Chapter 2 - So I Qualified for Reincarnation?

After a millennia or five of effort - who can really remember? - a lone cultivator sagged within the voidspace she had built out of a 'borrowed' realmshard. Hairline cracks were emitting sickly green light all across her once exquisite form. If she had more energy to move her body, she might have felt like screaming in either agony or impotence.

As it was, she could only chuckle inwardly and lament her dip in fortune.

'Though rather than a dip in luck, isn't this a total severance? There will be nothing left of me to receive any rebound on a wave of fortune.'

 The woman had failed in her final ascension, though it was hard for her to judge the reason. She was neither too old or too young compared to those who had achieved success. Her talent should have been at least as high as the last few divine ascenders. All of the sigils she'd carved still looked appropriate through the dwindling lens of her spiritual sense. The ritual materials she had used had been of the proper quality. She was sure that there were existing Divinities who had made do with much less than she had prepared.

'If I had another chance, I wouldn't even know what to fix.'

The cracks spread violently and one of her upper limbs fell off before being consumed by the virulent green energy. Released from the woman's body and spiritual control, the corrupted essence formed the accumulation into a ghastly spike that pierced down to spread more cracks into her surroundings.

'Certainly, the whole reason I built this place was to contain the adverse effects of a failure… but it is a little regretful to have to witness it all being destroyed.'

…

'I should have more regrets than that, shouldn't I?

She thought back on all the past feuds that had been settled, either by her own hand or by that of fate. The attachments to people that had formed and faded. She felt it was almost unfortunate… not having anything major lingering in her final moments. Maybe if she had something, anything, then it could have brought out enough willpower to survive. After all, while there was next to no chance to live in any form after a failed divine ascension, there was a record of it.

'One so ancient that no one could possibly verify if it was false. Am I being defeatist? Maybe. It's not like I am privy to how they managed to do it in the first place, just that it was done. Perhaps someone intervened on their behalf. I can't think of anything other than a more powerful existence taking pity or interest in that person as a reason for-'

As she spent her last moment in pointless contemplation, the rest of her form corroded into pure essence that joined the assault on the voidspace. That day, a Seventh Echelon Demi-god died - and not a single soul, mortal or otherwise, particularly cared.

- - -

An elongated period of warmth and comfort as sounds coerced a burgeoning psyche into accepting the reality of being a living being. Again.

Eventually that too was taken, as the warmth of existing as a still gestating infant was replaced by the chillier air outside the womb. Crawling or being pushed through and out of innards was hardly a new experience, even if doing it in this form was. It wasn't extremely pleasant. It was also the reason why she wiped out the population of any type of carnivorous worm she learned about in her former travels.

'Snakes were bad, too, but - wait, why am I bothering thinking about this?'

She partially opened this new form's eyes. The newborn expected them to be undeveloped and she was right. She hadn't bothered to risk her host - that is, her new *mother* - being adversely affected by an unborn child attempting to cultivate inside of her. That's why light was too bright, everything at a distance was blurry, and what little she could make out was monochrome. Like a fledgling spiritual sense.

'I wonder how long it will take to make meaning of this woman's blathering.'

After about an hour of listening to her - and a male that was probably a new father who pressed his forehead to hers - as well as three or four other female sounding voices… the newborn shut her tired eyes. A few hours later they were opened again as she was jostled to be fed. She understood that it would be better to go through this event as much was commonly expected for the next 'long' while, even if she could probably use her memories to quickly reach a level of physical cultivation that would require minimal food.

'Even if they bring in a doctor that tells them I am healthy, your child not desiring to eat is going to cause excess worries. I shouldn't be ungrateful. Also… it's not that bad? It tastes at least good enough that it is no wonder an infant is usually willing to suckle. Maybe I'll do it for a while and then just 'pretend' on some sort of similar schedule they set. If I don't 'need' the food, I could still use the milk as a resource to refine myself if I hide it well. Ah, but I'll also have to be careful not to grow too quickly…'

The reincarnated soul who managed to keep her memories - through some inexplicable means that she wasn't all that interested in contemplating lest someone's 'mistake' be corrected - began formulating detailed plans to regain as much strength as she could feasibly hide… as rapidly as possible. No matter the era, fate loved to let the strong encounter the weak. She'd been both at times throughout her last life and knew *exactly* which one she preferred to be.

