Chapter 021

“Was he really ‘sick’ all those months…?”

“No wonder he’s always worn an aura shroud…”

“He’s so smart, how could this happen…?”

“He was probably so arrogant to cover up his disability…”

“Poor Xiora, engaged to a cripple like him…”

So on and so forth. Joram found it a bit hard not to smack the lot of them. Yes, he had had a… minor setback, but he had plenty of time to work through it.

Grammy suddenly clapped her hands to not only get everyone’s attention, but to shut them up.

“It seems that we don’t have a suitable cultivation method for young Joram right now, but we’ll continue to search for one that will be the perfect fit,” Grammy announced, then waved her arm in a very clear signal for people to disperse.

Through his field of perception, Joram still caught more than one whispered conversation with him as the main topic. His hand twitched as he heard one group accusing the Matriarch of favouritism, shielding Joram even though he was “obviously” a cripple.

He looked up when he felt Grammy’s hand on his shoulder and saw that she was giving him an encouraging smile. He smiled back, letting the comments of the ignorant wash off his back. After all, if one let the comments of such people affect them, then one probably deserved the comments in the first place.

Well, maybe that was a bit harsh. There were plenty of people who hadn’t built up a sufficient resistance to such comments and often fell into depression. Now that he thought about it more, he’d really just prefer slapping those naysayers into next week. Their glib tongues and ignorant comments harmed more people than genuine cultivation accidents ever would.

Hmm, yes, for the sake of those tender hearts out there, it would be a Great Act of Justice to silence those evildoers.

He was gathering his psionic might when his vision blurred for a second. He blinked, then realized that Grammy had smoked him on the head with her knuckles.

‘If you’re going to do something stupid, at least put your aura shroud back on so it’ll be harder to pin it to you,’ she sent, disappointment heavy in the thoughts.

Hmmmmmm, yes, Grammy is indeed wise, he thought as he accepted the ring from Grammy and slipped it on.

He had indeed been too hasty. He thoroughly reprimanded himself for letting his four-year-old brain go on a rampage.

‘Also,’ Grammy sent, ‘have you been cultivating your body?’ She asked, surreptitiously rubbing her knuckles.

He gave her a rueful smile, then bolted.

- - - - -

Joram spent the rest of the party/gathering/celebration/whatever-you-wanted-to-call-it with Xixi and Zanth. They were, fortunately, much better company compared to the vast majority of the adults gathered there. He’d had to suffer dozens of well-wishers, empty platitudes, and thinly covered contempt disguised as sympathetic words on his journey to find Xixi.

He could feel that his cultivation was higher than most of those gathered, and with how tough his physical body currently was, he was pretty sure that he could have smacked around most of them with impunity, even if some were more than a few Ranks above him in Tier 3.

In the end, he followed Grammy’s silent advice to just ignore them. Sure, she’d also given explicit permission to teach them a lesson, but what she didn’t say was that he should know better than to let his temper get the best of him.

‘Joram?’

‘Yes, Xixi?’

‘I heard people say that you’re a “cripple”,’ she sent, a slight frown marring her angelic features.

‘Just ignore them, they don’t know what they’re talking about,’ he sent back reassuringly.

Sure enough, Xixi really loved and respected him. The nod and smile she directed his way were filled with such trust and confidence in his words that he nearly blushed. He looked at her again, this time taking note of how much she’d grown.

She was, surprisingly, only a handful of centimetres shorter than him, which was impressive. She’s also thinned out a bit, having lost most of her baby fat, though her cheeks were still pinchably-plump. Her hair had also started to darken, the green lock of hair now a summer leaf green, while the rest of it was now more indigo than purple. It was quite fetching.

Yes, she would be quite the beauty when she grew up. Emphasis on the “grew up” part. For now, she was his best friend, aside from Avi that is.

Which got him thinking about Tillia. What would Xixi think of having Tillia join them? They got along pretty well, but would that change when Xixi matured and her hormones flooded her system, causing her feelings and emotions to get so much bigger?

Gah, this was a mess. Had he made a mistake in declaring his intentions towards Tillia? Back on Earth, it surely would have been. There, morals, social conventions, and traditions were very different from what they were here. Much different to what he’d grown up with there. When immature boys discussed having multiple spouses back home, it was usually just flights of fancy. He’d come to the realization early on that having even two girlfriends or wives would be… impractical for many reasons, even if they were all for it.

