Chapter 42: The Cruelty Of Li Ling 2
In truth, this was actually not Li Ling’s initial plan. He only had a vague idea of how he wanted to handle Cai Dong, especially since capturing her was a spur-of-the-moment thing. He predicted that he would be stuck at the peak of Qi Refinement for a while, so he wanted to invest in some other useful techniques in the meantime to enhance his power across the board.
However, after repeated fights during this escape, Li Ling had come to understand that carrying a single prisoner for him at this stage was extremely burdensome. While Cai Dong had not yet done anything treacherous, Li Ling had no way to read her mind and he was not savvy in that regard either.
He couldn’t just put his cheek to his fist in the famous despot pose and say "everything according to plan," as if he had some divine foresight, because he didn’t. All he had to go on was his understanding of human nature as an earthling and cultivator, as well as his extensive memory of various personality archetypes and how they responded to things.
But once again, as proven by Wu Ke back then, you cannot squeeze living and breathing people into character archetypes, because people can do anything. He did not know the depths of Cai Dong’s means, nor did he know what connections she had or what she was planning.
It was entirely possible for her to be feigning all this, actually having a cultivation base at the Foundation Establishment equivalent, just watching him prance around like a clown. It was entirely possible that she had a friend, elder sister or some family elder in the Boundless Joy Sect region who she could secretly contact and leak his position to.
There were too many unknowns and too many questions. As such, the moment the previous battle ended and Li Ling knew he would not be pursued for a short enough spell, he decided that that was the time to settle all loose ends before making a clean break.
Now, because this was unplanned, he could have chosen many ways to go about it. His initial plan was what most normal people would do, use typical means of torture as well as the threat of death to get her to speak, but wouldn’t you know it, the storage treasures of the bounty hunters had some interesting things.
All sorts of poisons, malicious tricks and powders, and especially, aphrodisiacs. After all, unlike Market Guards who could press down anyone they liked, or sect disciples who had their own circle for such things, these wild bounty hunters often needed ways to deal with female captives from some of their bounties, and what better way to make them "agreeable" than this?
Just as well, seeing it, Li Ling immediately had a brilliant idea. He at first thought to do it himself, but he glanced at his Essence Locking Technique at the entry level and decided it was not worth it to use Slaughter Points on it just yet, not until he entered the Boundless Joy region at least.
Afterward, he thought about it and realized that a smart woman like Cai Dong would have anticipated this, and as such, such an event would not hold any threatening meaning to her. She’d had two days to get used to him, allowing her to somewhat reconcile the inevitable, so it would not be as off-putting as if she was in a place of comfort and Li Ling burst in one night to do the deed.
So to restore the threat value, Li Ling opted to use an unconventional path.
Cai Dong shuddered severely as she comprehended her situation and understood that time was fleeting. She was lucky that she was precisely of the Sage Race, giving her strong mental faculties and good control over her emotions, otherwise just calming herself down to speak would have taken a bit of time.
As it were, she only glanced back in fear for about five seconds before she turned to Li Ling, her expression squeezed and contorted until it became one of calmness. Without wasting time, she immediately began to recite what she knew.
"The Sage Race have existed in Firmament Heaven for countless millennia, and leveraging the unique aspect of our genealogy and physical makeup, we developed ways to increase the potency of our minds to be able to better grasp the secrets of the world around us, accumulating knowledge towards discovering the endless truth..."
Cai Dong spoke clearly and unhurriedly, making sure Li Ling could hear every word and understand what it meant, rather than just memorize. For a race that focused on research and knowledge, naturally their ability to teach and categorize knowledge for the next generation was extremely good, and Li Ling felt this firsthand.
"... you call it spiritual energy between heaven and earth, but we call it heavenly mana. When we absorb this energy using our special technique, we direct it to our brain to open the Sea of Consciousness and fortify spiritual power. Like your Qi cultivation, we convert the ambient heavenly mana absorbed into Mind Power."
Cai Dong continued solemnly even as tremors of the earth became louder. The intoxicated Ursine Horse was fumbling around in the darkness for an outlet, pounding into the ground and any perceived hole it could find, but when it couldn’t derive any pleasure, it would give up and move forward, edging closer to the camp unknowingly.
"It is this Mind Power that forms the basis for everything. Just as you use your refined spiritual qi to power your daoist arts and even imbue it into your body for extra power, we too use our Mind Power to enhance our base mental faculties and manifest basic mental abilities like psychokinesis, telepathy and telesthesia."
"However, this is just the base. Through Mind Power, we can communicate with Heavenly Mana in the surroundings to coalesce and form various spells. These spells are just like your daoist arts, only that we cannot generate them naturally from within and need the presence of external energy." Cai Dong explained quickly, her breath hitching when she heard the beast roar with a hunger that did not come from its stomach, the sounds getting closer and closer.
