God Of Crafting

"Did you just… break to the eighth spiritual realm? Just by trying to display your cultivation?" Chihiro asked, with a look of barely controlled shock on his face.

As a cultivation quasi-mentor to me, his knowledge about the state of my spirituality was second only to Claire's, with whom my cultivation was intrinsically linked on a level no non-spiritual connection could mimic.

That's why, more than anyone else but Claire, he knew I was nowhere near reaching the bottleneck of the seventh cultivation stage, still having to go through the process of proper accumulation of spiritual energy to reach the point where I would approach the limits of the stage I was in.

And yet…

No matter what he, Claire, the two guards, or I myself would think possible, just a single look into my cultivation was enough to confirm that I had, indeed, broken through my recent limits and evolved my spirituality a step beyond.

"To be perfectly honest… I'm not really sure," I admitted with a helpless look on my face. "And if anything…" I hesitated for a moment, fully aware of how unorthodox my next and extremely pressing question would be to people who dedicated most of their lives to growing stronger, "is there any way to actually reverse this?"

If my advancement was enough to make everyone in the area shocked, then my question made them simply baffled.

"Wait, you want to go back to the seventh stage? Why?"

"I mean…" I looked away while scratching myself behind my left ear. "Contrary to how I advanced before, this breakthrough isn't a result of a comprehensive understanding. It's not born out of me figuring out the logic and sense behind this new stage before just… applying all of my strength to mix this new, more advanced theory into the practice that's already in place."

I shrugged my shoulders and breathed out, only to then switch my explanation from a detailed one to the ersatz of it all.

"I'm worried this kind of random and lackluster advancement would hinder my potential in the long run," I revealed the obvious, only to then look away as I avoided everyone's eyes… but one pair of them in particular. "And well, I don't think it's right for me to advance before Claire does. Given just how much more effort she put into growing herself, how is it fair for me to grow beyond her?"

I tried my best to explain my situation to the four people standing around me, yet, with every word I said, I appeared to only move further and further away from the reality they could either understand or accept.

"Tim…"

Hearing this one particular voice, I braved against my own fears and looked up, only to come face-to-face with Claire's rather complex expression.

There was a hint of pride and satisfaction, a product of her genuine wish for me to grow stronger. There was then the fear of being left aside, a sense of inadequacy related to the effort issue I'd mentioned out loud, shock caused by what happened to begin with… and then a hundred other tiny emotions, all mixing in Claire's lone soul only to leave her unable to form another word.

Normally, I was only good enough to notice a few of those emotions, and maybe figure out the reasons behind half of them. But with our spiritual selves linked so closely, the task of understanding the emotional turmoil in her soul grew all the easier, letting me see a much more wholesome picture of the chaos in her head.

That's why, with every certainty there was in the world, I could confidently say that she just… didn't know what to say next, as opposed to refusing to address me as others might've interpreted her silence.

"I'm sorry, son, but I don't think it's possible for one to just… revert one cultivation stage. The only instance of it happening that I know to be possible is for you to fully give up on the entirety of your cultivation so that you could redo it all from scratch, but…" Chihiro explained, only to look over his shoulder in the direction of the guards' shack… Or rather, the spiritual lands hidden behind the illusory barrier that the shack merely marked the position of. "But if you try to do it now, you wouldn't be able to get into the spiritual realm. Then again," the look on Chihiro's face suddenly changed, "you say you are not satisfied with a random advancement like this, but…"

"Isn't this an enlightenment?" the second guard, the one that remained silent unless both of them chanted something at the same time, spoke out on his own for the very first time since we'd met the two.

"Looks to me like it is," the other guard added, seconding his colleague's opinion.

"An enlightenment?" I asked, understanding the meaning of the word but not the context behind it.

'What, am I supposed to start a new religion or a philosophical school now?' I jeered in my thoughts, not wasting my time entertaining this clearly misguided idea.

"It means a natural breakthrough that's free of the usual requirements for one to advance," Chihiro hurried to clear the misunderstanding. "Basically, it mostly happens when one witnesses something that opens an exclusive, momentary, and single-use path for them to advance through the innate understanding of a certain aspect of reality. So, rather than worrying about your potential…" Chihiro shook his head before taking a step closer and reaching out, only to then gently pat me on the shoulder, "you should rejoice. Congratulations, son, you've just joined quite the elite coterie."

I raised my eyes to the man's face, holding myself back from inquiring about the meaning of the very last word he used. While I wasn't familiar with it… it didn't take a genius to figure out the meaning behind it from the context of what the man said.

"So, it's beneficial rather than detrimental to my future growth?" I asked, just to be sure.

Before anyone could answer me, however, I squinted my eyes and locked my hands on my chest.

"Or should I rather ask, can you say for certain that it's beneficial, or is it just another element of traditional belief that you know just how little I respect?"

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