Spiritual Seed Awakening - Chapter 21 The New Queen Rises

I wake again, and find an increase in my soul strength. The three eyed baby in my core seems less like a newborn now. It floats in my core with a happy and smug expression.

The blood moon bear seal on my soul has also grown stronger. I knew it had that ability, but I guess I can blame my own naivety on hoping it would not grow as strong as my soul. The baby remains unfazed by its blood red tattoos.

The capacity of my core in my main body has increased again. My second body’s scales have also improved. The qi it can hold also can increased. The greatest improvement is my capabilities is with the night lotus. I can now use it without feeling such a drain on my qi.

I practice the night lotus Mantra while I tunnel around the queen. It’s easier than usual. I don’t know why exactly, but I’m happy for the improvement. The queen still does not notice my soul as I exam her offspring. There five potential bodies.

The interesting one may die. It’s vitials seem irregual in comparrison to the other snakes. It bloodline strenth is much stronger though, this may be causing it’s vitiality flucations. I can only make a guess, but strong bloodlines may have a harder time reproducing if this snake vitaliy going through this.

There are two duds in this cluth. They both seem to be semi-aquatic snakes. I have no use for a semi-aquatic snakes. A snake that thrives in water has limited uses for me. The other two options are both unique snakes.

I can’t tell what breed of snake they are. One snake is is pink. It’s eyes are seem to hold a certain charm, but it seems to lack a poison gland. I believe it will develop into a constrictor with a charm like ability.

This possible host has its uses. The runt of the clutch seems familiar for some reason. I can’t tell why I feel as if I’ve seen it before. I search my memories for this creature, and I can’t seem to find it. The memories of creatures who’s souls I’ve eaten, hold no memory of this snake it seems.

It hits me then where I might have seen this snake before. I remember that snake corpse soul fragment I ate. It had a manny useless memories. I remember it healing from injuries from a rat. I focus on my memories of the snake corpse. I focus on the remains of the damaged soul trying to find memory fragments. It takes time, but I am able to see the familiar scene.

I see the other baby snakes from the eyes of my second body while it was alive. There are two others. I can’t do more than that. The memory only last two seconds. They were white with purple eyes similar to the pink snake. The memory was hazy at best, but as I replay the memory in my mind.

I catch more details each time. I know they were different then my second for some reason, and had a much stronger bloodline. I just know that those two snakes left a strong impression on this snake for it to hold on to the memory. I know that my options are limited, but the interesting snake seems like my most likely next host after witnessing these memories.

The little runt has a lower chance at life but would be a strong second choice. I’m not sure it’s strong enough to live past birth. The pink snake if I ran out of options. I lean toward poison use, and I have no need for a charm ability at the moment. I have a stong inclination that will come natrual to me.

I am happy the snake queen does not notice my many soul scans after all these times of observing her offspring. I wait a while longer window shopping my next body. The queen is interesting as well. I am able to judge that her core, and body are stronger than mine, but she lacks soul perseption.

This is not that odd I think. Undead, and creatures with souls do not just awaken soul perception. I am a soul devouring tree seed I think, so it’s natural that I have an affinity with soul. I feel a sudden cold feeling that stops my unnecessary questions, and I focus on waiting for the birth.

I keep tunneling around her chamber while practicing. The dula snakes keep bringing the Queen much larger quantities amounts of meat, and qi filed herbs, the rare core from time to time. I can see the queen channeling the snake cultivation method. It looks different in a living purely snake body, but it’s useful for me to learn.

This waiting feels taxing, but I make sure to use this opportunity. I have become more aware of time passing waiting for this snake to finish her pregnancy. I finish with most of my tunneling after some time.

The snake queen has revealed herself to be rather smart for a snake. She seems to match a small child in intelligence. The snake queen has impressive intelligence for a creature with no formal teaching. She is able to lead her tribe of semi-aquatic snakes. She is efficiently managing resources. She also knows when to bear her fang, and when to act regal.

This is like a child knowing when to cry to earn cookies from parents, and when to remain silent. The snake has shown herself to be impressive In both cultivation, strenth, and intelligence.

My time spent watching the queen snake has been entertaining, the biggest surprise I have learned is that she has an ability to exert her aura. I don’t have this ability. Hemlock did though. It’s like using your will to creature a space where you have influence.

Aura is not connected to soul strength. A strong soul like the spider had no such aura ability. She is able to exert a regal queen aura to make any snake weaker then her submissive. I got a taste of this by accident while tunneling.

There was a snake dula who grew tempted by a certain herb, and attempted to eat it. The queen, in a fit of rage, released her aura. The dula snake dropped to the floor, and released the herb in it’s mouth. The dula snake then slowly, and obediently brought it over to the queen. The snake then left to retrieve more for the queen.

