The Card Cultivation System
CCS-237

The test!

Blood flowed from the corner of Xika's mouth. But it was the lightest result that existed after Xika ate so many pills simultaneously. Inside her body, Xika felt an increasing pain. With each nerve, his body's channels began to widen. And those were signs that his body was about to explode shortly.

Heiliao looked at Xika in silence. In his eyes was trust in the boy. The actions that Xika had done before could easily be categorized as foolish actions. But Xika did that because she believed in him. So he also had to believe in Xika. Although, if the situation is urgent, he will cut off one of the body parts of Xika that contains a lot of qi so that Xika's body does not need to explode. But that's only in serious situations.

Xika traced her body carefully. He was trying to find where the union between his body and his wings was. The thing is, there is absolutely no shadow where the channel is located. And it'll explode if it doesn't find it.

The dantian works well. He could feel the feeling that he was about to break through. Unfortunately, there is another more pressing issue. This time he even managed to divide the concentration into three. One to keep an eye on the path of qi rotation through its dantian pattern, one to hold the remaining qi from blowing up its body, and another to look for where its wings are connected.

Although there was quite a bit of time, Xika was able to scan her body quickly. Unfortunately, he still could not find the location of his wings. It had been thought to enlarge its wings to make it easier to find but the idea was immediately explained because the pain that stretched it so enlarged the wings could certainly damage its concentration and directly explode its body.

He returned to scanning. There's still no. Once more. And the result remains the same. Eventually Xika came to the conclusion (because the remaining time was not enough for her to think of any other conclusion) that there was nowhere in her body connecting her wings.

In the middle of a narrow time, Xika tried to recall her first encounter with her wings. In the tomb of that time, in the pond he found these wings and met their owner. If it wasn't wrong, Huo Bing said the bird wouldn't mind lending its wings. Does that mean the loan is over now? Lustful then.

But isn't it after the bird itself that says it left its wings for Xika, not for the bird family? He's getting confused. Unfortunately, he had no time to be confused. The remaining Qi in his body had to be channeled, out of nowhere. Or he'll die.

The wings are definitely the most appropriate choice. In addition to healing, it might also be able to strengthen it. But the problem was that there was no path connecting his body with his wings.

DRRTA!!

Xika's body started to shake. It looks like it will explode soon. He gritted his teeth forcefully. He had only one idea in his head. It's a crazy idea, but that's all it has.

The test!

Blood started to come out of his ears, nose, and mouth. He tried hard to ignore the pain that came. With the rest of her concentration, Xika aimed the remaining qi at the back of her body, more or less at her back, parallel to her chest just at the back.

After preparing her determination, which lasted less than a second, Xika pushed the qi to pierce through her body.

A WRUSH!

The pain is getting worse. It felt like Xika had forgotten everything by fainting, but it seemed that she would not be able to wake up again if she gave up now. He had to maintain his consciousness to carry out his plan.

That is, to create a pathway that connects the body with its wings. He doesn't have that line. So what's the solution? Just make the path. Easy to say, crazy to do. He was sure that Huo Bing and Heiliao would definitely scold him all out. Let it. It's better than dying. Besides, what other choice does he have?

SRASH!

There was a strange sound from behind his back. A moment later Xika only realized that it was the sound of her flesh being torn apart. His teeth trembled violently enduring the pain. His hands were clenched tightly.

In front of him, Heiliao was already standing. The wolf began to trace Xika's body, trying to find out where the densest qi was, and intending to slash it to prevent Xika from exploding.

SWOSH!

A small speck of hole had formed behind Xika's back. From the hole was a bit of qi coming out, but Xika knew that it was not wasted. He felt that he had pierced his body precisely. That's where the two wings are located. It was small, but he could feel it.

And that little bit of qi that came out made his wings feel better, even if it was just a little. Xika became excited, despite being covered by her pain. His determination grew stronger and he pushed the remaining qi to continue punching holes in his back.

Meanwhile, Heiliao was already paying close attention to Xika's body. Although he did not know why, but the densest qi was gathering on Xika's back. He sighs. If it was like this, he would have to slash some of Xika's flesh. But let it be, it's better than letting Xika die.

His palm widened, and formed a small black sphere. He prepared to slash some of Xika's back, but just as his hand was about to float the black ball, he stopped. The wolf felt a stream coming out from Xika's back.

He narrowed his eyes and looked back at Xika's back. A small hole can be seen. Fortunately, he was a wolf. The wolf. So he has a sharper vision than the average human. Even than cultivators who had the same level of strength, his eyes were still sharp.

After being noticed better, the qi that came out of Xika's body did not fuse with nature just like that. It seems to have stopped for a reason. Unfortunately, Heiliao was unable to understand what was stopping Qi Xika from returning to nature.

Slowly the hole in Xika's body grew bigger. Of course, the suffering he felt was increasing as well. But, Xika managed to maintain her consciousness. Many times he thought of giving up. To just leave everything behind. There are so many trials that he has gone through.

