by A P Gore
Not if he was given a chance.
Shaking those thoughts away, he contemplated his options. He couldn't let this kid die. Not when he had a sister who needed taking care of. It was Joshua’s destiny that brought him here. Though he couldn't help his own sister in real world, here he would help Jei's sister and take care of her as his own. Maybe then, the pain in his heart for not treating his sister well might lessen. For that to happen, this kid must live on.
"Sorry, friend. I have to borrow your power." Joshua extended his hand, reaching inside the soul crystal and pulled a thread of soul power out.
But as soon as he made contact with the soul crystal, a new piece of information popped into his mind.
Asura Body Cultivation - Heaven Level
It was a similar technique to Fiendgod Body Cultivation, but here one tempered his body with the poison. Joshua quickly consumed everything he could about Asura Body Cultivation, until he understood every single bit of it.
To reach the first realm, Houtian Realm, one had to temper his body with 1000 drops of poison. Once the body accepted the poison, the poison would then break through the body's flesh and adjust it to create a Houtian body. Once the small flesh level was done, the body would go through qualitative changes and improve physical strength and speed. Fiendgod opened eight gates to absorb the heaven’s and earth’s essence and temper the body, while Asura used poison, or fire, or lightning, or ice to do the same. The effects Asura gave were stronger than Fiendgod, but it was quite a risky business.
He stopped burning the black marrow in the first meridian and looked at the soul crystal. "Blue friend, do you want me to help him cultivate in Asura?"
The soul crystal pulsed twice with strong blue light.
It was their agreed upon signal to say yes.
"Okay, let me see what I can do." Joshua once again closed his eyes, reading the first step. There were a couple of problem with this technique. First, the quantity of poison present in Jei's body wasn't sufficient for breakthrough. Second, the gate of healing constantly dissipated some of the poison, reducing the overall poison strength. If the poison didn’t form sufficient quantity, there was danger of Jei dying.
Joshua shook his head in disappointment. That jerk Master Yu had damaged Jei more than helping him. There wasn't a sufficient amount of poison in Jei's body. The gate of healing would at least dissipate 20%, and Jei would die because of it.
This kid had no chance of survival.
Chapter 12
Joshua
Joshua took a deep breath. He had to find a solution to save this boy. Sitting next to his meridian of healing wasn't going to solve anything. But what else could he do?
Joshua stared at the current condition of Jei's body in the flesh mirror. The poison had penetrated the second layer of flesh. Two more layers and it would enter the viscera, as well as his brain. The two most important parts of the human body. If the quantity of the poison was sufficient, it would merge with Jei's body, but currently it would fall short when it penetrated the heart and brain.
A failed transformation meant death.
Joshua grabbed his head as heaven and earth essence entered the gate of healing and rushed out in liquid form to heal Jei's body. In actuality, it was destroying it.
If only I had a source of poison, I could try forcing it into his blood stream and towards his heart when the time comes.
Wait.
There is a fucking snake with Jei.
Joshua glanced at the soul crystal. "Friend Blue. I think it’s time to let me control the kid's body for a minute or two."
The soul crystal pulsed one time.
"What? Are you fucking kiddin me? This kid will die if we don't get more poison in his blood. Do you want him to die?"
The soul crystal’s light dimmed a little, and then it pulsed twice with intense light.
A door opened at the corner of Jei's soul palace, letting in chaotic air from all over his body. The original air in the soul palace, created by Joshua, was contaminated in a breath's time. Even the green grass started withering, spreading a foul smell everywhere.
Joshua pinched his nose. "Damn, it fucking stinks outside of the soul palace." Inside the soul palace, the whole environment was clean and pure. But outside, it was like entering a landfill after washing your legs in a holy lake. The impurities of body, environment, and so on... It really sucked the soul out of one’s body. Plus, Jei's body had no qi inside his dantian to purify his flesh, nor had he any heaven and earth essence inside his flesh. That left his whole body filled with refuse.
"This fucking sucks." Joshua opened his eyes and found himself in the control chair of Jei's body.
He was better off in the soul palace if this kid's body was in this kind of shape. At least, in the soul palace, he could enjoy fresh air.
Joshua shook his head, resulting in Jei's head jolting.
A small dirty room revealed itself. The ceiling was made up of old branches of the tree that blocked the sunlight overhead.
"Fucking damn." Joshua spoke, but the voice came from Jei's mouth. Pain shot through every inch of Jei's body, and Joshua was on the receiving end. His body was dying, and Joshua didn't have much time left.
Fighting back pain and pushing his hands against the ground, he somehow managed to sit up. He glanced around, taking in every single detail about the room. The walls, made of stone, were painted gray, or maybe black. They looked like they would fall down anytime. The semi-solid ground had so much dust and trash over it that a healthy man would attract a bunch of infections by sleeping on it.
Why does this kid have such a dirty house? I can't live here. I need to get this kid to move into something habitatable soon.
In his home world, Joshua couldn't afford a home cleaning robot, but he still used a cheap weekly cleaning service to keep his house clean. Here it was like living in a pigsty.
