"She's… your slave?" Martin sought clarification.
"Yeah. It's one of my newly-acquired abilities. I can take in followers and take slaves. As of now, she and Liam are two of my slaves."
Jasper explained while the two looked at Janice and Liam's darkened expressions. They didn't refute any of his words.
"What does that mean? Does she have to follow every order you have?" Martin became increasingly excited.
Jasper didn't explain it himself, passing it to Janice.
"... yes." She sensed his intentions and answered with a heavy voice, "he can."
"Like, anything you want?" Justine followed up.
"Yes, anything he wants. My body follows his every command."
"..."
Simultaneous gulps could be heard from the two.
"Man— you're so lucky," Justine heaved a long sigh. Meanwhile, Martin has a complicated expression.
"Is this fine?"
Martin was concerned with the morality of it.
"Of course, it's not." Jasper immediately answered and then stared at Martin's eyes, "Do you disagree with it?"
"..."
Justine suddenly felt the atmosphere become tense.
"I can't say I don't disagree with it…" Martin answered honestly.
Janice and Liam's heads turned to Martin. Is he going to go against Jasper? Then, as Jasper's friend, could he change Jasper's mind? Even if the probability seemed low, they were hoping for something like that.
Martin then continued after a short pause, "While I don't agree with it, you do you, Jasper. I didn't think of you as a good person in the first place."
"Are you a good person, Martin?"
Silence landed on the room. It was only broken by the pair's laughter.
"Nah, I'm not, man. I'm actually having some devious thoughts right now." Martin scratched his head and laughed louder.
"Just say it. You want her for a night, don't you?"
"Of course, I want to. Who wouldn't with such a pretty lady?" Martin glanced at Janice but only received a disgusted glare so he immediately looked away, "Ehem, but I'm not comfortable forcing my partner or the idea of slaves."
Jasper looked at Martin with doubt.
"Me! Me! I want to do it!" Justine then raised his hand enthusiastically, "One of my fantasies is to dominate a female slave! I'm more excited if they don't want it!"
"..."
Everyone, including Liam, looked at him as if they're looking at a degenerate.
"Justine, why don't you just kill yourself?" Martin spoke as if it was a suggestion, not a question.
"Urk!" Justine was shot down and stayed quiet.
"Why are we even friends with this closeted evil bastard?" Jasper shook his head.
Justine revealed a depressed expression, "Don't be like that…"
"Anyway, I asked you two here to give you something," Jasper said, treating Justine like air. With a thought, pearl-like stones appeared in his hands, "Here you go, Martin."
"What are these?"
"Those are Body Tempering Qi Stones."
"Qi Stones!?" Martin shot up from his seat. Justine looked from the side, enamored.
"Yes, you can feel it."
Martin focused on the stones and could feel the qi within. It's the real deal. He shuddered, "You mean to tell me that you're giving this to me?"
"That's correct."
"Jasper! I really need to kiss you!" Martin jumped to Jasper before being kicked on the face.
"Hahaha, I received your gratitude. Never do that again."
"Fuck, you didn't have to hit that hard," Martin grimaced as he felt his face burn from pain. However, feeling the Qi Stones in his hands, he immediately forgot the pain and grinned like an idiot.
He stood up and handed one to Jasper and another to Justine. But Jasper shook his head and took the one from Justine's hand.
"Hey!"
"I don't need it, all three are yours."
"What?" Martin was stunned along with the others, "Don't give me hopes, Jasper. This surely costs a fortune to us Body Tempering Cultivators!"
"Yeah, what about mine!?" Justine protested.
"There's more where that came from," another set of Qi Stones appeared on Jasper's hands, "Don't worry about it. I can easily give you ten but since you're only at the second stage, that's enough for now."
Seeing a heap of Qi Stones on Jasper's hands, Martin and Justine stammered.
"You're fucking rich, dude! Where'd you get those!?"
"Sh! Don't question it too much." Jasper then looked at Justine, "Hmm, but I'm starting to change my mind whether I should give them to Justine too."
