Those five old men, had left me with their dying wills. For some, I can feel the slightest remnant of consciousness. Nothing that would take over my body, but something that would just be a tie into another place. The place where they went to, to be specific.

They all had a variety of wishes; things they wanted to see or do, that they now have to pass on to someone else.

Here’s what they were:

The first old man was a normal, but frankly materially focused individual.

He collected so much wealth and items, but had pushed away anyone that he could trust to give it to. In the end, he was killed and snatched up, with no one to grab his stuff. As a stubborn peak core formation elder, he had even managed to hide this in the darkest corners of his soul, from the demonic cultivator. He doesn’t want someone random to get it, so he leaves the code to bypass his remnant will left there to guard it.

I’m a bit wary of this, as it’s pretty cliché. However, everything checks out with the scan and motive. He literally had a chance to be resurrected, as I told him as much, along with the group. He chose to move on and leave this to me.

Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean his remnant will, will feel the same. Or anyone else coveting his treasures.

Moving on the second guy, then.

The second old guy just wants to see his son, one last time. He cared deeply for him and considered him his heart. His son was abandoned by his mother and they grew up together, until coming into a golden opportunity at a minor sect. They lived well with the son reaching qi condensation and the old man foundation establishment, until the old man was captured hundreds of years ago by the cultivator.

When and if I find his son, he will look out from my soul place, with his lingering consciousness and leave from there.

The third man was more of a mystic. Someone who cultivated to achieve deeper insights into himself and others. All he wants is for people to see the painting and music combination he would have made.

Alas, he never got to finish either of them.

He gives me the information on painting and music that he would have used on the artworks, so I could finish it for him. He’s the only one to give me something up front, that I could use.

A wealth of information on both subjects filled me and was absorbed into my subconscious, before suddenly shutting off. If not for my experience with the scan, I might have been overwhelmed, but I am quickly able to compartmentalize the information. Not only that, but when I need it in the future, I’ll be able to pull it right up without issue.

While that man was only a foundation establishment cultivator, the quality and effects of his work reach just beyond the range of a Nascent Soul cultivator. It’s so high, that even touches slightly into the realm of arrays, with what it could provide to its viewers/listeners.

The fourth gentleman, just wanted to make sure his grandkids and their kids were doing alright. That when I meet up with them, he would give me a phrase that would remind them that he loved them dearly.

The last old man had the saddest wish. He just wanted to take his wife to the ocean, something they always talked about doing, but the constant drum of cultivation drew them away. Made them put it off for another day.

He wants to feel the sand on his fingers, while holding her hand and singing a song to her. To watch the sunset, one last time with her. To tell her that he loves her like no other. To live her life happily and with someone she cares about.

He’ll be able to feel through my hands, speak through my voice, and see through my eyes, if I allow him.

Other than the first guy, each of these people have a forlorn wish, that they desperately wanted fulfilled. They have no power to take my body over or constantly watch what I do (I checked), but are still able to see some things when I meet some conditions.

While I won’t make these wishes a priority… I still want to do them. As long as I can make sure I’m safe, I’ll give it a shot.

It’s just the right thing to do.

My mind drifts for quite a while after contemplating these wishes and thoughts.

Ultimately, I move on. Considering these wishes of these men and solidifying my resolve to finish my own.

Before I leave the soul space, I stop and think for a bit.

Do I really want to leave this space, without any assurances there is at least the barest hint of a handle on what’s here?

Definitely not.

With this in mind, I send out the bare minimum taming contract, covering the swamp, air, and fog with it. My scan covers it, but only in the sense of identifying entities.

To my surprise, I get several pings that are extraordinarily tiny and ethereal.

All the creatures that came through from mysterious realms were devoured. I did make an assumption, though.

Devoured doesn’t mean they are gone…

Some of those creatures were eldritch like beings, more similar to Dana, but… different. These are more unfathomable than most things, so even sending out a contract doesn’t exactly work, as their ways of thinking are different. This is part of why these creatures didn’t accept the contract. They would go on regardless of my choices.

Now I know their nature, I could actually get rid of them. My scan identifies each one and though it would take time, I could toss them as a group back through the portal with the Lings’ help.

This is an opportunity, though. As they are part of what is making this swamp grow well.

If allowed to stay here, they will get consumed by the growing swamp and spawn more creatures. They are fine with this, for some reason.

So, I decide to lock in on the form their assistance to the swamp will take. Making sure that whatever is spawned, remains somewhat under my control.

Too much complexity in a contract won’t work with these guys, so I change the contract to a simpler, mutually beneficial version. Still solid in legalese, but not as much to convey.