I was too close to the queen, and my second body felt like someone put a boulder on my body. My body would have prostrated itself before the queen if it could. I was lucky to have been surrounded by dirt. I quickly used my main body’s soul strength to free my second body.

It only lasted a second, but her aura restrained my second body fully. It was like my bloodline was forcing me to obey from it’s very core. It was scary, but I am only able to weaken its effect due to a few things. First my my body being dead, and not fully being a full corpse snake yet.

I also was able to break free due to the strength of my soul after realizing what was happening after some struggle . I can free my mind, but the body weakening effect is too strong. I know my second body has a weaker bloodline from absorbing the bloodline from the corpse snake. It was runt of it’s clutch, and has a weak bloodline.

It did not inherit the strength of it’s siblings, but it had the potential to grow strong. This was then inherited by me by luck. This growing potential is something I need to consider. A strong bloodline may have limited prospects in the long run, and It’s also difficult to evolve a strong bloodline. I have come to hypothesize.

I learned alot from hemlock. She had to struggle to evolve her bloodline, while it was rather simple for me to evolve my corpse worm’s bloodline multiple times with little effort. A strongbloodline may have strengthens like an innate strong body from birth, and influence on those with weaker bloodlines, but fate is harder to change with a strong bloodline. A lion may not ever evolve into a dragon, while a fish may have hope it seems.

As I continue to contemplate the choice of bloodline strength, I hear the snake queen roar for the dula snakes. I don’t understand snake language, but after observing the queen, I picked up some basics. This roar means she summoning the doula snakes over, and from the tone with great urgency.

I have prepared for this, and I use my tail to slam against the tunnel near me. The opening to the rest of the cave is then sealed by the collapsed entrance. I knew the queen will give birth soon after monitoring her body. The rocks near the entrench will take some time to move. I watch as the queen bellow out in anger and pain with is annoyed hiss.

She knows something is wrong, but can’t figure out what it is. She moves away from the wall, and prepares for battle. She slither over to the collapsed rocks. She looks it over, and decides to ignore it. The rocks were difficult for me to tunnel through. It will take effort the queen can’t spare to open the tunnel.

She needs to reserve her energy for the birth. I examine her body. She knows she does not have long before birth. Suddenly she channels the qi in her body to induce birth. She remains on guard. Right now her body is at its peak, and this is what I expected. She has been taking in large amounts of energy, and qi.

She can not sense me since I’m using the Night Lotus Mantra, and Cloud Blocking Moon but she knows there is a threat nearby. I know she is preparing to fight to the death. I know after birth she will be weak, but this does not mean unable to fight. She still may be stronger than me after giving birth. It may also may risk my possible new body, but I have long since accepted the risk.

I swing my tail again against the ceiling of the cave, Then part of the roof collapses on top of the queen. I calculated roughly what would be enough to tire her out, and what may crush her. I’m honestly give it my best guess, I might have caused a cave in.

A huge portion of rock falls from the ceiling, and she covers her head in qi, and charges the rock. The rock Launches away from her mostly intact. She continues to destroy falling rocks, and bat away most of the larger rocks. The queen is covered in a qi barrier. I’m am not sure if caused a cave in, but that seems to have been avoided at this point. The ceiling does not look like it will break anymore.

The queen snake has a few inernal injurries, but cover of of he qi around her protected her , and my possible next body. The queen is mostly intact, but her qi has decreased by a large amount. She still has two thirds of the qi remaining in her body. She channels the remaining qi into the five snakes.

The two semi aquatic-snakes are unable to draw much qi into themselves. The pink snake draws a good amount of this qi into her body. The scales on her body, and eyes are strengthening quickly as she aborts the qi. There are signs a core might form soon. The interesting snake is drawing the most qi into its body. It’s already practicing the snake cultivation method.
for visiting.

The runt of the litter is actually absorbing the second most qi. It’s little body is like a dry stonge. It’s body is showing greater results of strengthening then the pink snake, but it’s behind in development.

The stress on the queen’s body seems to have unlocked a great potential. I happily watch as she uses her own qi to further the development of her clutch. She seems to have gained a second wind, and focuses a greater amount of qi into the clutch. This continues as she appears to age.

This is the second time I’ve seen someone use this life sacrificial method. I take note. It’s more complex than it looks. The creature that uses this method exchanges their vitality for qi.

This has not only increased the speed of inducing her birth, but also enhanced the strengthening effects on her clutch. I watch as leathery soft eggs are expelled from her body. It was not a pleasant sight, but I watch as this snake drains the remains of her energy to give birth.

