15 Ch15 - Last days of wait

Since he wasn't going to train with Yi Nan because of her injury, Yue Yang decided to use that time to train his beasts hard in the Instant Dungeon. The spar with Yi Nan told him that he should spend more time training them.

He used some of the cultivating ressources he gathered or bought from the Shop. All his beasts received some tonics before the training session. They would speed up the improvement of their endurance, durability, agility and strenght. It worked only in conjunction with training. He then spent 4h with them in the ID at the highest level.If there were not enough enemies to keep them busy, he would use a shadow clone or a bait to lead more enemies to them.

The beasts had never been kept active that long and that intensely before. During the little breaks that he allowed them, they gave him look that were both begging and condemning. In the middle of the session, he gave each of them a wisdom fruit. Near the end, they consummed the elemental essences he had prepared for them. He could tell that they were reaching a limit, and they would either gain a level or evolve to bronze rank.

The next day, when Yue Yang checked his beasts, he was happy to see that, on top of gaining a level, they had become variants.

The wolf, Amarok, was given holy and demonic essence stones, and turned into a lv5 heretic wolf variant. He was black, with golden fur on his paws, the tip of his tail and ears, and his throat and chest. The tigress, Bastet, was given ice and darkness essence stones, and turned into a lv5 black snow tigress variant. She looked like a normal white tiger with black stripes.

The lizard, Grom, was given earth and water essences, and turned into a lv5 mud lizard. Dark brown with dirty blue spots on its limbs and underside. The eagle, Thorondor, was given light and lightning essence, and turned into a lv5 spark eagle. His size increased slightly, and the previously brown feathers turned golden. His amber eyes also got a little brighter.

With their evolutions, Yue Yang decided to formally contract them. Including his guardian beast, that made 7 beasts he was contracted to. At that time, he also realised that he had neglected his guardian beast. It was a very usefull beast both for himself and his other beasts. He resolved himself to use it much more in the future.

In the afternoon, he met with Yi Nan again. She had fully recovered from her injury. They didn't spar this time. Instead, they had their beasts fight in a few matches. It was mostly for Amarok, Bastet and Grom. They were his main fighting force, and he had something more specific in mind for Thorondor.

"... How did that happen?" asked a dumbfounded Yi Nan when she saw the changes in his beasts.

"I had prepared for them to turn out this way obviously" 'Han Jeehan' replied.

"But... How could you know their possible evolution path? How could you direct it?"

"My dear Yi Nan" he started while holding her shoulders, suddenly making her nervous. "This is the kind of information that is kept as clan or sect secret. Since you are neither my faithful bride nor my loyal disciple, I can't tell you" he finished with a teasing grin.

Yi Nan had developped a full body blush when he mentioned marriage. Even though it was something she wished for in the future, it wasn't something she though about much. Adding to that what she experienced 2 days before with the massage he gave her, and her mind conjured a few images of her being intimate with Han Jeehan. She nearly fainted, and only Yue Yang strenghtening his hold on her shoulders prevented her from falling on her knees.

"... Yi Nan?"

She jumped away from him at the sound of his voice.

"D-d-d-d-d-don't say such ridiculous things!!!" she shouted at him.

Embarrassement and anger warred in her head. Embarrassement won as she turned her back to him. She couldn't face him after the thoughts that crossed her mind. Yue Yang, on the other hand, was having a hard time preventing himself from bursting into laughter. His shoulders were shaking with mirth. It wasn't hard to guess what went through her mind. The training continued with her avoiding eye contact with him and keeping her answers short until the end.

That evening, he was at his base.

While still empty, at least the place was clean. The girls had clearly been working hard. They were going to be diligent students, and that put a smile on his face. Soon enough, Lin Shuren, Xun Mingye, Kang Shui, Wei Zihao and Zou Delian arrived. They were dressed in cheap but clean clothes suitable for exercise. Their faces showed a mix of anxiousness and anticipation.

"Good evening ladies."

"Good evening young master" they replied simultaneously, with a bow.

"Today is the start of your education in martial arts and cultivation. You will only discover the basics of the basics. And after that, most of the training, you will have to do on your own without my oversight."

He snapped his fingers, creating an empty ID. The ladies blinked and nervously looked around, suddenly uncomfortable. The place was already quiet to begin with, but felt even more quiet.

