The Mech Touch

It was a little unfair to blame Goldie for her negligence on this matter.

Cultivation was new to everyone. The Golden Cat was no different on this matter.

While various mechs and design spirits had already begun to experiment or practice with cultivation methods that they either figured out themselves or obtained from Ves, very few adverse incidents took place.

This gave Goldie a false impression that cultivation was not that dangerous!

Unfortunately, just because her experiences with cultivation did not involve any serious accidents did not mean that others had nothing to worry about!

Aside from a few exceptions, design spirits were pure energy based life forms. Their sensitivity and perception towards spiritual energy was extremely high, which enabled them to gain a much better overview of the process of cultivation.

Design spirits also benefited from having access to natural cultivation from birth. This was a ready-made cultivation method that might not necessarily produce great results, but was absolutely safe and completely compatible with their own attributes!

Goldie and many other design spirits had been using their own intrinsic natural cultivation methods as a basis to form their own individual qi cultivation methods.

Ves saw no need to intervene in this matter because pure energy-based lifeforms were able to figure out pretty quickly if anything was amiss.

The same could not be said for humans. They did not possess a good grasp of spiritual energy and spirituality for many reasons.

Even humans that were close to primordial humans could get a lot of different stuff wrong!

Cultivation was inherently more dangerous and riskier for humans because they were much further removed from the ideal state of a True God.

The more inadequacies they possessed, the more extreme measures they needed to take in order to attain more power and extend their longevity.

As Ves explained these points to his audience in a simplified manner, he hoped that each of them would no longer recklessly engage in cultivation.

"Certain life forms such as Goldie and the Superior Mother are like fish." He used another analogy. "Do I have to teach a fish how to swim in the ocean?"

Andraste shook her head. "No."

"Exactly! Fish don't need to be taught how to swim because they are born to swim from the start. Perhaps they can figure out ways to swim a little faster or make themselves more maneuverable in a pool of water, but it's pretty much impossible for them to lose control and drown. Contrast that with organisms that are born on land like humans. If you throw someone in water, there is always a risk that they can drown. They are not really designed to live in water. They need to be taught how to swim, and while it is not really all that difficult, they will never be able to equal the performance of a genuine fish. Is this clear to you both?"

Both Andraste and Benjamin nodded.

"Fish is yummy. Can we eat fish for tonight, papa?"

"Hahaha, let's check with your mother first. She is rather adamant about sticking to a strict diet schedule." Ves chuckled.

His grandfather paid more attention to the origin of the cultivation methods posted on the galactic net.

"Have you obtained any clues where they might come from, grandson?"

"Not really. I'm not sure who spread this original set of cultivation methods, but from my perspective, they are the works of an amateur that does not possess a sufficient grasp in cultivation science." He replied. "Andraste, don't practice this mediation method anymore. I want you to grow up into a strong and capable warrior, but it is not worth risking your entire health and wellbeing just to turn yourself into a test subject of an unknown party."

His daughter looked a lot more scared than before now that she understood the horrifying truth behind the publication of all of these random meditation methods.

"I understand, papa. I will be more careful. What do I do instead, then? Is there really no way to help me become a potentate?"

"Genetic aptitude is not necessary to live a happy and fulfilling life, young lady." Venerable Benjamin gently told his descendant. "Take it from me. Whether you will have what it takes to interface with a mech with your brain will only become clear when you are 10 years old. Even if you do not get the result you are hoping for, there may still be a chance for you to get what you truly want."

Ves coughed at his grandfather. "Let's not make promises that we might not be able to keep. Anyway, I will look into this further. Whoever made these cultivation methods clearly doesn't really know what he or she is doing, but it is different for me. My heritage is much more comprehensive and complete. I think I can do much better, but..."

"What is the matter?"

"I'm sure you know a lot about genetic aptitude. Unless the mechers have been holding out on us, nobody truly understands how adequate genetic aptitude comes into being. There are so many possible variables that affect this end result that it is impossible to precisely control its formation. I don't think that a cultivation method will be able to make that much of a difference, whether today or in the far future. It's like how throwing a bucket of water at a burning house can hardly make the fire go out sooner."

Ves did not exactly possess a good understanding in this area. One of the most uncertain variables about all of this was the fact that most children simply weren't ready for formal cultivation.

Their minds and spiritualities were too weak and underdeveloped. Without enough spiritual potential and concentration, they were bound to achieve little actual results unless they grew a lot older.

However, it would already be too late for them once they surpassed 10 years old.

