by Jace Kang
Kentaro and Aya exchanged doubtful glances. It made sense to Ryu, however, since the recorded history of the World of Rivers and Lakes was about twenty thousand years old, and Siena looked a lot like a fairy.
“Please tell me,” she said, “how does your channeling work?”
Channeling didn’t sound right, but… “Cultivation.”
“Like farming?” She tilted her head, a cute motion.
“No, Cultivating oneself. Our Three Treasures: Qi, Essence, and Spirit.”
Her confused expression showed her disbelief.
“We all have these energies. Actually, I sense your people could be quite strong with it.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, your Core is dense.” Ryu extended his Qi through the water vapor and wrapped his senses around her Core. Curiously, it was actually a little less dense than before their match. Had she drawn on it to fight? To produce the flames? “High-level masters would pay a thousand times their weight in gold to connect with your Core.”
“Connect with a Core? How does one do that?” she asked.
Not normally shy, Ryu felt heat rise to his face. He looked to the kids, then leaned closer to Siena. “Intimate relations.”
“Oh, is that all?” She brightened. “Will you show me?”
“You mean…”
“Well, that’s the other reason I came here.” She looked up through her lashes at him.
Kentaro and Aya both gawked, the former’s mouth just about touching the ground.
If blood had rushed up to his face a moment ago, it now rushed down to his nethers. “Are…are you sure?”
“The reason I told your apprentice she wouldn’t have to practice naked is that I planned on giving her my dress.” She unclasped a tie behind her neck, and the garment dropped away. “I won’t need it.”
Any question about the anatomical differences between Elestrae and human died on his lips. Ryu could only stare. With her gown, she’d looked like a sculpture carved by a master. Now, she looked to be sculpted by the hands of an Immortal. Her breasts were rounded as if gravity had paused to admire her pink nipples, while the flare from her waist to her hips would’ve made a priceless Ming vase jealous.
It was certainly making Aya jealous, the way she stared through narrow eyes; and it was apparently possible that Kentaro could gawk even wider than he had just a moment ago.
One leg crossing over the other, hips swaying, Siena edged closer and put her hand on his chest.
Sexual relations were an aspect of Cultivation, one which Ryu had engaged in often; but never with a being so beautiful. Whereas he normally maintained a cool and collected demeanor with women, his heart now raced. No doubt she could feel it pounding through her hand.
He cleared his throat and looked around. They were in the middle of a park, surrounded by buildings, .and from the sound of it, the locals were waking and would probably soon be coming out. “Where should we…?”
Siena scanned the area and shrugged. “Here?”
Kentaro gulped; Aya gawked.
Ryu was not particularly modest, but this did come as a surprise. “You don’t want somewhere more private?”
She shook her head. “Our people like communing with nature, and there isn’t a whole lot of it nearby. Plus, it’s beautiful with the pink sky of dawn.” She gestured to the horizon, barely visible between the tall buildings.
“Well, if you don’t mind…” Ryu looked to the kids.
Aya’s expression was impossible to read. Disappointment? Ken’s face was inscrutable.
He’d been about to tell them to go practice the Zhan Zhuang somewhere else; but on second thought, this could be a learning experience. He gestured them to the ground. “Sit as you did just before, connecting your Huiyin points to the Earth.”
Aya and Kentaro exchanged startled glances.
“Are you sure?” Kentaro said.
“Yes. Remember the visualization exercise I taught you?” With a finger, Ryu drew a long oval in the air. “With the Energy going up your Governing Vessel and down your Conception Vessel?”
They both nodded, and Siena listened with rapt attention.
“It’s called the Microcosmic Orbit.” Ryu beckoned the Elestrae over.
When she stood beside him, he turned her around so her back faced Aya and Kentaro.
“This is the Governing Vessel.” Trying to remain professional, he traced a line from her tailbone up the back of her spine, pausing at the small of her back. “This point is called Mingmen, the Gate of Life.”
It looked as if Kentaro’s eyes weren’t following the finger, instead staring at Siena’s peach-shaped ass.
