《Devouring the Heavens (ATG)》 Shane: Status, Abilities and Quests Shane: Status, Abilities and Quests In case you are unfamiliar with the cultivation realms in ATG I will list the nine mortal realms here [Elementary Profound] [Nascent Profound] [True Profound] [Spirit Profound] [Earth profound] [Sky profound] [Emperor Profound] [Tyrant Profound] [Sovereign Profound] ---------------------------------- [Name: Shan Long (Shane)] [Race: Human/Profound Beast (Weak)] [Bloodline: Primordial Shadow Panther (extremely weak) - Greatly enhanced Profound Senses] [Cultivation] [Abilities] [Map/Mini-map (expand or toggle on/off)] [Quests (Unlocked at Elementary Profound 10]) [Companions...] [Messages] {Profound Veins: TreasureBody Profound Veins} {Characteristics: 1) All of Creation - All bloodlines and Physiques can be assimted into host to further enhance the profound veins (benefits gained are directly linked to the hosts cultivation) 2) Bottle-never - 54 profound entrances are naturally opened. This makes all bottlenecks practically nonexistent and all realms inherently stable but each realm will also need more profound energy to advance 3) War-ir - Allows for an intrinsic understanding ofbat arts and skills during battle (host will still need to train but advancement and understanding will naturally improve at a rapid pace whilst using them) 4) Multi-finity - Gives host an affinity to all types of profound energy, works along with Devour to enable host to absorb and cultivate every type of profound energy in existence (with varying degrees of effectiveness) [Abilities:] {Appraisal: - Shows the name and description of the target. Cultivation Realms of living targets will also be disyed} {Combat Mastery (passive): - Host will naturally be able to wield all types of weapons inbat} {Dreamwalker - Strength of the ability is based upon the strength of host''s Will} {Characteristics 1) When in a meditative state, allows the host to create and shape a dreamscape to their liking - Created dreamscapes are always under the host''splete control. 2) The host is able to form a connection with a selected person or persons and bring them into the dreamscape - Dependant upon the difference in strength between host''s Will and target''s Will} {TreasureBody: Tier D (0%)} {Characteristics Organic Material (Profound Beasts, Corpses and Flora): 1) Devour - Can directly convert and refine organic matter into their most basic forms of energy before assimting with the host. Benefits gained are directly rted to differences in profound realm and physiology between target and host. ((Organic Constructs - Organic lifeforms can be absorbed by the host and used to create living weapons and armor that exist symbiotically with them)) 2) Bestowal - Energy refined with Devour can be separated from the host and formed into a profound pill that can be bestowed upon anyone. Profound pills created by this ability are extremely stable. Anyone listed in thepanions'' tab will gain greater benefits from these pills. 3) ??? Inorganic Material (Weapons, Armour, Metals, Crystals, Books etc) 1) Pirate Library - Host is able to absorb and assimte any written information including profound arts and techniques and manifest them within a mental pce. Profound arts and techniques will be absorbed into the host''s veins and get refined (cutting out unnecessary parts), gaining a minor increase in cultivation speed and efficiency of absorbed energy for each different one that is assimted - causes destruction of information source. 2) ??? 3) ??? [Quests] Main Quest chain XQ - Save Xia Qingyue from her tragic fate! (you''re here now, may as well fuck the plot before it even starts) 1) Dreaming of you Enter the Dreamscape and convince Xia Qingyue that you are in fact real and not a figment of her imagination. ~ Reward ess to and control of Dreamwalker ability 2) Wedding Crashers: Prevent the marriage of Xia Qingyue and Xiao Che by any means necessary. ~ Reward All ATG medical knowledge Optional objectives: a) Convince Xiao Che to annul the engagement from his side before the wedding date b) Reach Earth Profound realm before Qingyue and Xiao Che''s original marriage date so that her master will take you seriously ~ Reward Half/Complete Sky Poison pearl {Time Limit: 5 Months, 29 Days.} 3) ??? 4) ??? 5) ??? Chapter 1: Encounter Within a Dream Chapter 1: Encounter Within a Dream A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- A garden so beautiful, it would be impossible to exist in the mortal world. A crystal clear pond disturbed only by the long swaying branches of a crooked Chinese willow and the yful sshes of several colourful Koi as they frolicked just beneath the surface. The barely audible sound of a young girl''s weeping Three words, a question spoken, "Who are you?" The first time it happened, Shane was five. He was rushed into hospital after copsing on the first day of school and a couple of hourster his diagnosis was back... Leukaemia, not the incurable type but one that was likely toe back one day and finish what it started. Shane, however, understood very little at that time and once his parents had spoken to the professionals he underwent immediate treatment. Then the dreams started. The first night, Shane had no idea what to think. Soft green grass underfoot and surrounded on all sides by perpetual white fog, he wandered alone for what felt like hours before awakening in his hospital bed. Days passed in a blur as the treatments intensified and his body weakened; You see, the problem with Leukaemia is that the cancer itself is in the bone marrow and so to heal it you must first break it down at its source, naturally weakening the body to dangerous levels in the process. During this time Shane regrly closed his eyes in his hospital room only to reopen them again within the pure white fog and the grasnd of his dreamscape. He wandered without care, for there he never felt tired. After several days or maybe nights of directionless wandering, the fog began to thin and shadows of nts and trees started to form within the surroundings. A wee change, still distant and untouchable as if hidden behind a veil but they were there nheless. The days turned into weeks as Shane''s condition worsened before finally beginning to stabilise. The treatment was taking effect, but the toll on his young body was great and he spent long periods sleeping each day, escaping to his world of grass, fog and shadows where pain and fatigue no longer stuck to him. Stepping towards a particrly clear and possibly tree-shaped shadow in the distance, he marvelled at the almost immediate change in his surroundings. Step by step he wandered into this new world, colourful flowers the likes of which he had never seen, bloomed into life along a path made of smooth stone bs and on either side, a perfectly kemptwn of a beautiful vibrant green. At the end of the path, a single crooked Chinese willow driftedzily in the breeze. It swooned over a picturesque pond of crystal clear water dotted with lotus flowers as the wind between its leaves made a slight rustling sound. Sound. That was new. A small smile tugged at his lips before a barely audible whimper drew his attention to the side of the willow. There she stood... That first time he noticed her, he was so shocked to see another person within this ce he believed his own, he immediately awoke within his hospital bed. As fatigued as he was, he soon fell asleep and once again found himself in that wonderful garden. With steps free of worry and full of the innocence that could only belong to a child, he approached the pond. When he looked upon... his? Reflection in the crystal clear water, he saw a face that was his yet was also not. "Who are you?" Broken from his confusion he turned to see the girl not older than four years of age now staring at him with eyes like a pair of crystal clear gemstones. Long