Dual Cultivation God Returns-Chapter 770: If you must...

Wu Long's feet landed on the top deck of the vessel where his beauties already returned to.

Hua Ziyan and Yu Huan both stepped forward, the first holding thin bandages and the other an ointment.

"Thank you Ziyan, Huan'er", he smiled and acquiescently raised his hand, allowing the two to treat it even as he didn't see it necessary.

"You seem to be in a good mood", Fen Baihu chuckled, seeing as he was humming an upbeat melody on his way back to the Beast of Burden.

"Mm, I've got such caring beautiful ladies looking after me, not to mention that I can give plenty of praise to those who fought for spectacular results, got what I wanted out of the fight personally, Qian has done his job quite well, and I even built a rapport with the captain of the Imperial Guards, so I'm quite satisfied with the overall results", Wu Long nodded with a wide smile, Hua Ziyan and Yu Huan who were skillfully treating his hand smiled with light blush on their cheeks.

"Built a rapport? You mean when he had a dejected expression as you were talking on the way here?", the Celestial Fox raised her eyebrow.

"Dejected? Nonsense, we had a great talk", Wu Long made a light laugh, dismissing any doubt.

At that moment...

"...What do you mean their weapons, coin purses and Spatial Rings are gone? Look more thoroughly!", Chen Hui's voice reached them, as the Imperial Guards have belatedly realized that all valuables of the pirates have vanished in the chaos, with only a few who were killed last retaining their weapons, but only weapons.

The captain was still dealing with the aftermath of the battle, his figure floating not far from the Beast of Burden, and as he was rubbing his forehead with his hand in confusion and frustration, he inadvertently turned his head to look in the direction of the Beast of Burden just as Wu Long and his beauties turned in reaction to the commotion.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.

"See? We got quite friendly", Wu Long smiled as he waved the hand that wasn't injured in a friendly manner to Chen Hui as their gazes met.

"Doesn't look like he's that thrilled", Shen Min noted, as Chen Hui's expression which was already burdened with stress from the inexplicable situation he found himself in, further soured as he turned to look away.

"It seems you're the only one who thinks your conversation went that well, Honey", Wu Mengqi chuckled, "Maybe he misunderstood something you said?"

"My guess is, Wu Long had a bit too much fun", Feng Yi shrugged her shoulders, making a mild verbal pinch, while he gave a kiss to Yu Huan who finished applying ointment to his hand.

"Haha, he's just a bit reserved, not to mention he's busy, we're practically buddies", Wu Long ended the kiss and spoke with a shining smile, seemingly accepting the challenge in Feng Yi's words. And he would have gotten away with it, if not...

"Though mixed into overwhelmingly positive emotions, I sense quite a bit of resentment toward you from that man, which is strange considering the circumstances and that your conversation went well", Xue Bing tilted her head, as Wu Long's smile froze a bit.

"Y-you sure? That's strange", he replied with less certainty, as it was hard to counter Xue Bing in this area, while an amused light appeared in Feng Yi's eyes looking at him.

"... I must've read it wrong, don't mind what I said", the latter first turned to Wu Long with a slightly confused look, sensing something in his response, and as a realization appeared in her cold-looking turquoise eyes, she turned back to the other beauties and spoke in a flat tone, prompting numerous snickers from them.

A wry smile also crept onto Wu Long's lips at this 'save'.

Seeing that reaction from her Dao Sisters, Xue Bing doubled down in the same flat tone of voice, "No, really. I seem to have made a mistake, it happens..."

"Pfft, it's alright, Sister Bing, you don't have to convince us", Bi Rui started laughing as she looked at Wu Long's expression which showed appreciation for Xue Bing's effort and at the same time a hope she wouldn't continue trying to 'help'.

Wu Long's attention then shifted to the beauty beside him.

"Haha, don't worry about it", he told Hua Ziyan who became a bit suspiciously silent as she was skillfully and securely bandaging his hand so it could move freely while being well-wrapped.

"But it's...", Hua Ziyan had a look of concern in her eyes.

"Yeah, this one took quite a toll", Wu Long smiled. Though the injury looked light visually, because Hua Ziyan was carefully bandaging up the hand she could to an extent access the internal damage which was far more severe. Cracks and minor fractures in bones, extensive and heavy muscle damage and even tendon damage went up to his shoulder and down his side and part of his back.

