ASV Chapter 22: Eat

After their conversation, Qin Kaiyi and Shen Feixiao fell silent and still, and the rushing sounds of the rain made the whole cave feel unusually peaceful.

Qin Kaiyi sat next to the fire, absent-mindedly observing the curtains of droplets outside the cave. His relaxed body became a little drowsy because of fatigue. He pressed his hand against his temple, thinking to wake up a bit. Using his peripheral vision to sweep his gaze over at Shen Feixiao, he discovered that the person beside him had actually dozed off. 

Not easy, not easy at all… This scene in front of him completely drove away his urge to sleep. Qin Kaiyi looked at Shen Feixiao with fascination, watching his head dip from time to time as he attempted to continue propping it up. Qin Kaiyi felt his mood inexplicably brighten.

Qin Kaiyi didn’t speak, but added fuel to the campfire. Shen Feixiao’s behavior was too unlike that of a 12-year-old child’s. One could only see the shadow of a child’s likeness in him when he was injured or fatigued. Qin Kaiyi couldn’t help but remember Shen Feixiao’s reaction after he himself heavily beat him. He sighed lowly, watching Shen Feixiao sleeping against the wall and squinting, eventually falling asleep. 

“Really not cute.” Muttering to himself in a small voice, Qin Kaiyi took out some clothes from his storage ring, before walking over and covering Shen Feixiao’s body. The eggplant sleeping in Shen Feixiao’s arms squinted as Qin Kaiyi walked over, and then he opened his eyes and looked at Qin Kaiyi. After he discovered that Qin Kaiyi was not malicious, he closed his eyes and continued to sleep. This was indeed an immortal beast. Qin Kaiyi tsked and increased his own vigilance, thinking that the spirit beast could qualify as a police dog. 

Shen Feixiao frowned a little when the clothes fell on his body, but he quickly relaxed. After entering the secret realm, he had been tense without pause. After being rained on and finally eating something, his strength and body somehow wouldn’t hold on any longer. Although he had expressed skepticism to the mysterious man who suddenly appeared in front of him, he made one conclusion that was good enough… this person would not hurt him. 

It didn’t matter if the other just regarded him as a toy or had other intentions. Shen Feixiao knew that the masked man wasn’t looking to harm him. With this understanding, Shen Feixiao finally relaxed and entered into a deep sleep. 

Qin Kaiyi saw Shen Feixiao fall asleep. Although he was tired now, it was obviously an unwise choice for both of them to fall asleep in such a dangerous jungle. He thought for a bit and then fished out a small bottle of wine from his storage ring, drinking mouthfuls of it until he finished. 

It has been almost half a year since he came to this world. If he said he didn’t miss home that would definitely be false. Qin Kaiyi couldn’t change this fact no matter how free and easy he acted on normal days. He missed home; he really missed it. 

He missed the spicy and numbing fish cooked by his father, the nagging of his mother that he once hated, and his own disastrously messy little room. In his past world, Qin Kaiyi never had to worry about losing his life, not to mention the disgusting sound of the system prompts.

After thinking for a while, Qin Kaiyi shook his head vigorously. He knew that this wasn’t the right time to be sentimental. Using the time that Shen Feixiao was sleeping, he could study what Zi Yangpei had given him. 

So Qin Kaiyi first took out one of Zi Yangpei’s rare books. He carefully read the contents, and then let out a sigh of relief in his heart. It seemed that demonic cultivation was not as difficult as he had imagined.

He didn’t know if the books Zi Yangpei gave him were special or if demonic cultivation was always like that, The book elaborated on the difference between spiritual qi and demonic qi, and gave a method for converting spiritual qi into demonic qi. After thinking for a while, Qin Kaiyi realized why the difference in cultivation speed between regular cultivation and demonic cultivation would be so vast. 

You could make the following analogy: think of spiritual qi as beans. Regular cultivation was like using a grindstone to finely grind beans, separating the soy milk from the dregs clearly. Therefore, the spiritual qi cultivated would be rich and pure. Demonic cultivation on the other hand was like using an electric pulverizer. You directly threw the beans in and let the machine messily grind everything up, then threw the result into a net to filter out the residue. This kind of method was like a shortcut, but was clearly not as stable and safe as regular cultivation. If one wasn’t careful one could have too many impurities in his spiritual qi, and in later stages be unable to raise his cultivation. 

And demonic cultivation also had a more serious problem… heart demons. Unlike righteous cultivation, demonic cultivation’s heart demons were extremely dangerous. Because the speed of cultivation would be too fast, the mind would be unstable. The strength of the body would increase quickly, but the soul would not keep up. 

Of course, these problems would not matter for people with naturally demonic bodies.