Joshua scanned the room until he found a small girl sleeping on a patched-up bed. It reminded him of Tania, his little sister. Jei and his sister had their own home, but it was worse than any low-cost standard available on Earth.
He sighed, a sigh of regret for his past.
"Snaky, snaky, where are you?" Joshua called upon the snake who was nowhere to be seen.
The petite girl opened her eyes. Though she had a sick look, her lively black eyes made up for it, lit with a strange energy, like she could see through him. They reflected her pureness in the world. She must be Jei's sister.
"Sister, where's our little snaky?" Joshua asked.
"Why are you calling Brother Green little snaky? Did you forget he dislikes anyone calling him snake?"
"What? Why would a snake hate his own race? Anyway, I need him right now." Joshua tried to keep his voice lower. Jei's body was in critical condition. There was no time to waste.
The little girl looked at him with suspicion. Closing her eyes, she touched her heart and called upon the snake. "Brother Green. Can you come here please?”
A three-foot-long snake charged in like a water wave. As soon as it got closer, Joshua grabbed it. "Sneaky, I need your poison. As much as possible and as fast as possible." Without waiting for the snake to say anything, he pushed its mouth open and stabbed snaky's fangs on his forearm.
A stream of hot poison entered Jei's blood stream, burning away everything in its path.
Joshua gritted his teeth fiercely as the poison flew through Jei's blood stream like a fiery serpent. The pain soon became overwhelming. The kid really had it bad with his fragile body. How had he survived the pain of poison in his blood for so long?
The pain level shot up. The poison was eating through the remaining layers of the flesh. It was unbearable. For a moment, Joshua wished he hadn’t come here.
Fuck you, damn fuck you!
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.
The poison flowed through the blood, painting it in green.
Joshua roared as he couldn't control the pain wave when the poison entered Jei's heart. It pierced through the outermos
t layer like a sword cutting through flesh. Slowly. One fraction of an inch at a time.
It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Something was wrong. It wasn't supposed to happen this way.
Chapter 13
Joshua
The room swirled around him, his grip on the snake lessened, and Jei's heart almost ceased to beat. Sweat trickled all over his body, and his bladder almost lost control.
No way, I'm not peeing. Not when I'm in control of this body.
Joshua let a roar slip out of his mouth, and then gritted his teeth. His vision blurred. The filthy room turned into a mass of chaotic gray space, but he didn't let the snake slip out of his hand, nor lose control of his bladder.
"Brother Jei, what are you doing?" The little girl's sweet voice woke him from the hallucination.
Joshua turned away from her so she wouldn't see what he was doing, but when he’d let the roar escape, she’d known something was wrong.
"Noth..." Fuck this. Please let me concentrate. "Sister, nothing is wrong. I'm just playing with this little snake here."
More of the poison entered his blood stream and rushed toward his heart.
Damn you, snaky, did you just release more poison in my blood on purpose? I'm gonna drink your skin soup when this is over.
Only if he survived this onslaught.
And he wasn't going to bet on that.
The poison had invaded every cell in his body, and he had lost any control over it. What was supposed to be a steady 2-hour process was turning into a sped-up song. It was like instead of regular speed someone played the song with ten times the speed.
Joshua could do nothing but watch and endure. Still, hope remained that Jei's body would end up surging into the Houtian realm.
He thought that was the worst that could happen.
And then the poison destroyed most of the fucking black marrow in the meridian of healing. Almost 80% of the gate of healing sprang into action. A wave of relief passed over Jei's body.
"Fucking no!"
"Brother Jei, is everything all right?" The little girl asked. Her voice shook a little.
"Yes, sister. Please don't disturb your little brother for some time." He breathed heavily and watched the fight scene happening in Jei's body.
The poison had entered the heart and was heading toward the brain, but the 80% active gate of healing was in action too. It was gathering heaven and earth essence in overdrive mode, trying to repair all the damage the poison had done.
Why is this happening? That damn Yu. He just destroyed this kid’s life. How am I supposed to overcome this gate of healing energy?
"More poison. Snaky, how strong you are? Can you put some more poison in me? Snaky snaky." Joshua teased the damn snake, his voice shaking with pain. Last time he said the word snaky, that little damn snake unleashed the poison like a flood washing over a weak dam. He wanted the same results.
Snaky obliged and squirted more poison into his blood. If earlier it was a river, now it felt like an ocean entering Jei's body.
Damn you fucking...
Joshua gritted his teeth—Jei's teeth, in reality—and endured more pain. But the pain and healing cycles were worsening. One moment he felt like he was riding in a boat on the smooth sea, while the next he was swirling inside a giant whirlpool. Joshua's condition was like getting fucked by every man in town. Some took it slow and nice, and others just pounced him like animal.
I'm not doing this again kid. You have to endure it next time.
And yet the kid's soul slept in the soul palace like nothing happened.
Moments passed, seconds passed, even minutes passed before the poison overpowered the gate of healing and shot toward the brain. Green poison molecules wrapped around every cell in Jei's body.
