Chapter 5937 Competing Visions


    "Andraste is too young to determine her path." The Superior Mother exined. "She needs to be at least 10 years old to find out whether she is suited to be a mech pilot. If this possibility is denied from her, then she will need additional time to choose what she wants to be instead."


    "I already know what I want to do! I want to be a swordmaster!" Andraste whined.


    The Superior Mother smiled at her granddaughter. "There are more ways for you to be strong than to wield a sword, especially now that we have entered the Age of Dawn."


    "I don''t care! I want to be a swordmaster!" The little girl repeated.


    Both Ves and Cynthia knew that Andraste might actually stick to this conviction a few yearster.


    That did not mean they were ready to exclude every other possibility. There were still other ways for her to make good use of her gifts. She could study warfare and be a military officer if she wanted. Bing good at swordsmanship was helpful, but there were better ways to boost her ability tomand troops.


    Right now, there was so much uncertainty about Yaika''s future role that thepanion spirit needed to keep her options open.


    The best way to do that was to leave the spiritual kitten alone and allow her to continue to rely on natural cultivation.


    That was not the best solution, though. Natural cultivation may be safe and automatic, but it was also slow and inefficient. The biggest problem Ves had with it was that it was not directed enough to know where it was heading towards.


    The act of cultivation allowed a practitioner to take control over his or her own destiny. Ves believed it was always better to take control over the future rather than let someone dictate their lives!


    This meant that for Yaika to grow more efficiently, Ves and his mother needed to choose a cultivation direction for the juvenilepanion spirit.


    This was where Ves and Cynthia started to disagree with each other.


    "Thepanion spirits that you have created for your children are fascinating." The Superior Mother admitted. "It is interesting how you have imnted them with the seeds of borrowed talents. Right now, Yaika has only managed to ''unlock'' her death talent. That leaves her with 5 more talents that she has yet to activate. With the right cultivation method and changes in behavior, she can steadily work towards unlocking a specific talent before increasing herprehension in the new element."


    "That does not mean it is necessarily a good idea to have Yaika work towards unlocking her life attribute." Ves frowned. "You have always fixated on the idea of putting opposites together, but not everything has to turn into a yin-yang diagram. You are burdening my daughter with way too powerful stuff. She''s still a kid! She doesn''t even fully understand what it means for people to die, so how can she understand both death and life at the same time?!"


    His girl strongly objected to this statement!


    "Uhm, I''m not stupid, papa. I do know what it means to die! Larkinsons die all the time whenever they fight."


    Ves did not really believe that was the case, but he did not bother to correct her on this point.


    "Mastering the power of life and death will ensure that Andraste bes more powerful than any other cultivator." Cynthia argued. "Trust me on this, Ves. They may not sound impressive, but that is because you have outright cheated by artificially imnting the extremely rare talents rted to life and death inside herpanion spirit at the same time. Do you know how many cultivators would kill to possess even a fraction of Yaika''s talents? Life and death are the most valuable elements that you have imnted into her, especially when they can be used inbination. She will truly be able to shine as a qi cultivator or creation cultivator."


    "Qi cultivation sucks in purebat." Ves crossed his arms. "Any high-ranking mech pilot can counter a qi cultivator of the same rank. This is an absolute fact. I seriously doubt that Andraste wants to be a mech designer or traditional cksmith. I would support her if she chooses to be one, but until then, it is best not to force herpanion spirit to tackle a challenge that is way too big."


    He did not deny the attraction of being able to master the power of life and death, but he thought it was too wasteful and inefficient.


    The Ouroboros had taught him that it was a lot more troublesome to cultivate two opposing elements at the same time. The rewards may be insanely lucrative, but it would take a long time and a lot of needless hardship in order to fully master and fuse two conflicting E energy attributes!


    Perhaps Andraste may grow ambitious enough to tread on this difficult path, but she should only do so when she was older and more aware of the implications of her choices.


    For now, he wanted her to take it easy. Herpanion spirit was still young and malleable enough that she could easily change her cultivation without suffering too many repercussions for the foreseeable years.


    "What do you suggest, then?" The Superior Mother frowned.


    "Yaika has already embraced the death element, so that cannot be changed. Thepanion spirit also has a part of Qnxo inside of her. I think it would be a good idea to unlock this talent andprehend the nature of protection. If Andraste wants to be a soldier, then I want to make sure that she possesses the means to protect herself. I have fought in enough battles to know that it only takes a single ident for people to lose their lives. If Andraste can develop a greater ability to protect herself, then I won''t have to worry about her life so much."


    As a parent herself, Cynthia more than understood Ves'' concerns.


    "Soldiers die, Ves. If Andraste truly wants to be a fighter, then we should not coddle her too much. Death and protection do not synergize well with each other. They can even conflict with each other. Why do you want Yaika to develop a talent for protection?"


