Spiritual Seed Awakening

I woke up to my world shaking violently. I find lilac's body tense, and in a defensive defensive stance near me. I am quick to notice large chucks of rock, and other debris surrounding my bodies. I quickly prepare to use my own poison, and soul to attack any would be creature who dared attack this den.

I expand my soul ready to defend myself, only to find a mostly empty cave. That's partly my fault. I devoured the souls, and blood of many snakes in the cave. The semi-aquatic water snakes left in the cave are stronger at least, but that's not unusual after gaining my help.

The cave is continues to shake violently for a few more minutes . The snakes seem tense, but not wary of attack. I am confused and on guard. I quickly prepare to leave this cave before it collapses from another earthquake. The rock is dense, but the shaking is so violent. I am not sure how long it will hold, and if there are aftershocks.

My third, and second body slither into the pool of water to exist the past queen's den. I motion for lilac to follow me in the best snake I can manage. I have only learned basics of snake communication. Lilac's injuries, and the new rubble around me when I woke up caused me unusual feeling. I was saddened that lilac was hurt, but thankful for her help.

I head directly to store rooms, and use my ring. I have become more familiar with this spaical ring. I can call things forth with ease, and store things with only a mental command.

There are lots of space inside of the shelves, but there is only so much room inside of the first level of the ring. I also must leave space for the bone fish. The shelves would take too long to open and store things. I have to open them manually with my soul. I. can only place things in the ring, I have not learned how to control where they land once they enter the ring.

I rush to the three main store rooms in the snake den. I grab meat, about thirteen cores, and as manny herbs as I can carry from each room.The space in the ring now has three piles of things not yet sorted along with the old queen's corpse.

I was able to organize the ring as I pulled things into the into. I have found it's easier to pull thing quickly from the ring if I am more sure of their location. If I need food, or a core, wasting time may mean death.

I multi-task as I as I slither towards the exit. I follow the main tunnel to the nearest air pocket for my living body, and lilac. I then command the bonefish that are left to meet at the clam. The soul binding I placed on each of them allows me to send communications to them. I can feel I lost two of them, but the rest have grown stronger again.

I am almost at the entrance to the snake den, when several semi-aquatic water snakes appear to block the exit. I am curious,  they have grown accustomed or fear me too much to attack me. They are only blocking the door. I am curious, but the violent shaking again of the cave has me no longer willing to to be underground. I have lilac look in their direction, and then they begin to move.

I exist quickly as a two snakes can. I sensed that water snakes were resisting lilac for some reason, but I don't know why. Even if there is a predator, or danger outside the snake den, it's too much of a risk remaining when the cave is shaking so strongly. I enter the open water outside of the den still prepared for the worst.

I know I may face death, but staying in the cave was certain death. The stress the walls are facing has caused cracking to form in the rock that makes up the cave. I am unsure how it has lasted so long. I would rather bet on a chance at life then stay in there any longer.

I am shocked with what I find once I look at the surrounding waters with my soul. I am met with water no longer clear, but murky with blood, and miasma. I know the bone fish are strong, and messy about killing, but this is too much for them to be guilty.

I extend my soul to the ground. The ground is cracked, and shows the same signs of stress as the den. The water is not calm, but this does not affect me as much as seeing what has become of this place. I am not surpised when the semi-aquatic snakes rush from the den, and do their best to shield their queen from both me from the waves in the water.

An explosion occurs above water. Debris plummets into the water. I am unsure if I should leave the water, or wait this out. I think I should leave before things get worse. An another explosion takes place, I quickly decided that since I risked leaving the cave, I could risk land as well.

I would call this sudden "bravery" stupidly. Blindly rushing forward is by no means a good idea most of the time, but the given circ.u.mstances have not allowed me to be cautious or hesitant. I swim towards the clam, and pleasantly surprised that the water is less filled with miasma. The semi-aquatic snakes are fearful of the clam, and guard their queen, but seem to relax a little in the absence of strong miasma.

The current levels of miasma in the water are similar to the surface originally. In my time being unconscious, the level has increased to dangerous amounts for the living. I am not the fastest swimmer, but after using a little bit of qi, I am almost as fast as the water snakes. They don't have gills, or fins, but they are incredibly fast in water.

I am happy to find more than half of the bonefish are there when I arrive. I quickly store them back in the same large water shelf. I am sure of the danger, nor do I wish I wish to be found by a possable enemy. I have no clue what has caused all of this. The earthquake is one thing, but the rise in miasma is worrying.

I wait, urgently seeking a chance to leave. I am able to collect the remaining bonefish. I am happy to have them back, but the only remaining issue is the black clan's home, and it's mysterious Pearl's. I can only absorb so many Pearl's at once. I have only absorbed four since finding the clam. The low grade pearls filled with death energy have helped me replenish reserves in my second body.

