Dual Cultivation God Returns

Chapter 705  Avoiding a catastrophe

Liang Yuhan and Lian Zhiqiu were walking in silence, which strongly contrasted with the way they were traversing the mansion before meeting Wu Long.

"...Teacher, I can't say I understand you", finally, Lian Zhiqiu spoke up, throwing her walking companion a side eye.

"...", Madam Liang didn't try and dodge or gloss over the topic, knowing full well that it wouldn't work with Lian Zhiqiu, especially since she confronted her so directly. After a long pause, seeing that the latter didn't give up on receiving some kind of answer, she finally opened her mouth "...is it that frustrating?"

"Do you even have to ask?", Lian Zhiqiu groaned with borderline incredulousness, "At first I didn't want to say anything, thinking you will figure it out on your own… but recently it's getting hard to watch. What are you even so hesitant about? This is so unlike you…"

"It might be pathetic in your eyes, but it's not like I want to be like this either", Liang Yuhan shook her head with a heavy sigh.

"...", Lian Zhiqiu's eyes full of frustration revealed a bit of worry and melancholy. But she sighed, not pushing any further since. —

Meanwhile, after Wu Long went to his usual meditation spot in the mansion, he suddenly stopped as a thought occurred to him.

'Hah… this could have been quite a slip up…', he thought as his mind raced through possible outcomes if he didn't notice a certain possibility.

He was just about to acquire a Celestial Fox bloodline.

And just as he did with the Grand Void Eagle's bloodline, it was normal to think of doing it here in the safety of a secluded world. In fact, most would not even think twice to proceed since the experience was already familiar.

However, this was Fen Baihu's world, and the bloodline he sought to acquire was hers as well.

He only possessed superficial knowledge about Celestial Foxes, and knew even less about their bloodline. And… where it concerned a human acquiring that bloodline… "...I know nothing at all", he chuckled.

With such void of knowledge, there was no way of even remotely predicting what would happen, what the process would be like, and what problems might occur. It was one of those cases where even his vast knowledge and experience were not of much use.

And yet, in circumstances where he did not know what to expect, there wasn't really much to do but to go ahead and try.

But something about trying to do so in a world constructed of the same power he was trying to acquire stuck on his mind.

It might seem a minor detail, and very likely an overblown concern, but Wu Long didn't like to leave aside such doubts. Because in his experience, it was such small and - from a first look - inconsequential missteps, that often led to a bigger crisis.

"Fen Baihu", he called out, and a small fox appeared on his shoulder.

"What is it? I was just about to start my meditation…", she spoke with a bit of rebuke.

"I need to go outside", he smiled as the small fox tilted its head.

"... alright", she didn't know what that was about, but just nodded and Wu Long's figure was quickly enveloped by mist. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

And as the mist dissipated around him, Wu Long was left standing in a forest not far from the Silver Wing City.

He quickly confirmed his location, and left for the direction in which he sensed the least people.

After finding a secluded enough place, he set up talismans and concealing formations, ensuring no one would disturb him. He did not rush, since he decided to wait until Fen Baihu finished her healing first, so that he could rely on her in case of an emergency, thus having plenty of time to make the security of his temporary cultivation spot as carefully and airtight as it was possible.

—

A few days later, Wu Long sat in a meditative pose, as formless ripples spread from him one after another.

'Hah… should I say, as expected of a Celestial Fox? It's quite tricky', went through his mind as he was patiently going through the process of refining the Innate Blood Qi.

It was a lot more troublesome than any other bloodline since it had the properties of the Celestial Fox, elusive and dream-like. If he did not concentrate his consciousness on it, it could dissipate into the same dream-like state as Fen Baihu herself, and therefore be forever lost.

Of course, for Wu Long it was only a matter of effort and time, and never about whether he could do it or not.

After a long time, he finally succeeded in attaining his second Mythical Beast bloodline.

A powerful disorienting feeling started slowly taking over his consciousness the moment he succeeded.

The latent power within the Celestial Fox bloodline started actively altering his existence, in a completely unfamiliar way.

The change was also far more pronounced and vivid than that of the subtle Great Void Eagle bloodline. And yet similar to it, the feeling was not oppressive or overpowering like one would expect, but rather different in its very nature.

'At any rate, this is… a bit problematic…', he thought after a bit, as he struggled to maintain control over his senses.

