Dual Body Cultivation

by A P Gore

  Xi's body went limp. That would be worse than death. He might even bind her as his concubine for her whole life using some demonic art.

  "Senior brother..." She opened her mouth to say something but was silenced by his fierce eyes.

  "Shh."

  Chapter 42

  Chu Xi

  With some struggle, Xi sat on the floor and observed the stranger while he meditated. His face had changed a lot in the last hour. Before, he’d seemed to be in lot of pain, but now he exuded a calm and sturdy demeanor.

  Minutes passed, then a couple of hours. She didn't remove her eyes from him. What if he tried to defile her?

  He didn't move.

  Tranquility filled the room, along with the sweet aroma of the incense she had lit when she first arrived. It was a special incense which helped her to concentrate on the art of painting. It seemed to benefit the man in his cultivation, too.

  Xi's heartbeat slowed. Maybe he wasn't going to defile her. If he’d wanted to, he would’ve done it by now. His cultivation method didn’t appear demonic, either.

  She continued to observe him carefully. He was the first man to come so close to her. Other than her brother and father, she had never come so close to any man in her whole life. Even her training instructor was a woman, specially invited by her father.

  He wasn't bad looking for a commoner. His long hair actually suited him. And of course, he was powerful. Maybe at the peak of the 4th Qi Condensation level. He looked much better than the noble fools who tried everything to take a peek at her, or showered her with gifts daily. Especially those Ki brothers.

  Until today, nobody had merited a second glance from her.

  The Ki brothers. Where did they vanish? Surprisingly, those two brothers had vanished a few days back. She had seen the Ki patriarch pleading with her father for help. How could they vanish so suddenly? Her father once said the Ki clan had invested lots of resources on the Ki patriarch’s sons.

  Strange.

  The man suddenly opened his hazel eyes and stared at her.

  A shiver passed through her like someone had dipped her into icy water.

  Is he planning to do that thing?

  She scooted away.

  He shifted his gaze to her painting.

  "Is that a blue sword tiger?" He pointed to the picture she was using as the source for her own painting. It was an imitation of the painting hung in her room, which had been painted by a renowned painter in town.

  She startled. "Yes, but how do you know it?" A blue sword tiger was a level 4 majestic beast, and a commoner would never see it. Not even a painting of it. Even her father, who was a level 6 Qi Condensation expert, had never seen one himself. If the original painting hadn’t had a jade slip containing its name and other information, she wouldn't have known the name herself. But this guy... was he really a commoner?

  A thread of doubt slipped in her mind.

  No, he had to be a commoner. Why would a noble wear a cheap robe like that?

  "Just a hunch." He jumped to his feet and headed toward the source painting. "Nice, his aura is domineering. Even though it’s an imitation, I can still feel his intense gaze. It's like he is looking at me. It must’ve been done by a master painter."

  What? How could he know it was an imitation?

  Then his gaze jumped to her half-done painting. His slender fingers traced over the tiger's legs she had managed to draw over the course of the last year.

  "Not bad," he said. "Only one mistake. You are trying to paint his stripes with three palettes. It's insufficient. Try mixing vermeil blue in with your sun gold. You'll get the exact texture of his legs."

  Xi felt like a lightning bolt had struck her. He understood her palette by simply looking at the colors on her canvas. How was that even possible? She hadn't prepared her palette yet for today, so there was no way he had glanced at it. "You're—"

  "Actually, wait. The specific texture on his legs can't be obtained with just vermeil blue. You also need ten percent strength of moon blue. Do this: take ten grams of the moon blue, mix nine grams of water and let it evaporate. When only a thick paste remains, mix it up with ten grams of vermeil blue and ten grams of sun gold. That's your thirty grams of required mix. It should be sufficient for the whole-body work. There aren't many blue stripes on the tiger's leg anyway." He turned to look at her.

  Seeing her dazed expression, he continued. "I guess you don't know the places where's original straps appeared on the tiger’s body, do you?"

