Hope you all had a merry christmas. Longish chapter today(1.9k words) so enjoy!

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Sun Jiao disagreed that it was a stupid question and would think about it later, but for now agreed it was wasting time as he needed a better understanding of skills and meridians before he could get an even better understanding of them.

By now Sun Jiao was comfortable enough to pay attention to his whole body as well as control his Will inside it. At first he had needed to focus only on his Will in order to move into his dantian and explore his meridians. Paying attention to his will though quickly became as easy as any other sense; as simple as hearing and seeing at the same time.

He sensed Xiaobo's Will mix his Will in the dantian and felt it pull towards a meridian path. He let Xiaobo guide him through the meridians and after traveling all throughout the body returned to his dantian.

Sun Jiao back on earth had always had a reliable sense of direction and as a kid had spent hours playing labyrinth games which required traveling the same path through each level to proceed to deeper levels. He never bothered to map out the dungeons and always relied on memory to get from the level's entrance to the exit using the shortest path. Traveling through his meridians felt similar but much more complex. That similarity coupled with his new bodies improved memory made remembering the reinforcement path unbelievably simple.

Sun Jiao complied and after traveling a full path felt his body strengthen significantly. Xiaobo had a feeling that Sun Jiao might have a natural talent for cultivating based on how quickly he discovered ki sense so he decided to show Sun Jiao a much more complicated strengthening path that required some tricky maneuvering such as doubling back a path and reactivating a previously activated point. He expected Sun Jiao to get the gist but need some help with those tricks, but Sun Jiao behaved as if it was perfectly normal and performed the strengthening technique flawlessly.

Xiaobo didn't consider that all cultivators found these to be tricky because they learned rules about cultivation and these rules said not to do these tricks for safety reasons. From a young age they would cultivate every day and these rules became ingrained in their control of ki. Unlearning these subconscious rules, such as never doubling back, when they had better control of their ki and Will required a significant amount of work.

The longer one took learning and controlling ki and Will the longer it took for them to unlearn these rules for these tricks. This is one reason young geniuses quickly advanced and why cultivating advancements at an older age were rare.

Sun Jiao had no experience with cultivating and yet due to his experience as a soul had incredibly control over his Will. If either had realized this fact they could have quickly raised an army of cultivating geniuses as they would only have to prevent the person from cultivating until they are old enough to control their soul, then remove that person's soul, give them the experience of controlling their own soul, and then return it to the body. After that the child would quickly learn to cultivate to an incredibly high level.

The reason it had never been discovered before was for two reasons. First that it was incredibly rare for anyone that removed a person's soul to then give them control over their soul. Second finding someone that had reached an old enough age to understand how to control the soul without having ever practiced cultivation would be next to impossible.

Had Xiaobo not arrogantly dismissed Sun Jiao's previous inquiries and instead thought more about them he might have discovered this method of cultivating geniuses. Xiaobo truly supported his arrogance is justice motto; it's just he had never put much thought into what that truly meant. Arrogance is justice and justice is blind. On earth the phrase meant justice should remain impartial, but on Iset the phrase meant that arrogance will often blind you.

Sun Jiao was focused on circulating his ki and hadn't put any thought into raising a genius army. Instead he circulated his ki again and again, but after the third time didn't feel his body improve anymore. Three cycles of his ki strengthening took him the time it takes for two breaths.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Sun Jiao found that after three cycles of his ki and Will a small amount of ki continued to travel the path without his Will. It felt completely natural as though it was blood flowing through veins.

After a few minutes of stopping the flow and then restarting it Sun Jiao had reduced the time it took by half a breath.

After letting Doll Po in Sun Jiao closed the door, but before he could turn Xiaobo spoke up.

Sun Jiao placed his hand on octopus carved into the door that had put each of its tentacles deep into a man's mouth as though it was trying to crawl inside of the person. Next to it was a women that had a painful look on her face and her skin was shaped as though tentacles were shifting about inside her. With a shiver Sun Jiao removed his hand as soon as he felt Xiaobo return his Will from the door.