"Eh? To that extent?", Bi Rui stopped laughing, as did the others, shocked to hear that the pirate leader was able to inflict such heavy damage to Wu Long, whose body was constantly tempered, and increasingly difficult to give even minor wounds to.

"It's because of that medicine, the Essence Ignition Pill", Yu Huan made a note which attracted attention, as from her tone it seemed she knew it well.

"Just from the name alone, it's connected to Essence Ignition Realm, right?", Luo Mingyu asked, to which Wu Long nodded.

"Yes, as you all know, each of the Seven Profound Realms focuses on a specific one of the Seven Roots of a cultivator. Which is why there is quite a difference between specific benefits that cultivators gain in each Major Realm", he answered.

And then continued to explain further, "Essence Awakening Realm focuses on the Root of Longevity, Essence Gathering Realm on the Root of Vitality, and Essence Ignition, on the Root of Power, which makes cultivators who achieved Essence Ignition Realm so dangerous to those who haven't. The leap in physical prowess is enough to completely and utterly eclipse even my achievements in body tempering, one of the factors which puts me on par with cultivators above my Realm, imagine how profound the difference is for someone who only focuses on Spiritual Qi cultivation without body tempering"

"Wu Long told me that the Essence Ignition Pill, and similar medicines were created to try and bridge that gap even a little, since too glaring of a disparity in strength between Major Realms is viewed with caution at any stage of cultivation", Yu Huan chimed in, surprising some of her Dao Sisters who never saw Alchemy Dao brought up in her presence, with sudden enthusiasm that contrasted her usual more mild and calm demeanor, "Essence Ignition Pill in particular is among the more valuable ones because it doesn't have lasting or permanent side effects, only a mild weakness that lasts a day or two after the effect of the pill wears off. In return, of course, its effects are also limited, it cannot truly elevate someone's physique to the level of Essence Ignition Realm, that said, those effects cannot be underestimated either, the pill's medicinal effect stimulates the Essence of Power within the Root of Power to temporarily bring out some of that untapped potential, giving explosive strength to the user. The pill is quite difficult to refine despite its ingredients, aside from the main one, being rather common. The difficulty lies in the combination of-..."

As she was speaking, the pacing rose along with the excitement in her tone, until she suddenly realized the surprised gazes from all the beauties around her. Her face instantly turned red as she seemingly shrank in size with a cute sound that resembled a squeak, "Hngh!"

Wu Long couldn't resist the cuteness, wrapping his hand around her and letting her hide her face in his chest with a wide smile.

"Mm, which is why I'm quite satisfied with the results of this fight, actually. It is almost as close as it gets to fighting someone who's truly in Essence Ignition Realm", he then added, "After all, that's the strength of the Chaos Refining Body Tempering Art"

"C-chaos Refining Body Tempering Art?!?!", Fen Baihu almost fell over as she exclaimed, her voice bouncing off the sound barrier Wu Long set up roughly at the beginning of this conversation, "The legendary sacred technique of the Great Rakhshasa Clan?"

As someone used to knowing that Wu Long had that technique, even as incredible and powerful it was, most of the beauties were still surprised at that reaction, especially from someone like Fen Baihu, subtly realizing that it was a far bigger deal than they initially thought. After all, Wu Long himself never explained its particular historical significance.

"If I understand that technique correctly, it's main function is in converting almost any energy into other types of energy, right?", Shen Min tentatively asked, making sure they were talking about the same technique.

"Which is mind-boggling and completely broken already, not to mention that it generally allows one to handle forces far beyond what is possible for their peers, but it's other ability is arguably what brought that technique its fame , or infamy if you will", Fen Baihu spoke while shaking her head at how these girls were completely unaware of how feared this technique was.

"That it can directly convert damage inflicted to user into body tempering?", Bi Rui made a guess.

