Twenty Two

"An'er, I failed you."

"Ah!"

Right after sending the Shadow Destruction Clan disciple to the netherworld, Bao Bi had sunken into himself and not said a thing. Liao An was surprised to find herself feeling a bit of guilt. She had put him in this situation where he had to kill. She had done it deliberately, so she wondered where that guilt came from. It was a necessary development. Then again, perhaps it was too soon? He looked genuinely broken up.

Tigra herself had killed her first person when she was fifteen. It was so long ago that she didn't remember who it was or even why she did it. All she remembered was that feeling like she had lost a piece of herself that she could never have back. To her, it was more memorable than when she lost her cherry, which happened even earlier than that.

With those thoughts, she approached Bao Bi cautiously, bringing out a hand to hold his shoulder supportively. No sooner had she gotten within arm's length than he shouted out and ambushed her. He wrapped her in his arms and hugged her tightly. Since he had the body of a thirteen-year-old boy, he was actually quite a bit bigger than her. Furthermore, she had been sitting on the cave floor naked for some time, and cold had set into her body. Meanwhile, he had been frantically fighting to the death, making his body extremely hot.

The result was his embrace felt extremely refreshing. Even the smell of sweat and blood were a turn on to Tigra. Up until now, this body had no sexual drive, but it was getting to that age. For the first time, she was triggered by sexual desire. Had she really been a nine-year-old girl, she'd probably blush and grow flustered, pushing him away and covering her face from embarrassment. However, she had the mind of an experienced whore and the body of a woman igniting her passions for the first time.

Bao Bi was in no better a situation. As he started to calm down from his anger and frustration, he became very aware he was holding a naked woman. She was also looking at him in a way that made it impossible to see her as a young girl. Bao Bi's own body had reached puberty, which was one of the reasons he didn't like to stay home when his parents were having sex. He didn't want to have to look his mother in the face in the morning after gaining an aroused boner from hearing their passionate love-making.

Of course, Bao Bi had the mind of a pornstar, and sexual contact was natural for him too. It wasn't clear which of them kissed first, but it was clear that their tongues ended up in each other's mouths and they started kissing passionately. An experienced whore and an experienced pornstar, in the bodies of horny children, suddenly unleashed their wants and desires on each other.

Neither held back, and Bao bi's hands skillfully explored her body, while Liao An's hand slid into his pants with skill and precision as she began to tease his nethers.

Just as it wasn't clear who started first, it wasn't clear who pulled away either. One second, the pair were moments from falling to the cave floor, ignoring the bodies around them as they indulged in their flesh. A second later, they were on opposite sides of the cave. Liao An, who could move like lightning, had managed to grab her clothes and pull them on in the time it took to blink. Both were panting while making a point of looking away from each other.

Damn it, Tigra, you slut! Tigra admonished herself in her mind.

He was a seven-year-old child. He may have reached sexual maturity. He definitely reached sexual maturity if the warm feeling on her fingertips were any indication. However, how could she think to enjoy him? Not only was he intended for her Master, but he was simply too young for this kind of thing. Yes, she hadn't had any in seven years. Yeah, she was horny as hell now that her body had reached maturity. She also suspected as this young body reached puberty, that feeling would only grow more intense.

This was just a mistake. They were both emotional, and at the moment, a mistake was made. Fortunately, they had broken up. Nothing happened that would be considered improper! They definitely couldn't have sex until they were older. Wait, why was she so accepting that they would have sex? Midnight would definitely kill her if she slept with Bao Bi!

No, wait, let's think about this. Midnight thought of all kinds of things. She knew the kind of slutty woman Tigra was, yet she still allowed her to watch Bao Bi. In a way, she had to know things like this might come up. In fact, men didn't suffer from dual cultivation like women. So, if they did have sex, she'd be speeding along with his cultivation by offering up Liao An's cultivation. In that way, she was doing Midnight a favor!

Now that she was thinking it through, this was really the best outcome! Midnight was also a virgin! Did she want her first time to be lousy? Wouldn't she much rather have a man who knew what he was doing? In that way, it was really Tigra's assistance, no, duty, it was her duty to fuck Bao Bi. She had to teach him everything she knew! That would definitely take more than one session.

