12: Chapter 12 The Birth of a Familia

Early on the third morning, Shen Ye was startled awake by fluctuations within the Kingdom.

It wasn't a building being completed, nor was it the trigger of Gain Without Labor. It was the Kin.

His consciousness instantly sank into the Cultivation Divine Kingdom.

The Scripture Pavilion.

On the top floor of the three-story stone pagoda, three cultivators sat cross-legged in the center of the reading area.

They were different from the other Kin—they weren't a "group" with blurred faces, but three completely independent individuals with clear faces and unique temperaments.

The first one. Metal Spirit Root, male, appearing to be about thirty years old.

His face was resolute, with high brow bones, deep eye sockets, and large knuckles on his hands.

A flying sword lay across his knees—not the standard flying sword nurtured in the stone slots of the sword stele, but one he had forged himself, selecting ore from the Metal Energy Ore Vein and tempering it with Earth Fire.

There was a natural golden pattern on the blade, resembling an unformed dragon.

The second one. Wood Spirit Root, female, appearing to be about twenty-five years old.

Her face was soft, her eyes a pale green, and deep within her pupils were leaf-vein patterns.

Her hands were tucked into her sleeves, with the tips of several vines peeking out from the cuffs—not as weapons, but as part of her body.

Her spirit root had mutated, with the Wood Spirit Root carrying a hint of the rare "Life" attribute.

The third one. Water Spirit Root, male, appearing to be about sixty years old.

White hair, white beard, and a lean face.

His eyes were deep blue, like two deep pools.

He was surrounded by a very faint water mist, within which the phantom of a Spirit Spring could be seen—not a real Spirit Spring, but a technique prototype he had realized from the fine-grade Spirit Spring.

Three cultivators, three types of spirit roots, three completely independent individuals.

Shen Ye's consciousness projection landed on the top floor of the Scripture Pavilion.

The three opened their eyes simultaneously and looked at him.

There was no hesitation, no confusion.

They rose from their prayer mats, took three steps back, and then knelt in unison.

"Heavenly Dao."

Their voices were synchronized. Shen Ye looked at them.

The three possessed something that the other Kin did not.

It wasn't their cultivation level—like the other Kin, they were all at the Early Qi Refining stage.

It was a sense of "Self." The other Kin would also cultivate, work, and fight, but their behavior was collective, like worker bees in a hive.

These three were not like that. They were independent individuals with their own faces, temperaments, and choices.

"What are your names?" Shen Ye asked.

The three raised their heads.

The Gold Spirit Root Sword Cultivator said, "Please bestow a name, Heavenly Dao."

The Wood Spirit Root female cultivator said, "Please bestow a name, Heavenly Dao."

The Water Spirit Root elder said, "Please bestow a name, Heavenly Dao."

Shen Ye was silent for a moment.

He had never given names to the Kin before.

The other Kin didn't need names—they were a group, not individuals.

But these three were different.

They already had a "Self," and a name is part of the self.

"Metal Spirit Root."

Shen Ye looked at the sword cultivator.

"You forged a sword from ore, and the blade has golden dragon scales. You shall be called Jin Lin."

Jin Lin kowtowed.

"Wood Spirit Root." Shen Ye looked at the female cultivator.

"Your spirit root has mutated, and vines live in symbiosis with your body. You shall be called Mu Sheng."

Mu Sheng kowtowed.

"Water Spirit Root." Shen Ye finally looked at the white-haired elder.

"You realized the Dao from the Spirit Spring, and the water mist around you forms the shadow of a spring. You shall be called Elder Quan."

Elder Quan kowtowed.

The moment the three kowtowed, Shen Ye felt a warm stream of energy rise from them and inject into his consciousness.

It wasn't spiritual energy, nor was it the condensed energy of faith crystals.

It was something purer, something with warmth. Power Of Faith.

It wasn't the thin and scattered faith of the collective Kin, but three individuals with a "Self," using their completely independent will, choosing to believe in him.

The faith of the collective Kin was instinctual, like an infant's attachment to its mother.

The faith of individual Kin was a choice, like an adult deciding to follow a leader.

For the first time, Shen Ye truly understood the relationship between a god and their Kin.

It wasn't master and tool, nor creator and creation.

