“So how do I… how do I do the soul cultivation? Help me with it,” Zach asked with a serious look on his face. “Let’s do it together.”
Aria’s face flushed after hearing that.
Zach raised his brows in confusion and asked, “Why are you— Are you blushing?!”
“Do you even realize what you just asked me?”
“I said help me out with the soul cultivation,” Zach repeated himself.
“And do you know what two people cultivating together means?” Aria asked curiously.
Zach pondered for a while and finally realized what Aria was referring to.
“Does that mean…” Zach formed an ‘O’ with his finger and thumb in his left hand. And inserted the finger of his right hand into that ‘O’.
“Am I guessing correctly?” Zach asked while repeatedly inserting his finger in and out of the ‘O’.
Aria nodded violently and said, “It’s called dual cultivation.”
“Oh…” Zach stared at Aria’s face for a while and uttered, “Well, if that’s going to make me strong, then let’s do it.”
“No way!” Aria retorted and said, “You already have Victoria and Aurora. Ask them.”
“Yeah, but they are normal humans.” Zach let out a deep sigh and uttered, “You know, I had sex with Victoria because I used to think she didn’t love me. I wanted to confirm her love.”
“You… asked a girl to sleep with you only to confirm her love?” Aria asked as she shook her head in disbelief.
“I know I sound like a jerk, and I was. But I am changing… slowly…” Zach rolled his eyes and said, “My point was that when I went home after having sex with her, I told my mother about it, and she told me the risk of powerful beings mating with humans.”
“That’s true…”
“After that, I felt guilty, and I was worried that something would happen to Victoria because of my selfishness. So I didn’t go to school the next day. However, I recently found out that she didn’t go to school either, and that was one of the reasons she wanted to break up with me.”
“I truly don’t know who is at fault here,” Aria remarked.
“So I can’t do dual cultivation with them. While you are the same as me, so we can do it,” Zach responded in a calm voice.
“Wait…” Suddenly, Zach raised his brows with a confused and curious look on his face and said, “Does that mean I can’t even have normal sex with them?”
“You can, but you can’t release your essence inside them, or it would be like adding acid into the balloon rather than the water,” Aria asserted. “However, you can feed them your essence.”
Zach furrowed his brows and asked, “Well, you sound very knowledgeable about it.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“You are old, right? Like tens of thousands of years old?” Zach asked. “Did you have someone? Like a lover or… you know…”
Aria scoffed with a sigh and said, “I am not the type of person who can love someone.”
“I used to think the same for me,” Zach muttered under his breath.
After a brief silence, Zach looked at Aria and asked, “So… are we going to do it?”
“No way!”
Zach shrugged his shoulders and uttered, “I expected as much. I can’t imagine us doing that. It feels… unimaginable— is that a word?”
Aria frowned her face, and she was a little disappointed after hearing that.
“You know…” Aria glanced at Zach from the corner of her eyes and said, “I am your servant, so you can order me to do it if you truly want to.”
“Nay.” Zach shook his head and said, “I am not a monster.”
Aria chuckled after hearing that and said, “Sometimes I regret having you as my master.”
“Only sometimes?” Zach asked with a surprised look on his face.
“You know, if our roles were reversed and I was your master, I would have made you do many unspeakable things,” Aria asserted with a mischievous smile on her face.
“Like?”
“Umm…” Aria pondered for a while and said, “Like ‘Assault Aurora in her sleep’ or something.”
“Wow…” Zach was left speechless after hearing Aria’s comment.
“Did you just imagine yourself assaulting Aurora in her sleep?” Aria asked with a wide grin on her face.
“I didn’t!” He actually did imagine that, and he felt guilty.
“Well, I was half-joking. Aurora is my friend, and I wouldn’t do anything to make her hate me,” Aria asserted. “But I do want her to hate you so I can have my revenge for all the humiliation you have—”
“Yeah, yeah.” Zach sighed and said, “Now, is there any other way for soul cultivation?”
“Hmm…” Aria pondered for a while and said, “It depends on your soul core. Show me your life tree.”
“Sure. But… how do I do that?”
“You really don’t know anything, huh?” Aria stared at Zach in disbelief.
“For your information, I stopped my training at the age of seven after my father died. My mother asked me to live as a normal human, and so I did.”
“If you had achieved your current knowledge when you were less than seven years old, then it’s honestly commendable. And I mean it.”
“Uhh… thanks?”
Aria jumped off the throne and landed in the center. Then, she reached her hand towards Zach and said, “Come.”
Zach was taken aback by the situation. It reminded him of the first time he met Aria. Precisely, he recalled the scene where Aria asked him to join her.
Just like that time, Aria was inviting Zach to join her.
The red moon in the sky, the dripping lava from the stones that were hovering in the sky, and the river of the lava flowing around. Her white hair, red eyes, beautiful black nightgown, and a gentle smile on her flushed face.
Of course, this scene was nowhere similar to the time when Zach met Aria, but Zach was hit with the same feeling.
He was feeling charmed by Aria.
‘If you ever saw my real beauty, you would forget all the girls and submit yourself to me.’ Zach remembered what Aria had told him about her beauty.
‘Well…’ Zach jumped and held Aria’s hand before landing on the ground. He smiled at her and thought, ‘She wasn’t lying about that.’
Aria furrowed her brows and uttered, “Why are you smiling at me like that? It’s creepy.”
‘Nevermind. I take that back,’ Zach groaned inwardly. ‘Her personality is still the same.’
Zach let go of Aria’s hand and asked, “What now?”
“Have you seen your life tree before?” Aria asked with a curious look on her face.
Zach shook his head in response and said, “I have created a skill tree and class tree. But not a life tree.”
“However, by the name of it, I guess the life tree includes everything of my body and power?” Zach wondered with a curious look on his face.
Aria slightly nodded before saying, “The life tree indicates your entire life. Its roots show how strong your body foundation is. Its truck shows how strong your base is. Its branches show your powers, and the leaves on the branches show the limit of your powers. There are also flowers, fruits, and trees that show the health of your body.”
“Wow. What about the soul?” Zach was genuinely surprised.
Aria stared at Zach for a while and uttered in a solemn voice: “The tree itself is your soul.”
“Okay…” Zach pondered for a while, “So I awakened by soul powers a while ago. Does that mean my life tree would start to grow now?”
“Yes and no.” Aria sighed and said, “You had a life tree before because you have a soul. But now that your soul powers have awakened, the tree will rapidly grow, and so will your power.’
“So I have to learn soul cultivation to increase the capacity of the tree, right?” Zach asked. “Because I don’t have enough juice (water/soul power) to water the life tree?”
“Exactly!” Aria clapped her hands and said, “But first, I need to see your domain.”
Zach knitted his brows and asked, “Are you sure? Because we are currently in your domain. There is a chance that your domain will get destroyed, you know?”
“Just do it.”
“Alright.” Zach closed his eyes and joined both his hands together. Then, he raised the first two fingers of both hands and started chanting something.
Suddenly, Aria’s entire domain was covered in a shadow, and everything turned dark.
However, the shadow shattered after a second.
Zach opened his eyes while saying, “It’s not working—”
He stopped when he saw Aria on her knees. Her entire body was shaking as though she was trembling in fear.
She saw something in Zach’s domain that scared her.
***
Total players in the game 404562.
0 new players logged in.
49 players died.
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Author’s Note- I was extremely busy today and had little to no time to write this chapter. If you spot any typos, let me know.
Thanks, @devlincross, for the awesome gift!