Immortal Kingdoms

Leonardo and Wendy approached a simple stone house that was crafted artificially into the hollow of a massive boulder.

"Come in,"

A powerful yet low voice buzzed through the closed stone door. Leonardo stepped forward and pushed the door open. However, the door wouldn't even budge from the place.

Wendy stood to the side without saying anything while the little girl watched curiously, wondering what was this big brother doing.

"Big brother, don't play around!" The little girl pouted before standing next to Leonardo. Then, she placed her little hands on the door and pushed it open.

Her thin arms went stiff as an explosive strength passed through them, transmitting to her palms that pushed the door back with a loud creaking sound.

Leonardo smiled bitterly and patted the girl, "Got it, I won't play around next time,"

However, he was deeply shaken inside, this was a place swarmed with freaks.

Not even a child around Kieran's age was spared. Perhaps, this is what Rubin meant by condensing the talent and potential of both parents into a single seed for the next generation.

The little girl laughed and rushed off into the distance while Leonardo and Wendy stepped inside the stone house. There was only one room inside, and the Patriarch was seated on a beast hide mat while eyeing Leonardo with interest.

"An outsider?" The man asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

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"Patriarch…" Wendy went forward and directly explained her encounter with Leonardo from start to finish, though she overlooked the terms 'higher realms' and simply mentioned that Leonardo promised to take someone back with him past the Sky Mountains if they allowed him to temper his body the same way they did.

The Patriarch nodded, his sharp eyes seeming lost in thought as he sighed, "I can't make this call, you'll have to ask the Tribe Elder for her opinion about crossing the Sky Mountains. As for the tempering of the body, the energy of our Divine Pool is limited in capacity, and we're currently using it to nurture the next generation before locking the pool down for the next two to three decades…"

Leonardo didn't realize that tempering his body would result in such consequences to the Ye Tribe, feeling astounded. Seeing his expression, the Patriarch understood his thoughts and explained patiently.

Apparently, the Divine Pools were natural resources connected to the energy veins spreading throughout the domain. Of course, there were now located in the outer regions where the energy is the weakest.

These natural pools are suffused with both the liquified worldly energy and the pure thunderforce that travels all the way into the depths of the earth from the perpetual thunderstorms outside.

Each hidden tribe occupies a natural Divine Pool, and they usually allow the pool to accumulate thunderforce-suffused worldly energy for a set period of time before allowing the pregnant women to cultivate within the pool throughout their pregnancy, and later allow the newborns to temper their bodies to the pinnacle of their potential before mating again.

The fertility rate of a clan is tightly bound by the size and volume of their natural Divine Pool, as no one wanted to watch their children die an unnecessary death due to the lack of natural resources.

Children that weren't tempered through the period of pregnancy before birth are too weak to survive in this atmosphere, which displays the importance of the Divine Pool.

Leonardo sank into thoughts for a while before finally asking, "What if I could find my own Divine Pool?"

The Patriarch blinked, Wendy looked at Leonardo weirdly.

"If there were any Divine Pools around, do you think they'd be unoccupied up until today?"

"What if I was to forcibly take one from an enemy tribe?"

"That's impossible! Every tribe is doing its best to survive, who has the time to start conflicts with other tribes? Don't judge us based on your standards across the Sky Mountains. On the other side, there might be millions if not billions of people, but each tribe here has a handful of capable people to go hunt and feed their handful of children, a life is too valuable, far more valuable than any Divine Pool out there. If you bring up the matter of cutting off the lifeline of another tribe in my presence, don't blame me for being rude!"

The Patriarch's eyes grew sharp as dense killing intent bubbled in the depths of his pupils. "We're not trying to become rich, nor are we striving to become the strongest; we are simply trying to survive. Keep that in mind."

Even Wendy had a sharp expression as she looked at Leonardo.

Leonardo was speechless and felt embarrassed, he could only apologize for suggesting such a thing. Then, he decided to simply not associate himself with these tribes to avoid causing trouble for them with his world views.