No matter whether it was even possible for humans to develop the right genetic aptitude when the growth and development of their brains had already reached a mature state, what was the point of entering a mech academy when they were already in their twenties or thirties?

While early cultivation was probably useless to the vast majority of human children for a long time to come, Ves was not entirely certain whether the same rules applied to Andraste and his children.

Different from other kids, Ves, Goldie, the Superior Mother and Gaia had empowered their spiritualities and bodies to the point where they had all become extremely spiritually gifted!

Not only did they possess spiritualities that exceed the level of a gifted adult human, but their body cells were also more attuned to spiritual energy, similar to the primordial humans of the past.

A strong spirit made it easier to induce greater changes through artistic conceptions.

A more spiritually attuned body made it easier to alter it by leveraging spiritual energy in conscious and unconscious ways.

When Ves thought about what little theory that humanity knew about genetic aptitude, he figured that it was a purely organic phenomenon.

In order to have it, it was necessary for a human's brain structure to fall within a specific range of forms that made it suitable to connect to neural interfaces.

This meant that in order for a cultivation method to encourage the formation of a desirable brain structure, it had to engage in a specific form of body cultivation.

Although he never really intended for this to happen, Andraste and his other children were highly compatible with body cultivation!

At the very least, they possessed a much stronger compatibility for it than other people!

This actually gave Ves a lot more hope that he would be able to help his daughter with making her dream come true.

"Let me work on this, Andraste." He gently told her. "You need to give me time to do a bit of research and compose a proper cultivation method. Your grandmother can probably help us out a lot in this regard. She won't refuse the opportunity to help out her cute little grandchild. Just be patient, okay? You still have a few years to go before you reach your tenth birthday. There is plenty of time to make changes."

His daughter looked up at him with her pitiful big eyes. Don't take too loooooooong. I don't want to wait!"

"Haha, I will be sure to work on it, but I need to do this right. I also can't guarantee that I can make this work. This subject is a lot more complicated than you think."

It took a while to placate his daughter. Ves knew that he had to make quick progress on this matter, or else his girl might try out other crazy stuff.

"Goldie, I am counting on you to keep a closer eye on not only Andraste, but all of the children of the Larkinson Clan. If they ever try out a cultivation method that we have never personally verified and approved, you should do everything in your power to stop them or warn others so that they can step in, understand?"

"Nyaaa!"

The feline ancestral spirit agreed with Ves now that she became more cognizant about the possible risks and dangers.

With that set, Ves felt a lot more reassured that nobody would be doing anything foolish in the short term.

This subject was way more complicated and involved than what was apparent on the surface.

For one, Ves had no idea whether the Red Association was related to it in any way. He did not believe that the successors of the rebels who used to be part of the Five Scrolls Compact but eventually managed to topple this overlord were incompetent when it came to cultivation!

There was a good chance that the mechers had already dug out all of their accumulated knowledge on cultivation as soon as it became clear that the power of heaven had become available once again.

If that was the case, then the Red Association may already be working on developing proper cultivation methods that were safe and simple enough to make them available to the public.

Ves would probably be able to get more answers on this subject once he attended the conference that was scheduled to start next week.

His grandfather asked one more question before he left.

"Can this 'cultivation' business help mech pilots become stronger as well?" Venerable Benjamin asked.

Ves smiled at him. "There is no need for mech pilots such as you to do anything different from usual piloting activities. The thing about mech pilots is that they have always engaged in cultivation. The simple act of piloting a mech and using it to fight in a battle are enough to make progress in this area. Where do you think breakthroughs come from? It is even easier to track once you have become an expert pilot. You can track your progress by observing the rate of growth of your resonance strength over time."

Part of the reason why this was the case was because willpower cultivation paid much less attention to specific techniques than qi cultivation.

What willpower cultivators lack in versatility, they more than made up for it with force!

So long as the Kingdom of Mechs continued to hold dominion over mech pilots, there was no need for this privileged group of warriors to worry about the process of cultivation.

The bigger problem was getting there in the first place. Hopeful children such as Andraste deeply wanted to gain the qualifications to become a mech pilot, but reality had crushed so many of their dreams.

Ves was no exception in this regard. It was exactly because of his own disappointing experiences in his youth that he wanted to save Andraste from the pain that depressed him during his teenage years.

Was it truly possible to come up with a cultivation method that enabled spiritually gifted children like Andraste to develop or improve their own genetic aptitudes?

Ves believed it was possible based on his current theoretical framework on cultivation, but whether he could develop the right method remained to be seen.