  Xi shook her head.

  He pointed at the tiger’s paws. "Did you see the small blue mark on his paw? That's a ten percent strength moon blue mixed with vermeil blue. And then there's one on the tail, and there’s one on its forehead. All the others are vermeil blue mixed with sun gold. Got it?"

  Once again, heavenly lightning struck her. A commoner was telling her about palettes, and he’d even guessed the colors in the imitation. When she was painting the paws of the tiger, she had a feeling that something was missing. No matter how thin vermeil blue she used, she couldn’t get the actual shade right. “How do you know?"

  No, he couldn’t be a commoner.

  "Senior, what noble family you belong to?" she asked, her voice lowered a bit.

  He almost choked upon hearing her words. "Noble family..."

  Xi's thin brows arched into a crescent curve. Was he really not from a noble family? If he wasn't, then how did he learn to paint? Every painting skill, self-learned or master taught, was expensive and not available for everyone. If it wasn't for her spending years learning the profound painting skill, Dragon Brush, she wouldn't have reached this level.

  "Who are you?" Xi asked curiously. This guy had piqued her interest.

  "I'm just... Why do you want to know?" His brown eyes lashed out at her.

  "Forget it. Can you show me the palette you spoke of?" Xi said. She wanted to test his knowledge.

  "Do you have the colors here?" He scanned the room.

  "If you free my hands, I'll give them to you."

  "Really?" His eyes shone with bright light.

  "Hmm."

  He dashed forward and untied her hands.

  Xi pulled out all her color pots from her spatial belt, as well as her wooden mixer plate made of red fire wood and special brushes made from little phoenix’s hairs.

  The youth's sword-shaped brows vanished into his hairline as he touched the brush.

  "Little phoenix. You really have little phoenix brushes?" He cheered, his mouth curling into a bright smile. Then he picked one pot and poured some paint on his fingers. His eyes lurked with greed as he rubbed some color on his fingers. “Top grade palette. Wow! I've never seen this one before." He touched the color with his finger and raised it to smell it. "Heavenly." He turned to stare into her eyes. "Little sister, thank you for giving me the chance to feel these colors. Do you mind if I paint the tiger on a free canvas?" He grinned like a small girl meeting a cute cat for the first time.

  I was right. That was fluke, after all. If he doesn't even know how a high tier palette feels, how would he paint?

  Nonetheless, Xi nodded. There was hope after all. Once he got busy with painting, she could run away from this place. It was better than getting defiled by a commoner.

  "Thank you, little sister." He poured various colors on the mixer plate and started mixing them. There were more than five palettes on the wooden plate.

  Why did he choose five colors? And why isn't the vermeil blue or sun gold there? No, he is just playing with it. He can't paint with some random colors like this.

  Once three different palettes were mixed and created—one brown, one purple, and one yellow—he took a break and stared at the source painting.

  In a few more minutes, I must run for my life.

  He sighed after a minute and selected a brush. First, he applied brown on the spare canvas she had provided. "You must not know this step, but if you inspect the imitation painting carefully, the base color of the tiger is brown, purple and yell
ow. So, I'll apply brown first to create the dark tone, purple will be used for the middle tone, and yellow for the light tone. For the texture, we will do it later," he said confidently.

  Xi watched him doubtfully. On the one hand, he hadn't been familiar with the colors she possessed, and on the other he talked about painting and the theory behind it confidently. Though toning method was a basic, not every commoner would know it. Was he working with some master painter?

  And then the way he mixed the paints. That was indeed a profound technique. Even she wasn't that proficient in mixing colors. When he mixed remnant white with the darkwood brown, she felt like those colors were made to go with each other for eternity. Like a river mixing with a sea, to become one forever.

  With shiny eyes, the man applied the first stroke of brown to the canvas, followed by a second, and soon a silhouette of the blue sword tiger appeared on the white paper.

