Chapter 80 - Concepts

After rethinking a bit about the past, Bao Bei resumed her speech.

‘Okay, I explained to you how Elemental Laws work, but there is one thing I didn't tell you. Regarding the influence of what is called Concepts have on the Laws. The Concepts can be defined to be similar to the laws, but at the same time, they are different. Elemental Laws allow you to control one element; they practically add another type of weapon to your arsenal. Concepts, on the other hand, change the very nature of your attacks.

There is a multitude of Concepts, and they vary according to the character of the user. They can be awakened at any time. There are no precise conditions. Normally, I would have waited to talk to you about it. But I thought it necessary to tell you now because two of you have already awakened their Concepts.’

"Two of us?" All of them asked simultaneously.

Although they didn't know what a Concept was, they would have felt it if something had changed in them.

‘Yes, I'm talking about you, Ye, Xing.

Initially, I thought it was the Concept of Devouring, but then I realized that it was the Digestion one. It is because of it that you, Ye, can eat poisonous substances and then reproduce their effects. If you can learn how to use it properly, you could get to eat your enemy attacks and digest their energy. Thus, it could guarantee you an infinite source of spirit power. But remember that it doesn’t heal your wounds, so you will still need to be careful.

Xing instead has awakened the Concept of Toxicity. It has no supportive effects like the Concept of Digestion, having instead a simple but extremely dangerous effect. With the increase of toxicity, your poison will always be more and more lethal, arriving to make any possible antidote vain. You'll even exceed your father and me regarding venomousness. You could consider as a higher version of the Poison Law.’

Hearing their mother's revelation, Hei hastened to ask.

"And what about Lian and me?"

‘For you two, there is still no trace. No, in Lian, I started to see something. But I will refrain from saying it to avoid that she won’t manage awakening it. Concepts are difficult to grasp and understand. Even among the strongest martial artists or divine beasts, many haven’t awakened their Concept. Your father also awakened it up very late, after he had become a divine beast.’

"Did Father also take so long to discover his Concept? What was his concept? And yours, mother?” Hei asked quickly.

He was happy to have inherited the same Elemental Laws as his parents and to possess his mother's bloodline. But now he had discovered that there was another way to be more like them. So how could he not be excited?

‘Calm down, my little one. Yes, your father has awakened his Concept late. Perhaps, it was because he had been lost for so long before finding his right path in the end. Your Father's Concept was that of Hope. It doesn’t provide any offensive or defensive help, nor does it produce supportive effects such as Ye's. All it does is give to the user confidence in himself and the future, even when it appears to be no way out. Although it seems useless, in that dark period, it was probably the strongest concept among all those possessed by us divine beasts.

As for me, I have the Concept of Reality. I don't remember precisely when I awaken it. I only know that every moment with your father seemed like a dream. And before going to sleep, I always prayed that all I was experiencing was the reality and not just a dream. That's probably, why I've awakened that kind of concept. As for its use, it does nothing but materializes what doesn’t exist — converting the illusion into reality. Albeit, the effect remains as long as I have enough spirit power to sustain its consumption.

In any case, you and Lian won't have to hurry. When the time comes, you will find out what your Concept is.’

At his mother's words, Hei closed his eyes for a moment before nodding. She was right; he didn't have to hurry. If she said he would awaken it at the right time, then it was the truth. So he would leave the issue of the concepts aside for now and would focus on his training as usual.

After the lengthy explanation and determined what elements they had, Hei and the others now had to begin the elemental conversion process. But to be able to do so, they had first to consolidate their foundation as they recently used pills and spirit cores.

So, while waiting for their body to be able to absorb external substances again, Hei, with the help of Lian and his two little sisters, decided to create pills. That was in order to speed up their elemental conversion rate.

As far as the poison element was concerned, there were no problems. He had been growing poisonous plants for some time, making them mate with each other by artificial pollination. In this way, he obtained flowers containing more and more poison, making them also the most suitable material for the pills he had to create.

