Reincarnation: A Wuxia/Xianxia Cultivation Novel (Path of Lazy Immortal Book 1)

by A P Gore

  Stupid lass.

  “Young master, this beast has solved our problem for food. I found a portable stove in the storage ring you gave me.”

  “Did you?” Wei’s eyes shone with surprise. He didn’t remember this. But of course, the expert wouldn’t tell him about every insignificant thing he’d found inside the ring. Why would he?

  “That’s good, but we have to mask the smell of its blood, or more beasts will come our way.” He coughed. His blood loss was too much, and he was once again on the verge of fainting. He had to cultivate, else he would need to eat a pill, and he didn’t want that. “Fei’er, do you have anything with a strong smell on you?”

  “I have another White Cicada Fruit.” She pulled the white colored fruit from a tightly wrapped cloth, and suddenly the blood smell and her orchid fragrance vanished in the spicy smell of White Cicada Fruit.

  It smelled really nasty.

  “Good. Place it at least twenty feet away from us.”

  Fei’er followed his instructions.

  “Fei’er, which qi cultivation method are you following?” he asked. When she said she had cultivated to layer one Refinement Realm, he was shocked. In his previous life, she didn’t cultivate.

  “I’m cultivating Nine Lotus Fragrance Qi Cultivation Art.”

  Wei arched his brows. “Do you want to be an alchemist? And where did you get it?” Nine Lotus Fragrance Qi Cultivation Art was a rare qi cultivation art that Divine Fragrance Palace core female disciples practiced. Only girls of wood attribute Spirit Root could practice them, and Divine Fragrance Palace kept it a secret. Had she stolen it? If this news got out, she would be haunted by all the sect elders.

  “Alchemist? No, I know nothing about it. I just want to protect young master,” she said in a firm voice.

  Her resolve touched his heart, making him regret leaving her alone in his last life. By the time he’d returned to Old Martial City, she was gone.

  This lass was always dedicated to him, and he’d failed to save her life.

  No, that wouldn’t happen again. In his current life, he would make sure she lived a comfortable life. Without worrying about anything else.

  “Don’t worry about me anymore.” He smiled. “Your young master has so many methods to protect himself. But how did you get this cultivation art?”

  Fei’er’s face broke into an innocent smile. “I once helped an injured elder sister, and in return she gave me this qi cultivation art. She was like a fairy. Jade white skin and beautiful peach shaped eyes. She even wore a white dress. She also told me if I could reach Foundation Realm using it, I should seek her out at Divine Fragrance Palace.”

  So, it was related to Divine Fragrance Palace. “What was the name of that elder sister?”

  “Tang Sia,” Fei’er replied. “Young master, is this something bad? I practiced it so I can help you.”

  Wei sighed in his heart. Tang Sia was a beautiful fairy. In fact, she excelled not only in her looks but also her prowess. In the future, she would emerge as the sect leader of Divine Fragrance Palace. Having a relationship with her was a good thing for Fei’er.

  “No. It’s not bad. I was just enquiring. How many levels does this qi cultivation art have?”

  “Just until Foundation Realm.”

  “Hmm.” That made sense. Tang Sia wouldn’t hand over the whole qi cultivation art. She must have spotted something good in Fei’er and helped her out of gratitude. “It’s good. Let’s cultivate, and you should reach as far as possible using the pills.”

  “Young master, do you have a way to get out of here?” Her blue eyes filled with hope.

  Wei shook his head. “I don’t. But we have a way to go in.” He glanced at the other end of the tunnel. If a Ferocious Beast had come from that way, then they might find their way out.

  They might survive after all.

  Chapter 15 Blood Essence Body

  Li Wei gritted his teeth and pushed the remaining blood toward his Yangming meridian. Sweat formed under his ears as he tried to absorb essence energy through his body, but it wasn’t working. The damn essence was refusing to enter his body. This had never happened with him.

  Pushing his palms on the cold metal surface, he took a deep breath and tried it again. Maybe he was too used to heat because of his previous body cultivation art, and the cold slipping through his skin restricted his cultivation?

