Barbara could almost feel the pain etched into their structure, the countless hours of grueling effort that had forced these organelles to evolve into such potent engines.
"Ava, your mitochondria are insane! I only have basic knowledge of biology, but this is actually very interesting! There's more to cells than I ever thought," Barbara blurted, her voice bubbling with nerdy delight. "They're like… little war machines! No wonder you can hit so hard with just your physical strength."
"Mito-what?" Ava couldn't catch the word.
"Mitochondria. The powerhouse of the cell," Barbara said.
Ava tilted her head. What in the world was this girl talking about?
Ava couldn't use her spiritual sense to magnify small things inside her body as good as Barbara could. So even though her body cultivation involved enhancing herself at the cellular level, she had no idea what cells looked like, much less their structures. All she knew was that there were different kinds of cells, and countless cells in the body.
"Hmm… how to explain it to you… ah, right! Mitochondria are the dantian of the cell. This is the thing that stores and produces your energy. The amount of mitochondria differs in different types of cells; some don't have them. But all in all, a person has a countless number of them in their body," Barbara explained.
"Count… countless dantian?" Ava's eyes widened, her voice catching as she swallowed hard. The idea hit her like a thunderbolt. If each cell had its own dantian, could she train them like mini-cultivators? Her mind raced, a wild vision sparking to life. What if she could forge every cell into a warrior, making her the strongest being in the world? No one—not even the mightiest Qi cultivator—could stand against her. She'd be unstoppable, able to beat up anyone who crossed her path!
Her meditation faltered as she slipped into a vivid daydream. In her mind's eye, she stood tall, an empress clad in shimmering armor, commanding a vast army of human-sized cells. Each cell had tiny arms and legs, their mitochondria glowing like golden cores, faces fierce with loyalty. They lined up behind her, stretching into the horizon, awaiting her orders. "Empress Ava!" they shouted in unison, their voices a thunderous chorus. "Which sex fiend has offended you today? We're ready to crush him!"
Ava pointed dramatically at a figure in the distance—Leyvi, laughing goofily in his red jacket, oblivious to the storm coming his way. "That one!" she roared. "The sex fiend with the stupid grin! My cell army, attack! We can't let him go after my friend Barbara! Protect her at all costs!"
"Yes, Empress!" the cells bellowed, charging forward in a chaotic wave. They swarmed Leyvi, pummeling him with tiny fists and feet, their golden mitochondria flaring as they unleashed a relentless beatdown. Leyvi flailed, his goofy laugh turning to a yelp, but the cell army was merciless, a whirlwind of microscopic fury.
Barbara was speechless.
What did she just hear? Cell army? Sex fiend? And her name? What kind of fantasy did she have?
Barbara didn't say anything and let Ava play out her fantasy. Maybe this was a side effect of body cultivation.
After that, Barbara told Ava to meditate inside the stream of the spiritual vein to see how her cells interacted with it. She also observed the cells in her own body for comparison. For good measure, she planned to observe Ava's cells during intense physical activity later, to see how they behaved under different conditions.
---
Three months passed.
Day after day, Barbara had plunged her spiritual sense into Ava's body, weaving through the intricate landscape of her cells with the meticulous care of a cartographer mapping uncharted lands. She studied every type—muscle, bone, nerve, skin—each revealing new marvels about the resilience forged by Ava's body cultivation.
The more she observed the cells, the more impressed she became. Ava and her cells were very different as a result of her body cultivation. She realized that a cell's potential for evolution was endless! It wasn't that body cultivation didn't have the potential to go far; they just didn't have the right direction.
Furthermore, body cultivation required a lot of resources. Even if it allowed mortals, people without spirit roots, to cultivate, not many could afford them. In the end, the progress wasn't much, even after countless years.
However, thanks to the spiritual vein, she discovered a possible method to go to the next level.
"Ava, I've made a big discovery! I found out why your body cultivation had stagnated even though you kept your diligence, and I came up with a theory to overcome it," Barbara said with a proud smile.
Ava, who'd been meditating in the vein's shimmering stream, snapped her eyes open, her heart leaping. "Barbara, tell me!" she shouted, lunging forward to grab Barbara's shoulders. "Tell me how to improve my cultivation! Please, I'm begging you!" Her hands shook Barbara with desperation and hope.