Tigra nodded to herself, making her final decision. When the time came, and Bao Bi hit sexual maturity, she would take him as her lover. Then, her goal until then was to raise Laio An up as a perfect incubator! Since Liao An's vital yin is still intact, she would definitely raise this body upright. Liao An was like an untouched flower. It was now Tigra's responsibility to raise that flower up properly. She wanted to grow it up to be beautiful and full, so when the time came, Bao Bi would pluck that flower and then fuck the shit out of it. Yes, he's going to wreck her flower!

Laio An wiped her mouth with was drooling slightly. This had nothing to do with Tigra's personal perversions. This was a pure necessity! Of course, Tigra was very lucky. Had Midnight been present and heard her thoughts, she would have slapped her out of existence purely on principle. Regrettably, Midnight wasn't present to put a stop on Tigra's new plan using the body of the mortal Liao An.

This isn't to say that Bao Bi's thoughts were any less unhinged.

She's a nine-year-old girl! What the hell are you doing?

Even though she seemed mature for her age, that would never hold up in court! Well, he's seven, so technically she's older, and that meant anything they did was fair game. No! He couldn't allow himself to fall into such depravity. He actually genuinely liked Liao An, and he had rudely let his sexual desires awaken after she experienced a sudden traumatic event. He was the scum of the Earth!

Then again, he wasn't really on Earth, was he? This was a different world with different rules. Immortals cultivated and lived thousands of years, maybe even longer. They were both cultivators, so was age even a thing? Bao Bi himself was well aware he didn't look like a seven-year-old boy. He looked almost twice that age. What is nine anyway?

He was really just making excuses for his moment of bad judgement. She was nine, and he couldn't possibly have her now. However, he did like her, and he was interested in the woman she'd become. Seeing another man on top of her, it had enraged him beyond reason. He couldn't tolerate her being with another man. In that respect, wasn't it best if he had her first?

In that case, as soon as she finally reached maturity, he should definitely seal the deal and make her his. On top of that, he was a pornstar. He had a few tricks up his sleeve. He could definitely leave her satisfied. He had a feeling a lot of men in this world, as arrogant and prideful as they were, didn't care to leave the woman satisfied. Being willing to eat her out went a long way toward gaining favor. He definitely had the skills to make her not want to be with any other man.

In fact, he could be her teacher, showing her all about sexual desire. It was kind of hot thinking about slowly showing this beautiful flower about all the depravity of the world. He could teach her so many things. When the time came, he'd rock her world.

The two of them seemed to reach the conclusions of their strange thought processes at the same time. They both turned back and looked at each other. Bao Bi was relieved she was dressed, and Liao An was relieved his thing had settled back down. Had those two things not been done, they might not have been able to control themselves.

"Let's pretend that didn't…?"

"Let's forget about that…"

They both ended up speaking at the same time. They both let out awkward laughs, scratching the back of their heads. At first, they went to get each other a platonic hug, but then they ended up shaking in an extremely awkward manner.

"This cave seems to have several valuable spirit plants growing in it. I will go harvest them." She said, trying to move on from that strange moment.

"Ah… I'll see if they have anything valuable on their corpses." Bao bi nodded, just as eager to put the past event behind them.

The bandits didn't have storage rings, and they seemed to keep everything they owned on their person. If they had packs, they hadn't brought them when they entered the valley. Bao Bi managed to pull out a handful of spirit stones, a few pouches of dried herbs, a scroll, a dagger, and a vial of liquid that Bao Bi didn't recognize.

"Bao Bi, come here." Liao An called out from the deepest part of the cave.

Bao Bi walked over and stood next to Liao An, who was crouched down on the floor. There was a small pool, and growing around it were various herbs and mushrooms. She was picking some and ignoring others. Bao Bi realized if he used spiritual perception, he could detect which ones were imbued with spirit. These were the only things she was interested in.

"Did you find anything?" She asked when she noticed Bao Bi approach.

"Just this stuff…" Bao bi laid it out next to her so she could check it out.

To him, it was all meaningless. The scroll was probably a technique, and the spirit stones definitely had value, but he'd rather just give them to his father who was working so hard for them. There were seven spirit stones. Bao Bi knew he needed one a month for whatever project he was doing involving that glowing ring, so that would be a seven-month break where he could take things easy and take care of mom.