His parents, his uncle, his clan, Tian Yin, Heiliao, Huo Bing, Xingli. Each one has given him trouble. Some are not even finished until now.

But when did life become easy? If you don't want to be hard, just die. He thought back to the times when he met his parents, or at least his uncle. Then the moment when he made Tian Yin bend his knees before him. And Xingli. The latter did not have time to think about because there was already another sensation on his back.

Previously, his qinya had indeed touched his wings. But that's all. Now, more and more qi touched her wings, and slowly Xika began to master her qi. So he tried to tie his wings to his body.

This time, there was a lot of pain. Of course, his wings had been damaged so the slightest contact gave him pain. But for the past few minutes, his body had experienced a pain like no other. A little more is nothing. So Xika did not give up and continued to tie her wings to her body.

Slowly, his wings began to move. The wings began to enter his body. But just as he was about to complete the final step, the sensation he felt earlier re-emerged. This time it was even stronger.

Xika was unaware of how his body was outside, but Heiliao gasped in shock at Xika's suddenly glowing back and covered his entire body until the wolf could not see.

"Ehh?"

In front of Xika, stood the spirit of the bird that had owned its wings before. Xika did not know how the bird could be here when the last time Xika saw it the bird had disappeared. But he did not dare to be disrespectful. His wings (or the wings of the bird) have helped him a lot. Quickly Xika put her hands together.

"Exactly. And this time because of you."

Xika pointed to herself in confusion. The bird doesn't care. He turned around and looked carefully at Xika's back. And Xika instantly flinched. It seems the bird knows that its wings are damaged.

"Pardon, senior. The wings are broken, but I am currently repairing them. It should be a while"

"How's it?"

"Eh?"

"How's the story going until you break my wings?"

Xika was sure she did not see such a face the last time they met. He convinced himself that next time he had to bring Huo Bing when he met another bird. Or the bird spirit.

"Anu, I protect seor-"

"Protect." The bird was silent for a moment. It was as if he was fondling Xika's answer whether good or not, then smiled. "That's not a bad reason."

At that instant Xika also let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm here for a reason." He glanced back at Xika's back. "It looks like your body has started receiving my wings, huh?"

"That's it, senior....." To be honest, Xika was not sure what the bird was talking about.

"I'm actually not sure your body can hold my wings."

"I'm sorry?" Xika actually wanted to say, 'Then why did you give it to me?'

"But your friend tried hard to convince me. So I finally agreed to keep my wings out. I left some of my spirits here to see if you fit in and deserve to have these wings of mine. The last time we met, you were able to fuse together and use my wings it was solely because of my blessing.

Unfortunately, I only gave half my blessing that time. I did so that it would be easy to separate my wings from your body, if for example your body did not match my wings. But it seems you've been quite successful to date. But this is the limit.

You completely crushed my wings like this. Your act of forming a channel to unite my wings with your body is correct. But you need to remember, that without my blessing, your actions are futile and will cause severe injury, if not death."

"What's? Goddamnit! Tell me from the beginning, dong!"

"This time, I came to give my blessing fully. After this, my wings will recover faster and will become stronger. Also, these wings will be yours completely."

The bird was silent for a moment. Xika was eager to protest, but because she was afraid that her wings would be taken back, so she also kept quiet.

"If it's not wrong, you've been dripping your blood on my wings before, and after that my wings change color, right?"

Xika nodded. He recalled the color of the wings turning dark blue like the sky with many bright spots as he dripped his blood.

"Blue-green color is mine. The next color that appears after you drip your blood is your own color. Before that it had changed color, but because I gave half my blessing, then your wings changed color back to my color.

After this, your wings will return to your original color. Take it easy, you can still change the size. It was a gift from me anyway. But maybe you'll need a little more adjustment."

The bird was silent again. I don't know what he was thinking until he was silent for a long time.

"Well, I don't seem to have anything else to say. Is there anything you want to ask?"

In his heart Xika wants this bird to leave as soon as possible, but he must maintain decency so it is better to give one or two questions.

"Senior, can I know your name?"

"Zi Lan's. Are you sure that's all you want to ask?"

"To be honest, I don't know what else to ask. Maybe the senior has good advice for keeping the wings?"

"Protecting that's a good reason. But you better not crush my wings next time. If there's nothing else you want to say I'm leaving first."

Xika smiled as she nodded her head. This time Zi Lan glowed then disappeared. When Xika opened her eyes she found Heiliao looking at her in confusion. A few moments later he realized that his stupid smile was still on his face.

He pretended to be busy ignoring the wolf. Xika looked at his back and found his wings. Her wings are no longer blue. The color was the same as when Xika first dripped blood. Dark blue with bright spots.

He tried to move his wings. It was a bit stiff, but this time it didn't take as long as before to get used to it. Now, those wings really belonged to him. Although his motives changed and became darker, he liked it. It was as if his wings were depicting the sky with its stars.

And, unknowingly he had already broken through to Forming Qi 7.