Dual Body Cultivation

by A P Gore

  Chapter 4

  Jei opened his eyes with a throbbing pain in his heart and an aching body, like he had fought a war with someone. The sun was covered by dark clouds, preventing it from spreading its wings. The previous night’s torrential downpour must have left clouds behind to prevent the sun from spreading hope in his small town.

  Freezing wind brushed across his pale face as the pricking pain of the stones below his back grew intense.

  Am I dead?

  Rubbing his eyes, he scanned his surroundings. The foul odor of death wafted on the air. Gray soil and green dome lilies covered him from all sides. It didn't look like the underworld. Not that he knew how the underworld looked, but it shouldn't look like the famous corpse forest of the Cloud Dragon town.

  He shivered when a warm thread passed over his chest and two small eyes popped out of the neck of his robe. But then he cheered.

  "Brother Green. You're here. That means I'm alive."

  Brother Green was his pet spirit snake. Just shy of three feet, he lived with Jei and Xue. He’d been with them since they were kids. Jei and Xue grew up with Brother Green around, helping them and protecting them from intruders. Jei always left Brother Green with Xue for her protection. Brother Green also provided him poison, for talisman creation.

  "Did Xue send you?" Jei asked.

  The green little snake nodded. He understood the human tongue, but he couldn't speak it. A spirit beast could learn to speak, but in his whole life Jei had only seen one talking spirit beast: Frozen Monkey, a spirit beast of the Purple Cloud sect's elder, Master Yu. Master Yu was at qi condensation level 8, the strongest person in the whole Cloud Dragon town, so it was natural for his spirit beast to learn human language. Jei sometimes wondered if Frozen Monkey ate spirit fruits to learn the human tongue.

  "Don't worry. I'm somehow alive." Though Jei replied in a normal tone, he wasn't sure how he’d survived. His heart had stopped, so he’d surely been on the verge of death. "Let's go. Xue must be worried." He tried to stand, but failed miserably as his legs gave out. His whole body hurt, like it had been crushed under a mountain.

  He steadied his breathing. Though he couldn't store qi or cultivate any qi condensation methods, he still employed the breath stabilization exercise used by the cultivators. It provided him peace of mind, hope that someday a miracle would happen, and he would gain a chance to practice qi cultivation. And hope was what he needed most in this hopeless situation.

  His breath stabilized after five minutes of breath stabilization cycles.

  Gritting his teeth, he called upon the natural essence of his surroundings and circulated it through his gate of healing to slowly recover his life force. It was the only way he could survive with poison in his blood stream—another debt he owed to Master Yu, who had forcefully opened the first gate of healing in his body. If it wasn't for Master Yu, he and Xue would have died of starvation long ago.

  Half an hour later, the pain in his body eased a little. With shaky legs, he somehow managed to stand. Before leaving with Brother Green, he glanced at the white bag Madam Yu had given him. It was empty, as expected. The bastard Ning wasn't even ashamed to rob a dead person. Thankfully, the money pouch in the inner pocket of his robe was intact.

  On his way home, he bought a pack of rice and meat for five silver, along with a cup of soup for Brother Green, who liked chicken soup very much. On any other day, Jei would have preferred to buy raw rice and cook it himself, but today he was in too much agony.

  Someday he would pay Ning back for every ache and pain.

  Cold air penetrated his tattered robe, making his temples throb. A tattered robe meant money wasted on clothes. Money. Something he lacked dearly.

  As he spotted the last small house at the end of the ally in which he lived, his heartbeat increased. Home, though made up of lose stones and soil, had been his home for the last fifteen years, and he loved it. It held memories of his deceased grandmother.

  Hurrying through the wooden door that creaked with every swing, he found Xue sitting on the ragged bed in her pale blue robe. Her small round face was wet with tears, and her tired black eyes told him she’d remained awake for the whole night.

  Dread filled him as he realized she hadn't eaten anything last evening, either.

  He dropped to his knees in front of her. "I'm sorry Xue'er. I'm a bad brother who made you worried with my impudence."

  Tears rolled from her eyes in a steady stream. "Brother Jei, where were you? I was so worried." Her whole body shook with the force of her tears.

