Dual Body Cultivation

by A P Gore

  Purple Cloud sect used two methods to choose disciples. One could show his might and hit the books to qualify for the entrance exam taken every year. But for that, the cultivator had to be below age 16.

  There was another way to get a foot in the door, and that was to be at Qi Condensation level 4. These cultivators were accepted as outer disciples without any exam, but they would always remain outer disciples, and the age limit for this was 18. Though the cultivator would remain an outer disciple, he would still benefit from the sect’s resources and could advance to level 5 of Qi Condensation. There was a rumor that one such cultivator even advanced to level 7, Xiantian realm, in the main branch. Achieving Xiantian realm was a dream for everyone. Every town would try to rope in such a person. Even a level 6, a pseudo-Xiantian realm expert, would get a position in the town patriarch’s office.

  Ning was 16 years old, and if he advanced quickly, he could hit the strength judgment hammer and enter through the entrance exam. However, the entrance exam was tough, and only 40 people out of 100 who entered survived. And Ning feared death more than anything.

  "Brother Ning, what is that? Really." Wei Shu, his subordinate with a taller frame asked. He had a donkey shaped head, and Ning had never liked him. But Shu was at Qi Condensation level 2 and stuck to Ning like a leech, listening to every command that came out of Ning's mouth. So, naturally, Ning let Shu follow him everywhere.

  Today Ning had brought Shu to open the spatial bag, which Ning couldn't do by himself. He hoped that a two-man effort would make it easier.

  "Shu, this is a top-class spatial bag, and we need to break into it."

  "A spatial bag?" Wei Shu's eyes shone with a bright light. He seemed to know what that was. Of course, everyone who cultivated qi knew about the spatial belts, bags, and rings. Those were the top-class expensive items, and they cost more than qi medicines.

  Ning snorted and put the bag on a rough stone. "Shu, we have to concentrate our qi into this bag at the same time. Otherwise, it won't break."

  "Okay, Bother Ning. But can I touch it once?" Wei Shu had a hint of greed in his eyes.

  I might need to kill this brat once this is over. I can't leave any evidence behind. You must die, Wei Shu. Consider it serving your master one last time.

  An evil smile curled across Ning's face as he yearned for the treasures hidden inside the spatial bag.

  Chapter 28

  It was almost dusk when Jei entered the corpse forest. Green dome lilies had started spitting their poison, warning others that they weren't welcome in their territory. He sneaked behind as he spotted two people gathered near a tree. A pointy piece of trunk brushed against his arm, which was exposed by a hole in his patched robe. Before his transformation, it would have drawn blood from him. No more.

  "Kid, those guys have the bag," the senior said.

  Jei sneaked toward another tree, closer to the duo. He wanted to judge them first and then decide his actions.

  "Brother Ning, are you sure this thing is a spatial item?" Ning's tall companion asked in a crass voice. He was taller than Ning and had a muscular body and a pale face with narrow eyes and thin eyebrows. He was at Qi Condensation level 2.

  The two youths were cursing at something in front of them.

  "Jei, they’re fiddling with the spatial bag. We have to stop them," senior said, his voice full of longing.

  Jei's mind raced with thoughts of strategy. For the first time in his life, he had to attack someone. He had strength, but he wasn't sure about his attack power. And his opponents were at Qi Condensation level 2 and 3. Attacking them head on wouldn’t work, not when he also lacked battle experience and a divine art. Anyone would have said he didn't have a chance.

  Yet he had to win. Somehow.

  I need to separate them. But how?

  He scanned the area. A batch of green dome lilies growing nearby caught his attention. "Senior, you mentioned we need to collect five thousand poisons to improve my Poison Body, right?"

  "Not five thousand. Houtian to Xiantian realm ascension is divided into three stages. Five hundred, twenty-five hundred, and five thousand Poison Body tempering. You have to collect that many poisons to temper your body. The good thing is you can use the same poisons for the next stage. But why are you asking about that now?"

  Jei hadn't looked into Poison Body, so he didn't know much about it, but the senior had done it for him, so the senior knew everything. "Is there any mention about immunity to poison?"