It was leader and follower.

The Kin chose to believe in him, entrusting their will to him.

He accepted this entrustment, using the Kingdom's resources to nurture them, guide them, and lead them to survive on the battlefield.

"Rise," Shen Ye said.

The three stood up.

Shen Ye's consciousness projection turned to Jin Lin. "Your sword, let me see it."

Jin Lin held up the flying sword with both hands, presenting it to Shen Ye.

The sword was three feet two inches long, with a dark gold blade, and that natural golden dragon pattern extended from the guard all the way to the tip.

Shen Ye's consciousness touched the blade, perceiving the forging process—Jin Lin had selected the purest metal energy ore from the vein, melted it with Earth Fire, tempered it with the sword intent of the sword stele, and hammered it thousands of times.

With every strike, he had injected his own spiritual power into the blade.

This sword was not a weapon; it was a part of his body.

"A good sword," Shen Ye said.

Jin Lin's eyes lit up slightly.

Shen Ye turned to Mu Sheng. "Your vines."

Mu Sheng extended her hands from her sleeves.

Several coils of emerald-green vines were wrapped around her arms, their ends extending into five slender tendrils, like five extra fingers.

There were tiny leaves on the vines, which trembled slightly in the air, as if breathing.

Shen Ye's consciousness touched the vines, perceiving the life force contained within—it wasn't a variant of wood-attribute spiritual power, but a type of Law of Life close to the source.

Mu Sheng's spirit root mutation had allowed her Wood Spirit Root to touch a domain outside the Five Elements.

"Can you control them?" Shen Ye asked.

Mu Sheng nodded. With a thought, the five tendrils extended simultaneously, weaving a complex vine net in the air.

It was exactly the kind of enemy-trapping vine net that Shen Ye had the Wood Spirit Root Kin use when facing the Void Tribe Scout in the Simulated Rift.

But she didn't weave it temporarily; it formed instantly.

The tendrils were as flexible as fingers in her hands.

Shen Ye was silent for a moment.

"That kind of enemy-trapping vine net takes other Wood Spirit Root Kin three breaths to complete weaving."

"Forgive me, Heavenly Dao."

Mu Sheng lowered her head, "I took the liberty of modifying the weaving method of the vine net."

"Let me see."

Mu Sheng wove it once more.

This time Shen Ye watched closely—she had reduced the nodes of the vine net from nine to seven, and adjusted the crossing angle of the tendrils from sixty degrees to forty-five degrees.

The structure was simpler, but its stability had actually improved.

It wasn't just a modification; it was an optimization.

"Who taught you?"

"No one taught me," Mu Sheng said, "The vines are my hands. The hands know how to weave a net."

Shen Ye looked at the vines on her arms.

The hands know how to weave a net.

This sentence was closer to the essence of laws than any cultivation manual or classic.

He finally turned to Elder Quan. "Your technique."

Elder Quan held his hands out flat, palms upward.

The surrounding water mist began to condense, forming a phantom of a miniature Spirit Spring between his palms.

The spring eye, the water flow, the spiritual energy—everything was there, exactly like what he had observed from the fine-grade Spirit Spring.

But it didn't stop there—the water flow of the miniature Spirit Spring wasn't circulating; it was spiraling upward.

The water gushed from the spring eye, rotated as it rose to the top of the phantom, turned into water mist, and then settled back into the spring eye.

With every cycle, the concentration of spiritual energy in the water flow increased slightly.

"A spiral."

Shen Ye stared at that water flow, "The Spirit Spring flows flatly, but you changed it into a spiral."

"Heavenly Dao's insight is clear."

Elder Quan said, "Water that flows flatly allows spiritual energy to dissipate along the way.

Water that spirals keeps the spiritual energy contained within the core.

I observed by the Spirit Spring for two years and found that in its natural state, the spring water also occasionally produces tiny vortices.

At the center of a vortex, the concentration of spiritual energy is several times that of the surroundings.

I have merely amplified this principle of nature."

Amplifying a principle of nature. Shen Ye silently repeated this sentence.

Three people. Jin Lin sublimated the craft of sword forging into the Dao of the Sword.

Mu Sheng optimized the weaving of vines into a Law.

