Soul-exalting Old World Parchment

"Ahem, so what is this?" After having the 3rd plate in a row and their Master acting like their exemplary mother, serving them more and more, Heian Ciemnosc asked Milyy as she dirtied her face with her chin covered by the light green liquid. She lifted her head from the bowl and looked at Heian Ciemnosc with dazed eyes, basking in the glory. With a dreamy voice, she said after her tongue went out to clean those spots, "Fishy fish... Uhm, it's a Flood Dragon. Mom caught half a wild clan when she met me. Mn! I remember almost dying many times because their scent attracted me. I've been tasting their meat and bones on my birthday."

“Flood… Dragon? It would be better if Elena didn’t know this, don’t tell her.” Heian Ciemnosc said as he looked at his 4th fill-up of broth and then continued eating. Milyy nodded knowingly before picking a few more pieces of raw meat and stuffing them into her fangs before pulling and chewing until it became paste before swallowing. She repeated this action until Lady Calisneia refilled her plate.

Milyy soaked the roasted meat in the broth while she ate the fresh ‘fishy fish’ raw meat alone, waiting for a refill. Heian Ciemnosc also didn’t question why she was so obedient now. He didn’t doubt a peak Fourth Step cultivator like her would not have the means to look into Elena’s Covert Space bag without her knowing. An even easier thing to do was to smell a delicious scent coming from them, which she most likely did.

As they ate and their silent Mother/Master walked back and forth, Heian Ciemnosc became used to seeing his Master like this and not as the unreachable, silently domineering old monster that could dictate the Academy’s direction, future, and even past if she willed it.

“Well, maybe I shouldn’t serve this when she comes here.” Suddenly, Lady Calisneia’s words reached both the ‘delinquents’ ears. They looked up to see her looking at them with her left arm crossed before her stomach and her right elbow supported by the left forearm. Her fingers were separated as they daintily covered her chin and right cheek as she looked at them, eating pleasantly with satisfaction.

“M- Master?” Heian Ciemnosc looked baffled at Lady Calisneia while Milyy kept her face drowning in juicy and delicious Flood Dragon broth. But her eyes were upturned looking at her mother. Lady Calisneia looked back at her disciple, her dimmed-out golden eyes scanning his eyes, barely moving but still doing so as if contemplating before speaking in her usual tone. “I am no fool, daughter… disciple. If you ever wish to bring Little Elena here, it won’t be a problem.”

“Mn, thanks, Master. But, if someone else comes, shouldn’t I be the one to… cook?” Heian Ciemnosc asked. However, the facial expression on his Master’s face told him of many things, and his mind wandered back to just a few minutes before Milyy came into the kitchen. He fell silent and looked down. Meanwhile, his Master spoke to her daughter.

“Milyy, for the rest of the year, you will not go out no matter what. I want you to advance more in your search to find it. If you don’t achieve any progress this year, I’ll jail you in this place for a decade as I promised, understood?” Lady Calisneia sounded cold but also ‘suggesting’ to Milyy, who immediately cleaned her pretty little and young face to pose a solemn expression.

“Ah, b- ah… y- yes, Mother. I promise,” Milyy said, initially appearing unconfident but then becoming a little down as her eyes became insecure. Heian Ciemnosc looked at her as her Master nodded and turned around, about to step away and serve them another fill. Suddenly, Milyy lifted her face and whispered to Heian Ciemnosc with her most adorable voice, “Ah! Heian Ciemnosc, what about the dual cultivation method? Would it work with me and help me find my-”

“The what?!” Lady Calisneia turned around with momentum and shouted at them. Heian Ciemnosc was just lowering his face and feeling she was too dumb to speak to him about this with Master right there when his worst nightmare came to be. He raised his head after watching Milyy’s face become desperate and simply sad, as if caught trying to cheat her mom but failing and being discovered before it happened.

“!” Simply put, Heian Ciemnosc saw his Master’s face look at him disapprovingly, not knowing how to proceed and scanning her daughter’s body nonstop. But even as she sensed her virginity still intact, she couldn’t be sure when thinking about the strangeness he has always shown her in any cultivation path he’s going through. Her aged face seemed about to burst when Milyy interjected with her hands waving with ‘no’s’ as she extended both arms.

“No, mom! It’s not what you think, ah!” Milyy didn’t know what to say except to protect Heian Ciemnosc from being misunderstood, which made things even more confusing and different from her purpose in Lady Calisneia’s mind. Her eyes turned furious this time. She looked at Heian Ciemnosc and was about to begin berating her disciple when Milyy finally shouted with the most high-pitched tone, making her the most adorable ever.

