by A P Gore
Ki Fei couldn’t relate these things to anything she had seen in her life. This was out of her league. Two worms that talked like humans, and they wanted to devour her and the young master but were devoured by the young master’s blood instead?
What was happening?
Ignoring all those stray thoughts, she bent forward and checked the young master’s pulse again. Somehow, it had returned. It wasn’t as vigorous as previously, but a slow pulse was better than no pulse.
The lump in her chest loosened, and she picked up those tiny worm corpses and put them inside her ring. They looked exquisite. Maybe she could use them to make some accessory.
But if a higher-level cultivator knew what she was thinking, they would have killed her ten times at least.
Chapter 24 Strange Power - Dantian repaired?
Li Wei’s body hurt like someone had put him through a grindstone, crushing him for hours until every bone in his body cracked or turned to dust. It was raw pain. Pain that reached his very soul.
But then the pain vanished suddenly, like it’d never occurred.
Was he dreaming?
When he opened his eyes, he found two big blue eyes staring at him from above, pain evident in them. The pain radiated from her eyes into his heart.
“Young master, are you feeling okay?” Fei’er asked, sadness leaking through her voice. Her small body in her big gray gown quivered as she spoke.
His face twisted in pain, and her beautiful eyes watered.
“I—” His parched lips failed to separate; it was like being thirsty for thousands of years. “Wa—”
Fei’er fetched a leather skin filled with water. They had found it inside the storage ring, and it had remained surprisingly fresh even after—who knows how long the owner of the ring had been dead.
Pushing the mouth of the skin in between his lips, she released some water.
Cold, soul-filling water entered his throat. It felt so good that he closed his eyes, moaning inside his heart. Water had never felt this good before. It was like a soothing music to his pained soul.
Well, where was he?
Opening his eyes, he sent out his divine sense. He didn’t need to worry about destroying it anymore.
His divine sense stretched out. They were inside a small room, and there was something blocking his divine sense at the other end of the room. The remainder of the room was filled with sharp golden and black threads. They were so sharp that they even cut his divine sense when it passed through. If it wasn’t for the rebirth of his soul and divine sense, he would be in big trouble.
Huge trouble.
Wait, he’d been badly injured before they fell into this room. why didn’t he feel any pain? He spread his divine sense inside his body.
“Damn, what—” He coughed when the water entered his breathing pipe. Shit, he was still drinking water, and he’d tried to talk. What an embarrassment!
“Young master, what are you doing?” Fei’er complained and pulled the water skin away.
“I’m—” What was wrong with him? He must have seen things. How could he . . .
His divine sense spread through his body once again and counted the blood pearls inside his Yangming meridian. There were four hundred and fifty of them.
He had broken into layer four of Refinement Realm in body cultivation. All his injuries had been healed, and he felt like a newborn baby.
Inconceivable, or a miracle? Using the last of his blood pearls had helped him break through three small stages of a realm? Was it even humanly possible?
“Young master, are you feeling weird anywhere?” Fei’er asked.
“No. I’m absolutely fine.” Moving his hand, he checked his muscle reaction, and it was absolutely fantastic. It had never felt like this before.
“Thank the heavens. You’ve lost so much of weight in the last four days that I was worried sick about you.”
“Four days?” He sat up and found himself in a gray robe. “Did you dress me?” When he fought the beasts, his clothes had taken a beating.
She nodded with an innocent look.
Red rushed to his face. Had she seen him naked? What a stupid question. If she’d changed his clothes, she’d seen him naked. She didn’t have a magical art to change men’s clothes.
“Wait, why did you ask me if I feel weird? What happened in the last four days?” His blush retreated as fast as it came. He’d been out for four days, and he’d broken through to new levels. That shouldn’t be a normal thing, right?
“Because you devoured two worms when you were dying, and then you improved a lot.”
He arched his brows and blinked a few times. “Come again.”
“There were two worms, golden and black. They tried to eat us, but your blood moved out of your body and sucked them in. Only their carcasses remained behind.” She waved her hand, and two lifeless worm bodies appeared on her palm.
He furrowed his brow. Those worms looked like someone had sucked their blood dry.
Did he do it?
“Did I drink their blood?” he asked, ashamed. When he’d practiced Blood Essence Body, he’d decided not to use anyone else’s blood, but it seemed he’d failed in his choice at the first difficult step.
Maybe he should stop cultivating this bloody art altogether.
“No. But they tried to devour you. The golden one entered your body, and the black one pierced inside my forehead.” She pointed at a black mark on her forehead. It looked like a tiny black dot, but when he looked closer, he realized it was a hole made by something quite sharp.
“So, I was unconscious at that time . . .” He rubbed his forehead. What kind of cultivation art was this that could devour other things when unconscious? It seemed vicious.
He should probably scrap it completely. But then how could he walk on a different path this life? Blood Essence Body was a critical piece in a puzzle he wanted to solve in this new life, and giving up on it meant he had no advantages.
But he couldn’t become a bloodthirsty killer. He couldn’t suck others’ blood.
A headache hit his brain, and it drained his mental capacity instantly.
