Path Of The Dragon (A Dark Fantasy Cultivation Wuxia Xianxia Progression Series)

Chapter 44 Training

Jie returned to her private residence on the school grounds and stepped into a steaming hot bath, controlled by stone plates with runes carved into them. Like large, magical buttons.

As Jie slipped into the hot water, she let out a relieved sigh. The hot water stripped the sweat off her body and began to soothe her muscles. She took long, slow breaths and reached down into her lower dantian.

There, a chaotic storm of dragon lightning qi swirled, snapped, and crackled. But, despite how much she'd just advanced, it didn't seem unbalanced. Chaotic and wild, but not dangerous to her in any way. Just as perfect as usual. Still, she'd have to make sure to have some good sparring tomorrow to make absolutely certain it was as stable as could be. According to Elder Shi, most people's qi rested gently in their lower dantian, rotating slowly if at all.

But Jie's was different. There were many strange cultivation methods that did weird things to qi, but dragon lightning qi was apparently the strangest Elder Shi had ever seen. Its power was great though. And Jie knew she'd need a lot of that.

To think she needed to be stronger than gods. It seemed most people didn't even think to aim for the height of a god, and she had to go way beyond that.

She smiled and sank back in the tub. Who was she kidding? She couldn't complain. Even if some other hero killed all the bad guys tomorrow, she'd still want to cultivate to heights others didn't even dare to dream of. How could she resist such a dream? Nothing felt better than cultivating and growing her strength. Not to mention when she broke through into the next star... it was like eating a billion chocolate bars, riding a roller coaster at light speed, and reading a good book all at the same time. Only without feeling sick.

Jie stayed in the bath for a while, resting her body and her mind as she relaxed in the steaming water, but soon she washed up and returned to the room with Ming. Even if he was unresponsive, it was comforting to check on him from time to time. And, if he happened to sense her, she wanted him to know she hadn't forgotten him.

Occasionally, she brought trays of food from the academy's cafeteria, and sometimes she came back to find the food and drink had vanished. So, at least he was still somewhat aware.

But she also made sure not to distract him from his work. He had to get healthy... he had to...

Having made sure that Ming was still breathing, Jie went into the private garden just behind her private residence. She sat in the lotus position on the soft grass, surrounded by the alien, yet familiar, trees, and activated the storage ring Ming had given her.

The stone she'd taken as her prize from the entry trial appeared in her hand. Streaks of gleaming silver ran through it and shifted as she moved it. Each time she looked at it, she loved it even more. Surely it was dangerous, Ming had said as much... but she couldn't deny that she treasured it above almost anything.

She treasured it so much it scared her, but it wasn't whispering dark thoughts into her mind or anything so where was the harm?

She studied it in the moonlight. If this was some powerful treasure, there had to be a way to use it. Surely its power wasn't just to make everyone but her hate it for some reason? Would it try to seduce people other than her for that matter?

She didn't want to believe that it would, but she cordoned off part of her mind to think as rationally as possible. She'd only seen two other people react to it. It could be that it would choose other people...

Not that she was going to test that theory. It was too precious to risk just to find out. But, how to use it? And, what would it even do? Did she want to use it? What if it was some kind of magical bomb and she activated it and killed herself? That would be profoundly stupid.