“He didn’t touch me. He found out with Elena about his body having some strange way to cultivate with others. Nothing happened between them as well. It’s just the touch of skin, and it helped her discover a few things she wasn’t even aware of before. It also helped Heian Ciemnosc almost break into the 7th stage! They were going to come tomorrow again to try it with me, b-b-but-”

“That’s enough,” Lady Calisneia’s tone became low and was still cold. Naturally, after seeing her overtly preoccupied daughter, she had already softened even if Heian Ciemnosc did somehow do something to her. But as she kept hearing, Lady Calisneia understood she had taken it all wrong… She didn’t dare look at Heian Ciemnosc again. Her eyes widened momentarily, and she lowered her head slightly, her cloak covering her.

“... You said something about dual cultivation… Show me,” after a good moment, Lady Calisneia said and broke the kitchen’s silence. Heian Ciemnosc looked at his Master with fully open eyes before looking at Milyy. She turned her head to look at him similarly, and both knew it was do or die. Thus, with his Master’s thought, they ate as much from their plates as possible. Milyy even grabbed all the raw meat on her plate and put it in her mouth as they walked into a more calm and considerate spacious room.

Step step, step step. Step. With Lady Calisneia following them, Milyy sat on the empty black space with her legs extended forward with several pieces of thin meat dangling from her mouth as she chewed on them at once. After looking at her nervous and uncertain appearance, Heian Ciemnosc drew a silent breath into his lips and sat right behind her with his legs crossed.

Lady Calisneia was now to their right, and without being slow or awkward about it, he picked Milyy up by the waist and brought her onto his lap. She could only open her eyes widely and become stiff. When her body was lifted. Her legs were stiff, facing forward with her feet’s soles. When she sat on him and fell her bum on his crotch, she pressed her lips together even more, not feeling quite at ease anymore but quickly becoming relaxed… somehow.

Feeling her body relaxing to suddenly being placed atop him, her back against his chest and abdomen, her scent and soft, delicate-looking body all in his senses, Heian Ciemnosc drew a heavier and deeper breath into his nostrils. But this time, he wasn’t silent, and although his noise made Milyy stiffen a bit more and again, she quickly relaxed a second later.

“Master,” Heian Ciemnosc called out. Lady Calisneia’s seemingly troubled eyes while looking at the kids eased up. She looked at her disciple’s face more calmly than she thought possible. “I will study this dual cultivation method she spoke of. If it can help Milyy find what she needs after so many years. Then, I will help you focus on it besides Craftsmaking and helping you comprehend the world of cultivation more. Go ahead.”

“Mn.” Nodding and raising his palms from against the empty black floor to Milyy’s side thighs, Heian Ciemnosc was as prudent as possible and calm as Milyy trembled with her lower body slightly touched. “Prr!”

Purring out of instinct, Milyy frowned and looked back at him, giving Heian Ciemnosc a threatening sideglance. Heian Ciemnosc looked at it and ignored it, continuing his movements as his hands met her ribs and then her arms. Heian Ciemnosc continued to trace her body upwards. His fingertips and palms went up to her shoulders. But she was already slightly trembling with every passing second by those moments.

“I need you calm. Let me in no matter what you feel.” Heian Ciemnosc said, hiding some teasing in his words as Milyy was way too on the defensive. If he entered her with his dark Power Energy and Spirit Sense, he would splurt blood from not just all his holes. Even 80% of his pores would break open and explode like a volcano with blood, flesh, and organ tissue.

“Did you hear me?” Heian Ciemnosc asked her as he placed his hands on the sides of her neck. The moment he did, she started trembling like earthquakes went off inside her. If she had a tail, her skin would be rippling nonstop, and that tail would look as if burned off and electrocuted. Her ears became slightly red, and her neck almost turned into a sun. With difficulty but stubbornly and her mother watching, she gave him another side-glance.

This time, it didn’t contain a threat but was simply curiously looking back as if to see his face and discover his intentions. Not seeing what Milyy had thought would be a perverted face or lewd eyes, Milyy soundlessly exhaled in exasperation as she turned to face the front and nodded. “Okay, m’ ready.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Looking at her mother, Milyy gained courage and felt some confidence. She remembered Elena’s words, mentioning how much it helped her see what she couldn’t before. Hoping the same would happen to her, Milyy closed her eyes and felt Heian Ciemnosc’s fingertips trace back down from her neck to her arms, forearms, wrists, and finally, her hands.

“!” When Heian Ciemnosc intertwined fingers and held her hands tight, she became surprised. But she simply felt that way. Looking down at her left hand, intertwining with his, she slowly let herself loose and waited for him to come in. Finally, Heian Ciemnosc sent his dark Power Energy and Spirit Sense into her body via his palms and through her palms. Lady Calisneia watched disinterestedly as such a notion was simple for anyone to transmit their energy to one who needed it.

