Sex had apparently really tired Lin out. After she finished answering my questions on the esoterics of cultivation, she just curled up and nodded off, leaving me to figure out the mess I was in all on my lonesome.
Picking her discarded clothes off the ground, I threw the diaphanous garment over her. I had no idea whether cultivators caught colds… but, better safe than sorry. Although, I had little confidence in the heat-retention capabilities of that flimsy shift. Not that I had any clothes on my back to practice my chauvinism with.
Shrugging, I sat down cross-legged beside the sleeping beauty and closed my eyes. It was time to crack the cultivation code. My first step on the path to world domination. Whoo! Let's do this, baby!
I reached for calm…
…
…
...serenity, zen, inner peace... anything?
…
My eyes flew open. Damn! This ain't working. My fucking dick's cold. The way I was sitting meant that my thing hung down and touched the cold stone of the bed. Quite distracting if you were trying to meditate. The demerits of being a well-hung gentleman, I suppose. Worthily was this body one that belonged to someone with exceptional yang essence.
Scooting closer to Lin, I appropriated her makeshift blanket and turned it into an impromptu yoga mat. She furrowed her brow in her sleep at the sudden loss of warmth. Well, it was at least partly her fault that I was in this mess… She was a big girl, she could deal with some chill.
Clearing my mind of all extraneous thought as I had often done in my previous life as a yogic guru, I sank into the familiar void of a meditative trance. Within the darkness, I searched for something, anything out of place. Anything that hadn't been there before. It didn't take me very long to find it.
Close your eyes in a well-lighted room and you'll notice that your vision doesn't go totally dark. There's a tinge of blue to the darkness; the light filtering in through your eyelids. Ever covered a glowing flashlight with your palm in a totally dark room? Your hand shines red, doesn't it? That's how it was for me. At first, I was in this blue-black world; then suddenly, it was all red and somehow, I knew that I was looking into myself. And that I was doing it better than any of those sophisticated x-ray machines ever could.
Every muscle, every organ and each bone was as clear as day under my new field of view. But as interesting (and gross) as all this was, the things that captured my attention were two softly glowing spheres of light. One floated just below my heart while the other, smaller sphere floated within my brain.
From what Lin had said, those glowing orbs were my Spirits, though she had mentioned that everyone had just one; below their hearts. In my case, it wasn't very difficult to guess the source of the orb in my brain. The longer I spent in this world, the harder it was getting to convince myself that I was just having an extremely lucid dream. Let me tell you, waking up tied to a scaffold, scheduled for death by snu-snu wasn't as lucrative as popular culture would have you believe.
I had very little time then for disbelief and incredulity at my situation, busy as I was with just taking the optimum actions for survival. Transmigration? Sure. Cultivation? Oh, why not? But, now that the dust had settled a bit and death wasn't just an ejaculation away, I had time for a nervous breakdown. One triggered by the realization that I had fucking metaphysical lightbulbs within my body – one of which I was sure was my soul from back on Earth and the other that of a deceased farm boy.
Hugging myself, I took deep, steady breaths until the urge to hyperventilate passed.
I threw the doubts and worries to the back of my mind. Right now, they would do me little good. Rather than obsess over questions with no answers, I'd benefit more from getting this cultivation business down pat.
I chanted the syllable 'om', letting the sound rise up from my navel, drawing it out. The vibrations of my own voice soothed the turbulence in my mind, letting me sink back into my meditative trance where I saw my Spirits again.
The one in my brain seemed active, the brilliance fluctuating with my thoughts while the one below my heart seemed stagnant, glowing with a uniform brightness. Yet, I could clearly feel a connection between them. I had a feeling that I could control the lower one with the one in my head. I decided to call it my Soul while the ball of light below my heart would be my Spirit.
A wisp of golden light flashed within the scope of my inner vision and I turned my attention to it. It exuded the exact same feeling as the warm current of energy that had revitalized me every time I'd made Lin climax. From her explanation, I knew it to be the mystical energy known as Qi.