Simply put, they’ll guide the growth of the swamp in a positive direction for myself and not seek to hurt me or those I care about. As their human type intelligence grows, they can make adjustments. When they expire, the contract will deepen for their children, improving cultivation, as per the normal contracts. It will transform into the normal contract that I have for my tamed creatures that were raised from simple creatures.

Seems weighted heavily towards me, but it seems there is a reason for this. Things are more random for these creatures. This provides a baseline. It also seems to be something that isn’t translated in human ways of thinking. Something close to propagation, but not exactly.

These guys are very close to the amount of intelligence that humans have, just… different. The contract has a small base level cost to add human type of thinking to their type of intelligence over time, which includes empathy. My scan won’t give me much information on this, but does show that it should be a safe/good action.

The combined cost on this is crazy low, even less than my other tames. Mostly because of the times they’re speaking of, which is several hundred years or so. So, I approve my side of the contract and they theirs. I feel the slightest twinge to something bigger, but it disappears almost instantly without a trace.

With the contract in place… I see no change in the swamp.

It continues as before.

Well. At least, I’m doing some prevention. Now I have somewhat of a care taker for this place and while the swamp would already be optimized/purified, I can target how things progress now.

Before I leave, I use an extra two months’ time to look into quite a few things, to give me a deeper understanding of different concepts and of Privilon.

This is the time I didn’t have before. And I’d be a fool not to use it.

There’s still danger in this, though, as I’m completely helpless in the real world. For another 10 minutes.

I focus on filling in gaps in my skills and knowledge. Anything that could have been a bad idea to look into, I didn’t.

I also realized that the lifespan contract for the eldritch creatures that had hundreds of years in it… would be much shorter in real life. Less than a month of real time, actually. Probably should have thought that one out, but still beneficial as there is succession/domestication built into the contract.

But in this period, I expanded in myself with the scan the breadth of skills that I didn’t know on Earth and here on Privilon. Things like wine tasting, what to look for in clothing, and other cultural skills. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to go in-depth. My knowledge, is wide with a decent amount of depth.

The goal for this is to increase my ‘ease’ for different situations. Despite the dangers of this world, people have different interests which keeps them happy and going. So, the more ways I can naturally connect with people, the better.

I also, of course, went over the skills and abilities I’ve acquired from the evil cultivator. Simple arrays, talismans, and secret alchemical recipes. Things that would be difficult to find and extremely painful with the scan. These took the most time, as I had to sort through countless evil knowledge to find something I wouldn’t feel completely terrible about using.

Fighting against that cultivator provided firsthand knowledge from my exposure to his soul. A boon in any sense of the word.

Sadly, even the good stuff has some trolling aspects to it. I’ll have to limit my usage of any of it. This will mainly be for making mental connections when exposed to it officially. If going through a truth test, I’ll honestly be able to say I didn’t steal this, as our souls were technically sharing knowledge. That’s also a downside, though, because that infers that I’m deeply connected to demonic cultivators.

The last thing I do, is allow the Bie You Ling to reside here with a long term and low mana contract that has even stricter restrictions than the normal taming ones. They accepted gladly and promise to be good servants for their ‘Master’. To grow strong, so they can be of use to me.

Calling me Master gave me tingles.

With the level of security in that version of the contract, I feel completely safe healing them completely and giving them some cultivation tips, that I gained from the scan. They are actually at the foundation establishment tier, but with the healing and a detailed description of the inner working of their bodies and how it works, they will be able to more effectively progress through their cultivation.

The looks they gave me after it, made me feel like I need to leave or something great would happen to me.

With these completed, I end up taking a last look around, knowing it will be a long while before I can return to this soul space, before jumping back into the real world.

…

The soft sounds of two people talking come to my ears, as I emerge from the soul space.

“Look at him… Even though he’s not moving and his face looks like a blank slate, those wolves are cowering before him.

“He seems so imposing like that, almost as if he’s about to fly into the air. How does he maintain such stillness? I don’t even think he’s breathing…”

“Don’t disturb him, this might be one of the ways he’s trained that crazy body of his.”

“Ooo, maybe we’ll get benefits by sharing this method with the Huang Clan. The magnanimous senior must be showing us this, to have us to spread it…”

I awake to these words and realize that while my time in the soul space was three months and should have translated to 15 minutes, my adjustment from coming out of that space took much longer.

My body had stood straight up and assumed a T-Pose in the time that I was in the soul space and then coming out of it, for a total of 3 hours of real time.

The final pack of wolves that were originally hunting the fallen people around have their backs against the ground and belly exposed towards me, with their legs dangling in the air. They are laying down in a circle around me.

I can feel the amused gaze of one of the cultivators watching over the proceedings on me.

… How the hell am I supposed to explain this?