Chapter 21: Chapter 21 Raul’s Essence Heart

“That was a joke. While we’ll do this training at some point in the future, we have higher priorities right now.” Marina stated after keeping him in suspense for a moment.

She unceremoniously flipped the paralyzed Raul onto his stomach and put her hand on his back. This was enough to re-establish the connection now that she was in the Refining Realm. The two shivered in pleasure as the sensation of the technique passed over them, even stronger than it was in the past.

She didn’t immediately pour qi into him though. She wasn’t delaying out of cruelty, put to observe. Cultivator’s Essence Hearts were completely awake.

Asides from providing the energy for the birth of the dantian and the illusory start of the meridians, an awakened essence heart also produced Essence Qi automatically, albeit at a much slower rate than refining it.

Raul stayed quite despite suffering from qi deprivation as he could vaguely sense her presence in his body. He made a mental note to not observe her too closely when they do this, as she probably could sense when his focus encroached her body as well.

A frown crossed Marina’s face after a few minutes of observing. Raul’s Essence Heart produced Essence Qi, but it was slow. Very slow.

A cultivator with average talent and an average dantian would take a bit over a day to actively refine enough essence qi to fill their dantian. If they waited for their Essence Heart to do it automatically, it’d take approximately ten days. But Raul’s essence heart would take almost four months to fill up an average dantian.

To make matters worse, Raul’s dantian was several times larger than an average cultivator due to the powerful base he’d developed over the last three months, meaning it’d take well over a year for him to fill it up automatically.  

Marina didn’t understand it, she’d confirmed with certainty there was nothing wrong with Raul’s Essence Heart. His foundation was rock solid with no hidden dangers anymore and, though she wouldn’t admit it to his face, his natural talent was amongst the highest she’d ever seen. There was no reason for it to be this slow.

‘It’s time I take a closer look.’ She narrowed her eyes and transferred her qi into Raul. She only transferred the bare minimum needed to make him functional again. She guided him into a sitting position and put her hand on his back again.

“This time you’re going to try and refine qi yourself, I’ll watch and see if I can figure anything out.” She told him.

Excitement and fear snaked through Raul when he heard those words. He was excited since he thought his problem might be fixed, and scared because of the possibility it wasn’t and the pain it caused.

‘No, it’s different this time, I’m sure of it.’ He shook the negative thoughts from his head and psyched himself up. His problem had always been that the Primordial Qi couldn’t reach his Essence Heart, but now he could clearly sense that the location of his Essence Heart was a little above his dantian. He could guide the qi there and ensure they interact, there should be no problem now. In theory.

He took a deep breathe, then closed his eyes and focused on the Primordial Qi. With a thought he sucked so much Primordial Qi into himself that it almost created a vacuum.

He usually wouldn’t try to absorb so much at one time due to the pain it’d cause, but that deep, desperate emptiness from his dantian made him unconsciously remove the limiter he usually set for himself.

The pain was immediate, but well within his limits. He didn’t let the qi float around his body randomly while he focused on containing it like before. Now he grabbed it tightly with his will and drove it all towards his Essence Heart.

The pain immediately started to ratchet up as he got closer to it. It also became harder and harder to move the strands of qi forward.

Marina winced from the strong sensation of pain she was receiving from Raul, but she didn’t turn her attention away from his body. That’s why she didn’t notice the ancient scribbles on their wedding rings glowing purple, making the rings look like a grinning Oni.

Raul kept pushing the strands closer to the core, fighting harder for every step, as the pain continued to try and consume him. Finally, it stopped.

Two inches away from his Essence Heart the qi strands just froze in place. No matter how hard Raul pushed, they wouldn’t budge.

The pain was the second worst pain he’d experienced in his entire life, and his instincts were screaming at him to stop, but he didn’t want to quit.

It was right there! Just two inches and he could cultivate himself! Ten years, he’d struggled ten years to do this very thing, he refused to lose to two inches.

His body trembled as he kept trying to force the strands closer with his full will. Even when he felt something was close to breaking within him, he didn’t back down.

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‘Reach for me!’ he screamed in his own mind, determined to settle this once and for all.

‘Stop.’ He suddenly heard a familiar voice that wasn’t his own echo in his head. The girl’s usually cold and aloof voice was now weak and filled with pain. It was only then that he remembered how he’d felt her pain when they’d first cultivated.

His stubbornness was hurting her. He immediately let go and let the Primordial Qi rush out his body.

He spat out a mouthful of blood the moment his body relaxed after the lion’s share of pain left.

Usually, his injuries from trying to cultivate were skin level because the primordial qi would try to break out of him, but here he'd directed it inwards and hurt his internals.

He wasn’t worried much about himself though, as he turned around to the girl who’d fallen over on her side while groaning. 

“Are you alright!?” He questioned quickly while wiping the blood from his mouth.

“I told you to stop repeatedly.” She looked up at him accusingly.

Guilt spread across Raul’s face as he bowed his head in shame. “Sorry.” He’d only heard the last stop, but it didn’t change the fact that his recklessness had hurt her. “Are you ok?” He asked hesitantly.

“I’m fine.” She stood up with ease. “All I felt was the pain, I didn’t actually get injured. I’m more worried about you.” She put her hand to his chest and closed her eyes as she sent qi into him.

She didn’t re-establish the connection, she just used her qi to check up on Raul’s internal situation, similar to how Tai checked his base the day before.

Raul couldn’t stop himself from studying her beautiful face while she worked.

She was slightly pale from their endeavor, but she still looked radiant. His chest ached with the knowledge that her current pale expression was caused by him. He decided at that moment to be more considerate from now on, he couldn’t just do as he likes or else it’ll end up affecting her too.

Marina sighed in relief and opened her eyes. Raul hurriedly turned his gaze elsewhere while hopping he wasn’t caught. “Thankfully your injuries aren’t deep. A good day’s rest and a couple healing pills will have you good to train by tomorrow.”

She removed her hand from his chest and looked at him with the solemn expression of a physician. “From now on don’t try to cultivate on your own. Anytime I ask you to try, stop as soon as you feel any pain. Just regular processing qi isn’t supposed to cause pain. If you keep trying to force it like that you may seriously hurt yourself.”

She didn’t gain as much info as she’d hoped from the experiment. Basically all she learned was the reason for Raul’s pain tolerance. As for what caused the anomaly, she had no clue. ‘I’ll have to look into this.’

She thought of her father’s library for a moment before shaking her head. It would take some time before she could reclaim her inherited assets, it was better to think of the academy’s library, it wouldn’t lose out to her fathers.

“Let’s go in. I have some healing pills you can take.” She started walking inside when her entire body shivered uncontrollably.

‘!?’ Her consciousness faded so fast she barely had time to notice before she was unconscious and her body started falling forward.

Raul panicked and grabbed her before she hit the floor. “Marina? Oi, Marina!?” He turned her around and found that she was unconscious. Her face had a red tint to it, and she was breathing heavily.

A slew of curse words flew through Raul’s head as he carefully picked her up and rushed her to the room.

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