by A P Gore
"Thank you, Master Hei." Jei could only speak; he didn't have enough energy to lift the bag and probe it. A blue thread shot out of his finger and entered the spatial bag.
"Good. I thought the drunken geezer stole our gold." The senior chuckled.
"Josh, we shouldn't disrespect Master Hei by suspecting him." Jei quickly sent in return. After all, Master Hei was his master, and he wouldn't betray Jei for a spatial bag.
"Fucking respect. I don't trust anyone but myself. If you hadn't pitied that boy, he wouldn't have come here to kill you." The senior snapped back.
Jei went silent.
A jade slip fell into his lap.
"What’s this?" Jei asked.
"You learned the first stage of the Drunken Master Tiger divine art." A shadow of sorrow leaked through Master Hei's voice, like he had lost someone.
"Master Hei, if you're not willing to give me this, then I can't accept it. Please take it back. I know it's your precious technique, and you can't part with it. I can live with the first stage." Jei had a proud heart. How could he take something from his master, just like that? If someone wasn't willing to give it to him, then he wouldn't take it. In the last ten years, no one had given him anything he hadn’t earned. He even paid Aunt Bei, who loved Xue like a mother, 5 silver each week because of his proud heart. And Madam Yu, whom he treated like his closest relative, he never accepted anything from for free.
Master Hei stared at him with red eyes. "I have dozens of gold level techniques. Why wouldn't I want to part with this one?"
Seeing him smirking, Jei's heart eased. It must be something else, he thought.
"Tell me something,” Master Hei said. “How did you fight with a level four Qi Condensation cultivator and almost win? With your cultivation, you can't fight someone in Houtian realm. Did you make him eat a forbidden medicine?"
"I don't know. I'm strong."
"Kid, tell him about gate breaking. Don't tell him about the Poison Body. According to the soul crystal's memories, no one knows about it."
"Tell me the truth, kid. I watched you fight. At the end, you suddenly exuded energy beyond an initial Houtian realm expert. And then this backlash... Did you get your hands on some forbidden medicine?"
"No, Master. I broke my Gate of Healing. That provided me the boost."
Master Hei's brows shot for his hairline. His pupils expanded. "What did you say? You broke the first Gate of Healing?"
Jei didn't understand what was so incredible about it. Even though he had the Houtian Poison body plus Gate of Healing plus a power boost from breaking the first gate, he had failed to beat Pang. "Yes, Master."
"Kid, that's not possible. How could you?" Master Hei dropped to his knees and put his hand on Jei's forehead. A calm energy rushed inside Jei's body and traversed through his meridians, stopping at his spinal cord. "Impossible. The golden marrow. But how could it be?"
Jei didn’t understand what was going on. Why was Master Hei acting like he’d met his long-lost love? "Master, is there some issue with my body? Did I overdo it?" He remembered the senior's warning.
"No, kid. Actually, you might have a chance after all. Maybe it’s because of your nonexistent dantian. I don't know. But whatever the reason, you might have a chance for that."
Chapter 36
Emotions flickered rapidly across Master Hei's face. For a moment he looked delighted, then envious.
Jei had a good understanding of human expression, and Master Hei was clearly in some sort of turmoil.
Jei sighed. "Master, I don't know what you’re talking about." Jei’s knowledge of the cultivation world was like the first floor on a thousand floor tower. The 1000th floor being the epitome of knowledge.
"Li Jei, do you know the rarity of this Fiendgod Body Cultivation art?"
Jei nodded. "It's a Silver level art."
"False. It's a Heaven level Body Cultivation art."
"Heaven level?" Like his Asura Body - Poison Body cultivation art.
A thought drifted through his mind. Was he training in two Heaven level arts already?
"There is one level above Gold. That's Earth level, and above that exists a Heaven level. Though it's a Heaven level, in reality it's treated as a Silver level art because of the chances of evoking the innate ability."
"Innate ability? Like Breaking the Gate?"
