My Clones Can Cultivate

Chapter 84

Pain. That was the very first thing Li Yu felt as he slowly regained consciousness, and yet, funnily enough, he wasn’t troubled or irritated by it; instead, he welcomed it.

After all, he still remembered the last thing he had done: the system trying to dissuade him, the unbearable weakness that had permeated every bone in his body, and the terrifying sensation of slowly walking toward death’s door once again.

Feeling the softness beneath him, he could already tell that he was no longer inside the cultivation chamber, and the fact that strength had gradually returned to his limbs meant only one thing: someone had found him and brought him out of the cultivation chamber.

"So... this is the part where I open my eyes and see a beautiful female physician standing before me," Li Yu grinned inwardly.

Well, he didn’t have all day to lie around in bed, so he slowly opened his eyes and looked upward. His expression immediately changed, because unlike in his fantasy, the face staring back at him wasn’t that of a beautiful female physician, but that of an old man.

"Hey, lad, you’re finally awake," the old physician said with a relieved smile. Although, the kid didn’t seem relieved that he had been saved; instead, he looked rather horrified, as if he had just seen a ghost. "Calm down, kid. It’s me, your old man," the physician said.

Li Yu’s face twitched as he slowly sat up: "I know... and that’s exactly why my face looks like this."

The old man’s eyes twitched. So this brat was practically saying that seeing him was more terrifying than dying? "Disrespectful brat. You should be grateful that someone found you quickly when you collapsed and rushed you here.

If not for that, then only the heavens know what might have happened to you." The old physician sighed once more. Li Yu had indeed looked utterly miserable when he was brought into the infirmary.

Blood had been dripping from both corners of his eyes, and his vital signs had become incredibly weak, almost as though every ounce of energy within his body had been completely drained away.

When the old physician examined him, he was shocked to discover that this was actually the case... Li Yu’s body had been completely depleted of energy. To stabilize him, the old physician had to feed him Spiritual Water along with several medicinal pills that improved blood circulation, and he had even used one of his special healing arts to ensure the boy’s safety.

The old man was genuinely curious about what had happened to drain Li Yu to such an extent; it was almost as if all the energy inside his body had been devoured by some energy-sucking vampire. But that wasn’t even the strangest part; the truly unbelievable thing was Li Yu’s vitality.

His body’s recovery speed was simply absurd; it had only been three hours, yet he had already recovered almost completely. If this had happened to any other Body Refinement cultivator, the old physician was more than certain they would have needed at least several days before recovering to this extent.

He looked toward Li Yu, who was wearing a deep frown as though all of his life’s expectations had just been shattered. Well, it was sort of like that, but the old physician would never know, nor would he ever understand.

Li Yu sighed deeply, his gaze becoming slightly firmer. Whatever. Who knows? Maybe he had simply been unlucky this time; perhaps the next time he woke up after collapsing, he would finally be greeted by a breathtaking beauty instead of an old man who was only one step away from the grave.

"Hey, kid... why do I feel like you’re secretly wishing something bad would happen to me?" the old physician asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. Li Yu coughed awkwardly before shaking his head and looking away:

"No... that’s not it." "Then what is it?" the old physician asked as he stood up to bring over the food he had ordered for Li Yu while the boy was still recuperating. Li Yu simply shrugged and replied, "Nothing really."

Feeling the need to steer this rather uncomfortable conversation away from himself, Li Yu decided to ask another question:

"So... how did they know I collapsed? I remember the cultivation chamber is completely enclosed with a thick door. There is no way they should have been able to tell that I had collapsed."

The old man narrowed his eyes slightly. He could tell that Li Yu was trying to change the topic, but he decided not to pressure the lad too much; after all, the boy had just survived something rather terrifying, and whatever had happened to him, it had been powerful enough to completely drain every bit of energy from his body.

The old physician decided to explain: "Every cultivation chamber has a monitoring orb placed inside. The moment someone enters the chamber, the orb glows blue, showing that the cultivator is currently cultivating. Once they leave, the blue light fades and returns to white."