Lately, she had been taking care of business herself when she thought Bao Bi couldn't hear, but his growing cultivation and high spiritual perception had made him very aware of his mother and her toy box. Father needed to be home more to take care of Mother's needs. At least it'd stop her from coming into Bao Bi's room and cuddling with him after she finished.

Liao An picked up each bag of herbs, sniffed it, and then tossed it into her storage ring. She opened up the scroll and then snorted.

"Trash." She tossed it away.

"W-wait! Wouldn't that be worth spirit stones?" I asked nervously.

"You might be able to find someone dumb enough to buy it, but it's a technique of the Shadow Destruction clan. If the shadow clan sees someone practicing it, they will definitely send someone to kill them. Before they kill him, they might find out where he got it, and that might lead to you."

Bao Bi's eyes widened for a moment, but then he nodded. "I see… then we'll destroy it."

Bao Bi snapped his finger, a small flame appearing on his hand. He flung it at the scroll, which ignited and then burned away. Liao An gave out a startled noise and then turned around.

"Wh-what was that?" She cried out.

"Eh? Isn't it magic?"

"It's profound energy! You converted it into fire!"

"Well, if you knew what it was, why did you ask me?"

"Because when did you learn it? I never taught you that. By all accounts, you shouldn't even be able to until you reach the second great realm!"

Bao Bi had unusual origins, and somehow his body had absorbed profound energy and made it a part of himself. It was one of many oddities when it came to Bao Bi's unusual constitution. Liao An knew this, but she never imagined he'd ever been able to access that energy until he reached the origin realm. Even if it was theoretically possible, it should have required extensive practice.

"Ah, really? I didn't know that…" He muttered, but when he noticed her glaring at him, he continued. "What I mean is I saw that guy using it, and I thought I'd try it out. That little flame was all I could conjure, and it wasn't blue and purple at all. I must have done something wrong…"

Liao An shook her head in disbelief. He hadn't done anything wrong at all. The dark shadow techniques used by the Shadow Destruction Clan were the cause of the color. Bao Bi's fire was actually much closer to pure elemental fire, which was many times more difficult than what that leader did. Once he reached the 2nd great realm, it would usually take a year or two for him to reach the state where he could conjure pure elemental power. Some couldn't even manage it until they were a midtier second realm.

Bao Bi, on the other hand, had only seen a profound technique used once and had managed to replicate the flame. It was only to the extent of a small fire, but it had succeeded on the first try! On top of all that, Bao Bi wasn't even out of the mortal purification realm! It was very unbelievable! In fact, Tigra hadn't seen anyone this amazing since… well… the Midnight Queen. She was the only other person Tigra had ever known to have this level of comprehension.

What she didn't know was that Bao Bi's mind was filled with the knowledge of another world. It wasn't that he comprehended things quickly, but that he had already started at a higher level of comprehension. He understood what fire was, how it ignited, and what it represented. He had taken science courses just like anyone else. A normal cultivator didn't grow up learning the laws of thermodynamics.

In a warped way, Earth was a cultivator too. Where in this world, cultivation was done individually, with each person contemplating the universe on their own, Earth had managed to spread the knowledge across their entire species, cultivating as a species rather than individuals. No one could guess what potential Earth had because of this unique method that sacrificed the universal law of individuality for the communal advancement of all, but that's a different story entirely.

Liao An finished going through the stuff. The vial had spiritual energy in it. If Bao Bi drank the potion, he could restore his lost profound energy. Had the leader drunken this after using his attack, he would have been able to recover and wouldn't have died such a dog's death. Thankfully, Bao Bi hadn't hesitated and had made a decisive killing blow. Had he given the other man even a moment to recover from the shock and remember his backup, the outcome of the match might have been radically different.

As for the dagger, Liao An pulled out something and carved some runes into it before handing it back to Bao Bi. "It is still a trash weapon, but since you insist on throwing things, at least you have a backup."

Although she called it trash, it had a good feel in Bao Bi's hands, and he felt he could probably throw it quite impressively if he wanted to. He felt that the weapon had more spiritual energy after she did her carving than before. She must have enhanced it somehow. He definitely wanted to learn more about that, as well as the herbs she was pulling and her knowledge on alchemy. However, there was one question that was weighing on his mind the most of any of them.