Elder Quan amplified the vortex of the Spirit Spring into a technique.

Shen Ye looked at the three.

They knelt before him, waiting for his evaluation.

"Jin Lin. From today on, your sword shall be placed at the highest point of the sword stele for nurturing.

You may call upon the sword intent of the sword stele for one hour every day, specifically to temper the dragon pattern on your sword.

That dragon pattern is unusual—it wasn't naturally formed by the Metal Energy Ore Vein, but is a condensation of the sword intent you unconsciously injected while forging. Nurture it until it manifests."

Jin Lin kowtowed.

"Mu Sheng."

Your vine net optimization shall be recorded in the Scripture Pavilion starting today, as the basic tactical textbook for the Wood Spirit Root Kin.

"You are responsible for teaching all Wood Spirit Root Kin."

Mu Sheng kowtowed.

"Elder Quan. Your Spiral Spirit Spring Technique, continue its deduction."

"When you can condense that phantom into a solid entity, I will allow you to open the first spiral spring eye in the real Spirit Spring."

Elder Quan kowtowed.

Shen Ye withdrew his consciousness projection but did not leave the Kingdom.

His consciousness swept over the entire Land of Cultivation, counting the number of Kin.

There were significantly more than at the time of awakening.

The completion of four fine-grade buildings—the Spirit Spring, Spirit Field, Scripture Pavilion, and sword stele—along with the two high-tier buildings, the Five Elements Array Eye: Metal and the heavenly tribulation platform, had caused the spiritual energy concentration of the Cultivation Divine Kingdom to increase several times over two years.

The speed at which the Origin condensed Kin had also accelerated accordingly.

Newborn Kin were still continuously emerging from the Origin.

Shen Ye's consciousness flowed over them.

Some faces were still very blurred, while others were beginning to become clear.

Jin Lin, Mu Sheng, and Elder Quan were the first batch of Kin to develop a "Self," but they would not be the last.

Among the Fire Spirit Root Kin, he saw a young blacksmith carving his name onto a flying sword he had forged himself, the focus in his eyes identical to Jin Lin's when he was forging.

Among the Earth Spirit Root Clan, he saw a middle-aged miner deep in a mine shaft, carving out a map of the tunnels stroke by stroke, the calluses on his hands as deep as the spiral patterns on Elder Quan's palms.

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They had not yet come to him to beg for a name.

But they were already on the path to becoming themselves.

Shen Ye withdrew his consciousness and opened his eyes.

The sky outside was already bright.

His communicator vibrated; Qin Shu sent a message: "Today's practical combat class is moved up to seven o'clock."

Shen Ye sat up from the floor mat in the meditation room. He washed up briefly and pushed the door open to leave.

Training Ground Three, Room Nine.

Qin Shu had already been standing in front of the Simulated Rift device for a while.

His expression today was different from yesterday—it wasn't serious, but rather something deeper, as if he were confirming something.

"How long did your Cultivation Divine Kingdom develop after you went back yesterday?" Qin Shu asked.

"One day in the outside world, two years in the Cultivation Divine Kingdom," Shen Ye said.

Qin Shu nodded. "Let me see."

Shen Ye did not hesitate.

He expanded his consciousness, and the projection of his Cultivation Divine Kingdom spread out in the simulation room.

Jin Lin was practicing swordsmanship before the sword stele, a faint phantom of a small golden dragon appearing on his shoulder.

Mu Sheng was pollinating by the spirit field, the white flowers at the ends of his vines drifting in the sunlight.

Elder Quan was sitting cross-legged by the fine-grade spirit spring, the spiral spirit spring in his palm emitting a faint sound of water.

The spirit field had expanded from ten mu to thirty mu, and the irrigation canals had increased from one to five.

Deep in the mine, a new branch of the spirit vein was being excavated.

The earth fire furnaces had increased from one to three.

Qin Shu watched for a long time.

Then he did something Shen Ye did not expect—he expanded his own Kingdom Projection.

Break Array.

Qin Shu's divine kingdom was a wasteland, far larger in area than Shen Ye's Land of Cultivation.

A True God-level divine kingdom, with a radius of 50,000 kilometers, had an area thousands of times larger than that of a divine entity like Shen Ye.