"I spoke too rashly, I'm sorry. My hands are soaked with too much blood to stay with you guys for too long, I just hope you would allow me to inspect your Divine Pool, I might discover some clues to find some more in the deeper areas,"

The Patriarch sighed and waved his hand, "It's fine, you didn't know about our circumstances so I wouldn't hold you accountable for those words. At the bottom of things, your intentions were leaning towards helping my Ye Tribe, I appreciate the thought."

He then rubbed his chin and said, "How about this; I'll allow you to test your luck, but you'll have to take Wendy along when you leave. If you do find an unoccupied Divine Pool, give half its energy to this girl Wendy, what do you think?"

"Patriarch?!" Wendy was surprised, was that even possible?

"If he relied only on himself, he would get lost in the thunderstorm. If you go alone, you won't be able to find any Divine Pools before the dense energies corrode your body beyond the capacity of purification. Since you two can help one another, why not simply try it out?"

Said the Patriarch. Without the ability to cultivate, it is impossible to build layers of worldly energy membranes to protect their internal organs against the erosion of the chaotic energies, preventing the tribes from branching out into new locations of Divine Pools.

These great tribes of hundreds of thousands of people slowly wilted down to a dozen few in each tribe, which was incredibly remorseful. Just as the Patriarch said, these people are merely looking to survive and nothing more.

"I can agree to that," Leonardo nodded, feeling like he owed them at least this much because of his irresponsible remarks. Since Leonardo agreed, Wendy had no other complaints to make.

Then, the Patriarch dismissed the two of them and asked Wendy to accompany Leonardo as he inspected the Divine Pool. On their way, Wendy whispered to Leonardo about the past of the hidden tribes and how their numbers declined from hundreds of thousands to their current state.

All of that wasn't from conflicts between the tribes, but because the tribes were selflessly exploring for one Divine Pool after the next. Even when they found a Divine Pool, it could only accommodate a dozen or so people, where would the rest go?

Hearing this bleak history, Leonardo couldn't help but sigh. At first, he wanted to see if he could bring back a few of these people to join the war with him, but now he erased everything about that train of thought.

"You've had it rough these years," Leonardo said emotionally, feeling heavy in his heart as he observed no more than ten children running around, and the few pregnant women in the Divine Pool ahead.

This was truly too harsh of a condition to live in.

The Patriarch's words rang out in Leonardo's ears, and he suddenly came to realize a profound truth.

To survive, isn't that the goal of everyone in the cultivation world? However, their means of survival differ depending on their environment and the tools available to them.

Before long, Leonardo and Wendy arrived close to the Divine Pool, but they were far enough from the women not to disturb them.

"You can start now."

Wendy spoke with a hint of curiosity, anxiety, anticipation, and a bit of hope in her beautiful black eyes. If Leonardo could truly connect to the main energy vein and locate the other Divine Pools by using his cultivation, this will bring hope to many of the hidden tribes.

Leonardo nodded and crouched near the pool before submerging his right arm inside.

BZZZT!

Pure thunderforce rushed through Leonardo's arm, but he hurriedly absorbed it into his cells before forming hand seals with his left hand. Within the energy pockets of his cells, an illusory gate with ink-black lightning dancing across its surface opened, taking in the pure thunderforce directly.

Then, thin filaments of black lightning rushed into the pool, a trace of Leonardo's spiritual force contained within.

The gates were directly linked to Leonardo's sea of consciousness, and these wisps of spiritual force were merged into the black lightning inside his soul pearl, meaning they had an ephemeral connection to his soul from the ethereal dimension.

Wendy gasped when she saw millions of silky black lightning bolts disappear into the Divine Pool as they rushed against the currents and into the depths of the earth in the blink of an eye.

She covered her mouth in shock and held her breath, afraid to disturb his concentration.

She never knew that the techniques of cultivation were so miraculous. She heard stories from the Tribe Elder, but this was too unbelievable of a scene.