  Xi froze in place when he lifted his brush. It was just brown color, but the tonal values... She would die to get something like this on the canvas with her own hands. The seamlessness of the dark and light areas done with shades of one color amazed her. She could clearly feel the domineering aura of the tiger from just the brown silhouette. It felt so real.

  The guy then lifted another brush and applied purple to the silhouette. Layer after layer of brush strokes appeared on the canvas, pouring life into the tiger.

  Xi almost choked when the boy finally lifted his purple brush. If the tiger looked alive earlier, now it was ready to jump off the canvas and roar. She had never seen such strong mid-tones.

  "You..."

  "Wait for the third color," he said. This time he added a little bit of water into the yellow color. "Do you know why I added water?"

  Xi shook her head.

  "We need a base for the fur. If I just paint with the brush bristles, it would look stale. By adding water, I give it some dynamism."

  "But then the texture would be different than the original. Are you allowing it to deviate from the original? It wouldn’t be the same, right?" Xi replied, her heart clenched tighter at the thought of ruining the painting in front of her.

  The boy smiled. A lotus took a root inside her heart with that smile.

  "Why do you want the same texture on the paper? You already have the original painting. If you just mimic it, then what's the fun? For me, fun is in uniqueness. My own art may not touch the quality of the original painter, but it will shine with its own uniqueness." His smile burst with a unique aura. "It’s my own way of painting. Uniqueness is the key to make a painting alive. Even if I mimic a painting, I still put ten percent of my own unique style in it."

  Xi somehow felt that smile moved her heart. His own way of painting. She had never thought like this. Uniqueness. She always thought mimicking a painting and succeeding in it would lead to the highest possible happiness. But then this man’s words sounded like an edict.

  Why?

  He lifted the third brush, dipped in yellow, and started moving it across the canvas. Slowly, brush by brush, the tiger came alive. For a moment Xi thought the tiger would come out and jump on her. She even took a step back involuntarily.

  "Big brother, may I know your name please? And where did you learn your painting?" Xi asked, flabbergasted. Her voice was full of emotion. For the last year, she’d only managed to paint half of the tiger. Then this guy came along and painted it in no time. He didn't even seem to use any skill she knew.

  Is this because I never learned from a master? Can I acknowledge him as my master?

  "I can't, little sister. Sorry, I can't."

  She felt sad. Silence filled the room for the next half hour while he finished applying the third layer. With the yellow color taking light tones, and purple and brown taking darker tones, the tiger came alive moment by moment.

  With the last stroke of his brush, everything changed. Something shifted in the painting, and the tiger seemed to move. All the surroundings darkened, and the air turned stale. Even the air seemed stopped to admire the painting.

  Xi suddenly went into a trance. She was standing in a room with ten doors. Each door contained something beautiful on the other side. There were too many things to learn, and too little time.

  "Big brother, can you take me as your disciple?" she asked, when she came out of the trance. But he had already left.

  Chapter 43

  Chu Xi

  Xi stared at the empty room with a heavy heart. The joyous air around her seemed meaningless suddenly. The aroma of incense still lingered, but to her it smelled foul. An emptiness spread across her mind as she stared at the tiger on the canvas. So close. She was so close to meeting a real master painter, and then he vanished. Just like that.

  Why did he leave without a word?

  She sighed; it must have been the treatment she gave him. Tying him up. Accusing him of intending to defile her. Why would he accept her as a disciple?

  Her blue and white robe fluttered on the air as a strong current entered from the door. It vanquished her yellowish light source, and a blanket of darkness covered everything. Everything except the tiger painting drawn by the mysterious youth. A dim light radiated from the tiger's body. A soul light. But how was it even possible?

  She almost lost her wits as she thought about the possibility.

  A Soul Searcher Realm painter.

  Like cultivation arts, the art of painting was divided into six realms. Anyone who could draw or mimic another painter was considered a Novice Realm painter. By attaining this realm, her painting would match to the source painting to a small perfection level. No one other than a painter would be able to differentiate between the source and the copy. Xi had been trying for this realm for so many years by going through the hardship of self-learning. The success rate in mimicking a painting stood very low in this realm. Only 20% of the attempts were successful.

