At first, Aoki didn’t understand the connection between the death warriors and the spirit vein’s medicinal catalyst. Although he didn’t care much about his fate within this simulation, his curiosity still drove him to figure out the reason.
Spirit veins were like organs, and there could be rejection reactions between different people. However, if two people were similar—practicing the same cultivation method, sharing the same diet, even spending years together—the rejection would greatly diminish. The whole concept of the death warriors was based on this.
It had been three years since he became a death warrior. Aoki and Lin Qiyou had become disciples under a certain Grand Cultivator, eating together, training together, even sleeping in adjacent rooms. Sometimes, when Lin Qiyou couldn’t fall asleep, she would tap on the wall, and Aoki would have to wake up and keep her company.
After three years, Aoki had somewhat accepted this mischievous but harmless little girl. But honestly, the kid’s topics were boring. Sometimes Aoki didn’t even want to respond or pay attention, which only reinforced his reputation as a wooden, unresponsive type.
On the way to see their master today, Lin Qiyou caused a commotion, complaining that recently little girls kept asking Aoki to walk with them, disturbing her sleep, and Aoki was completely innocent.
What did that have to do with him? He wasn’t the one calling them.
Is being handsome a crime?
“The so-called Qi is not the same as spiritual energy, nor is it something else entirely. It is something inherent in all things.”
In the courtyard of the private sect, the elderly man with white hair sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion and suddenly spoke about something he had never mentioned before.
“Master, I don’t quite understand,” Aoki said with interest, asking his master while Lin Qiyou whispered beside him that he loved to show off.
“Haha, Qi makes the sun rise and set, makes flowers bloom and wither. Qi is spiritual energy, but spiritual energy is not Qi.”
Old people loved riddles—Aoki knew this well. He probably wouldn’t get a straight answer even if he asked more, but then the master pulled a book from his sleeve titled Qi Secrets and continued, “This book records how to stimulate the Qi within the body. I’m giving it to you.”
“Let me see!”
Lin Qiyou snatched Qi Secrets from his hand, flipped through it briefly, and then tossed it back to Aoki, complaining, “What kind of nonsense is this?”
Aoki skimmed through it and found nothing particularly special. It wasn’t as mysterious as the master had described; it seemed like a fake book.
The cultivation method for Qi seemed to completely overlap with that of spiritual energy, so—
Wait a minute?
Aoki thought carefully. Qi and spiritual energy overlapped, and the cultivation methods for spiritual energy were somewhat similar to those for magic power.
After pondering deeply, he suddenly realized that since he had mastered both spiritual energy and magic cultivation techniques, maybe he could combine the two and cultivate Qi Secrets?
In the fantasy world, bodies lacked spiritual energy and magic power. Wouldn’t that leave space for Qi cultivation?
He thought this was useful and asked his master if he could keep the book. The master nodded, and Lin Qiyou beside him teased that he was picking up scraps.
Then it was time for spiritual energy training. Aoki’s progress pleased the master greatly.
“Aoki, you have a sharp aptitude and great talent… sigh…”
There was regret in the master’s words. Aoki understood what was being lamented, but he just pretended not to know.
“What aptitude? What talent? I’ll definitely become stronger than him someday!”
Lin Qiyou looked at Aoki jealously. Almost every time they sparred, she lost. Once, Aoki deliberately held back, which infuriated her to no end.
“Alright, alright, you will be stronger than him.”
The master nodded expressionlessly, and Aoki naturally agreed.
It was inevitable that Lin Qiyou would surpass him.
After training, Lin Qiyou and Aoki went to the dining hall together. She plopped down without a care, and Aoki took care of the rest.
“Look, Aoki’s busy running around for his little wife again~”
“Sigh, I’m so jealous!”
While serving Lin Qiyou, Aoki overheard some girls nearby joking and teasing the little girl. He quickly stopped them. “Senior sisters, please don’t speak nonsense!”
He glanced at Lin Qiyou and was relieved to see she hadn’t lost her temper and started arguing with the girls. He didn’t care much himself, but Lin Qiyou was different—if she got angry, she would kick the walls at night, and he wouldn’t be able to sleep.
“Oh ho ho, Aoki junior brother is shy?”
“Hit the mark? Look at your red face.”
The girls teased Aoki, who replied sternly, “Senior sisters, you’re exaggerating. I’m just a servant of the Lin family. What qualifications do I have to be compared to the young lady? Please mind your words.”
With that, Aoki returned to Lin Qiyou and placed the food in front of her, but her expression was sour.
As expected, Aoki thought. Then Lin Qiyou said, “What are you pretending for? Only you can talk like that, does it make you feel powerful?”
With that, she knocked over her meal and left the dining hall.
“Go after her!”
“Hurry, Aoki junior brother!”
The girls urged him.
Aoki carefully packed his food into a lunchbox and rushed out.
Lin Qiyou ran off like a flash, and it took Aoki the whole noon to find her sitting on a rock, crying.
“Miss, why are you crying? Don’t mind what those people said.”
Aoki comforted Lin Qiyou, but then she suddenly sobbed harder and shouted, “It’s not because of them! I’m crying because of my Dao partner!”
Her Dao partner apparently had the surname Jia. Recently, Aoki often heard about this Dao partner, but he had never seen him and didn’t think Lin Qiyou had time for early romance.
But honestly, he didn’t really care about that kind of thing…
“Don’t cry. I’ll tell you a story.”
Aoki sat across from Lin Qiyou and opened the lunchbox. She wiped her nose, showing some interest but still wanting to sulk.
She looked at the food and realized it was all Aoki’s favorite dishes. She was about to get angry again but then remembered she had purposely knocked over her own meal earlier.
Still wanting to throw a fit, she was about to speak when her gaze followed Aoki’s and caught sight of her father arriving at the sect’s main gate with some men.
She cheered, but Aoki sighed in his heart.
They were here to start the painful procedure of transplanting part of his spirit root to Lin Qiyou.
“Are you afraid?”
While Aoki was lost in thought, Lin Qiyou suddenly leaned close with a serious expression.
“You belong to me. I will protect you.”
She said this softly, and the tear mole under her left eye made Aoki feel a sharp sting.
…
……
After more than an hour in the simulation world, Aoki’s consciousness had to withdraw. He returned to the painful, boundless darkness of reality. Soon, he would undergo the agonizing spirit vein extraction surgery. But exiting the simulation didn’t spare him from the intense pain. This pain accumulated because it was a torment of the soul; he had to endure it.
But better a short pain than a long one. Between prolonged suffering and brief agony, he chose the latter.
Since in reality he was a vegetative state, he spent most of his time in the simulation. He only knew that time in the simulated world flowed much faster, though how much faster than reality he didn’t yet know.
The spirit root extraction was said to take several hours. His leaving would cause the simulation’s time flow to equal reality’s, meaning he had to endure numbness and soreness in his body and the blackness before his eyes.
Suddenly, he remembered the Qi Secrets the master gave him in the cultivation world. Reviewing its contents, he tried to introduce this mysterious substance—neither magic power nor spiritual energy.
Bypassing the magic core and spirit veins, using cultivation techniques from both worlds, receiving a substance called “Qi”…
An hour later, Aoki realized he could bring knowledge from the virtual world into reality, because his eyes were open.