novelraw Chapter 8
Chapter 8
“My charm arts?”
Her voice was confused, yet the expression that was cleanly carved onto her face told a different story, rather, it seemed as though she had expected that.
After all, charm arts were some of the most mysterious arts in the cultivation world, even before knowing its true effects, it was already regarded as a high ranking soul art.
Needless to say, after realizing the true effects of charm arts, its value skyrocketed to Qi Chen.
It was in some sense, the most powerful cultivation art that one could have.
It had near infinite versatility, having the unfair capabilities of manipulating anyone without even letting know, to make someone do your bidding, while making themselves believe it was their free will was nonetheless terrifying to think of.
“Well, even if I wanted to give it to you, you would not be able to use it.”
Hearing her words, a frown appeared on his face.
”What do you mean by that?”
”Exactly what I just said,”
”While it is a hybrid of soul and mystic arts, it holds the same requirements as a basic soul art does. At the very least, you would need to reach Soul Core to be able to even send a wisp of feeling to someone else.”
”You are still a few thousand years from Soul Core, the basic threshold of even utilising a small percentage of this art.”
Her words made sense, cultivation was a long arduous journey, and soul arts belonged to one of the most mysterious branches of cultivation, with its minimum threshold of learning being Soul Core.
The change from a Golden Core to a Soul Core is qualitative, nearly transcendental, making it one of the hardest realms to advance to.
The dream of many cultivators was Soul Core, yet it remained an insurmountable wall, blocking their way to immortality.
A wall that claimed the life and dreams of countless.
As the old saying goes, there can be hundreds of talented people but only one genius.
The ratio of a Golden Core cultivator to a Soul Core was abysmal.
For every one Soul Core would be a hundred Golden Core cultivators who would stagnate for their entire lives, clinging onto the small wisp of hope that they could one day become a prestigious Soul Core cultivator.
Stagnate.
It wasn’t a problem of hard work at that point, merely the work of heavens’s blatant favourites.
The work of talent, crippling aspiring cultivators to nothing but stagnant mosquitoes.
Golden Core cultivators were already considered heavenly gifted talents and could very well be a powerhouse of most sects, needless to say a Soul Core.
Too Qi Chen, aiming for Soul Core at his current stage was not ambitious, in his terms, it was simply idiotic.
What good is the most powerful technique in the world when you can even use it?
LIke giving a gold bar to a dead man, it was useless.
”I see.”
His voice was painted in a barely disguised disappointment, despite so, charm arts were definitely something he wanted to at least want to experience using.
After falling for its effects, if not for the small flaw she had purposefully showed, there could be no way for him to realise its existence, no one knew the value of it more than him.
”Don’t be too disappointed, I already said I would grant any wish.”
”It is not exactly impossible for me to grant it to you, but I believe you know very well it would just be a lump of useless knowledge you would not be able to use.”
”After all, as a furnace, forget Soul Core, even the fact that whether you can condense your qi in the first place should be something you worry about.”
Her words hit exactly where it hurt, and the worst kind of pain stemmed from knowing your absolute inability to refute their words.
Despite still having a snippet of pride in him, he was absolutely not foolish enough to take it.
Forget condensing my qi, even survival is questionable.
He could already imagine getting caught in the crossfire of two cultivators and perishing as an immobile spectator.
That would be the unfortunate script that nine heavens had bestowed upon him, rather he was convinced that he would most likely lose his life that way.
”Forget about that, what is there you can give me?”
While giving up the chance to learn the essence of charm arts was regrettable, he knew very well that it would be completely useless to him.
Recognising your own limits is one of the most important things to have, with that, you would not be delusional enough to believe that you can be a Soul Core cultivator when surviving is your biggest issue on hand.
Hearing his response, she fell deep into her thoughts, looking for an art that was more realistic, one that he could use.
”Hmm, let me think.”
”Self refining art? No, that is useless for a crippled person.”
”Soul annihilating blade? Again, useless for a crippled person.”
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She let out an exasperated sigh.
Every word that left her mouth was like a slap to his face.
Do crippled people not have the right to cultivate?
Even the mortal world has basic respect to the ear, old and disabled, yet cultivators were this uninclusive.
”Why must you be crippled? It makes things so much harder.”
She complained, while deeply scurrying her mind for a suitable art he could use.
It was ironic, somehow, the exact person who had cut his tendons and in turn crippled him was complaining about it being a hurdle when finding a suitable art for him.
Yet rage was off the table, anger was suicide, when the very person before him was one of the few powerhouses in the world, he felt a need to keep his mouth shut.
“Right! There is that one thing that would be perfect for you!”
”Never thought that old man’s art would ever come in handy, but it is just perfect for a disabled person!”
Qi Chen felt a twitch at his lips, ‘perfect for a disabled person’ was far from a friendly jab.
”If he ever saw a mortal using it, he would probably crawl out of his urn to incinerate you!”
Lifting his eyebrow, her words had successfully drawn in his interest.
”What is it?”
”Seven Kill String!”
“It is the absolute perfect cultivation art for you!”
“It allows you to turn Spiritual Qi into lethal strings that can cut through people easily!”
”…”
”Are you not impressed? The creator is the head of the famous assassin group Blood Shadow! It is a really cool art!”
She was very excited when talking about it, more so self absorbed in her nostalgia as she went blabbering on her epic battle.
He quickly chimed in, cutting her off from blabbering any further.
”What the heck is Blood Shadow?”
They stared at each other, sharing a moment of silence.
”Do you not know it?”
”They were responsible for the Great Qing Massacre! Have you not heard of it?”
If not for the fact that Qi Chen was a scholar, he had doubts that it would ever ring a bell.
