Spiritual Seed Awakening 20 Chapter 20 Royal Serpent Bay

I have spent a great deal of time watching both my guards, and my surroundings. I have tunneled under ground, and while keeping an "eye" on the bone fish. My soul binding seems to have worked. The undead fish bones have guarded me well.

There has not been much activity near me, but I have been able to observe the enviroment around me. I studied the semi-aquatic snakes. The semi-aquatic snakes seems to be great swimmers. They are fast, agile, and resistant to weak poisons.

The only obvious weakness is that they can only stay underwater for a limited period of time. Stronger snakes can stay underwater for longer time, but they need air. I have not seen the queen come up for air, so she must have some source underground.

Their bodies are kinda flat in comparison to my second body, and they have smaller heads as well. They are definitely not eels. They have no gills, so I should not be worry about being shocked.

I have spent enough time monitoring my prey, I think I can safely catch a few. I make sure that I use my undead fish minions to draw a few snakes to a quiet shallow area of the lake.

I tunnel underground towards the nearest shallow area. The muddy soil is easy to tunnel through. While I dig, I think about the how easy it has become to control the bome fish as I slowly absorb the soul fragment's strength as my own.

I gained a large amount of soul strenth from that fragment. Controlling so many weak undead at once is not a bother for me now. I can not give complex commands, but I can have them swim in a blockade formation. I have my undead guard the area from snakes. I make a perimeter inescapable as possible. Those snakes trapped within shall not leave.

My body has been strengthen enough to withstand my strong soul, but I still have finished absorbing the soul fragment. So I need to continue strengthening my body. I make plans to do so as I prepare to engage a semi-aquatic snake.

While I was planning my first prey drew near. I hide under normals moss. My second body cultivation has not broken the first level of night lotus montra, but this snake should not be able sense me. I took great care of hiding my presence, and creating this camouflage.

I ready my tail. It's my only method physical method of attack besides my poisonious bite. My poison would kill everything in the lake, because I lack control of it outside of my body. My second body contains little snake venom, I have learned to subst.i.tute my poison.

I channel qi towards my tail as it was a needle trying my best to mimic the night lotus montra. My range is short, but I only need one strike. A lake snake nears me, I wait patiently.

It does not enter my range me. I wait longer, there are plenty of snakes trapped in the enclosure. A new snake draws near me, I find it casing after a fish. The fish swims past me, the snake heads towards me at a fast paced. I have to make this strike count. I wait til the snake is almost above me, and launch my tail covers in qi right into Its neck.

I channeled most of my qi into this attack. The move seems too effective as it's body explodes. I quickly dig underground, and hide while watching the results of my success. The undead are commanded to spread out. I am not sure if the queen is smart or not. I rather not have her on guard.

The snakes seem to sense the smell of blood in the water,  and a few swim over. They do not investigate much. They swim around a few times, then leave. I guess most creatures are not as smart as I am, or they are little for their fallen.

I hope the this applies to the queen. The remains of the body are then eaten by insects, and fish rapidly after death. The remains are only bones in a few hours. This must be why there is a sea of bones covering bottom of this lake. While I remained hidden, I began to rethink my plan of attack. I came up with only one solid solution.

There are too many water snakes to kill slowly. I would alert the others due to the blood in the water. I can only find a way to kill the queen, then slaughter the snakes.

I tunnel underground towards her den. The ground gets tougher, but I can only dig. Swimming is my not talent, plus there are way too many sea snakes near the bottom of the lake. I have only explored the shallow edges of the lake, never delving that deep.

After some time pa.s.ses, I discover there is a lot a diversity of life down here I could not see from above. I could not peer this deep before, but it's much deeper, and rich in life then I expected. I know there are tunnels that connect some lakes, but this one more populated from the information I for from the toad.

As I slowly dig with my mostly serpent corpse snake body. My main body continues to be tempered in five death corpse poison. The poison has gained much higher potency since changing from corpse wine. My main body temper's it's self as I slowly try and comprehends the two secret arts while enduring the posion.

I am able to meditate on the two. The Night lotus montra is too complex, and mysterious, but after studying if for some time. I think I understand some basics.

I do have the memory crystals to look at if necessary. I channel my qi from my core to these crystals. Hemlock does not explain the arts to me, but practices them allowing me to copy her.