Regarding the element of darkness instead, he had long ago obtained the seeds of several Black Flowers, a variant of flowers that grew by absorbing darkness instead of sunlight. Even here, through artificial pollination, he had created generations of flowers containing more and more darkness.

The problem was instead the Law of Water of Lian and the Metal one of Ye. Since they couldn’t predict what their element would be, they had no way of preserving in advance the material needed to create suitable pills.

Fortunately, as the name suggested, the Flower Sect was a sect specializing in growing flowers and plants of all kinds. The sect, therefore, had all the necessary material available.

As they had permission from the sect leader herself, there were also no budget problems. He obviously wouldn’t behave like a greedy person and exaggerated with the resources he would take away. But, at the same time, he would make no compliments on taking what he needed and in the quantities he needed.

As a result, Hei decided to go shopping in the exchange point, taking Shui and the other buffaloes with him to transport all the needed material. Because he would work a lot on the pills, he didn't want to come and go from the inner sect and his house. So he took advantage of his visit to the exchange point to get various cauldrons and other alchemical tools.

Lian instead began to draw a large formation on the ground. With the silk of Bao Bei, they would create an alchemical laboratory for Hei. But to increase its efficiency, she planned to enhance the structure itself by giving it various effects.

Regulation of humidity and temperature, isolation from the external environment... These were some of the effects she had in mind to add. Although they were simple effects, in a process as delicate as alchemy, they would have a significant impact. She also planned to include these effects in each of Hei's alchemical tools.

Considering the significant price increase that these instruments would gain, it wasn’t so bad for the sect to let them borrow the alchemical sets from the exchange point for a while.

Ye and Xing also worked hard to help Hei and Lian. Even though it didn’t appear so for outsiders, the two little spirit beasts had a vast knowledge of their respective subjects. In all the lessons they had attended, they always paid attention and took notes diligently. If Hei and Lian had managed to improve so much in alchemy and formation, it was also thanks to them.

But it wasn't just the residents of the spiderweb that were busy. All the Flower Sect disciples: from the various divisions' inner members to the younger generation, and even those from the outer sect, were overwhelmed by work.

The sect leader had issued an intense work order for the next three months. All sect members, regardless of their status, had to get busy and increase the production of cultivation resources and other materials. Furthermore, the sect leader used large capitals to purchase new spirit beasts and other rare materials, leading to a negative balance in the sect's accounting records. Therefore they had to rely on the money left aside for emergency occasions.

The reason for this wasn’t just to increase the strength of the seven disciples of her sect who would enter the Secret Dimension. They were also preventive measures for what would happen next, thus preparing solutions for every possible future scenario.

But it wasn’t just about the Flower Sect, the other big sects, as well as the middle sects and other similar powers, were showing similar actions. None of them wanted to regret not having invested enough in this opportunity and were squandering their money as if they had unlimited funds.

The minor sects also perceived the strange situation and wandering martial artists as well as ordinary citizens. Even if they knew something was boiling in the pot, they had no way of finding out. Therefore, they decided not to ask too many questions and use this opportunity. They decided to sell all their treasures due to the intense competition of the buyers or try out risky explorations in the most isolated regions of the Rainbow Island.

The situation degenerated to the point that it also involved the other neighboring islands that heard rumors of this. Those islands' sects tried, therefore, to send emissaries and spies to understand what was happening, without discovering anything.

All the people involved were big shots of the Rainbow Island; they weren’t mere martial artists that an emissary or a spy could touch or threaten. Not to mention that never would they have spilled something to foreigners.

After all the preparations and sacrifices they had made, how could they have allowed the latest arrival to enter the Secret Dimension with them and steal their share of the loot?

To keep up appearances, they kindly welcomed the various emissaries and bought additional resources from them. At the same time, they eliminated one by one all the spies who had infiltrated secretly.