  System: Blood percentage critical. Activating hibernation mode.

  Surreal music spread inside Li Wei’s mind, calming him. First, his sense of touch vanished. He forgot he was sitting on a metal surface inside a tunnel. Then his sense of smell vanished. The spicy smell of the White Cicada Fruit vanished like it’d never existed.

  Then the sound of Fei’er fiddling with something vanished.

  Then the darkness from his vision vanished, followed by his pain. Memories faded. Self-perseverance faded and then he lost himself to the surreal music.

  Almost.

  Wei’s eyes opened like a predator sensing its prey. The message once again showed up in his mind, and this time he remembered it clearly.

  What was this system, and what did this hibernation mean?

  He racked his brain, but nothing came to mind. Had something happened when he reincarnated?

  For a long time, he tried to remember, but nothing came to mind. Finally, he gave up and spread his divine sense inside his body. He had to take the risk, but he was afraid this risk taking would lead to his divine sense’s decimation. Every time he used his divine sense, the pain increased by a margin, and it was becoming unbearable.

  This . . . He couldn’t believe what he saw inside his body. How could his body regenerate forty-five percent total blood in the blink of a second? And what were these pearl-like blood drops moving through his body?

  Using his divine sense, he zoomed on these new type of blood drops. There were many of them, throbbing with life energy. After reaching layer one body Refinement Realm in Blood Essence Body, his blood had transformed from an egg into a dragon’s cub. But compared to his normal blood, these blood drops were more like an adult dragon. So much vitality surged through these blood pearls that it could compete with his Heart Blood. No, they could surpass his Heart Blood by a tiny margin.

  There were forty-five of them rushing through his body.

  This Blood Essence Body Cultivation Art was something else. He would have to study it properly. It was too bad he didn’t have the jade slip with him. There were a few parts he didn’t read. There was one part that talked about constellations, and he had only superficial knowledge about them. Once he reached Foundation Realm, he should complete Earth Constellation of Blood Essence Body, but what that meant he didn’t know.

  “Fei’er.” He stared at the girl sitting cross-legged in front of him. She was stitching a long gray robe she’d found in the storage ring. Well, he’d asked her to cultivate, but it seemed the little lass wanted to stitch the robe into a smaller version so he could wear it.

  Priorities. She had set her priorities wrong.

  “Yes, young master.”

  “How long have you been working on that robe?”

  “Around half an hour.” She put down the shirt and scratched her head. “Don’t you like this style, young master?”

  Wei shook his head. When he’d started cultivating, she had just started working on the robe. That meant he had gone into a strange state for half an hour.

  What sorcery was this? Had he achieved a Selfless State in his cultivation?

  No way. If he’d achieved it at this stage, immortals would die of shame. Even after cultivating constantly for ten years, people didn’t get into this state. Then how could he achieve it so quickly?

  Then what was this? And how could he explain forty-five percent blood gain in half an hour?

  “Young master, what did you do? Your cheeks are red again.” Fei’er stared at him in a daze.

  Smiling faintly, he closed his eyes again. Before entering the strange state, he’d been trying t
o absorb heaven and earth's essence into his body, but couldn’t. He wanted to try it again.

  This world was filled with heaven and earth essence energy for cultivators to absorb and use as a fuel to perform immense feats that seemed impossible. Qi cultivators absorbed it and converted it into qi to store in their dantians, while body cultivators absorbed it into their bodies and stored it in their whole bodies. This also improved their fleshly body by a huge margin. One could become indestructible by following body cultivation path. But that didn’t mean qi cultivation was weak. Qi cultivation had its own advantages. Qi cultivators had a myriad of martial skills, while body cultivators could only utilize a few divine arts. Qi cultivators could use their qi to perform auxiliary arts like alchemy, talisman crafting, and artifact crafting while body cultivators could destroy mountains with their punches.

  Both had their advantages. In his previous life, Wei had practiced Firmament Fire Body Cultivation Art. That made him harmonious with various worldly fires. While others would die inside a boiling furnace, he could temper himself with the same fire. It even let his normal punch carry the power of fire.