I lacked proper knowledge on the subject, but copying her allows me to follow closer how she cultivates. I channel the qi to follow the night lotus Montra again. The first cycle is exhausting, but it allows me to better understand qi.

I know that my qi is rather pure compared to the natural qi in the cave, but there is still a huge gap between how smoothly we cultivate the art. Then I channel qi from my core again like a night lotus, experiencing this in the body of a blood moon bear first hand has given me insight into using a lunar based art.

My serpent body begins to conceal itself rather well. I can see my body with my soul, but the feeling is different. I know it's there because I use my soul to see, but it's much less noticeable. My body is still visible, but suddenly I feel sluggish, and my second body stops moving.

It's already dead. I check my body, and notice my qi is drained. I guess I overdid it. I allow my second body to rest, and and practice the corpse snake cultivation method. It drains a bit of quite mental energy to practice it, but it allows me to recover faster. I draw qi to my body, purify it as best I can, and store it in my core.

I do this until I can move again. I need to make sure not I don't over exhaust myself, and keep digging.

The journey takes a while, but I follow the memories of the sea snake. I have plenty of time while digging. I check my core baby. The seal on my soul is interesting. I study it during my free time. The baby seem unharmed by it, but the binding is stronger than my own binding my second body. I'm out of luck breaking it. The more I learn, the more I learn how way beyond me it it.

The seal binds my soul at its core. The positive thing to note is I learn a lot about this seal. The seal I placed of my guards has grown much stronger since studying this seal. It's like having a corpse. I can not bring it back from the dead, but learning Anatomy becomes a little easier.

The seal also has not stopped my soul from digesting all the souls I've eaten. I've eaten the other three poison creatures souls, and the sea snakes, but the spider is resistant. I think with time I will be able to finish absorbing it's soul.

The soul fragment as well is too much to finish. I have it in my "soul stomatch". The soul seed baby does not have any organs, but it does have a s.p.a.ce in it's body that can contain souls. This special s.p.a.ce has is able to weaken souls over time.

The room contains only two larger soul souls. The spider soul, and the giant soul fragment. The soul fragment larger then the spider soil. The two are both wrapped in threads of my soul.

I know I'm too full to eat anything else. I have met my limit on souls for now, but these experiences have taught me about the soul. The first thing I learn about souls is my about to ability to access memories.

I can use my soul to influence souls weaker than mine.  I can gain memories simply by scanning their souls, or tricking them into divulging information they are resistant like the spider.

I can easily now create false dreams for their souls to perceive, and use their own memories to build world's where they would be willing to tell me. The memories of the spider were easy to access at surface level, but delving deep into its mind has proven more difficult.

The process is rough now, but hemlock gave me the inspiration. The ability is not that powerful though. It only works on souls much weaker than mine. The creation and sustaining of these works also put a drain on my mind as well. The Fondation to do this though grows stronger as I absorb souls.

The second thing I learn about souls is that I can not hazardously eat souls like I have been doing. The soul worms were fine because they were simple creatures. Their souls did not contain much. In eating them, I only learned their habits. In having a corpse worm body, I was able to channel their collective will in digging, and eating. The stage desire to go after Hemlock's corpse was not just my second body's instinct, but the residual consciousness of manny corpse worm's souls.

The desire for the poison along with the corpse worm wine natural instinct over took my own reasoning to influence me. The souls I eat affect my mind. The level of effect depends on numinous aspects. The strength of the soul, strength their desire, or obsessions, and my own ability to notice these changes.

I could have better resisted the urge had I known these were not entirely my own wishes. The corpse worm souls seem to have become at peace after I found the poison. They are dead, and eaten, but remain a part of me. The snakes soul was weak to begin with, and it had no desire outside of healing. Thus the soul did not affect me much.

The centipede, toad, and scorpion all resented the spider. When I killed the spider the three souls were also at peace. The spider's soul is resistant to being digested, but it's soul is slowly being widowed away. It will soon be eaten.

The soul fragment I took from hemlock is full of anger towards dragons. I think it's strong enough to cause trouble should I encounter a lizard, but I am not sure of the extend it could influence me.

The water snake souls are too weak to influence me. The devouring of souls has its own risk, but the strengthening in of my soul has been worth it.

The increase of control on my soul manipulation has been useful. I have been practicing manipulating my soul for some time. My control over my own soul's shocks even myself at times. I have been able to make soul threads before. That took practice, but now I can use the threads to create objects.