I can tell the dula snakes are about a third of the way to done clearing the tunnel. I must act quickly. I slither through the tunnels I made before, and burst through the ground biting the queen’s neck. I do not inject poison into her body because I do not want to destroy her body.

I wrapped around her body as best I can. I simply constrict a small portion of her body. She releases her aura, and I attack her soul. The aura she releases becomes much weaker. My second body is now facing a much weaker aura. The aura she releases weakens over time as she does. I avoid her constant attempts to bite me. Which is easier said than done, but I can’t avoid her slamming my body again and again like a rag doll.

She may be low on qi, but in a fight to the death, she is beating me both physically, and figuratively. I can only heal myself using the snake cultivation method, depend of my strengthen body, and attack with my soul.

The physical battle rages as she slams my body against the floor collapsing a tunnel I made. I am not much of a fighter. I knew this going in, but if I can tire her out, I will win. I attaack her soul. It’s not weak, and is able to withstand my crude assault.

I mostly focus on timing to throw off her physical attacks. She slams her face into stone serval times. I am not long enough to restrict her movement, but I am strong enough to choke a snake. The struggle continues until the snake queen stops moving. I don’t think she is dead. I use my soul to look over her body.

She seems to be sleep for now. She has stopped moving, so I need to enact my plans. I slither off of her body. I quickly move towards her head. I aim my tail at her eye. I use less qi than before and use the night lotus needle technique. My tail pierces her eye, and then brain. I take her body into the ring.

I then slither to the bowl shaped hole in the the floor. It’s was opened when we fought. I quickly take rocks from the pit into my ring. I put then next to the queen in the middle of the floor.

I pull the queen from the ring, and use some some of the basic magic I saw Hemlocks mother use on the traitor clan members corpses. it does not require much qi. I use the snake queen’s own blood to draw a seal on her body. I quickly finish it, and place the final seal on queen’s forehead.

The blood from the queen’ body is still warm as is flows from her mouth and eyes into the bowl in the floor. This looks familiar. Hemlock’s use of this method to help her mother was ingrained into my mind.

I never practed this before using it on the queen, but felt confident I would not fail. The blood draining takes a few minutes. The dual snakes are tired from digging. This is an ablity not every snake has, and their endurance to keep digging would make any worm feel shame.

I heard them call for backup not long ago. I wait til her body is completely drained of blood. I them throw in the three baby snakes egg sacs. I place a soul binding on each one before I do.

I place a diffrent type of seal on the the pink snake. I have decided to allow her to become the next queen. It’s not an original seal. This was one of the first spells I saw her mother use to bind traitors. Hemlock’s mother would draw blood of relatives, and then draw seal on their body.

It was less cruel then when she killed them, but it was necessary. It was not easy to cover the death of so any clan members. This seal allowed her mother’s actions to stay hidden. The seal requires blood related relatives blood. The seals fade into the skin an hour after they are placed.

The Queen’s blood is used to make this seal on the pink snake. It’s less restrictive than a soul binding, but it does make the target under the influence of the person who placed the seal on them without the burden of expending soul to do so.

She will have more free will, making her a better servant. It takes a few minutes to finish, but the pink snake is taken care of for now. I only made a needle sized hole in the sac. My soul moved the blood into the sac, and drew the seals. I remove her from the pool of blood with my tail. Then placed some blood coagulant I found on the seal. I should hold long enough for her to hatch.

The pink snake continues to cultivate using her mother’s blood to strengthen herself. I leave her alone for now. The runt and the interesting snake are the only two remaining in the pool when suddenly the interesting explodes into a bloody mess.

The interesting one’s blood was unstable, and absorbed too much qi. Mistakes can be made. I have two more host if necessary. The blood of the corpse is added to the blood pool. The deep crimson blood is still filled with vitality as it is then drawn towards the runt of the litter.

I don’t know why, but it’s blood seem thicker, and contains more vitality then when it was just snake queen’s. I am not sure how powerful the father was for the child’s blood to be this strong. I would not have thought just adding the blood of the interesting snake would have this effect. The blood boils.

I being the the possession on the runt. I fuse a portion of my soul with its new born soul. I feel a primal force awaking in my new body causing a rejection of my soul. I laugh and add more of my soul. I use my second body to grab the soul of the queenl. I fourcely scan her soul with my main body’s soul, while maintaining the soul possession.

I learned what I needed from her. It’s not nearly as strong as the queen’s , but I am able to use an aura now. I quickly try it out. I lack the regal aura, but my bloodline strenth is enough to weaken this baby snakes rejection of my soul.

I quickly add more soul into It’s body, while having my second body restrain the queen’s soul. I’m vulnerable while possessing a body. I can’t move. The queen is fighting me, distracting me from my possession. I succeed if only temporally.

