4 A Sudden Bond

The Mountains of Arbor

Several days have passed since Yaila had planted the seed. On one particular day, however, when she was cultivating near the mysterious plant as she had done previously, there was a strange feeling. Almost as if her cultivation was being sucked away. It wasn't strong at first, so Yaila paid no mind, however, it grew increasingly stronger.

Shocked, she slowly backed away to see whether or not it was the plant's doing. To her surprise, it was the plant. When she backed off further down the island, the feeling of her energy being sapped away dimmed.

Feeling a bit restless, she began cultivating further down as her energy wasn't getting sapped away at her current location.

A few breaths after she had started cultivating again, an intense pain flashed across her mind. Clenching her head with her hands, she wobbled and fell to the ground whilst nearly spitting out blood due to the pain.

Upon receiving this stab in her mind, she questions herself, "Did I go wrong somewhere in my cultivation?" Knowing that if one had cultivated in an improper manner, not only would their cultivation shatter, their body and mind would be seriously affected, causing one to go into a frenzied state. This was known as a wipe as not only would your cultivation be wiped from existence, so would everyone around them. People who utilized this as a last resort had always died from the intense pain one would experience, but so would their enemies.

This pain just wouldn't stop. Yaila had a hard time thinking rationally as if her mind were to break. "Was it because of the plant?" With this thought in mind, she struggled to get back to the spot she was.

As Yaila neared her destination, the pain increased. Coughing up blood, she pressed on. When she was next to the plant, at her spot, she felt as if she were going to die.

Unable to stand it any longer, she sent her spirit energy to protect her entire body and began to cultivate under these harsh circumstances. Being regarded as a genius with a cultivator capacity of level eight, this wasn't a hard feat to pull off.

Naturally, since cultivators had to have had strong wills to keep pressing on as one, Yaila was able to withstand the pressure her mind was facing. Protecting herself in spirit energy as well, the pain decreased only a bit.

Feeling her limit being reached, Yaila was just about to pass out when the pain subsided. Crashing down onto the ground with a thump, Yaila blacked out.

…

"Soybean"

Fwoosh! A rush of energy surged into the plant. Feeling his frozen state thawing, his consciousness flowed back.

The soybean sensed his surroundings. Noticing the "human" or whatever it was, was lying on the ground the soybean was confused. "What is it doing?" He thought.

Just then, he felt a tug in the back of his mind. Sensing his roots, he fell upon a peculiar root. This root was very short in size but possessed some sort of hidden power. Slowly after, he tried to gain control of the root and tried to absorb whatever it was that was near.

Feeling a familiar rush of energy from this root, he turned his attention to the "human" and back to his newly formed root.

"I can absorb the energy that I felt from the human from this root?" The soybean tried again and felt another surge of energy.

Turning toward the "human," the soybean began to offer his thanks when he felt something amiss. Still sensing that they were unmoving, the soybean noticed something else that was different from his body. He had some familiar essence inside from when he sapped their power.

"Did I absorb too much energy from this fella?" Panicking, he tried to send out the energy he obtained from the "human" back to them. If he didn't save them, who would give him water?

Feeling the effects were taking place properly if soybeans could nod, you would see him do so. "Mm. That's what a genius should be. Help others that are inferior to you." If Yaila could sense his thoughts, she would have dug him right out of the ground.

Feeling the ground rumble, the soybean knew that the "human" had woken up successfully.

"Huh? I'm alive?" Yaila began to get up.

Noticing he just heard someone speak, he turned his attention toward the "human."

"What a strange plant. I'll have to research plants sucking the spirit energy out of people and learn to deal with it properly if I'm to take care of this plant." The soybean heard a girl's voice in his head once again. Shocked, he tried speaking to the other party.

"Hey! Can you hear me?" Yelling these thoughts, Yaila turned to face the plant.

"Oh no! I've gotten it soaked in my blood from earlier…" Turning red, she immediately began to water her hands and try to wipe the blood off.

Feeling his body being touched and cleaned, he felt a warmth being produced from those hands. His entire body was experiencing pure bliss from these caring hands.

"Okay, done! Now, I should probably head home to get myself cleaned." Sensing that the presumably human girl was leaving, the soybean felt helpless.

"So I can hear her thoughts, but she can't hear mine?" Perplexed, he sighed in exasperation. But, there was still a faint feeling of her that the soybean could feel. "Could it be that I've formed some sort of connection with her? This world is indeed strange."

Unable to do anything else, he began to utilize his new root again and he felt his body being nourished by the energy. Upon receiving this energy, he felt his body grow once again. This time since the other party wasn't here, he decided to grow his base up a bit more to become sturdier.

Feeling the growing pains from his roots every day, he had gotten used to even this and just allowed it to happen. Picking up the pace, he sent even more energy in and grew to a new total of 15 centimeters! Normally, a soybean would take about 45 to 60 days to mature, and even then they would grow only to about 8 centimeters.

