Immortal Cultivator System

Chapter 88: Seed of Doubt (2)

While the system and Mara were discussing the memory problem, Jian had finally reached the mansion. He didn't really get why the system and Mara acted like they did an hour ago, but if it was important they would certainly tell him.

He would've tried to know more, but he really wanted to sleep. He hadn't slept properly for an entire week after all and he was still 12, it wasn't good for a growing child to sleep that little.

As soon as he reached the mansion, he smelled something horrible. It was like a rotten corpse had been filling the entire mansion with it's horrid smell for days.

The smell originated from Zhao Shu's room and Jian ran to it, just to make sure nothing bad had happened. He opened the door and observed the carnage. He didn't remember the room being entirely red, nor Zhao Shu having huge gashes all over his body.

"Wha.....What the hell happened here ?!" Jian yelled before running to Zhao Shu. However the warrior held up a hand and sighed.

"I'm busy right now, Jian. Don't interrupt me. This is really important." 

"Important ?! You like like you'll drop dead in a few seconds !" Jian exclaimed. And he was right. At this point Zhao Shu looked more like a corpse than anything else. However his determination was clear on his face, he was doing something important to him and he wouldn't let anyone stop it.

Suddenly he coughed up blood before steam came out of his body.

"Shu.....Explain right now or I'm stopping whatever this is." Jian continued to prob Shu. 

The warrior relented, knowing the young boy wasn't just gonna stay in a corner and look at him almost dying. 

"I think you really need to learn that becoming stronger doesn't always have to do with training physically or meditating. That's not all the cultivators do. There are many ways to cultivate and one of them is what I'm doing right now. Haven't you noticed that the blood is darker than usual ?" Zhao Shu asked as he winced, some more blood leaving his mouth.

"Uh, y-yeah ? What does that mean ?" Jian asked after looking around him. The blood was indeed darker than normal, but not by a huge margin.

"If you were doing this, the blood that would leave your body would be pitch black. Mine is only slightly darker because my body doesn't contain a lot of impurity. They accumulate over the years, but I cleaned my body thoroughly before joining the sect. This process is very important as a body filled with impurities won't be able to work to it's maximum potential. Now this doesn't make me stronger or anything, but I'll absorb Qi faster and the process of refining it will take less time. This basically upgrade your ability to cultivate. Since you didn't cultivate before joining the sect I thought your body didn't contain impurities, and I think Uma thought the same....But now that I think about it, You have this whole unholy thing to you.....So just try this process and we will see how that goes." Zhao Shu explained. However Jian had something to say.

"That's great and all...But aren't you freaking dying ?! You've already lost more blood than your body should contain !" Jian yelled. He was really freaked out by this process. For god's sake, the room was painted red like Biyu had devoured people inside it and Zhao Shu's body had more open wounds than a human body should be able to handle.

"Jian, are you really that moronic ? Have you ever heard of cultivators giving a damn about open wounds ? No they don't, if their wounds are open and blood pours out, they don't care. Do you know why ? Because Qi accelerate the process of creating blood and not by a small margin, trust me. The only problem is that you need nutrients for this to work and the only to get them without eating is to use Qi. It can replace the nutrients." 

"....So you're running on Qi and if you don't have any, you just die ?!" 

Now it was Zhao Shu's turn to yell.

"OF COURSE YOU DUMBASS ! This is a dangerous process, I never said it wasn't. However it gives out great results and the risk isn't that big if you're not completely dumb and absorb Qi at a good pace." He said, a vein popping on his forehead.

"Yeah....Don't count on me for doing this on an empty stomach. I'm eating first." Jian said before leaving the room. However just as he was about to close the door, Zhao Shu's stomach made a sound.

It sounded like a monster growling from Zhao Shu's insides.

Jian looked at the warrior with a deadpan before sighing.

"...What do you want ?" 

"....Fire noodles." 

Jian smiled at the warrior who quickly turned his head. The boy then left the room for good and thought of where he could buy fire noodles. The capital was plunged in chaos, but once again some parts of the insanely big city were pretty calm. Maybe there would a street food stall somewhere that sold fire noodles. He kinda wanted to try them himself. He usually only ate some really tasteless soups because he was so used to it.

