Chương 13: Mortal Desires

*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*

After the feeling of euphoria had subsided, Qing Fang rid himself of the ill look he had.

His pale skin and blue lips regained their pink and rosy colour. His slightly hunched posture brimmed with regal strength as he held his head high. The bags under his eyes faded away as they held a bright and dangerous light.

Qing Fang had regained his health and, with it, his power. Before, he had experimented on the amount of strength his unlocked soul could extract out of this mortal body and he concluded three times the amount. Although only three times seemed insignificant, it was truly not. Average mortals could lift three times their body weight and punch with a force of nearly four times their body weight if one is experienced. This means that a mortal man who is an experienced martial artist and weighs 100 kilograms can punch with a force of 400 kilograms.

A well-connected punch of this force can bring intense bruising and even fractured bones. If the defending party was unable to tense their muscles in defence of a punch, broken bones and organ damage might even occur. Qing Fang, who could punch with a force of 1,500 kilograms while being a mortal, could fracture or even directly shatter the rib cage of a grown man. With strength like this, snapping Meng Ai's neck is as simple as a jerk of the wrist.

And this is just strength. Naturally, because Qing Fang's muscles could exert more strength, they could better defend him as well. If Qing Fang tensed his abdominal muscles and let a 400 kilograms punch hit him directly in the stomach, no damage would befall him. With stronger muscles, they are more solid.

Regarding speed, it didn't increase as linearly. This was because acceleration and the mobilisation of force heavily relied on mass. Acceleration equals force divided by mass. With this, Qing Fang's speed should've increased a lot but with three times more force than mass, Qing Fang's centre of gravity has lowered substantially. If he tried to run with all his force, he would definitely fall over.

With cultivators, bone density and weight increase substantially as they transform their bodies. So, this weakness wouldn't affect them. They could run at extremely high speeds with a stable balance due to their weight. Before, Qing Fang himself weighed about three hundred kilograms. His sister, Qing Bai, would weigh nearly a ton as she was Stage 5.

From this, Qing Fang could deftly move at around double the speed of an average man. While he could theoretically use all his speed his he was travelling in a straight line, this was unrealistic.

Even though Qing Fang was much stronger than a mortal and even than a Stage 1 cultivator, he knew this strength was dangerous. His weak body could not withstand its power. If Qing Fang used more than three times his normal strength, his body would destroy itself from the inside. After this, mass internal bleeding and blood clots would occur, killing him in less than fifteen minutes.

Qing Fang would never risk this even if he was in a life and death situation.

After marvelling at his now healthy body, Qing Fang turned his thoughts to how it came to be. 'I remember a warm and lovely feeling appear in my chest and then pump through my body.' Qing Fang couldn't think of any person that would help him like this. After he woke up, he found himself in the exact same position with no signs of movement around him. From this, he could surmise that no one had touched him while he was asleep.

But why did his body suddenly act this way? He thought. He determined that the feeling came from his heart and pumped around his body. In reality, Qing Fang knew exactly what it was but didn't understand how it happened. Qing Fang knew the feeling all too well.

This was the feeling a cultivator had when their body healed.

Back at the bottom of the lake, Qing Fang has this feeling constantly wash through his body to heal his wounds, but he thought nothing of it then. After all, he was a Stage 3 cultivator. It made sense for him to have the healing properties of one.

But now? He was a mere mortal. How could he benefit from his former healing abilities with a mortal body?

The wind blew on his face. It was a warm wind. His dirty and sweaty black hair was plastered on his scalp as a short stubble was growing on his cheeks and under his chin. The warm wind seemed icy cold as it dried the sweat dripping from his forehead down his face. His robes were dirty and torn. It had hundreds of blade sized holes in the torso area, exposing Qing Fang's chiselled muscles underneath. The foot wraps that adorned his shins were in tatters and falling of his legs. He had long lost his shoes from when the wave crashed down onto him in the lake. The insignia on the back of his robes was destroyed and couldn't be seen, hiding his identity as a Clansman. Overall, he looked extremely worn down and dirty.

