"Busy night?" the following morning the succubus had met up with her travel partner just outside town and the first thing he noticed was how drained she was. Sure, she didn't look drained, but that could be attributed to her being a succubus. Their bloodline made it impossible for them to seem off, they're the epitome of perfect presentation.
What gave it away was that the aura that would typically be safely tucked away was out of control today. Not only was it leaking but it was also flaring up randomly. He had to cover her with his own spiritual energy to make sure no one detects her aura. More than a few people would notice that it belonged to a demon and most of those people like killing demons. He sure as hell wasn't going to get into a conflict with a particular idiot for a demon whose name he didn't even know, so it's best to make sure no trouble finds its way to him.
"I was working," after the first spell she imprinted, she spent the rest of yesterday until way past midnight imprinting more spells. With all the time she spent, she managed four more spells which were superior versions of the first spell. That was a lot considering that all those spell were of much higher level than her and their quality was above average, she could have done better if the power gap was a bit shorter.
The shopkeeper was kind enough to provide his golden goose with mana potions and tonics so it could keep chugging out those eggs.
So aside from being tired, she was also suffering from potion sickness. That and the fact that she only had three hours of sleep made her a little grumpy but it shouldn't be noticeable.
The man gave her a strange look at the word 'work' but decided not to voice that particular question and instead asked, "What was worth tiring yourself this much?"
The succubus thought about for a but and since she didn't find any problem with telling him she did.
"Cultivation methods," she wondered if she should leave at that but seeing the inquisitive look practically telling her to keep going she continued to say, "As you once kindly pointed out, I am more than a little behind on my cultivation. That was mostly because I wanted to find the best cultivation method for me but I haven't found anything as of yet. I need to be strong to deal with my current circumstances and I can't wait anymore so I might as well get started."
The man understood quite a bit about her problem. Bloodline.
Bloodlines were one of the most envied things in the world, they limited the number of paths that a living being could take in its growth but greatly improved the rate of growth, the potential and general ability per cultivation stage.
Demon bloodlines were among the best bloodlines out there, some are said to be around the level of lesser divine species. But they are also most strict bloodlines.
For most races, going against their bloodline would at most prevent them from reaching higher stages but for demons it usually ended in a painful death. So most demons would just follow the stipulated path, even if they wish to do something different they would figure out how to how to combine their desired path and the one stipulated by their bloodline. It was understandable for her to have trouble finding a good cultivation method.
But...
"I'm pretty sure there are many succubi around and you guys tend to be pretty tight nit. They probably wouldn't mind giving you a cultivation method." He took a glance at the succubus as he continued, "I'm not too sure about this bit but I heard that demons have this thing called bloodline cultivation or something. If my information is to be believed, all you have to do for this bloodline cultivation thing is, I quote 'to do what the weird voice keeps whispering'. So basically, demons are cheats since bloodline cultivation not only allows your cultivation to progress but it is also easier since you always have have an on site instructor in the form of some 'weird disembodied voice' guiding you in your cultivation and you get more benefits."
From his tone you could tell he was this close to cursing the unfairness of the world. The demon found that a bit annoying actually.
"For the first bit, I've met many succubi in the past few years but none of them were the same variant as me so there were slight differences in bloodline. Sure it wouldn't be lethal to use their cultivation methods since they are meant for succubi but they wouldn't be the best so I always just collected them but I never used them. For the second bit, the 'weird voice' as you put it. I find most of those things troublesome. And suicidal."
"If you already have cultivation methods meant for succubi what do you want with human cultivation methods?" he sounded doubtful as he added, "And how can bloodline cultivation be suicidal? I'm pretty sure the succubus bloodline mainly deals with sex and lies."
"I lost the cultivation methods," more accurately, the guys who captured her took them. "As for the bloodline prompts, there's definitely a lot of sex and lies. Mixed with palpable levels of murder and destruction. When my bloodline says something along the lines of 'let's see how long it takes to make that guy's head blow up' it's more than a little annoying since you going to regret it for the rest of the day if you don't do it, it's suicidal when the guy from yesterday was a Knight."
The man looked at the succubus following a few steps behind, she had deactivated the skin-shift spell when they got far away enough from other people. The wind blew weakly against the black armpit-length hair with the ends bathed in the golden light, the two tiny black horns on forehead seemed to glow under the morning sun, the red skin looked amazing under the golden light, especially in the areas where the scales on the sides of her face intersected. It'd be a beautiful sight if it weren't for the increasing flaring of her aura the longer the conversation dragged on.
He didn't feel like ending it so, "Your succubus bloodline encourages masochism? Messing with a Knight on your level is a good way to get beat up." He decided to ignore the part about the lost cultivation methods since it didn't seem like the demon was willing to share.
The succubus calmly thought a bit, "I'm not sure, the sex part of the bloodline is the part I ignore the most so I wouldn't know what it likes. But I don't think the Knight thing has anything to do with masochism, the whole thing started when I somehow managed to kill a Knight. It's probably good for my bloodline to kill people stronger than me, or at least a difficult fight."
With some effort he managed to hide his surprise when she casually mentioned 'somehow killing a Knight' mostly by taking notice of the somehow, he'd seen the girl fight, she couldn't beat people on the same level as her no need to mention those that much stronger than her.
"Definitely suicidal, so what exactly are you going to do with the cultivation methods?"
"I'm sort of going to combine them."
"You're going to create a new one using those you have as inspiration?"
A nod was the reply.
"How sure are you that it's going to work?" he didn't doubt her ability to make a cultivation method. The girl didn't seem to have any backing but she had background.
Her energy control could be self-learned, but the spiritual energy techniques she had used are too complex and she has too much spiritual energy for someone her level. Definitely not something she just picked up nor is it something that a weak organization can do. However he thought about it, the girl was once a member of a powerful organization. Which also explains why she was so relaxed around him, even if he didn't mean any harm to the other party, most people significantly weaker than him would treat him with deference. But the demon was casual in how she behaved around him which meant she was used to being around those who were much stronger than him.
How she got to the state she is now though, he didn't know?
Most powerful organizations taught their members how to personalize their cultivation methods and those with enough skill could make their own with enough knowledge. So the question wasn't whether or not the succubus had the necessary skills but it was whether she had the knowledge she'd need to create a cultivation method for succubi using human cultivation methods as inspiration.
"I'm first going to combine the cultivation method I used as a juvenile with what I can remember from the methods I collected from other succubi, using that as a skeleton I'll then add the necessary parts, basically the parts that are supposed to improve my charisma, magic and affinity to certain elements, from the human methods. Since I'm using what's technically a succubi cultivation method for the most important part it should work. And since it's pretty safe for the most part to change your cultivation before Core Formation I can always improve it later on."
"That makes sense," the man said with a nod, "But why don't you just continue using the method you used as a juvenile, I doubt that it's a middle level Commoner rank method so it should serve you for a while."
"It's bottom of Knight rank, but for some reason it stopped working after I evolved into an adult."