When wanting to replenish, heal, or diagnose another cultivator, sending one’s energy or Spirit Sense was the most evident and direct method. There was also the Soul, but Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t directly use it as he does with his dark Power Energy. But as she witnessed them travel from her daughter’s palm to the rest of her body, but majorly to the Dantian and Psychogenic regions, she ever-so-slightly frowned with her crossed arms slowly releasing.

“!!” Lady Calisneia’s dimmed-out golden eyes became ampler, and her heart momentarily halted as she witnessed Heian Ciemnosc’s dark Power Energy enrolling around Milyy’s Dantian and his Spirit Sense poking and going through her Psychogenic. It was like a simple test of her regions while his dark Power Energy helped her cultivate. The latter, Lady Calisneia, could figure out as much. He always had it so easy to blend with the Elemental particles holding no energy.

However, that he could help her Godly Energy cultivate by moving, flowing, and doing so in a much more solid current than before while directly interacting with her Dantian and Psychogenic was already rare enough to confuse her, let alone anyone else in the Wrath Nihility Academy.

As the process continued, Milyy became more and more relaxed, to the point she leaned backwards, and Heian Ciemnosc had to employ some strength to remain sitting cross-legged. The more she became comfortable, the more she was like a kitty on an owner’s lap, enjoying spending time with him and looking adorable even more.

But Lady Calisneia’s eyes intensely hardened instead of softening seeing all this happen. As she was hard at the thought, Heian Ciemnosc’s dark Power Energy began reaching parts of Milyy’s Dantian and Psychogenic Regions. He finally found his breathing growing heavy and impossible to continue. But Milyy, on the other hand, started growing excited. Her closed eyelashes could be seen trembling while her eyeballs rolled ecstatically.

“Mother! Mother, I can see it… I can see it!”

“!?” Lady Calisneia was awoken from her stupor and looked at her daughter. She slowly opened her eyelashes, revealing a mix of turquoise and hot pink shining like never before! Her mother became ecstatic but didn’t show it on her face. Yet, her following words were spoken excitedly, even if they were still toughened-up words, “What’s its color? Tell me!”

“Well, obviously it’s-... Eh? It’s 3, Mother… 3 colors…” Milyy had a ‘duh’ expression, which suddenly turned somewhat lost and seemingly catatonic as she responded. Her eyes slightly dulled as she went into heavy thinking while Lady Calisneia’s eyes became even more pensive. In her mind, however, she was glad her daughter could finally have a look into what she needed the most to take her next step!

“Ah… I can’t keep going for long,” Heian Ciemnosc said, waking both his Master and the kitty atop him. Lady Calisneia looked at her disciple while Milyy muttered noiselessly with her eyes closed again. His Master didn’t force his body, as he was practically helping someone many Steps above his own. “Heian Ciemnosc, you can stop now. Don’t worry about Milyy. She is in a state of enlightenment.”

“Mn,” Heian Ciemnosc opened his eyes and nodded. After ceasing the cultivation method and looking at the beauty all too comfy, leaning against him and enjoying the sight, Heian Ciemnosc carefully placed her on the empty black ground and stood up. His head hurt, and he felt his dark Power Energy almost wholly depleted.

“You said this also helped your cultivation?” Lady Calisneia asked him after hurrying a few steps towards him, standing before her disciple. Heian Ciemnosc looked at his Master and nodded, “Though I can’t say it was the same with Milyy than with Elena. She was also below my battle prowess, even if she was a realm above me. I’m sure that’s why I didn’t receive any ‘help’ in exchange.”

“Indeed,” Lady Calisneia looked at her disciple, her dimmed-out golden eyes stuck to his face as she elaborated. “Not only did your cultivation base barely rise, but your dark Power Energy was consumed by the superior Step’s energy. That is not something that should happen. Any inferior Step energy colliding with a superior Step energy gets annihilated and turns them into smithereens. That is how the world of cultivation is.”

“Heian Ciemnosc,” Lady Calisneia slowly tilted her head to the left as her right hand went up to caress his left face, her eyes cold and strict. “It seems not only your dark Power Energy allows you to devour. It can also allow others to devour it and… ‘find’ things they didn’t even know existed within them. In a way… it is directly becoming someone else’s nutrient. But this can’t happen without you and the person you are practicing this with being in complete harmony. Unless you were to be higher in cultivation base and battle prowess.”

“It was much easier with Elena, was it not?” Lady Calisneia asked Heian Ciemnosc out of nowhere. He nodded and elaborated a little. “Oh. I needed much more effort and willpower to keep my concentration within Milyy’s body. That while also enduring the feeling of my dark Power Energy dissipating and my Spirit Sense slowly moving through obstructions.”