  However, Blood Essence Body Cultivation Art, or Blood Essence Body, differed from other body cultivation arts. Cultivating it required one to go through two steps: essence accumulation and blood replenishment.

  In the essence accumulation phase, one inhaled the essence of heaven and earth and stored it inside their blood. While attacking, one could expand their blood to increase their attack power or other physical attributes. It acted like qi. One could use it to enforce their punches and kicks. But unlike qi, which was constrained by the limited space of one’s dantian, blood essence could be stored endlessly in one’s body. The more blood one could store, the more they could burst forth. It might lack the iron-like skin and unbreakable bones, but it made his body unkillable by increasing his healing powers.

  Thinking about it, the new type of blood droplets—he’d call them blood pearls—could also be used for the same. Well, he had to test it himself before making any presumptions.

  Blood replenishment was the second phase. It replenished the used blood with cultivation, and he was doing the same while cultivating. He’d used this phase after killing the beast. He was in a dire condition because of the blood loss, but now he was half full. But as per the text, this phase was the slowest one. Yet somehow, he had refilled forty percent of his blood in half an hour.

  Five percent was his bottom line, he would die if he went below that, and now he had forty-five total.

  Anyway, he had to replenish his remaining blood, so closing his eyes, he started cultivating again.

  With a deep breath, his body absorbed essence energy from his surroundings and mixed it with his existing blood. The same blood then went through his Yangming meridian, replicating and then spreading throughout his whole body. As the blood filled his meridians and muscles, his lost energy returned.

  One after another, he went through the cycles of cultivation and lost himself in a tranquil state. It wasn’t the same as the selfless state he’d miraculously experienced before, but it was like a fraction of it. After moving his blood 100 times through his Yangming meridian, he spotted the birth of a blood pearl. A shiny drop of vitality emerged in his body and then moved through all meridians.

  “Young master. Are you hungry?” A soft voice pulled him out of his cultivation trance. Opening his eyes, he glared at Fei’er who had been busy stitching the gray robe for him. But upon seeing her innocent expression, his anger vanished.

  “No. I’m not hungry yet.” His growling stomach betrayed him, and Fei’er broke into a beautiful giggle.

  “I’ll cook then.”

  “You should stitch one for yourself too.” He glanced at her slightly torn gray gown. It showed her fair white shin a little.

  She hurriedly hid her skin with her hand. “Young master, you shouldn’t look at a girl’s skin like this.”

  Chuckling, he jumped up and tousled her hair. She was still a kid in his eyes, and she acted like a kid too. “Let’s cook some meat and then cultivate again.”

  “I can’t.” She shook her head. “Elder sister Sia said I can only cultivate in the morning dew while sitting under the most luscious tree present around my house.”

  Wei smirked. The lass didn’t know how many pills there were in the ring, and out of those, one was exactly useful for her. The Essence Gathering Pill.

  Chapter 16 Rapid Breakthrough

  Flames leaped at the meat stabbed onto the metal skewer, spreading an intoxicating aroma around the small space Li Wei and Fei’er had made their temporary resting space. The textured aroma of fresh meat brought up a few memories of a year he’d spent in a dangerous forest, hunting and cultivating. At that time, he’d started from scratch and learned to roast by himself. If not for cultivating, he might have turned back into the Fatty Wei his friends called him in childhood. Well, he was fat right now, and he wasn’t ashamed of it. In fact, he liked his chubby body.

  Wei rotated the bloody shirt he used to hold metal skewer they’d found inside the ring. Fei’er had finished stitching the gray robe for him, so he’d readily changed into it.

  Thinking about the ring, the man who’d had it must have been a traveler. The ring contained everything one would need for an adventurous stay in a forest: pills, extra clothes, a portable stove, wood, swords, deboning knives, gold, spices, and whatnot. Of course, the pills were the most precious things among them. The man must have been extremely rich, as he had stored ten Foundation Refirming Pills and six Essence Gathering Pills. When Wei was in Heavenly Firmament Sect, he’d received one—yes, a single Foundation Refirming Pill—in five years. That sect was quite cheap to start with. But he couldn’t blame them for it. For starters, he’d only had a Bronze Grade Spirit Root.

