“What are you doing?!” Sister Jin exclaimed with a horrified expression. Her previously guarded stance had been replaced by one of panic as she dashed towards the Young Master, presumably to stop him from hurting himself further.

  Brother Dai stopped her before she could reach him.

  “Relax,” he said, exasperated. “The fool is just offering you a meal.”

  Feng pressed the broken blade deeper into his right flank. An onlooker might regard his actions as one of lunacy, but there was a rationale behind this sudden bout of self-surgical harm.

  Knowing that did not make the pain any less intense, however, especially with his instinct screaming at him to stop. Pushing past the primitive impulse of self-preservation, Feng continued pressing the blade until the steely flesh of his body finally parted in earnest.

  The white flash of agony was blinding, but it was also expected and thus controllable. The Young Master bit his lips and forced himself not to make a sound as he expanded upon the initial incision. The sharpened Spirit Metal of the glaive head slit effortlessly through layers of hardened skin and flesh, until it finally broke into the wet internal cavity of Feng's torso.

  Sanguine red pooled around his wound, filling the air with the metallic, mouth-watering scent of a cultivator’s sweet blood.

  Feng tossed aside the glaive, allowing the metal edge to clang noisily against the ground. Brother Dai winced at his precious weapon being discarded with such disrespect, but the Young Master's attention was focused solely on his laceration and the contents within his body.

  With his hands freed, Feng reached his fingers into the incision and peeled back the layers of his fats and tissues, widening the cut and exposing his insides.

  The discomforting sensation was only triumphed by the searing agony that assaulted his every sense. There exists no natural reflex to stick one's own hand into an open wound. Every fibre of his being was protesting at the alien sensation, made all the worse that the action was voluntary.

  It was distracting, to say the least. Feng sucked in a breath when the pain began to affect his vision, stoking the remaining embers of his qi back to life with meditative cycles. By the third breath, a comforting warmth settled upon his mind as his qi attended to the damage and pain.

  Aside from enhancing his regeneration and bodily endurance, one of the many perks of the Body Tempering Realm was the reduction or even complete elimination of physical pain. Its efficacy was dependent on which Step the cultivator was currently in, but even an initiate of the Tempering Realm benefits from a general numbness to all forms of injuries.

  Feng had no doubt that were he to perform a procedure like this on an unawakened mortal, they would likely pass out before his fingers could even reach into the wound. That his agony could currently be described as only a mere discomfort was more proof of a cultivator’s superiority over a regular man.

  The Young Master’s Spiritual System worked methodically, his meridians siphoning the reserves of refined qi stored within the cores of his three Dantian, saturating them over his exposed abdomen to stem the blood loss and sap away the pain. His fingers strained against his regenerating flesh, keeping the wound open even as it wetly pulled and squirmed to seal itself.

  Thankfully, this was not the first time he had done an organ extraction on his person, so Feng knew the correct steps so as to not embarrass himself before an audience. With careful control, he directed most of his qi away; enough to slow his regenerating flesh, but still retaining sufficient potency to suppress the bleeding and keep most of the agony at bay.

  The two disciples watched wordlessly as he worked; Brother Dai with a careful gaze and Sister Jin with open shock. As the Young Master peeled back more of his flesh, his liver finally came into view — a vibrant, succulent mass of meat protected behind lines of ivory ribs, absolutely bursting with vitality and spiritual energy; a testament to the Young Master's superior upbringing.

  Feng reinforced his fingernails with qi, turning them into makeshift scalpels. Their sharpness would not have been enough to slice through his skin earlier. Such basic manipulation of spiritual energy into a physical medium ill-suffice as a tool for penetrating the cultivated epidermis of a practitioner in the Third Realm. The drastic reinforcement of their body made their skin harder than iron and beyond any mundane means to injure.

  Thus necessitating the use of Brother Dai’s glaive to start the procedure. Whatever metal used for the blade was of a quality fit for the brutal combat between Core Disciples. That it would be strong enough to slice Tempered flesh was a certainty.

  For the delicate confines of his more vulnerable cavity, however, the sharpness of his spiritual fingers would suffice.

  With practised ease, he began to detach the delectable organ from its fleshy moorings, feeling the tautness of fibrous tissues and bloody ligament giving way as they were severed beneath his skilled fingers. Blood and serous fluid lubricated his hand, making it difficult to grasp the slippery gland even with Qi guiding his movements.

  His discomfort mounted as he delicately manoeuvred his digits around his abdominal cavity, breath turning into gasping pants and grunts as he sawed away at the liver’s holdings and operated upon himself with smooth, practised tempos.

  Finally, he managed to separate the fat organ from its confines, and — in one decisive motion — ripped his liver free from its cavity.

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  Feng held the meat aloft for the two disciples to see. The ordeal left the Young Master spent. With his qi already in turmoil from the Headless Impure Resurrection technique, restraining it such that his regeneration did not hinder his surgery was a challenge. His back was hunched, his flank slicked with a mixture of heavy blood and thin serous fluid, but the liver extraction was a success.

  Brother Dai’s expression was suitably impressed, giving Feng a thumbs-up before clapping his hands. The act of extracting one’s organ through self-mutilation was not exactly a Sect-taught practice. Putting aside how difficult it was to perform the ‘technique’ safely, such a skill would have very limited practical application outside of the most extreme of circumstances.

  The ghastly procedure was originally some form of twisted practice invented by a particularly desperate Core Disciple, done in an effort to impress a visiting female Elder from the Split-headed Carnivores Sect.