I have had less use for them since the water has grown contaminated with miasma. I have my second put a pearl in mouth, and crush it. I try something I have not done before, and use blood magic seal with death energy. I use four snake souls I gathered from those that died from invading creatures, and infuse death into them along with some blood.

The souls should improve the basic death seal blood magic. The spell is meant to conceal dead bodies. The requirement for blood is low. These blood seal has varying quality depending on preperation, and materials used but the one I am trying to mimic is of the lowest quality.

I do not have enough blood, and killing the water snakes would have negative long term effects on lilac. The meat I stored provided a minimal amount of useful blood, so I try adding souls, and stretching them with death energy. The four snake souls enter the blood sphere I created using the blood I gathered. The sphere begins to move as four long tentacles burst from the sphere, and slither around the Clam's home.

The bloody tentacles keep slithering around the clam's home until it is fully encased. The sphere has shank in size, and the tentacles that burst from the sphere return to it. Now eight tentacles are connected to a red covered rock, and sphere. I use the queen's blood mixed with some herbs I had prepared ealier that both disguise, and strengthen it.

The queen's blood is added, and it seems like living fabric covers the clam's home. This is only temporary at best. Hemlock's mother would be able to store bodies she drained of blood for for a few months depending on the seal she created.

The death energy would be sealed, and not give away the fact that a corpse is near. The mother daughter pair would later burn the corpses, and cover their tracks. The spell was not meant for unique death energy drawing metal/rock like this. It should at best stop the material from drawing anymore death energy for a short time period.

I place it in my ring after checking the seal will hold. I don't care if the seal breaks, but losing the food inside the ring would terrible. I begin to store a few large shelves with water. I have now completed the necessary preparation to leave. I find the clam nearby. It had shrunk in size since the last time I saw it.

It appears almost no different than a normal black stone. I guess the clam has similar concealment abilities. I quickly grab the clam with my third body, and hold It in my mouth. I have been watching the surface, and I have seen that the cave chamber shaking seems to have a pattern. I make my move when things seem safe from quakes for a bit.

I am no longer as weak as I was before. I slither confidently with great speed towards the air chamber. I have lilac, my third body and the clam close to me. My main body maintains a strong surveillance, while my second body slither fast as possable.

I kill any undead that near me so I can avoid alerting anything else to my presence. The living that are left ate few, and far between. The water chamber is rather large. I did not go in too deep, but the terrain seems to have changed enough for it to become difficult to navigate.

The strong mysisaa has killed many of the living normal creatures. Those left have some amount of qi in their bodies that is able to help them resist the miasma. The undead are mostly of the former living, but some are older. These older undead are much stronger usually. The living creatures I have found are territorial of their bodies of water. The water has helped them lower the amount of miasma they have to deal with compared to the open air.

The water chamber has definitely changed again since I last traveled it's damp cavern. The structure of this cave seems to have been wrecked, and rearranged. I can't make sense of the why, but I can sense the general direction where I woke up in this world. I follow that direction, and slither fast. A group of snakes slither forward. This group of my snake bodies, lilac , and water snakes is enough to scare off most creatures.

I make sure to avoid going close enough to creatures territories to avoid fighting. I have had to face creatures on land many times to avoid stronger water beast. The snakes are strong, but have limited strength on land compared to water. The water snakes do have one offensive ability. They can store water in their bodies for bouncy in water. The organ that allows them to store water also allows them to propel it with deadly fource using qi.

The semi-aquatic water snakes have all formed basic cores at this point, and have developed some qi use ability. They only have a natural affinity to water, and talent to go off of, and no formal training or understanding. That does not mean these snakes are to be taken lightly.

I had the bonefish slowly increase the strength of the creature they allowed through. Battle seems to have turned the water snakes into creatures worthy of their new queen. This is one of the reasons I bothered to raise their strength. I need to leave the cave via the air chamber. I am unsure if they will survive, but they should offer decent protection on the way.

I know my own weaknesses. I have limited options for ranged attacks outside of poison, and the effects are too strong. I still have a rather weak defenses, but make up for it with a strong body.

I can make up for my lack of ranged attack have a limited range of vision without using hemlock's soul vision method. The only issues are that it is draining, and I am unsure if it will allow others to see me if I see them. The method is not offensive, but can be useful when needed.

The shaking seem to have started again as I pass through another water basin. I have decided to travel through water when I can. The water snakes are much faster than they are land in water. Any weaker creature territories I ignore. This has cut douwn time on escape with our little group of snakes, and clam.

In between dodging falling stalagmites, and having the water snakes knock most of them off course. We have managed to only lose two water snakes. I took their souls, and bodies into my ring.

I maintain a formation of sorts. I have lilac stay in the middle with my third body. I lead the snakes to exist of the water chamber with my second body. The water chamber, as I grow closer to the other chambers is now mostly under water, and seems to be overrun with toads, and frogs. I smile at the memories of the toad. I finally found the family of the toad who's soul I had eaten I am almost certain.

