The Draoidh cultivation methods require sensing the mana and elements of the world around them. Their understanding of the natural order removes bottlenecks during mana accumulation and growth. It is also why they were feared and nearly destroyed.

~Cailleach, the Veiled Hag of Winter

It wasn’t stone. The sheer face of the divide between floors looked like polished stone, but it wasn’t. Nor was it metal or wood. The unnaturally smooth wall extended north and south in a line so straight that it was eerie. Others had measured multiple times, and they found the stairs leading upward were precisely in the middle. It was the same distance to the tower wall in the south and the Plunge in the north.

Standing this close to it, Crow and the others could feel its oppressive nature that even Otto and Nin suffered under. The only place that pressure didn’t exist was the area directly in front of the stairs. Based on what the academy in Rosdoe mentioned, the hundred meters leading to the wall was a cultivator’s mecca.

The suppression became stronger the closer to the wall, so if they cultivated in front of it, they’d firm up their foundations. If they could reach the divide and cultivate for half a day, they were ready to ascend.

Crow touched the smooth surface and felt strange mana entering his body, and it didn’t activate his curse at all. That meant his mana was so pure that it didn’t need to be cleansed. The only thing that made him sad was that he couldn’t get much out of it. That little bit was nothing. His regular cultivation could turn impure mana into Origin energy faster.

“What is made of?” Song Lin asked, touching the wall beside him.

“It is pure Origin energy. The entire wall and stairs are made of it, but it’s strange. This wall isn’t solid but is condensed to the point of feeling solid. Almost like glue or something.”

Song Lin lightly chuckled. “You are saying that they ‘glued’ these worlds together?”

“Exactly. Think about the ingenious of it. We all know we live in the lower realms and know the Origin energy here is lacking. With enough dedication, this method ensures that everyone can continue climbing their entire life. Obviously, talent and a powerful cultivation method will speed that up. Still, even the least talented person can climb relying on this divider alone.”

“And the only reason I was forced to stop was that I wasn’t patient?”

“Sis, you can’t blame yourself for that. That bastard forced you into a dead-end,” Song Xue interjected. “I’ll make sure he suffers the same setback.”

Crow placed his hand on Song Lin’s shoulder. It was weird. She was the oldest of the group and, at one point, probably the most powerful. But she was so soft-spoken that he found himself more protective of her than the others. It wasn’t just him either because the entire group felt like they had to protect her. It was like her presence evoked something in them. Like Nadia, he suspected that Song Lin held some sort of innate power.

Thinking over the last month, Crow felt a little nostalgic. At first, he wanted to ascend immediately and leave Nin and Otto to run things for a while until they reached the next Keystone. The plan was they’d attune to it, warp back to Rosdoe, and bring them along.

However, Song Lin talked him down. She explained that her Shield’s foundation was destroyed because she did the same thing. Rushed each set of stairs to escape the monster chasing her. So they cultivated by the wall and moved closer and closer to it until their Shields were practically humming.

During that time, because of his contributions to the safety of Rosdoe, Mara’s syndicate became a faction. It was one of the city’s rewards and helped register it with the Adventurer Guild, making it legit.

After sharing stories and laughing hysterically at the goth banshee that had a thing for Crow, the women were going to call it Banshee. He adamantly refused, but it didn’t stop the jokes. Eventually, they settled on Nightstar. Crow didn’t know why at first until they explained that the sun in his Soulscape was made from Night Fire, and in their Constellation, he was the Dark Star. So they combined them, and Nightstar was born.

During the early days of the faction, they still operated some of their underworld ventures until they decided to create an auction. They used donated goods and donated seventy percent of the goods to the city to help rebuild. The unexpected result was that Song Lin’s potions and pills and Crow’s Soul Carvings were hotly contested items.

After that, Nin and Mara quickly came up with a new business model for their faction. They decided to use their faction as an auction house dealing in rare and unusual goods. They held small auctions twice a week and a big auction where they took a commission on items others put up while raking in the gold on things Song Lin and Crow created. It wasn’t long before they were making tons of money.

Because Mara had to cultivate, Nin was involved in building up the branch they’d leave behind when they climbed to the next floor. It turned out that the Keystone had one more function that was only available to official factions, and that was a dimensional warehouse. The warehouse had multiple permission levels that Crow didn’t bother to learn about. Mara made it sound like it was designed to aid faction management across multiple floors.

The issue was that Crow knew a secret they didn’t. A guardian watched over the tower. In theory, it could take whatever it wanted from dimensional areas it controlled, including absorbing items that others dropped or lost. There was probably nothing noteworthy on the lower floors and wouldn’t bother, but he didn’t think that would always be the case. He’d rather trust his Soulscape.