“Fei’er.” He opened his eyes. “Am I a disgusting person? I sucked someone else’s blood. Does that make me a bad person?”
She shook her head like her life dependent on it. “No, young master. You’re a good man. Actually, you are the best. Those two filthy things wanted to kill us, and you killed them. How can you be bad?” Her gaze jumped to a pile of bloody clothes lying on the ground. “Then you fought with your life on the line with those wolf beasts.” Tears rolled down her pretty cheeks. “I was so stupid back then. I fainted and almost got you killed. It’s me who is disgusting. How can you call yourself disgusting?”
He wiped those water pearls away with his thumb. When she cried, his heart thumped like never before. Once again, he regretted leaving her behind and not coming back in time. He had left this pure-hearted lass alone in this brutal world. That thing was disgusting. Not checking back on her after getting strong was disgusting. Leaving her to die was disgusting.
But not in this life. He wouldn’t repeat that mistake again. So, he couldn’t just let go of this cultivation art yet. Not until he reached his goal to become a lazy immortal. And to become a lazy immortal, he needed people he cared about, and Fei’er was one of them.
So, he would live on and protect people like her even if he had to die.
Yes. To become a lazy immortal was his goal, and he needed Fei’er for that.
System: New organization detected.
Cell structure undergoing mutation.
Activating Scanning Mode.
Cell structure mutation finished.
Repairing ethereal organ, Dantian.
Repairing ethereal organ, Spirit Root.
Chapter 25 Five Elemental Way Qi Cultivation Art
Black and golden threads weaved around each other like two snakes making love. They were inseparable and quite sharp. When he sent his divine sense out la
st night, it was cut in half when it tried to move past these threads. That roused his interest, because only a few materials could do this. The divine sense was a non-physical entity, and not many things could block it. Normal stone or wooden walls, or even extravaganza things made up with Essence Stone or Qi Stones, couldn’t block it; yes, there were people in this world that made huge palaces out of Qi Stones, and he had met one in his last life.
When he moved his face closer, an exquisite fragrance bombarded his senses. It wasn’t detectable at a distance; he could smell it only after moving within a few inches’ distance of the threads. They smelled like . . .
Flipping Cleaver Bee honey. Yes, they smelled like those special bees. It was a delicious honey produced in the Martial World that cost a ridiculous amount. Although he’d earned a lot of money in his previous life, he’d only tasted it twice.
Wow! If he could eat this honey every day, wouldn’t it be heaven’s blessing on him?
Just the thought made his mouth water, and he wanted to lick these threads. If not for his fear, he might have tried licking them. For a fatso like him, food mattered most.
Damn, he had lost a lot of weight in the four days he was unconscious. The fat around his stomach had almost halved. If he was going to put the weight back on, he had to eat more, and to eat more, he had to cut through these threads.
He finally decided to try an external weapon. “Fei’er, do we have a spare knife?” Somehow, he had to get past these threads, else they might die of starvation. The little lass had nearly eaten a whole beast in the four days he was unconscious, and that was the last of the meat they had. Looking at her small and fragile figure, he wondered where all that food went.
Anyway, since they had only enough meat left for a few meals, they had to get out of here. One option was to get back to the previous room and kill some beasts. With his current strength, he could do that, but the door was gone. After they’d passed through the door, it vanished from this side. It might be hidden by another array, but he couldn’t find one anywhere in the accessible area.
So, his only option was to go to the other side of the room hidden behind these threads.
“I’ve got one.” Fei’er handed him a knife. Lately, she smelled like a banquet of orchid flowers. The lass had eaten two Essence Gathering Pills and broke through to layer six Refinement Realm in the four days he was passed out. She’d wanted to be strong and help him.
Well, it wasn’t to his liking. He would have preferred she stabilize her cultivation first and then advance, but what could he do with a done deed?
Grabbing the cold black knife’s hilt, he carefully tried to cut the nearest thread. The result didn’t surprise him, though. Instead of the thread, the tip of the blade got cut in half. The golden thread was as tenacious as a Silver Grade artifact.
Should he try with his finger? Well, at layer four in the Refinement Realm of body cultivation, his body should be on par with a normal metal, but it wouldn’t cut a Silver Grade artifact. So, he decided not to go through with that stupid option.
Rubbing his forehead, he tried to think of a solution. Wait, hadn’t he sucked two worms dry that looked like silkworms? Even their golden and black colors matched with the thread colors. If those worms had created these threads, their body should be able to cut through them. They might have hidden something precious behind the jungle of threads.
Maybe a heavenly treasure.
At the thought of a treasure, his body boiled in excitement. It had to be a treasure, otherwise his divine sense wouldn’t be blocked. From his previous life experience, he knew where quite a few treasures were scattered across the Mortal and Martial realms, but they would make him sweat for them. But here he had already sweated for this treasure, so no way he would go without getting it.
“Fei’er give me those two worms.”
She nodded and handed him the two small worm bodies. It seemed like she wasn’t afraid of them after their death. If these were alive, she would have jumped here and there. Once, a worm had entered his room when she was prepping food for him, and she’d made so much of a drama out of it that people thought he was doing something unscrupulous to her, and a few people had come running to save her.