silky ck hair, slightly chubby cheeks, a cute little nose and puffy red rings around her eyes. "My name is Shane, what''s yours?" "Qingyue sniff sniff, Xia Qingyue." That was how two children; one dealing with his illness and the other with sadness over losing her mother, met for the first time. For the next few nights, both Qingyue and Shane spent time by the pond talking or ying as they both slowly opened up to each other and as children often do they became fast friends. Whenever they were both in the dreamscape, they were inseparable from each other and Shane would sometimes spend hours standing idly beside the pond waiting for her to join him. The days turned into weeks and finally, just as Qingyue seemed to be able to smile naturally again, Shane started to recover The more healthy he became and the faster he recovered, the less he was able to connect to the garden and the girl. Although he of course was happy to be getting well, he as a child still felt saddened that he could not spend time in his dreams with his friend as much as before. Eventually, Shane left the hospital and the dreams stopped altogether and one day he who had stayed positive throughout his illness cried for the first time. His family, naturally concerned, asked what was wrong and he tried to exin to them about the girl and the dream; try being the main word here. Whenever he would try to tell his parents or his family about it, the memories seemed to be very vague and fuzzy and he would have trouble forming words. Shane went about his life after those confusing months of dreams, treatment and recovery and once he recovered he was finally free to live life like a normal kid. He was normal in most aspects apart from his higher than average intelligence and borderline fanatical love for reading and so he went to school, he learnt and he made friends. Slowly, the years passed and the memories of that time started to fade into nothing until once again at the age of thirteen, Shane found himself back in a white world of perpetual fog and green grass underneath his feet. Intelligent and mature as he was, Shane understood that something was wrong and as a thirteen-year-old child, still began to panic. That was until his mind was suddenly awash with a calming feeling of familiarity ''I''ve been here before... But when?'' Shane began to wander and as he did so, the fog began to recede and shadows of nts and trees became visible in the distance. For every step he took, the sense of familiarity grew from a spark into a wildfire in the back of his mind until it became an audible buzz within his ears and finally with a *Peng* sound like that of breaking ss he found himself on a now remembered stone pathway. His eyes darted around in their sockets, taking in the view of the crystal clear water of the pond, the old crooked Chinese willow. Both of these sites were picturesque but not what he was searching for so his gaze never lingered. He looked past the willow and there at the edge of the pond, with her back to him and while facing the water, she stood once again. It had been eight years but now the memories of this ce flooded his consciousness as if it were only yesterday, how had he forgotten her!? He took a breath and shudderingly exhaled. "....Qingyue?" The word felt foreign to him and strange on his tongue as it came forth from his throat in anguage he was sure he could not speak. "Who!?" She whirled around on him, palm raised and anger clear upon her childish, fairy-like face. Anger slowly turned to confusion which then gave way to recognition, recognition to excitement and within just a single millisecond became a pout with added teary eyes that could shatter a stone statue. Shane stepped forward and before he could form any questions such as why she only looked around ten years old or howe she was wearing an ancient yet expensive looking... white robe? Qingyue in the form of a white and ck missileunched towards him at a speed far faster than a small girl should have been able to and embedded herself into his chest. In thest second before he found himself on his back on thewn beneath him he saw his reflection in the pond out of the corner of his eye. ''Why do I look so young?'' "Shane Why did you leave? ...I''ve been waiting in this dream every night since west yed together" She asked between muffled sobs and in a tiny voice barely louder than a whisper. ''Ahh yes, it''s a dream, this isn''t real. It''s probably a hallucination caused by my illness again'' Although Shane told himself these words, he couldn''t bring himself to upset Qingyue any further so he just held her close and whispered an apology while brushing through her long silky hair with his fingers. Whether he himself truly believed those words is also another thing. After their tearful reunion, Shane and Qingyue sat beside each other at the edge of the pond and talked about many things. Shane talked about school and his favourite books whereas Qingyue told him of her father''s merchant business and her wish to learn martial arts or as she called it "cultivation" ''strange word, but why does it sound so familiar to me hmm...'' By this point, Shane had entirely convinced himself that this was a dream created by his own mind to escape whatever his body was experiencing back in the real world. Everything was just too fantastical to be real. The nail in the coffin was the fact that his reflection in the water, although notpletely foreign, quite clearly showed someone different than he remembered. In this dreamscape, his age seemed to be around the same as Qingyue, although he was a few inches taller than her. His body looked lean and felt powerful for some reason and his features were forck of better words, more Asian. He had a mass of untamed brown hair with obsidian streaks, bronzed skin and reddish eyes. He was barefooted and only wore some strange shorts and a tunic? Altogether he looked rather wild, as if he was used to living outside. ''Well that settles it, this is definitely a dream. I may as well enjoy it while I''m here.'' Over the following days and weeks, Shane and Qingyue naturally grew very close as they yed together in the garden and talked about all manner of things in their lives. For some reason whenever Shane tried to broach the topic of his illness or the fact that this was his own dream, he felt a huge sinking feeling within his stomach as if he would lose something incredibly important should he utter those words. Unknown to him, a certain young girl was having the same feeling whenever she tried to talk to him about cultivation or how her mother flew away and left her, leaving her only able to say her mother was gone The same as the time before, Shane started to recover and once again found it harder and harder to enter the dreamscape and even when he did, he was able to spend less time there than before. He was already devastated enough but as his visits became less frequent, Qingyue became more distant and closed off from him until one day he finally couldn''t take it anymore and asked her why and as if a faucet was turned on, so too were the little girl''s waterworks. "I-i d-don''t want to spend more time with you only for you to leave me alone again I-i-i don''t have anyone else I can talk to *sniff sniff* and ever since my mother told us she had to leave for the Realm of the Gods and flew away that day, I have always been lonely!" -Now when he heard those words, Shane was struck with a sudden buzzing within his ears and a painful headache but pushed it aside in favour of listening to her finish what she had to say- "I-i am so lonely here, my father is always so busy working so that he can keep his mind off of her and I-i-i o-only ever felt happy when I spent time with you here in my dreams!!" The usually quiet little girl poured her heart out in between sobs, sniffles and heart-wrenching wails