Chapter 10 : Little Princess

Sercy sat in her quarters brushing her hair constantly, her eyes were out of focus. She no longer wore her veil and the knife Niyad had given her was on the floor. She had discarded it the moment she entered the room. Almost an hour had passed since she sat there brushing her long silky hair repeatedly as if in a trance.

This was something Count hadn't seen her do for Decades. An action only done like this when her mind was clustered or she was upset about something.

He started pacing in the room before asking.

"You're upset?"

-"Yes."

"Why?"

-"That's what's upsetting me even more." Sercy's tone was flat.

"That he was able to make you angry?" Count confirmed.

-"Yes. After being around you for so long, nothing phases me... But after knowing him for two days..."

"Are you trying to say I'm an upsetting person?" Count asked in an exaggerated manner.

Sercy ignored Count's question.

-"I guess I got excited because I thought someone existed that was similar to me."

Count sighed to himself. "Do you like him?"

"No. I thought maybe later feelings like that would develop, I could sense that he has fae blood in him as well as others. I thought maybe this would be a chance to ensure my kind doesn't really become extinct."

"So you wanted to mate with him?" Count asked.

"I thought about It. It would be ideal."

"I've said it repeatedly. You're too nice, you've already gotten revenge for your race, I think it's about time you started living for yourself. That kid is a little shit, why force yourself to mate with him?"

"I've stopped living a long time ago and as much as I don't want to. If I don't, my kind will truly cease to exist."

Count sighed before disappearing from the palace and in an instant he reappeared in Niyad's room. Niyad was lying down in his duvet ready to fall asleep when he suddenly sensed that there was someone else in his room. He remained still and pretended he was asleep.

"Are you going to get up or should I start kicking the fake sleep out of you?" Count growled.

Niyad groaned, forcing himself to get up. "What do you want?"

Count grabbed him by the neck and both of them disappeared from the room. It was as if he was being pulled through space and time. He was unable to breathe and his body felt like it was being crushed.

They reappeared in the forest and Count threw him to the ground, a horrible crackling noise came from his shoulder and he winced in pain. A quick glance around the area confirmed that it was the forest just at the edge of Blenheim.

"Listen to me you little shit. Sercy is unhappy, and when my little princess is unhappy, I get unhappy. When I get unhappy, I kill people."

Count paced back and forth for a while before continuing.

"Although she no longer has any intention of teaching you, she made this and instructed me to give it to you. I for one feel the urge to just gut you right here. But for some reason Sercy doesn't want that. Although she gave this to you willingly, I'm not so willing."

"Then take it back, I didn't ask for any of this." Niyad snapped at Count angrily.

"I don't care what the f*ck you want, the moment you started cultivating you've left the laws of mortal society. In the cultivation world my friend, the strong rule and the weak live to serve the strong. If you have a fucking problem get strong enough to kick my ass."

-"Just fucking kill me, I'd rather die than live according to how you wish."

"Well, that's nice, but I like to kill in pairs, there's no telling who else I'll kill after I kill you." Niyad's eyes widened, Count didn't say it directly but he knew this was a threat directed at him about his mother.

Count moved close to Niyad in an instant making him unable to react, a knife was buried into his abdomen. Niyad grunted in pain as Qi started leaking from his body quickly. "You have one week to reach peak Qi condensation realm."

With that Count vanished, leaving him in the woods. Niyad sat there gasping for air while applying pressure to his wound.

Cultivators who absorbed Qi and made it into their own stored it in their dantain region located in the abdomen. An injury to the dantain could potentially cause one to become a crippled cultivator. Count however was careful to only do minor damage, relative to what could have been an irreparable wound or death.

Niyad was already at the final stage of the Qi condensation realm, but now his power was slowly slipping away from him. In no time he was back to being a mortal and would have to start cultivating from scratch once more.

Niyad forced himself to sit up, he stared at the book next to him venomously, but Count was right, the cultivation world had always been cruel. Based on the history of the continent, this was by far the most peaceful era the cultivation world had ever experienced.

Thinking of Count's threat, he took the manual and studied the drawings. His eyes narrowed in interest, they showed a completely different meridian pathway than what he was used to, it also required one to circulate the Qi through their body five more times than the regular cultivation method did. Wouldn't this be an extremely slow process? How exactly did he expect me to reach the peak of Qi Condensation realm so quickly?

His abdomen slowly stopped bleeding, healing quickly was no problem although he no longer had Qi. Moving into a meditative lotus position he calmed himself then started focusing on sensing the Qi around him. His skin prickled as the Qi in the environment danced over towards him settling on his skin.

Qi had a lot of different forms; when a person initially sensed Qi, they would only be able to sense the Qi that matched with their elemental attributes. Those who could sense fire would only be able to absorb fire Qi and the same was true for those who sensed water, wind, earth, lightning and ice. Very rarely could one sense more than one type of Qi.

It was hard to tell what type of Qi was being absorbed until one got to the Ivory realm in cultivation. At that point, an orb could be used to tell the nature of the Qi.

As the Qi prickled his skin, Niyad absorbed the Qi that moved towards him, and guided it through his body based on the drawings. He was shocked when he noticed how much more dense the Qi became each time he circulated it around his body. After the fifth cycle, the Qi almost had the consistency of water and he allowed it to settle into his dantain region. He found that it became easier and with each try his body felt purified.

This felt much better than the method he was using before. As he constantly absorbed Qi he felt his body become stronger and stronger and after some time his dantian felt full. Having cultivated before he realized it was time for him to break through.

Ignoring the feeling of being full, he continued absorbing Qi until finally a familiar crackling sound was heard and his dantain that was originally quite small became a tiny fraction bigger. He was now at the first stage of the Qi condensation realm.

After pausing briefly to examine his body, repeated the process until he lost track of time. When he opened his eyes once more, the wound at his abdomen was already healed and he was at the 5th level of the Qi condensation. The only sign that he had been injured was his pale complexion and his cultivation base which was now four stages lower than before.

Niyad was about to submerge himself into meditation once more, but then he thought of his mother and decided to head back to the village.

After entering the house his mother exited his room looking a bit jittery.

"Where did you go all night?"

"To train."

"Your cultivation level, it's much lower than it was before, and what happened to your clothes, why is there blood? " A worried look was on her face as she started to examine his body.

"I'm a fine mother, it's just that I had to start from scratch in order to cultivate the method my master gave me. So I punctured my dantian to let the Qi leak out. "

"You idiot, you could have just guided it out of your body. Wait- Master? I thought."

Niyad smiled weakly, then walked away.

"That would take too long, I have to reach the peak of Qi condensation realm within a week."

"A week!?" She was about to tell him how ridiculous that sounded but then she remembered who exactly his Master was so she kept quiet. She already knew his master and the Jade Queen were the same person. "...Anyways, clean up and eat then go back to training."