Chapter One Hundred And Ninety - I cultivate with Jin Li

Panting to catch his breath, Leon's eyes followed the movement of his man as Jin Li lay beside him with a sated expression. Their naked skin glistened in the soft light of the mage globe and the dying light creeping in the hut's lone window. Ambiguous substances marked them here and there and there were an array of purple splotches dotted over Leon's neck and collar bone.

Leon's body hummed softly in satisfaction. The pain was a lot less this time and he had even felt some pleasure whilst being penetrated, though it was an elusive feeling in the end. A finger fell upon his collarbone and traced those purple marks lightly, circling them a little in admiration of self-artistry. Jin Li's hand ran up along Leon's neck and face before he leaned over his glowing alchemist and stole a lingering kiss. Leon complied willingly, opening his mouth to allow the other entry.

"I wish to practice the Dual Cultivation technique with you," Jin Li claimed suddenly, making Leon pause as his mind raced to catch up with the other's thoughts. Automatically, he blushed. To Dual Cultivate was to... well cultivate while conjoined sexually with your partner. The number of times that they'd made love could be counted with just the fingers of one hand. To Leon, from his understanding, to Dual Cultivate was practically a level up from their current bedroom performances.

Unknown to him, to Jin Li, Dual Cultivating was a lot more.

This had to do with the difference in their upbringing, after all, Jin Li was off this universe, whilst Leon came from a place that was wholly different with different values, morales and filled with fast food of various shapes and descriptions. More people took sexual relations as a casual thing, divorce was prolific and if one made it through ten years of marriage, they were both ridiculed and exalted all at once. Of course, in that world, men were expected to maintain some level of fidelity; one wife, no harems. Of course the jealousy of both sexes remained the same in either world.

However, although in this land, men were not looked down upon for having more than one wife (indeed in some middle realms, it was not even uncommon for a woman to have more than one husband), a Cultivator would likely have ever only one Dao Companion. To clarify, Maimai's father had a harem of several beauties, but not one was his Dao Companion. Should he follow that path, he would likely have to give up his harem and even his main wife, for a Dao Companion was much more than a marital partner. A mortal life was but a flap of a butterfly's wings compared to a the potential life of a Cultivator.

And with the exception of a few (being demons and females of a certain promiscuous Sect), one would only Dual Cultivate with their Dao Companion.

Jin Li tugged the boneless Leon up into his arms as he sat up in their bed, making himself comfortable in a lotus position. His jade branch was already saluting and ready to perform its duties. Jin Li licked his lips as he positioned the languid alchemist above him, arranging Leon's arms about his shoulders and his legs about his back. And after glancing at the blushing man in his hold once to ensure there was no resistance, he guided his lover back onto his body. Leon shivered about him as the warmth of his moist body enveloped that part of him, joining them together.

He whispered words of instruction into Leon's ears, the latter forcing himself to listen, though his mind was somewhat distracted by the itchy feeling of fullness below. "Do you understand?" Jin Li asked him. Although this Cultivation technique was not complicated, did not mean it would not cause problems if performed incorrectly. With all techniques, there was the risk of backlash, thus a Dual Cultivation technique also required the participants to have complete faith with the other.

Leon repeated back what he had heard, slowly, trying to not move his lower body as he felt the urge to. He was not alone, but Jin Li always did have reasonably good willpower and simply held Leon close, their forehead's touching and their eyes closing as they turned their minds to the task.

In this state, Leon managed to turn his focus inward and see his twinkling inner sea; the specks of light were not sluggish, but moving at a reasonable pace as if in anticipation of what was about to happen. He circled his energies once about his meridians, taking in one breath. And as he exhaled, he sent those same energies along a new conduit, one that would have them exit his body. However, rather than lose this energy, it was replaced by a different sort.

This spiritual energy sparked and teased his nerves and meridians, not painfully, but enough to make him tremble. Like little bolts of lightning, the energy crackled through his pathways and into his innersea, mixing with the twinkling lights and warming his centre. He felt as if a surge of power was electrifying him from the inside out, causing him to gasp. Inhaling an unsteady breath, he circled the combined energy about himself as Jin Li had instructed, while drawing in the spiritual energy from the air to increase the volume a minute amount.

Jin Li's innersea was experiencing a similar strangeness. His sea was violent with chain lightning thundering through the space, ready to rip his body to sheds given the opportunity. This volatile inner sea was not an unknown phenomenon in Cultivators, however few Cultivators could control it beyond a certain stage of cultivation, hence would have to give up their immortal dreams or be annihilated in a most terrible way. Such was the bloodline of Jin Li. Great power and wicked speed of surging through the early stages of cultivation, but with a deadly potential cost. However, his ancestors had developed a cultivation technique that while did not completely tame the unforgiving lightning, would at least give the Cultivator some ability to control it. They had not yet produced an immortal, but could at least reach the higher stages of cultivation without destroying themselves.

Yet, at this moment, a soft and gentle array of tiny lights were pouring into his innersea, quietening the thunder as it merged with the jagged strikes. The added energy made the lightning whiter, sharper, yet the numerous thorny extraneous chains reduced in size at first and later in number. A sense of burden within Jin Li quietly eased and he poured more of his yang energy into his small lover.

The two men remained in the state of Dual Cultivation until the moon set and the sun began to take its place within the heavens, ushering in a bright new day.