and before Shane knew what was happening, he was embracing her into his chest and stroking her hair. Ignoring the now deafening buzzing in his ears and the almost unbearable headache, Shane opened his mouth with assurance only for the sound to disappear as if it were never there and spoke. "Qingyue, I don''t know for sure if I will be able toe back here soon but I promise you we will meet again" and with those final words, he faded away. Once back in the real world, Shane looked back on Qingyue''sst outburst and noticed several strange things. ''First of all, was the way in which she described the parting with her mother and the God something, she also mentioned Gah!'' the headache and buzzing returned in full force and thest thing he thought of before his vision cked out was that she referred to their meeting as HER dream. Chapter 2: The Dream that Became a Nightmare Chapter 2: The Dream that Became a Nightmare A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- The memories of the dream and the girl became increasingly vague as the days went on until they became a mere bundle of longing and mncholy tucked away at the edge of Shane''s consciousness ever-present but always out of reach. This obviously frustrated him to no end just that he couldn''t remember why he was frustrated All in all, it was very vexing. Shane also realized that although his mind fully recovered its sharpness, his body did not. He felt weaker than before and always seemed tock energy, a side effect of his condition no doubt. Four more years passed and as he grew older, Shane understood the gravity of his situation and the reality that his illness would one day im his life. Strangely he was ok with that on some level as he felt little to no attachment to this world. He loved his parents and his family of course but he had matured considerably after his experiences and understood that it was better for him to spend his time achieving whatever he could and doing things that made him happy rather than worrying about an eventuality. He also knew that his parents and family were probably suffering even more than him so he tried to always show a smile and rarely if ever cried and never in front of them. During these four years, Shane had studied hard and achieved the first thing on his list to do, which was to graduate High School a year earlier than normal and with high enough grades to earn a ce in a university of his choice. Of course, his family were saddened to think he would leave them, well that was until he reassured them that he would learn locally and mostly from hisptop at home. He had just excitedly finished selecting his new course (Biochemistry Major with a minor in Toxicology) when he started to feel lightheaded and before he knew it he was once again within that strange yet familiar dreamscape. The memories of thest dream crashed into his mind and at first, caused a minor headache coupled with a strong feeling of vertigo, but as soon as the feeling came it was gone, and instead Shane''s head was full of HIS memories of the dream and the girl. Thest thing she said to him was still vague as if trapped behind a wall of fog, not unlike the world he once again found himself in but he did remember the word ''Cultivation''... Shane being an avid reader and if he were honest with himself, a bit of a nerd for Asian Light Novels and Web Novels recently, of course, was now familiar with that term. ''Cultivation, like one of those Wuxia novels... No, it can''t be it''s just a dream! A mere hallucination made up by my childhood psyche to protect myself'' He shook his head to clear his thoughts although another voice in his head, made a very good point ''She talked to you about Cultivation years before you heard that term the first time but at that time you just thought it was nonsense that kids say'' That was a very good point. By now, Shane was almost pulling his hair out in frustration. Why oh why did he have to be so smart!? Always overthink ''Wait I have hair!?'' He hadn''t had hair since the second rpse and it felt nice to run his fingers through it for a few seconds. ''Right Shane get back on track and find that garden and maybe you can have a nice chat with Qingyue and hopefully find some answers!'' With determination and purpose in his stride, Shane walked towards where he could see faint shadows in the fog. The closer Shane came to those shadows the slower he advanced until he came to a stop, his breath visibly adding to the fog around him. ''Why is it so cold here? The temperature has always been the same and never fluctuated before this'' Shane was puzzled, it was cold, not unbearably so but still the closer he got to where he assumed the familiar stone path would start, the colder it became. Shane wandered further into the fog and as he did, he noticed that the grass beneath his feet started to turn white with frost. At first, it was just the tips and then the stalks of the grass until before he noticed it, he was on the stone path and thewn around him had changed from green topletely white with a thin covering of sparkling frost. The normally vibrant nts all had their flowers frozen in time and covered with a thin sheen of translucent almost crystal-like ice and the old Chinese willow tree branches were static as if frozen mid breeze. At the center of all this was the pond. Still barely managing to remain in liquid form, it took on a deeper hue of blue than its normal crystal clear. In the middle of the pond, sat atop a sheet of pure white ice in the lotus position and with eyes closed, was a girl no older than thirteen. Shrouded in pure white robes and with a veil of ice covering the bottom half of her face she still could not hide her doll-like beauty. She looked cold, indifferent, and unapproachable but to Shane, she was familiar and warm Hell at this point she was practically his only friend. Not thinking about the fact that the whole dreamscape seemed to not wee him this time and avoiding the rather morbid train of thought that he only gets to see her when he is suffering a rpse of his illness, he called out to her in a hesitant voice. "Qingyue is that you over there?" No answer, he called again. The girl furrowed her brows but did not open her eyes so Shane took a step forward and then another. Suddenly when Shane was but a few feet from the edge of the pond, he felt it. POWER, the likes of which he had never felt before but it seemed to resonate with his very being as it washed over him. A multifaceted, crystalline barrier made from the purest ice manifested itself in front of him and an invisible shockwave pushed him a few meters backward and onto his rear. At this distance, he could see the barrier almost in its entirety and what he saw had him inplete awe but for some reason, it also saddened him to no end. The crystalline nature of the barrier reminded him of a perfectly cut gemstone and itpletely wrapped itself around the pond and by association Qingyue while its height was so massive that it disappeared into the fog above. Then he heard it. In a voice so cold it was like the frozen air itself and with her perfect and unblemished eyes filled with icy indifference, she finally spoke to him. "Shane, you should not be here! My master has told me that you are a figment of my imagination, created to help me deal with the loss of my mother. I will not let you weaken my mentality again! Begone from this ce now!" And with that Shane was catapulted out of the garden and found himself gasping for air within his hospital bed. Memories of the dream, as disheartening as they were, refused to fade from his mind this time. Once again alone in the garden, Qingyue spoke to herself in a tone filled with mncholy. "I''m sorry Shane but I must not indulge myself in these distracting feelings of self-pity when I could be cultivating to once again see my mother. I don''t need