Qing Fang was thinking hard about why his body suddenly healed. Although he only benefitted from it, it was important to understand the inner workings of one's body. Especially if they were a cultivator.

Standing within the garden full of life, Qing Fang came to a conclusion. He summarised that his heart took a while to revert back to a mortal heart. When Qing Fang destroyed his cultivation, his enhanced body including his skin, muscles, organs and even hair reverted back to mortal. Since Qing Fang's heart healed his body long after he destroyed his cultivation, he thought that it was still the heart of a cultivator.

However, Qing Fang was wrong. His heart had long reverted to a mortals heart. The cause of it was the red figure restoring Qing Fang's potential before he left. But Qing Fang couldn't possibly know this, so he determined that it was a coincidence during the process of his cultivation being destroyed.

It had to be known that extremely few people destroy their cultivation, even for punishment. It would be a mortal warrior not respecting his adversary's honour. Cultivators treasured their cultivation. Even the worst of enemies would rather kill each other than destroy each other's cultivation. If the Clan wanted to issue the harshest punishment against a traitor, they would still kill them rather than destroying their cultivation.

Because of this, there was next to no information on what happens to the body when one destroys their own cultivation. Thus, Qing Fang had no grievances when he delegated it to coincidence.

At peace from his thoughts, a massive feeling of relief and freedom washed over him.

He had finally passed through the storm he ventured into. The Clan thought he was dead so no one would be searching for him. Although he had massive gains in the form of an unlocked soul, the losses were still huge. Firstly, his cultivation was gone. Secondly, when cultivating for the second time, he could not benefit from the Clan as they thought he was dead. The days of receiving any resource he desired so long as he had enough contribution points were gone.

Because of this, Qing Fang knew the road ahead of him had just gotten steeper, but he didn't mind. He still thought it was natural for him to emerge on top in the end.

Free from the conspiracy he wandered into, Qing Fang genuinely smiled to himself. There was one benefit from destroying his cultivation. That was: he was now able to cultivate in line with his affinity.

Discovering his affinity was blood, Qing Fang wasn't shocked at all that it was blood. There was an infinite amount of paths and any one of them could've been his. Now, he could cultivate Blood path instead of Water path. What's more; Qing Fang knew his affinity was outrageously large as it unlocked his soul for him. Naturally, Qing Fang didn't know that the red figure unlocked his soul for him, so he found a way to justify what happened.

At the prospect of cultivating Blood path, Qing Fang was actually excited. Water path cultivated by absorbing fragments of the Law of Water, Fire path cultivated by absorbing fragments of the Law of Fire. Thus, Blood path must cultivate by absorbing fragments of the Law of Blood. But where would one find this Law? In the veins of living beings! Blood path was closely related to life itself, however, while cultivators that specialised in healing were useless in combat, Blood path cultivators thrived in it. They cultivated by absorbing the blood of the enemies. The stronger they were, the better. This was a path full of slaughter and killing, which Qing Fang was excited about.

It couldn't be helped. When Qing Fang was seven, he first discovered joy after killing his first human: a little orphan named Cai. From this, it was obvious that he loved killing people. Sometimes, he even begged people to give him a reason to kill them. An example of this was back in Mo Wang's village. Qing Fang taunted Mo Wang and then killed him on the basis of being impudent. However, Qing Fang didn't think what he did was wrong.

He didn't believe in good and evil. Only what is accepted and what is feared. Qing Fang fears nothing so he can see nor do any wrong. It was impossible for someone like him. If he saw a baby being eaten in front of him, he wouldn't think that anything was wrong. He would only see the benefit of being strong.