A cold sweat broke out over his back. Damn, that was close. That day he’d almost gotten beaten up for no reason.
Fei’er dropped the soft warm bodies on his palm. He was about to pick up one with his other hand when something stirred inside his soul. From the depths of his soul, a call came, and the bodies vanished into his arm.
What the heck?
System: New organization detected.
Activating Scanning Mode.
Cell structure mutation finished.
Cell structure is repairing ethereal organ, Dantian.
Frowning, he sent his divine sense inside his dantian.
Seeing the scene inside, he nearly lost his wits. What was happening with him? The worms were rotating inside his dantian, and it was healing faster than his divine sense could scan. Previously, the weird system had said something about healing his dantian, but nothing had happened even after a whole night. So, he’d thought the process was slow, or it was a weird system that came up with his reincarnated soul.
But things had taken a U-turn. Somehow his dantian was being healed after those worms entered it and started revolving around each other mysteriously.
System: Information interface detected.
Activating information transfer.
Receiving Five Elemental Way Qi Cultivation Art.
Chapter 26 Divine Refinement City
A stream of information flew in Li Wei’s mind. Some was forceful and mysterious, while some was simple and yet profound. Some information roused his mind, and some scared the shit out of his soul.
A gentle wind flew out of an invisible opening that circulated air inside this seemingly airtight room, blowing across his face. Like a mother’s warm hand, it caressed his cheeks and woke him up in a refreshing mood. Piercing light reflected over the golden and black threads into his eyes, but it didn’t matter to him. In fact, it felt more like an enlightenment penetrating his mind. With more light, things became clear in his mind. It reminded him of the Heavenly Lake of Enlightenment in Firmament Sect’s secret grounds in the Martial Realm. Its sweet and fragrant water had a power to enhance one’s comprehension speed.
The cultivation art he’d received was called Five Elemental Way Qi Cultivation Art.
A thin film of perspiration formed around his whole body when the information stopped pouring into his mind. By the time he digested the information, he was sitting on the metal ground, grasping for breath. If he thought Blood Essence Body Cultivation Art was a top class one, then this qi cultivation art was the father of the top class. If there was a grade above the heavens, this cultivation art would fit into that.
World begins with chaos.
Chaos brought yin and yang.
Yin and yang gave birth to five elements.
Five elements developed life.
Walk on the Five Elemental Way to return to Chaos and rule this universe.
And the strangest part, he qualified to cultivate it because of his attributeless qi.
“Young master, are you all right? Did you hurt yourself?” Fei’er sat beside him and rubbed his back lightly. With her other hand, she pulled the water skin out and held it in front of him.
“I’m—” No, he wasn’t all right. This qi cultivation art was something different. It allowed him to cultivate five elemental qi.
That was impossible. In the whole Mortal or Martial Realms, no one could do that. Not even the once-in-a-million prodigy had that ability.
In this world, a person was born with an attributed Spirit Root. The attribute fell in one of the five elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, Metal. Or it could be Yin or Yang. Sometimes, it could be a rare element like Thunder or Wind. He’d even seen a young man joining Heavenly Firmament Sect with a Light attributed Spirit Root. Even elders from the parent
Firmament Sect came to watch him a couple of times. Of course, he’d quickly advanced into the Martial Realm and joined as an inner disciple of Firmament Sect, while Wei had to struggle as an outer disciple for decades when he joined.
A Light elemental Spirit Root was once in a millennium.
Then there were a few like him with an attributeless Spirit Root. His Spirit Root didn’t have any attribute, so he was treated as trash in the cultivation world. He’d had no future in the path of qi cultivation. Of course, one could practice with attributeless qi, but it would be super hard and fail against any other elemental qi on the same level. Practicing it took four times the effort than any elemental qi. It was harder than not getting a beating from his stepfather.
If he hadn’t had an Earth Grade Physical Root, no one would have cared about him. But attributeless qi cultivators had one advantage: they could use external means to convert their qi into one of the attributes. Wang Zia had carved a Metal Qi Transformation Array in his body so he could practice basic metal qi cultivation art and enter the Heavenly Firmament Sect. But it was a forced method, and he could never reach a higher level of cultivation with a borrowed knife like an array. So, in his previous life, his main source of advancement was his body cultivation art.
But everything had an exception. Although the Metal Qi Transformation Array carved in his dantian had a lower efficiency and could only transform forty percent of attributeless or white qi into metal qi, there was another high-level array, Metal Qi Conversion Array, that could convert sixty percent of pure qi into metal qi. In the later years of his cultivation, he had carved Metal Qi Conversion Array into his dantian, increasing his cultivation speed.
Then he could use pills and treasures to advance his cultivation, even with a borrowed method. To solve all his issues, he was planning to become an alchemist in this life. He had set his eyes on the Advanced Wood Derivation Array that would convert eighty percent of white qi into wood qi and planned to use pills to aid his cultivation alongside.
He was so close to attuning that array in his last life before he died. If he had attuned it, he would have become an inner sect elder in Firmament Sect eventually.