  "Little Sister, I bought food for us. Let's eat. And don't worry, I'm fine. Everything will be all right," Jei said, with a heavy heart. It was a broken promise. He wanted to give her a stable and comfortable life, but with his dantian-less body he only gave her pain and worry. On the White Phoenix continent, only the law of strength prevailed, and without strength he was nothing. Even a qi condensation level 1 cultivator could kill him with a simple punch.

  "Don't worry. Let's eat," he muttered, pouring rice out of the bag. Then he helped her to sit comfortably. After a freak accident in their childhood, her leg stopped working, and from that day onward someone had help her with everything.

  "Brother..." Her face was warped in pain. Her eyes turned white. They were her soul-searching eyes; she had received this ability after the accident. She could see the souls of humans and animals, but why would she do that now?

  "Xue'er, what happened?" He stepped forward, helping her to remain seated.

  Brother Green leapt from his robe and zipped towards Xue. He liked her very much, and always protected her no matter what.

  "Go away, evil. What are you doing in my brother's soul palace?" Xue shouted. Her cheeks turned red.

  "Xue'er, what happened? What's the issue? Is that the blue crystal?" When Xue first used her ability after the accident, she’d found a blue crystal in Jei's soul palace. No one knew how it got there. At first, both of them were worried sick about it, but as time passed it remained steady without doing anything, so Jei grew comfortable with it being there.

  "Brother, there is someone in your soul palace. An evil man is sitting there next to the blue crystal." And then she passed out.

  Jei hated it when she used her ability because of the mental pressure she suffered afterward. But her ability was a sure-shot method of ferreting out any issue with someone’s soul.

  So, who was inside his soul palace?

  Chapter 5

  As much as Jei wanted to go inside his soul palace and investigate the evil presence, he couldn't. Xue'er lay unconscious, drenched in sweat, and she would remain that way for at least four to five hours. Her soul-searching ability came with a nasty aftereffect: unconsciousness. Too bad she hadn't eaten the rice first.

  Slipping his hand below her head, he eased her down on the bed and covered her in a thick black woolen sheet. Her face twitched in pain, but there was nothing he could do to help her other than watch over her—and wallow in uselessness.

  He’d once again failed to help her.

  Half an hour passed with him sitting next to her head. The rice went cold. Its aroma vanished, and his appetite went with it.

  He opened the chicken soup cup, which still steamed, and put it in front of Brother Green, but he too ignored it. He loved Xue'er as much as Jei did.

  "Please, Brother Green. If you don’t, I can't forgive myself."

  Brother Green looked at him with sad eyes and then slipped his tongue inside the soup bowl.

  Jei sat there, watching Brother Green drinking the soup. He couldn’t afford to feed Brother Green fully by himself. Sometimes he asked Brother Green to find a better home or go back to the jungle. There would be many people ready to adopt a spirit beast, as they were rare, but Brother Green refused to go anywhere.

  When Brother Green finished his food and curled around Xue's hand, Jei sat cross legged next to her head. It was time to go into his soul palace.

  Relax.

  His breath slowed. His surroundi
ngs quieted, like he had been cut off from the whole world. Only his heartbeat thumped in his ears, and after few breaths even those went quiet.

  Going into the soul palace didn't take much time, but it also stretched his body to the limit, so he avoided it. Normally, there was no use in going there. It was nothing but an empty place with a blue crystal shining in the middle. Many times, in the past, he’d tried to poke that crystal, but nothing happened. But it had been months since he bothered going there. The last time he had was because of boredom and intrigue. He liked the way he could float inside. It was like his body was transported to a different place with all his senses intact.

  It felt weird at first, but it also felt strangely good sometimes.

  Today it looked totally different. A mountain occupied half of his soul palace, and layers of waist-high green grass occupied the other half. The blue crystal had changed its place too, and now it hovered atop the mountain peak.

  Jei almost lost his breath when he glanced at the crystal. It had a missing corner, like someone had flattened it using an ultra-sharp sword. Where did it go? And who had done it?