  No one wasted their resources on Bronze Grade Spirit Root. If he hadn’t had metal qi used for weapon refinement, no one would have let him step foot in the sect. The pills were costly too. Only Divine Fragrance Palace, the heavyset sect in alchemy, could give them to their disciples as a yearly quota. When he’d learned about the riches of Divine Fragrance Palace, he’d wanted to quit artifact refinement and join it to learn alchemy, but too bad. Once one joined a sect, no other sect would accept them.

  Anyway, ultimately, he’d moved away from refinement and walked the path of arrays.

  Tender smoke rose from the meat, pulling him out of his flashback. Slowly, he rotated skewer to let the other side enjoy the same treatment of fire.

  “Ten more minutes.” He whispered at Fei’er who had been turning the robe into a smaller gown for herself.

  She smiled at him and got back to her stitching. For a moment, he stared at her fingers effortlessly moving the needle around the soft cloth. It was almost like a painting.

  Shaking his head, he concentrated back on the roasting. One half was done, and it already exuded a nice aroma. He licked his lips, remembering the taste. This was their sixth meal after getting stuck here, and the meat from the beast’s body was almost gone. If they wanted to survive, they must enter deeper in the tunnel.

  “Fei’er, next time you skin a Ferocious Beast with thick blood, remember to collect its blood in a pot. It can be used for array carving.”

  Fei’er nodded. She had skinned the wolf since he was injured, but she’d let the blood go to waste. It was thick enough to carve some temporary arrays.

  Heat coming from the stove penetrated into the meat piece, turning it brown. It even slipped into his skin, making him feel warm. It felt awesome to sit next to a fire, and thanks to the White Cicada Fruit, they didn’t have to worry about the roasted smell escaping into the tunnel.

  While the meat got roasted over the fire, he extended his divine sense into his body. After a whole day of cultivation, he had nearly replenished his initial blood loss. Right now, he had eighty blood pearls sitting inside his Yangming meridian. After producing the fifteenth drop, they’d suddenly moved to the Yangming meridian and stayed
there. After their movement, his cultivation speed increased slightly. He had a gut feeling that once he accumulated one hundred drops, something good would happen.

  Good, what? He didn’t know yet. But his strength should reach one hundred pounds of power. That was a given.

  Fei’er had left him in the dust when it came to cultivation. That lass ate one Essence Gathering Pill and broke through two layers directly and reached layer three qi Refinement Realm. She wanted to eat another pill, but fearing cultivation deviation, he stopped her. This girl was crazy. If this continued, she would reach layer nine before he reached layer four or five in body Refinement Realm. That was just inconceivable. Her Spirit Root must have been at least Gold Grade, because the qi cultivation art was okayish in his eyes. Now he wished he could impart a better qi cultivation art to her, but he was helpless. He remembered many qi cultivation arts, but he had no way to teach them. Until he formed a soul space for himself, he wouldn’t be able to impart information using his divine sense to others.

  He sighed in his heart. There was no guarantee that his divine sense would survive until he reached that illusionary realm.

  Fei’er had progressed well, but she didn’t know a single martial skill. All she knew was how to debone a beast with her knife. Nothing else. Well, he knew a few low-level martial skills, but he didn’t have qi to practice them. And for divine arts, he would have to wait until he reached Refinement Realm in his Blood Essence Body.

  If they were going to embark down the tunnels ahead, they had to learn some fighting skills.

  Wait, there was a high-grade sword martial skill he knew. One Sword Strike, a Gold Grade martial skill he had learned in his previous life. Although it was a high-grade martial skill, it was impossible to master it, so Heavenly Firmament Sect let every disciple learn it after joining. Although it required qi to master, the first level didn’t require one to use their qi. The first level only comprised basic attack patterns to hone one’s sword basics.