Rising Troubles: Imminent Doom!

According to a theory that Zohan once read, his perception of reality was determined by his thought processes, which were influenced by the language he used. In this way language shaped his reality and told him how to think about and respond to that reality.

Nature was analysed according to lines laid by native languages. What people knew as reality was experience of their collective subjectivity, instead of objective reality. Hence, everything people saw or patterns they shared were made up of collective impressions.

Perhaps people who were fluent in languages of cultures isolated from each other, would've noticed the difference in described set of isolated experiences to describe same actions. Take cleaning for example, one language would have experiences of obtaining dry space with a tool described, while another might have the experience of bringing out lustre using a tool.

The language that the books that Zohan was having a look at, had a total pictograph imprint script. There were some languages like Chinese which Zohan had once tried learning. Everyone who took a class of Chinese would come and tell him about how the word prison is written as a minimalist drawing of man in a box.

But Chinese had only around 4℅ of pictography.

Perhaps cultures and humans as a whole could've had great growth if they had scholars continuously working on evolving their language.

The language that Zohan was reading seemed suitable to higher beings of a much different universe. Same went for the vibrations that were made from neither crashing, breaking or shaking of anything, but through some different physics, when people spoke. And it all came naturally to him, like some form of instinct.

He was quite fascinated and ended up spending a really long time emersed in the books, skimming through them, learning how to comprehend better and better, like someone finishing a sudoku puzzle.

But then he realised that he was pretty much like a toddler in a new world. He had instinct, but he lacked knowledge. And he didn't have anyone to look after him or teach him basics.

He quickly sorted through the books, to find those about anatomy. That's when he had some horrifying realisations.

Zohan:[I don't have basic foundation, something that is attained during first year of birth, while also undergoing a forced natural selection]

Apparently, the world worked on a much different principle. While the world that Zohan came from, people cared far more for toddlers than those at the peak of their age, while a toddler falling would be seen with pity while people had disdain for an old person- everything was reversed here.

The more you aged, the greater would be your cultivation. More resources would be spend on you, to keep you from faltering.

But when it came to kids, they'd receive minimum care to ensure the survival of the fittest.

There was no structure of family, people lived for the community, for their sect. Life essence of those with accomplishments would be used to create more life. It seemed some form of unethical genetic cloning.

People lived for the sake of their sect, for the sake of it's survival. Resources were conserved for only those who could contribute, which explained the seemingly unethical processes.

Zohan didn't want being there. And perhaps he wouldn't be able to for much long.

But he didn't think he had anywhere else to go, and he had a real purpose for the first time in his life- a deep desire or a query, that he couldn't really distinguish.

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Zohan:[What am I supposed to do?]

According to his research, he was supposed to use demonic corpses for sustaining himself.

The realm had two different kinds of resources.

the [White] four petal lotuses and the [Dark] four petal lotuses.

The [White Lotus] resources would use the corpses of cultivators to give birth to a nectar that sustained the Sage beasts.

[Black Lotus] resources would use corpses of demonic beasts to give birth to a nectar that sustained and helped with the cultivation of cultivators.

At the beginning of cultivation, cultivators would be raised amongst corpses of their own kind- and have a [White Lotus] established in them, which would complete their foundation establishment.

Zohan couldn't do that.

Even if he somehow had the foundation established without any of the cruel processes involved, he couldn't kill and refine demonic beasts through [Black Lotus] resources.

Aside from cultivation, there was also sustaining himself. Cultivators consumed demonic beasts, demonic beasts consumed cultivators. And then there were variants, like the demonic cultivators, who did a mix of both.

He made a query to one of Lei Han's people, who came to check up on him.

Zohan:[Is there a way for me to do things, without relying on the resources?]

It seemed like he had asked something that was forbidden, so the man contacted Lei Han, who summoned Zohan to her place.

Lei Han:[ There is a big taboo on sustaining oneself outside of the resources. That's something that people with weak character, the demonic cultivators do. They capture human cultivators or demonic beasts and use them for sustaining themselves. Both factions of demonic cultivators are hostile to cultivators, therefore they constitute a big taboo. Please steel your heart and pick the right path, right away. While you're treated with consideration due to your special origins and our expectations from you, you wouldn't be given any consideration and be stripped of everything, the instant you walk the wrong path]

Zohan couldn't really protest.

Lei Han:[ Here are some resources which would help. I'll help you out this one time out of consideration, but please become independent as soon as possible, everything works according to the principle of give and take. Anything else is very much looked down upon]

Zohan received what he could only articulate as seeds. There were two [White Lotus] seeds given to him, perhaps one for foundation, while another as some form of currency or for consolidation of different levels of cultivation. He would need many of them when he accomplishes different things during cultivation, including the creation of the Golden core at the end. Same seemed true for the two [Black Lotus] seeds, which we're essential for cultivation.

He walked back to the place that he'd been given to reside. It's been a while since he'd been in the world, and his body had been crying out to him to sustaining it.

Could he will a way?