"Liao An, do you understand what that Shadow Destruction Clan disciple meant when he said he wanted to dual cultivate with you? I wanted to just right them off as pedophiles, but I have a feeling it has something more to it than that."

Liao finally stopped picking herbs, then sighed and stood up, facing Bao Bi. "Do you know about Yin and Yang?"

"Like… the dao? Balance?"

She nodded. "The dao does try to maintain balance. In that respect, it is men who have Yang and women who possess Yin."

"Okay, but…"

"How do I put this…" She tapped her lips, stopping Bao Bi from talking, "Men and women are radically different."

"Like men are from Mars, women are from Venus crap?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure what that means, but yes, women are different than men. I didn't want to say it directly because of your age, but I suppose I might as well be blunt. When men and women are together, our native yin blends with a man's yang."

"You mean sex?"

"Ah… y-yes…" She frowned. "Okay, maybe if it is you, you'll understand it. A man pierces a woman. Not just his penis, but his yang. He pushes his yang into her. Upon coitus, he injects yang into her, the essence of life. That's how babies are made."

"So, cum is yang?"

"Geh! You even know about that!" She coughed. "No, cum isn't yang, but they might as well be synonymous since they are delivered together and both a necessary component of life. Semen without yang is just shooting blanks."

"I hear they have a pill for that."

"Anyway…" she ignored him. "While a man is built like a yang spurting machine, women are more like a waterskin. When we're pierced with yang, it cracks open our vital yin. It's like puncturing a hole into our profound body, causing it to leak out."

"So, a man injects yang, and a woman leaks yin."

She nodded. This was a conversation she didn't plan to have with him until later, if at all. Rather, this is something his parents should be teaching him! Instead, she had to do it, which was an uncomfortable process, especially after their previous heated moment and her own decision to get pierced by his yang when they grew up.

"A man loses a bit of yang every time he has sex, but it's inconsequential. The first time, he gains a woman's vital yin. Since she's never been pierced before, it's her purest and most powerful yin energy. The higher in cultivation she is, the richer her vital yin, and the better it is for his cultivation. That first harvest is most important, but every time a woman sleeps with a man, he can absorb some of her leaky yin, which rejuvenates his yang and then enriches and advances his cultivation. This is the essence of dual cultivation.

"Over time, the woman builds up a resistance to the man's yang… his… penetration. It takes roughly one hundred sexual encounters. They call this the hundred strokes. After that, a woman is no longer useful for dual cultivation with that man. Although she can be useful to another man, it's still a series of diminishing returns."

"What happens to the woman?" Bao asked, a strangely dark expression on his face.

"It's what you think. Once a woman loses her vital yin, her cultivation becomes that much harder. The leak heals, naturally, but it's never as smooth as before. Repeated sampling in short periods of time can cause her cultivation to fall. It isn't without its benefits. If a woman is on the cusp of reaching the next tier, an injection of yang can cause her to go up a level. Once someone reached the next tier, it's very difficult to fall back down, so a woman can use dual cultivation to break through a bottleneck. It'd only work a handful of times though, and if she failed to break through, it'd end up taking her twice as long to get another chance to breakthrough.

"Every time she is pierced, and it heals, it's like scar tissue. She builds up a resistance, and a woman who has had sex thousands of times offers almost no yin no matter how many partners she has, that is unless her level is extremely high compared to her mate. Well, they have a word for women who reach this state. Witches. Although some just call them sluts. Those who are still fertile for dual cultivation are called fairies."

"Having lots of sex doesn't make a woman a slut. Women are entitled to like it just as much as men." Bao Bi suddenly said, his fist clenched.

Something about the way he said it caused Liao An's heart to clench. Another strange emotion hit her. It felt like, happiness? She felt happy that he felt that way. Being in the body of this mortal was starting to have strange effects on Tigra. Or maybe… it wasn't her body that was affecting her, but the young boy that was standing before her.

Liao An shook her head, unwilling to believe such a thing. "Come. Let's collect some more resources. Then, you can start learning alchemy!"