Either way, Nin enjoyed this method of acquiring goods and soon learned how to trade for rare resources. Drock helped her with prices and provided her with many books on rare goods and objectively evaluating treasures. Crow also read all the books, scrolls, and vestiges because it was good information. He already had a pretty strong understanding of resources, but this augmented and updated what he knew.

Either way, Nin hoarded everything because that was her nature. She could essentially commit daylight robbery—she called it coercive selling. Regardless, she acquired so much stuff that she didn’t want to put it in the dimensional warehouse. Since she shared the same sentiment as him, he hollowed out a mountain in his Soulscape for her. Her spatial treasures weren’t big enough to hold it all, and no one suspected that their auction house had nothing of value on site.

Sadly, they did become a target of many thieves, but they never gained anything. In fact, most were never seen again because their manor was literally on top of a private prison. Well, most were never seen again. Others were released after Nin gained their undying loyalty because she beat, tortured, and broke them.

A month after the Hunger Curse, Rosdoe was still recovering. The walls had long been repaired, and part of the money Crow donated improved them. Call it a legacy he was leaving behind. Names were carved into it in a grand ceremony. All the people who fought and died defending the city were immortalized. Even Crow felt emotional carving names of those people who served under him. As many names as they knew, there were twice as many nameless that would regretfully be forgotten.

The other significant change was that the southern part of the was demolished. Nothing there was salvageable. Based on the will of the residents, they felt it should belong to the academy so they could build something better and stronger than before. Only there were to be two schools. One for academia and Scholarly Talents and the other for Military Science. It taught the locals how to fight, defend their city, and the threats their people could face. Crow mentioned to Drock that they should include an anti-cultivator class to teach the residents how to take down rogue cultivators.

Crow didn’t know that his suggestion would become famous in the future. It wasn’t just the mortal humans that wanted to learn from those teachers, but cultivators too. It initially allowed both types to join because the cultivators were used to test theories. Both mortals and cultivators benefitted from the lesson. Those that went through the class learned how to fight above their level.

Rosdoe might have suffered, but they grew stronger because of it. As Crow predicted, many families bonded, the sense of belonging grew among those that fought. On more than one occasion, Crow joined those veterans for a drink. They traded stories and grieved the ones they lost. The locals knew him, and he had gained their respect which also provided his faction with many benefits.

He didn’t know those people long, but somehow he felt responsible for them. There were times he woke in a cold sweat, seeing the faces of those that he had failed to protect.

All in all, it was the best outcome Crow could have hoped for and left him with a solid foundation for his future endeavors. However, no amount of benefits was worth the number of lives lost. It reminded him of Nadia’s conviction that Kafe would show up. Somehow, he felt everything that happened was related to him. It was some resonance he felt in the karma running through everything. The taint felt distinctly like Hex Vodun.

Hours before he arrived at the Ascension, the stairs made of Origin energy, Drock pulled him aside. Their conversation still left him a little unnerved.

“You all set?” the old general asked. The two had spoken quite a lot over the last month and not because he was Mara’s uncle. After the battle, they held each other in high regard and not just because of their ability to fight. It was because of their temperament, character, and the fact that they stood their ground until the very end. The respect that only warriors tempered in blood and battle would understand. Even if the two hated each other, that respect would be no less than it was now.

“I am. We’ve been ready for a few weeks now, but it’s hard saying goodbye. I feel like I’m giving up a part of myself by leaving.”

“There are a lot of places that hold a spiritual resonance. Like it absorbed the life and memories of those that came before and made those locations feel as if they have sentience. I’m not just an old man talking out my ass,” Drock laughed. “The thing is, you bled for this place, shed tears for it, and sacrificed part of your soul defending it. Those things have meaning, and they imprint both the person and the place. You are bound to Rosdoe, and it’s not just a place you visited anymore. You know what I’m saying?”

Crow never felt the old man was talking out his ass because he used to feel the same thing in the forests of his ancestral home. The same sense of belonging he felt among the woods he grew up in was the feeling he got from Rosdoe now.

Unlike the naked boy who ran those forests, he knew the feeling was connected to the Truths that defined existence. Embracing the communion with Rosdoe, he could sense that even the stones beneath his feet were resonating with him. For a brief moment, he got a glimpse of thousands of people trampling across him and snapped out of his enlightenment. What he saw and felt wasn’t just his imagination. He really connected with the city and shuddered at thinking the place might really have sentience.

“I know what you are saying,” Crow said, trying to hide his shock.

“Good. I know I can’t offer you much, and you don’t seem like the type of person who gets excited about gold or treasures. However, Rosdoe needs to reward you. After contemplating all this time, I finally realized what could help you the most. Knowledge.”

“Oh?” Crow’s eyes lit up, and he was once again amazed at how perceptive this man was.

“Taboo knowledge, to be exact. Which means you cannot speak of it nor share this, understand?”

“I so vow.”

Drock handed over a vestige, and Crow scanned it. Nothing could hide his shock at the tiny bit of information inside. It was a simple method for crafting, but the implications were terrifying.