"Yes, but it's not even that detail", Fen Baihu sighed, now certain that the presence of a singularity like Wu Long in their lives completely and likely irreversibly skewed the perceptions of these women of what was normal, "in addition to overall tempering and resilience, the more damage of a certain type the user accumulates, the more resilient they are against that specific type of damage, and... the more powerful their own attacks of that specific type become"

She then added to hammer the point home, "There used to be a famous saying in the Seven Boundless Worlds, popular enough that only it's first few words were spoken to know what the one speaking wanted to say. And though unimaginable time has passed since it faded, it is rarely, but is still brought up today: If you must fight a Rakhshasa, make sure to kill them in one fight, if you fail once, do everything you can to avoid a second fight, and if you can't avoid it, sell your soul if you have to in order to kill them in that second fight, if you fail twice, even all of Heaven's blessings can't save you from the third fight"

In the rather solemn silence that her words created, Luo Mingyu turned a slightly confused look to Wu Long, "Wait, you never said anything about your attacks also gaining power"

"Yes", Wu Long nodded with a smile, "Because I have not yet comprehended the third layer of the technique that grants that, so while this effect is present, it is quite mild to what it should be"

"So this time, you sought to exchange blows with someone who could inflict overwhelming brute force damage to you...", Nie Xiwang concluded.

"Yes, specifically brute force damage originating in Essence Ignition of the Root of Power, and Profound Qi that is reinforced with active Power Qi. This way I have far better standing against someone in Essence Ignition Realm in the future. So you can say my gains from this whole situation went far beyond my expectations", Wu Long nodded.

"Can't you just use Essence Ignition Pills yourself if push came to shove? It seems from how knowledgeable Huan'er is about them, she already made a batch or two", Bi Rui asked looking at her friend.

"I indeed refined some, but one would normally need to be at least in Essence Awakening Realm to use it", Yu Huan meekly peeked from her 'hiding spot', her ears and cheeks still quite rosy, "You saw how that pirate's body reacted, right? This medicine actually relies quite heavily on the Root of Longevity to handle the burden of activating another of the Seven Roots that has yet to be naturally developed. For someone with an undeveloped Root of Longevity, that burden could potentially cause damage. Though not certain, I wouldn't recommend it"

"This one's quality was not as good as the ones you made, Huan'er, you can't even compare them. And he called that a priceless treasure, haha", Wu Long spoke proudly, almost like he was bragging about her abilities, "The reaction you saw was highly unstable. Especially the first few waves of Essence of Power activation. Even though it's the same pill the effects of yours are far more stable"

Another kind of rosiness colored Yu Huan's cheeks as she lightly smiled, shyly hiding her face back into his chest, and tightening the grip of her delicate fingers on his robe.

At the same time, Feng Yi came to a realization.

"So that's the protective measure you left Father in case of emergencies...", she guessed, since Wu Long did say that the Eternal Duality Valley was quite safe even when they were away.

"One of them, yes", Wu Long nodded with a smile.

---

When the Beast of Burden finally resumed its flight, barely anyone noticed that a few passengers were missing, with no clear indication of when it happened.

Only a few vaguely remembered that one of the missing people had an unusually large build, but his two companions, who also disappeared together with him were rather unremarkable.

The three were previously quite often seen with a man, whose face strangely reminded one of a rat, simply from the impression it gave off.

The rest of the missing were a few of the more shady contingent of the passengers. The type of rogue cultivators who existed in the gray, not outright outlaws, most of the time behaving not that different from others, but oftentimes unscrupulous about doing dirtier work or engaging in dangerous and nefarious activities.

However, given the lineup, most assumed that these people simply fled during the attack, and thus their absence was quickly forgotten.

---

Later that night,

Feng Yi turned to the sound of the sliding door opening and closing, her eyes reflecting Wu Long's face.

"I can tell what's on your mind just by that look in your eyes", she said putting one hand on her hip with a playful smirk on her lips. She was no longer wearing any armor, rather standing in a light black dress, dark, but almost entirely see-through stockings covering her legs in high heels.

"I managed to guess what's on yours first, even without needing to look into your eyes, I win", he chuckled.

"You...! It's unfair to bring that up now", her confident attitude showed cracks, as he made a few steps toward her.

"Hmm? I seem to remember someone tried to imply I have too much fun earlier, don't remember that someone worrying about bringing up something that happened at an earlier time then though", his smile grew wider as his hands slowly wrapped around the slim waist of the beauty and then suddenly yanking her to press against him in one go.

"Ahn...", she shortly exclaimed from surprise, and then resuming her smile, raised her eyebrow, "Careful, injured people shouldn't overexert themselves"

"Heh, who of us two should be careful?", he spoke as his face neared hers, their lips were almost touching, her eyes closed while her breathing got slightly faster and more sensual.

"If you must ask-...", she didn't manage to finish, as his mouth covered hers in a passionate, energetic kiss that sent sparks through her whole body.