章節 143: No Refunds
[Oh… I see. So that's what you've been doing.]
I frowned at Ivy who was still sobbing on the ground. [You have been stealing small parts of the Soul to feed your Cultivation. You didn't think anyone would notice, did you?]
Her increased wails confirmed my suspicion. I was glad the walls were soundproof, or we might have had some company already. Then things would get complicated really quickly.
I grabbed Ivy and pulled her up.
[Get up. I have questions for you.] I said, and she complied. [And stop crying already, you are getting on my nerves.]
"Yes, Senior." She sniffed and took her robe to wipe her face.
[Good. So…] I crossed my hands, made a mean face, and tapped the fingers on my arm. It was a delicate topic, and I decided to be a bull. [You can steal Souls through intercourse, but you only take a small part of it, correct? What happens to your victims?]
She fidgeted her fingers before speaking, still unwilling to lift her head. "Yes, Senior. They lose some of their Soul Essence and Talent, but it's only temporary! I take only enough Soul Essence to keep going, nothing more."
[Is that so? They lose the ability to Cultivate?]
"It is only diminished for a while, and returns back to normal as their Soul heals."
[And how long till they recover?]
"I am not sure, but I believe it is about a month. During that time their ability to Cultivate is at least halved, Senior." She added the honorific at the end.
[And how much do you get?]
She lowered her head and buried it between her shoulders. "About a few days' worth of Essence."
[About a few days' worth…] That was nothing compared to the damage she did. [That seems like a bad deal. And you have repeat customers?]
She nodded and shrank down even more. "But it only works on those below the Nascent Soul Realm. Those like yourself…" She didn't continue, but I got the picture. Those higher could detect what she was doing.
So she was basically crippling our youngest generation, one man at a time. And making quite good money while she was at it. If it was just cash, I would let it slide. But crippling our own people for such minuscule gains was unacceptable.
[This has to stop. Today.] I ordered, my voice firm.
Ivy threw herself at my feet and kowtowed her head. "Please, Senior, you can't do this! I- I can't stop!"
[It's not whether you can or cannot. You are going to do it, or an Elder is going to know about this. You are harming fellow Disciples, which is unacceptable, and you know it! I'm giving you a second chance to clean your life, before another discovers you and calls you a traitor. I assume you know what would happen then.]
"No, no, please! Anything but that!" She cried and hugged my leg. I instinctively wanted to kick her away. If there was anything I hated more than traitors, was bootlickers. And that's exactly what she reminded me of, at that moment.
[Then make your choice!]
"I can't I really can't!" She cried but didn't let go of my leg even as I aggressively shook it. There was something more going on that she wasn't telling me, so I decided to give her a chance.
[Speak. Tell me everything, and I'll judge you fairly. This is your last chance. Don't leave out anything.]
"Nooooooo…" She cried, her voice begging for mercy. I had none more to give.
[I will dress myself now. By the time I'm done, if you are not talking, it's over.] I had only two pieces of clothing. The underwear and my robe. She had about 20 seconds.
"I'll speak!"
[Start at the beginning. Don't miss any details.] I only just pulled up my underwear when she started.
"Yes… Senior."
She took a deep breath. "When I was just a young girl, my father brought a female Cultivator into the village. She was badly wounded and was dying, but almost nobody dared go near her, except a few of us women. While we were cleaning her wounds, I found a small jade tablet in her pocket. I wanted to put it back, but she began to spasm, and the adults ran to help her, but she died soon after." Ivy began her story, resigned to her fate, and spoke with a clear voice and without tears for the first time.
"I held the tablet hidden and didn't dare take it out until a few years later when I joined the Sect. That's when I learned what it was and felt repulsed by it. But then I learned what my Talent was. It was low Earth. I was devastated. All my dreams of becoming a great Cultivator were shattered as I realized I was destined to be mediocre for the rest of my life." She clenched her fists and appeared to be struggling with her memories.
"Much later, there was this guy I liked… One day, when he held me in his embrace, I decided to use the technique on him, out of desperation. The manual said it could help break through the natural ceilings of Talent and help me advance by taking from others, but I didn't really know what I was doing. I- I didn't want that to happen."
She buried her face in her hands and began to sob once more.
[What happened?] I pushed.
"He…" Ivy paused. "He died! His Soul was torn from his body and absorbed into mine. I saw his face. He was hurt, in pain, and calling for my help." She began to wail. "I didn't know what to do! I panicked and tried to put it back, but his Soul had already begun to merge with mine. When I tore the two apart, his Soul shattered, and mine nearly did as well."
Wow. [That's not what the manual says you should do.] She was reckless. Extremely so. By all accounts, she should have died.
"No…" She shook her head. "He died because of me. After, I didn't want the manual anymore, and I was afraid, so I destroyed it."
Classic. I would do the same in her shoes. Get rid of the evidence.
[They didn't question his death?]
"Not much. He didn't show any wounds, and deaths so early in Cultivation weren't exactly rare. He was just an Outer Disciple, after all. But though I was free, I realized I couldn't Cultivate anymore." She said.
[You, what?!] That was something the manual didn't say. I was suspicious of her words, obviously, but I didn't feel her lying, so it had to be true.
"It's true. I can't Cultivate on my own anymore. My Soul refuses to cooperate. The scar I sustained goes deep, all the way to the bottom. I can't even begin anew without risking extreme pain, or maybe even death."
[And then what? You use the Soul Essence of others to heal yourself?]
"Yes! Well… I am trying to. It's not going well. I have calculated it would take me at least another decade, or until I reach the Nascent Soul for it to maybe recover."