  The senior took a moment to reply. “Yes. You have immunity to level one and two poisons. For level three and four you have fifty percent resistance. Beyond that, you only have twenty percent resistance.”

  "Hmm, this green dome lily is poisonous, but its effect is very mild. I guess it should fall under level one poison."

  "What are you planning?" the senior asked.

  Jei chuckled lightly and began collecting green dome lily flowers. Moving around, he plucked hundreds of green dome lilies from the forest floor.

  Green dome lily petals didn't contain any poison; they only produced the corpse smell. It was the stigma of the flower that contained poison.

  Jei first plucked away all the petals. Then he plucked out the soft stigmas and pressed it to all the petals, rubbing them with poison.

  As he was immune to level 1 poison, it didn't harm him at all. The corpse smell became unbearable after a while, however. He would smell awful tomorrow.

  Now he needed to climb to the top of the tree the duo sat under. Fortunately, another one fire oak tree had spread its branches near the destination tree.

  Jai climbed that second tree and then moved like a monkey to reach the branch above his target’s heads.

  Pulling the petals out of his cloth bag, Jei showered the youths beneath the tri with them.

  The duo didn't realize what was happening at first. They continued focusing on the bag lying in front of them, trying to open it. Even when the first petal fell on Ning's neck, he swept it impatiently aside. Why would he care about a petal falling on his body?

  And then the next one fell, and then the next one. Soon the hundreds of petals descended upon them, falling on their faces, hands, and legs. In a breath's time, the itching started.

  "Brother Ning." The tall youth's eyes widened as he sniffed one of the green petals. "Brother Ning, these are green dome lilies. We're doomed!" He glanced up, but by that time Jei had moved away from that tree.

  "Damn! It's already itching." Ning scratched his neck, and then his face, and then his hand. Green dome lily poison had a nasty effect: it spread like wildfire. In less than a breath's time their whole bodies started itching.

  Ning's friend started scratching his body wildly. "Let's go home. We need to dive in the water tub to stop the itching."

  "Brother Shu, someone has done this intentionally. If I get my hands on that person, I'll kill him!" His voice filled with killing intent.

  A trickle of sweat ran down Jei's back when he heard those words. His battle experience was nil. A big fat zero. And killing someone? He hadn't even thought about it in his dreams.

  "Shu, let's go and come back here tomorrow with my brother Pang. He has tracking skill. We'll use it to track the bastard who dared to play with us." His eyes scanned all around, but Jei had hidden well, making it impossible for the two to act. Ning shoved the bag into Shu’s hands. "Take this and keep it safe."

  Ki Pang's name made that sweat drop on Jei's back turn into a river. Ki Pang was Ning's big brother, the first son of the Ki clan's patriarch. He was infamous for his horrible treatment of others. At Qi Condensation level 4, he was feared by many in the town. He was a pet dog of Chu Son, the son of the Chu clan patriarch. The Chu clan managed the whole town and didn't even fear Master Yu.

  Ning ran off with crazy fast speed. After he left, Wei Shu also started running away. But how could Jei let him slip away when he had the spatial bag in his hands? But he no longer had anything to fear. Beating a level 2 Qi Condensation cultivator would be easy.
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br />   When Ning disappeared from, Jei jumped in front of Shu.

  Wei Shu stopped in his tracks; his narrow eyes jumped to Jei.

  "Wei Shu, why don't you let me have look at that item. It belongs to my friend, Josh," Jei said, hoping that Shu would let him take it. It belonged to the senior, and Shu had no claim on it.

  Shu towered over him by an inch, but Jei wasn't afraid of his height. He was a Qi Condensation warrior, while Jei was a Houtian expert in Poison Body cultivation.

  "Hey cripple, are you threatening me? Was it you who dropped the petals on us?" Shu's voice was clear. The previous irritation had vanished from it.

  Jei chuckled. He pulled his elbow back and punched the nearby tree with his fist at an angle. A big boom sounded, and a huge crack spread across the tree trunk. "Do you still think you can win while suffering with green dome lily itching?" Jei wasn't in any mood to fight. Scaring Shu and getting the spatial bag was enough.

  A laughing smile spread across Shu's face. He looked downright devilish.