to get over the loss anymore, I just need to grow strong enough to see her again" The girl clenched her fist with determination before once again assuming the lotus position and closing her eyes. As she immersed herself into a meditative state, the temperature began to drop by a small amount and the ice on the ground and nts began to grow ever so slightly thicker. Shane took a few moments to calm himself down and tried to fall asleep once again, although this time sleep seemed to evade him desperately and it was a few hours before he managed to enter the dreamscape again. What he saw dumbfounded him as he was back at the start on the grass and in the thick fog which carried an even greater chill than before. Normally, Shane would start the dream on the stone path after finding it for the first time but now it would seem he would need to find it again. When he finally found the garden again, it was still covered in ice and frozen in time. Shane decided not to call out to Qingyue this time but to sit upon the ground next to the Willow and observe her instead. ''Perhaps if i sit here long enough she will talk to me'' Only he himself knew that what she had said to him had hurt a lot and he was being rather petty but he didn''t care. Besides, he had a lot to think about and this time, the fatigue had followed him to the dream and so he merely wanted to rest for a while. Days passed in this way and Shane, being as smart and observant as he was, had learned some things about the new Qingyue. Firstly, if he approached the barrier or tried talking to her for more than a simple greeting (which she never replied to by the way), she would immediately eject him from the dream using that shockwave of power. Secondly and most importantly, she still showed some facial expressions no matter how hard she tried to keep up her indifference. At the very least, her eyebrows would sometimes furrow at his presence. Thirdly he was tired, so very very tired... it wasn''t body fatigue as he first thought, no it was mental fatigue. Just being here in this dreamscape drained his mental strength and honestly, that coupled with Qingyue''s indifference hurt him so much more than his illness ever had. The days turned into weeks and Shane recovered yet again although this time his body was much weaker than before, he could still move around just fine and his mind felt even sharper and clearer than it had ever felt previously. This just made the pain of his all too recent loss that much harder to bare... Qingyue never spoke to him again after that first day and it tore him apart inside. This time as well by some sort of cruel punishment, the memories did not fade. No, they remained in perfect rity and refused to leave. ''I was sure it was a dream, a figment of my imagination Yet why, why do I feel like this!?'' For the first time in almost ten years, Shane cried. Silent tears of sorrow ran down his face as he felt hisst bastion of hope and with it, hisst attachment to this world fade away. Ironically, it was obvious the girl didn''t belong to this world but she had managed to keep him grounded during his darkest times. After that rpse and the incident in the dream, Shane became a lot more withdrawn and only really interacted with his family and his course professors as he refused to make friends with new people that he could leave at any time. Over the next three years, he excelled at his coursework and immensely enjoyed studying his chosen subjects as well as bing deeply infatuated with all sorts of Chinese and Japanese fantasy Web Novels. Every moment he wasn''t studying, eating, or sleeping, he could be found reading them as he was in love with the thought of cultivation and obviously could not forget the overbearing aura he felt from the girl in the dream (although whether that was real or not remains to be seen). Unfortunately, during this time Shane''s body began to grow weaker and by the time he managed to graduate from university three yearster, he could barely leave the house anymore. Ironically during this time, his mind had only grown sharper and he sometimes wondered to himself jokingly whether or not he could be the next Stephen Hawking. Inevitably, not long after his graduation day, Shane''s illness rpsed once again. After fighting to stay awake through the initial stage, he chose to forgo treatment. The decision wasn''t popr with his family but it was his to make and the treatment this time had a high chance of failure so he decided he would go out on his terms. A final Fuck You to whatever powers that be had cursed him with this shitty life and with a middle finger pointed at the sky, he allowed unconsciousness to take him. Chapter 3: Going out on his own Terms Chapter 3: Going out on his own Terms A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- Once again, Shane found himself within the dreamscape. The ground waspletely frozen, a thick solid whiteyer covering what used to be soft green grass. The ever-present fog was thicker than any time before and against thews of gravity it was carrying tiny, sparkling ice crystals within itself as it swirled around him. Shane clenched his fist and grit his teeth in a determination he rarely felt before now. ''This may very well be myst time here so I''ll be damned if I can''t at least get her to say something to me, maybe I can get her to talk about cultivation hmm'' Against his wishes, he could feel a very childish excitement bubble up from within him at the thought of real cultivation and he took a few satisfying moments to recall all his favorite cultivation novels ''Ahh, Martial World, PMG, LLS okay that one was a guilty pleasure, ATG'' and as soon as the excitement came it was reced with nothing but fear and trepidation. Shane stood there like a statue, his pupils shrunk to the size of pinpricks, and his vision blurred as his eyes roved about in their sockets. "H-h-how!!? How did I never make the connection? Her name is a dead give away and the type of energy surrounding her was obviously Ice based! How could I have possibly read that and not realize who she was!? Does that mean she is real and this isn''t actually a dream??" He thought aloud, raising his voice to a shout for the first time in years. Shane stood there, hands shaking and rapidly interchanging between insane nervousughter and lip-biting silence as his brain worked at a million miles an hour, trying to make sense of the situation. ''None of this makes sense, the first time I met her was many years before the novel ATG was written, and even if it were out when Ist came here, I had no knowledge of it. She was also clearly influencing this ce with her ice profound energy even then'' Realisation also struck him at this time and understanding of just what that barrier surrounding her was and why he felt that instinctive sadness, the first time he saw it. ''Ahh, no wonder she was so cold to mest time. She must have already started to cultivate the Frozen Heart Arts'' Another brief pang of hurt in his chest that she would go to such lengths to shut him out but he pushed it aside as it was quickly reced by anger. ''Who in their right mind would give a twelve-year-old child an art thatpletely shuts out their emotions'' Shane, now beyond caring whether Qingyue was actually real or a figment of his imagination, decided that all that actually mattered was to just meet her and talk to her onest time. He gathered his previous determination and took his final first steps in this cold white world. Whether it was his single-minded determination or some higher power that took mercy on him, he did not know but after only a few steps he found himself once again on a familiar butpletely frozen stone path. He took a moment to gather his wits about him and... "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THAT!!??" before losing thempletely and breaking his no shouting