But there were almost no structures on the wasteland.

No spirit springs, no spirit fields, no Scripture Pavilion, no sword stele.

Only a solitary stone tower stood in the center of the wasteland, its body covered in cracks.

His kin were not numerous either. A few hundred warriors, wearing tattered armor, sat around the stone tower.

They did not cultivate, they did not labor; they were just waiting.

"My kin will not be reborn."

Qin Shu said, "The Break Array attribute can nullify all Law enhancements."

Including the rebirth law of the divine kingdom's origin.

If my kin die, they are truly dead.

"They will never coalesce into a second one ever again."

Shen Ye looked at those warriors sitting around the stone tower.

They possessed something that the kin of the Cultivation Divine Kingdom did not—not cultivation base, not combat skills, but something heavier, like iron that had been tempered by fire.

They knew that if they died, they were truly dead.

Therefore, every battle they fought was a real battle.

"When you lose kin in the Simulated Rift, they will be reborn, exactly the same as before they died in battle."

"You feel heartache for them, but you know they will come back."

Qin Shu retracted his Kingdom Projection.

"My kin will not come back. Therefore, I cannot teach you how to protect your kin."

He walked to the Simulated Rift device and pressed a few buttons on the control panel.

"But I can teach you how to let your kin survive on the battlefield."

The light screen in the center of the device lit up. A gray zone, three Void Tribe Scouts.

"Today, do not use your real kin," Qin Shu said. "Use the projection."

Shen Ye was stunned for a moment. "Projection?"

Qin Shu pointed to the control panel.

"This is a research result from a technological divine kingdom in the Northern Divine Domain."

"It uses your own divine kingdom's data to generate kin projections; their combat power, skills, and coordination are exactly the same as the real kin."

"If a projection is hit, it will dissipate, but it will not truly die. The kin in your divine kingdom will not be affected in any way."

Technological divine kingdom.

Shen Ye had heard of this direction—in the Northern Divine Domain, some Awakened ones' divine kingdoms did not follow traditional systems like cultivation, elements, holy light, or the abyss, but instead followed a technological path.

Mechanical kin, data laws, simulated battlefields.

This projection technology was converted from the research of those technological divine kingdoms.

"Why didn't you let me use it before?" Shen Ye asked.

"Because the projections won't die, you won't be serious."

"If you aren't serious, your kin will develop bad habits in the projections—thinking that it doesn't matter if they die, and just rushing up to trade hits."

"Once such habits are formed, they will get them killed on a real battlefield."

Qin Shu's tone was very flat. "Today I am letting you use the projection because your kin already have a 'self'."

He looked at Shen Ye.

"Jin Lin, Mu Sheng, Elder Quan. You cannot bear to let these three kin die."

"Then use the projection to train them until they won't die."

In the light screen, Jin Lin's projection walked from the end of the wasteland.

There was no faint image of a small golden dragon on his shoulder, but the dragon patterns on his sword were exactly the same as the real Jin Lin's.

Then came Mu Sheng, with white flowers blooming at the ends of his vines.

Then came Elder Quan, the spiral spirit spring in his palm rotating slowly.

Shen Ye looked at their projections.

The faces were the same, the temperament was the same, the skills were the same. But he knew that was not them.

The real Jin Lin was practicing swordsmanship before the sword stele, Mu Sheng was pollinating in the spirit field, and Elder Quan was meditating by the spirit spring.

"Go," Qin Shu said.

Shen Ye stepped into the light screen.

The battle was much faster than before.

It was not because the projections would not die, so Shen Ye did not care.

Quite the opposite—because the projections would not die, he dared to try tactics he had not dared to use before.

In the first round, he had Jin Lin's projection take the Void Tribe Scout's bone blade head-on.

He hadn't dared to before; Jin Lin's swordsmanship had only just entered the beginner stage, and taking an elite-grade Void Race's bone blade head-on would most likely result in a broken sword and death.

But the projection would not die.

At the moment the bone blade slashed down, Jin Lin's projection turned to the side and struck out with his sword, the tip of the sword precisely hitting the weakest point of the bone blade's force—not colliding hard, but unloading the force.