Cultivators, who were so strong that they could do anything they wanted without consequence, were the subject of envy. The weak envied the strong. It was like this even in a world without cultivation. The peons hated how the rich could get away with anything. They envied it. Money was power incarnate and those without it could only wallow in misery. But they could only accept it. They were weak. They had no say.

Turning his thoughts away from this, Qing Fang addressed his appearance. His proud self didn't want to be seen in these rags.

He disrobed the upper half of his body and removed his blood-stained undershirt. Throwing the undershirt riddled with holes to the floor, he let the upper half of his robe hang down. This way, even though there were holes on bother the upper and lower parts of the robe when they overlapped each other, Qing Fang's skin couldn't be seen through the holes. He bent down and removed his leg wraps to expose his bare feet and powerful calves. Remodelling the wraps into numerous smaller ones, he put them back on his legs while leaving his feet exposed. After all, he was in a forest with soft grass. Shoes weren't a necessity.

After that, he looked at his upper body that was covered in dirt and dried blood. In truth, it was quite intimidating. It looked like the war paint of a berserker warrior, ready to crush heads and bisect bodies. Running his hand along his chest, he realised he wouldn't be able to get rid of the blood and dirt without washing himself thoroughly in water. He could only leave it for now. White streaks of dried sweat ran down his face like lines, making him look scary. Not being able to get it off without water either, his face could only stay dirty.

He used his hands to rub his scalp and shake his hair roughly. Lots of dust and clumps of dirt flew into the air and slowly drifted away under the sunlight. Doing this until nothing came out anymore, Qing Fang left his short black hair alone for now.

Having done all that could as of now, Qing Fang turned and looked at the tiny Meng Ai running over. She had a thatched basket with different coloured flower and herbs inside under her right arm as she waved toward Qing Fang with the other.

Arriving closer, she was dumbfounded. Before her stood a menacing warrior, stood tall and bare-chested with menacing war paint coloured white, brown and red swirling in patterns on his skin. She recognized this as the pale and weak man that she had conversed with before.

Lowering her head and diverting her eyes away from Qing Fang's rippling muscles, she blushed.

Humans, just as animals, were instinctual creatures. Men wanted to be the strongest while woman wanted the strongest man. It was an undeniable fact. Competition between males was written in their DNA to compel them to be stronger and faster than the others. With women, they wanted a strong man to protect them and bear their children. Women subconsciously wanted to mate with strong men as this would give them stronger descendants. This way, the weak and disabled men of old would've never had any children, keeping the human race free of weaklings.

As their intelligence and awareness grew, the instincts of the human race had been buried under a mask of emotion. Were wolves emotional? Were hunters and predators in the animal kingdom emotional? No. Instinctual yes, but emotional? No. With intelligence, comes weakness in the form of emotion. The balance of nature is ever-present.

However, even though instincts were buried under emotion, they had never disappeared or weakened in the slightest.

Because of this, Meng Ai, who has recently come of age and is able to bear children felt an attraction toward the strong Qing Fang. A big reason for this was that mortals lived a primal lifestyle. Cities inhabited by cultivators were developed and functional. They had huge populations with a working society and enforcement system.

However, mortal habitats that didn't have cultivates were extremely primitive. They were small, around 250 people, and confirmed to the ingrained roles of men and women. Men are hunters and warriors, a symbol of strength. Women were gatherers and raised children, a symbol of beauty and delicacy.

Thus, Meng Ai, who lived in such an environment, didn't bear a sense of shame when she said she wanted a strong man that could protect her. Individual and powerful women? They didn't exist in mortal villages. The only women who were 'powerful' and 'individual' had the power to slaughter thousands with a wave of their hands.

To expect someone like Meng Ai to not be attracted to Qing Fang would be the strange thing.

Seeing Meng Ai approach only to lower her head, Qing Fang knew what was happening. Although he was socially retarded, he too had instincts. He felt the mood in the air and looked down at Meng Ai's small body, a heated feeling arising within him. He had the sudden urge to dominate this tiny woman and copulate with her.