Ryu couldn’t blame him, because he was, too. If he’d been the Monkey Sun Wukong, this is the peach he would’ve stolen. And to think, it was being freely offered. He stopped his finger at the vertex of her head. “Baihui, the Hundred Meetings.”
Unlike Kentaro’s eyes, Aya’s followed the whole time.
Ryu turned Siena around and drew his finger down the front of her body. Her nose was beautifully slim, and he paused at her full lips, not because there was an important point there, but because they were so soft and kissable. He did pause in the valley between her perfect breasts, in the center of her chest. “Tanzhong, the Upper Sea of Life.”
Kentaro had no problem following the motion now.
He continued down, stopping a few centimeters below her navel, causing her to shiver. “Two points here, Guanyuan and Qihai. Our Core lies between these spots, and as you Cultivate more, it fills in the entire space. This is where you want to focus during Cultivation.”
Still staring at the Elestrae maiden, Kentaro swallowed hard. “And the Huiyin point?”
Aya slapped him on the side of the head.
“This is the Microcosmic Orbit, the joining of the Governing and Conception vessels.” He reversed direction with his finger. “Once you are good at bringing Qi up to the top of your head through the Governing Vessel and down to your Core, you can practice the reverse flow, as well.”
Both nodded, though whether Kentaro had heard a word or not, it was impossible to tell.
“Now, you can Cultivate through sex, as well. It’s a way of joining a man’s Governing Vessel to a woman’s Conception Vessel, and vice versa.”
Kentaro’s gawk indicated he was indeed listening.
“In this way, Yin and Yang energies merge, and you can mix and share Qi.” Ryu traced the crossing oval patterns in the air. “The symbol of Infinity. If two high-ranking Cultivators connect in just the right way, they can theoretically create perpetual, infinite energy.”
Siena’s eyes widened.
“What about men with men, and women with women?” Aya asked.
“Men with men will link Governing vessel and mutually strengthen and energize Yang energies. Women with women will link their Conception vessels and enrich and nourish Yin energies.” Ryu met Siena’s gaze. “Now, are you sure?”
She opened his robes, baring his arousal, then rose to her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. Soft and full, they parted, inviting him in. He obliged, letting his tongue swirl around hers. He’d forgotten to explain how the tongue was the conduit to the Heart, but his mouth was too otherwise engaged to expound on it now.
Pulse racing, he withdrew, then lavished kisses from the tip of her tapered ear, along her jawline, and down her neck. She let out a primal moan, lifting a leg to hook her knee over his hip. All Cultivation lessons slipped from his mind as he reached around and cupped her firm ass. Heat radiated from her.
He looked over her shoulder at the kids. “A female’s center of sexual Cultivation is what we call the Root of Yin.” He teased a finger around her clitoris, savoring the wetness, wondering at the similarities in alien anatomy, exulting in her gasps of pleasure.
It wasn’t much of a lesson. Try as Kentaro might, he wouldn’t be able to see the details.
“I need you,” Siena rasped urgently. She reached down and guided him into her. She blazed
like a Fifth Rank Fireburst, yet was slippery like a Second Rank Iceslick, and he nearly spilled his seed in her right then and there. Instead, he took a deep breath and cleared his mind.
“Wait,” he said.
Panting, she pulled back. “Why?”
“They need to learn.” He tilted his head toward the kids.
“They can learn by watching.” She thrust with her hips, the hot, slick sensation again nearly bringing him to peak on just the second stroke.
Visualizing his testicles, he took a deep breath and drew Qi through his Huiyin point and up his spine, bringing him back from the brink. He said, “To connect, you need to breathe in as I go deeper, breathe out as I withdraw. In turn, I—”
With a gasp, she bucked again, her insides squeezing over his length, and it was all he could do not to climax on the third thrust.
“—I inhale as I pull back, and exhale as I penetrate.” He pressed the Yongquan points in his soles to the ground and concentrated on the cool dew clinging to the grass. “Tongue on the roof of your mouth.”