Master Hei nodded. "The main difference between Qi Cultivation art and Body Cultivation art is the divine abilities that cultivation arts grant. They are granted on achieving a new realm. But Fiendgod Body Cultivation is different. It comes with a divine ability at every level. Those divine arts are called Ten Dragon Transformation divine arts."
"That's not all. Every level of this Ten Dragon Transformation divine art comes with three inner stages. The first for all is Break the Gate. The second is Form the Marrow, and third is Revive the Dragon."
"A dragon?" Jei almost choked on his saliva. Dragons were mythical creatures that sat at the top of the food chain with three other heavenly beasts. Everybody knew about them, but no one had seen them. They only existed in stories.
Master raised his hand to silence him.
"Let me tell you the chances of activating these levels. Only one in ten thousand people can break open the first gate. That's it. There's no one else who has managed Form the Marrow and Revive the Dragon. Everyone thinks that's just a myth. Due to this low chance, the art was downgraded to Silver level. But it’s still the most practiced Body Cultivation art in the human realm."
Jei sat tight. This was unbelievable. What a stroke of fortune. For the last ten years, he’d lived a life of humiliation, and now after dying once, he got one after another joyous surprise. He wanted to grasp this rare opportunity and gain knowledge from his master. "Master what's the use of these arts? Can you explain more, please?"
"Okay." Master Hei controlled his smile. "Breaking the Gate has different effects for every stage you are at. For the first, Gate of Healing, you can heal your body completely when you break open the gate. For the second, Gate of Limit, the effect is different."
Jei snorted. "But what's the use if I end up like this afterward." Looking at his condition, he wouldn't dare to open the gate next time.
Master looked at Jei with disdain and smacked his head.
Jei almost feinted from the pain. "Ouch! That hurts."
Master conjured a small pill from the air and slipped it inside Jei's mouth. In a breath's time, a cold sensation spread across his whole body, and for the first time the pain lowered to a bearable amount.
"Thank you, Master." Jei shifted in the chair. The master must have a spatial object, he thought.
"Now listen carefully. Just consider that you are beaten savagely, and you are taking your last breath. What'll happen if you open the gate that time?"
Jei scratched his head. "It would heal me completely." Jei understood now. The use was when he would be on the verge of death. That was his trump card. Not to be used for a power boost, but for healing purposes.
"Not only that, it gives you a boost according to your realm. If you open it in Xiantian realm, the effect would be greater. Understood?"
Jei nodded. That made it clear.
"The second stage of it is forming the golden marrow. You can't see it right now, but I found the golden marrow formed in your spine, and it will provide you fifty percent more regeneration effect. This may form when you break the gate for the first time. So, the first stage one in ten thousand will achieve. Out of those who do, one in one hundred would achieve the second stage. Do you understand the fortune you invoked?" Master chuckled.
"Wow! It is indeed a fortune," Jei whispered. "What about Revive the Dragon, master? What are the chances of that?"
"If you open all of your gates, only then can you know it. Even I don't know what that means." Sadness leaked through his voice.
Disappointment filled Jei. "Okay. So, I should try breaking my second gate as well."
"Go ahead and try if you want to die. Unless you re
ach the third gate level. Remember, breaking every gate is harder than the previous one. So, take it slowly." He paused. "Don't worry too much about it right now. I'll let you know when the time comes. Just remember not to open the second gate right away. Don't ask me why."
Master Hei sounded mysterious, but Jei decided to go with the flow.
"Thanks for teaching me, Master." Jei went into deep thought for a moment. If he could achieve the second stage, there must be a way to achieve third stage as well. After hearing it was related to dragons, his curiosity was truly piqued. But there was one another mystery he needed to solve. Pang. He was just a level 4 qi cultivator, and with his Poison Body and Gate of Healing, Jei should have able to beat him. But he failed miserably. Why was that?
"Master, why was Pang so tough to beat?"