This was a feeling he never experienced before, a power he never had access to, and thus did not know how to deal with.

It felt as if his consciousness was dissipating into the surroundings like sand, while the bloodline acted as the wind trying to blow away that sand as far as possible, and his will was like hands that desperately struggled to keep that sand from falling through the gaps.

'Phew~... I dodged one crisis at least…', he thought as he felt the resonance between his consciousness and the world around him.

If he was in Fen Baihu's world right now, he would also have had to deal with a repulsion and rejection between his own consciousness and Fen Baihu's consciousness that was spread throughout that world.

Only now, feeling this power's effects, he started to understand its nature, and just how big of a problem he avoided.

Not that he had no problems now, though.

He was actually in quite a predicament, since he couldn't control this power.

But it was still better than if in addition to trying to adjust to the new completely unfamiliar power that seemed to try and disperse his very being into the surroundings, he would have a conflict with Fen Baihu's power as a bitter cherry on top.

"Wu Long!", Fen Baihu materialized not far from him, also sensing the gravity of the situation.

"It seems that while my physical body is unaffected, as one would expect, my consciousness is beginning to spread out unlimitedly", Wu Long nodded.

"If you can't maintain your conscious will in focus… you run the risk of it completely dispersing", Fen Baihu spoke with an alarmed voice. They both knew that it meant effective death, since his ego would cease to exist, leaving only an empty husk incapable of thought or will.

Fen Baihu never experienced this, since her existence was this way from the very moment she appeared in this world. She never had to learn, but was born this way. 'I think therefore I am', was very literally what Fen Baihu was as a single being. The moment her consciousness awakened, was also the moment she came into existence. She never ran the risk that Wu Long was facing right now, as physical existence was not something she was born as, and not necessary for her, but something she acquired after conscious effort, out of convenience, to interact with the physical world.

For a human like Wu Long, whose being was primarily physical in nature, in other words, for whom having a physical body came before possessing consciousness, as a prerequisite, and thus formed a fundamental perception of what he was, Celestial Fox's bloodline proved to pose an existential threat.

And as practice showed him, it was also different from Soul Power or the concept of the Soul. His knowledge and proficiency with Soul Techniques had absolutely no bearing on what he was experiencing.

The closest experience he had, was using puppets he shared consciousness with, being at several places at the same time, but even then, each puppet served as a focus point.

Right now, however, it felt as if the link between his physical body, or rather, even the physical world itself, and his consciousness was growing weaker, leaving him with nothing he could focus his 'I' in.

'A focus… a focus point…'

And then, a thought came to him, as he turned his eyes to Fen Baihu's worried expression again, "Soul Bead…"

"What…?", she first answered in confusion, but as the meaning of his question in this situation caught up, hurriedly nodded in confirmation, "Oh… yes, it existed from the very beginning, it is synonymous with me"

"That confirms it… now the problem is how to form one as a human…", he nodded in return while thinking of the next steps.

In truth, he had the option to temporarily seal the Celestial Fox's bloodline as a backup. He wouldn't be this reckless otherwise. However, he was not sure if doing that would cost him losing this opportunity. Because the first transformation brought about by a bloodline being introduced into the body was special.

Which was why the option to seal it away, even if it was temporary, was the last resort.

His thoughts then lingered on her Yin Qi that he had yet to refine, and the ring of Spiritual Qi around the Grandmist Core.

'...It does seem logical to try out…', he thought of something that occurred to him not long ago. After all, since he had the ability to potentially possess multiple Crystal Cores, he could likely not only gain from having a multitude of them, but also develop each core with different characteristics and properties.

Thus, if he concentrated the Yin Qi from Fen Baihu which had unique properties to a separate core, and only used her Yin Qi to advance that core, he could possibly create a Crystal Core that held unique properties of a Celestial Fox's cultivation.

It was just a theory before, which he did not plan to test until he at least finished advancing one core into Mortal Transcendence Realm, and beyond, since he was focused on pouring all of his resources into that. Dividing his resources on different cores was for now a luxury, after all.

But now, it seemed like a more pressing investment.

"Fen Baihu…, call Mingyu and Cui'er for me", Wu Long hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to go through with this, which meant he needed some time. And the only ones who could give him that were those two.

Of course, they were both now focused on their own tasks, especially Mingyu who still struggled to control her own Physique, but he wasn't sure in his success without their help this time.

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A small explanation on this chapter's decision-making in ATs