This is different then before because I was only mimicking the shapes of the object roughly. I can now create more exact shapes. I think I may have a new method of soul attack in the works. I need more experimentation to be sure, but I like my progress. I don't think it will be able to use the ability anytime soon.

I have gained an increased strength when manipulating others Souls as well. I am not at Hemlock's level, but she taught me alot. I watched a master at work, I'm only a novice in comparison to her mastery of soul manipulation. She was a bear, and I'm a soul devouring tree seed I'm sure It's a shame a bear better was ever better than a soul devouring seed in soul manipulation. It's fine for now though.

The tunneling is like mediation. It helps keep my mind calm. The time to think has been rather useful. It's been a few hours of digging, but I near the bottom of the lake. My range of vision has increases since aborting souls to about fifteen feet. I can see a lot, but my circle of vision is limited.

The memories of the water snakes tells me her burrow is at the bottom of this cave, but they never came this far. The snakes were thrown out of the burrow before they could see, but they know their way home to deliver food.

They would drop off offerings to the queen near the burrow then royal guards would accept the food in her stead. She really acts like royalty. I keep tunneling towards the burrow, and find larger, and much more powerful water snakes.

The snakes I killed are like children in comparison. They are larger in length, and bulk. These must be guards. I keep digging under them. They can not sense my soul observing them, but they seem on guard for some reason.

I found four more undead on the way douwn while digging. The nine strongest undead that were near the surface are now gone as well, but this does not seem the reason they are on guard. It would seem there is something else underwater I don't know of.

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The burrow draws closer as I pa.s.s more larger snakes. They seem to be gathering for some event. I am rewarded for my digging by finding the entrance. The entrance is big enough for many larger water snakes to enter, and leave. It seems to be more than meets the eye as I look inside of the den.

The spider is immediately put to shame for its architecture. There are many tunnels in this underwater den. The entrance has a tunnel that leads deeper, but also a side rooms for placing offering. Plants with qi, cores, and food are collected into piles.

The other room is a open chamber for snakes to guard, then a tunnel that leads deeper into her chamber. I have to say I'm impressed. This was obvious dug over time, and with thought.

I still have not seen the queen. She must be in a lowdst level of the den. I tunnel deeper, and find more rooms with higher quality food, and a few more more qi filled plants. She must be close. I find two larger female snakes guarding what I a.s.sume to be her inner den.

I don't understand why a snake queen would need this much protection, but I don't care. I keep tunneling while pacing the moon lotus mantra. I have learned how you use it at lower strength to last longer. The effects are weaker but I'm satisfied with long term use. I am in the walls. I only need the beast not to sense me. They can not see through walls.

Unless I get too close to the queen, I think I should remain hidden while using this method. I keep tunneling towards her. I cannot not sense her or anything like that. I just know she should be around this den somewhere.

I need her corpse, to make my own fan. I need protection when I leave this place. The queens skin and bones should be great materials.

After I allow myself to get distracted, I notice there is a sound of roaring coming from a cave ahead of me. The rock since nearing the bottom of den has grown much denser, and st.u.r.duer. My range of vision is limited, but that sound gives me enough information.

The queen is currently struggling with something I can not determine, but soon two snakes carry herbs, and food in large quant.i.ties tell me whatever it is is causing her to need lots of energy. I panic a little because I can only think of two reason a female snake would need all that energy. She is either evolving her bloodline, or giving birth.

The first would be disastrous. I barely know if I have the strength to defeat her now. A cold feeling washes over me. I calm down. What if she is evolving I start to think, but quickly ignore it. If she is, I will simply leave.

The baby in my core looks pleased with itself and full. It can't be bothered as it sleeps soundly. I begin to use the night lotus montra at full strength. I focus on my core. The qi I have stored begins to flow without restraint. This time I have control of the flow of qi. My main body directs the flow of qi as this serpent body's presence vanishes.

My scales begin to change color as a very thin line of qi coats my body. The green of the qi seals my presence. I use the same needle mimicry like I used to kill the water snake to tunnel this to pierce through the hard rock at a much faster pace.

This earth movement is like roots growing into soil. I am like a roots bound towards the earth looking for resources. I make it towards the den in time to see a beautiful snake. I instantly am hypnotized by her beauty. She has scales as luxurious as mine. She is more similar to an anaconda then her sea snake like offspring. The snake queen is much larger than myself.

