Quantum Cultivation by Jace Kang (simple e reader TXT) 📕

transport didn’t know who Ken was, despite Ken cleaning his station on a daily basis.

It hadn’t mattered at the time, since he’d spent the quick ride alternating between Cultivating Fire and Metal, as the master had instructed.

“Have you contacted the Elestrae embassy?” a female medic asked her colleague.

He looked over to his side, where Siena’s eyes were open but unseeing. Had she died?

“No,” answered a male. “The Ministry of Defense has lodged an appeal for secrecy. A tribunal will render a decision soon.”

Did the squiggly lines rising and falling on Siena’s biobed display represent her heartbeat?

He needed to concentrate on his own. Though the pain had subsided and the bleeding had stopped, the gruesome slash still bared his intestines. He closed his eyes and focused on distributing the Fire Essences of the Nue Core from his heart and through his blood vessels. He visualized himself performing the Xingyi Fist Fire Form.

On the third breath, excruciating pains lanced through every square millimeter of his body. His mouth tasted of everything he’d eaten in the last day. He convulsed on the biobed, fighting for coherent thought.

“What happened?” the male medic asked.

“We’re losing him!” said the woman. “Scans are showing a deterioration of his arteries!”

The male cursed. “How is that even possible?”

The woman held Ken down, trying to stop his convulsing. “I don’t know, we need to get him to surgery now! Inject him with a sedative!”

Ken fought through the pain to focus his thoughts. What had the master said about Metal being used to heal skin? Maybe that would be the only way to save himself. He shifted from processing Fire to redistributing Metal.

He screamed. No sooner had he started than his skin erupted in what felt like a blaze of fire. Every smell in the room overwhelmed his nose, from the floral scent of the woman’s sweat to the taco aroma hanging on the man’s breath.

“Hurry up with the injection!” the woman said.

“Hold him steady!” Bioinjector in hand, the man’s hand shifted left and right near Ken’s neck.

The woman leaned her weight on him. “I’m trying!”

“Got it!”

The bioinjector pressed against Ken’s neck.

Nothing. Usually there’d be a slight prick with a bioinjector. Maybe his skin hurt so much he hadn’t noticed?

“Dammit, it didn’t work!” the man said. “Didn’t penetrate his skin!”

“His abdomen wound,” the woman said. “It sealed!”

Ken had no time to consider what that meant. Double doors slid open, and Ken was aware of the sensation of the biobed turning into a bright room.  At least four other medical personnel waved frantically and yelled.

At first it was impossible to discern their words, as thousands of scents bombarded his nose. He forced himself to focus.

“Over here!” an older medic said.

The biobed glided into a diagnosis tube, and a myriad of lights flashed over him.  It’d been years since he’d been in one, but he remembered not being able to hear anything over the machine’s beeps and hums.

Now, he could hear the voices of the medical staff.

“How is he even alive?”

“Are you seeing this?”

“This isn’t possible.”

“I guess we won’t need a dermal regenerator.”

For someone doing so well, Ken’s body hurt everywhere.

“Look at the microscopic scan: iron alloys embedded in his skin cells.”

“I’ve never seen this protein structure in vascular tissue before.”

What was going on?

“And his bone marrow!”

Bone marrow. Master Ryu had said that advancing to First Rank in the Water Path had altered Ken’s marrow.  It had also caused a deep pain that he’d felt to the core of his…bones.  If what the master had taught was true, the Fire Path manifested in blood vessels, the Metal Path in the skin.

Ken had Advanced.

In Two Paths.

The chatter outside of the scanning tube went silent, followed by clattering and thumps. The biobed slid out.

Ken blinked several times to see Siena leaning heavily against the edge of the tube.

“Are you all right?” she asked, voice feeble. Her half-lidded eyes swept a line over where the gash had been.

And he was naked. Swallowing hard, he covered himself. “Yes.” Ken looked around.

The entire medical staff lay strewn across the floor. The rise and fall of their chests indicated they were alive, and one man’s snoring said he was asleep.

“What happened here?” He sat up and kicked his legs over the side.

“I put them to sleep with channeling.”

He studied her. Her complexion looked even paler than usual, and sweat clung to her brow.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She pushed herself off the diagnosis tube, and her legs wobbled. “Exhausted. I’ve been drawing on my own reserves, first to stay connected to Aya, and now to put these people to sleep.”

He studied her. Some of the baubles around her neck—specifically, the blue istrium marbles—had faded to grey. “Your necklace…”

She brought her fingers to the beads. “The Nue’s discharge of gamma rays rendered the istrium inert. I’ve had to draw on my own energy for channeling, and it’s exhausting.”

“They’re certainly surveilling this room. Armed guards will arrive any minute, maybe even a tactical team.” He looked at the medics, but he already knew none carried weapons. They did, however, have clothes. He reached for one of the medic’s jackets. “What will we do?”

“I know a quick way to restore my vitality.” She seized his wrist before he grabbed the jacket.

“How?” He cocked his head.

She guided his hand inside her dress to her breast. Round and full, its firm softness fit nicely in his palm. Her nipple felt springy against his finger. Having never touched one before, the only word he could think of was perfect. His manhood sprung to attention.

Pulling him around, she sat on the edge of the biobed. Her other hand went to his erection.

He swallowed hard.

“May I connect to your Core?” she