She rocked her hips several times, ignoring everything he said, panting out as she took him deeper, breathing in as she pulled back. While not helpful toward her Cultivation, it was the perfect breathing pattern for him to connect to her Core.
Her motions brought him closer and closer, but he mastered himself with his breaths. He’d peak any moment now, but the Code of Lakes and Rivers required consent. “May I link to your Core? It will weaken you, though not by much, given how dense it is.”
“Mmmm, hmmm,” she mumbled, back arched.
That sounded like a yes? He synchronized with her efforts, thrusting deeper as she pressed to him, drawing all the way back to his head as she disengaged. With several more long strokes, he took a deep breath in and climaxed without emptying his seed. His breath drew Essence from her Core and into him. The energy was vast and intense, unlike any other he’d absorbed in this manner, and it sent spasms up his spine as he drew it up his Governing Vessel.
His head raged with the surge in vitality, and it was nearly impossible to hold on to coherent thought. He let out a gasp to bring it down into his own Core. It gushed downward, lighting his meridians on fire.
He’d have to Cultivate with breathing and meditation to fully assimilate it, but for now, he lowered her to the grass and took control, rocking back and forth, savoring in the softness of her body, the hot wetness of her nethers, and her ecstatic moans. He climaxed two more times, at each instance drawing from her Core, until her back arched and she shivered around him. He paused, letting her buck several more times on him before finally pulling out.
Unlike untrained men who spent themselves in sex and were left fatigued, Ryu felt invigorated.
More than invigorated. He felt like he could storm the Peacekeeper Headquarters all by himself in this moment.
Gasping for breath, she met his gaze. “Did you…?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “But I drew it all in.”
“Really?” She looked up through half-lidded eyes, her question less curious, more rote.
“Yes, I haven’t spilled my seed for over seven hundred years. When I do, whoever receives it might be able to Cultivate her Core to the next rank.”
“Oh.” For all her prior curiosity, her tone now bordered on disinterest. She propped her head up on an elbow, and even leaning on her side, her breasts didn’t seem to hang. Just what material had the Immortals sculpted her from?
In any case, it would be a waste to let her Essence disperse inside of him, so he sat down in lotus position. “Pardon me while I Cultivate. It might take a few hours.”
She shrugged.
Closing his eyes, he visualized her Essence consolidating in his Core with each of his breaths. The excess, he used mental intent to direct into his meridians and extra vessels. If those channels were like riverbeds, her energy was like pure water, coursing through and cleansing impurities, all the while strengthening the pathways. It filled his bone marrow, expanding his capacity.
If she allowed him to do this a few more times, he might very well be able to advance to the next rank in the Water Path.
Hours passed before he’d integrated her Qi into him. When he opened his eyes, Siena, Kentaro, and Aya were gone.
Chapter 15:
The Hacker
G iven how skinny Aya was from her sedentary lifestyle, the Elestrae’s gown looked like it would fit, especially since it was essentially a collection of ribbons. Unlike Siena, she wasn’t about to undress in front of Kentaro. He’d taken them to a nearby coffee shop, which had an Age of Greed aesthetic with the clean lines of its chairs and tables, and the simplicity of its neutral-colored décor.
Not only that, instead of holographic servers and automatic dispensers, it had an actual Purebred woman taking orders at the counter; while more Purebreds worked at making drinks and food. All gaped at Siena, no doubt seeing a naked alien for the first time in person. Or any alien in any state of dress, for that matter.
Well, it was the first time Aya had seen one up close, as well, but she hadn’t gawked. The Elestrae’s ethereal beauty wasn’t impressive compared to her martial skill.
Which in turn, didn’t rate with Ryusuke’s. It was amazing he could achieve such feats given his cystic fibrosis.
“That will be sixteen credits,” the Purebred woman said, her voice chirpy.
Since Ryusuke had shorted Kentaro’s chip out, and Aya didn’t want to be tracked, Siena paid for their breakfast with a microchip embedded in one of her baubles. She’d restrung it, along with the other istrium and aquaryl-titanide beads. The necklace was the only thing she was wearing at the moment.