Master Hei chuckled. "Did you take Qi Cultivation for a joke? Every level has an initial, middle, late and peak stage, and every stage has qualitative difference. That brat was already at level four initial stage, so he must have reached level five initial stage by eating that damn pill. How could you beat him with your tiny power?"
"Kid, if we do the math, you were only at level three peak after you broke the first gate,” the senior said. “And as your master doesn't know about your Asura Houtian body, fucking Pang must be at level four late stage."
Jei sighed. "Hmm." He was trying to hurt an elephant with a stick. How could he win against a person two levels higher than him?
"If it wasn't for you achieving the State of the Skill in Drunken Master Tiger divine art level one, you wouldn't be able to keep up with him earlier."
"State of the Skill?"
"Yes, every martial skill or divine art has 4 stages in every level, exactly like cultivation levels. Initial, middle, late, and peak. For divine arts and martial skills, the names are different and meaningful. The first is the Angel of the Skill. In this stage you find the occupant that aids you to exert the highest possible power. Everybody is different, so the angel is different. Second is the State of the Skill. This is where you gain some knowledge about the skill's interaction with the heaven and earth essence. It's also called State of the Mind. The third is One With the Skill, and the fourth one is Purpose of the Skill. But those two levels are way ahead of you for now. Just focus on achieving the first two stages for each level you learn."
"Thank you, Master." Jei bowed his head. Master Hei had given him information which he couldn't even dream of getting by himself. "I have one more question. What did you do with Pang and Ning?"
Master Hei shrugged. "I fed them to the beasts in the dark forest."
A tremor ran through Jei. Nobody dared to enter dark forest, and if someone went there that meant the person had unfathomable powers. What level was Master Hei at?
"Master, do you dual cultivate?"
"Yes. If you want power, you need to dual cultivate. Each method builds upon the other's advantages and covers its disadvantages."
Jei's heart sunk. He had no dantian, so how would he dual cultivate? By starting at age 17, he was already late to the cultivation world and still in Houtian realm. His target was far away from him, and now it seemed impossible.
"Kid, there's still a way for you. You can become a dual cultivator too," senior said.
"How?" Jei asked anxiously.
"Become a mage. That's also part of the cultivation world, right? Ask your master if he has a way to test your elemental talent. The soul crystal doesn't seem to have any information on mages."
"Master, do you know anything about mages? Do you think I can cultivate as a mage?"
Master Hei blinked rapidly. "Are you crazy, Li Jei? Mages are different than us cultivators. They cultivate soul power, and unless you are one of the rare people who has awakened soul power from birth, you can't cultivate as a mage. We body and qi cultivators awaken our souls when we reach a very high realm, and by that time we lose the chance to become a mage."
"What if I have soul power?" Jei asked, focusing his gaze on Master Hei's face.
Master just chuckled.
"Let me show this geezer what soul power is. I bet he won't understand it." The senior fumed and released his own soul power. A thin blue aura slipped out of Jei's body and covered a foot of distance around him. Jei suddenly felt he could sense anything that happened in that one feet area.
Master Hei almost toppled over. All the humor on his face vanished, and a serious expression took over. "Soul Sense. You already have Soul Sense? But how is that even possible? Li Jei, how did you get this power? You didn't have this before, did you?" Master Hei's eyes turned blood red. He turned into a scary ghost.
Jei wiped the sweat from his forehead. How could he tell his master that it wasn't his soul power, but Senior Joshua's soul power? "I don't know anything about it. I noticed it the first time when I came back from the dead." It was true. Though he had a soul palace beforehand, he could never push his soul power out of his body. Only the senior could do that, and he’d found it when Jei made the breakthrough to Houtian realm.
Master Hei didn't reply at first. His eyes remained focused on Jei's face. Probing.
"Li Jei, this is strange, but something must have happened with your body to have so many fortuitous encounters. You’d better not tell anyone about your soul power, or you'll get in trouble very fast."
"Can you help me become a mage?"