Despite that, the soybean on the Mountains of Arbor grew double that in just four days. If he weren't any less of a superior or genius soybean, what was he?

Laughing in his heart, the soybean began to realize that he wasn't able to grow anymore. At this point, the amount of energy he had depleted. He noticed while he was growing that the higher he grew, the more energy it took.

Since he had already doubled the normal height of a soybean in a few short days, he had begun to question if he even was a soybean in the first place. After all, his unpleasant memories from which he could recall were truly of no help. If anything, this growth could mean that he's of a different species. But what plant could grow this fast and to this height? It was very possible that he could be a unique plant species that was only found in this world.

According to his knowledge, one of the fastest trees was the hybrid poplar, growing up to about two and a half meters a year. Even then, he was still faster! Thinking about this exceptional growth ability, maybe he could even be a tree that might be able to pierce the heavens?

If so, that would mean that he held a truly unique and powerful existence, even as a plant!

Thinking this, he continued to absorb the nutrients and grow his roots at an even faster rate, working harder than he had before.

…

The Moral Timere Sect

Yaila left the Mountains of Arbor and was nearing her sect entrance. Already dusk, she wanted to take a bath before all else. However, what awaited her was just more trouble.

Standing before her was a figure that everybody of the sect knew of— the Sect Head! Upon seeing his daughter's clothes and the sweat residue on her skin, he couldn't help but wonder what was going on.

With a hand on her shoulder and a face of an inquisitor, her father asked, "Yaila, I've heard that you've been going in and out of the Mountains of Arbor. What is it you are doing?"

Looking straight at her father, Yaila replied, "I've been training. Is there something wrong with that? Given the deadline you have wanted me to complete, I'm currently not in a mood to be talking with you at the moment, but I want to focus on my training."

Knowing that his daughter was stubborn, he sighed. "Fine. But, you mustn't be doing anything illegal up there."

"Don't forget, even if I were to do anything illegal and get caught, you still have someone else that could succeed you. Did you forget?" Obviously, Yaila was mentioning her baby brother who was barely a year old.

"I know you are agitated, however, being as lazy as you, you should know to at least treat me with respect!" Her father began to feel a bit dejected and bitter at the same time. "I will take my leave. Do not forget, in two months time, I expect to see progress." His figure then vanished from her sight.

Sighing, she entered the sect and began to cool herself off in the bath.

After receiving a pleasant bath, she proceeded to head to her dorm. Each disciple within the sect was entitled to their own dorm. Although they were a bit on the small side, each dorm was able to fit dozens of people in it. Being the sect leader's daughter and being considered a genius, she owned a large dorm that could very easily fit multiple spirit beasts.

Normally, spirit beasts were large creatures, often being around seven to ten meters tall. Living in rooms like this her entire life, Yaila was accustomed to this room. For students with large rooms, these places often held many benefits. One of which was the fact that the spirit energy here was great. Not as great as the hidden area in the Mountains of Arbor, but still sufficient nonetheless.

Sitting down, Yaila began to cultivate when she felt something that shouldn't be possible.

"I'm… third stage Spirit Potential level 3?" Her eyes widened in shock. It hadn't been more than two hours since she left the Mountains of Arbor, and even then she was only a third stage Spirit Potential level 1 still. Despite the spirit energy there being abundant, not even her mother managed to climb that fast, being only a fifth stage Martial Body level 1, close to level 2.

Yaila had expected this to take her the entire two months to achieve, maybe even three months. But… this was very incredulous!

"Was it because of the plant?" Concentrating, she realized something. The plant her mother gave her felt like it held some spirit energy, so it wasn't an ordinary seed, that's for sure. But, at the moment, she felt her cultivation rising very slowly. She didn't even feel the normal rush of when you advance a level, but rather felt completely normal.

"Does this mean that even if I don't cultivate, that this plant would be able to raise my cultivation faster than I could?" Upon thinking these thoughts, she remembered that she had coughed up blood and the plant was also hit.

"Am I and the plant connected in some way due to my blood coming into contact with it?" Feeling something like this occurring, she made her way to the library.

The sun had long set, thus the moons were out in their full glory, both white, but one was smaller and darker than the other as it radiated a sort of golden light. The smaller moon was so small in fact, that it was hardly even a third of the size of the bigger moon.

Entering the library, she was met with someone who was about to leave. It was an older man, but everyone knew him. He was the librarian with is black hair turning a slight grey and a robe that symbolized his status as a librarian.

"Sorry young miss," he said as he saw her, "but the library is closed now. Please come by tomorrow."

"I see… but is it okay if I enter and try to find this book on a certain type of tree?"

"My apologies young miss, but I'm afraid you'll still have to wait tomorrow as working hours are now over."

Sighing, Yaila decided that she would head to the Mountains of Arbor to see what was up with her and the plant. Bidding her farewells to the librarian, she sprinted off.