But here? It was practically expected that a powerful cultivator would have more than one partner. Sure, they differentiated between the main wife and subsequent wives, and even concubines. But was that what he wanted?

His immature brain wanted all the things!

Gah, I can’t wait for all these hormones to finally level-out, he thought as he snacked and chatted with Xixi and Zanth. He briefly considered shifting his second mind over to researching a way to expedite the growth process, but ultimately discarded that idea. He really needed to get that augment for [Schism] done so that he could have a third mind going to help him with his many other research needs.

“Joram, do you think I’ll be OK when they do that for me?” Xiora asked seriously.

He had to think for a second before it came to him what she was talking about. “You’ll be OK, Xixi. I’m sure they’ll find a good one for you,” he said reassuringly. He knew for a fact that she’d be fine as she had managed to make her way to the peak of Tier 0 already. Heck, even Zanth wasn’t far behind, already at Tier 0, Rank 7.

He was so proud of them both. Even with the increasing number of questions that came from Zanth, all surrounding various rumours and gossip about Joram, he was still a loyal child. Joram expected that the three of them would become the focus of the clan over the next few years…

Well, Xixi and Zanth, anyways. The rest of the clan now thought that he’d either been crippled or that he’d somehow gotten himself into a dead-end in his cultivation, effectively stopping his growth.

He really couldn’t blame them for that second guess since it was mostly true. He just needed to figure a few things out, that’s all.

- - - - -

1342.04.28

He’d been right about Xixi’s aptitude. Out of the thirty-six prepared jade scrolls, twenty-nine had lit up, signalling a heaven-blessed future for her future cultivation. Even Zanth had lit up twenty-six scrolls, indicating an innate talent akin to Xixi’s. The rumour-mill had gone into overdrive.

There was the general opinion that Xixi’s parents should cancel the engagement to Joram and instead have her engaged to Zanth. Well, anyone saying that within Xixi’s hearing got more then a mouthful. Zanth even joined in on the upbraiding of those presumptuous people. Joram had been thoroughly impressed.

Even Tillia had made good progress during this time, having finally stepped into Tier 1. The resources provided by the clan, not to mention a better cultivation method for her, had really pushed along her growth. Which made him think that everyone should be nurtured equally so that the overall strength of the clan would grow. But that major problem with that was, of course, resources. As prosperous as the clan was, it was ultimately considered a small clan with small clan resources.

He’d have to work on that.

That said, the most important thing to Joram was that he’d finally managed to finish researching the augment to [Schism] today. Well, at least he hoped that it was complete. Testing still required.

Which was why he’d told Tillia that he needed to go into seclusion for a time, borrowing Grammy’s cultivation room. That had been an interesting conversation with Grammy, though. Even though she knew that Joram wasn’t a cripple, she’d still questioned him on his proposed methodology. He began to suspect that Gran had inherited her thirst for knowledge from her mother…

“But how are you going to explore new pathways?” Grammy asked, wanting to know the nitty-gritty.

Joram sighed. “Since this is, as far as we know, entirely new ground that I’m breaking, it will mostly be trial and error at this point,” he explained patiently. “Once I’ve found a promising route, I will then explore it to the best of my ability. Rinse and repeat.”

She blinked at the odd expression but didn’t let that stop her. “What if you manage to damage yourself? Would that not hamper your efforts?”

“I can very easily repair any damage done to my body,” he explained. “The problem is that I need a lot of time to work all this out.”

Grammy tapped a finger on her lips as she thought, incidentally reminding Joram just how crazy beautiful people would become at higher levels of cultivation. Sure, if someone started off… not as good-looking as someone else, their progress in the area of “looks” wouldn’t be quite as staggering to behold, but they’d still end up looking like a model.

“Well, I might just have to have another cultivation room built for you if you’re going to need to borrow mine all the time,” she said, a thoughtful look on her face.

Joram sighed, knowing that she’d receive a lot of pushback with that. By this time, word had gotten to every ear in the clan that he was crippled in his cultivation. The many friendly people he’d meet every time he went out had turned more distant in their attitudes. It hadn’t gotten to the point where he’d suffered rude behaviour yet, but he suspected that it wouldn’t be too far in the future.

“You don’t have to worry about that. I can make sure that even if you come in to cultivate that I won’t disturb you.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” she said, a slight frown forming. “When I cultivate, the energy fluctuations aren’t good to be around at your level of cultivation.”