"But if something troublesome happens during cultivation... which does occur once in a while... and the cultivator inside collapses or loses consciousness, the orb immediately turns red. That serves as a warning for anyone nearby to rush over and render assistance as quickly as possible."

Li Yu couldn’t help but feel his eyes brighten upon hearing that. He had to admit that was a rather brilliant system; with something like that in place, the number of lives saved during cultivation accidents would increase tremendously.

He silently praised the clan for having such foresight; otherwise, he himself might have become one of the victims. Although Li Yu believed he would have eventually survived, how long he could have lasted in that completely drained state was another matter entirely. Still, he was grateful: "Thanks a lot, Old Man Jushong.

This junior truly appreciates your treatment."

The old physician raised an eyebrow: "But you don’t seem like you do." Li Yu coughed awkwardly before speaking: "Actually... that’s a completely different matter." The old man simply shook his head before teasing him no further; instead, he brought over a large amount of Spirit Food.

"Although you’ve recovered some of your energy, there’s still plenty you need to recover. Eat this. It’ll help you regain your strength much faster."

Seeing how much the old man genuinely cared about him... and more importantly, seeing just how delicious the food looked... the old man, who moments ago had seemed only one step away from the grave in Li Yu’s eyes, suddenly transformed into an old angel sent down from the heavens.

He was starving like crazy right now. "Old Man Jushong..." Li Yu’s eyes almost watered as he hugged the old physician tightly. "You’re like my great-great-grandfather. Thank you for taking such good care of me." Elder Jushong smiled helplessly as he patted the lad’s back.

Actually, there were quite a few things he found rather suspicious: the first was why the brat kept calling him his great-great-grandfather, as he was only around three hundred years old... not old at all... and the second was even stranger, as it almost felt as though the kid was more grateful because of the food than because of all the effort he had gone through to save his life.

He wanted to ask about it, but before he could even open his mouth, Li Yu had already started devouring the mountain of food before him.

He ate at such an absurd speed that it almost looked impossible; even the old physician was left speechless. He had heard rumors that Li Yu ate a lot... that was precisely why he had prepared such a massive amount of food so the boy could eat to his heart’s content... but this... how was the kid eating this much?

It was absolutely mind-blowing. There was only one explanation the old physician could think of: Li Yu’s body must have required an enormous amount of energy to replenish everything that had been drained from him.

Meanwhile, Li Yu paid absolutely no attention to the old man’s thoughts; his entire focus was on the food. It was delicious. Every single bite surged through his body, revitalizing his bones and filling him with life once more. It was an incredibly satisfying feeling.

By the time he finished the mountain of food before him, his body felt completely energized and revitalized; he let out a satisfied burp before leaning comfortably against the side of the chair, a happy smile spreading across his face.

The old physician, who had witnessed the entire unbelievable spectacle, couldn’t help but remain speechless. Still, after a few more seconds passed, he finally gathered himself and decided to ask the question that had been bothering him all this time:

"What exactly happened in there that caused your body to run completely out of energy?" He truly couldn’t help but be curious.

The sheer amount of Spirit Food Li Yu had just consumed... and digested without any issue... proved that his body had required an unimaginable amount of energy to replenish what had been lost. Just what could have possibly drained him to such an extent?

Li Yu’s expression gradually became solemn as memories of what had happened inside the cultivation chamber resurfaced. It had truly been a mind-numbing experience; he remembered everything.

The excitement of realizing he was so close to succeeding, the terrifying coldness spreading through his body as it gradually went numb, moving his hands through nothing but sheer willpower... he could even vividly remember the burning-hot sensation that had exploded through his skull from overusing the Origin Eyes.

The pain... now that he thought about it, it had truly been terrifying. Now that he was no longer fueled by adrenaline,

Li Yu couldn’t help but feel that perhaps he had actually gone mad during those final moments; that level of pain should have broken anyone, and yet, he had somehow endured all of it while continuing to optimize the cultivation technique.