"AaAaAaAaAaAaAaAaAa!" Barbara's head flailed, her words jumbling into a garbled mess as she tried to speak. "AaAaAavaaa… let me go!" She shoved Ava's hands off, stumbling back with a dramatic huff. "Calm down, Ava! I can't talk if you're rattling my brains out! Geez, I almost died! If I break my neck, who's gonna marry me?" She rubbed her shoulders, pouting.
"Don't worry. If nobody wants you, you can marry my husband. Problem solved. I'm sure he will treat you well," Ava blurted without thinking.
Barbara was stunned. "Marry your husband?" This was the first time she had ever heard someone offering to share a husband on their own volition.
Ava realized she had spoken that out loud and panicked. "Ahhh! No. I didn't mean to say that. No, no. Stay away from him. It's for your own good!"
Ava sighed inwardly. She didn't expect to blurt that out. The panda influence was stronger than she thought. How could she tell her friend to marry a sex fiend? Definitely not!
Barbara blinked. Why is she so contradictory? Don't tell me she really has a marriage problem? Does her husband not like her, and is he being abusive? Is that why she's still a virgin? She can't escape her marriage, so she unconsciously seeks company to be happier, but realizes it would harm me too. That's why she acted like that. Poor Ava. Don't worry, Ava. I will make sure your body cultivation rises to another level so you can beat him up and escape your husband!
Barbara's determination to help Ava increased multiple fold, and her opinion of this unknown husband of Ava worsened.
After some moments of silence, the two ladies stared at each other and blinked.
"What were we discussing again?" Ava asked.
"I forgot," Barbara replied.
The next moment, they both burst into laughter.
"Hahaha!" "Hehehe!"
They realized they had gone off on a tangent again. They lost count of how many times it had happened already, so now every time it happened, they found it very funny and laughed it off.
As their laughter faded, Barbara wiped a tear from her eye, her grin still wide. "Hehe… oh! I remember now!" she said, snapping her fingers. "I was about to explain why your cultivation's stagnated."
Ava took a deep breath. "Alright, I'm calm now, and we are going to stay on the topic. Explain, Barbara."
"The reason why you couldn't progress any further is because your body's trapped in a stagnation cycle," Barbara started.
"Stagnation cycle?" Ava repeated.
Barbara nodded, her hands gesturing animatedly as she dove into the explanation. "Yes, stagnation cycle. Even though you kept training and soaked yourself in alchemical solutions constantly, your cells didn't evolve further because all the solutions to nourish your cells went to the newly regenerated cells."
"What do you mean?" Ava's eyes narrowed.
Barbara took a deep breath, her expression softening as she broke it down. "Different types of cells in your body have different lifespans. Some, like your skin cells and gut lining cells, are short-lived, while others, like muscle or bone cells, last much longer. Your body cultivation has enhanced all of them, making them far tougher than a normal person's, but the short-lived ones still die faster. When they die, they're replaced by new cells, produced by special cells called stem cells through a process known as asymmetric cell division. These stem cells have evolved too, Ava, and you owe your longevity to them."
Ava's eyes brightened, a spark of intrigue cutting through her tension. "Stem cells…" she muttered.
Barbara continued, her voice steady but brimming with enthusiasm. "Exactly. In normal humans, aging and death happen partly because stem cells lose their potency over time—they divide more slowly or stop altogether. But your stem cells, thanks to your body cultivation, have become stronger. They can keep producing new cells for far longer, which is why you've lived so long. It's the same for us Qi cultivators. When we break through, our upgraded Qi circulates and enhances our bodies, boosting our stem cells and granting longevity."
"I see..." Ava nodded.
Barbara's tone grew more intense, her hands slicing through the air for emphasis. "But here's the catch: to ensure that longevity lasts, your evolved stem cells prioritize keeping most of their power during asymmetric cell division. When they divide, one new cell becomes a stem cell, retaining that strength, while the other becomes a new skin cell or gut cell—but it's weak, barely enhanced at all. These new, weak cells are like blank slates compared to your battle-hardened muscle or bone cells."