His master shook his head. "I can't. I don't have anything to test your elemental affinity, or nor will I do that. I'm not a mage, and only special schools can guide you in it. But those schools only take disciples below age 10. You're already 17 and just awakened your powers, so they won't take you in. Without them teaching you, you can forget about understanding mage powers."
Jei looked down, his hope shattered in pieces.
"There is still something I can help you with, though." Master handed him another jade slip. "This jade slip has the spell diagrams of the utility spells. The useful ones are Soul Binding a Large Spatial Space, and some non-elemental spells like Igniting Fire, Pure Essence Armor, et cetera. This is a common jade slip, and anyone having soul power can use it. It might be useful to you."
Jei put it inside his spatial bag. "Thank you, Master, for all your help."
"Though you are not my official disciple, I can still help you in small matters like this. Just make sure that you don't bring any more trouble to the house. If you do, I won't save you." Master's voice turned dead sharp, like a knife.
"Yes, Master." Jei clasped his hands and bowed his head and left for his house. After eating that pill, he already felt better. Even his Gate of Healing was back in action, spreading the healing throughout his body.
"Kid, that drunken master of yours has some unique knowledge in him. You’re fortunate to learn from him," the senior said, and for the first time Jei sensed some respect in his voice.
"Josh, we need to level up fast. After meeting the devils of the town, I understand one thing: power is everything. I need to level up."
"Don't worry, kid. I’ve got a plan." The senior's chuckle echoed in Jei's mind.
Chapter 37
It was dark, gloomy, and cold outside. Most of the people living in Poor White's District had already gone under the spell of sleep, but not Jei. He sat cross-legged next to Xue's bed, watching over her. She slept peacefully, but sometimes a hint of worry crossed her calm face. A slight twitch, but it made Jei's heart ache. He was the reason for that pain.
It had been two days since Pang and Ning were killed in his house, and everything had gone back to normal on the surface, but it wasn't the truth. Xue acted like nothing had happened, but her face would twist in pain at the slightest unexpected noise. The trauma of witnessing death lingered around her innocent heart, and Jei hated it.
Jei regretted letting Ning live that first time. But no more. Wei Shu will die tonight. For Xue’s safety, he has to die.
Jei quietly slipped out of the house. The last thing he wanted was to wake Xue and give her more worries.
Darkness enveloped him in a thick blanket, but he didn't fear it like he used to. Since breaking through to Houtian realm, his eyesight had improved a lot. Previously, he could only make out the contours of large objects from far away, but now he could see small things like fist sized stones or sleeping cats on the road. He had even gained some resistance to cold and heat, and water that had once seemed hot no longer enticed him. These changes were good.
"Josh, let's do it." Jei said as he swiftly zipped over the road to town.
After he left Master Hei's house two days ago, the senior suggested that he kill Wei Shu. Jei agreed with him without a second thought, and today they were out to execute their plan.
Shu clan served Chu clan, which had been the patriarch’s clan for decades. They lived in the south part of town. For the last two days, Fatty Chang and Jei had wandered through town searching for Wei Shu's house. After hours of intense searching, they’d found the house that afternoon. Wei Shu lived with his parents in a small house near the town wall. Only Wei Shu cultivated in his family. He was regarded as a genius in the Wei clan of Cloud Dragon town.
Too bad he’d taken part in crimes with his friends. He would only have himself to blame for his death.
When Jei reached the town gate, he found it closed. That was expected; after dusk all travel was restricted from Cloud Dragon town.
However, Jei had a plan. Near the south side of the wall, there were many trees extending outside of the wall. Jei would climb one and jump into Wei clan's territory.
After thirty minutes of running, he stood facing the south town wall. He chose a leech poison tree and used it to vault over the wall. He didn't fear its poison. He collected it, actually. When it came to Poison Body advancement, he needed 500 different types of poisons. Either he could get a pill with 500 poisons, which he didn't know where to find, or he could store it and then refine it inside his body. He chose the second option.
Wei Shu's house was few hundred meters away from the wall, and Jei faced no issue reaching it.