To be more precise, Yang Qi.
Essence, Qi and Spirit. These were the bases of Cultivation. A Cultivator absorbed the Essence of Nature, converted it into Qi and used the Qi to expand their Spirit. If the Essence came from inanimate objects, then the Cultivator was said to follow the Righteous Path. If the Essence came from living beings, such as animals and humans, then the Path of the Cultivator was Demonic.
Yin and Yang Essences were the cores of the femininity and masculinity present within a woman or a man. The Path of Dual Cultivation involved stripping the Yang Essence of a man and using it to generate Yin Qi within the body of the Cultivator. As for me? When I had intercourse with Lin, I'd inadvertently absorbed some of her Yin Qi and upon entering my body, it had turned into Yang Qi. That was the specialty of Dual Cultivation, the duality and interconvertibility of Yin and Yang.
As a Cultivator, she hadn't lost her Yin Essence, otherwise, she'd have died. Her Cultivation base had been used to compensate instead. But, if I'd continued exploiting her, there would be a point when her Cultivation would have been drained completely and it'd be her Essence and life that flowed into me.
Demonic Cultivation was extremely dangerous. Since the Essence they absorbed came from other humans, they couldn't help but be affected by the influx of Qi. In the case of the members of the Yin Demon Sect, it meant that once they began intercourse, they would completely drown in their lust until their partner, or they themselves died. That was why, they had to be careful to choose partners, rather victims, with a Cultivation base much lower than theirs.
Under the influence of their abundant Yin, the men would grow aroused despite the threat to their life, ending up discharging their Essence within the Demonesses. Although I had been affected by her Yin Aura to an extent – the reason why I had come up with the ridiculous plan of fucking my way to freedom – my soul had protected me from the worst of it.
I believed that it was also the only reason that I hadn't been sucked dry of my Essence by Lin and had managed to turn the tables on her instead.
Now, I was faced with several difficulties.
When Lin woke up and shrugged off the lust-fuelled haze she was in, would she be as amenable after learning that part of her Cultivation base was missing?
What was I supposed to do about the Sect full of super-powered rapists waiting outside the door of this cosy little dungeon?
And last, but not the least, what was I supposed to do with this errant strand of Yang Qi flowing within me? According to Lin, the first strand of Qi absorbed decided the attribute of one's Spirit. The change was permanent and irreversible – as far as she knew, anyway. So, if I were to absorb this Yang Qi, I'd develop a Yang Spirit – turning into a male Demon Cultivator in the process. If I were to pull out an appropriate analogy from Earth supernaturalism for my situation, I'd say that I would be the only Incubus in a coven of Succubi.
And honestly, I had no clue whether that bumped up my survivability ratings, or sent them dipping into the negatives.
I shrugged, I had nothing to lose, anyway… worst case, I died again. Maybe this time, I'd draw a better hand.
Focusing upon my Soul, I tried to use it to relay a command to my Spirit to absorb the golden strand of Qi. It was surprisingly easy. My soul fluctuated, my Spirit brightened, then the Qi that had been roaming my body sped back to my heart like a hunting dog that had heard the whistle of its master and invested itself into the glowing orb.
My Spirit took on a slight golden tinge and expanded.
It began radiating soft golden rays that seemed to warm every corner of my body, dyeing my inner vision a reddish-gold. I felt my body becoming fundamentally different in some inexplicable way.
I felt stronger, my senses had sharpened, and most importantly, I felt… virile… like every one of my sperms had been supercharged. I felt that if I ever lay with a woman, she'd end up pregnant – that is, if she survived my attentions.
I opened my eyes to find my body glowing a with a mild golden brilliance and Lin prowling up to me on all fours with her nostrils flaring and eyes hazed with lust. Just before she pounced upon me, a thought ran through my mind:
That plan to conquer the Sect with sex just became a lot more feasible.