  Is he gone mad? Didn't he see my power just now?

  "Do you really think a level one poison can affect a Qi Condensation level 2 expert? Did you forget that our qi can fend off the poison easily? Or did your master forget to teach you that?"

  "Li Jei, you are still alive?" Ning jumped down from a tree. "This time I'll make sure you don't come back."

  Jei took a couple steps backward. Suddenly a favorable situation had turned into a dire one.

  Chapter 29

  Sweat trickled down Jei's spine. Two bullies stood inches away from him, and one was dead set on killing him. How much worse could it get?

  I must find an escape path.

  "Don't even try to escape. You're dead today." Ning jabbed his finger into Jei's shoulder. A sip of qi entered his body, but quickly dissipated when it collided with his poison essence.

  Ning's right brow arched. He seemed surprised by the way Jei stood there, unmoving.

  A faint glow appeared around Ning’s fist. Qi gathered around it slowly. In the radius of that faint light, the large one fire wood oak tree behind him looked like a demon ready to swallow Jei.

  "Let's see if you can survive this." Ning's threw his punch at Jei. Wind cracked under his fist. The punch appeared in front of Jei's heart in less than a breath's time.

  Jei was already on guard. Without a thought, he jumped back, trying to avoid incoming doom. Yet, Ning's fist almost brushed against his chest, giving him a chill.

  "Brat, you've improved." Ning smirked. His right lip curled into an evil smile. "But can you run away from this?" His body vibrated for a moment and then dashed toward Jei.

  Jei's eyes traced Ning's moving like a slow-moving snail. Houtian Poison Body had gifted him with improved physical senses, and his motion tracking was one of them. This was why body cultivators were better than qi cultivators.

  As soon as he detected a slight difference in Ning's leg, he stepped left with his right foot, slipping out of Ning's trajectory.

  Ning's kick passed through empty air. For a moment he started at the empty space in front of him. His face hardened as he realized what had happened. "You brat! How did you move? Don't tell me you learned some martial skill."

  "Brother Ning, he does have some technique,” Shu said. “He cracked a one fire wood oak tree with a punch.”

  Ning twisted his neck to glance at Shu. "What? That’s impossible. This brat doesn't have a dantian. He can't cultivate qi."

  Shu's face turned ugly, and he gawked at Jei with new interest. "Brother Ning, this guy must have some secret talisman or something. You must take it away from him. After all, a poor kid doesn't need a treasure. With this treasure, Brother Ning's cultivation will soar into the sky."

  Jei's heart trembled. This wasn't good. He just wanted to scare these guys away and get the spatial bag that belonged to the senior, but the situation had quickly devolved into life or death.

  Not good.

  "Ha ha, you are right Shu. Let's kill this brat and then look at the treasure. I might give you some part of it." Ning's eyes shone with a greedy light. If he had previously lacked any killing intent, now his whole body surged with it.

  I’d better run.

  It wasn’t that Jei feared those two, but he had to be wary of their strength and not engage them blindly. After all, he lacked any battle experience.

  With that thought, Jei turned back and dashed toward the forest, but Shu had already detected his movement and moved in advance. Jumping in front of Jei, Shu threw a punch coated in white qi.

  The punch caught Jei off guard and struck his shoulder. A tiny itch emerged from the place the punch had landed. Pushing the irritation aside, Jei changed direction.

  But Ning was already waiting for him.

  Why can't I shake off these bullies? Jei cursed.

  "Ha ha, Brother Ning, I just broke his shoulder. He’s a weakling. You’ll kill him with one punch. Go slow, otherwise we might lose our chance to torture him." Shu said, but his face twisted in pain as he stared at his right hand. There seemed to be something wrong with it.

  A greedy smile appeared on Ning's face as he threw a kick at Jei's supposedly broken shoulder. But he didn't know that Jei's shoulder was all right, one hundred percent working. The small bit of damage Shu's punch had done was already healed.

  Jei stared at the incoming kick for a moment. There was no way to avoid any further conflict, and that kick might just kill him. So, he used all his power and threw a punch at Ning's incoming leg.

