Soul Tree

Elder Tok considered Mountain Sprites words for a few minutes. He understood the heart of a mother. After her outburst, he came to understand she had lost other children. It's no wonder she is against Mist leaving to learn.

"I can bring your family with me. You can continue to live with Mist for the next seven years so long as you promise not to interfere with the training," Elder Tok said. "Really?" Mountain Sprite said.

"Yes, I will need to get permission from the other teachers, but I'm confident no one will have a problem with it. To us, Mist is more precious than the rarest gem or artifact. We can easily find replacements for things, but finding a replacement for Mist, impossible," Elder Tok said as he shook his head.

"Why is my son so special," River Snake asked. "It's because your son actually has the capability of learning all of our skills. Perhaps you don't know this, but due to the complexity of many different fields of research, it's nearly impossible for a person today to match up against a person from many millions of years ago.

In the golden era of cultivation, a person could easily learn every field, but now there's either something lacking within us, or the subjects have become too complex. Maybe it's both," Elder Tok admitted.

"I still don't understand, why Mist? If you want to teach someone all of your skills, you and the other teachers, why not do it?" asked River Snake. "If learning our skills were a matter of rote memorization then we could 'just do it,' however, memorization alone isn't enough. We need someone with a very special soul," he said.

"A special soul, what do you mean?" asked Mountain Sprite. "There is a theory about life, death, and reincarnation going something like this: human souls were created and place in the cycle o birth and rebirth. This process is called Samsara. Being reborn into this lowly world of materialism over and over again creates suffering.

The goal of our lives is to break the cycle of Samsara. Only doing this will ease the world of its suffering. However, the means for this are very difficult to acquire and implement. The process of breaking out of the Samsara cycle requires enlightenment.

Once we achieve enlightenment we can break through the cycle of Samsara. Exciting, right?" Elder Tok asked. "It sounds like what I learned," said River Snake.

"Yes, it sounds good and it's definitely the orthodox understanding. The problem is it doesn't seem to be true. If every person's soul is in the cycle of Samsara then why are we no longer able to comprehend all the fields like the ancients?" There are other problems with this model, but the main point is the traditional answer we grew up with doesn't match our direct experiences.

There is another idea concerning souls and reincarnation. This is called roots and branches. According to this idea, a primary soul is created. When the person dies, a branch from this soul goes on to another life. This branch soul has the core features of the main soul but it is a reincarnated portion for the purpose of 'fixing' the imperfections of the root soul. Branch souls will also produce branches until the entire soul 'tree' is perfected.

Just like a regular tree, a soul tree's branches are thinner and less powerful the further away from the root it becomes. Until it eventually gets to the top and is very very thin," Elder Tok said.

"How does Mist fit into this theory?" asked River Boat.

"In ancient times, souls were closest to their roots and were the most powerful. This meant they had the capacity for taking on as many areas of study as they desired, but later the new soul branches were born, they became less and less capable of taking on multiple occupations. This leads to today's situation where having two or three occupations is enough to consider a person a genius of epic proportions," he said.

"But you think Mist can learn more than three occupations?" Mountain Sprite asked.

"Correct," he said.

"I don't understand if we've reached a point where souls have gotten smaller and smaller, why is Mist's soul so strong?" River Snake asked.

"This shouldn't be too hard for a hunter to understand. If we go into the forest we'll see trees of many sizes. There will be small trees and big trees, skinny trees and fat trees. Since some trees are bigger than other trees there are some branches which are as big as the thickest part of smaller trees. Mist comes from a very big soul tree. Due to this, he is more than capable of learning from all of our teachers. We hope to turn Mist into an ancient cultivator who can reach the topmost realm of power, the Immortal Heavens,"

River Snake's eyes glowed and pride blossomed in his heart. These teachers saw how great his son was. He could become a peerless expert in the future.

"Your son has far more potential than being just a hunter in this little village. He could become so strong and powerful he could not only protect himself but also his friends and families. To do this, however, he needs teachers who can realize his potential. This is why he needs to come live with us," Elder Tok said.

"Mountain Sprite, this is the best for our son. We can only offer him a short and hard life here," River Snake said.

Mountain Sprite knew her husband was right but her heart was conflicted. Would she have to give up her only living son so soon?

"The average age of the villagers here looks to be around 32. Mist has the potential to have a nearly limitless lifespan," Elder Tok interjected.

"Mother, I think it will be fun! Besides, you can come with me. We can still be together," Mist said to his mother.

Looking at her little boy with all the tenderness in her heart, Mountain Sprite finally relented.

"Ok," she said.

Elder Tok was relieved. Now, he neede to convince the Village Chief, he could tell River Snake was already on board.

"If you take the boy and his parents we will lose our Chief Huner. I cannot agree to this!" the Village Chief growled.