I can grow them underground.”

Definitely seeing some confused faces.

Oh wait, Lin’s figured it out!

“Wait, so you think you can change them to be underground plants? Like you did with Ai’s condition? Is that even possible…? Even with plants?”

“Well, I don’t know. But I won’t know if I don’t try. If I can, that really will change things. Then we can have two areas to farm. One aboveground, with the other belowground.”

I can’t help but grin at the idea.

Gong raises a question. “Wait, why would you keep the aboveground one if we can produce everything belowground?”

Ai actually answers before I can speak, “If we are seemingly coming up with cultivation ingredients, with no noticeable farms available, that could make people even more curious. As you know, being an information expert, controlling that information and giving people an easy to accept explanation is the best way to mitigate that.”

Gong’s eyes widen in understanding, but looks approvingly at me.

Feels nice man.

“I’ll also be trying something a bit weird. Taming a plant. I believe since it is a living organism, it can be, though I’ll have to check. You guys will see.”

Does this world know that plants are alive? From the looks I’m getting, at least the normal population doesn’t. Ai seems to be curious, but open to the idea. Maybe she read something similar.

“Alright, are we all good then?”

“Yep.”

“I think so.”

“Yeah.”

Alright, time to get to it then.