In a well-lit cave filled with luscious blue river grass, a young man could be seen sitting cross-legged. His disheveled hair dropped low and there was the slightest hint of facial hair. His extended ears were covered with silver fur and through his wavy silver locks, there was a tattoo of a green, vertical eye.
Next to him were placed a pair of white-gold gauntlets and leather boots. He wore a pitch-black robe with silver embroidery over the ends of the sleeves and the hems of the robe and pants. Unlike the ceremonial robes he received previously, the Starry Black Majestic Battle Robe had a shorter length and the pants were baggier. Not only that, the clothes seemed to be made of spiritual materials in the sense that nothing stuck to them.
Unless torn and ruined, Ja Sun could practically wear them for as long as he wants!
His fore-talons were carefully placed over his knees. After breaking through, he began to practice every day. He would only cultivate the Mental Acupuncture Technique once, meaning that aside from the first 30 points, Ja Sun still had to pierce another 226 locations to reach the sixth level of the technique. Without any blood crystal, his cultivation of Revitalized Blood Qi Art had turned slow and still remained on the fourth level, however, his body's quality was quickly catching up to his blood's quality due to passive nurturing from his blood and constant physical training.
Finally, the most important part of his cultivation was using the enhanced speed alongside his Concentric Spirit Technique and in a month, Ja Sun's spirit rank increased by 3 ranks, making him a rank 17 spirit master. This heightened pace in cultivation was only due to the most basic foundation built over the past 13 years but his speed would only get even slower. After all, despite the increase in pace, Ah Yin still hadn't advanced in a rank even once which indicated the difficulty of cultivation.
This also made Ja Sun realize the importance of constant adventuring and finding good opportunities. Extreme situations were also needed to trigger one's potential so that the pace of cultivation may increase temporarily.
*Tap* *Tap*
The sound of footsteps followed by the gentle flap of wings revealed the identity of the visitors as Ah Yin dressed in a blue cheongsam walked down. She let go of Caihong who flew towards Olivia and closed his eyes once again as their bodies cultivated while sleeping.
Gazing towards Ja Sun, she found a rather heavy tome placed next to him alongside the pair of gauntlets and boots.
"Did you loot this tome, too?" Ah Yin inquired calmly as she sat a little further away from him due to the repellent scent around him.
Opening his eyes, Ja Sun's green eyes glimmered with a misty hue before he exhaled a turbid breath.
"Yeah. He ran away just with my body's odor," Ja Sun smirked.
"You know I don't believe that you robbed those spirit clothes and this tome. The leather on its cover is made of a very durable spirit beast. Nobody just drops it and runs away because of body odor."
"Then why don't you whisper that in my ears?" He smiled and Ah Yin found herself unable to answer for the umpteenth time.
It takes time to know someone else but the more the two knew about each other, the more questions popped in their heads and they felt that they needed one core hint to untangle the mysterious mess that they titled each other with.
"I will probably level up a rank today," Ah Yin changed the subject as the youth in front of her smiled, "Well, congratulations. Say, when is your birthday? We can celebrate all the accomplishments together."
Gazing towards Ja Sun with her eyelids drooping slightly, she replied faintly, "It was a week ago. And growing because of the passage of time is no achievement."
"Wait... you're seriously 18?" Ja Sun inquired again. Some matters needed solid confirmation.
Seeing Ah Yin nod, Ja Sun finally took his time to observe Ah Yin. Feeling his rather bold stare, Ah Yin kept her eyes shut but she couldn't help and frown. His stare began from her knees. Her cheongsam had a cut from the right side of the dress right from the knees. Once she felt her exposed legs finally being let go by that audacious stare, Ah Yin then felt a pair of eyes over her covered chest but the longest gaze felt over her face.
"Why does my age feel so relevant to you?" Ah Yin felt like pulling Ja Sun's attention away and she inquired while cultivating still.
