“Yes, I could get these easily, but I will not.” Elder Nishikawa looked at the two girls with a warm smile as she continued: “You two have just begun your cultivation journey. While I could step in now and get the herbs you need, it will not help you learn how to fend for yourself. Each of these herbs are available in the mission pavilion. Several of which can easily be gotten outside the sect if you venture into the forest. I can even take them from my own herb garden, but I will not. I think you are both smart enough to understand why I am not doing this.”
“You want us to acquire these herbs on our own in order to allow us to fight for the things we need and want to progress in our cultivation. The same reason why you are not putting us into the inner sect and why you placed us in the outer sect to begin with.” Yuki understood Elder Nishikawa’s train of thought. And she respected her Master for this decision. “Then, instead of giving us the herbs, can you teach us about the herbs and their characteristics? So we can properly identify them when we go out to look for them?”
“Of course! But not tonight. We will do a few hours of training in alchemy tomorrow. Both of you get some sleep. And start training again in the morning. And Yuki…. Spend a few hours cultivating your demonic qi. It is too far behind and might cause issues later on.” Elder Nishikawa reached up and rubbed both girls’ heads before jumping off the rock and heading into her immortal cave.
“Yuki…” Nana looked down at Yuki with eyes filled with concern. She did not know what to say after everything.
“I am fine now. I have you and Master. We are no longer alone. We have people we can rely on now and trust.” Yuki smiled brightly. She had people she could rely on. Such a thing was foreign to her not too long ago but now. “Let’s go to bed. We both trained hard today. We can get up early and do some cultivation.”
“Can I sleep with you?” Nana asked with her head lowered. She still disliked sleeping by herself.
“Mmm… You can snuggle with my fluff.” Yuki smiled as she grabbed Nana’s hand and pulled her along. That night the two girls snuggled up with Yuki’s tail and fell fast asleep.
The next morning. Yuki sat cross legged on her bed with a demonic beast core sitting in her lap. This was only a rank one demonic beast core, but it was still as good as a few qi pills. She was circulating her demonic cultivation method and was slowly extracting the demonic qi from the demonic beast core. She would try to use both cultivation methods at the same time, but Elder Nishikawa told her to first even her cultivation out. Her demonic cultivation was only a few stages behind her spiritual qi cultivation, so she would only need about a month to catch up fully.
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Now that Nana knew about it and did not seem bothered by it in the slightest as well as also having places she could cultivate it without issue within the sect, she felt much more relieved. Otherwise, she would need to go out of the sect alone to cultivate her demonic qi, which not be ideal as it might cause her to be discovered more easily.
A few hours passed before Yuki opened her eyes. She looked over to see Nana cultivating at her side. The girl’s face looked peaceful as if she had entered a good state of mind. Not wanting to disturb Nana, Yuki silently left the room to see Elder Nishikawa roasting some meat over the fire. “Your done cultivating?”
“Mmm… I am close to third evil star stage four, but it looks like it will be a bit longer to reach it. Master, are you sure it will be safe for me to cultivate my demonic qi in the sect?” Yuki knew this sounded rude to be questioning her own master, but she had to ask to be sure.
“Yes. Everything will be fine. I have already set up a special barrier within your immortal cave. There is also now a barrier to keep others from entering other than you and Nana. And myself, of course. The sect master questioned me about it, but I just told him the old men were getting a little too weird as of late and needed to take precautions. You do not need to worry about anything. You can cultivate freely here and in your immortal cave.” Elder Nishikawa replied before adding: “Also. You should try to cultivate both at the same time. It will also help mask the demonic qi. I know you are probably able to move both qis without issue at the same time?”
“Yes, I can move them both. I do it a lot, actually. But only internally. I do not dare allow my demonic qi go outside my body. While it would boost my strength if I did, it would also make me a target to be hunted down.” Yuki sighed. This was the downside of cultivating both types of qis. She was basically a ticking time bomb. If they knew she had two dantians, she would be taken away and carved open once more to see how she ticked, and that was the last thing she ever wanted.
“That is smart. For now, just use it as an internal strength boost. When you grow so strong that no one has the ability to fight against you anymore, then you can reveal it or if you are in a life or death situation. But for now, keep it a hidden secret.”