Living Life As A Game: Through And Through

However, when it came down to her cultivation technique, Jane couldn"t just abandon it as it would be nigh-impossible to find another ice-type cultivation technique with similar enough points to where she could easily transition towards. Though, even if there was, would she even want a technique as plagued with flaws as her current technique? Jane wasn"t thinking rationally as she desperately wished to resolve her current plight. She asked, "Is there really nothing that can be done? The technique is really that terrible?"

"I mean, it"s really bad..." Elizabeth said, dragging her words as she thought if there really was as horrible as she imagined. She looked through the version of the technique now eternalized in her memory and slowly a sinking feeling started to creep up against her. "Mhmm…." Gradually, as Elizabeth thought about the disparity between the principles of the technique and the terribly planned energy and circulatory designs, a worrisome pattern was emerging.

The flaws in Jane"s cultivation technique, they all seemed to be random at first glance. But as Elizabeth compared what she knew of cultivator anatomy to that of the faultlines present in the technique, she realized that all of them, without exception, were placed in Yin Governing Meridians. This realization along with the pairing of all the technique"s release points being around the Dantian made something click in Elizabeth"s mind as she quickly came to a rather disturbing deduction.

Elizabeth asked, "Is it possible that this technique…. Uh, did you receive it from your family or your faction? I don"t need to know exactly who it was, just tell me if it was given to you in goodwill or not..."

Puzzled by Elizabeth"s seemingly random question, Jane didn"t think twice before honestly answering, "This technique? Heh… You know those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds from Jhan"s Gym?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, those idiots and I have some bad blood between us as you"ve probably guessed by now. Well, the reason for such animosity is that…" Jane paused for a second as she recalled some painful memories of the past, before continuing "I was actually a part of their gang for a bit before a raid from one of Atid"s friends gave me the chance to escape. I won"t bore you with the details of the story, just know that after the raid, when I awoke free from them their grasp, I rummaged through the ruins of the battlefield and managed to take this technique off the body of a particularly annoying b.i.t.c.h that had it coming to her..."

"Uh… that doesn"t give me much to go by… Who exactly was this b.i.t.c.h? Like was she a special person? Maybe someone with a special const.i.tution or purpose?" Elizabeth threw in some specific questions that if answered could probably end the mystery behind why Jane"s technique was so awful.

"That b.i.t.c.h? Hmph! She used to bully and torment me during most of the time I spent under Jhan"s "care." Back then I was forced to cultivate and do labor for the b.a.s.t.a.r.d or I wouldn"t be fed. The b.i.t.c.h I"m talking about was indeed someone special as she was deemed to be a "grade" higher than all of us when we first entered the labor camp. The manager of the place made it a big show when they were testing us for cultivation talent, in front of all the other girls that were put in the camp and because that b.i.t.c.h was special, because she had this technique, she was allowed to skip laboring away and only needed to prove advancements in her cultivation! That f.u.c.king b.i.t.c.h! Ugh! She used to use her free time to come laugh and bother the rest of us while we f.u.c.king worked and because she was a darling special snowflake or whatever, no one would care about what she did to us."

"Mhmm? Special? Labor camp? Even if she were a bit more talented why would… s.h.i.t!" Elizabeth reached for her needles and told Jane to take off her shirt as she would be probing her Dantian. Jane complied and after Elizabeth drew a near perfect circular patterned around Jane"s navel, she infused her eyes with Inner Strength and started a throughout probe of Jane"s Dantian.

It seems her fears were realized as Elizabeth stopped to rub the brows on her head. Elizabeth stopped infusing Inner Strength into Jane"s body as she said, "It seems you made your then-bad situation even worse by picking this technique up… Tell me, was the cultivation technique you practiced before this just an incomplete variant of this one?"

"Yes? Why?"

"See my guess is that these "cultivation" techniques aren"t really for the user"s benefit. You mentioned you were forced to cultivate in a labor camp, so I momentarily thought it to be weird considering that by letting you cultivate, as they would just be planning their own undoing. But then I thought, it wouldn"t be a problem… if they could find a way to absolutely control you. However, even if they wanted to control you, they still let one of you, a special one nonetheless, do as she pleased? All she had to do is cultivate? How would that be beneficial to them if you were all supposed to be part of a forced labor camp? It wouldn"t make sense if they didn"t plan to use her somehow and that"s when I realized that the "flaws" in the cultivation technique aren"t actually flaws at all… the person who created the technique designed them to be as terrible as they are for a reason.

You see… if my guess is correct, I think this technique is supposed to be crystalizing your Dantian for another ice-type cultivator to consume and right now I just confirmed it… I think that "b.i.t.c.h" you were talking about was actually the worst off among you as she was destined to be devoured for her cultivation had it not been for the raid. I think she was actually suffering through the most pain among any of you as she was probably special for possessing a variant Yin const.i.tution."

"W-what?" The color drained on Jane"s face as she too realized the underlying meaning of Elizabeth"s words. Not only had she been forced to slave away at a labor camp for a long period of time, but her slavers actually planned on harvesting her cultivation when she was done maturing, too? Deafeningly heavy and cold pressure lashed out of Jane"s body as she felt her sanity break. She had forgotten that she was presently "fine" and out of that h.e.l.l. Instead, being trapped by what could have been, had the raid not taken place, Jane unconsciously began to drive her cultivation and unfortunately, this kind of despair was exactly the kind of catalyst her cultivation method needed to push her beyond her absolute limits and begin the process of imploding her Dantian.

"f.u.c.k!" Elizabeth moved with posthaste urgency as this quickly turned into a life or death crisis for Jane.

Timeworn Eyes made the world slow down and her concentration caused sound to seemingly distort into white noise as the only thing Elizabeth could perceive at the moment was the sight of her needles and the underlying structure of Jane"s body. Fortunately for Jane, Elizabeth had just recently developed both her Magic Connection and an Affinity for Fire. Consequently making the process of clearing away Jane"s frozen energy pathways dozens of times easier.

Unfortunately, however, Elizabeth couldn"t wait for her Inner Strength to achieve resonance with Jane as time was ticking and any second could be Jane"s last. Thus, she started the active healing process at the risk of potentially damaging and burning Jane"s meridians and acupoints. She could heal those in the future, but that was only if Jane lived through to that later period, whenever it may come…

Right now, clearing away and cooling down the Yin and Ice that was advancing Jane Dantian in its impending implosion was priority number one, so, Elizabeth"s fire-tainted Inner Strength started fighting back against the increasingly-cold frozen structures embedded in Jane"s cultivation system.

It was unfortunate that Jane had to suffer mild to severe burns as she lay there paralyzed and unconscious, but Elizabeth didn"t have a choice and Jane would probably prefer injury over death anyways. The battle between Jane"s cultivated coldness and Elizabeth invading fire Inner Strength resulted in a ton of moisture and condensation developing in Elizabeth"s room. It even reached the point where Elizabeth found both herself and Jane drenched in water by the time all the frozen over spots were cleared away.

Alas, the perilous zone had yet to be crossed as the most dangerous part was only now unfolding. Fortunately, Elizabeth managed to buy herself a bit of time as Jane"s previously imploding Dantain had cooled down enough to not give out just yet. Elizabeth chose to enter a meditation to refill her Inner Strength before tackling the hardest part of the treatment. She would need all her concentration and energy if she wished to go through with an operation even more delicate and difficult to successfully complete than Sun"s Dantain restoration; she was actually preparing to decrystallize the near-complete subjugation of Jane"s imploding Dantian...