“Now destroy that vestige,” Drock said, and Crow did just that. “I know two of your people aren’t normal and lack Shields. It is the only reason I shared that knowledge, and I hope you won’t abuse it.”

“I won’t because there is no way I want to become a target myself,” Crow mused and was really terrified of leaking this information. It’d make every cultivator a target. For the first time, Crow really questioned who the hell Drock was. This wasn’t some tiny secret.

“Alright, I’ve said what I had to. Ascend with honor.” Drock told him, and Crow found out they considered it a common respectful greeting among cultivators.

“Ascend with honor.” Crow gripped the old general’s arm.

Shortly after, they had all arrived at the Ascension stairs. Crow removed his hand from the cold wall and recollected his thoughts. It was time to climb.

*What did that old general give?* Nin didn’t want to ascend with them, knowing it could take a week or two to climb the stairs, so she was going to nap inside Crow’s Soulscape. Because of all the things happening and the large amounts of Dragone Fire she’d used, it was likely she’d need to hibernate for a month or two. Lily joined her too, but only because she hadn’t had enough revenge against the nymphs yet for their limerick prank.

*That vestige taught me a method to turn a dead cultivator’s Shield into a treasure.*

*Woah, what kind of treasure?*

*A key for the Keystone.*

*A key? Wait, are you saying if I had one of those, I could attune it? As in I could activate it and warp to Keystones?*

*Yes. Exactly. But that’s only half of it. It doesn’t lose its dimensional space, meaning whoever it’s attuned to could access the items within. If the wrong people know about this…*

*You can’t tell anyone this. Not even your other wives. Not that I don’t trust them, but there are many mind-altering spells out there that could force them to reveal that information. I can never betray you, and I’m a dragon, so I’m immune to mental attacks. You are safe because Night Fire is sentient and will counterattack against mental intrusions. Ha! I hope someone tries because that will be a good show!*

*I only plan on making two—one for you and Otto. I won’t deliberately kill anyone to do so. The Shield shrinks when the cultivator dies, and I’m thinking of converting it into some sort of jewelry to hide what it is.*

*Alright, enough talking. Climb. I want to get out of this damned place.*

Crow did as asked, and everyone else was waiting for him to start. They were called stairs, but each ‘step’ was almost a meter tall and five meters wide. Every time they climbed up to a new one, strange runes appeared, and the pressure on those with Shields increased. The upside was that once they withstood the pressure, Crow could feel a burst of Origin energy entering his body. It helped condense their Source even more.

The first hundred ‘steps’ weren’t so bad, but the pressure increased exponentially after that. It wasn’t so bad for Crow because his mana was essentially purified already. However, his people suffered the effects of having their mana purified. It was like a minor version of the Soul Burn curse, but the impurities were forcibly expunged from their bodies.

Most of it was pushed out through their pores, but Acco, Aine, and Ahote suffered the worst. Acco, at one point, vomited black blood. That was mostly because their talent wasn’t as strong, or their mana probably got corrupted by something. Crow knew Acco’s talent was high, so he was pretty sure the guy probably ingested some pill he shouldn’t have. Crow would be lying if he said the stench of all them together was pleasant. Occasionally, they needed to rest for a few days so everyone could acclimate.

“Otto? Would you like to go inside my Soulscape?” Crow asked. There was nothing to see on the stairs, and he could tell the giant was bored out of his mind. His restlessness was agitating the others. “Or you can go on ahead if you want.”

“Soulscape.” The giant was curious and excited. Inwardly, Crow was snickering because he wasn’t about to warn the big guy about the nymphs. It took way more mana to bring Otto in than he’d expected. The only reason he could think of was that the giant wasn’t human. Once he confirmed Otto was inside and roaming, Crow couldn’t stop giggling like a fool.

“You are evil,” Mara whispered from beside his ear and startled Crow enough that he jumped.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Crow said but couldn’t stop grinning.

“We all know about the nymphs,” Song Xue said. “All except Otto.”

Song Lin was giggling. “I almost feel sorry for the big guy.”

“Ah, whatever, he is still a man. Despite how evil those things are, he’ll enjoy their teasing,” Crow said, trying to justify his actions.

“Oh really?” Song Xue said, a knife appearing in her hand.

“Oh, look at the time, we need to climb to the next step,” Crow claimed and hurriedly hopped up to the next platform, disguising itself as a stair. He couldn’t escape their laughter, and now that they were all one team—them vs. him. It was harder to get away with things, but Crow didn’t lament like a loser. His wives were beautiful and amazing, and no matter how much they tortured him, he could take it. Crow’s only fear was that he wasn’t strong enough to keep them all safe. If they’d let him, he’d stash them all inside his Soulscape and never let them out.

End of Book 3 (or end of the third story arc.)