streak for the second time in as many minutes. In front of Shane was what could only be described as a literal shitstorm of ice and frozen debris swirling around what he presumed to be the pond. It was an honest-to-goodness tornado of ice and it did not look in any way weing. Still, Shane firmed his mind and decided he would at least try to reach her. He was already dying, surely a tornado made of ice would be a much more interesting way to just ~let it go... pffft he actually chuckled at that ''Wow, what a time to develop a dark sense of humor. Maybe this whole situation is messing with my head more than I thought'' And with that disturbing thought, he took a step towards the edge of the tornado, and contrary to his expectation, he wasn''t immediately swept into the tempest. Yes, it was cold, in fact, it was painfully cold, and yes it was like trying to walk forward while someone pushed you from the side but it wasn''t impossible and this gave him hope. What Shane didn''t realize was that at that moment, his body had started to emit a soft glow that seemed to slow the Icy winds right before they smashed into him. The most noticeable thing after the biting cold and buffeting winds was the rapid draining of his mental strength and build-up of fatigue in his limbs that only increased with each step he took. Finally, after what felt like days but could have only been a few seconds, Shane emerged from the swirling wall of fog and ice and copsed onto his hands and knees in apletely white and silent world. He tried to get his breathing under control but all he could manage was a few short and sharp breaths of the freezing cold air that stung his already burning lungs and throat. Finally, he raised his eyes to the middle of what used to be the pond and gazed upon her... Sat there in the lotus position unmoving as if the time passed since hest saw her was mere minutes rather than the years he knew it to be. This time she seemed to have grown up quite a bit, maybe she was around fifteen years old now. She sat therepletely unaffected and detached from the world with her long, silky ck hair, high-quality blue robes, and a thin veil made of ice covering her face. He could tell she was beautiful, unbelievably so but to him, she was so much more than that. He shakily attempted to stand but his traitorous legs had already stopped obeying him and he copsed back onto all fours. Deciding to just work with what he had, he crawled to where the old Chinese Willow was now just a frozen sculpture and a mass of icicles and leaned against it. He took a moment to organize his thoughts and summon his courage before taking a deep breath and opening his mouth. "Hello Qingyue, this may very well be thest chance I get to speak to you and there are a few things I need to say so I''ll just go ahead. I know you can hear me anyways. At first, I thought this was a dream and you a mere figment of my imagination... that my childish mind created to help me deal with my illness. A way to escape the pains of real life if you will. Well, that''s not entirely true, at first all I really cared about was having a friend tough and y with. Hehe *cough cough*." Shane paused for a few seconds to regain his breath as he lost himself in the memories before he smiled softly. "But that''s how kids are I guess. Back to the next part, well you see I never really had many friends and so when you appeared in my ''dream'' and spent time with me, it didn''t matter to me whether you were real or not because spending time with you helped me through it all... Well except for thest time I found myself here and you shut me outpletely. That hurt Qingyue." His face showed a pained expression for a moment, but the girl''s eyes easily caught it and she visibly flinched. "I think that was also the time when I started to doubt whether this was all real or not. I mean how could a figment of my own imagination shut me out of my own dream? It didn''t make sense and unlike all of the times before, I actually managed to keep my memories and I realized for the first time that you and I were most likely not from the same world." He paused there to take a fewborious breaths but never seemed to be able to fully catch his breath back. He nced down at his hands that were starting to be ethereal. It reminded him a little of the Tardis from Dr. Who. ''Another spike of dark humor, I''m on a roll today! Damn, I''m so tired, seems as if my time here is running out maybe a little sleep would help No focus!'' With a small p to his cheeks, he was about to continue when "Why!! Why are you telling me this!? Are you here to test me or torment me? Are you some sort of heart demon?" A voice as frigid as the frozen tundra yet melodious as a thousand delicate wind chimes. She steadily rose to her feet, A cyclone of unbelievably sharp pieces of ice beginning to form around her and with righteous indignation burning between her brows. No doubt an absolutely terrifying sight for themon man yet Shane could onlyugh. "hahahahahahaha!", how could he ever be afraid of her? Unfortunately, theughter couldn''tst and devolved into hacking coughs as Shane once again tried to get his breathing under control. She raised her hand as the Ice and frozen winds gathered in a spiraling motion towards her palm, blue streaks of visible power burst into life and joined the pull as the overbearing force generated in the center of her small hand grew to a palpable level... "I''m dying Qingyue" And diffused as if it were all a lie. Shane ced his now almost see-through palm atop the visible crystalline surface of the barrier that had separated them for thest few years and continued. "My illness has reached a critical stage and I have decided that I''ve had enough" Shane proudly raised his chin. "I achieved what I wanted to achieve with this life and now I''m gonna go out on my own terms. My only regret was that I couldn''t talk to you onest time so here I am. *cough cough cough*." Shane''s eyelids started to flutter closed and as he desperately fought against the tiredness that wanted to im him he managed to open his dry lips for what was probably thest time and decided to make it count. "Unfortunately this is goodbye, I wanted to thank you for all the time we spent together at least once and Qingyu.. ...ake ...are ...f yo... sel" The next thing Shane felt was a gust of wind followed by two small hands holding him in an icy grip and a single crystalized tear on his cheek before he fadedpletely from that world and darkness imed him ------------------------------------ Qingyue watched with undisguised horror as Shane''s normally bright and sharp red eyes misted over and started to be unfocused, his slightly bronzed skin now pale and translucent as if he had no mass. With effort, he took a shaky breath and licked his lips. - Before she knew it, she was in front of the barrier with her hand raised to match his, although as hazy as his eyes were he did not notice - "Unfortunately this is goodbye," Her heart thumped unnaturally in her chest, with an emotion she hardly recognized it was fear, ''fear of what? Fear of never seeing him again, never speaking to him again? or something else? But I should be unable to feel this way'' She desperately searched for answers to her own question. - unknown to both of them, nigh invisible spiderweb cracks started to spread at terrifying pace throughout the crystalline barrier - Shane continued, barely a couple of seconds between the two sentences but to Qingyue the time almost came to a standstill as her mind went into a frenzy "I wanted to thank you for all the time we spent together at least once" A pain in her chest this time, as if a red hot poker was searing her flesh and without thinking she phased through the barrier,pletely ignoring the cracks that became very visible at this moment as a shockwave spread around the circumference of the