Ah, there’s that.

‘Then I’ll just have to “not” be there,’ he sent with a mysterious grin. Well, he hoped that he’d managed to pull of a mysterious air. But by the Look he was given, he was pretty sure that he’d failed.

‘And what, pray tell, does that mean?’

‘Well, as I’m sure you’ve come to suspect, I’ve got a few other… abilities that I’ve not shared.’

Joram edged away nervously when Grammy’s eyes lit up like a lighthouse. Literally. The light from her eyes washed the room in an emerald light for a moment before she managed to get it under control, lessening the suppressing effect of her aura on Joram.

Gulp.

* * * * *

Tatia was beyond thrilled. She’d known that Joram had been holding out on what he could do; not that she could blame him. Everyone needed to keep their own secrets after all.

No, her excitement came from the possibility of learning something new!

When she saw Joram’s reaction to her leaking aura, she immediately calmed herself down, pulling her aura back in. That had been a shameful display on her part. Tatia silently reprimanded herself as she once again smiled at Joram, hoping to ease his worries.

‘Sorry about that unseemly display,’ she sent ruefully. ‘Please, go on.’

Joram eyed her for a moment before sending, ‘It is just a small extradimensional space that I can open up and hide in,’ he sent slowly.

Again, Tatia reprimanded herself for her lack of self control. It would take a while to clear up this misunderstanding so that he would once again feel comfortable around her.

‘Is there a way to teach that technique to me?’ She asked very politely.

Joram just blinked at her.

It took another full minute before he responded.

‘Uh, maybe? The traditions we learnt are significantly different, so I’m not really sure,’ he finished with a shrug.

‘I see,’ she sent, doing her best to keep her disappointment reigned in.

He continued to regard her for a while, actually managing to make her feel a bit uncomfortable, which surprised her to no end.

Was it just that serious look coming from such a young and tiny face? Or was it the realization, a deeper understanding of just how powerful a Mental Strength practitioner he really was? If he could do something as outrageous as opening an extradimensional space just to sit in, what else could he do? There were legends that spoke of extremely powerful mages and cultivators- really, effectively the same thing- that had been able to create small, independent, worlds where they’d then spent the majority of their time cultivating, amassing treasures, medicinal plants, and other such exotic things.

Joram had also spoken about how he could heal people with just his Mental Strength- psionics, as he called it. She really wanted to know how to do that, but she also knew how hard it was to pry secrets from people. Not that she’d ever use force with him. She just really wanted to learn all the things!

‘Well, maybe we can try after I’m done with my seclusion,’ he sent, sounding like he was testing the waters, as it were.

‘Certainly,’ she sent back with a smile, lifting her arms in a silent invitation for a hug.

Joram tilted his head to the right, blinked, then cracked a smile. Tatia was surprised by his sudden leap into her arms, but gratified by the fierce hug she received.

‘It’s so good to have a friend,’ he sent, laying his head on her right shoulder, his breath tickling her neck slightly as he breathed.

She really didn’t know what to say to that. She’d been the Matriarch of the clan for over a century at this point. She’d been a mother, grandmother, leader, and an authority figure for the clan in that time, sometimes all at once. She’d let some relationships slide somewhat as she grew busier with her duties to the clan over the years.

Yet she’d not once been called a “friend” by a member of a younger generation, nevermind her descendants.

A smile came to her face as she found that she really liked that.

* * * * *

And so Joram found himself alone in Grammy’s cultivation room, wondering if he should start by using [Dimensional Shelter], or only hop in there once she needed the room.

Eventually he settled on using [Dimensional Shelter] as he could just shift to his realm once there and not arouse any suspicions in Grammy.

With that minor issue out of the way, he flexed his will, drawing on his Knowledge Star and manifested [Dimensional Shelter], choosing to make the entrance invisible to anyone but himself. He developed a rueful grin on his face as he realized that he could have just “walked” into an imaginary portal, just shifting to his realm mid-step.

*Shrug*

Well, if anyone was gifted in the Dao of Space, them maybe they’d be able to glean something from the [Dimensional Shelter]. In the meantime, he went with plan b and just shifted to his realm while taking a step forward.