- - -

After a month, the local language was essentially mastered. There were of course a lot of technical terms no one had ever brought up in front of her, but everything else had been able to parse through the context of what she was certain she had learned.

If she hadn't spent so long being a 'normal' baby it may have been quicker. As it was, most of her days were spent asleep so there wasn't very much time to absorb and study. There was also a limit on the number of people that came near enough to hear talk at first.

At least her vision improved in the weeks that went by, so she had at least been able to memorize the faces of everyone that was allowed near. Her birth mother was a decent beauty with straight reddish blonde hair and her father was reasonably handsome with short cropped brown.

'It seems that I can't actually tell when people are attractive for the time being. It does make sense. When physical cultivators become Defiers, their looks have often been sculpted to the utmost… and while I feel like most of these servants that look down at me are probably 'okay' - I still can't rid myself of the comparison to the last few hundred individuals I interacted with before I died.' 

Some of the simpler subjectivity of a person who had lived through the Lower Realms of cultivation had long been lost in her seclusions. She had plenty of time to do much of nothing… so the baby expected those sorts of impressions and common views would grow alongside her.

By the third month, she could technically walk but refrained from doing so. As the extremely young heiress to the Goltbred family, there were simply too many eyes on her at all times to act so suspiciously. That's why she primarily focused on cultivating her spiritual power. While it hadn't been initialized to that of an average infant, it was beyond labeling as only 'reduced' from the apex she'd reached. It had been absolutely gutted.

'Well, it's still a little stronger than most of the people in my surroundings.'

The strongest servant in that regard was a Late Initial stage spiritual cultivator. Her father was a Second Echelon Enchanter in that field, though it wasn't his true strong suit. That belonged to his apparently impressive physical cultivation as a Fourth Echelon Primalist. Still, for now the young baby could only have managed to just break into the spiritual Enchanter stage - without drawing suspicion.

Because of that she was able to successfully reignite the connection to her Astralism, which was plenty enough to mask her surprising Mid Initial accomplishments in physical and essence cultivation. Even if her power output was weakened, her extended history of refining control over that Aspect of cultivation was not for nothing. Part of her was excited for the day when she could hide becoming an Enchanter in the other fields. While her soul was clearly the same, there was little to no way her body would be.

Which meant her Physique and Element Aspects would be new! It was something to look forward to that would eventually relieve a little boredom. Sleeping so much was definitely not stimulating, even if as a cultivator one was used to not moving for extremely long periods. Despite what mortals might think of it, there was no 'rest' going on while refining any of the three Aspects.

There was never any time to be bored when you were firmly taking hold of the powers that subsumed the cosmos while bending them towards your purpose. Even if it looked like you were nodding off while sitting up.

At a year, she was the hard to leave alone little darling of the house. Even after proving she could walk around and had plenty of energy to do so, there was hardly a time where she wasn't being carried by a parent or a servant. While it was beneficial for the sake of gathering more speech proficiency and learning about her surroundings, it curtailed the time Elua had to privately cultivate.

During this lull she was able to get a much better gauge of her family's position in the region. Knowing you were the eldest (and only) child of a large estate that employed so many people was one thing, but actually understanding where the money came, and continues to come from, is another.

The short answer was that working for and being respected by the 'ruling' Guild was 'good'. The long answer would require her to be allowed more direct access to her father and his study… but could also be explained as 'using the aspirations of others to consolidate wealth'.

Taxes, loans, and other ways of making profit off of the backs of those with less. Such were standard rules of conduct for the majority of affluent individuals. The only slightly disappointing part to the baby was that there existed little to no 'darkness' to look forward to manipulating. They were the type to leave their 'poor peasants' with plenty to survive on. At least, there were not any shadowy or objectively distasteful ventures managed in any *direct* way by her parents.

Unless they were very, very good at hiding it in their spirits.

In less truly important matters, she came to the conclusion that she had absolutely no idea where she was in relation to any places she visited in her last life. Whether she had spent too long seeking ascension or if it had been long enough since she reincarnated that the names everywhere had changed was a possibility the baby thought fair… at first. Until she happened upon a map of the continent that looked nothing like she remembered from any world or hidden realm she had stepped foot on.

Though Upper Realm cultivators being who they could be, the landmass might have been pummeled into a new shape! Which didn't matter much, even if true. While all of her most valuable things had been ensconced in that now destroyed voidspace, she had an entire new lifetime to regain whatever she needed.