faceted structure. With a sound like a weird mix between a thunderp and aser ster, the cracks spread at a terrifying speed, and huge shards of ss-like, transparent ice began falling all around her before disappearing into nothing as they hit the floor. None of this mattered to Qingyue as she had eyes only for him Her hands grabbed his clothes in desperation and she raised her ear closer to his mouth in time to hear him say. "and Qingyue.. take care.. of yourself ok..." A single frozen tear fell onto his cheek and then he was gone. She could have been happy that hisst words were only for her and on a certain level she was but that was pushed aside by the all-epassing sadness and regret. Yes. Regret. At this point it didn''t matter if he was actually real or not, all that mattered was that he was gone now and she was once again alone. A tempestuous scream bubbled in her chest like molten fire and worked its way out of her throat as the cyclone of Ice and wind around her grew incredibly wrathful for a moment as if threatening to consume everything And at the height of its power, the tempest suddenly died down to its previous swirling silence. Qingyue, with visible effort, locked away the crippling sadness and all the other turbulent emotions inside of her heart and once more donned an indifferent mask. With almost robotic movements, she retreated back to the center of the frozen pond and assumed the lotus position once again. The only evidence of Shane ever being there and ever having affected the tranquility of this ce at all were the two streaks of frozen, crystalline tears on the girl''s face; the barely visible hairline cracks along the faceted barrier and a tiny patch of stubborn green under the frozen willow. Ast reminiscence of where he had disappeared from this world. Chapter 4: Does this count as Reincarnation? Chapter 4: Does this count as Reincarnation? A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- Silence, numbness and all-epassing nothingness Unseen by anyone or anything, a solitary ball of pure white ethereal mes drifts along in a vast, vacant space... The only thing going through Shane''s mind? right now is ''BULLSHIT!'' Death didn''t feel like going to sleep, it didn''t feel like the start of an eternal rest, it wasn''t terrifying nor was it painful. He didn''t visit the yellow springs and he certainly didn''t find himself in front of some pearly gates. One second he existed in the dream with the girl and the next he was in this vast expanse of nothing? He had no body, no sense of vision nor feeling he just was. He now existed in this void as a scattered amalgamation of memories and thoughts interconnected through a vast weave of invisible threads. It took some time but he found that he was able to ''pull'' on these threads and experience his memories should he so choose it. At the forefront were the memories of hisst few weeks spent at home and of course the most recent meeting with Qingyue. He grabbed the memories of her like they were his lifeline as he desperately recalled them many times, focusing solely on her and ignoring everything else. Hoping against hope for her to show any reaction to his rather well-spoken ''if you ask him''st speech. He was rewarded not muchter when he managed to pull upon a seemingly half-decayed fragment of hisst seconds and he saw her... holding his fading body close and... ''holy shit was she crying?! Uh oh now I actually feel bad huh my emotions seem to be returning, neat'' Shane''s normal personality wasn''t serious, sad, and somber but suffering for years and slowly dying kind of does that to a guy. Now that it was over with, a weight seemed to have been removed from his metaphorical chest and he felt freer than ever. If he was anything more than a nebulous made from his own thoughts and memories right now, he would have nodded smugly to himself at being able to at least pull one emotion out of the Icy Qingyue... even if it wasn''t the one he would have liked to have seen. ''There are definitely worse ways to go than in the arms of arguably one of the most beautiful woman in the Primal Chaos'' After experiencing more of his past memories, he noticed that a lot of them were either fuzzy or seemed to be ''crumbling'' and he guessed that these were affected by time or were about things that he didn''t really have an interest in. The only consistently clear memories were the ones of her and he grasped at the strings in an effort to pull them all closer to him and into whatever he now ssified as. As the memories came closer to the core of his being, he experienced them again and felt that with each one, his sense of self was growing stronger. This continued in a snowballing process as the more memories he relived, the faster he could draw the stray ones into himself until he felt ''whole'' again well rtively speaking that is. And then he heard it <"You have suffered my child"> The air thrummed with an immeasurable and all-epassing power as the very void itself bent to the voice''s whims. Everything that was Shane, froze in absolute trepidation at the voice and his thoughts became an incoherent jumble. <"Calm yourself Shane"> The voice once again sounded out and Shane felt himself be tranquil as the pond in Qingyue''s garden <"Concentrate on yourself and find your center"> He looked inward and somehow managed to do exactly as the voice told him and with ten breaths of time, he had formed into a semnce of himself. Well, more exactly he was now a human (ish) shaped mass of ethereal white mes. <"Good, now concentrate on maintaining that form while I exin what you need to know. Firstly, just who I am. My true name does not matter for your mortal mind would be unable toprehend it and although I have been called many things, you may best recognize me as The Ancestral Goddess."> Someway or somehow, Shane managed to form a coherent thought at that revtion ''Does she mean the Ancestral Goddess of ATG!? It was real! What about Qingyue?? Is she actually real too? What ab'' <"Calm yourself! I am not finished"> Once again Shane found himself awash with tranquility <"*Sigh* Yes, what you are thinking is indeed the case, I am The Ancestral Goddess of the Primal Chaos and it does indeed exist. There is a reason for your ability to catch a glimpse of that universe and for that I must tell you the history of the Primal Chaos... Millions of years ago, A great war urred between the god and devil races, ending in theplete destruction of both. At one point during the war, the devilsunched a crippling attack on the Dragon God n and the Well of Samsara that was protected by them. Thus the circle of reincarnation in that universe was irreparably damaged and although it has somewhat repaired itself by now, from time to time there are anomalies that slip through the ''cracks''. Child, Your soul was one of the anomalies that managed to slip through the ''cracks'', albeit not entirely. During yourst reincarnation, your soul was somehow split into two. One half of it made its way to a new life within the Primal Chaos and the other half found its way to the known as Earth. It pains me to say it but your iplete soul has been the reason for your suffering. Your weak body and incurable illness were caused by the weak connection between body and a soul that did not belong. Through effectively existing in both universes at the same time, you were able to catch glimpses of the other side at the times when your connection to Earth was at its weakest and through it, you were able to make contact with one of that reality''s linchpins. The reason you would always forget these experiences, was because the Will of the Universe was automatically blocking a breach between the two worlds. Evidently, your connection to the other side was so strong that even that could not block itpletely. Truth be told, even I am surprised at the strength of the