Gigolo Diaries-Chapter 16: Recovery

Eros watched her fish through her armour in search of something. He was curious as to what she had for him. She finally found it and took out a large red berry, raising it towards the sun so Eros could have a good look at it.

He frowned a little and asked, "What’s that?"

He wasn’t particularly fond of cultivating by consuming herbs, so his knowledge of them was limited. From the looks of it, this was some sort of nexus herb.

Lain smiled and pushed the fruit into his palm.

"Just take it, it’ll help you break through."

Eros coughed a little as he accepted the fruit. He hadn’t told Lain his goal was perfection in the body refinement realm, so right now she must clearly think he had no shred of talent for cultivation. Even then, she hadn’t said a word about it.

His heart warmed a little seeing that she didn’t care about his talent. They had grown up together and she was now three ranks ahead of him. Most people would have grown arrogant in her position, but Lain clearly wasn’t like that. .

While he had to admit that she was extremely talented, it was something expected considering her dual personality helped her cultivate twice as fast as a normal person.

"Hey, you don’t have to pressure yourself. It doesn’t matter if you can break through or not. Your big sister will always protect you," she proclaimed with her chest puffed after noticing his weird expression.

"Yeah," Eros chuckled. "I’ll keep that in mind."

He decided to keep the reason for his low cultivation a secret for now. It would have no benefit whatsoever if he told her. And unlike Astoria, he doubted she could take such information lightly. After all, the number of people who have cultivated perfection in the last century could be counted on one’s fingers.

"Good." she nodded with a grin. "I should take this off and go bathe. I reek of monster blood."

With a disgusted expression, she began pulling off her chest armour while walking to the tent. The amour was already off when she got to the tent and only a tight bra covered the two soft mounds on her chest.

She threw Eros one last glance.

"There’s a hot spring up north, between the rocks. It’s a really nice place to take a bath. At least Elaine thinks so." She winked at Eros before entering the tent.

Eros stood there for a while trying to decipher her words, then the realisation hit.

"Did she just...invite me?"

A smirk formed on his face. He had no plans of turning down such a blatant invitation.

All he had to do was not miss the show.

He planned to visit the hot springs.

But first, he needed to stabilise the chaotic yang in his body.

With the jolly thought in mind, he skipped through the forest. He didn’t forget his sword. Whenever he was attacked by common beasts, he was able to kill them with a few swings.

According to the holy knights, this area was the closest to a safe zone one would get in these woods. All these common beasts were the major inhabitants and all they had managed to do, so far, was rile up the chaotic yang energy in him.

He sighted a tiger-like creature from afar. From the size alone he could tell it was a true beast or maybe even a corrupted one.

It wasn’t in his path. And with the current condition of his body, he could hardly put up a fight. So he made an effort to avoid it.

The trek didn’t last long and with pain coursing through him, he finally found what he was looking for. After killing a Srabbit¹ he saw a river flowing down.

He hadn’t expected to find a river so quickly. It was exactly what he needed to get rid of the pain in his limbs.

Without another word, he took off his clothes piece by piece. Unveiling his chiselled but slender frame to the bright sun. If not for the scars and lack of overbearing muscles, some would say his body was perfect.

He took a deep breath and jumped into the water.

He could last up to thirty minutes underwater without breathing by just circulating nexus throughout his body. So, as long as the river wasn’t too deep this wouldn’t be a challenge.

His body sank towards the bottom as the current pushed him around.

The water around him grew colder as he went even deeper, and when he finally hit rock bottom the temperature was close to freezing.

He immediately opened his pores and began to absorb this yin energy.

But things weren’t going as smoothly as he expected. The pressure from the river pressed against him on all sides, making his bones creak from time to time.

Blinding pain overcame his body due to the pressure as he grit his teeth. It was like being beaten with a club from all possible sides.

He absorbed yin even faster, in a bid to leave before the pressure overwhelmed him.

Luckily, the yin in the river was more than he expected and in less than ten minutes all the chaotic yang had calmed down.

He did one last check and when he realised there was no more yang rampaging in his system, Eros began swimming up. The currents were great, at least to a non-cultivator; he, on the other hand, just shrugged them off. And in less than a minute he reached the surface.

As he exited, his dark brown hair drooped as it stuck to his skin, completely drenched.

He wasn’t powerful enough to just use yang to dry himself out so he reached into his bag and retrieved a towel. Soon enough, he was back in his clothes as he pulled his hair to the back.

Without the rampaging yang in his system, he felt good as new. The other minor injuries had begun healing and wouldn’t affect his combat capabilities.

Before he left, a thought struck him as he glanced at the dragon blood technique in his bag. Since the pressure from the river was so great, perhaps he could use it to practice the technique. He thought for a while and couldn’t come up with a conclusive answer as to whether that would work. So he made up his mind to try it out.

Not now, though. He couldn’t afford to miss the show.

The edges of Eros’ lips twisted into a perverted smile as he made his way up North.

[1: Srabbit— sharp-toothed rabbit. A beast-tier creature of the common rank.]