Chapter 27

“I just found out about another aspect of my ability. I can compress my space in order to increase the energy density. However, I would need to compress it a lot in order to achieve a high energy density.” I told elder Yui once I found him.

“The dryad grove was established on a low strength energy vein. Although not amazing it was one of the better locations in the border lands. Approximately four times the energy density of your space. What would it take to improve on that and get five times the energy density?” Elder Yui asked.

I grimaced. Five times energy density would make my space significantly smaller. “I’d have to compress the space to a twenty fifth of what it is currently.” I answered.

Elder Yui seemed lost in thought for a couple of minutes. “I think we should leave the grove in your space then. As the space grows you can start compressing it. Although I’d like about four times the space we currently have first.” He finally said.

“That’s going to take a long time. If we just rely on passive energy gain it could take decades.” I said.

Elder Yui nodded. “Luckily we don’t have to rely on just passive energy gain. Also I think you are underestimating the usefulness of increased energy density. That energy vein and the dryad grove is what made clan Ashton so strong. The increased energy from the vein allowed for the growth of better herbs. In addition the dryads can accelerate plant growth. We could end up with a very profitable business.”

“So we go with the merchant route? Being able to transport goods in my space should also make us some decent money.” I said.

Elder Yui shook his head. “No. I transporting goods is a risk. Eventually someone would realize that you have a storage ability. And since storage abilities usually don’t have much offensive power they would try to control you in some way. I think we should turn the space into a farm instead. We can sell the produce. The money we earn can then be used to purchase daily necessities and magic beasts that can provide you more energy.”

“Won’t people eventually realize that the food and herbs are being grown in an energy dense environment? Once they do, they will try to find it.” I said.

Elder Yui nodded. “Yes. But only central clans are able to control such high energy areas. They will assume that you are acting on behalf of one of those clans. All of those clans have businesses. Those businesses try to hide which clan owns them. If someone finds out then the enemies of the clan backing them could try to attack or suppress them.”

I couldn’t help but admire his plan. Only other central clans would mess with the business of another central clan. However, even they would be hesitant to act unless they knew which clan owned the business. Even a central clan wouldn’t create enemies without good reason. Which meant that everyone, including those central clans, would hesitate to cause problems for me.

“That will work. At least for a short term plan. Do you have any ideas for what our long term plans should be?” I asked.

“Once you are powerful enough we should journey through the wild lands. The energy density in the lands I come from is higher than on this side of the wild lands. Which means more opportunities for you to find more powerful energy sources. We could even find cultivators that are above level nine.” Elder Yui said.

“You mean that there are cultivators above level nine where you come from? There are level ten cultivators?” I said feeling a bit surprised. I had grown up thinking that reaching level ten was merely a legend.

Elder Yui smiled and nodded. “Yes. But we don’t rank cultivators by level. Instead each has a name. For instance you aren’t called a real cultivator until you reach level five. Those that reach level ten are called foundation cultivators. That’s because they are the foundation of their clans and sects. Level nine cultivators are called half-step foundation cultivators. They can access the incomplete power of a foundation cultivator. Which makes them far stronger than the previous ranks. But because it’s incomplete they are no match for the completed power of a foundation cultivator.”

“If foundation cultivators are so powerful why have none traveled through the wild lands?” I asked.

“The wild lands are dangerous even for foundation cultivators. Many of them would die trying to make the journey. They are vitally important for the clans and organizations that helped them reach that point. It would be irresponsible for them to risk their lives on mere exploration. Even I would be considered irresponsible for risking my life when I was a half-step foundation cultivator. You also have to cross the beast lands first. Plus everyone knows the average energy density falls the further south you travel. If you are going to risk your life to explore, why would you explore an area with lower energy density?” Elder Yui explained.

“So why did you travel through the wild lands? Why have you never tried to go back.” I asked.

Elder Yui chuckled. “I was young, stupid, and thought I was invulnerable. My goal was to find out what was on the other side of the wild lands and then go back and brag about it. I nearly died a dozen times. I would have died if I hadn’t met my wife. As for returning, I’d have to leave my wife and children. Plus I’d probably die trying to make the journey.”

I suppose those were as good of reasons as any. Even though I was young I had lived two lives. During that time I’d seen a lot of young people do stupid things. And not wanting to leave your wife and risk your life were both good reasons to stay on this side of the wild lands.

“Now that we have a plan, what should we do with the rest of the day?” I asked elder Yui.

He shrugged. “I’m going to spend some time with my family. With as many children as I have it’s almost impossible to find enough time to spend with them. Meanwhile, I’d suggest you spend some time learning more about your ability. Your ability is far more complex than most. It could be years before you learn how to fully utilize it.” Elder Yui said.

I nodded in agreement and went to do exactly that. I hadn’t spent nearly enough time asking the tutorial questions. I was sure that later quests would cover most things I could do. However, just knowing what would eventually be possible would be useful. For example I could have saved hours of brainstorming today if I had just known that I could increase the energy density of my universes.

Over the next few hours I learned a few new things. For example I learned that I could reduce the environment upkeep cost of my universe down to zero. Doing that wouldn’t be easy though. I’d basically have to turn my universe into an entire solar system first.

I also learned that I could designate a guardian for each of my universes. It had been the answer to a question about how I could share some of the power I gained from my universes. They would receive many of the benefits I got from my universes. However, it would only be for the universe they were the guardian of. Those benefits included the increased power from the energy and immortality. Although they couldn’t absorb more energy for the universe like I could. The downside was that I’d have to invest an immense amount of energy to designate them as a planar guardian first.

I also learned that I was truly immortal. Or at least as immortal as my universes were. It was possible for a universe to be destroyed. Although it was very difficult. Especially since the universe would absorb life energy from it’s attacker the entire time they were attacking the universe. The easiest way would be to kill everything on the universe. Then kill me or my designated guardian until the energy of the universe was depleted.

That was assuming that I didn’t run into someone significantly more powerful than I was. If someone was powerful enough they could destroy an entire universe. Or at least they could destroy one of my universes. The higher the energy of the universe the harder it would be to destroy.

Imprisonment was a far easier and more common solution to deal with immortals. Although according to the tutorial history had shown that permanent imprisonment was unlikely to succeed. Immortals tended to find ways to eventually escape. Not that I would be taking that risk and letting someone imprison me. According to the tutorial it wasn’t uncommon for an immortal to be imprisoned for thousands of years before they freed themselves.

The other unfortunate thing I learned was that elder Yui had been right. It would probably be years before I learned everything about my ability. A large part of the issue was that I didn’t know what questions to ask. The other issue was that I suspected it would take me years just to learn everything the tutorial could tell me. Angelos had packed it with information. Just learning everything it told me about magic, cultivation, and abilities could take months. And that was just an overview of the subject and didn’t include any data on how to practice cultivation and magic.