"Ahem… so, the final solution is for you to figure out how to transfer your mini-dantians—er, mitochondria—from dying cells to long-lived cells without relying on the spiritual vein. If you can master this, Ava, it'll be a major breakthrough for all body cultivators!" Barbara said.
Ava tilted her head. "But… how am I supposed to do that?"
"How? You're a body cultivator. Can't you control your body?" Barbara asked.
"Well… I can make myself extremely flexible, including my bones. And... I can make my nails and hair grow longer at will." She flexed her fingers, as if to demonstrate, her nails glinting faintly, reflecting the light.
Barbara nodded, her expression brightening. "There, see? All of those require control at the cellular level. If you can manipulate your body like that, it shouldn't be impossible to transfer your mitochondria. You just need to reapply the same logic to control those cells for the mini-dantian transfer. It shouldn't be that hard, especially since you already have experience."
But as she spoke, Barbara noticed a shift in Ava's demeanor. Ava's fingers twitched, her gaze darting to the side, a restless energy radiating from her as if something was amiss. Barbara's instincts sharpened, her scholarly mind sensing a crack in Ava's confidence. Narrowing her eyes, she leaned closer, her voice probing. "Ava… how do you make your nails longer and harder?"
Ava hesitated, her cheeks flushing slightly. "Umm… actually… to be honest…" She scratched the back of her neck, her voice dropping. "I don't even know how I know how to do those things. It just… came naturally after a certain point in my body cultivation."
Barbara was speechless. She now had a glimpse and an inkling of why body cultivation stagnated so badly compared to Qi cultivation. And her instinct told her that her suspicion was a hundred percent correct! Body cultivators, for all their physical prowess, were stumbling blindly through their own biology, relying on instinct rather than understanding. No wonder they hit walls like the stagnation cycle while Qi cultivators soared with their structured techniques and manuals.
She took a deep breath, steadying herself, and fixed Ava with a serious look. "Ava, how well do you know your body?"
Ava felt confused. "What do you mean?"
"Like your body parts, external and internal. Do you know what they are, their functions, and how they work?" Barbara asked.
"Well… I know most of them… I think," Ava replied. For some reason, she felt like she was being interrogated.
"Then explain to me how your eyes work. How can you see?"
Ava blinked, her mouth opening and closing as she grasped for an answer. "Well… I open my eyes, and if there's light, I'll be able to see the things in front of me," she said, her voice faltering as she realized how simplistic it sounded.
Barbara facepalmed. It's over. I knew it. As I suspected. If this continues, body cultivation will never be able to progress.
"Ava, if you don't even know how your body works, how can you call yourself a body cultivator? So all this time you've been training and cultivating your body without even knowing the logic and ideas behind each of the procedures?"
Ava's frown deepened, her shoulders tensing. "Is it that important?" she shot back, her tone defensive but wavering. "I've trained so hard for so long. I've endured a lot of pain to cultivate my body according to the cultivation manual."
"Listen, Ava. Body cultivation isn't just about pushing your physical limits. It's about breaking through the boundaries of the human body by evolving it. Just because it's called body cultivation doesn't mean it's only about physical strength, or that you can toss away your brain and stop thinking. How can you break through those limits if you're not even familiar with your own body? You cultivate your body, so you should know it better than anyone else! No, you must know everything about the body, from the smallest to the largest parts."
Ava's frown lingered, her fingers twitching as Barbara's words sank in, each one a pebble rippling across the still waters of her mind. Barbara was right—she couldn't deny it.
She'd always claimed she'd done her best, poured her heart and soul into body cultivation, but that was only true within the confines of her ignorance. For decades, she had followed her cultivation manual like a sacred text, repeating the same grueling routines—alchemical soaks, brutal training, relentless endurance—expecting her efforts to bear fruit. But she had never questioned why those methods worked, or why they had stopped. She had never sought to understand her body beyond the pain it could endure, never explored the logic behind her stagnation cycle.