Once there he took a deep breath, enjoying the higher mana density, the fresh air, and the cloudless sky. It would be easy enough to keep track of time here as the day/night cycled was synchronous to that of his new world. He briefly wondered if new realms like his automatically tuned to the same time cycles as the world on which they were made. He shrugged, setting that thought aside for another… decade or something. There were, quite frankly, many other questions that were much more important than that one.

With a shake of his head, he made his way from the patio outside one of the main villa’s courtyards into the main bedroom that Avi had built for his use should he ever show up.

Man, I really kept her waiting there, he thought with a sad smile. He really should spend more quality time with her. She was, spiritually speaking, his daughter after all. Well, it was significantly more complicated than that, but he’d just leave it at that.

Because he was procrastinating by letting his mind wander about so much.

He settled down in a comfortable lazy-boy style armchair and closed his eyes. Strictly speaking, he didn’t have to close his eyes, but it was a habit he’d developed when he had first started out learning psionics. With an augmented [Touchsight] constantly running these days, it really didn’t matter if his eyes were closed or not.

Again with the wandering mind. He sighed, acknowledging that he was maybe more nervous about this than he realized. After all, it wasn’t a simple thing he was aiming for.

Joram clenched his jaw for a moment before releasing the tension in his body, exhaling a long breath at the same time.

He then dismissed the [Schism] that was currently running, took another breath, then brought up the template for [Schism] in his mind. Well, he said that, but he was sitting in his “office space”, computer in front of him. Though, this time, he had one of those ridiculously wide computer monitors plugged into the laptop, allowing for a much larger workspace. On one side of the screen was the “code” for the original [Schism], while the other contained the completed augmentation to said power. Both “codes” were like some weird, bastardized, version of a programming language. The various syntaxes were… simplified. That was to say, something that would take, say, one thousand lines of code to write in C# would only take about fifty or so lines in this “language”.

Simplified, yet more dense and complicated at the same time because it used many more “terms” that were amalgams, or entire concepts, to “shorten” the process. Well, it was complicated.

Shaking his head, Joram refocussed on the windows in front of him, going over the code again and again, making sure that he hadn’t missed anything. [Schism] didn’t have an option for augmentation normally, so he needed to be extra sure that he hadn’t messed anything up in trying to add one of his own.

Well, technically two of his own. The one was for the possibility of additional minds to be added when manifesting the power. The other was a slight change to the original power once this augmentation was added to the original power.

So, he ran the combined code through his simulator one last time, paying attention to any possible issues that might arise, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem.

After the first time, he turned himself into a liar by running it another sixteen times before he stopped himself. This was as good as it would get without actually manifesting the power himself.

Another deep breath was taken as he rolled the cursor over to the new icon on the desktop, an animated gif of someone touching their forehead with their index finger, then the head split in two, then three, then four before resetting the loop.

Yet another deep breath, this time with an “Ah, why the hell not?” kind of mentality, and double-clicked the shortcut.

He felt as the power executed, giving him the knowledge of what would happen with however much power he added at start-up. He chose the first-tier option, which allowed for an additional mind to be added to the standard one.

He wasn’t disappointed.

He immediately became aware of the second mind, then a third mind.

“Let’s put you guys to work, shall we?” He asked himself, rather rhetorically. He set his second mind to working on an offline mode for one of the apps on his phone… a phone that had probably been ignored for the last millennium or so… The third mind was then tasked with doing the same with another app. Both were games, neither were particularly important. They’d been amusing games back when he’d needed a distraction from life, but had ultimately been forgotten when his life had taken an upswing.

Joram nodded to himself as each mind gave status updates, periodically sharing their work with him. Well, that wasn’t quite right, as he knew what each knew at any given time, it was more like he was talking to himself as he reached various points in his work. He also took his time to renew the power before it lapsed, paying attention to how smooth the transition was. Or, rather, how the energy needed to keep the power running was… topped up, much like adding fuel to the tank. Or another quarter to keep the music playing in a jukebox.

He wasn’t quite sure how much time passed this way, but as he kept testing his additional minds, project after project was completed, finally allowing him to get those silly tasks removed from his “to-do” list. It was… refreshing.

He even took the time to open his eyes, his physical ones, and summon his phone and his main laptop. He then proceeded to boot it up, grinning as it came to life as he connected them with a USB-C cable.

Next, he started up the necessary programs for editing/creating apps. Just in case, he made full back-ups of the apps and their data before loading them into the editor. With that done, he concentrated on the first patch Mind #3 had worked on then manifested [Data Transfer], a very useful power that allowed one to transfer what was on the user’s mind to a computer, and vice versa. One of his favourite power’s he’d created with Altaea’s help back in the day.

