章 21: Chapter 21

Ludwig looked at the mirror in his room. He saw the short moment when his eyes formed, but he also saw how they quickly disappeared. What was weird was the sight he gained in that split second when he used the ability.

It was as if he lost the sight of everything except one thing – the soul of beings. He saw the soul of everything that had a soul in his surroundings. Even the small insects that had souls smaller than their own little body, but besides the souls, he could see nothing.

The darkness all around was so quiet, only the souls were like flames flickering in the wind. He actually wanted to test the strength, but he couldn't just kill anyone in open daylight, so he reduced the strength as much as possible and used the least strength of his soul to kill the bird, his strength was reduced to the same strength as that of the bird, but the bird still had no chance to survive that attack.

'I will need to test this more carefully.' He thought. And with this thought, he looked at his hand. The turquoise vine curled very strongly around his arm, but it didn't hurt at all, it was as soft as water.

"You wish to become my natal plant, don't you?" The plant instantly made a nodding motion, it seemed to be smart, so Ludwig smiled at it and went back into seclusion once again. There was no need to pay any heed to the ones outside. Onlookers with no status, that is what they are.

Ludwig put the other hand on the vine and recited a spell with his mouth, his fingers and his mind. The green of the vine became increasingly stronger till he asked in an ethereal voice "Do thou, vine of high origin, with to become the mine, Ludovicus de Anime Occulta?"

The vine seemed to hesitate for a single moment before it agreed and bowed towards Ludwig's empty eye sockets. Light came out of Ludwig's dantian and fully entwined with the vine, before it seemed to suck the vine, and the vine disappeared into Ludwig's dantian.

He smiled 'Another year, that's the time I have. Till then…' he looked at the jade slips of Spiritual Planter as well as the one for his cultivation. 'I shall master you.'

…

Another year passed. During this year, Ludwig learned the basic techniques of Spiritual Planting as well as the advanced techniques available to Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The three basic techniques contained: Bright Sun, a spell to make the sun brighter and regulate it to the needs of the plant. Spiritual Rain, a spell to condense the spiritual power in the air, merge it with the hydrogen in the air, and form rain that drops down to nourish the plants. Lastly there is the Nutritious Earth spell, it is a combination of metal and earth that forms minerals nutritious to plants in the earth they lay in.

As for his foundation establishment technique, he chose the one that was most compatible with him. In truth, there are many basic spells as well as spells for foundation establishment, but it is recommended that someone who isn't a full spiritual planter should take only the most basic spells as well as spells that are very close to their cultivation art or natal plant.

Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be an art that was for soul cultivators, in truth this isn't unsurprising. The physical world has vitality, this is something the nether world, and generally all souls, lack. They also have a vitality, but it is vastly different and can't be compared.

So naturally, Ludwig took a spell that was yang but still fit his vine, it was the Rapid Growth spell, which would quickly convert spiritual power into temporal vitality for a plant.

In most cases, this is useless, since the vitality that is produced that way is like spiritual power that will fade. Nonetheless, Ludwig still chose it, because this would help at least partially when he would open the branch. Even if the plants grown with that are of lesser quality and can never reach higher grades, this wouldn't be bad.

Coming from the industrial age, Ludwig has long understood that high quality had few buyers while low quality would be sold in wasteful quantities.

Then Ludwig looked at himself, without a single movement his perception changed wholly. He was once again in the ethereal world. He moved and moved, soon he left his yard, then the surrounding residences and arrived at the general affairs hall of the steward palace.

He used the ability 'Ethereal Walk' that comes with his cultivation art progressing. Him being able to instantly walk in the ethereal world is truly a surreal thing to happen, the cultivation art didn't include this possibility and gave one the ability to do this with this ability.

It strengthened the bond but also made it more invisible, so although Ludwig was able to move before already, he was able to move much further than prior. In addition to that… once one learned the walk spell and gained great proficiency, one would be able to do something else.

Ludwig entered the building. Like all other building, it was as if it was made of glass, but the glass was full of mist, and one wasn't able to see through anything. In the main entrance, instead of the receptions he saw prior, he saw a whole different world.

No matter what, the Steward Palace was a key place and simply using the ethereal world to spy on the physical world wasn't possible. This didn't matter, Ludwig just went ahead and walked to a different reception.

Unlike before, this time it wasn't a human but a little spirit that stood behind the counter. Each world has their own spirits, while sentient beings existed in all three worlds, spirit would exclusively exist in their respective world. Naturally for spirits to go further, they would become similar existences to sentient beings, not that they are any less sentient, but that is a different topic.