"How are they?" I asked after what seemed like hours. Geon and Syha finally overcame the ravages of awakening early, and Na placed them in a healing sleep.

My guess had proven true, and although it would require further testing to see if we could reproduce today's events. Is the process of strengthening the body, mind, and spirit of an individual repeatable? To step onto the path of Cultivation before eighteen was a Heaven-granted opportunity. If today's results could be reproduced, our new nation might become more powerful than the Empire's.

My parents were still concerned, but Na finally verified what was happening using the awakening stone. Both children had formed a Spirit root, a new kind of Spirit root that had never been seen before. It was layered, with the roots braiding and then branching out. The primary root established an anchor for growing secondary and tertiary root branches, each selecting a region of maturation that formed a connection.

A connection to every possible cultivation tier. Iron, Cobalt, Copper, Silver, Tin, Platinum, and Gold.

The seven regions of maturation from their Spirit root had established an array, a seven-pointed star that had centered around the Dantian. The primary root worked to connect the Dantian and Meridian channels with their inner world.

Geon and Syha's spirit roots served the same purpose as any other Cultivators, the ability to connect with each tier gifted them with a Qi pathway, a system for Qi cycling that synchronized with one of the metals.

The seven-pointed root array they had formed allowed for an aggregate of the electron count from each element to determine the final strength of their Spirit root. Iron 26, Cobalt 27, Copper 29, Silver 47, Tin 50, Platinum 78, and Gold 79 combined for 336. The number divided by the seven root branches meant the children had a Qi cycling circuit with 48 meridians.

Higher than Silver, lower than Tin. It would be hard to understand what this unique configuration meant if the numbers Na was reading with the awakening stone were comparable to standardized information. Finding a cultivation technique for them to use might have been a problem if their Spirit partners hadn't evolved with them. Their companions' ability to examine their genetic heritage and lineage was what would see my siblings able to face the challenges of Cultivation.

"They are fine, as healthy as you'd expect a newly ascended Body Refinement Realm cultivator to be," Na assured me.

"Your parents, on the other hand," she continued with a smile, "might need a week at a spa to recover from the shock."

It wasn't a bad idea. The Keep had been built with a spa, something the previous Lord hadn't bothered to use, and I had only glanced at it to make sure it had been restored correctly and was functional.

It was used by staff and guards, but nothing stopped me from closing it to the public for a week and letting my parents be pampered. Gwen had found a talented team of people skilled in massage, facials, manicures, and pedicures. With the steam room, whirlpools, and mineral spring made available by the judicious use and placement of spatial arrays, the area could soothe the frayed nerves of even my anxious parents.

"Toi, what do their Spirits suggest we do about training them?" I asked, deciding to offer my parents the spa retreat, but not before dealing with more pressing issues.

"All children are given rudimentary martial training and exercises to strengthen their bodies and minds as they grow, but this is different. Will they be able to withstand the training a Cultivator has to endure?"

Meditation, martial techniques that were more exercise than real fighting skills, exercises that relied on punches and kicks, and mental puzzles were part of the mandatory education every Elven child was entitled to.

The previous Lord had been as lackadaisical in making sure those education opportunities had been available as he had in ruling the rest of the town. He had ignored everything the town needed that didn't affect him, so creating a curriculum and a school system was one of the first things I'd done after establishing my Fief.

I was hoping that Geon and Syha, who had grown up near Flowing Water Sect, wouldn't have the disadvantage the other children of Xiwang were sure to experience. For all the grievances and faults I had with Flowing Water Sect and its habit of looking the other way when it came to cronyism and how young masters were treated, they had done an admirable job of making sure the town that supported the Sect was well run.

That included ensuring children had teachers and resources to help them develop the rudimentary skills needed to transition into Cultivation.

Sure, there were levels of resources offered to the rich and powerful that would ease their transition. Those who had powerful backers, who were wealthy, or who came from Clans and Houses that were well established received the lion's share of the better quality resources.

But no child was ignored by Flowing Water. The Sect had recognized long ago that there was no way to tell who the next genius might be related to. And if they destroyed their chances of recruiting such a child because of how they and their family had been treated, the Sect would needlessly deprive itself of a talent.

The outer and inner disciples of the Sect, as well as the professions that trained and leveled there, produced enough lower quality resources and items to barely put a dent in the Sect's profit margin by 'donating' those resources to the schools that would ensure the children of the town had a fair chance of ascending.

In any of the Wuxia novels I remembered reading on Royal Roads or Amazon, children had often been selected to start the path of Cultivation early. I hadn't wondered why this world hadn't followed those tropes. It was bad enough that issues of disparity existed.

I had memories of this body and her life before I inhabited it. Those memories dealt with different types of training she had experienced growing up. Even on the day of my testing, my father had spent the morning training with me, trying to squeeze out the last bit of increase to my strength and martial skills.

"Their spirits have unlocked the genetic markers from both sides of your lineage. The Wood Elf lineage had nothing they could offer, but the Dark Elf side of your family practiced a form of Cultivation called [Starflower Opens]. That Cultivation method has been used to modify children in vitro, to encode the fundamentals of that Cultivation technique into every child, giving them a greater chance at awakening and progressing the path of Cultivation.

"It will allow Geon and Syha to open the seven chakras of their bodies: the Crown, Third Eye, Throat, Heart, Solar Plexus, Sacral, and Root. These chakras will be tied to a corresponding spirit root branch and need to have a corresponding gem or stone grafted to satisfy the requirements of that cultivation technique.

"The grafting of those gems, Quartz, Amethyst, Sodalite, Aventurine, Citrine, Carnelian, and Red Jasper will combine to form a crystal matrix that can protect their Dantians.

"Their Spirits are certain that the affinities they resonate with and the techniques and cultivation resources that would work for you will work for them once they begin practicing. The [Starflower Opens] cultivation technique will bind their matrix and allow each child to adapt techniques and skills that harmonize with one of the chakras."

I listened to Toi's explanation without interrupting, mostly because I was stunned. What did she mean when she said our heritage was a mix of Wood Elf and Dark Elf? Did others know that there were sub-species of Elves? And if so, were there others? And how did a Wood Elf and Dark Elf compare to each other?

I had always known that Mother and Father were hiding something about where we came from and why we had a noticeable difference in pigment and skin tone. Our lineage explained why.