    Ves adopted aplex expression. "I don''t want my daughter to fight for the wrong reasons, I suppose. Perhaps I am imposing on her too much again, but it is far too easy for her to embrace the act of killing for its own sake. She should fight to protect her friends and rtives. Whenever our n is at risk, I want my second daughter to be a guardian for our fellow Larkinsons."


    "Are you asking her to be a knight mech specialist if she is suited to be a mech pilot?" Cynthia skeptically asked.


    "Not necessarily, mother. Let me exin a potential vision for Yaika. I envision her to be a cat that does not specialize in the lives of others, but collects the spirits of the in when they get loose. No matter whether Andraste is in the trenches or not, herpanion spirit should be able to make herself useful by roaming around and picking up the spirits of the dead before they dissipate. Thebination between death and protection should allow her to preserve the spirits once theye into her possession. After that, my daughter can deal with spirits properly."


    "You cannot bring the dead back to life so easily, Ves. What I have managed to aplish is the exception rather than the rule. It takes age, power and wisdom to define death itself."


    Ves was not so sure about that. Qnxo had managed to transcend death as well, and she was originally a giant exobeast, no, a mutated beast!


    Sure, Qnxo umted both age and power back then, but her ''wisdom'' was rather questionable.


    How she managed to ovee death while many other humans and exobeasts failed to do so was a mystery, but Ves had no reason toin.


    "I am not ambitious enough to abolish death for all of our nsmen." Ves said. "However, I think it is still useful for Yaika to develop the ability to harvest and contain the remnant spiritualities of deceased soldiers. We can put the ones derived from Larkinsons and other friendly humans into appreciative resting ces. We can use the ones derived from our alien enemies as useful ingredients. Yaika can either absorb them to fuel her cultivation or hand them over to someone who can convert them into useful products."


    Someone such as himself.


    Cynthia pondered over the suggestion. Her expression softened.


    "You want to turn Yaika into the equivalent of a priestess of the dead."


    "No. Not a priestess. Maybe a… valkyrie?"


    "Whatever characterization you use, it does not change the fact that this is an unusualbination. I know how tobine life and death. I have bountiful experience in doing so. I can mentor your daughter in how to best apply herpanion spirit''s powers."


    That did not reassure Ves in the slightest!


    He believed that his mother may be an expert in this area, but he did not want her to exert too much influence over Andraste''s growth!


    Who knew what kind of unrepentant war criminal Andraste would turn into after a few decades of taking lessons from a woman who was formerly known as ''Cultmaster Original Sin''!


    "As much as I want the best for my daughter, I still think it is inappropriate to ce such a heavy burden on her shoulders. Mastering the power of death and protection is much more suitable for a soldier. Death will make her more lethal, while protection will help to safeguard her life. Thebination between the two E energy attributes will allow her to manipte the battlefield in more profound ways."


    The two could not agree on Yaika''s best course forward. Even if thepanion spirit would still be able to change to a different trajectory, spending several years on practicing the wrong method still amounted to a considerable waste!


    "Instead of arguing with each other, perhaps we should let your daughter decide."


    That was not the best idea, but it should break the deadlock.


    "You''ve been listening to us talk. Whichbination do you prefer the most, Andraste? Do you want to explore the mysteries of life and death and wield mind boggling powers, or do you want to get ready for the battlefield byprehending the fusion between death and protection?"


    Andraste announced her preference right away. She did not need to spend any moment of thought to contemte her choice!


    "I would rather be a valkyrie! I think you are right, papa. If I want to be a soldier, I should develop the powers that can best enhance my performance. Trying to study thebination between life and death is too… academic."


    The Superior Mother frowned. "Do not look down on thisbination. Mastering the power of life and death can allow you to reap the souls of enemies from a distance. It will enable you to heal yourself when injured, and consume the souls of the dead in order to replenish your energy."


    "Those are extremely high-end abilities. How long will it take for Andraste to pull off these abilities?"


    "Yaika is a natural talent in these elements. It should not take too long. It is difficult to estimate a more precise range." N?v(el)B\\jnn


    "It should take decades at the very least." Ves threw out his own guess. "That is way too long. Yaika needs to bebat effective as soon as possible."


    Andraste walked over to her father and hugged his side. "I think your idea is better, papa. I love grandma, but her ideas are too old-fashioned."


    "Hahaha, well said! You''re right! Your grandmother wants to revive a relic from the ancient past, but we live in different times. Many threats are on the horizon. Our n wille under increasing threat. What we need the most are protectors, not mystics. You can change your mindter on, but I hope for now you learn a bit more about how to protect yourself and your fellow family. Does that sound okay to you, pumpkin?"


    "Uhm!"


    "Maaw!"