Li Yu slowly shook his head: "I... I guess that is truly an insane thing to do." The old man’s ears immediately perked up: "What did you say?" he asked. Li Yu turned to look at the old man.

Should he tell him? Well, he deserved to know about it, but whether he believed it was another matter entirely. "Okay, this is actually what happened." Li Yu recounted everything, explaining how he felt that the Foundation Breathing Sutra was far too slow at gathering qi threads, so he decided to upgrade it and optimize it to its greatest potential.

The more Li Yu spoke, the more complicated the old man’s expression became. "So you are saying that you tried to modify a cultivation technique?" he asked, his eyes twitching. Li Yu nodded: "Well... it is my fault for trying. I might have gone a little overboard."

The old man shook his head: "You are delusional, kid." His tone turned serious: "Don’t joke around with something like that." Li Yu’s expression became incredulous.

What? He was telling the truth, yet once again he wasn’t being believed. "Creating a cultivation sutra is far easier than modifying one.

Even the clan lord himself would probably require weeks, if not months, to accomplish something like that, and yet you are claiming that you managed to do the same thing within just a few hours. What do you think you are... a cultivation god or something?"

Li Yu didn’t say a word as the old man became more and more agitated: "Heck, even I have tried doing something similar before. A whole year later, and I still couldn’t even raise it from the Bronze Rank to the Silver Rank."

He turned his gaze toward Li Yu as if daring him to tell another lie: "Tell me, kid. What rank did you increase the Foundation Breathing Sutra to?" he asked. Li Yu blinked before thinking for a while.

He couldn’t be entirely sure of the rank since he had been too exhausted to inspect it himself; the only thing he knew was that he had succeeded. He then opened his system interface and quickly checked the rank.

The moment he saw it, even he was slightly surprised... so he had really managed to push it that high. Well, he shouldn’t be that surprised; after all, this was him they were talking about.

Of course he was awesome enough to accomplish something like that.

"What rank?" the old man asked again, believing the kid had finally realized that lying was pointless and had decided to tell the truth. But to Elder Jushong’s utter dismay... and complete disbelief... Li Yu finally answered:

"I managed to raise it to the Obsidian Rank," he said with a small smile. Elder Jushong’s face twitched violently: "You brat... how can you be so comfortable lying through your teeth? Aren’t your lies even scary enough to scare yourself?"

After all, increasing a cultivation technique by even one rank was already an extremely difficult task that required a tremendous amount of time; yet this brat was claiming to have pushed it through four whole ranks.

"And you expect me to believe that?" Li Yu’s face twitched while the old man’s hand twitched even harder. He desperately wanted to smack some sense into this brat’s skull but was barely holding himself back.

"And how exactly did you accomplish such a heaven-defying feat? Tell me. I really want to know." Li Yu explained that he had barely managed to accomplish it because he was an unparalleled genius; not only that, but his ocular ability had also helped him tremendously.

The moment the old elder heard that, his eyes widened: "What ocular ability? Come on, show me now!" he demanded. If it was true, he would naturally become excited, although he wasn’t keeping his hopes very high; for all he knew, this kid was simply playing around with him.

"Come on, show me." Li Yu nodded before trying to activate the Origin Eyes; however, the only thing that answered him was a sharp pain shooting through his skull. He winced slightly before shaking his head.

The old man closed his eyes; he was now one hundred percent convinced that this kid was simply messing with him, and his patience had finally worn thin: "Just leave. I’ve had enough of your nonsense," he said. Li Yu raised an eyebrow:

"But I am telling the tru... " He never got to finish his sentence. Bang! A loud explosion echoed through the infirmary as Li Yu was punched straight through the roof by the old man’s fist.

Elder Jushong’s gaze twitched violently as he looked at his own fist: "I should probably beat some sense into that kid before he becomes fully and completely delusional." Li Yu held his aching cheek while wincing in pain.

The old man had punched him for telling what he believed was a lie, yet the truth was that it was the old man who refused to believe the truth. After all, Li Yu had indeed been telling the truth.