But why? Why had she never questioned these things? Why had she shied away from learning about her body?
Suddenly, her mind became clearer.
Ava sighed as the realization hit her. She knew exactly why she had avoided it.
Deep down, a part of her hated body cultivation. She hated the fact that she had no spirit root and couldn't cultivate like everyone else. While others could cultivate comfortably, she had to endure great pain cultivating her body.
Over the years, the pain had messed with her mind and made her easily irritated, leading to the destruction of things and numerous victims of her beatings. It also developed a mindset in her that if she just endured the pain and trained hard, she would get stronger. Don't think too much about it. That was all she had to do. And it did for a long time, until it didn't.
Even after her cultivation stagnated, she had not investigated why her cultivation had stopped. She had clung to the hope that more effort, more pain would restart her progress, too stubborn to question her methods.
When Leyvi offered her a treasure that would grant a spirit root, a chance to abandon body cultivation for the ease of Qi, she had refused. Why? Part of it had been ambition, a fierce drive to become the strongest body cultivator in the Cloud Continent, to prove her path was no less than Qi cultivation. Part of it had been ego, a refusal to admit defeat. But part of it had been fear—fear of letting go of the identity she had built through many years of pain, even if she had hated the process.
Ava had many conflicting feelings bottled up inside her that she had never tried to resolve before, simply ignoring them.
Ava stared at Barbara. Even though they had only known each other for a few months, Barbara was definitely the greatest friend she had ever had in her two hundred years of life.
Barbara shifted uncomfortably, Ava's prolonged silence and intense stare unnerving her. "Uhh… Ava, why are you looking at me like that?" she asked, her voice tinged with nervous humor. "Let me warn you, I like men, you know. I do read girl love novels because they are interesting, but I'm definitely straight."
"Pfft! Hahaha!" Ava's laughter erupted, echoing through the cavern, bright and unrestrained. The tension melted away, her eyes crinkling with amusement. "What are you talking about? I'm a married woman, did you forget?"
Barbara mumbled under her breath, barely audible, "But you're still a virgin…"
Ava rolled her eyes, a playful smirk tugging at her lips. This girl, always bringing that up, she thought, shaking her head.
"Barbara, can you listen to my story?" Ava asked, her voice softening.
Barbara's ears perked up fast. Story? Is she going to tell me about her marriage problems? Her interest level rose.
She scooted closer to Ava, nodding. "What is it? I'm all ears."
And so, under the comfortable stream of the purest spiritual energy, Ava began pouring her heart out about all the bottled-up feelings she had never voiced in her life. She had already bawled her eyes out for hours in front of Barbara, revealing her vulnerability earlier, so sharing her truest feelings with Barbara felt easy.
After a while, Ava let out a long breath, her chest lighter, as if the weight of centuries had lifted.
Barbara leaned back, her expression thoughtful. "I see… I did not expect a tough lady like you to have those conflicted feelings. You never can know for sure what someone has gone through, huh," she said, her voice soft but sincere.
"Yeah…" Ava murmured, a wry smile tugging at her lips. "I don't like pain, but at the same time, I love the feeling of getting stronger. What a mess."
"I wonder if all body cultivators go through the same thing?" Barbara wondered.
"Hmm… I'm not sure," Ava replied, her brow furrowing. "I have met and talked with other body cultivators before, but it was not to the point where we would share like this. Well, usually we ended up sparring, of course." She chuckled.
"Typical body cultivators, huh."
Ava's face lit up with a sudden, radiant smile, her eyes sparkling in the vein's glow. "You know what, Barbara? I'm actually feeling a lot better now. I did not expect that just talking to someone could make everything feel so much lighter. It feels great! Suddenly, I don't feel like I hate body cultivation that much anymore. Maybe I should have talked to someone else much earlier. I'm so stupid. But then again, nobody was ever close enough to talk to me like you. Hahaha!"