Spiritual Energy and Elements

I don't know how long I slept, but when I woke up, I was lying on the head of my hand as it moved quietly through a dense forest of trees with leaves so dark they were almost black.

A soft, icy breeze blew past me as I woke up. The cold helped me to fully awaken, by the time it did, we were in the same cave where I was born. As soon as we arrived, as usual, my mother wrapped herself around me, as a way to protect me.

Unlike before, however, she looked at me with curious and concerned eyes, inspecting me from top to bottom. I let her do her thing and inspected myself as well.

I had grown a few inches, and looked wider. Finally, I don't look like a black worm anymore! When I went to touch my head with the tip of my tail, however, I noticed that I now had rattles.

Isn't that rattlesnake stuff? Easy, what is our race?

My mother made some sounds to get my attention, and when I was paying attention to her, she asked me to try to use my energy. Seriously, I have to learn how she speaks so much with just one look.

Just like when I was learning to use Ki, I tried to feel my Dantian so that I could channel my energy through my body. But I encountered a problem: I didn't have a Dantian!

I tried again, thinking that I couldn't because now my body was that of a snake, but still, I couldn't find it. In a few seconds, millions of thoughts flashed through my mind. In the world I came from, to be weak is synonymous with being vulnerable to everything and everyone. Not having a Dantian means that I cannot cultivate. Not being able to cultivate means being subject to everything and everyone, having no will or control over my own destiny!

How can I go back and see my daughter? And if my mother gets hurt again, how will I protect her? I refuse, I refuse, I refuse... I REFUSE TO BE WEAK AND A SUBJECT TO THE WILL OF OTHERS.

Perhaps sensing my inner outburst, my mother gently rubbed her huge head against me, snapping me out of the spiral of negative thoughts, gesturing for me to pay attention to her.

Looking into those red eyes made me calm down instantly, and I focused all my attention on my mother. Her eyes glowed faintly in the dark cave, and I finally understood the basics of how to use my new power.

She must have used some secret technique, which transfers information directly into the receiver's soul, or something that would awaken my instincts, but at this point, I didn't care.

My mother, or my instincts call it spiritual energy, all the beasts of this world have it. Millions of years ago, elemental spirits felt sorry for how weak the beasts were, and how they always lost in their territorial struggle to other existences.

So, in exchange for their bodies, they donated their elemental energies to all the beasts, and thus every species gained an element. This knowledge also allowed me to know how to use spiritual energy.

I don't need to order the energy to move, I don't need to force it out, it is instinctive to use the energy that the elemental spirits have given us. And with this new knowledge, so I did.

I focused all my attention on making a small tree, similar to the one my mother had created in the clearing. And as soon as I did, I felt the energy leave my body and seep into the ground, creating a small plant that was of no use at all.

But I have never felt so happy looking at a small plant. I looked at my mother snake, and for a moment she seemed to be smiling.

I DID IT!!!

I never felt so close to nature, and this feeling, this natural connection that formed between me and all the plant life around me made me so excited that I tried to create more plants.

However, after creating two more, I fainted due to excessive use of spiritual energy...

*******

So, months passed, and I learned many things in the meantime. I learned how to hunt, I learned how to survive and use my spiritual energy accurately. I learned how to avoid dangers and survive in this new underground world. And I also learned about the elements.

Different from the Immortal World, where the main elements are: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, here, the main elements are divided into two groups, creation and destruction. On the creation side there is: Earth, Water, Air, Light and Plant. On the destruction side: Fire, Darkness, Storm, and psychic powers, in general.

These are the main ones, but there are so many sub-elements that it is difficult to list. And the differential in this world is that no element is considered bad or evil, it all depends on how you use it to survive and prosper. They also use it for other things outside of battle, like my race uses it to grow trees, and to keep them from getting sick. In the Immortal World this was never thought of, since we thought we should let nature take its course, without interfering in its growth or destruction.

I have also grown a lot in these past months. From one meter and something, I am now two and a half meters, and maybe I will grow to my mother's size. My horns have grown too, but they are not yet as imposing as my mother's.

Today is a special day for me and for my mother. It is the day that marks my independence. I have to leave my mother's territory and seek my own, either by conquering new land, or by driving the predators out of an area and declaring it my territory. My mother was incredibly clingy and reluctant to let me go, but somehow I managed to get her to let me go.

I learned the technique she used to speak even without words or speak with the soul, it is a skill our lineage has, it allows us to make others feel our emotions more vividly.

And over the crying look of my mother, I set out on a trip to search of my own territory... new challenges... and enemies for me to slaughter, hehehe... oops, I let my murderous intent leak out, all the animals near me ran away...

I have to learn to control myself...