She's at least twenty feet long. She sits on in an underground cavern that connects to the den via a hole in the ground. She has her own personal cave in this air filled cavern. She lays on a pile of corpses moss. I would guess her feeding habit provide plenty of fresh blood, and corpse blood.

After taking a second to think, I notice my second body although dead, had a strong physical attraction to this creature. I don't know why. I just felt a strange attraction to this snake. I need to think about this. I focus on my memories, and try and pull some relevant memories.

I suddenly see a elderly woman dressed in modernish clothes pinning a name tag that says "YARROW" written in blue marker to my bright red s.h.i.+rt. I suddenly am in a library. I really was crazy about nature when I was a kid. I did not care about geology, but I did love learning about plants and animals.

I remember the teacher would sit in the reading chair, and one kid would get to choose what we read each library day as a child. I remember choosing a book about snakes. Females are larger than male snakes. They are cold blooded. I struggle to remember useful information. Anacondas don't lay eggs, but do give birth to leathery like sacs. I tap out, pulling that much from a memory that far back was draining, but it allowed me more information.

I feel my soul showing signs of possible exhaustion. I feel I don't know if snakes from this world are exactly the same, this snake could just be big. I do know that snakes don't mate for life. I indulge my seconds bodies momentary interest, but I still rather have a snake skins seed suit then let it control me any farther.

I focus on her again and ignore her appeal as a snake, and focus on her internal features. I have to know if the snake queen is evolving, or about to give birth. I watch as she eats large amounts flesh. I should find this horrifying, but this serpent body of mine can only watch in awww. I ignore this stupidity of my own body, and use my "eyes" to see what's causing this binge.

I was right that she is pregnant. I can see five little snakes. I look them over. They seem developed enough to be born soon. One in particular seem to have a great deal of potential. I maintain my night lotus mantra, and head back for now. This is perfect. She will be weak after the birth. Also a living body that I'm already familiar with would be ideal.

I get far enough from the snake queen to lower my qi cover. I was glad I maintained it. The snake queen has more than babies. She has a core much larger than my own. I also notice she has soul similar to the spider. It's not due to somthing external. This queen had spent effort into cultivation of her soul intentionally or not. She must have intelligence for sure.

Souls so far that I've encountered with intelligence are different. Souls are not physical, and not all hold a shape like the baby in my core. There many different factors that help change the characteristics of the soul. My second body has used it's ever evolving bloodline to help change it's soul shape. I have helped influnce this change.

A normal creature that evoloves into a species or changes suddenly may change physically, but it's soul may not reflect this. A tiger that changes into a sabertooth for example may not have the soul of a sabertooth. Bloodlines can help a soul better match it's body, but this is not guaranteed. Souls are complex, simply changing the body does not change the soul.

When I first took over the corpse worm's body, I was a plant soul in a worm body. After getting a portion my plant soul to fuse with a worm soul, I allowed the worm soul to become dominant. This only worked because the worm soul was like a new born. Also I was very familiar with worm souls.

The same did not happen to my worm soul as I cultivated the snake cultivation method. The portion of my soul in my second body has been slowly evolving into a full snake. My soul in its body now resembles that of a worm with some snake features, but I still have more snake features then my soul would show.

It's just a soul is mysterious, I can influence a soul, but it's true nature is not somthing I can influence. Explaining this to one without the ability to sense souls would be difficult.

My best hypothesis of what a soul is would be to use seeds as a medifore. A seed can be exist in good soil, or bad. Like soul exist in living, and dead bodies.

The difference is intelligence n. A seed can survive lit. A animal with weak bloodline can still grow strong, but intelligence changes a soul in different ways. It's still a soul, but there's a spark of life that's intelligence in it. I feel I can not accurately articulate the difference, but I know a soul with intelligence holds greater benefits as food, then to a soul of the same type. This is not always true though.

All the newborn snake souls seem pure, and less clouded by weak average adult water snake soul. I'm still learning about the mysterious nature of soul, but for now. I can rest, and plan my a.s.sa.s.sination of a queen snake.

I leave a boundary around myself with soul. I start to drift into sleep after planning some after some time. I don't think the snakes will be for a few more days, or few weeks. I have time to relax till then. In a equal fight, she would easily kill me. I might have to resort to poison to kill the queen, while not harming her offspring, or ruining her skin. Poison should be a last resort I think as sleep takes my tired soul