"Hmm... I guess, I can never think anything perverted about girls below the age of 18. I believe they aren't mature enough for my taste," Ja Sun informed what was the rules about minors in his previous life but his words only made Ah Yin feel weirder.
"A man cultivates to follow his dream. What if someone likes a younger girl? What if a younger girl likes you?"
"I don't know what to do with the former but in the latter situation... I guess she has to wait."
Ah Yin opened her eyes.
"What if she is stronger than you? More than you can imagine. And she is forcing herself on you, then what?"
"What's the use of a man that cannot be excited?" Ja Sun smirked, "Of course, if she can enjoy herself on soft sticks then it will be my loss."
Instead of feeling disgusted, Ah Yin continued with great interest.
"There are many medicines related to treating several conditions of men. What if she can cure your softness?"
"Then I will fake it!" Ja Sun nodded calmly.
"Fake... what?" Ah Yin frowned.
Crossing his arms, Ja Sun closed his eyes and let out a ponderous hum. "Ordinary men and women have great difference. Men without any special training usually last much shorter than women. Of course, there are natural talents everywhere... But for spirit masters like us, if given enough time, we can condition a part of our body using spirit, mental, and physical energy.
So, faking it would mean fooling the partner by making them believe that you yourself reached the peak of your pleasure capacity."
Ja Sun opened his eyes and then looked at Ah Yin, "Or something like that. Anything else?"
"Wouldn't she know about it? What if she punishes you?" Ah Yin tilted her head curiously.
"Lucky me," Ja Sun shrugged. "But why... is your focus of inquiry changing every time?"
"Not important," she shot him down, "What did you mean by— Lucky me?"
Seeing Ja Sun's gaze turning scornful, she knew she wouldn't get any more answers and as expected, Ja Sun sneered, "Why would I tell you?"
"Oh, did anything interesting happen outside?" Ja Sun inquired.
Thinking for a moment, Ah Yin spoke up, "The surrounding towns have nothing interesting going on. Do you remember the two brothers who bought your techniques?"
Ja Sun nodded.
"They have made a great name for themselves. They are the young masters from Clear Sky Clan. They recently fought against a combined group of Spirit Hall and the Black Turtle Clan under Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. Two Spirit Sages defeated a group of 5 spirit sages led by a Spirit Douluo."
Ja Sun blinked before he spat contemptuously, "There was nothing young about them! What young masters?!"
Ah Yin nodded, much to Ja Sun's surprise, "I agree," she added.
"Anything else?" Ja Sun inquired with an eager smile.
"Nothing else. I accidentally found a silver coin lying on the street... that was good."
The corner of Ja Sun's lips twitched.
Once Ah Yin began cultivating, Ja Sun picked the tome. This was his 30-days reward— Complete Observation of Bloodlines.
Opening the book, Ja Sun read the words on the very first page.
'I write this journal in hopes that the future generation understands the truth about Martial Souls. They are wonderful concepts that can be grown just like a spirit master or spirit beast. Using my ability, I will divine all the bloodlines and the martial souls connected to them. My limit is to divine the next 1000 years. I am already at the end of my life. Using my remaining life essence to leave my vast inheritance in the hands of the future generation is not... sad. I feel peaceful and happy.
— Astral Dragon Douluo.'
Ja Sun flipped the next page.
'Bloodlines... they are a heritage present in every living being— beast, plant, or human. Bloodlines do not mean the blood flowing within one's body. It is a complete heritage. A bloodline births a martial soul, innate talent, and physically unique qualities. So, a bloodline can only be recorded by measuring the mentioned areas of interest. This is the only thing a person needs to know about bloodlines.'
The definition was written in the middle of the yellowed parchment and there was nothing else.
Once again, Ja Sun flipped the page and saw the entire spread of two pages divided into multiple rows and columns.
Blooldine>Connected Martial Souls>Possible Evolutions>Possible Causes of Evolution>Evolved Martial Soul.
The binder was surprisingly in an ascending order based on the first letter.