connection you managed to form in yourst moments"> If Shane were able to muster up any semnce of self-control right now, he would probably be doing a very embarrassing and excited little dance. Mostly due to the fact that this sounded suspiciously like some spiel one would hear before being given a chance to reincarnate. ''Will I be able to go to some world with a cheat power and cultivate? Is this goddess here to reincarnate me and watch over me as I save the world!?'' <"Although primitive in their formation, your thoughts are mostly correct. I am not here to reincarnate you per se, I am here at the behest of Will of the Universe as one of its assistants, with the sole purpose of writing a wrong indirectly caused by me. I created both the gods and devils in that world and so their wrongs became my own. I can no longer interfere with the Primal Chaos nor could I interfere with your life on Earth or I would have done so without hesitation. I can however rejoin your soul together in that world along with some addedpensation for each of your sufferings. These boons you will be receiving, are already predetermined and tailored to your personality by the Will of the Universe and neither you nor I have any choice in the matter. You may find it hard to believe but after we part ways, there will be no more interference from myself and you are free to live your life however you please. If you have any questions, now is the time"> Shane had probably a million different questions running through his mind right now but as he started to form them he realized that only one of them was actually important and it unstoppably bubbled into the forefront of his thoughts ''Will I be able to meet her again?'' <"That will be up to you."> Well, that was really all he needed, he wasn''t really a tutorial kind of guy and liked to find things out on his own so he decided to just push all the uncertainty aside and let his excitement build as he managed to get his ethereal form to do a small bow ''I always wanted to imitate those cultivators without looking like a weirdo oh wait she can hear me, Shit!'' <*Giggle*> Did his incessant ramblings just make a goddessugh? ''Gonna take a while to get over that '' *Gohon gohon* clearing his metaphorical throat he projected his thoughts. ''I am ready'' <"Very well. Good luck on your way"> The majority of the immeasurable power the voice possessed when ''it?... No, when she first announced herself,'' returned and the vast nothingness shook, thrummed, vibrated and finally began to contract at her whims. Shane felt his consciousnesspressed into an infinitesimally small point. Then came an absolutely MASSIVE pull on his very being after which he underwent a terrifying event that he could only feasibly describe as warp travel. What he experienced was a situation where all the lights in his (somehow restored) vision gradually turned into straight lines as he felt a constant eleration. Fortunately, this extremely nauseating episode ended as suddenly as it began, and then there was only darkness. [Initializing system] [1%.. 5%.. 10%.. 25%... 40%... 60%... 85%... 100% *Ding*] ''No way! Did the Ancestral goddess screw me over!? I really really really don''t want one of those sentient Tsundere systems that are always giving out punishments! Dammit dammit dammit!'' [Answer: The system is not sentient and exists solely to provide the host with a smooth transition into his new body and powers] ''Oh so it''s more like an information hub or a... tutorial*groans*'' [Answer: Correct] ''So how long do I need to stay here, in fact, where even am I?'' [Answer: Host is currently awaiting Profound Vein creation] [Countdown initiated: 3. 2. 1] ''Wait a minute, isn''t that supposed to be incredibly painf Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Wow, Jasmine really wasn''t lying'' What followed was an hour of the most mind-numbing and crippling pain that Shane had ever experienced. By the time it was over, his mind was incredibly hazy and his thoughts were little more than a jumbled mess, in fact, he was pretty sure he mentally pissed himself at one point. Just as true unconsciousness was about to im him, he saw a little window floating amidst the darkness. [Profound Vein Creation sessful] ... Shane awoke with a start but then he opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings in a daze he was inside what appeared to be a cave. ''So that was all real, and I died huh'' He took a moment to offer up a small prayer to whoever may be listening for his family back on Earth to live a good life before he decided to scrutinize his new environment. The cave he found himself in was around three meters tall, five wide, and maybe ten deep. The stone walls were smooth and dry and the cave itself was free of any debris apart from the pile of Profound beast hides he awoke upon. When he looked up, he could see some luminous lichen growing around the level of the ceiling and all across it allowing his eyesight to adjust rather well to what was probably his new home for the foreseeable future. ''Maybe a little too well, I shouldn''t be able to see so much in such dim lighting'' He raised his hand to brush a lock of hair out of his eyes which widened considerately at what they saw. He used, his? hand to brush against his naked torso and was shockedpletely still. ''Okay ignoring the fact that I now have hair, When did the other me get this ripped? And what is with that bronze adonis looking skin color!?'' One hand sneakily, as if by a mind of its own, made its way down hisher regions, and after a quick searching squeeze, his eyes lit up! ''Ahahaha! My man, you do not disappoint!'' Then like a freight train, the memories hit him His head felt like someone was trying to fuse two water balloons together with a pneumatic press and both water balloons were him and the only possible way that things could go was the breaking of both and that''s what happened. Both metaphorical balloons broke and after what seemed like an eternity (which he spent on the floor as a drooling mess), reformed into onerger balloon now containing everything inside it. ''So the other me, or should I just say me now? Well, he didn''t really have it much better than Earth me'' Shane ''or should he be called Shan Long now?'' quickly scanned through seventeen years of his ATG counterpart''s memories because truthfully there wasn''t a lot to scan through. From as far back as he could recall, Shan Long had lived in this cave and was taken care of by what he now recognized as a [Sky Profound] (or possibly greater) Panther type profound Beast. How did he know that? Well, the thing flew away when it left a couple of days ago. It seemed that both bodies housing Shane''s iplete soul had suffered. Where Shane had a weak body and an incurable illness, Shan Long was mute and crippled not in the general sense but in the profound sense. His only saving grace was that his body was strong enough to fight against a [Third of Elementary Profound] beast and was somewhat fit enough to keep up with the Panther on treks through the forest in which they lived. He had also gained a few other survival abilities over the years such as hunting, tracking (quite a useful one to have as he often went hunting with the Panther Beast), Fishing (with both a yarn and a harpoon), and hide treating. The Panther Beast also seemed to appreciate the fact that he had learned to cook their game and craft certain things for them like the nket and bed made of profound beast hides and the peculiar clothing he was wearing. Shan Long''s "surrogate mother", ''Wow, let''s just take a minute to appreciate how he actually felt about her'' must have felt some affinity for him when they met at a very young age or else he surely would have been eaten or killed by her a long time ago and she had meticulously taken care of and protected him until just a