"Ugh…!" Justine fell on the floor and slammed his head on the ground, "I'm sorry Lord Jasper, I'll never speak of such rude things again."
He then turned to Janice, "I apologize as well to you, Miss Janice, for voicing my rude thoughts!"
"The thickness…" Jasper rolled his eyes before throwing a set of three Qi Stones, "Catch, you bastard."
Justine failed to catch them and they hit him instead. He scrambled to pick up the precious Qi Stones.
"Thank you, oh, thank you, My Lord! Let me kiss your feet!"
Justine then received a stronger kick to the face.
"Fuck off." Jasper said with a smile.
"That hurts!"
"But Jasper," Martin went back to his seat with a concern, "we received another mission that will bring us to the third stage. Would we need this?"
"Of course. These Qi Stones can help your foundation. Furthermore, it helps you practice control over your new body. Although we can only start refining qi and store it in the Qi Refinement Realm, our body is strengthened by qi and we can easily control our body if we have a better control of the qi within. By ingesting the Qi Stones, you get the better feel to it. Your foundation might become unstable if you solely rely on the missions. That's why you shouldn't feel bad about using the Qi Stones."
Jasper shared his insights.
"Oh, as expected of a top student."
"That's not all. This will increase your energy to complete your missions faster and help you in learning the cultivation manuals I'm about to give you."
Eyes widened simultaneously when they heard the words 'cultivation manuals' come out from Jasper's mouth.
Cultivation manuals, as in plural!?
Books appeared from nowhere and landed on the table. They are the Skin Refinement Cultivation Manual and the Shattered Bones Cultivation Manual.
"As you know, the first three stages of the Body Tempering Realm is about tempering the bone. For this, the Shattered Bones Cultivation Manual will help you increase your power and help you smoothen your cultivation path onwards in the Body Tempering Realm. Then, in the middle three stages, you will temper your muscles and skins which the Skin Refinement Cultivation Manual will help."
Martin took both manuals as Justine impatiently leaned forward to take a look. They were indeed cultivation manuals!
"Are you sure you're giving this to us, Jasper?"
Martin's voice was heavy. This is no longer on par with the Qi Stones. This could buy them land if they sold these. These are too precious for Body Tempering Cultivators. Unlike cultivation skill scrolls, cultivation manuals are not expendable but reusable. On the other hand, they take longer to learn and assimilate.
Jasper wasn't worried about the time though. The reason is simple. Cultivators usually use cultivation manuals to break through, rarely do they use it after. For Martin and Justine, the latter is the case. They don't have a problem with breaking through with the help of the system and will just use the cultivation manuals for foundation solidification. Thus, they would at most spend months, not years, in learning the cultivation manuals.
Aware of their feelings, Jasper went to solve these.
"Of course, these are not free. You'll have to do me favors and trust me, these favors are not easy and will risk your lives if you are not careful."
He offered them the option: They can either safely cultivate with the system or take these cultivation resources in exchange of following Jasper's words.
Martin and Justine then stared at Jasper with frowning expressions. They seemed to be a bit annoyed in their own ways.
"I'm not forcing you."
"No, dude. You are treating us like strangers. Even if you don't give these to us, we'll follow your words. Even though we're friends, you're like our boss from the start!"
Right. Before the age of enlightenment, Jasper was at the top of their middle school and under him were people including Martin and Justine. After the age of enlightenment, Martin and Justine stayed as his friends, treating each other as equals.
Their faith in Jasper was unparalleled and the recent times revealed that they weren't wrong. Jasper didn't choose them because they are good or kind people. He chose them because of their loyalty and conviction!
Jasper smiled and nodded heavily.
"Kekeke, here's tissue, Boss," Martin handed a paper towel, noticing tears forming in the edge of his eyes.
Sniff* Jasper felt embarrassed and annoyed as he took the paper towel.
"Thanks, dust got caught in my eyes."
"Right, right" both Martin and Justine laughed which further annoyed Jasper.
"Well, since you'll follow me even without these manuals, I don't need to give them to you-"
"No, wait!"
Taking the cultivation manuals, both Martin and Justine came out of the apartment room with smiles wider than they came in.