Chapter 3: Cultivation

Cultivation is something that greatly depends on talent, related to one’s own physical constitution and the nature of their Phantom Soul.

Su Xuan’s constitution was definitely strong.
With his body alone, he could match the cultivation speed of others who used their Phantom Souls.

But this speed was far from enough for Su Xuan.

To enter that desolate land, his speed needed to be even faster.

At a school, only forty percent, or even just thirty percent, of the graduating class could enter a military academy and eventually the battlefield.

Even if his affinity and perception for energons were high, without a Phantom Soul, he could never become a warrior.

Su Xuan exited the white space and fell into a deep sleep.

In the conversation just now, Su Xuan had already leaned towards using his Phantom Soul to cultivate.

But the dignity in a man’s heart was still acting up.

In a sense, Su Xuan felt that his Phantom Soul and he were two completely different individuals.

So when facing his Phantom Soul, he felt a bit of a need to prove himself.
After all, boys always like to prove their strength in front of girls.

His efforts over the past three years were to show his Phantom Soul: I, Su Xuan, can become a powerful warrior even without your assistance.

However, reality was often just that ruthless.

As soon as he opened his mouth today, Su Xuan couldn’t even imagine what he would become in the future.

The next day, Su Xuan woke up very early.
Every morning at six, Su Xuan would finish washing up and then go for a run along the stone path on the hill behind his residential complex.

He would usually run for half an hour.
This was a small part of Su Xuan’s self-discipline.

During his run, he could sometimes see the beautiful sight of the sun rising, injecting vitality into his day.

Today, Su Xuan was exceptionally desperate, exceptionally serious.
His teacher had said that engaging in different activities could enhance the body’s affinity for energons, and the energons, in turn, could improve the body’s overall quality.

Therefore, running was a good thing for improving both body and cultivation.

Holding an energy stone in his hand, he carefully sensed the energons circulating within his body, strengthening his constitution.

As usual, the effect of half an hour of running was not particularly outstanding.
Compared to the period when he had his Phantom Soul’s assistance, it was like the difference between the clouds and the mud.

This was his last act of stubbornness, and also a silent confession.

From now on, Su Xuan might have to firmly guard his heart, not be influenced by the will brought by the Phantom Soul.

Even if he cultivated with the Phantom Soul’s assistance every moment, he still had to maintain the heart of a man!

He looked to the east, where a gentle ray of sunlight broke through the horizon where heaven and earth met, seemingly cheering Su Xuan on.

“Go, go, go, Su Xuan, you’re the best!”

With a four-day holiday, Su Xuan didn’t plan to use this time for leisure.

On the contrary, Su Xuan was preparing to go home and review his studies.

Unlike the schools in his previous life, where theoretical education reigned supreme, this world placed more emphasis on physical practice.

They offered martial arts courses such as kendo, blade techniques, and combat.
Students could choose their favorite discipline and then specialize in it.

Empress Dowager Chen often said, “I would rather you learn one discipline in three years than learn three disciplines in one year!”

Getting started was simple, but mastering it was difficult.

Su Xuan didn’t really like swords because they were too girly and too light to wield, not suitable for a muscular man like him.
So he chose the blade techniques class.

Moreover, in the Anti-Abomination Army, most soldiers used blades.

In the process of using blade techniques to resist the Dark Abominations, a complete set of blade arts had been developed.

Combining hobby and work made learning twice as effective.

Su Xuan’s blade technique was probably among the best of all the students in the school.

This was a conclusion Su Xuan had reached after years of observing the gap between his and others’ blade skills.

How could someone who could take down a group of Phantom Soul users with just his physical body be a good-for-nothing?

The blade technique Su Xuan learned was called “Evil-Shattering!”

He had only learned this one blade technique.

The Evil-Shattering technique integrated the ancient Thirteen Blade Arts and a hundred years of experience fighting Dark Abominations.

It was a bona fide evil-shattering blade art.

While emphasizing slaughter, it retained room for innovation, allowing the blade art to be applicable to most people, thus avoiding situations like mechanical techniques and stiff movements.

Perhaps because he loved blades since childhood and had a special understanding of them, Su Xuan’s comprehension of blade arts was probably on par with those masters who had practiced for years.

However, while his blade technique was comparable, his blade intent was worlds apart.

The reason was simple: he had never had the assistance of a Phantom Soul.

In a sense, a weapon with a Phantom Soul and a weapon without one were two different concepts.

Without the assistance of a Phantom Soul, no matter how invincible Su Xuan’s blade technique was, it was just an empty shell.
In this era, without a Phantom Soul, one had no soul, just a false, empty vessel.

Su Xuan was a hardworking person because he believed in the saying that heaven rewards the diligent.

However, seeing others easily grasp the more profound essence of blade intent with the help of their Phantom Souls, how could he not be disheartened?

But today, I, Su Xuan, am casting aside my humanity!

I will use my Phantom Soul too.