She wasn't even certain it would happen. I shook my head. [Yeah, that's not going to happen.] No way I was letting her cripple other guys for another decade. There wasn't even any guarantee it would work. [Why don't you use pills? Surely you can buy something useful with all that money.]
She shook her head, looking desperate. "No, that's the thing, I'm already using pills. They are not helping! It barely makes a difference."
[Okay… But the technique you are using...]
"It's not the original, I know! I don't want to kill anybody, but it's the only choice I have left. I modified it so it would not be lethal, but that just makes it less useful. If I could kill about 100 people at the peak of Spirit Accumulation Realm, I could probably recover. But doing so would just bring me a quick death at the hands of the Law enforcement."
Everything she said made sense, but there existed powerful pills to rejuvenate the Soul. They weren't all that useful to me, but she could probably make use of them.
[Can't you get some stronger pills to fix your Soul? I'm sure they sell something that could help.]
Ivy shook her head. "I have already tried that. But everything I could afford was too weak to help. And I can't go more than a week without pills or my wound gets worse. It's the same if I do not Cultivate. I tried to go without using the technique, but then my Soul would ache and begin to split. I'm forced to do it, even though I don't want to."
Wow, just, wow. This girl really knew how to tell a sob story. And I still didn't really care.
[Well, there are other ways to get Soul Essence. You could just buy some refined Soul Essence of a beast, couldn't you?]
"Senior, please, I'm not in the mood for jokes. I don't have that kind of money! And not to mention that in my state, and with my Talent, a single contact with Golden Soul Essence would shatter my Soul. I would die instantly."
[Oh, yeah…] I rubbed my chin. [I forgot you are a weakling.]
Ivy lowered her head and sat on her knees.
[Well, there's another way to heal you, but I don't have the time for that.]
She perked up and looked at me with wide eyes. "Senior, you know a way?"
[Yeah… But it would probably take a few months of work and don't have that kind of time.]
Once again, Ivy threw herself forward and grabbed my leg again. "Please, Senior! Help me! Help me get out of this nightmare!"
[No! Get off me!] I shook my leg.
"Please! Waaaaaah, I'm so desperate, Senior! I have nothing left! You are my only hope! I don't want to die!"
[Stop it.]
"Pleeeeeease! I'll do anything! Don't leave me! I'll even become your servant, just pleaseeeeeease! Buhuhuh!" She cried.
[Hmm. I appreciate the offer, but-]
"I'll suck your dick!"
I paused and looked at her. That came out of nowhere. She blushed like a tomato and then covered her mouth, seemingly shocked that she even said that.
[That was vulgar. Besides, you already did that.]
"I'm sorry." She lowered her head.
Her offer was extremely distracting and she didn't even let me finish my thought. I cleared my throat and spoke again. [I appreciate the offer, but! Before I accept, I have some questions.]
"Yes, Senior?"
Senior this, Senior that. I was obviously younger than her, but she didn't know that. The fact that I was also in a higher Realm made it so that I resisted the urge to tell people to drop the honorific. It was honestly kind of annoying and distracting. I gathered my thoughts and spoke.
[First of all, when you do the proper technique, does it hurt you when you fail to extract the Soul?]
She looked at me puzzled. "I don't know, I only tried it once, and that time it worked."
I internally nodded. She only tried it once. That was good. One accidental death I could accept. [Fair enough. We can figure that out later. Second question. How do you know when to strike? The manual doesn't have anything written about that. You can't feel what the other person feels, can you?]
Ivy placed a finger on her lip, thinking. "No… Not exactly. I just kind of… know it when the time is right. There is a subtle change when the defenses release for about three seconds. It's hard to explain. Oh, and I can't tell what Realm you are at. If I did, I would never try to use it on you."
I nodded. I thought it might be something like that. Some things just worked on instinct and were difficult to explain to another. It wasn't rare to see a manual explain something by saying you will know it when you see it, or you will know when the time is right. Bunch of bullshit, if you ask me.
But anyway, you get used to it.
As I thought deeper about what Ivy was doing and what I already knew about her technique and Cultivation in general, I realized what was most likely the cause of her problems. She was cursing herself.
When she first used the Passionate Spirit Siphon Technique, she messed up by not properly absorbing the Soul of her lover. That's when she cursed herself the first time. It wasn't too bad, and if she ate another 3 to 5 guys, she would probably be healed. That was my opinion at least.
But she didn't. Instead, she modified the technique and made it weaker. But she discarded a crucial part of it, refining the Soul. She probably didn't know it, but the way she ate bits and pieces, brought many impurities into her Soul, aggravating the wound.
It was a miracle she wasn't dead already. Those pills she kept taking were probably the only thing keeping her Soul together. I rubbed the back of my head and frowned. What a fucking mess.
[Okay, I have decided.] I said. [I'll accept your offer, and help you with your problem, but on one condition.]
"What is it, Senior?"
[You will listen to everything I say, and do it exactly as I tell you to.]
She visibly relaxed and even smiled, as if a heavy weight had just been taken off her chest. "I accept! Of course, I accept! Thank you!"
[Good.]
The fact that she refused to kill to gain power and heal herself was admirable, if stupid. She was a good girl, deep down, even if the way she went about things was… strange. I decided to give her a chance. I would help her, and she would help me.
Previously I didn't even know of the danger of getting my Soul stolen. And just as I discovered it, I also found a way to train to resist it.
They say don't mix business and pleasure. Unless, of course, you have to. And I was certain business the next few months would be very pleasurable.
[Now… I believe we have some time left on the clock. Should we finish what we started, or am I getting a refund?]
"Oh, Senior…" Crystal Ivy opened her eyes wide and then smiled seductively. She leaned closer and traced her fingernails across my bare chest. Then she giggled and whispered in my ear.
"No refunds."
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