Meanwhile, Li Ling nodded his head in appreciation. He had known a bit about the Sage Race system, but he was not able to delve too deeply because he had his own problems to focus on back then, and with his mere level 1 Qi Refinement cultivation, there was no source for him to buy their techniques even if he had said he was going to switch to that path due to his lackluster talent.
"To cultivate Mind Power and open the Sea of Consciousness, one either has to reach the Foundation Establishment realm of your Qi cultivation path or utilize one of our Sage Race techniques. The one I know is called the ’Expanding Mind Sequence,’ a technique that specifically enhances the size of one’s Sea of Consciousness as the practice, granting you more Mind Power compared to practitioners at the same level. However, it comes at the detriment of not enhancing the purity of Mind Power, the absorption speed nor your affinity with Heavenly Mana."
Cai Dong continued by mentioning the details of her special technique, which Li Ling paid rapt attention to.
One young man and one slightly older young woman stared at each other face to face, one wearing an expression of earnest interest while the other was cold mentorship. However, both still had the ability to sense the ever-closing monster which had noticed the firelight and was staggering over, barely conscious.
By the time she was done reciting the practice methods, the creature had already entered their clearing, its figure revealed to be a bizarre mixture between a horse and a bear. It had the head of a bear and the thick body of one, but with four long muscular legs that looked like they could gallop for miles on end.
Of course, most notable to any onlooker was the fleshy extension from its lower body, longer than typical horses, enough to even use as a spear to impale someone. There was no need to doubt it, if Cai Dong was penetrated by it, it would probably extend all the way out of her mouth, killing her in a very gruesome way.
The beast paused with shock when it saw Cai Dong laid out in such a manner, then its bleary eyes became bloodshot as if it had seen its parent’s killer, performing a mixture of a neigh and a roar as it raised its forelegs into the sky.
The previously staggering beast that looked like it would collapse the next second seemed to have been injected with chicken blood, becoming incredibly energetic as it honed in on the backside of Cai Dong, which seemed to be wiggling in its direction almost teasingly.
At this time, Cai Dong was completely unable to keep her calm, her body struggling against the bonds as she knew she was mere seconds away from a fate worse than death. However, she had said all she needed to, and was desperately glancing towards Li Ling to see if he would either free her or take the beast down.
However, to her horror, the young man’s eyes were closed as if in deep contemplation, and Cai Dong could sense using her own expertise that he was practicing the technique. Clearly, he was verifying the authenticity of what he was told directly, which was fine for Cai Dong, but dammit couldn’t he do it after freeing her?
The Ursine Horse charged over with a staggering gallop, aiming to penetrate first and ask later. Once it unloaded all the weight within its insides, there would be plenty of time to think of what to do next.
In a matter of seconds, it bore down on the bound Cai Dong, about to penetrate deeply. However, at this moment, Cai Dong, who had secretly wiggled enough space for herself, moved her lower body sharply to the left, causing the Ursine Horse’s fleshy extension to miss and strike the wood pile.
"ROAR!" The demon beast fell back in agony, its pain something every male could understand.
Meanwhile, Cai Dong did not have the mind to care. She glanced at Li Ling hurriedly, because she knew that she could only dodge such a careless attempt a few more times before a mistake would occur.
Li Ling slowly opened his eyes, his dark pupils gleaming with activity. Cai Dong saw this and sighed with relief, knowing that this meant that Li Ling had successfully practiced the Expanding Mind Sequence, and was now at the uninitiated level.
As long as he kept at it, he would eventually open his Sea of Consciousness and be able to enter the first realm of their Sage Race power system, the Acolyte Realm.
"Hmm? Oh, you dodged, huh? Not bad, I was at least 90% sure you would get penetrated once. I guess I underestimated your luck." Li Ling remarked casually.
He swung his legs on his seat casually, not making any move to stop the Ursine Horse that had recovered from the pain and was walking over with a weird limp. Cai Dong’s heart skipped a beat and she quickly reminded Li Ling.
"I have shared all I know and without any flaw! Please release me from these bindings as you promised!" she said as she glanced backward with trepidation.
Li Ling yawned dramatically. "What’s the rush? Why don’t we chat a bit about the intricacies of Mind Power again? I feel like I’m still lacking some bits..."
Before Cai Dong could protest or even beg, the Ursine Horse suddenly wobbled weakly and plopped to the ground, foaming at the mouth as its legs thrashed against the ground. Cai Dong glanced backward again, saw its state and was pleasantly surprised to see that the creature was dying and would not survive for more than a few seconds.
Turning back to Li Ling, she saw him glancing at her with a cruel smile. "I told you, it was overdosed on the aphrodisiacs. With ten minutes of time and no outlet—or even with one—it was sure to keel over and die by the end of the timer. That was why I even said that I expected it to get only one good thrust in, as it would likely perish right after that."
Li Ling’s eyes shone with malevolent amusement. "Luckily for you, you managed to avoid it. Isn’t that amazing?"