As long as I can resist the erosion of her will, it should be fine, right?

As for willpower, Su Xuan considered his own to be of the firm kind.

How could a person who could maintain a self-disciplined life for three years be a person with weak willpower?

Su Xuan held a black iron blade that gleamed with light, circulating the energons in his body while brandishing the blade in his hand.

His speed gradually increased from slow to fast.

The blade in Su Xuan’s hand was like an obedient child, cooperating with various movements.

The speed became faster and faster, the movements more and more difficult.
The air made a “swish-swish” sound.
Su Xuan only felt the energy in his body slowly accumulating, building up to a point, surging, surging—yet he could never break through.

He brandished it for a long time, consuming a lot of energons, yet he still couldn’t break through that bottleneck to reach the legendary initial form.

Wiping the sweat from his body, he sat there blankly.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but finally, a thought stirred.

“Hey! Are you there?”

Su Xuan had finally decided on something.
As long as he remained firm in his will, she was just his tool.

“Have you thought it through?”

That crisp voice rang in his mind, carrying a hint of cunning, like a little girl who had won.

“Just one hour!”

Su Xuan secretly set a time limit.

He needed to be cautious the first time.

Doing too much at once might have unexpected downsides.

He looked at the time.

It was nine in the morning.

He began.

A light blue Phantom Soul overlapped with Su Xuan.

The black energy stone in his hand, urged by the blue Phantom Soul, mixed with the blue gas emitted by the Phantom Soul and quickly entered Su Xuan’s body.

“So refreshing! It’s been so long since I’ve felt this refreshed!”

This energy stone was still new, used for less than a day, but it encountered Su Xuan, who was as thirsty as a wolf or tiger, like a long drought meeting sweet rain.

In an instant, it was completely absorbed, not a single drop left.

With the assistance of his Phantom Soul, Su Xuan felt his cultivation speed break through the heavens.

He was in a state of selfless cultivation.

He looked at the clock on the wall.
The hands pointed to ten o’clock.

“Good, phew~ I’m such a punctual man. But to suck a whole stone dry in just one hour, that’s too fierce!”

He said as he sat up, feeling a little hungry, and headed towards the living room.

“The curtains weren’t drawn? Why is the living room so dark… It’s dark outside…”

Su Xuan stared blankly at the flickering lights in the distance, dumbly looking at his phone which displayed ten o’clock at night.

“Why didn’t you remind me?”

Su Xuan muttered in his heart, feeling like he had been tricked.

“…Isn’t this what your own body desires? Your mouth says no, but your body is very honest~”

A voice rang in Su Xuan’s mind, lazy and sweet, but to Su Xuan, this voice was like a demon’s.

A full thirteen hours of cultivation time, who knew how much of an impact she had on him.

“…Heh heh, no matter what, I didn’t force you to do anything. Isn’t it all what you wanted to do yourself? Including that summer vacation?”

“Heh heh, aren’t humans just hormonal creatures? You directly affect my endocrine system, and you have the nerve to say you didn’t force me?”

Su Xuan also sneered coldly.

Every time she assisted in his cultivation, she would take the opportunity to do something to his body.

This was also the reason why Su Xuan’s appearance had changed from a sunny young man to a melancholic beauty.

Even during that summer vacation, he had never crazily cultivated for thirteen hours in a single day.

Now, he had cultivated for thirteen hours at once.

God knows what she had done.

Su Xuan sullenly walked towards his bedroom, planning to get some change to eat a late-night snack downstairs.

In his peripheral vision, he caught sight of the wardrobe.

He had opened it this morning to get the energy stone and forgotten to close it.
Inside, several pieces of women’s clothing were laid out like new, seducing Su Xuan like alluring women.

“Gulp…”

He swallowed hard, his whole body feeling as if it were possessed, uncontrollably walking towards it.

“No, I don’t want to…”

However, this kind of thing was like masturbation.

Even though you know it’s harmful to your body and has no benefits, how many otaku can resist this feeling?

And now for Su Xuan, those women’s clothes were far more appealing than the so-called “Five Dragons Coiling to the Heavens” technique.

In a daze, he entered a self-created fantasy of how it felt to wear women’s clothing that day.

The light JK uniform on his body felt weightless.

The hem of the skirt was empty, and with every step, he feared revealing something.
The lace pressed against his skin, that nervous and exciting feeling, the lewd gazes from those men…

“Hah~ Hah~ Smack!”

Su Xuan swung his hand and slapped himself across the face, snapping himself awake.

He quickly grabbed some money and headed downstairs.

“I won’t let you succeed!”

Su Xuan raged in his heart.
He had been set up by his Phantom Soul today, and he had almost lost his personality.

Once he put on that set of clothes, he really didn’t know what he would become… He had almost fallen for her trick.

Luckily, his heart was strong enough to pull himself back from the brink of cross-dressing.

As Su Xuan thought about it, he decided to throw away all those women’s clothes tomorrow.

He would fight that woman to the very end