  A man with short golden hair, an oval face, thick eyebrows, and a muscular body sat below a small tree growing on the mountain peak. He had blue eyes and white skin, something uncommon among Cloud Dragon town men.

  He also wore strange brown clothes.

  Did he cut the crystal?

  "Who are you?" Jei hovered near the mountain peak, next to the blue crystal. He was a bit afraid to go near that unknown man, but going near the blue crystal was fine. He had done it dozens of times, and the crystal didn't seem to mind.

  The golden-haired man's face hardened, killing intent appearing in his eyes.

  "Who am I? I'm supposed to be the owner of your fucking weak body, but this blue crystal fought back and ruined my plan." His voice echoed in the soul palace. "But now I'll take control of your body." His eyes blackened. An evil smile appeared on his face, and a thin blue thread shot from his body, heading towards Jei.

  Jei didn't understand what to do next, so he tried to run away. But the hundreds of blue threads were already around him, sharp as knives, ready to cut him in pieces.

  This all happened in the time it took for a single breath.

  Am I going to die today? I thought I escaped death few hours back.

  But as soon as the threads inched closer to him, the blue crystal pulsed with an intense dark blue light, and the blue threads melted away.

  Dumbfounded, Jei hovered in the air, staring at the crystal. Why had it helped him?

  Whatever the reason, he liked it. He shot forward and wrapped his hands around the crystal, kissing it. The cold crystal’s surface pulsed with blue light, like it was responding to his kiss.

  Did it? It felt gross, so gross that he jumped back and spat the feeling out.

  "Yuk, kid. How does that taste? Sucking up the crystal. Really, yuk," the man said. He seemed unaffected by his failed attempt to kill Jei.

  Jei snorted and hid his fear of the stranger with bravado. "Who are you? And what are you doing in my soul palace?"

  "I'm Joshua. You can call me Josh if you like," the golden-haired man said. "It's clear that this badass crystal isn't going to let me take over your body, but the crystal is slowly fading. Ten years, twenty years, or maybe forty years down the line your body will be mine." The man, Joshua, laughed. A wooden chair appeared out of thin air behind him. He sat, cross-legged, relaxed.

  So, he was the one who’d changed the look of Jei’s soul palace. Interesting.

  "Senior Joshua, what kind of name is this? Which sect are you from? Are you from the White Phoenix continent or some other place?" The man had unimaginable powers. Jei had heard about such individuals who excelled in taking over others’ bodies. They were powerful.

  "Fucking Jesus. White Phoenix? What kind of names you got here? And no, I'm not from your world. Just a passenger for 1000 years. Now, shoo. Let me think about what to do with this blue crystal." He focused on the blue crystal rotated slowly around itself.

  Senior Joshua was right. The blue crystal was slowly dissipating, but by looking at the rate of dissipation it would take at least seventy to eighty years to completely vanish. Well, who was planning to live that long? Without a dantian, Jei’s life would only last about 50 years. Nothing to worry about.

  "Senior, it's not a problem then. My life expectancy is just fifty years."

  Jei was about to leave when senior Joshua called after him.

  "Kid, wait."

  Chapter 6

  Jei stopped in midair. Things like this always amazed him, flying and floating in air. He'd heard that high level qi experts could do that in the flesh. In fact, he’d wished he could do it a lot lately, when he had to run away from town bullies.

  "Yes, senior."

  Slowly turning back, he stared at senior Joshua who was scratching his small beard. He looked like someone from another world, especially his short hair, as short as a small baby’s. If he had dared to wear it so short in Cloud Dragon town, he would have been a laughing stock.

  Jei wouldn't have dared something like that. Not on his life.

  "Come here, and let’s have a drink." Senior Joshua waved his hand and a small wooden table and a strange looking jar of tea appeared out of thin air. It was like watching magic. Two ceramic cups, which definitely were not from the White Phoenix continent also appeared next to the tea jar. It reminded him of Uncle Wang’s torso, narrow at the chest but full-blown flab at the waist.

  Jei hesitated. What if the senior wanted to poison him?