Once the data was uploaded, he ran it through the compiler and waited. Not long. He then updated the app on the phone, waited for the install to complete, then tapped on the icon.

He held his breath as the loading screen popped up with a progress bar. Seconds later, the home screen appeared. He grinned as he saw that the menu where one would choose a server was now replaced by a “Local Play” bar instead. He clicked on that, then frowned when the profile loaded started him off at level 1.

“Well, that should have been expected,” he mumbled, remembering that level data was stored on the selected server. “Welp, that’s what save editors are for!” He said with a grin.

“You’ve finally got it working?” Avi asked from his side, causing him to nearly jump out of his chair. [Touchsight] was only as good as the one paying attention to it. Distracted mind = missing things like someone suddenly appearing beside you.

After a few calming breaths, and getting his racing heart under control, he turned to Avi. “Yes, and I think that it’s a success!” He said with a huge grin.

“Awesome! We should compare patch notes some time,” she said with a smile.

That gave him pause.

“You’ve written patches for some of the games?”

“Yeah, it got boring after the first decade, so I started little projects using Altaea’s copied stuff,” she explained, summoning the laptop that Altaea had copied so long ago.

Joram looked at it for a full minute, then another as he sorted out how he felt about that. On the one hand, Altaea had left all that behind. For what reason, he couldn’t be sure. On the other hand, they were mementos of her. All things considered, he realized that Altaea probably wouldn’t want her things put into some sort of memorial to her memory, and that she’d probably prefer they be used instead of left to collect dust.

“Huh, that’d be a good idea,” he said, a soul-weary grin on his face. “I didn’t realize that you’d taken up programming.”

“One tends to pick up this and that over the centuries,” she said with an airy tone, waving a hand dismissively.

This time he laughed out loud, finally letting go. “I’m glad you managed to keep yourself busy,” he said, a huge smile on his face.

“Indeed I did,” she said, sharing his smile. “I even took the liberty to reverse engineer some of the game engines and make a few games,” she said, a self-satisfied smile on her face.

Joram’s jaw dropped as he turned his whole body to her. “I could kiss you!” He said before his brain could stop him from saying such a ridiculous and cringeworthy thing.

Avi just smirked. “Well, I wouldn’t be opposed to that,” she said, giving him a wink.

Joram’s brain froze, locked up, went into an infinite processing loop that prevented any other processes from starting up.

What-the-what?! His mind whirled in circles. She had been made using his psicrystal, a part of his psyche made manifest. The rest of her was made from Altaea, conceptually and literally. Her “soul” was based off Altaea’s own. Her ability to have a physical form was based off his psicrystal.

He immediately set minds 2 and 3 to working out the problem with him.

Mind 1: A psicrystal is formed using a personality fragment from the manifester.

Mind 2: One could say that once that fragment leaves the whole, it becomes its own entity.

Mind 3: I concur. I would posit that this was just a shortcut in terms of teaching someone else. In teaching someone, you imprint what you know on them. However, that knowledge will then be processed and made their own.

Mind 2: Indeed. Given that, would you then consider someone whom you’ve taught to be your child?

Mind 3: Nevermind all that. I’m pretty sure that Altaea merely used the psionic matrix of our psicrystal as the platform with which to install the [Altaea Virtual Intelligence]. Claiming that she’s a part of you should only go as far as: her continued existence relies on your survival, as a psicrystal cannot survive the death of its owner/creator.

Mind 2: Good points there, old chap!

Mind 1: Why do you guys sound like you’re a Brit narrating a documentary?

Mind 3: We’re you. Why do you think?

Mind 1: *Face-palm*

“Joram?” Avi said, interrupting his process and liberating him from that loop.

“Yes, Avi?” He said by rote, taking comfort in that much repeated process.

“You realize that I’m not actually your child, right?”

“I was just working through that,” he mumbled, a blush rising in his cheeks.

“If anything, I’m a pseudo clone of Altaea. Sure, I have her appearance, a sliver of her soul, and most of her knowledge, but I am still my own person,” she explained patiently, but not unkindly.

“That… has thrown much of my understanding to the four winds,” he admitted with a sigh.

“You’ll be fine,” Avi said with a smirk. “Now, let’s get gaming!”