The bone blade deviated from its trajectory, grazing past Jin Lin's shoulder and cutting off a few strands of hair.

Jin Lin's projection used the momentum to spin, and his second sword pierced into the gap in the Void Tribe Scout's bone armor.

One sword strike, fatal.

Shen Ye was stunned at the command position.

That was not an order he had given; it was Jin Lin's own judgment.

The projection's data came from the divine kingdom, and the combat style also came from the divine kingdom.

Jin Lin had practiced swordsmanship before the sword stele for two years, and his combat instincts had already been engraved into the divine kingdom's data.

Shen Ye had never taught him how to unload force—it was something Jin Lin had realized himself through countless swings of the sword.

In the second round, Shen Ye had Mu Sheng's projection trap two Void Tribe Scouts simultaneously.

He hadn't dared to before; although Mu Sheng's Differentiation Vine Net had been optimized, binding two elite-grade Void Race simultaneously would most likely result in it being broken.

The projection would not die.

Mu Sheng's projection divided the vines into two strands; a main net woven from seven vines trapped the first scout, and a secondary net woven from four vines entangled the second one's legs.

It was not an even distribution; it was concentrating power to trap the one with the greatest threat, using the minimum amount of power to restrain the other.

Jin Lin's projection seized the opportunity to rush in, taking them out one sword strike at a time.

In the third round, Shen Ye had Elder Quan's projection apply the Spiral Water Curtain technique to actual combat.

Elder Quan's projection pushed out the miniature spirit spring from his palm, and the spiral water flow expanded into a water curtain in the air.

The water curtain itself had no lethality, but when the Void Tribe Scout's bone blade slashed into the water curtain, the spiral water flow climbed up along the bone blade, entangling the scout's forelimbs.

It was not blocking hard; it was entangling. The force of the bone blade was dispersed by the water flow, guided, and unloaded into the ground.

Jin Lin's projection passed through the water curtain and struck the throat with one sword.

Three Void Tribe Scouts, all killed. The time taken was less than half of what it was before.

When Shen Ye walked out of the light screen, Qin Shu was recording on the data pad. He looked up at Shen Ye.

"The projections won't die. So you let go."

Shen Ye did not speak.

"But your kin let go even more."

Qin Shu turned the data pad to show Shen Ye. "Jin Lin's Deflection Sword, Mu Sheng's Differentiation Vine Net, Elder Quan's Spiral Water Curtain."

"These tactics were not taught by you; they were developed by them in the divine kingdom."

"You didn't dare to use them before because you were afraid they would die."

"Today you dared to use them because you knew the projections would not die."

He made another note on the data pad.

"The meaning of the projection is not to make you indifferent to death, but to let you dare to discover the true upper limit of your kin."

When Shen Ye walked out of the training room, the sky was already bright.

He bought a can of energy drink from the vending machine in the hallway and finished it while leaning against the wall.

In the divine kingdom, Jin Lin was still practicing swordsmanship before the sword stele, Mu Sheng was still pollinating in the spirit field, and Elder Quan was still meditating by the spirit spring.

They did not know that their projections had just killed three Void Tribe Scouts in the Simulated Rift, and they did not know that their combat instincts had been evaluated as "upper limit" by a retired demigod named Qin Shu.

They were just doing what they did every day.

Practicing swordsmanship, pollinating, meditating.

Shen Ye threw the empty can into the recycling bin.

There were three hundred and sixty-four days left until the college entrance examination.

Jin Lin's swordsmanship, Mu Sheng's Differentiation Vine Net, Elder Quan's Spiral Spirit Spring—these three things would become the cornerstone of the entire Cultivation Divine Kingdom in the future.

It was not because he had taught them, but because they had grown these things themselves.

He walked toward the dormitory building.

Deep in the divine kingdom, the angels and succubi gathered around the newly completed fine-grade high-quality spirit spring and began to carve the second Twilight stone railing.

On the bookshelves on the fifth floor of the Scripture Pavilion, new books were being bound.

The fifty stone slots of the sword stele were all filled; the holy light swords and the abyss swords were arranged in an alternating pattern, with twilight patterns flowing on every sword.

Chen and Ye stood on both sides of the Twilight Spirit Spring and simultaneously raised their heads to look at the sky.