"Did you feel that?" he asked, and they nervously nodded. "At a high enough level, cultivators can manipulate space. They can move instantly from one place to another, or create private areas like I just did. You are in what I have called an Instant Dungeon. It is around 1km² wide, and even though everything inside looks like the real White Stone City, it is completly different. Whatever you do in the Instant Dungeon, or ID, has no effect outside, and nobody outside will know what's happening here."

As he talked, the girls got more and more amazed at what they were hearing. They already knew about teleportation scrolls, but what they were shown was beyond what they have imagined. He led them outside the building so they could see the rest of the ID. It was completly empty of people, animals or insects.

"We will start with some physical exercises, and for that there are preparations to make. It's called stretching and warm-up, it help preventing the body from injuring itself during the exercise. But first, drink this" he said, taking out 5 small vials from his inventory.

"What are those" Shuren asked as they took the vials.

"They are basic medecines to improve your bodies. They enhance the efficiency of training. For the next week you're going to drink one dose before any physical training."

Once they drank the medecines, he demonstrated for them what to do, and corrected them as well. It also helped him see who were the most flexible among them, and that was Xun Mingye. She had a natural grace and enthusiasm that he appreciated a lot. After that, he took them on a run. It was slow at first, but he increased the pace until they got trouble keeping up, and maintened said pace.

He continued until they reached their limits and gradually slowed down. He stopped and let them rest for a while. As soon as they all recovered, he sat them down and introduced them to the first steps of the Mountain Tiger Body Cultivation technique. They were at it for an hour before he put an end to the session.

He then gave them massages using his Angel Hand massage technique to help them recover. And he didn't have to be reserved when moving his hands and fingers around their bodies. He shamelessly fondled their breasts and buttocks. Lin Shuren had the best breasts of the group, followed by Xun Mingye. The later and Kang Shui had the best rear. He had to make use of his budding mental skills to restrain himself from taking them, especially since Xun Mingye was very willing.

Before dismissing them, he instructed them on other exercises to perform during the day. They had to work out for 3h in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. He also left them some medecine for the following days. These women were starting from scratch and needed stronger bodies before starting them on martial arts.

The following day passed like the previous, with minor changes on the girls part, but the day after brough a change.

"Chang Dao has been sighted in the city late in the night yesterday" said Lin Shuren when he went to her house in the morning.

"It's the drunken swordman, right?" She nodded. "I see. Tell the girls that there will be no training this evening. I want everyone to be at the base before afternoon. You will all spend the night there. I don't want him to find any of you if his investigation about what happened to Tie Kang lead him to you. I doubt he would be merciful in his interrogation. Understood?"

"Yes young master."

"My ally and I will take care of him tonight. You should be fine tomorrow. You'll take the same precaution when Xie Huo shows up."

"Understood... Be careful young master" she said with a bit of worry in her expression. "His blade arm is rumored to be very fast."

"I'll see you tomorrow" he replied, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

Yue Yang was filled with both anticipation and apprehension. One of his 2 main targets had arrived, and his counterpart didn't fight him in the original. He couldn't be certain of his strenght, and he didn't know if he had 1 or 2 summoning crystals as back up. He was the first really unknown opponent he would face. True, he wouldn't be alone, but it was still another step further into the ruthless world of cultivators.

He didn't bother looking for Yi Nan, he waited for noon to see at their usual meeting point. He informed her of Chang Dao's arrival, and they cancelled their training session to look for him. They ate a light meal, then took to the roofs. Since Yi Nan wasn't quite that skilled in stealth, he forced her to move more slowly than usual, concentrating on keeping her presence low.

They found him after 3 hours of search, and it was the middle of the afternoon. He seemed to be doing some window shopping in the commercial districts, stopping at small stalls to get himself some snacks. A good amount of the people made way from him. Some pulled their aquitances out of the way. They shadowed him for a while until Yue Yang felt something wrong.

"... He knows he is being followed" he whispered to his partner. "He has slowly been moving toward a less populated area."

Yi Nan gave him a bewildered and questioning glance.

"We have been keeping our distance, staying hidden, yet he noticed. He must have good instincts, being too used to assassination attempts. Or you weren't sneaky enough. It doesn't matter, he is going to give us an invitation soon. Are you ready?"

"Yes" she replied with determination.

"Then let's go."

They stopped hidding their presences, and Chang Dao didn't seem to react, aside from moving further into the less populated area of White Stone City. He stopped at a small deserted place, and 'Han Jeehan' and Yi Nan soon joined him. They looked down at him from the top of the nearby rooftop, but he didn't bother turning his head toward them. They stayed like that in silence as tension build in the area.

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