The body tempering neared its completion. According to the cultivation arts manual, in the first stage, the poison body would undergo cellular transformation. It would form a poison layer outside every cell, making it strongly resistant to any poison attack. Only a strong poison would be able to penetrate this layer and harm the poison body.
The second benefit it provided was in terms of strength and speed. Once the poison body was formed, the cultivator's body could increase its speed and strength by 2x thanks to the powerful heaven and earth essence added to the cells in terms of poison. It would also increase in defensive power and would require twice the amount of force to break it.
The only disadvantage of the poison body was the healing property. In general, it healed quite slowly, and normal medicinal herbs would be ineffective due to the presence of poison in his body. Going forward, Jei would require twice the amount to heal.
Jei's whole body vibrated as the poison envelope formed around each and every cell in his body.
Minutes passed and the process completed by half. A thin layer of the poison could be seen around the cells.
And then one cell rejected the transformation. It resisted the poison layer. Then a second cell rejected it, and then a third. The resulting chain reaction spread across his entire body.
Joshua couldn't do anything.
Jei's body had hosted poison for the last few years, but that poison had mainly remained in his blood. His 10% strength gate of healing didn't allow it to enter the cellular level, so his brain never knew the feeling of it wrapping around the cells. Somewhere, something changed and a cell rejected the tempering. The whole body swiftly followed.
Another roar escaped Joshua. He couldn't control the pain anymore and dropped to the ground, nearly unconscious.
And then the blood flow reversed. His body started rejecting the poison in large quantities, and started withering slowly.
"Brother, no!"
Joshua lost his control over Jei's body and was forced back into the soul palace. Jei's real soul was shot out of the soul palace and took control of his body. It was said when the body dies, its true soul perishes with it.
Chapter 14
Joshua
Joshua sat below a withered tree. Keeping the soul palace open for a long time had sucked all the natural essence out of it. All the terrain, mountain, house, and river were made of Joshua’s natural essence. Without him being there, it’d all withered out. The wind that freely flowed inside the soul palace had long died. Only dead silence prevailed. The aromatic fragrance that had lingered around every inch of the soul palace was replaced by the foul odor of the outside world.
But that wasn't important. Jei's body was dying. Asura Body Cultivation - Poison Body had failed, and Joshua didn't know why.
Maybe it was because of the gate of healing. Maybe it was because Jei's body wasn't powerful enough from the start.
There was nothing Joshua could do. All the variables that played a part in the process were unknown to him. Gate of healing and the existing poison in Jei's body, everything was new to him. He wasn't an expert in this world. Borrowed power didn't make him a real expert. Not by a long shot.
He closed his eyes to spend few final moments in peace. He had failed in his previous life, and now he’d failed again.
He sighed. "Some other time. In some other world."
"You can't give up now. You have to save me, senior Joshua." A lone painful voice shook his world. It was Jei's voice. Somewhere, he was awake.
The soul palace around him lit up with a strange light, and this light wasn't coming from the soul crystal. It was intrinsic to this soul palace. Jei was fighting back with his soul power.
Gate of healing. Yes, I have to try that as a last resort. I can't give up when Jei is not giving up.
Joshua descended to Jei's meridian of healing and started burning the black marrow with all the combined force from Jei's soul power, the soul crystal, and his own soul power. The soul flame burned like a star and eradicated the remaining black marrow in seconds.
The black marrow from the gate of healing washed out, this time completely.
Jei's body shook violently. A spasm overtook him. Opening the gate of healing baptized his whole body.<
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The gate of healing had finally opened. Jei's body shuddered, and a sticky black substance flowed from his pores.
The fully open gate of healing attacked the cells secreting the poison head on, healing Jei's body in overdrive mode.
Unfortunately, all the cells in Jei's body had traces of poison in them. So, the gate of healing's heaven and earth essence attacked every cell. It treated the whole body as its enemy.
Something fundamentally changed at the nucleus of the cells, and they started sucking the poison they were rejecting. The poison wrapped around the cell, completing its Poison Body process in one sweep.
When the poison cover had formed around all the cells, the gate of healing energy vanished. The poison had become an integral part of Jei's body, so the gate of healing energy didn't treat it as an enemy.
Jei shuddered once again, and green smoke rose around him.
Then everything stopped.
JEI
Jei opened his eyes to a foul smell and a rejuvenated feeling. A strange, unknown energy ran through every part of his body. Somehow, he had enough confidence to reach the sky, destroy a mountain, or traverse deep into the seas.
"What happened?" A black substance dripped from his hand as he lifted it. All around him, he could see the sticky black substance clinging to his body. He had a vague memory of seeing senior Joshua fighting in his body.
Jei slipped inside his soul palace. This time it was faster, a fraction a breath.
Senior Joshua slept among the black grass, his face pale and breathing slow. The soul palace had a familiar feeling... It felt like home. It even smelled like the outside world.
"Senior— Sorry, Josh. Are you all right?" He shook senior’s shoulder.