41 Dual Cultivation (Part I)

Seeing the confusion in the face of the serpent that lied down before her, Star Leaf shrugged her shoulders and started to explain the situation more accurately.

"I was one of the ten living cauldrons chosen to go with the two outers sect disciples." she said, her eyes wandering on the darkness that surrounded the dirt path. She tried to make it sound like a completely normal thing but she was getting betrayed by the clear irritation in her voice.

Hesitating, the woman moved back her sight on the black devil. Her green eyes locked into the violet flames burning in the serpent's triangular black head. She, herself, didn't know what she was looking for: Compassion? Sympathy? Or maybe hate and satisfaction over her misfortune?

Well, in any case, those were the sentiments that would have been displayed inside the gaze of any kind of entity after what she just revealed.

'Maybe not compassion or sympathy. Why would the snake devil even care about that? Didn't he want to do the same thing to me before I was saved by the grace of the mysterious blue saint?'

Yet in the serpent's violet eyes, there wasn't anything like that. His eyes were like placid and calm pools of violet water.

The girl bit her lips: the fact that the snake hadn't shown any reaction whatsoever to her words made her feel hurt. Star Leaf didn't know why but when she looked at what should have been a gaze full of warm compassion or cold hate, and only seeing an empty void, she felt like as if an arrow had penetrated into her flesh.

He truly didn't care? That was strange. It surely went against all other behaviors that he exhibited during the time that she had observed him. However, she recovered immediately from the brief daze she fell in.

After thinking about it for a while, she started changing her views on the creature.

'Maybe he was way more mature than I thought?' thought the green haired youth feeling that the black devil was a creature full of secrets.

The serpent was oblivious to the strange looks that he received from the human, seemingly lost in his own thought for some time.

Finally, he moved his head as a sharp light shined inside his eyes.

Star Leaf knew that look: that was the look of someone that wanted to know something.

'He's going to demand me if I have been already used as a cauldron?' thought the human, feeling a grip on her throat. She was willing to do anything to escape her lowly destiny in the Forest Will Tribe and get a shot at becoming a cultivator! However, even she had some pride left behind.

"What's a living cauldron?" demanded the snake instead, with all the confidence and security in the world. He didn't use a gentle tone, but he also didn't order her around as if she was just a servant of his.

Star Leaf remained shocked for a few seconds, then a furious fire started to burn in her eyes when she first believed that he was making fun of her. However, when she was going to start insulting him, she noticed that the look in the creature's eyes was one of genuine curiosity.

"You really don't know?" she asked bewildered.

"Mph, if you won't tell me then fuck it... I don't need you in any case!" exclaimed by the serpent, irritated as he saw the strange reaction of the human. Was she trying to humiliate him? No, he truly didn't know what a living cauldron was. He had some idea of what it was used for, and he knew that the great King in his Dreams used them a lot, but he didn't actually know what was one.

It had always been one of his objectives to understand why the great shadowy beast cultivator kidnapped humans (especially female) whenever he could. He got really close to solving the mystery when he encountered Spike but, after their first meeting, he hadn't managed to activate correctly the Black Hand Trader Station.

"I...I... " Star Leaf staggered a few steps behind, her expression changing and her face turning red as a tomato.

Darkscale looked at her even more pissed, why was she treating him like a buffoon? Why should he even deal with such blatant disrespect? Who cared about that dual cultivation method anyways. He had already his cultivation method and even two techniques that could be used with this cultivation base.

'No, I don't need to make the same mistake... cold blood, I need to keep my cold blood' the snake murmured internally, trying to calm himself.

Star Leaf noticed the nefarious look in the serpent's eyes and realized that her behavior could be interpreted as a form of discourtesy if he truly didn't know what dual cultivation was.

Grasping tight the blue robe that almost fell on the bloody ground, she steeled her heart and gritted her teeth before finally responding. She started reciting the words contained in the tablet that had been sent to her and the other girls that were chosen to be a living cauldron.

"Dual cultivation is the cultivation of the same and the opposite. Each participant focuses on an extreme of a given cultivation method, and then sends part of it towards the others' cultivation bases, receiving in exchange the other extreme." The girl ended her speech looking at the snake, trying to get a sense of what he thought of what she had just recited.

Darkscale's eyes showed no interest whatsoever. This didn't seem like something that could be useful at all. Why would he need the help of someone else to cultivate? He was capable of doing it on his own.

"That's all?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's all" said the girl, with an innocent expression on her face.

"It doesn't seem much" responded the snake, making his intent behind his words clear: this was not enough to warrant all the confidence that you have shown until this moment.

"I can cultivate on my own... why would I need your help?" he added, to make things as clear as possible.

The girl wavered. She thought about it for a second, gritted her teeth again, then gave up some more information.

" The process is quicker than a normal cultivation session, people using dual cultivation make less effort and obtain results quicker" she explained.

However, contrary to what she expected, the snake wasn't impressed by what she said. Of course! How could he? She just admitted that she lied to him!

"I thought that what you said before was all... are you keeping other things from me? This partnership is not going to end well if you do so" the voice of the serpent echoed in the woman's mind while he hissed and looked at her with a vicious expression.

The fact that she blatantly lied wasn't the only problem, though it was a big one.

Darkscale could also tell that something about the first explanation given by the girl was deceptive or totally plain wrong. He could not imagine the King of the Cursed Blood to have the patience of cultivating with countless human just because he wanted to help them. That was ridiculous.

'Why is she lying?'

There was something he missed, something that the human didn't want to tell him. Why? Probably because she didn't want him to know it.

The serpent examined again the information that he knew on the green haired girl: she said that she was selected to be a living cauldron for a sect. Instead of being excited, she risked her life to get him to agree to become her dao partner. Again, why? There could be only a solution, a solution that fitted exactly into the puzzle of information that he had: a negative consequence, a very dire one, that would fall on one of the entities that cultivated in duo.

From what he gathered, the female women would experience some kind of mortal problem.

"I told you what you wanted to know. I'm not your servant so stop treating me as such" she suddenly said, responding to his threat.

"If you had already access to the Heavenly Reptile Sect why did you need my help?" doubtfully, Darkscale asked, changing the subject. He didn't care much about the dual cultivation. He wanted her help only to get his hands on the herbs he needed and if she could help him get also inside a cultivator sect, even better.

"Because there are two main factions, and the one that accepted my presence wasn't the one I liked" responded the girl, with her hands on her sides.

"Plus, they only wanted me as a lowly servant... I accepted it because even if it isn't the best thing, at least, I would have a chance to impress someone in the sect and regain my freedom" stubbornly, the green-haired woman continued.

Darkscale didn't believe her for a second. Just because she liked the other faction better? No way that it was the actual truth.