THE DAO OF LIES AND DECEIT

CHAPTER 10

Jang was sitting down in his bed in an inn in a village about a day's journey from the cloudy mountain sect. Jang was trying very hard not to think about what had happened last night. Jang had thought he'd be able to keep his composure throughout the whole thing with Bo. But, as soon as they had started,  a message had popped up in front of Jang informing him that he'd feel 1.5 times the pleasure of his target. from that point on, Jang's behaviour had been outright shameful. No, he'drefuse to acknowledge it as his behavior. It was Jia, who was someone separate from him who'd acted that way. Jang resolved to never let himself acknowledge just how much pleasurable the experience had been.

Putting the intrusive thoughts out of his mind, Jang dended to focus on what was important. He knew that there were messages waiting for him, but he hadn't been in a mood to acknowledge them at the time and had decided to wait till he reached a location where he could be relatively peaceful and undisturbed. With a deep breath, Jang focused on the messages that were pending.

TASK: PROVIDING PLEASURE AND SATISFACTION TO SOMEONE OF SAME REALM OR ABOVE
TASK STATUS: ACCOMPLISHED FOR 1 TARGET
PLEASURE LEVEL - 96%
SATISFACTION LEVEL - 92%

CALCULATING REWARDS......
ALLOCATION IN PROGRESS...

Jang felt himself go still from shock as he felt vast amount of Qi, unlike anything he'd ever experienced before, entering his dantian. He felt the Qi inside getting more and more compressed as vast quantities of Qi kept pouring in until he felt that his dantian would burst from the encers Qi that was flooding in. Just when he thought he might die , Jang felt some of the Qi in his dantian compress and start to condense. For the first time in his life, Jang felt a drop of condensed Qi nside his dantian, which seemed to attract more Qi towards it to form a shallow pool inside him.

Jang felt a certain numbness spread around his body, starting from his dantian as the condensed Qi started to seep into all his organs and muscles. Jang knew what was coming next and rushed into the bathroom, which thankfully had running water and placed himself under the shower with water running over his body. As soon as the numbness reached his extremities, his skin began oozing with grey sludge that was soon washed away with water. A cultivator's body always underwent purification whenever they advanced a realm. when Jang initially became a cultivator, the waste expelled from his body was thick black sludge and was of a higher quantity than this time given that his body was much purer as a vapour Qi cultivator than as a mortal.

It was almost an hour when Jang felt that the numbness was receding from his extremities and the process was done. He stayed under the shower for another 15 minutes before he felt himself clean enough to come out. Jang dried himself and stepped back into the room before examining himself. Jang feet like he was born once again as he took in the world around him. The colours seemed sharper, and the lighting outside seeming to have more subtle shades that he'd failed to notice before. This was it. It was finally done. This was what Jang had dreamed of for many years. To be able to become a condensed Qi cultivator and to have a new lease on life. Jang took a deep breath, filling his lungs with air that he felt enriching and energising every cell in his body.

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Luang opened his eyes, fully aware and in control of every sensation that was coursing through his body. It had already been a year since Luang had managed to break through into crystal Qi realm from condensed Qi. Yet, it still amazed him how much of a difference it made to his body and spirit. It made Luang wonder how he could ever have felt content to be just a condensed Qi cultivator. By the time he made his way down to his office, his mood had tempered somewhat, but still remained rather buoyant.

Every cultivator he met on the way seemed very eager to bow and show their respect towards him. Only precious few actually dared to talk to him while he was walking. Those that did invariably belonged to scions of powerful clans and families who were still Inner disciples. As he made his way to the office, he was greeted at the door by his secretary.

" Good morning honoured cultivator Luang" she said while giving him a deep bow that managed to show off her considerable assets.
" Come now Leah, I've told you many times that you may adress me as senior Luang or just senior" Luang replied magnanimously.
"If you say so, senior" Leah replied bashfully while he took in her whole body, making no attempt to hide his leer.

Leah was a lower level condensed Qi cultivator that lacked a very strong family or clan to support her.  She had been working as the secretary for the last 5 months and it was an open secret in the inner sect that she was Luang's personal property. He assisted her with cultivation resources while she spread her legs whenever or for whomever he wished. It was a mutually advantageous arrangement that was fairly common in the inner sect. Luang had managed to ease off many potential conflicts with rival factions with the help of the social lubrication that Leah provided. Female cultivators, if properly used, were a very valuable commodity indeed.

A lot of cultivators who had access to this particular commodity tended to jealously hoard it while Luong was smart enough to freely share it to trade favours. That was one of the reasons why he had reached the coveted position as the head of the inner sect while other core disciples with even higher cultivation and better family than him was unable to reach where he had.

"So, what's on the docket today ?" Luang asked as soon as he had settled ento his chair at the office which actually resembled a throne room more than a simple office.
"The Feng clan has asked for their meeting to be postponed to next monday and there's an update in resource allocation from the core sect" she said.
" Did they give any reason why they want a postponement?" Luang asked.
" No senior. The message simply stated that it was unavoidable".

Luang had been trying to conclude a deal with the  Feng clan regarding some artifacts for a while and they were still stalling. Luang noted mentally that it might be time for him to start making some alternate arrangements. He could guess what the message was from the resource allocation bureau. It was most probably another cut in resources. This had been the trend that was continuing for the past few months. It was nothing serious, but he found it rather alarming that the downward trend was continuing for such a long period of time.

" Anything Else?" He asked.
" We are to recieve a new cultivator into the inner sect from the outer sect today"she said.
" Oh. What's his name? which clan is he affiliated with?" Luang asked with some interest. It was absolutely vital for him to be aware of any new players or major clans coming into his domain.

" His name is Jang. As far as I can tell, he is not affiliated with any family or clan. He's a mortal orphan who came into the sect a couple decades ago and had stayed as an outer disciple for the whole duration." she replied.

" Oh, then how did he manage to make the climb?" Luang asked, somewhat intrigued.
"It seems he got lucky and ran into a demon wave that was managable at his level and at the same time allowed him to obtain a large enough amount of energy for him to achieve the breakthrough. " she concluded.
" Interesting" Luang replied.

A cultivator with no backing entering the inner sect was unusual, but not unheard of. Luang hoped that Jang would bring some of his unusual luck with him to the inner sect while he ordered Leah to make arrangements for the ceremony to welcome Jang into the inner sect.