With a sigh Sun Jiao moved and then lightly touched the paper seal that fell across Doll Po's face. Doll Po's eyes slightly glowed as Xiaobo gave it orders.

Meanwhile in a small palace a distance away from Sun Jiao a shadow crept up to a light blue door. The shadow was so focused on moving stealthily it didn't notice the creak of the floor boards. It reached the door and went to open it, but paused as a voice came from the other side.

"Greetings sister."

"AH!" Sun Qi jumped with a start.

'How does he always know!'

Opening the door she timidly entered and stood in front of her brother who was seated in a small replica of his father's throne. Her brother had his hands in front of him with his fingers spread out forming a bridge. His black hair was short and slicked back in a precise manner giving a exceptionally controlled look. He wore an outfit similar to Sun Jiao's, but with sky blue instead of green. He was tapping his fingertips against each other starting with his pinky and rolling towards his index in a motion that looked very practiced.

Sun Qi was reminded of a spider as she saw the fingers move and felt a shiver down her spine. This of course was why he had spent a significant amount of time practicing it; he felt it made him look sinister.

"Well?" The young voice spoke while attempting to conceal his excited curiosity. 

"Dian Po is dead! Sun Qing killed him."

"WHAT!" The third prince was furious and didn't attempt to conceal his rage.

"How could she interfere with the duel! Does she have no honor!?! Hmph. No matter. For her to interrupt the duel must mean my brother was in a sorry state yes?"

"Ummmm." Poking her fingers in front of her Sun Qi looked everywhere in the room but at her brother. "There...uh was no duel."

"So she attacked him unprovoked? Shameless!" The third prince was getting more aggravated and ran his hand through his hair to help him calm down.

"No. Dian Po attacked Sun Jiao without challenging him. Sun Qing defended him as she always does."

"Why! Why did he attack Sun Jiao!" The frantic prince continued to run his left hand through his hair causing the hair to become disheveled. His eyes began to redden and his right hand gripping his chair began to shake.

"Sun Jiao provoked him by insulting his mother." Remembering the insult caused Sun Qi to blush. "It was very insulting!"

"I-i-imppppossible! He's l-l-left me know ch-choice!"

"Brother you can't!"

"I m-m-must!" said the third prince as he ran out of the room in a hurry to execute his last resort plan.

Shaking her head Sun Qi was sadden by her brother's appearance and knew what he was going to do. Turning towards the door and clenching her hands together in front of her she said only two words as she saw the figure running down the hall.

"Poor brother!"

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Honestly didn't think I'd get to this evil plan this quickly. It's too early! How will Sun Jiao survive! Oh no!

No sidestory this week. BK got home and found out he had a bunch of mail he needed to check before the story could continue. Instead it's a brief Q&A with Sun Qing!

Q&A corner with Sun Qing:

Q: Why did you let your brother fight the man who stopped the carriage? Weren't you afraid he'd die?

A: No way. You'd have to be a complete idiot to attack my brother, the second prince, in the city. A real dumb dumb! Some backwater country bumpkin or something! As if someone that dumb would be strong enough to beat my brother!

Q: How long have you had Yao Mo? Where did you find him?

A: I've had him for 7 years. I met him in the mountains when he was a bandit. He fell in love with me at first sight and I knew he was my special one! I brought him home and we had a wonderful meal. Then I brought him to my room and ripped his soul out. It was a very strong soul and I didn't have much practice. It took a very very long time, but I could tell from his screaming that he was really enjoying our bedroom time! hehe!

Q: If your brother died and his body was taken over by another's soul and you didn't know about it would you want to know?

A: Definitely! How could I let some filthy soul live in my brothers wonderful body? I would certainly want to rip it out and torture it forever and ever. Then I'd have to kill anyone that knew about it obviously! I couldn't have people knowing such filth tainted a perfect being.

Q: Why did you ask that? Did you hear something? Do you think that something happened to brother? What did you hear? Tell me now!

A: Ummm. It...it was just a question! Also, I'm suppose to be asking the questions...