It wasn't strange at all for twenty-four-year-old Qing Fang to have sex with thirteen-year-old Meng Ai. Once a girl started bleeding once a month, they were no longer a girl, but a woman. They now had the ability to birth children.

It had to be reiterated that society was primitive with mortals. The need to reproduce was strong so old men bedding young women was not strange.

Qing Fang was not a virgin monk. He had not taken a vow of celibacy. When presented with a delicate woman, he would have the urge to impregnate her, as would any man. Maybe if he was still Stage 3, lowly mortals would not be enough to excite him. But now? He, too, was a mortal. Subconsciously, his overwhelming pride now allowed him to see mortals as more than insects since he was one. However, that view: mortals' lives were as cheap as grass, would return as soon as he stepped back on the road of cultivation.

Qing Fang tried to soothe the raging fires within him. He was not a virgin. He had bedded women back in Qingshan City to meet his desires. Now that these desires were raging again, they could only be delayed, not extinguished. Such was the daily life of a man such as himself. Although he was out of the ordinary in many aspects, this was not one of them. It was an instinct that was universal to all: the instinct to mate.

Women go through a 'fertile period' when they were in their early thirties. During this period, they would have a great desire for children, almost unsatiable. It was at this point in time that most women had children. As for men? They constantly wanted to have sex with women. The Laws of Nature, beneath the Laws of the Universe, dictated so.

Managing to quell the fires, for now, Qing Fang's gaze that was burning with lust went back to normal. He took a deep breath as he steadied himself. If Meng Ai knew what was running through his mind until just now, she would likely scream.

After a period of intense blushing at the sight of the valiant and manly Qing Fang, Meng Ai managed to raise her head. If she had locked eyes with Qing Fang before he had quelled his desires, who knows what would've happened.

She matched his gaze as she spoke. "Come on. I'll show you the way out of the sacred garden. If anyone sees you in here, they'll be really angry." Her eyes still darted toward the solid upper body of Qing Fang from time to time, showing her attraction.

At her words, Qing Fang remembered that men were forbidden from entering 'the sacred garden.' Nodding his head in affirmation, he followed behind Meng Ai as they walked through the garden.

For some reason, Meng Ai had not commented on his drastic change in appearance since she had been gone. Maybe she was too embarrassed to point it out or was still a bit nervous around him. After all, he was much older than her. It was natural for her to be somewhat anxious and quiet.

Under her lead, Qing Fang arrived at the opposite end of the garden that he destroyed his cultivation at. Here, the herbs and plants were much fewer while the path was wider.

Now that his desires had faded, Qing Fang's heated gaze turned to a cold and calculative one. He thought about what he would do when he arrived in Meng Ai's village. He would, personally, like to stay in the background and unnoticed. However, he knew that that would be hard to accomplish in a mortal village. With a population of 250, everybody knew each other.

As for why he was even going to the village in the first place?

As they were currently within the depths of Tai forest, Stage 3 and 4 beasts were commonplace. Stage 5s were even wandering around here. As a mortal, although stronger than most, Qing Fang would find it extremely hard to survive in the forest. Going into an extremely dangerous forest and working your way up the food chain while growing in strength was far from reality. Apex predators rushed to the smell of blood. Qing Fang would die as a mortal within a month.

However, he saw something when he was first here. The beasts didn't approach this garden because certain pungent plants encircled it. It was a huge possibility that Meng Ai's village was also encircled with them. This safety from powerful beasts was one of the two reasons why Qing Fang wanted to go to Meng Ai's village.

The second? This far into the forest, all other animals besides humans were very strong. Qing Fang couldn't kill them currently. However, killing a few humans was easy. Qing Fang needed to kill something as soon as possible.

After all, he wanted to start his Blood path cultivation as soon as possible.

Out of Meng Ai's view, an extremely cruel smile plastered itself on Qing Fang's face as a ruthless glint shone in his eyes.