_THE FIRST MONTH_
Day 23 to Day 53.
Cultivation was not exciting.
It was waking up.
It was sitting.
It was grabbing.
Silas fell into a rhythm.
*Morning.*
He opened his Domain with Divine Energy. 12 meters.
He listened. Not to all 100 voices. Only to Mira.
Through the thread he felt her standing at the altar.
Felt the villagers come. Felt their hope.
*Day.*
He fed Mira.
Every evening he pushed Divine Energy through her thread.
Not much. Just enough to keep her from burning out.
Her thread climbed.
6.5%... 6.7%... 7.0%...
With more energy, her small miracles got steadier.
She stopped swaying after healing.
She started smiling more.
The village noticed.
More people came.
20 believers became 30.
30 became 45.
Every new believer added another thin thread to Silas.
Weak. 0.5%. 1%.
But they all fed into Mira first.
She was the collector now.
*Night.*
He cultivated.
No technique.
Just crude grabbing.
He sat with both hands on the altar and ripped Spiritual Energy from the vein.
12 hours.
His meridians screamed.
His chest felt like it was full of broken glass.
But the Domain in his core filtered it.
And the 10% that remained was pure.
`Day 30. Energy Gathering 2 [15%].`
`Domain: 12m. Sustained 10 hours.`
He was getting used to the pain.
---
_THE VILLAGE CHANGES_
Greywater was changing too.
Because the Little Priestess was there.
Old Man Taro could walk again.
The Miller's wife was cooking.
The baby that wouldn't sleep was fat and quiet.
People started bringing real offerings.
Not just wilted flowers.
Rice. Salt. A chicken once.
They left it at the altar for "the God".
Mira distributed it to the poorest families.
Including her own.
She was still 8.
But she walked like she carried the village on her back.
The villagers started calling her other things too.
"Miracle Child."
"God's Hands."
But most of all, just "Little Priestess".
And she was the darling of the village.
The most adored child in Greywater.
If a child fell, 3 women ran to help.
If she looked tired, someone brought her water.
If she smiled, the whole courtyard smiled.
In the basement, Silas felt all of it through the threads.
The love. The faith. The dependence.
It should have felt like a burden.
It felt like fuel.
---
_THE GRIND GETS HARDER_
Day 40.
`Energy Gathering 2 [45%]`
The easy gains were gone.
Grabbing from the vein hurt more now.
The vein was thin. A forgotten, dying vein under a dead shrine.
Every bit he took made the air colder.
And Mira was hitting a wall.
7.9% thread.
She could heal fevers and stop bleeding.
But she couldn't mend bones.
She couldn't cure the coughing sickness that came with the cold.
She tried one day.
An old woman with bad lungs.
Mira poured everything she had into it.
The woman coughed less for one hour.
Then it came back worse.
Mira cried that night. Alone at the altar.
Through the thread, Silas felt it.
_"I'm not enough. The God chose wrong."_
Silas didn't answer with words.
He answered with warmth.
He pushed more Divine Energy than ever before.
He pushed until his own core felt empty.
The next morning, Mira's thread was 8.1%.
She didn't cry again.
---
_DAY 50. THE TURNING POINT_
`Energy Gathering 2 [88%]`
Silas was 16.
He looked 14.
Thin. Pale. Dark circles under his eyes.
The crude method was taking a toll.
His hands shook when he wasn't holding the altar.
But his Domain was stable.
12m. 12 hours. No fatigue.
He could feel every person in the village now.
Every heartbeat.
Every prayer.
And Mira.
8.9% thread.
She had become something else.
She could now ease pain with just a touch.
She could calm a fever in minutes.
She could make a plant grow 2 inches overnight if she prayed over it.
Small miracles. But dozens of them.
The village had stopped burying people.
For the first time in 10 years, Greywater had zero deaths in a month.
Word was starting to spread to the next village over.
And Silas was almost there.
---
_DAY 53. NIGHT._
`Energy Gathering 2 [100%]`
Silas sat in the dark.
No thoughts.
No hesitation.
He opened his Domain.
He grabbed.
From the vein.
From 45 believers.
From Mira's 8.9% thread.
Violent. Crude. Desperate.
The Spiritual Energy hit him like a wave.
His vision went white.
His meridians felt like they would snap.
For one second he thought he had pushed too hard.
Then.
_Click._
Quiet.
Clean.
`Day 53. Energy Gathering 3.`
His Domain expanded.
12m... 14m... 15m.
It settled.
Silas let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
Blood dripped from his nose.
He wiped it away and laughed.
No bottleneck.
No elder watching.
Just a boy in a basement who refused to die.
He checked the threads.
Mira's thread had dropped to 8.4%.
But it was thicker now. Denser.
He pushed what was left of his Divine Energy into her.
By morning it would be 8.7% again.
---
Silas stood up for the first time in 3 days.
His legs shook.
But he stood.
Upstairs, the sun was rising.
He could hear Mira's voice through the thread.
"Good morning, Lord of Lost Children."
She didn't know he was listening.
She was just talking to the altar. Like she did every day.
Silas smiled.
One month down.
Two and a half to go.But now he know how naïve he was thinking of reaching energy gathering stage 9 in 3 months.
With everything breakthrough his need increased but spiritual energy here was enough but divine energy was not.
He could sustain domain for 12 hr but had only energy to operate for 3 hr and that was also not at full power. He has understood if he burn more divine energy he could strengthen domain temporarily.
The grind had begun.
And the God of Lost Children was no longer starving.
He was growing.
_END CHAPTER 6_