  Suddenly something changed. The world slowed down, Jei’s heart rate decreased, and he had a sudden sense of every vein in his fist. It was like advancing beyond Angle of Fist realm.

  With a boom, power from Poison Body and Gate of Healing surged through his veins, but something else changed too. Something outside of his body. The natural essence from the air swirled around his fist, boosting its strength twofold. His arm moved like weightless silk through the air and collided with Ning’s full force kick.

  A cracking sound echoed in the air.

  He had achieved the perfect Angle of Fist in his Drunken Master Tiger fist attack.

  "Ha ha, Brother Ning, you already broke his hand? Your Copper Kick skill is too formidable. Break a few more of his bones. That brat deserves it. He dared to insult Brother Ning! He deserves death."

  But Ning couldn't use any more skills. Every bone in his shin was broken into tiny pieces. He dropped to the ground with a fierce roar.

  Jei moved swiftly toward Shu and punched his nose with half the strength he’d used on Ning. Though he didn't get that odd feeling again, his fist still contained an immense amount of strength.

  Enough to push Shu's nose inside his face.

  Shu tried to block, but Jei’s swing was too fast. Blood sprayed from his broken nose. Now he looked like a flat-faced monkey.

  "This..." Shu began but slumped to the ground as he lost consciousness.

  Jei turned to look at Ning who lay on the ground, wailing and crying.

  "Jei, you’d better kill these goons. Doesn't that kid have a big brother?" The senior's serious voice echoed in his mind.

  "Kill—" The words caught in Jei’s throat. "I can't. I can't." Even the thought of killing made him dizzy. After snatching the spatial bag from Shu's pocket, he walked away. He wanted nothing to do with those two anymore.

  KI NING

  "Li Jei. Just wait! I'll bring my brother with me tomorrow, and then no one can save you and your handicapped sister." A red aura surrounded Ning as his heart filled with hatred.

  Chapter 30

  The chilly night air surrounded Jei like a blanket and provided his just warmed body a nice feeling. Though he couldn't wash the corpse smell away completely, ten buckets of water and some scented soap had masked it to a bearable level. Jei didn't want Xue to ask him where he’d been the next day.

  Sitting on a rough stone in his backyard, Jei contemplated the spatial bag in front of him. The night was young, and the weather was
getting chiller every night. When the temperature dropped further, he would have to either buy a new sheet for Xue or give her his. He hoped the spatial bag had some money in it.

  "Josh, how do I open it?" Jei asked. Impatience leaked through his tone.

  "Let me send my soul power inside it," the senior said.

  A thin thread of blue energy shot out of Jei's index finger and entered the bag.

  "Wow!” the senior said after a moment. “I never thought it would contain so much stuff. We’ve hit the jackpot, Jei. That overseer bitch came through after all." The senior's happy chirping echoed in Jei's mind. "I get it, she said something about being in the first batch to enter the world..."

  “What's inside? Show me, please." Jei's heart raced like a horse, trying to leap out of his chest.

  "Damn! I forgot you have to bond it with your soul power. Let me help you with that.” Another thread of blue energy, this time as thick as his finger, shot out of Jei's index finger and entered the bag.

  Suddenly a space appeared in Jei's mind. It was like he was seeing it with his own eyes, but it wasn't real. It was a spatial space, a different world from his own. He had read about this, and anything spatial cost a fortune. It was a small space of four by four meters, but multiple items floated inside it.

  The first thing that grabbed his attention was a pile of gold coins. There were hundreds of them, shining with a blazing light.

  Jei's heart soared as a number popped up: 1000. There were 1000 gold coins. That much money could buy him a delicious daily meal for dozens of years. By spending just 100 gold, he could rent a small house for a year. For a complete year. A single gold meant 100 silver, so now he could treat his sister with two-colored bee meat easily.

  This is too much wealth. If anyone finds out about it, I'll be dead.

  Poor White's District, as suggested by name, contained only poor people who couldn't afford to live in the town. For most of them, 50 silver coins were enough to feed them for a week. Most of them worked for some noble’s house in town, or on mining or construction projects going on in town. All of these jobs paid 5-7 silver per day, enough for their family.