Chapter 8: First cultivation 1/2

“Are you ready?” Marina asked while sitting on his bed, causing Raul’s mind to race with naughty ideas. The two were in Raul’s cottage, still dressed in their wedding outfits.

“I’ve made my peace.” Raul forcefully turned his mind away from nighttime activities. “Let me say this first though. If what you ask of me endangers the Vault family in anyway, or involves the killing of innocent people, then we can’t work together.” He had to say this now or he was afraid his resolve wouldn’t hold once she started talking.

“Hmph, at least you have some standards. Rest assured that my goal has nothing to do with the Vault family’s well-being. As for killing innocents, that’s up to you and how you choose to go about completing it.” She assured.

Raul nodded. “What do you want then?”

“The parameters of our agreement are as such. Firstly, know that I don’t intend to control your private life. I don’t expect you to treat me as your wife and you can do as you wish in that regard.”

Raul’s face twitched but he nodded all the same. This wasn’t a bad thing for him, but essentially being told ‘I have absolutely no interest in you’ still stung.

“If you accept my proposal, then I will use one of my family’s secret techniques to help you cultivate. I’ve reviewed your condition over the past few days and am fairly certain that it should be effective.” She stated.

Raul’s blood spiked when he heard this, but the days of rehearsal allowed him to keep a cool head and focus on the important point. “What do you mean fairly certain?”

“My technique can heal a crippled cultivator from the roots, the issue is that you’re not crippled, at least not in the conventional sense.”

“Eh? What are you talking about.” Raul asked in a stunned stutter. He hadn’t been able to hit the first stage of cultivation despite trying for twelve years, what’s that if not crippled? It’s different than those who can’t sense the primordial qi, those people simply have no affinity with cultivation to begin with.

“All lifeforms have something called an essence heart inside of them. Normally it’s dormant, but by refining it with primordial qi it can be woken up. Usually when a cultivator is crippled it means their essence heart is severely damaged, my technique can fix that. The unusual thing with you is that your essence heart isn’t damaged in the slightest, the primordial qi you absorb just isn’t reaching it.”

An old memory resurfaced in Raul’s head. Old George and one of the Physicians checking up on him concluded something similar as well. That’s why he’d become fixated on holding the primordial qi in longer, hoping that giving it more time would let it reach. He’d gotten so used to doing it that he’d forgotten the ‘why’ a long time ago.

“My technique can directly pump qi into your heart, so it should theoretically work, but whether it’ll actually work, I can’t say for certain. Frankly, it’s a coin toss. If you have a problem with that then we will stop here.”

“I have no problem with that.” He didn’t even have to think about it before answering. “A coin toss is much better than what I’ve had in the past, worse case scenario I’m no worse off than when I started. So, what’s the price?”

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“In concept, what I want is simple, I want you to defeat someone, completely.”

Raul’s head went blank upon hearing this. “That’s it?” He couldn’t help but ask. “Ah, I mean, I just have to beat them, not kill them or anything right?” He couldn’t help but clarify. This girl had completely thrown away her past for this, cutting ties with her clan and abandoning her cultivation. She’d even given up her future by rushing into a marriage, he couldn’t help but be skeptical about her reasoning.

“I have no interest in merely killing him. What I want is for you to absolutely crush him in every category. Strength, craftsmanship, status, wealth, background, I want you to dominate him in every field. Make it so that every time someone thinks of him, they think of you first. Push him to the absolute depths of despair, that is what I want.”

Raul instinctively backed up. Marina’s usual cold eyes were alight with a maddening hatred that threatened to set the world ablaze. A malevolent wrathful aura spread from her and dominated the entire room. Raul shivered uncontrollably as he got a glimpse of what laid beneath the frozen mask. Then it was over.

“If you agree to that, we can get started.” She said as expressionless as usual, as if it was all a dream. But it wasn’t. he could see that now. That all-consuming rage didn’t vanish, it was simply frozen, waiting.

Raul gulped nervously. This girl is insane! He felt that to his very core. He couldn’t agree to this lightly, if he failed to deliver then that malice would be turned towards him! “Ok, I understand what you want. That goal doesn’t conflict with my own, but there’s a couple things I have to ask. Who is the person you want me to surpass, and if I’m unable to surpass this person, what will you do?”

“The identity of the person isn’t important to you as you’d have no idea who he is even if I told you. As for being up to the task, that’s more my responsibility than yours. So long as you vow to pursue this goal, I will support you with all my might. If you fall short, then that means it was all I was worth and I won’t take it out on you… provided you do your best of course.”

‘That’s probably the best I can get.’ He clicked his tongue at the thinly veiled threat in her words. Well, he didn’t have a problem with it though. To help Tai with the Vault family and complete his father’s wish he needed to become insanely strong anyway. If the Norn family was really the strongest support family and she could truly make him strong, then he had no complaints.

‘Well, she just wants me to beat someone anyway, it’s doable. Even if its some old fogy it’ll just take some time.’ Raul’s abysmal knowledge of the cruelty of cultivation gave him blind confidence.

He crouched in front of her and looked into her cold eyes. “Very well. Though we might not have love I think our goals are compatible. I’m a rather greedy person, there’s a lot of things I want to do that I can’t. You’ve given me hope in achieving the things I’d been forced to throw away. For that, I vow to give my all to surpass the person you hold such animosity towards. In sickness and in health, I shall be your sword of punishment.” His face looked serious, but he wore a silly self-satisfied grin inside. He’d wracked his brains to come up with some good lines for his wedding vows and was really sad he didn’t get to use them. Thankfully, he got a chance to rework some of them here.

Marina’s eyes trembled and she grabbed his hand as he was rising. “… I’m angry. So unbelievably angry. Every time I close my eyes all I see is the burning hellscape inside of me. No matter what anyone says I can’t let it go. If you will be my tool of vengeance, then I vow, in sickness and in health, to devote myself to you completely. I will make you the greatest.” She slid an old ring onto his finger. It was a dust laden bronze color, with no gemstone, but a rather unique design. Unknown script scrawled across it, and it had two short horns sticking out that made it look like it had an Oni inscribed on it.

It wasn’t exactly a romantic ring, but the uniqueness of it made it feel special, and Raul could easily see the matching ring on the hand that was holding his. His heart tickled a bit. “Marina…” He looked at her then froze. Pressure poured down on him as he looked into her cold eyes.

“I hope you’ve properly resolved yourself, I only know how to be strict.” She warned. Raul instinctively nodded repeatedly. “Good, then let’s get started. Take off your clothes.”

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