He still wanted to sleep, but since Zhao Shu had proposed this new method of cultivating, he would do it. And he sure as hell wasn't going to do something like that on an empty stomach.....Or maybe he shouldn't eat, maybe he would end up throwing up everything during the process.....Ah, who cared. He wanted those fire noodles.

And he quickly got them. Only an hour later, he was already back to the mansion and found Zhao Shu sitting on a couch, or rather looking like an unknown liquid on the couch. He was so relaxed he looked like he was part of the couch itself.

"Did you turn into a cat while waiting ?" Jian asked as soon as he saw that.

"Shut up....I'm just exhausted. You got the noodles ?" The warrior asked. Jian smirked and showed him the two bowls he had in his hands. He could've swore he saw stars lighting up in Shu's eyes.

'So he likes fire noodles, huh ? Well only a Zhao Warrior could love burning his mouth like that. I really wanted to try food with actual taste, but maybe this wasn't a good idea.' Jian thought as he sat on the opposite couch and gave Shu his bowl.

Jian had come back very quickly so the noodles hadn't gone completely cold, but they weren't that hot anymore. He was about to eat them like that, until his bowl was snathed out of his hands and Zhao Shu did something truly crazy.

"Hell Butterfly !" The warrior cried out before the butterfly came out of his back. 

"The hell are you doing ? You want it to eat with us or something ?" Jian asked. He only understood when Shu held the two bowls over the butterfly.

"...No....You aren't heating the bowls by using a goddamn Hell Butterfly. I'm just having a dream, a bad dream." Jian said while shaking his head left and right. Shu had a smirk on his face, like he just had the idea of the century, and it might as well have been the case.

The bowls were re-heated and the butterfly was sent back into Shu's body.

"I'm going to act like this never happened, or else I'll start to really hate you and your multi-task martial spirit. " 

With that said, the two started to eat in silence. However the door suddenly opened and Uma walked in.

She simply walked by and completely ignored the two boys who were eating the noodles. Well Shu was eating, Jian was just trying to finish his bowl while surviving the intense heat. Not only were the noodles extremely spicy, they were also way too hot due to the butterfly. 

"Something happened, old hag ?" Shu asked in between the slurping sounds as Uma froze.

"I have been with the Queen for way too long and I think she fried my brain. Damn that royal family and all it's schemes. I'm going to sleep." Uma said before going to her room as fast as possible.

Shu and Jian looked at each other for a few seconds before chuckling.

"I gotta say, I think I'm the only one who didn't have much to do ever since we came here. You are all running around making plans and fighting people when I just lay around and train. I'm living the life unlike you losers." Shu said, flashing a toothy grin at Jian who had a vein pop up on his forehead too.

"Don't even mention it. I'm putting up with all of this because I have to, but it's really tiring. Everyday something happens and now look at the state of the capital. The royal family's schemes turned the city into a freaking warzone and no one does anything. This is a surreal time I tell you. I'll leave for three days in a week or so, after that we'll stay for maybe a few weeks, just so I can finish some important matters, and then we'll leave this place as fast as possible. The tournament in the Li Zhang Kingdom should be in four months I think, maybe a bit more." Jian explained as the warrior clicked his tongue.

"Don't count on me to just look at you participating. I'm participating too. I gotta teach you what talent is and how you'll never catch up to me." Shu said before moving his head to the right to dodge Jian's sandal.

"Whatever you say, I'll have you beaten to a bloody pulp before you can even think of fighting back. "

"Yeah, you do you little boss." Shu responded as Jian gasped.

"Oh you consider me as your boss now ? Guess you finally understood I'm stronger than you." 

"Says the guy who started to consider me a rival when I was three times stronger than him. You were always delusional. You're the boss because I allow you to be, lil boss."

The two glared at each other for a few seconds until they both started to laugh.

The rest of the hour passed like that, with Jian trying to survive the noodles while Zhao Shu mocked him.