🌗 Fifty Fifty

Yan Feng Gu was born in 1401 in China, started his life as an acrobat boy but became a monk and an exorcist in his later life. All that we already know, but little did he expect it was just the beginning of his long life.

He led a healthy life and practiced a lot of kung fu, knew a great deal about herbs and never stopped doing contortion just for his own pleasure. He was 100 years old and still could touch his toes... from bending in half backwards!

In 1501 he woke up in the morning of a summer day, feeling incredibly light and energetic all of a sudden. He always had a good sleep but now he had no words for how good he felt! He looked at his hands and jumped! They were so small, his limbs so thin, his skin so smooth, and most importantly his long white beard was gone!!

Still naked, he ran to the lake outside and couldn't believe the reflection he saw in the water! He jumped like a young boy because he literally was one!

Maybe it was some old age insanity, he thought? But a whole day passed and things remained the same. He gained a lot of proofs it wasn't his imagination and he really was very young again! Yet he couldn't explain all this... Then again, he had to deal with many curses over the 70 years of working as an exorcist, perhaps it was a strange mixture of them that affected him?

Since that year the same thing repeated every century, and Yan Feng Gu lived all the way to 2201. It was a great challenge to find ways to not die until the age of 100, but all the efforts were greatly rewarding in the end. He was apparently immortal but he had to sustain his immortality through a healthy lifestyle and keeping his body and mind in a great shape.

His job as an exorcist monk didn't make it easier, having to deal with dangerous evil spirits and all that, but Gu finally celebrated his 800th year of life after waking up in a beautiful young body again.

Usually his "young" years he always dedicated to contortion and stretching, it was a traditional Chinese way to increase longevity, as they say you're young as long as your backbone is flexible.

Also contortion was useful because evil spirits started disappearing over time, maybe because people ceased to believe in them and those beliefs were the main source of their life power. In the past they'd always summon an exorcist, now they'd just take meds if something troubled them, so for Gu exorcism became something special used on rare occassions, while contortionism slowly became an everyday job that put bread on the table.

One day Gu heard a dull knocking on his door as if someone bumped their forehead on it. He opened the door and saw a topless girl, her breasts were so stunning that it took Gu a second to realize she had no arms, but no scars there either, just nothing extended from her smooth shoulders...

Girl: "I'm looking for young Feng Gu..."
Gu: "That's me but it's Yan Feng Gu."
Girl: "But I was told he's an old man..."
Gu: "But I thought you said 'young'?"
Girl: "Please, can I hold your waist..."
Gu: "But you don't even have any arrr!.."

Before Gu finished, the girl walked closer and he got a strange feeling in his abdomen that completely freaked him out, it's like his body lost all balance and he started falling down in a really weird way, only his mastery of kung fu saved him from hitting his head and when he leaned on his elbows and looked up, he saw his own legs and butt still standing straight in front of him!

Even in the most extreme contortion poses he couldn't imagine seeing his butt in front of himself like that! He quickly stood on his arms, it felt funny but it wasn't the time for fun, he had to save himself! He looked at the door, that topless armless girl was already gone... How could he even fall for this? He hasn't seen any major spirits and monsters for centuries and now all of a sudden such a powerful monster caught him completely off guard!!

Unbelievable! And what is he going to do now, after his body was split in two halves? Gu tried to control his legs and to his great surprise it worked perfectly. His upper body was completely disconnected from the lower half but he could move and even feel his legs just like he always could.

He made his lower half sit down cross-legged, walked on his arms and lowered his upper torso on top of his pelvis. After finding the right balance he closed his eyes and concentrated. After several seconds of mental efforts, his upper body got lifted in the air on its own and took approximately the right position above his pelvis, though the entire midsection was still missing.

Gu opened his eyes and stood up slowly. His body was proportioned and oriented normally again thanks to his special powers, with the only exception that the waist wasn't part of his body anymore.

He stood in front of the mirror and looked at his torso that was sliced really smoothly in two halves. Nothing like wounds and scars, just completely smooth skin both under his ribcage and above his navel, and only air in between...

"This is actually kind of cool," Gu purred to himself.

"Thanks," he heard the voice of that girl again! Gu turned around so quickly that he almost fell apart again. "Be careful," the girl smiled at him, "Here, take my hand."

"But I thought you had no..." Gu almost jumped again when he saw she now had both arms. "Wait, that means..."

"I'm so sorry! But I couldn't live like that anymore, living with no arms is such a curse! I thought since you're an exorcist... you'd deal with curses better than me... So I had to pass it to you... I'm really sorry! I'm sure you'll find a way to get rid of it or just pass it to someone else..."

"So I guess it's a curse that makes one's body partially disappear... I've never had such a curse before, but it feels nice. Think I'll keep it for a while... Thanks for showing it to me. Say, would you like some herbal tea?"

"Yeah, wouldn't mind something hot right now, I'm still shaking..." the topless girl shook her shoulders in a bellydancer's manner and her beautiful breasts followed the motion.

Gu smirked. "This way, please. I just changed the bedsheets."