“You really should put something on.” For the fourth time, Aya proffered the Elestrae’s gown while pointing with her chin at the staff.
Already utterly inefficient compared to AI robotics, the two young men working the food and drink distributors both kept sneaking glances at Siena. Even the woman staff member eyed her.
“You humans are so amusing.” With a laugh, Siena spoke a word. Some of her beads glowed. The air in front of her shimmered, and she reached in and pulled out some folded blue cloth.
Channeling! Aya had heard stories, but a secondhand account was one thing; experiencing it was something entirely different. She was probably gaping at this feat just as much as Kentaro was at the Elestrae’s nakedness.
“Wait,” Aya said. “The Peacekeepers asked you to examine Ryusuke’s pills.”
“Was that what they were?” Siena asked. “Their composition and energy concentration was fascinating!”
“How did they open his robe pocket?”
The Elestrae’s eyes brightened. “It was so amazing! I didn’t think humans were able to open interdimensional spaces!”
“How did they do it?” Aya raised an eyebrow.
“Well, they didn’t. I did.” Siena shrugged. “I detected the pocket on one of my scans, and was able to open it through istrium channeling.”
With a snap of Siena’s wrist, the blue cloth unfurled to reveal another dress, this one plain and practical, not nearly as revealing as the one in Aya’s hands.
Aya held up the original. “Is there any reason you came to us in this gown as opposed to that one?” She pointed her chin at the blue dress.
“That one makes me feel pretty.” Siena shrugged.
Kentaro coughed.
This Elestrae would be stunning wearing an ancient burlap sack. Aya harrumphed. “Are those made of natural fibers, too?”
Siena gave a quick nod. “Yes, we don’t like synthetic cloth. It feels…wrong.”
“How so? Does it chafe?” Kentaro asked.
She shrugged. “It’s more like someone coated your skin with sticky tree sap.”
Aya studied her. Elestrae were supposed to be aloof and arrogant; Siena seemed flighty, more like she belonged frolicking among the flowers. And copulating in them.
“How about if you give me that dress, and you can take this one?” A
ya held out the gown.
Shrugging again, Siena swapped. The way she slipped into the garment was even more erotic than when she’d taken it off. The staff would have to clean up the pool of saliva Kentaro left, if they weren’t too busy drooling themselves.
“This is All News Network with a special report,” came a pleasant female voice over the shop’s speakers.
At the front of a cafe, a holoprojector cast the scene from the grounds of an ancient temple. From the low morning sunlight, it looked to be current. A figure draped in red-stained white cloth lay on the ground, its limbs bent at awkward angles. Peacekeepers were milling about, some questioning a monk with a shaved head.
The voice continued: “A murder took place late last night around 23:00 at Higashi-Honganji Temple near Kyoto Central. The victim was Takashi Smith, a monk who lived there.”
Kentaro sucked in a sharp breath and exchanged glances with Aya.
She nodded at his message: with surveillance cameras and identity chips, there hadn’t been a murder in Kyoto since…well, ever? Even the word murder was as archaic as convenience store.
“As of now,” the voice said, “we have no leads. Cameras in the temple malfunctioned. If you have any information, please contact Kyoto Peacekeeping.”
Siena, now fully dressed, walked over to the image. She pointed at the red splotch on the sheet. “Isn’t that were Ryusuke said the Sea of Life is?”
Kentaro came up beside her and leaned in to look closer at the body. He looked to the Elestrae and nodded. “It’s hard to tell with the way it’s draped, but I think you’re right.”
The image disappeared, replaced by a rotating hologram of Ryusuke. Gasping, Kentaro jumped back.
The master was depicted as wearing the latest fashion, a purple and silver jumper.
Aya shook her head. “He wasn’t wearing that.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” Siena said.
The voice continued: “In other news, Peacekeepers are searching for Ryusuke Ishihara, a twenty-seven-year-old Purebred. His wife reported him missing, and there were reports of him near Kyoto Central last night at 19:00 hours. No evidence links these two cases. If you see him, contact Peacekeepers. Do not attempt to approach him, because as a Purebred, he may be mentally unstable.”
