Chapter 363: Details of Dual Cultivation

(Cognosticon here. I meant to notify just $25 backers about the new bonus content, but think the notification went to everyone. My bad. Anyway, I don't intend to post advance chapters at a higher tier very often, but it was easiest to wrap up the honeymoon in this case. Love it or hate it, the story is moving on quickly, finishing this week.)

How many years was it until the next monster incursion... three? No, was it closer to two and a half?

Darkmist Island seemed like a world unto itself, so Kai felt as though time and everything else were slipping away from him. It felt strange and decadent, no matter how many times he told himself that this was the best thing he could be doing with his time. Everyone back in Goralia was still relaxing, falling in love, and otherwise living their lives.

Of course, that was what he wanted to protect, so he’d always needed to work harder...

Training without an imminent deadline felt bizarre, yet Kai found that he didn’t train any less. He truly enjoyed it for its own sake, and in fact in some ways he was more focused because there were no sub-objectives that could control his decisions or force other goals. Instead he was free to focus on the balance he thought was optimal: a mix of Physique training, qi cultivation, and chakra development that produced essential, if undramatic, growth.

Finally consolidating his experiences, especially the brutal attack from Matiavel at the end, pushed his Physique Level to D-9. That was likely to be a wall, but he kept up his training without any frustration. Whatever it took, he might as well push to the limit so that he would be ready for the breakthrough.

As for the others, well...

To any outsider his lifestyle would have seemed absurdly wanton, outside of the brutal physical training. His relationship felt more real now as they negotiated the various minor details and disagreements of actually living together, but the fact was that he was still sleeping with two gorgeous women. Regularly, now that they weren’t getting attacked or led through desperate missions.

The insane part was that this was one of the best things he could do for his Power growth. He spent some time cultivating on his own, when Zae Zin Nim wasn’t using the cave, but he gained more qi when the two of them dual cultivated together.

Most of his personal cultivation was dedicated to drawing those gains into his dantian and building up more yang energy for Zae Zin Nim. He wasn’t likely to break through the Body Refinement stage soon, since his nature absorbed more and more as he got closer to 100%, but he didn’t want to slow down her growth in any way.

The majority of his growth, in raw numerical terms, came from his Savage Heart. He refined his transformations running around the island or caves, but the growth actually came more from their threesomes. Indulging in that sort of hunger made his chakra continuously grow, especially with two such powerful partners sharing their own strength.

Beyond that, what could he do? His Soul Level seemed extremely unlikely to ever pass Level 9, considering that even the strongest he’d seen on Rosemount were only at Level 10. It would likely take years of brutal war for him to advance there.

If anything, his hours spent mapping the caverns underneath the island might be his least efficient use of time. It was partially necessary, and eating the occasional monster probably did him some good, but it wasn’t leading to any massive growth. He realized that he was actually indulging in his desire to do some sort of meaningful work, to strive toward some clear goal.

Once his only goal had been to protect his home from monster incursions, and while he’d grown a bit beyond that, he still wanted something similar. His ideal life would be spending the day doing some sort of meaningful work, then going home with Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena. That would truly be enough for him, for a lifetime or a hundred lifetimes.

That realization led him to peace, briefly, then to resentment of the godlike beings he had seen. If not for them, he would believe that he was approaching the summit of the world and could maybe work toward a better one. Now he would always know that everything he’d done was at risk of being annihilated.

As he was reflecting on all this while doing his physical exercises, Kai realized that a key component of actually succeeding wasn’t improving his own strength, it was helping his wives. He didn’t think he could do anything more for Zae Zin Nim, but wondered if Omilaena could use any help beyond physical training. Once he was done, he cleaned up and headed over to find her in the orchard.

"How is the chakra fruit coming?" he asked over her shoulder.

"Not as much as I am, these days." Omilaena shot him a quick smile as she repositioned her goggles over her eyes.

"Hah. I was wondering if there was anything else I could do to help?"

"Thanks, but probably not. I’m going to reach the limit of what I can wring out of these later."

"Yeah, seems like there are a lot of those. Limits, I mean." Kai leaned against one of the trees and folded his arms. "I’m surprised we haven’t hit limits on our dual cultivation yet. It’s so effective, I’m shocked that not everyone is doing it."

"Well, part of the efficacy is because all three of us keep advancing. Mediocre people quickly hit diminishing returns, which is why some tyrants will build huge harems of women and harvest all their energy."

"Ugh."

"Oh, don’t be a spoilsport. Pretend Zin Nim was into it and you had a lot of women throwing themselves at you out of gratitude or whatever. Could be fun, right?" Omilaena was smirking, but through her goggles her eyes looked completely cold.

"Uh..." Kai didn’t think she was testing his loyalty, but she did seem to be testing him. Even though he wasn’t sure exactly what she intended, he decided that he trusted her even when she was like this, so he answered honestly. "I feel like I already get everything I need with the two of you. But if someone had no morals... how much power could they gain?"

"A lot, in the short term." Omilaena propped her goggles up on her forehead and her expression looked normal. "It’s the difference between building wealth over years and plundering it in a day. The fact that we’re all loyal to each other does have advantages, since it lets us do more elaborate energy exchanges. Heavy fortifications, if we’re going to torture that analogy."

"I don’t want to make Zin Nim uncomfortable, but let me know if experimentation could ever help us."

"Actually... there’s something I’ve been wanting to check. The items we got from the Primal Loom should have the potential for growth, at least to some degree. I’ve been doing some tests on the Prana Jewels and I have something I want to try... don’t worry, this one won’t be pushing you too far."

"What is it?"

Omilaena gave him a wink and dropped to her knees in front of him. "Alright, first gather all your lingnam energy..."

.

..

.

"Holy shit, it worked." Omilaena wiped off the Prana Jewel once they were done and began to examine it.

"Are the Prana Jewels strengthened?" Kai asked. "They don’t look different in spiritual vision."

"That wasn’t enough to enhance them an entire stage, but it proves the theory. We’ll have to refine the idea and work on the other gems too. So that means a lot more tantric arts for you."

"Uh... I can imagine how the choker might work, but I’m not going to bang your ear."

Omilaena laughed sharply, which in a way was hotter than what they’d just done. She was still on her knees, indifferent to their relative positions now that she was comfortable with him. "No need for that," she said. "Sorry to disappoint, but I actually need to take a step back and think about this if I’m going to figure out the general theory."

"Then let me help you with that relaxing part." Kai swept her up into his arms and paid her back for what she’d just done - it might not help with chakra, but it was definitely satisfying.

As Kai pulled back afterwards, he frowned. "You know, you once made a threat about having a poison vagina, but that hasn’t shown up once. Just a technique?"

"Oh, I actually have poisons you haven’t seen yet." Omilaena’s eyes sparkled acid blue as she looked down at him. "But this might be a good time to introduce you."