Those with natural demonic bodies did not need to worry about the impurities contained in their spiritual power. Their bodies were natural filters, which would automatically parse out harmful impurities. Their souls were also very special. They didn’t need to worry about undergoing qi deviation due to heart demons. Their bodies (T/N: the text has ** instead of bodies. I assumed from context clues this should just be his body, and not his chrysanthemum or something) and their souls were like connectors, both sides would conduct a natural transformation between them. The issue of one side outpacing the other would never occur. 

Having figured this out, Qin Kaiyi was in a much better mood. He began to try to transform the spiritual qi already stored in his body into demonic qi. Of course, he only tried a little for his first time, and then Qin Kaiyi quickly found out–the speed of demonic cultivation was really fast!!

The pressure he had had in his chest alleviated at once. Qin Kaiyi breathed a sigh of relief. It shouldn’t be a problem for him to reach the fasting period within a year, um… but Zi Yangpei’s poisonous insect in his body, where was it? He just checked the area around his dantian (T/N: located two inches below the navel, the dantian can be thought of as “qi focus flow centers”) and didn’t find anything unusual. 

When Shen Feixiao opened his eyes, he saw the clothes on his body. The gray clothes had the faint smell of Chinese honey locust, which made him feel unusually warm. He turned his head and saw the masked man sitting at the mouth of the cave.

The masked person seemed to be cultivating. The eyes exposed from the mask were tightly closed. His long black hair trembled a bit in the wind blowing from the cave’s opening. That person’s entire being seemed to resemble a rock in its solidity and coldness. 

The eggplant in his arms seemed a little uneasy somehow. It kept moving around in his arms, looking as if it wanted to step forward but also seeming hesitant. Shen Feixiao looked at the eggplant and then said quietly: “What are you doing?”

Startled by the sudden sound, Qin Kaiyi opened his eyes and found that Shen Feixiao had already woken up, and the clothes he had put on him were placed beside him: “Are you awake?”

“En.” Somewhat uncomfortably glancing at the clothes that were set aside, Shen Feixiao said: “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Qin Kaiyi felt that Shen Feixiao’s little bit of shyness was very cute: “Are you hungry?”

“No.” Shen Feixiao ate the dry food given by Qin Kaiyi before going to sleep. Naturally, he wouldn’t be hungry at this moment. He held onto the irritable-looking eggplant in his arms and looked at Qin Kaiyi: “What are you doing?”

“It’s nothing.” Obviously, he didn’t intend to answer Shen Feixiao’s question. Qin Kaiyi noticed the abnormal behavior of the eggplant, and there was a faint answer in his heart: “What is your current cultivation period?”

“It seems to be at Qi Refining.” Shen Feixiao was not sure: “You can’t see my cultivation level?”

“Nonsense.” Qin Kaiyi answered in a not-so-good tone: “You can practice  ‘Mountain Cloud Notes,’ how can I see it.”

“Oh.” Shen Feixiao said nothing again.

“Continue to practice, give yourself six months to reach foundation-building.” Qin Kaiyi’s tone made it seem like he was not joking.

“… Is that possible?” Shen Feixiao’s expression was hesitant, apparently not convinced that the task Qin Kaiyi doled out could be completed. Indeed, it seemed really impossible for a disciple in the Qi Refining period to upgrade to foundation-building in half a year. 

However, those kinds of limitations applied only to passers-by and cannon fodder. For Shen Feixiao with the protagonist halo on his head, this was simply too easy!! Although Qin Kaiyi thought so, he couldn’t say that, so after a pause, his expression collapsed: “Naturally it’s possible, as long as you don’t waste Mountain Cloud Notes I gave you.”

“Okay.” Shen Feixiao would never refuse to become stronger. He knew that only by becoming stronger would he be truly respected and get what he wanted, and he would never have to care about what others thought

“Shen Feixiao.” Qin Kaiyi’s voice was deep and hoarse: “I hope you will not let me down.”

Shen Feixiao didn’t answer Qin Kaiyi’s words, but his eyes gave Qin Kaiyi an answer. He was never a person who would let others down.

The sable writhing in Shen Feixiao’s arms stared with its pair of purple grape eyes at Qin Kaiyi. Its gaze made it seem like the sable wanted to chew a few holes into Qin Kaiyi’s body. After the conversation between Qin Kaiyi and Shen Feixiao, its eyes narrowed into slits. There was a clever look in those eyes, and no one could think that that gaze was only that of an animal’s.

Qin Kaiyi figured out a way to demonically cultivate, and he solved the problem of the difficult Shen Feixiao. At this moment, he was secretly ecstatic, so he ignored the strangeness of the sable. He also forgot a terrifying attribute of ancient immortal beasts–their favorite food was… demonic matter.

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