  It worked, to the woe of every male within the Beheaded Phoenix Sect — except for that particular disciple, perhaps. Now, whenever a male cultivator wished to express their sincerity to a female cultivator, there was a certain expectation for them to pull off that particularly nasty party trick to prove their devotion.

  Feng had learnt how to perform the extraction after he first broke through into the Tempering Realm. Brother Dai insisted that it was vital that he know it, and had personally gathered a group of Core Disciples to train him in the delicate procedure.

  It was one of the most painful experiences of his life, but at least he got to know his other venerable Seniors in the process. And right now, he reaped the fruits of that particularly gruelling ordeal.

  Sister Jin’s face was completely flushed, her mouth slightly parted, and her breathing heavy. Despite her earlier words of leaving Feng’s naked visage to her Lady’s eyes only, Jin’s amorous gaze was now completely focused on the Young Master, alternating between the bloody wound on his right flank and the succulent liver in his outstretched hand.

  “I think the act of witnessing you finger yourself might have broken her,” Brother Dai idly noted. Feng sighed.

  “Senior Sister Jin,” the Young Master called out, causing the female disciple to jerk out of her reverie. Her wide eyes snapped up to his, utterly panicked and flustered with ravenous intensity.

  Feng was slightly taken aback by the hunger in those serpent-green orbs, but pushed forth regardless.

  “Senior Sister Jin," he repeated. "For your aid in assisting my Juniors in controlling the fire, I would like to thank you personally. Senior Sister Shao had mentioned that the transformation might leave you famished. I hope this humble meal will help replenish some of your expended strength, and serve as adequate compensation for your efforts.”

  Sister Jin looked completely lost for words. Her face somehow grew redder until the moon-pale skin of her naked body appeared a rosy red. The sight was, admittedly, far from unpleasant, but her response was slightly less so.

  “I-I-!” She stammered, wide eyes flickering all over him before squeezing shut in embarrassment. “I can’t! Young Master, I’m flattered at your offer, but do not tempt me like this! I cannot betray the Young Miss!”

  “Which one?” Dai jokingly asked. Feng kicked him in the shin.

  “Don’t make this more difficult for her. Or for us,” he murmured, before turning to the red-faced disciple. Or perhaps red-bodied was more appropriate, given how the blush and excitement had now fully spread all over her.

  Feng noted once more how Sister Jin's flush complements the fairness of her complexion and the gentle swells of her curves, before forcing himself to focus.

  “You would not be betraying the Young Miss by accepting this,” he said reassuringly. “This is simply fair payment for your earlier assistance.”

  Sister Jin’s hunger was palpable, but her self-control appeared to still be holding strong. An admirable trait, for a disciple who hails from a Sect famed for its voracity. Or at least it would be, if Feng was not the one offering her his liver — the very one he had just painstakingly ripped out for her.

  What was he supposed to do with it if she refused? Open up his flank again and put it back in?

  “Even so, I cannot accept!” The Senior Sister glared at the Young Master with as much indignation as she could bring to bear. Which was not much, considering how her eyes kept falling from his eyes. She pointed an unsteady finger at him. “I should take this as an insult! The entire Split-headed Carnivores Sect should take this as an insult! Does the affection of our Young Mistress mean so little to the Young Master that he would go around propositioning any women he comes across!”

  "P-proposition?!" Feng choked. Brother Dai laughed.

  “Perhaps I should have properly educated you on the implications of such a feat when I taught it to you,” the Senior Brother lamented between chuckles. “The act of giving one’s own flesh like this is often prelude to passionate Dual Cultivation, Young Master. You weren’t supposed to use the skill on anyone aside from your wife. Its main purpose is to initiate intimacy, not to repay debts. Shame on me for underestimating the foolish depths of your sacrificial generosity, though I cannot say I regret it much.”

  “…Ah,” Feng numbly said.

  It appeared the Young Master might have made a grave miscalculation...

  Dual Cultivation, Part 1

  Dual cultivation refers to the Spiritual practice whereby a practitioner would impart a portion of their qi to another practitioner for cultivation — often through the sharing of flesh or bodily fluid. Ideally, the process would involve two cultivators of different Yin-Yang alignments both willingly sharing their qi and cultivating together as one, though such a thing is not a requirement if one only sought to selfishly benefit themselves through the process. With enough power, a cultivator does not need permission to force a lesser practitioner to give up their flesh in one-sided exchanges.

  The ingestion of another's refined qi greatly enhances one's rate of spiritual refinement and advancement. The powers of the Emperor's Domain — the Eternal Banquet — remove any complications that might arise from partaking of another's flesh. The process is thus also referred to as Cannibalism, although the term is regarded as crude and vulgar in politer circles.

  The method is part of the Sixfold Paths and is often regarded as the most optimal method of cultivation, being of reasonable accessibility while retaining the second-highest rate of Qi development among the six choices — triumphed only by Communion in Divine flesh.

  In His quest to bring about an Age of Cultivators, the Perverse Emperor has created an Empire where the weak would finally serve a purpose — that they may be devoured so that the worthy will rise. Without the Eternal Banquet, the use of Fleshborne Divinity would not have been a feasible method of cultivation. The other available cultivation forms would have been either too limited or meagre to allow Mankind to reach the heights it does today.

  It is no exaggeration to say that without the Emperor's Domain allowing for Dual Cultivation to be so effective, the Age of Cultivators might have never come to be.

  — Excerpt from To Those Worthy of the Eternal Banquet