I feel memories awakening in the snake similarly as to when I searched the souls of countless corpse worms. I seen a giant snake battling a dragon, the battle is intense. The primal means of fighting between beasts with huge amounts of qi is terrifying, but I feel something in my second body resonating with these memories. They are both much older and stronger then hemlock.

This memory affects my third body, and soul rejection begins to take place. I see a phantom of a basilisk like snake apear on my third body. I can feel my grip on it’s soul weakening. These primal memories are causing me back lash. My grip on this souls feel like hugging thorns, but I refuse to give up this body now. I feel an intense pain in my soul. I without my own control is dive into the pool of blood.

My second body’s soul seems to resonate with the memories. I watch as the corpse worm soul transforms into that of a snake. It’s corpse blood flows as it slowly aborbs blood from the pool. The pink snake at this point is only held in place by my seal from joining me even under the effect of my seal.

After absorbing the remaining blood in it’s egg, it’s original pink body has grown darker. It’s now closer to purple. It’s eyes have absorb a greater portion of the nutrients than the rest of the body. The dula snakes suddenly burst through the cave wall with much vigar ready to defend their queen. They charge forward ready go attack me, but unfortunately for them they look directly into the eyes of this lighy purplish pink snake. Their minds are under her control.

They are commanded into the pool, and quickly killed by me. Their blood further fills the blood pool. The snake cultivation is used by both living and nonliving snakes. The rejection is further weaked when my purple snake looks into my new third bodies eyes. It only took a second, I but it’s guard was distracted, the phantom snake’s overlapping it’s body was gone. The new born’s soul was forceful fused with my own.

My soul’s fusion to both of my serpent bodies is further enhanced. These dula snakes are strong but only servants of the queen. I absorb the blood in the pool using tbe improved method phantom snake had shown in it’s memories while fighting. The giant snake fighting the dragon made me have hope that hemlock’s haterad for them would not cause me to lose my second body.

The blood pool is weakening. The dula blood was not as strong as the queens by large margin, but they make up for it on quantity. I have the purple snake throw her semi-aquatic siblings into the pool of blood. I crush both into blood paste. Their bloodline is trash, but they absorbed a good amount of their mother’s blood. The pool’s blood strength is relished again temporarily .

There is one snake left alive in the watery tunnel to call for more snakes. I take the dula snakes bodies into my ring. They may have value besides their blood. Thier bodies are dried husk now like the queen. The three other snakes that were helping the dula snakes were thrown into the pool shorty after they were.

Thirty six more snakes offer their blood to me. I take the souls of the snakes I’ve defeated, and allow my second body to hold onto them. My Second body can not digest them, but it can hold them temporarily due to being a product of soul fusion with me.

My main body still is over burdened with souls it has presently. I study the souls of the snakes. I figure I might one day need their memories if one day I need to play the part of a snake. While I search their memories, I have lavender, the purple snake slither to the main douwn to the main cave, and establish herself as queen.

I watch my newest body, and second body slowly change. The new potential in my second body is great. It seems to have advance in it’s body cultivation. I was worried it would not grow with me, but it seems to have gained wings in a sense. I have new found hope in it’s usefulness. My newest body I am more then happy with the results. The snake has white skin, with purple scales around it’s eyes. It’s bloodline seems to have grown strong if not stronger then the queen, but it’s dormant for now. It appears to be a normal snake, if I had not witnessed these changes I too would be fooled.

My main goal in coming here has been met. The queen’s skin is durable, and mostly intact. The bones of the queen are mostly intact. I have placed a seal on her soul. I don’t have much energy left after this exchange. It will only hold her awhile, long enough for me to sleep.

I force myself to focus, and pull all of the remaining snake souls from my second body. I pull them towards my main body once by one. I use their soul to heal myself. My soul is spread thin, and separated into three parts. I need to heal fast otherwise the spider soul, or hemlock’s fragmeng may cause me more soul damage.

The snake souls are like snacks for my core baby. It looks sick, and I see small bruises healing on it’s body. The seal glows a bright red. The spider soul, and hemlock’s fragment are being pacified by seal. If not for the seal, I would be dead stretched this thin. I absorb more then fourty snake souls before I feel healed. I left the queen for later, and killed a few more snakes.

The new servant, and body are a added bonuses. The low level blood magic turned out rather useful. The blood bear tribe has earned my respect. I did not need to use much qi, which allowed a new user such as myself to use it easily. I am too drained at this point. Healing by fourcely destroying and absorbing souls has left me mentally at my limit. I don’t even have enough soul to guard myself, I need sleep. I can only hope lila’s seal worked properly.