“... Whenever you copulated with women before you knew of this strange feature of your dark Power Energy, your semen didn’t grant them any particular advantage or effect?” Lady Calisneia asked him, making him somewhat uncomfortable to respond, but he did so anyway after taking some time readjusting. “It didn’t… they simply liked it, nothing else, um…”

“I see…” Lady Calisneia’s thoughts were lost again as she became pensive. Then, she added while seriously facing Heian Ciemnosc, “After tonight, you should try that with ‘that’ Arla to confirm things. It might become an Art of sorts and not just a cultivation method. This is indeed a dual cultivation method.

“Dual cultivation method?” Heian Ciemnosc voiced his confusion. He knew what they were. Every cultivator in the world did. They were either sexual, non-sexual, and in a group, or ‘innocent’ methods where one could aid each other with another person with similar or completely opposite qualities in their personal cultivation method. Heian Ciemnosc just didn’t think it would be a dual cultivation method. After all, only Heian Ciemnosc did the work while the ladies only stayed still and received it…

“That’s right,” Lady Calisneia understandingly nodded, reaffirming it to Heian Ciemnosc. Then, she added, “Do not feel discouraged or think less of yourself or this innate peculiarity. Even the Great Sage from the previous Change was crazy about finding a way to have one innate dual cultivation method, but nature can never change.”

“Oh, uh… But, Master… I don’t think it’s safe to ‘try it’ with someone else right now… Err, outside this circle, I mean.” Heian Ciemnosc awkwardly spoke his concerns. His Master’s right eyebrow jumped, and she looked straight into his eyes with her hands to the back. “Do you want my daughter?”

“Aiy! No, it’s not what I wanted to imply,” Heian Ciemnosc half-choked in his words as he responded. He sweated a little and looked at this Master. But before he could continue, she stepped until her face was before his, and her calculative voice sounded again. “Is she not enough? A peak Fourth Step cultivator at 14 years old, but she isn’t something good for you?”

Heian Ciemnosc: ( ;ↀ⌓ↀ)

“That’s not what I meant!” Heian Ciemnosc shouted, his face contorting momentarily before gaining calmness. His willpower was tested as he saw his Master’s face grow disappointed before looking to the side, her eyes clearly not wanting to have him reflect in her dimmed-out golden pupils and irises. She said in a low volume, “That would have to wait then, I suppose. Sigh…”

“??” Heian Ciemnosc was confused even more as she turned around with her face dragged by her movements. Then, Lady Calisneia’s voice rang out again, “Your dual cultivation method might also be an extension of what you call the ‘All-Devouring Force Chronicles’ innate Art. But there’s no way to know until you are able to use your Soul directly, disciple.”

“Master, there is also another thing I want to talk to you about,” Heian Ciemnosc said after walking out of the awkward situation. His Master turned her face to the left, back, and looked at him with a semi-sideglance. He continued speaking with a damn serious but respectful tone, “Since you’ve watched us from here, you already know I possess the Soul-exalting Old World parchment.”

“...” Lady Calisneia didn’t respond, only looked at him in the same pose without walking further away. Her dimmed eyes rested on his body, chest, collarbone, and face.

“I have read a lot about you before knowing you were thinking about having me become your one and only disciple. So, I’ve gone through stories of you and the parchment. Master, is this familiar to you now?” Heian Ciemnosc spoke. When he said the last sentence, he took the Soul-exalting Old World parchment from his Covert Space bag before presenting it to his Master, who continued to glare back at him but not at the item in his hand.

“Sigh…” She turned around and instantly reappeared before him. With a sigh, his long, pitchest-blackest hair dashed backwards and to the sides as her aged face was before his again. She looked down at the parchment, which had become blurry once again to her knowing eyes, and smiled like a woman for the first time in his life, “Yes, it is indeed an old friend. One I thought I got rid of a long time ago. To think it would somehow come back to me, it’s frustrating somewhat. Especially with how much it took me to get it in the first place.”

‘Master…’ Heian Ciemnosc silently thought in his head as his Master’s left index finger traced the parchment through the most critical words Heian Ciemnosc discovered in it during the past few hours when studying it. But she then looked directly at him, her dimmed eyes coldly and calculative gazed at his darkest eyes, slightly closer now after he showed her this parchment. “...” - “...”

Sharing silence together, Heian Ciemnosc felt a similar sensation as when he could no longer keep helping Milyy cultivate. Trying to recompose himself, he began, “Although it was my most pressing matter all this while, finding something helpful for the Soul in so many ways and advanced, and I still can’t use my Soul. I could tell my wife’s heavily injured Soul for simply attempting to help me recover when she stopped, and my Soul recovered on its own anyway.”

“That’s why… Just as I can see my wife’s Soul’s wound, I can also see Master’s Soul is in incredible pain, torn and… almost extinguishing.” Heian Ciemnosc looked damn seriously at his Master. She looked calmly at him, but within her mind, she felt her world shaking nonstop.

…