Chapter 7: Momma Bear

The Dao is the path in your heart, principles, hopes, goals, emotions, and everything that makes up who you are. There are no wrong paths in the advancement of your Dao. This is what makes up the base and foundation of your cultivation. The comprehension of your Dao must grow with your cultivation and comprehension of the natural laws, or else you risk Qi deviation. A correct balance of these two, plus your innate talents, determines how fast you can have cultivation breakthroughs.

When determining someone's attainment, better known as cultivation base, one's aura gives distinct impressions that allow others to identify their cultivation stage.

The cultivation levels she was aware of so far are:

Awakened Realm

Transcended Realm

Eclipse Realm

Nirvana Realm

Karmic Sage Realm

Kimarya thought these stages to be very interesting. "How powerful can people get?"

“Immortality is one of the primary goals in cultivation. Another one is trying to reach the peak of existence and the ultimate power that comes with it. This environment and world can be very dangerous. According to the knowledge of the host, cultivators can change the weather, crumble mountains, sink islands, raze entire lands, and kill countless people if they wished to.”

Kimarya replied, "Can I start now? How do I do it?"

“The basis for cultivation revolves around your comprehension of nature, usually referred to as the Dao. This is a comprehension of something marvelously intertwined and overlapping at least three things. First is understanding the natural world and its phenomenon, the second is the natural laws within energies, and the third is developing your path in cultivation.

These three are essential to being at the peak of any level of your cultivation level. Lacking any of these will result in lower subpar quality in your energy, power, mind, and body.”

Kimarya's eyes were practically shining excitedly when suddenly her vision blurred, and her consciousness slipped away for a second. As her eyesight cleared up, she saw she was floating off the floor and couldn't move her body. An invisible pressure she couldn't even think of resisting held her. She couldn't control any aspect of herself, not even blink when she wished. Her body continued breathing by itself; her eyes blinked by themselves. The power was both completely overwhelming and gentle.

She floated there, not moving even a millimeter from that position. Nothing moved besides her body, which was still breathing and blinking.

She heard the cold and bitter voice of a woman. "You. What did you do to my precious Draeneoy?" The voice started in a barely audible whisper until it grew into a low snarl that reverberated and crashed through her mind, building up into an almost overwhelming vibration that threatened to drive her insane. This was the worst pain she ever felt. It was so awful she was almost immediately on the brink of insanity. Her mind was unable to focus; the sound similar to static from TV was all she could hear and feel, along with the indescribable pain. It was so awful that in her complete desperation if she weren't immobilized, she may have even ended it all by biting her tongue off; it was that awful.

Kimarya felt so much pain she couldn't think, and just when she felt she would die, it all stopped.

"I know you aren't my little one." Said the voice. Grothie felt such pain, nearly overwhelming grief yet fury. She broke the rules by not seeing her child before the trial's final results, which the chosen must overcome. If only she weren't the chief of her auxiliary village with all her responsibilities and customs of the clan, she wouldn't have minded downgrading and becoming a common citizen and not having her child be part of the chosen of this newer generation.

She loved her baby so much that she decided not to give her protection; she hoped this trial would help her wake up, even if it meant her death. Her future would only have been limited if she was protected. Even if she weren't aware of the protection, it would still be too great of a splash in the oceans of karma and ultimately a blemish in her Dao if she genuinely decided to head down the path of cultivation.

But her little one isn't there anymore. If it weren't for the remnant emotions of her little Dre revealing that there was no foul play or that she would hurt the body of her offspring, she would have erased this soul that dared occupy her child's body. With her skills in Augury, she saw that little Dre accepted everything, that little Dre accepted her, that she was even happy. Maybe this person could accomplish her mama's hopes for her.

She was wrong.

All I ever really wanted for her was her happiness. Like any parent, I wanted you to crush all others and gain our family face and prestige. But it was only ever secondary. I'm sorry I called you a silly or dumb little girl. I'm sorry I tried to keep you from looking at those spiderwebs. I knew it made you happy, but I chastised you for it. You never failed me, little one. I had my hopes for you; I was even going to forcibly take you away and not have you take these trials; I had the power to do it. Your father convinced me, or I let myself be convinced.

At the last second, you gripped my hand and said: "Mama, I'll go." It was one of the few times you ever spoke. My heart shook and beat much stronger than when I was steeling myself to crush tradition and swim against the stream. If I knew this would have happened, I may have done it.