They are about equal in strength strength to the water snakes on average, and there are more of them I don't have time to fight them. I take aim at the strongest toad. The frogs are weaker, but as a group they outmatch us in strength. I place a needle with laced with a strong concentration on snake venom, mixed with a few herbs to increase it's potency. I take aim at the toad, and attack.

The needle is coated with qi, and a thin layer of ice. This night lotus mantra has come to show it's true power. This needle is the combination of all of my practice. The arch is the air is all technique, hitting the toad in the blind spot. It hits perfectly the back of it's head.

The toad is dead on impact, but the best part is what happens next. The ice breaks, and releases the venom. The toad's body start convulsing violently, and then it seems to bleed a dark green blood. The diffusion is swift as them amphibians are still confused as to what is happening. I wait a few minutes, and a sweet soup is then presented to me.

I slither into the water with my second body, and store all of the corpes. The toads, and frogs hearts have all stopped. I then cultivate the corpse snake cultivation method, and absorb a great deal of poison from the water. It enters the poison sea in my second body. I have my third body enter the water, and find the level of poisonous water to be low enough to be safe without consuming. I am lucky non of my snakes have gills, or this would be a pain. I signal for lilac to follow. Lilac enters the water with the rest of the snakes, The cave shakes again. She dive deeper, and the rest follow.

The tunnel is deeper than I thought, but that helps as the poison is the further diluted as we travel. I help any snake that could not handle the poison. Absorbing the poison is easy enough. I only have to swim near a snake, and spread my soul over their body. The poison is then forced out via vomit. I absorb the poison, and contain it with within my body, to prevent it from harming others. I follow this process a few times. The effects have been more then enough.

I am lucky to find pockets of air in the tunnel as we swim. My third body, and lilac are able to hold their breath for good amount of time, but not as long as the semi-aquatic snakes. Their new strethed bodies are eel like in their ability to stay underwater, but they are not fish. This tunnel is rather long. My second body's zombie status comes in handy, and my main body soaks in the new frog poison mix.

The toad imprint on my seed coat has grown stronger. I notice that the snake imprint has become the most visible as well since last examining it. They are all rather faint, but the snake and imprints have changed. I feel stronger, I should absorb more poison.

We swim through the water like we are flying. The tunnel is mostly empty, and any creatures in the tunnel is too weak to dare face me. Those that do are quickly killed. I speed along, feeling like nothing can stop me, then suddenly the shaking happens again. This has not been the first time, but this is the strongest earthquake since entering the tunnel.

I extend my soul into the surrounding cavernous walls, and quickly ready my tail. I also release the bonefish from their shelf inside my of my ring. As soon as my soul enters the wall, I noticed somthing was diffrent. The walls are about to collapse. The bonefish form a formation. The form is simple, and forms a shield of bone fish defend my bodies, and lilac.

The walls were already cracked in certain area, I knew this was a possably, but I was not certain. The ceiling, and left portion of the tunnel collapse. I channel my qi into the bone-fish from all of my bodies. I swim forward, under threat of being crushed .

The bone fish are strong, and with qi filled bodies, they shield us well. I destroy what rocks I can, or knock them off balance with low quality needles I have made. The water snakes use streams of water to use debris off corpse, and cling to their queen luckly under the bone fish.

The effect of karma is not lost on me a me. I used this method of cave in on the queen, but I refuse to accept this fate. This fight against this cave is much worse then what I threw against the queen. This cavern is slowly falling apart. As I power forward, I have to move fast as I can while under threat. I was trying to be safe before, but now, soon as I escape this watery grave my main priority is speed.

The shaking stops again. I am shocked to find the bone fish, and water snakes are fine for the most part with "minor" injuries. My only aim was to survive that ordeal. The bonefish, and water snakes lived, so I put their health to the side for a second. I protected my second body at all cost.

My third body could only channel qi into the bone fish to increase its defenses, and keep hold of the clam. I only hoped it would survive. It was bruised and battered, but survived. The bone fish are damaged, but will heal with the use of the death Pearls, and time.

The weakest of them lost more than half of their bodies. I am not sure the extent they will heal, but I don't have anymore tone to think about them. The semi aquatic snakes are stronger than I thought. They look battered, but none are dead.

Lilac is smart and has earned my respect. I didn't even give thought to the semi-aquatic snakes in that situation. They have cores of their own, and if they die, small loss. Lilac used her eyes to command them to form their own formation. It was not as organized as my own, but she had them form up around her, and fire water attacks at rocks falling in our direction. I only noticed their eyes returning yo normal after the fact.

We managed to stay underwater in close quarters with rocks, and other debris falling at us. Our battle as a group against this force of nature was was successful. The only issues remaining now is that entrance is cut off, we have limited amounts of air, and the injured may hold us back. I know what I must do.