”The Great Qing Massacre happened 500 years ago.”
They looked at each other again, this time sharing an even longer session of silence.
”Really? Time flies real quick.”
“Forget about that, you just need to know that it is a really good cultivation art.”
”Sure, if you say it is.”
”This cultivation art is not bad, right?”
”Not exactly.”
He felt perplexed that such an intelligent person had somehow missed out the basic prerequisite of using any cultivation art.
”I hope you have not forgotten that I do not have Spiritual Qi.”
“…”
”…”
The silence was loud, their gazes were unmoving, yet a perplexing sense of awkwardness could obviously be felt between the two.
”Right…”
”I knew that.”
”Definitely.”
Right, she did, she definitely did.
Qi Chen sneered inwardly, not that he was brave enough to voice it out.
“Yes, a great cultivator like you certainly knew it.”
His voice was laced with a cruel sarcasm, this was the only chance he could subtly refute her, and he wasn’t about to let this opportunity slide.
She stared daggers at him, sending chills up his spines, yet he maintained a light smile, which had a small trace of contempt.
She was annoyed by his smug grin, yet unfortunately, this time, had no way of rebutting him.
A taste of her own medicine it was, a small, minuscule victory he could count on to brighten his future days.
”Right! What if I helped you with Qi Condensation?”
Her voice was filled with hidden glee, and the offer was…
It was an absolutely irresistible offer.
Akin to offering a piece of bread to a starving man, there was no way in hell he could refuse it.
Absolutely no way.
He could not help but subtly licked his own lips, he had discarded every bit of what was left of his pride at that moment.
”Please.”
Her head once again hung high upon his plea, wearing an insufferably smug grin that he only wished to wipe off her face, but as they say, the one who gives you benefits is god themselves.
To him right now, she was ‘god’.
”Right, get ready.”
She quickly hopped over to the bed Qi Chen was sitting on, perhaps lying upright would be a better way to describe it.
“Prepare?”
”Do you think Qi Condensation is just guiding a bunch of Spiritual Qi and having a sudden enlightenment?”
”The immortal path is not so easy.”
”You need to awaken your spiritual root through some pills and also to make the process faster by carving a Qi Guiding Array on your soul.”
”If not, it will take a year before you even feel a strand of Spiritual Qi.”
Despite not being a huge fan of ‘carving a qi guiding array into his soul’, blinded by the promise of becoming a cultivator, he unhesitatingly agreed.
“What would you need?”
”Nothing much, just the scalpel from earlier.”
The scalpel was one he did not have a fond memory of.
“Right…”
“The scalpel.”
It was sterilely clean, throughout the procedure, it had caught not even a drop of blood, yet looking at it was akin to looking at his tendons, an unfriendly constant reminder.
He could not hate who cut him, thus he could only hate what cut him.
A petty, narrow minded grudge.
”First take these pills.”
Reaching into the air, a crack appeared, swallowing her wrists, after manoeuvring her wrists in it for a while, three bottles of pills were brought out.
She laced them on the bed one by one, happily introducing them.
”This is the Mortal Cleansing Pill.”
She said her fingers resting on an ugly looking bottle that seemed at least a few thousand years old.
“As its name suggests, it's pretty simple with the effects of cleansing your impurities and Mortal Miasma.”
”Mortal Miasma?”
“It is a poisonous substance accumulated by mortals as they grow older. It can even harm cultivators, but you would need to harvest it from thousands of mortals, this is also one of the reasons some cultivators go on mortal killing sprees.”
“To imbue the blade with essence of Mortal MIasma, making it more lethal to cultivators.”
Finishing her explanation, her hands drew a line before landing a clear jade bottle of pills, this one clearly looking much better.
”What is it?”
Such a regal container, the item inside could be anything but ordinary.
”Nuitrition pills.”
”What?”
”Are you deaf? Nutrition pills.”
Pouring out one pill onto her palm, she held it in her fingers.
”This one pill can get you through one year.”
Her voice was filled with pride, she was clearly very happy with this pill.
”So it is just fasting pills?”
”No, they are nutrition pills, made by this immortal master!”
Oh, that was why she was so proud of it.
”Here, eat it.”
Her hands reached out to him, feeling it would be impolite not to, he took it and placed it in his mouth.
“Pteuhh!”
The taste was foul, unbearable.
Even when he was starving, he believed that he would rather starve to death than to eat it.
The taste was neither bitter nor sour.
Neither sweet nor salty.
It wasn’t spicy.
It is…
Unexplainable.
The taste was revolting, almost having an extremely burnt taste to it, yet it wasn’t bitter.
It had undertones of citrus, yet it was somehow an assault on the tongue, it wasn’t sour, yet at the same time, had the same effect of making his face convulse.
It had a sharp taste that was neither salty nor spicy, yet left his tongue feeling as if it had recently swallowed a cactus.
It even reached into his throat, assaulting his sense of taste.
Qi Chen was not a picky eater, rather as a poor scholar, he had even eaten tree barks during the times of famine, yet this…
This was another thing.
How could one make such a flavour?
He didn’t know whether to feel shock, or respect.
It was only at this moment he realised how scary a cultivator likely above Soul Core truly was.
His eyes were stricken with fear, yet looking at her excited eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
”It…”
”It has a unique flavour.”
Right, I am not lying.
One of the virtues of a gentleman is to not lie.
It is…
Truly unique.
”Right? I am really a genius alchemist!”
He merely gave her a weak smile, while beating his inner self for betraying his true thoughts.
”Right, what is the other one?”
He quickly pivoted the topic, afraid that she would offer yet another pill.
”This is the Divine Awakening Pill.”