Ja Sun began reading through the tome with great interest. If the tome was right, then the bloodline Ja Sun had provided him with twin martial souls. Or maybe he had two different bloodlines. Only these two possibilities felt the likeliest.
Ja Sun easily read through the tome for more than an hour but he still didn't come through any familiar martial soul. There were simply too many variations!
The effects of the bloodlines and martial souls weren't recorded. Just their appearances were accurately described. But this tome did record that spirit souls could evolve Bloodlines and Martial Souls and knowing how Spirit Souls worked, Ja Sun fully believed this observation.
'But... does this mean that Spirit Souls existed in the past but were forsaken? Or something occurred that stopped the availability of Spirit Souls and this caused the knowledge to disappear?' Ja Sun pursed his lips.
After dozens of minutes, Ja Sun felt a spiritual fluctuation from Ah Yin's side and closed the tome promptly. He then waited for Ah Yin to stabilize her new realm which took another few minutes.
Ah Yin opened her eyes, satisfaction flickering in her eyes.
"I expected to reach rank 43 only after a week. The small benefits will soon accumulate." She stated and locked gazes with Ja Sun, "Thank you."
"Eh, when you're feeling particularly grateful, you can thank me in other ways," Ja Sun smiled.
"With how you smell? I'd rather not."
"So there is a way," Ja Sun traced his chin thoughtfully but instead of feeling annoyed, Ah Yin just smiled. How could she get annoyed at this moment? A benefit of 7 days was great enough already! This means that her annual efforts would bring her the benefits equivalent of almost a year and two months!
"Let's go out!" Ja Sun stretched his limbs, "It's a shame that this place doesn't have any lake or pond. That way, I could bath every day..."
"Why don't we do that?" Ah Yin suddenly inquired.
"What? Bath together every day?" Ja Sun titled his head in confusion.
"No. Fina a place with the source of water. We know about this hideout. Finding more abandoned hideouts will only be beneficial and even better if it has a source of water," Ah Yin stated impassively. Her tolerance to Ja Sun had definitely grown over the period.
"But... this place is strange. There might be something good here," Ja Sun hesitated.
"If it was meant for us, or had even the slightest hint of affinity with the two of us, we would have felt something. Let's just find more hideouts," Ah Yin persuaded peacefully.
"Yeah..." Ja Sun looked towards the mother-son pair perched on the ground and his mental energy communicated with them before they flew out.
"Caihong will reach the hundred-year-old mark soon," Ah Yin muttered.
"Ah Yin... since your domain can replenish spirit energy, can't you also increase your cultivation?"
"You misunderstand," Ah Yin shook her head, "If we consider our spirit energy to be a container then it is easier to fill the empty container. But cultivation is about increasing the capacity of the container and not filling it with water."
"Of course, I know that," He rolled his eyes, "I mean... a method just like my mental technique. You faced it first hand. High pain and gain situation."
Ah Yin fell stunned before she looked at him with widened eyes, "Do you know such a technique?"
"If I knew... wouldn't I use it despite the pain and reach rank 20 in a day?" Ja Sun scoffed.
Recalling the intense expression on Ja Sun's face as he still continued to raise his cultivation despite the injuries, Ah Yin knew that Ja Sun was speaking the truth.
"If there is such a technique, then, of course, it will be amazing," She sighed.
Shaking his head, Ja Sun strapped the gauntlets on the set of belts that came alongside the robes over his back. His coin pouches never left his waist. Holding his boots with one hand, Ja Sun walked over to the lightened sack of dried food and beckoned Ah Yin to move.
"Let's go already. He's here."
Ah Yin nodded and began walking out. Before she started walking up, she glanced back. Her gaze seemed to pierce through the ground and observe deep within the earth slept a brown beetle that looked like an ore. However, the gentle energy swept around it, and a strange metamorphosis seemed to be taking place.
"May you survive your future ordeals in the human world," Ah Yin whispered, wishing the strange entity her best before she turned left the area.
***
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