  "Are you afraid? Don't worry, I won't kill you. This badass blue crystal won’t let me." Senior Joshua glared at the crystal with unyielding eyes. "Too bad I can't overpower it. Anyway, let's talk some business."

  "Senior, what do you want to discuss with the likes of me?"

  "First come here and sit. And stop calling me senior. Joshua or Josh will do." Senior Joshua's eyes turned blood red.

  Jei's stomach twisted in a knot. The senior didn't look simple. Right now, his voice was like thunder rumbling toward a tree. Thunder that possessed the power to burn that tree to ground. How would Ning prevail against senior Joshua's current voice?

  Shaking his head, Jei glided toward senior Joshua. Inwardly, he prayed to the blue crystal to save him again if the senior tried to kill him once more.

  Senior Joshua was humming an unknown tune by the time Jei reached him. Jei stood there, not daring to sit in front of the senior.

  "Come on, take a seat. It won't glue to your ass."

  Senior Joshua was overbearing. Jei quickly sat on the hard, strong wooden stair.

  Why do I feel like I’m sitting in a real chair?

  Curious, he bent down and lifted a stone from the ground. It felt real, especially the texture on the surface, as he studied it carefully.

  Would it hurt if I throw this at the senior?

  Without another thought, he threw it at senior Joshua. The stone shot forward, hitting the senior's nose.

  "Ouch! What are you doing, kid? Why are you pelting me with stones?" Senior Joshua rubbed his nose, his face twisted in pain.

  "I'm sorry, senior. I didn't think it was real."

  "Are you fucking crazy? This all is real. And stop calling me senior. If you call me senior one more time, I'll twist your neck and feast on your flesh." The senior's eyes glinted with killing intent.

  Jei bent his head down. "I'm sorry, seni...." He bit his tongue, letting the pain spread through his soul so he would remember it. "Josh." The senior seemed to like shortening his name. In the real world, calling a senior by his name would invite a heavy beating, and a repeat offender might just die.

  "That's good." Senior poured some tea in both cups. A sweet aroma filled the air around them. It had to be a precious tea; Jei had never seen such a refreshing tea anywhere before.

  "Now to your question," Senior continued. "This all is real in every manner for a person's soul. It's my home for next thousand y
ears, so I just made it comfortable for myself. Do you like it? I've yet to build a house, but I'm thinking about it." Joshua waved his hand and a two story, gray wooden house appeared atop the mountain peak.

  It didn't look like anything Jei had ever seen before. First, it looked like two boxes stacked on each other, and second, it didn't have a proper roof.

  "Awesome,” Senior said. “I'll paint it with white and blue."

  Jei sighed. If only he could create a house for Xue with a wish, he would be in heaven. Every time he left his home, he feared the house would collapse on her.

  "Now tell me, why did you say fifty years?” Senior said. “That busty woman said I can live for a thousand years easily and then go ba—" A hint of sorrow echoed through Joshua's voice. "Leave it. Tell me, why would you die after fifty years? I thought people can live forever in your realm. Immortality?"

  Jei stared dumbfound. "An Immortal? That only happens in stories. According to the history book of the Purple Cloud sect’s local branch, the most a human can live is 500 years. And only that when he reaches level 9 of qi condensation. Again, even that stage is the talk of tales. The elder that lives in our town is one hundred and fifty years old." Jei sighed. "A normal mortal can live for sixty to seventy years if he reaches the 1st level of qi condensation. I don't have a dantian, so the maximum I'd live is about fifty years."

  "Dantian?" Senior looked confused.

  "Yes, dantian store qi. One has to cultivate the qi to obtain powers and eternal life. Without a dantian I’ll live fifty years at most. So, I'm not worried about you taking over my body." Jei sipped the tea. It tasted as beautiful as its sweet aroma. The sweet flavor burst on his tongue, refreshing his whole body.

  "Fifty? Are you kidding me, kid? There must be something missing here. You can't just live for fifty years. You have to live a thousand years, minimum. Only then I can go back to my world. No..." Senior Joshua held his head in his hands. "This can't be happening to me. You bitch! I'll kill you if I see you again. You said this kid's body is gifted with innate talent, but he just sucks big time."