Renewal

Without wasting time and acting on the first thing that came to his mind, Nicolas didn't bother with etiquette and go directly on his knee, drinking straight from the stream with his mouth, like a deer that pants for came across the water brook after a long search of water.

The Spirit Beast continue to look at him as intelligent light shines briefly in their eyes. He continues to drink but it felt like he is pouring water into an abyssal hole that has no intention of getting filled any time soon and at this moment, He wishes he had more than one mouth. 

The decayed Spirit-Root keeps absorbing all the Spirit Element from the water as he drinks, but there are still no changes in the Spirit-Root, this didn't bother him and he continue to drink.

Deep inside the stream, substance that look like lotus seeds and shone with light intermittently pop out and flow upstream towards Nicolas. 

Apart from not having any changes in the Spirit-Root, other changes occur in Nicolas body, like his internal system being strengthen, is bone and body structure going through a thorough transformation and his veins, blood vessels in his body being purified, his meridians and channels that has shrunken are invigorated and refined. 

The seed continue to move upstream and gradually gets close to Nicolas. Without knowing, he swallow three of the lotus like seeds along with the water and it rushed down his throat to his lower abdomen where the decayed Spirit-Root is located, destroying the decayed Spirit-Root completely. 

Nicolas was startled and stopped drinking the water when this happened, he could feel in him that there's no Spirit-Root where it usually is and the place is currently void. He noticed something though, even after absorbing so much Spirit Element, it does not have any effect on the Spirit-Root, and now that it has been destroyed, all the Spirit Element absorbed earlier has been released into his lower abdomen and gush out like the water from a broken dam directly to every of his body part down to his five major organs and his bone marrow, cleansing them of all kind of impurity. 

The seeds settle in the place of the Spirit-Root and revolve around speedily forming lines the shine brightly as they revolve in his lower abdomen, Nicolas went back to drinking the water from the stream but this time, taking note of what is happening in his body. 

The spirit seed as Nicolas named it, continue to resolve and absorb the Spirit Element, increasing the intensity of the light, indicating the Spirit Element is having an effect. This process continues and the special space becomes so serene during this time. The three spirit seeds merged together after absorbing enough Spirit Element to form one baby fist size spirit seed causing Nicolas to stop drinking the water and observe what happening inside of him. 

The spirit seed settle in the place where the Spirit-Root was located in his lower abdomen, after a while, cracks could be heard on the outside which caught the attention of the Spirit Beast and make them look at Nicolas more inquisitively. 

The crack sound becomes more audible and frequent, like fire crackers, Inside Nicolas, at his lower abdomen the cracked shell of the spirit seed disintegrated, leaving behind a platform that looks like an opened lotus flower with a mini version of Nicolas sitting on it in a meditation posture like the rebirth of a phoenix born from the nirvana with a new lease at life. 

Nicolas immediately knew that it is his Spirit being, while at that, tiny tentacles shining brightly formed out of the body of the Spirit being and Nicolas could feel a connection forming between his Spirit being and his soul, integrating them together to become one. 

Nicolas got rooted in the spot, his understanding that relates to the connection between spirit and soul taking a bizarre turn overturning whatever understanding he had prior to this moment.

Unlike others who have their Spirit-Root connected to their soul, what is happening in him is utterly different from the norms, "well, if one wants to consider things properly, the decayed Spirit-Root is also outside the norms" he thought and continue to observe the process. 

After the whole process of the connection between his Spirit root and his inner spirit was done, a transformation begins again on the outside of him, on his body, "are we not done yet" he thought while looking at what is happening to him. 

The Spirit Beast continue to observe but creating more distance between them and Nicolas, they are getting a feeling from Nicolas that they were so familiar with. They have been staying in this special space and they understand the aura emanating from Nicolas to be the same aura from the Sacred seed at the bottom of the stream. 

Nicolas continues to go through the transformation without noticing anything around him.

After the transformation was done, Nicolas become a very different person from the person he was before, his silver hair has now changed to a complete white long, slick hair that reaches his shoulders, his face seems to have also been reshaped, looking more exquisite and well proportion, from the reflection of the water he look as if the most renowned grandmaster sculptor has taken his time to chisel out every details of his face and make it more pronounced, his jawline becomes well angled, with his eyebrow and lashed in adequate proportion like a super model, his nose is also well placed, fitting in perfectly on his face, his lips looks full and pink, going from there to his necklines that will make some beautiful lady blush and hide themselves. 

Opening his eyes, his former brown hazel eyes has now changed to a grey color blending with his eyebrow and lashes, his skin color also changed from the copper color it was to a pale white like a plain sheet of paper, every part of his body well refined and compact. He looks healthy than he could have ever been.

He look at the Stream brimming with Spirit Element and thought back to his mother and siblings, "Surely this stream is very special and I will be selfish if I am the only one who benefit from this, this is a blessing from the Holy One and I need to share it with everyone" Nicolas takes out his two water flasks and empty the water in it to fill it up with the stream water.

Surprisingly some of the sacred seed enter into the water flask, filling the two-water flask, he closed it and secure it properly around his waist. He looked around at the vegetation and wish he could bring it back with him outside the special space, he discards the thought as he knew nothing with Spirit Essence can last out this place with the place there are currently staying. 

He readied himself to leave when he found four Spirit Beast cub on his path out of the garden space. The Spirit Beast looks so cute and adorable, but he resists taking them with him away from this beautiful garden into the outside world, because the outside world is so cruel and they might not be able to survive for long without proper care. 

He look around and found the other Spirit Beast are also looking at him, so far they have not made a move on him, so he decide not to push his luck too far and pass around the Spirit Beast cub to leave the special garden after looking at it one last time.

The little Spirit Beast looked at the older ones after Nicolas left and surprisingly, they speak. "Go, if things follow the same progression, it won't be long before we join you" one of the older Spirit Beast said.

Nicolas would have been flabbergasted if he knew the Spirit Beast could speak. The little Spirit Beast rush out the garden to join Nicolas quickly after gaining permission.