“Did you really just stop mid way through a sentence to build up the suspense Goldy? Now that's some xianxia shit,” Henry admonished.

“ Just shut up and sit down Henry.”

Henry sat down expectantly on the floor.

“To build a strong house you must have a solid foundation, and I'm sorry to say Henry but your foundation is literal quicksand.”

Henry sat down and gave Goldy his best doe eyed look just nodding his head.

“You lack a spiritual root, that is why the previous owner of this body was discarded by the sect, Peng just did not have the talent or the capability to cultivate.”

“Ok so you are saying that I was put into a gimped body to start with?”

“Pretty much, but fret not because you have me. Now normally you would have to spend years to refine your own personal spiritual root to a point where it can absorb the miniscule amounts of ki that is needed for my cultivation arts.

“As it stands you do not have means or the time to do that.”

“Luckily we are going to skip all of that because I will be giving you mine.”

“Wait what? Goldy bro if you do that then will you be able to cultivate anymore?”

“Yes and no Henry. I will still be able to cultivate just not as efficiently as before. Imagine the spiritual root as both your elemental affinity and the method with which you take in ki from the outside world.”

“The higher the grade of the spiritual root the more talented you will be in that element and the easier it will be for you to take in the pure form of said element.

“The purer the ki you take in the less work your body will have to do in condensing and refining it.”

“Oddly enough I think I actually understood what you said, but won’t it like fuck you up to give me something that closely tied to your cultivation?” Henry said with a look of dismay.

“Oh don’t get me wrong it's gonna hurt like hell but I am a master of my Dao it would be like breathing with just my mouth.

“Unlike me you will not be able to cultivate at all without my spiritual root and besides what's the point of cultivating if I lose this wager.”

Goldy shrunk himself down to the size of a scarf and wrapped himself around Henry’s neck.

“Now shut up and let me work.”

Henry felt something shift in the world, as if all sound had ceased to exist. There was a pressure that slowly started to mount in the cave. All the hair on the back of Henry’s neck stood up on end. Henry saw that Goldy was starting to glow around his neck. Henry had to close his eyes. It was so bright. He felt a heat spreading from where Goldy layed.

The heat engulfed his whole body like a blanket. Henry wanted to take a nap because of how comfortable he was. The warmth became heat slowly and Henry started to sweat. Henry felt like he was drinking water non stop. He felt bloated as more and more warmth rushed into his core. When Henry felt ready to pop the pressure ceased.

Henry felt something settle into his body and a sudden clarity in his senses like he had never felt before. He could sense the world now, feel the ebb and flow of the energies from everything and even himself. He also felt Goldy around his neck. Goldy was vibrating with power like a whirlpool sucking in all the ambient energy around him.

“There it is done, we have to move quickly now that I have transferred my spiritual root to you.. I'll explain more after we finish the process.”

“Goldy I can feel everything, it's like I was blind and now I can see.”

“That's great Henry, you're a wizard. Now brace yourself, this next part will hurt quite a lot.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Wait wha….” Henry was not able to finish his sentence. His existence was only pain. His body felt like it was getting stabbed but millions of tiny needles. He bled from every orifice he would scream but instead blood had filled his throat.

“Keep holding on Henry this will all be over very soon.”

Henry grit his teeth till his back molars broke. His muscles tore and his joints and tendons shredded themselves. On the cusp of blacking out, the pain abruptly stopped.

“Very good Henry you got the constitution of a cockroach. Color me impressed. I just finished widening all your meridians. They are now three times as big as they were before. Your channels must be able to bear the weight of the energy that you will take in. I hope you understand how much I am powerleveling you right now.”

Henry coughed up a glob of meat and blood as he struggled to speak.

“I feel like you threw me in a wood chipper. I'm starting to think you are a sadist Goldy. Is that it, because I’m pretty sure anymore and you’ll need to find yourself another disciple.”

“You worry too much Henry, I remember a certain mortal talking about playing with house money. Relax, we are at the home stretch at this point, all that is left is for you to take on my ki core.”

Henry looked at Gold very solemnly “Ok pause even I know you can’t just give your core to someone.”

“Henry, you are so pathetic that technically you have a dead core. All I will be doing is giving you a piece of mine as a jumpstart and the natural process in your body will take care of the rest.

“Think of it like I'm lighting your fire.”

“Are you sure about this bud? I am confident that I can get the job done but it's not too late for you to back out. This is a piece of your core we are talking about. I'm pretty sure that’s gotta be important.”

“Henry, I don't really have much of a choice. The moment that drop of your blood hit the tablet the countdown started. I'll be fine, my guy just wait and see. Now this is gonna be super weird so just bear with me.”

With that Goldy slithered from Henry’s neck down to his chest resting its head on where his heart is. The serpent grips its claws on Henry's flesh and dive head first into hIm.

“Oh shit never had a guy inside of me before next time buy me a drink at least first.”

All jokes aside Henry could feel a foreign energy head straight for his dantian it settled there and he knew that this was Goldy. He could sense Goldy chipping away at his old rusted core infusing with splashes of his own energy.

Regardless of what Goldy said about it not being a big deal Henry could feel the serpent dim with each infusion of energy into the marble that was his core.

After what felt like a lifetime the last speck of gray on his core vanished and was replaced with gold. His once rust broken marble was now a luxuriant golden pearl and it was radiating energy.

“It is done, you now are an initiate of the Thundering Shenlong Heart Mantra.”

“Our time here is almost over Henry, let me show you how to cultivate our method before this mindscape collapse.”

Henry could feel the weariness in the serpent's voice. He knew that this had indeed taken a lot out of his bro.

A pile of gold coins appears on the ground in front of Henry.

“Do you see the energy coming off that pile of gold?”

“Yea some of the coins are extra shiny and some look black, what's up with that Goldy? Don’t tell me I'm color blind now.”

“No Henry, what you are seeing is the potential energy in those things. The extra shiny ones have energy that we can use and the black ones are duds. What you gotta do now is visualize your desire in wanting that potential energy.”

“DUDE, that I can do.” Henry said happily. Who didn’t want a bunch of money. Henry thought about how sweet it would be if he could have that pile of gold and saw the extra shiny coins start to lose their luster. Henry could feel warmth in his stomach as the coins slowly turned black and eventually withered away to dust and crumble.

The energy was such a rush in him and he wanted more. He needed more. He would do anything for more. Goldy was holding out on him that damn slippery snake. He must have hidden some in the ground somewhere Henry thought.

“That's the gold madness Henry, fight it before you lose your shit completely. If you let it build up bad things can happen. It's all mental fortitude Henry.”

“GOLDY is this gonna happen every time?”, Henry grunted as he fought down the urge to go digging through the grounds for more treasures.

“It gets better the more you cultivate but if you ever take too much potential energy all at once your body won't be able to handle it you’ll most likely go insane and explode.”

“This is why I have not been able to have a disciple even after all this time. Greed is something that most people can not shake.”

“Damn that's pretty shitty, so how will I know how much I can take at one time? Are there like exercises I can do to like take the edge off the gold madness”

Silence.

“Hey Goldy you there?”

That's when Henry noticed that the ground was slowly crumbling beneath his feet.

“God damn it Goldy are we really going to do this again fuc….”

Henry falls straight through the floor before he could get his last word out.