  An Intermediate Realm expert would be able to draw their own paintings from nature, and not depend on having a source painting. He would obtain profound knowledge of color palettes, remember at least 1000 types of paints available in the world, and could mimic a painting to a large degree of perfection. Even other painters would find it difficult to tell the source and the copy apart, unless they were at higher painting realm. In this realm, the success rate of mimicking came in around 40%.

  Soul Searching Realm was a totally different world from the first two. Not only would this painter study and memorize at least 5000 different color palettes, but he would also achieve perfection in mimicking. Even a higher-level painter would find it difficult to identify the original painting. But that wasn't the main thing about this realm. It was Soul Imprint.

  In this realm, a painter mixed his soul with the paint. A soul imprint. It was an advanced technique, and not many painters could use it. When a painting was drawn by a Soul Searching Realm expert, the painting would give first time viewers a tranquil feeling and a rare chance of obtaining an insight into their current training. It was like a bottleneck-breaking pill for Qi Condensation experts. For different people, the insight would be different. A moment ago, when Xi gained her insight, it opened up a new path in the art of painting for her. She was now confidant in mimicking the fur of the tiger that had bothered her for the last few months.

  The only disadvantage was that the soul imprint would vanish after a few uses, or a few hours, and a person could only gain a new insight once. Identification of such paintings was simple. A soul-imprint-imbued painting would emit a dim light in the night. The original painting hung in her room was only made by an Intermediate Realm painter.

  Many masters spent their lives trying to achieve this realm and failed miserably.

  Unfortunately, the jade slip Xi possessed only described the names of the remaining realms; they were Soul Stabilization Realm, Soul Perfection Realm and Divine Soul Master Realm. Not even the teacher who created that jade slip knew about these realms.

  Looking at the dimly lit paining in the night, Xi knew the mysterious yout
h was at least a Soul Searching Realm master. But why were his clothes so dirty and cheap? A Soul Searching Realm painter could gain thousands of gold just to appraise one painting. And yet the youth looked like...

  Regret filled her. If only she had known this earlier, she would have begged him to accept her as a disciple.

  "Young miss, why are you standing in the dark?" Sua's voice echoed from behind her. "And this—" She broke off suddenly.

  When Xi turned to answer her servant, she found Sua in a dazed state, staring at the painting. It reminded Xi of the feeling she’d had after glancing at the complete painting for the first time.

  Oh no, why did I let her see this painting? The soul imprint will vanish after a few uses.

  Xi cursed herself and quickly covered the painting and hid everything in her spatial belt. It was her good fortune to get her hands on such a painting, and she wasn't ready to share it with anyone but her family.

  After almost half an hour, Sua came back to her senses. She stared at Xi, dumbfounded. "Young miss, what was that?"

  "Tell me, what did you see?" Xi asked, curiously.

  Sua sighed, her eyes lit like the first ray of morning sunlight. "It was like standing in a new world made of fire. My whole body was awash in it. I felt like I’d received a boost to my Fire Palm martial skill." She closed her eyes, and her palms started radiating a fiery red light. She snapped open her eyes with a smile. "Yes, I've reached intermediate success in the second level of my Fire Palm."

  "Good. Let's go." Xi smiled and stepped away. She was correct. Anyone looking at the painting would get some insight.

  Sua beamed profoundly and followed her.

  FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, Xi stood outside a dark room inside the Chu patriarch’s palace—the patriarch’s sleeping chamber. It was a dark and starry night, and no lantern dared to disturb the Chu patriarch’s family members. Out of the whole family, only Xi was awake, and her eyes shone with an intense white light.

  With a long sigh, Xi debated whether or not to wake her father. Any other time, Xi wouldn't have dared to disturb her father at this late hour. But the matter was important and couldn't be delayed.