After losing many men, the various sects of the other islands could only give up investigating and were content to trade with the Rainbow Island. Not knowing what it was, how could they move their forces to invade another island and leave their homes unguarded at the mercy of their enemies?

Thus, in the end, the situation normalized, in a certain sense, and the crazy spending of the Rainbow Island sects persisted in all three months of waiting for the official start of the long-awaited event.

Meanwhile, Hei, Lian, Xing, and Ye had finished their elemental conversion and formed their spirit seeds within them. Between the four of them, Lian, the only one without a bloodline, formed a single spirit seed, while Hei, Xing, and Ye formed two.

With the spirit seed finally formed, Hei and Lian went to the library and began to read all the manuals techniques that used Elemental Laws.

Since the Flower Sect was specialized in the Wood Law, there weren’t many manuals for their elements. However, they tried to do everything possible with what they had available. They had already benefited greatly from the resources of the sect. Asking for more would have been greedy.

Fortunately, Bao Bei was there to guide them. In her life, she had fought against many martial artists and had experienced an infinite number of different techniques on her body. Therefore, although she couldn’t give precise indications, she could still provide a general direction, correcting any errors.

In that way, the three-month period ended in the end. The sect leader had given them instructions to gather the next day at dawn; this time, they wouldn’t use carriages pulled by buffaloes. They would go on foot.

Moreover, since the sect leader had mobilized all the elders, she asked Hei to leave all his spirit beasts here, in case something happened to the sect. The only exceptions were Xing and Ye.

Unable to fail in his part of the agreement to protect the sect, Hei agreed. In any case, he couldn’t bring Shui, and for the other spirit beasts, he didn’t feel like taking them to such a dangerous place. Not to mention it wasn’t possible as he had only two spirit beast bags

Thus, the evening before departure, Hei and his family organized a big party with all the spirit beasts that had settled there with them.

"I would like to thank you all for being here with my family and me." Hei proclaimed before all the spirit beasts. "Some have recently arrived, others have been with me since we built the spiderweb house. In any case, I want to thank all of you for your support. As I promised you, the Flower Sect is and will be your home where you can live in peace. However, since you have been given a home, you must also protect it. I don't know how much we will be away or what will happen in the future. But remember that you are companions, and together you must protect your home."

The various spirit beasts present emitted a noisy sound. They agreed with Hei's speech, and everyone was speaking with different sentences, promising to protect the house they had received thanks to him.

With those words, Hei gave the start to the great banquet he had prepared for everyone. Although it wasn’t comparable to the banquet of the king's celebration, it was better from Hei's point of view.

Here, he could be himself and not worry about the looks of others. Moreover, the company was much better, and he could play with his little sisters as much as he wanted. Even Bao Bei, who usually would have eaten aloof on occasions like these, was celebrating with everyone. Eating with humans was one thing; eating with her family and her race was another.

Shui and Mi, in particular, had become very fond of Hei, Lian, Xing, and Ye and could consider themselves family. And in fact, they were the two most disconsolate in not being able to follow Hei. Shui because he was too strong, Mi, because she was too weak.

"Don't worry, we'll be back soon, and then we'll have another adventure together. In the meantime, keep an eye on the sect and our house.” Hei consoled them as he fed them.

As he was saying, there was no reason to despair. It wasn’t a definitive farewell. Even though he was about to enter a dangerous place, he had prepared himself enough for it. He also wouldn’t go alone; Lian, Xing, and Ye would go with him.

His mother would also accompany them on the journey. However, she wouldn’t enter inside the Secret Dimension with them but would stop, waiting outside with the big shots of the sects and families involved.

Reassured by the words of Hei, Shui and Mi uttered verses of happiness as they dived back into their food. And in that carefree atmosphere, the banquet came to an end.

Since they had to leave early at dawn, they couldn’t spend the whole night at the party. Saying goodbye to the other spirit beasts, Hei entered the spiderweb with his family for the last sleep before departure. Who knows, how long would he have to wait to sleep there again?