Even your death would have been easier. Then you'd be resting within the trees and waters humming that particular song you only hummed to the spiderwebs or when I held you, dear child of mine. That would be easier than seeing a stranger in your body, using the child I carried within me for nine long months. I've lived thousands of years, but those nine months with you felt like a lifetime.

Grothie felt her tears welling up in her eyes, her breathing almost losing control. I can't see her body like this. I didn't see any bad or sense any malice in this new person's eyes.

She steeled herself, made her choice, and said, "I know your name. You asked that boy to call you Kimarya instead of the name I gave my child, and you aren't my child. I won't kill you, even though I'm feeling such maddening fury. I don't know what kind of ties I will have with you, but later on, I will."

Kimarya gently floated down and was dazed for a long time as to what the hell just happened.

Kimarya realized that this voice, this person, was Draenoy's mother, Grothie. She realized that she knew I wasn't her daughter. It seems I escaped a calamity for now and resolved the dilemma of whether to hide my identity from her parents or how to let them know.

"Kimarya, I have detected some bizarre traces of the phenomena that happened. I have not made sense of the results of the scans. Even that hairy creature was hiding and likely couldn't have done much of anything to assist."

"Huhuhu, this great sir was asleep and never noticed; else, I would have been able to save you if it were to get dangerous," Half-heartedly responded Sasquatch.

Knock, knock, knock

After the knocking, a loud and stern voice said, "It is time for the evaluation of the trial, Chosen, Draenoy. Please follow me."

Kimarya shook the last traces of her daze away and followed the guard up a large hill with colossal stones in a formation that reminded her of Stonehenge, her previous world, except much bigger and more intact.

Twenty other kids her age or Draenoy's age stood together, while five elders were on a large rock with a smaller formation of stones, with an oddly shaped green stone in the middle.

Everyone around Kimarya was making a large fuss over the person in the middle, saying things like, "Who is he?" and "Why are the elders treating him with such high esteem and respect?" as they noticed how the other elders treated the cloaked man in the middle.

The cloaked figure in the middle, who appeared to be a middle-aged man with green hair poking outside of their cloak and had the most prominent presence out of all the other elders, spoke, "Welcome back, Chosen and trial takers of the Honey Badger Earth vein village, I am Shamaner, Nominal Grand Elder. I am here to oversee this ceremony and look for a disciple."

He continued, "Please come one at a time to the Vertuold Augury stone at the center. Place your hand here, and it will respond to two things: Ancestral Spirit and latent talent.

It would show a silhouette of your Ancestral Guardian Spirit and stars for your amount of latent talent.

One star means little or no latent talent for cultivation.

Two stars mean below-average latent talent for cultivation.

Three is a decent latent talent for cultivation.

Four is an average latent talent for cultivation.

Five is a tremendous latent talent for cultivation.

Six is a genius-level latent talent for cultivation.

Seven is demon-level latent talent, appearing only once every ten thousand years.

There were 105 participants this year, but only ten were Chosen, and the rest were villagers who took the test.

Kimarya looked around, but there were still fifty-four kids around her. She muttered, "Don't tell me these are all the survivors..."

Shamaner kept talking. "Only 54 have returned from our holy zone, seven being Chosen. Please start coming forward one at a time, although this process is only mandatory for the chosen."

Kimarya saw in Draenoy's memories that it was a great honor to show your ancestral guardian spirit and latent talent, especially when establishing a master/disciple relationship with a high-level Elder.

Kimarya watched people go up one at a time. The first person, a girl, got three stars and a sort of Slug creature with a spiked shell.

The second person had a large snake with the head of a wolf and five stars, which drew some gasps. "It's a steel wolf-headed snake, and they even have five stars!

More and more of them went by until the 30th chosen had a winged three-eyed tiger, which drew the most attention until it was shadowed by an amazing six stars of a true genius! A few of the elders conversed, nodding their heads in excitement and clear approval. Kimarya heard kids around her talking, saying, "Alastair, he actually has such amazing latent talent in combination with that dreadful three-eyed winged tiger. He will surely be a pillar of the village and clan!"

Kimarya decided to go after him so she wouldn't attract too much attention. She walked forward and noticed that everyone had a strange reaction to her, but she ignored it and walked forward until she was in front of the stone.

Chapter 8: Divine Augury Stone