few days ago when she decided it was time to leave "My child, This Queen has lingered here for long enough and now I must return. Be well and may your hunt be fortuitous." And then she just got up and flew away... In Shane''s opinion, it was a bit of a crappy goodbye but that didn''t stop him from tearing up a little at the thought of it. ''Damn, so I really am both of them. Welp with the best points of both, we are sure to do well out here. Also, which name should I use?'' As he was about to get into that moral dilemma, he saw something shing in the corner of his vision. [Name: Shan Long (Shane)] ''...Guess that settles it'' Chapter 5: Status of Surprises Chapter 5: Status of Surprises A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- [Name: Shan Long (Shane)] [Race: Human/Profound Beast (v. weak)] [Bloodline: Primordial Shadow Panther (extremely weak) - Greatly enhanced Profound Senses] [Cultivation] [Abilities] [Map/Mini-map (expand or toggle on/off)] [Quests (n/a until [Elementary Profound 10]) [Companions...] [Messages] This was it! The fabled system for reincarnated and Isekai''d kids everywhere! ''Holy Moly! It feels like I''m some sort of Main Character here. Okay, breathe Shane breathe. I need to calm down. If I want to meet Qingyue for real, I first need to do something about that maniac, preferably before he reincarnates on his wedding day In fact, I need to find out just when and where I am first and start to cultivate ASAP! So many things, so little time.'' As usual, Shane''s thoughts were buzzing around at a million miles an hour as he inspected the transparent blue window floating in front of his eyes. He noticed that some of the brackets had little shing ellipsis on them and so he tried to expand upon them by tapping with his finger "Eh" only for it to pass right through and leave him standing there with an outstretched arm. Shane retracted his arm and shamelessly cupped his chin in a thinking pose as if that''s what he meant to do all along. ''Perhaps I need to use voicemands, *shivers* what if people think I''m crazy? Actually, I really hope I can just think about opening the Cultivation tab and Oh, oh, ohohoho'' [Cultivation: n/a] {Profound Veins: TreasureBody Profound Veins} {Characteristics: 1) All of Creation - All bloodlines and Physiques can be assimted into host to further enhance the profound veins (benefits gained are directly linked to the host''s cultivation) 2) Bottle-never - 54 profound entrances are naturally opened. This makes all bottlenecks practically nonexistent and all realms inherently stable but each realm will also need more profound energy to advance 3) War-ir - Allows for an intrinsic understanding ofbat arts and skills during battle (host will still need to train but advancement and understanding will naturally improve at a rapid pace whilst using them) 4) Multi-finity - Gives host an affinity to all types of profound energy, works along with Devour to enable host to absorb and cultivate every type of profound energy in existence (with varying degrees of effectiveness) "This Isn''t this simply a cheat!?" Shane nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw the exnation for his profound veins. They were incredibly OP!! He then realized something extremely important which was that his cultivation would not need to be reset if/when he acquired the Heretic God''s blood from Jasmine. "Aiya! Truly, those boons from the Will of the Universe are not to be looked down upon" After mentally fumbling for a few seconds, he managed to return to the status screen, and now with much more vigor, he delved into the abilities tab. He crossed his fingers and hoped for something even better. Was he being greedy? Maybe. Did he care? Not in the slightest. This world he found himself in was fucking dangerous! People here can and will kill you with a p for looking at them funny and without strength, you would just end up as somebody''s dog. Shane knocked his own head for luck ''Heh touch wood. Let''s see what we got. Abilities!'' [Abilities:] {Appraisal: (basic)} {TreasureBody: Tier D (0%)} {Characteristics Organic Material (Profound Beasts, Corpses and Flora): 1) Devour - Can directly convert and refine organic matter into their most basic forms of energy before assimting with the host. The benefits gained are directly rted to differences in profound realm and physiology between target and host. 2) ??? 3) ??? Inorganic Material: (Weapons, Armour, Metals, Crystals etc) 1) ??? 2) ??? 3) ??? He gained an instantaneous and intrinsic understanding of his abilities, what he could do with them and how they worked with his profound veins and he only had one thing to say about it "BULLSHIT!" Appraisal did exactly what it said on the tin but TreasureBody TreasureBody was insanely broken! Sure he would have to work hard to kill his own profound beasts or find his own precious herbs but each kill or sessful find would directly benefit his cultivation! And this was only the ability at Tier D!! There were five other Tiers ahead and they each unlocked a separate ability! That wasn''t even the best thing, He would unlock the first ability for Inorganic at [Nascent Profound 1] and the second ability for Organic at [True Profound 1]. After that, he wasn''t sure it would be so simple as just advancing realms but if the other abilities were anywhere near as good as Devour it would be worth doing whatever it took to unlock them. Simply from analyzing Devour, he instinctively understood the implications of the term physiology and that it meant he could absorb a beast''s affinity and ability to manipte their elements and make the element his own through the link between Devour and Multi-Finity. Although his own veins had the affinities for all types of Elemental Profound Qi, it didn''t mean he could use them just like that as he had absolutely no understanding or experience in how they worked yet. This however could change in an instant if he were to Devour a profound beast with an elemental affinity. He also kind of glossed over the fact that Organic Material included corpses but now that he had finished with the rest of it he sighed out loud. "*Sigh*" With the type of world that he now found himself in, he knew that he would have to kill people eventually and he knew that hesitation would be his undoing. That didn''t really change the fact that he''d never killed anyone before. He would absolutely have to get used to it at some point but it didn''t mean he had to immediately be ok with it. Well the part of him that was Shan Long had absolutely no problem with it, but the Shane part was having some small scruples... until he remembered all the tragedies that happened to Yun Che''s family and friends in the novel. ''Being kind to your enemies is being Cruel to yourself. It seems as if I need to find some bandits or criminals first where the threat is minimal and ease myself into it'' A rather disturbing line of thought and one that could be left forter after he could actually cultivate. Shane returned back to his status once again and noticed that both [Quests:] and [Companions:] were greyed out and unselectable whereas the [Map] and [Messages] were the only two left that Shane hadn''t explored yet. He mentally called out ''Map'' and some information appeared in front of him. [System: Warning, using Map function will scan the entire region (requires 24h. Map function will be unavable for duration of scan). Scan Region Y/N] ''Extremely useful, Do it.'' [System: Minimap function avable, toggle on Y/N] ''Toggle on'' Almost immediately after he formed that thought, the world turned white and Shane felt a searing pain in the middle of his forehead for just a split second, before it receded without a trace. Then as if an old television were tuning in through static in his head, an image started to form. Shane marveled at this phenomenon, it was as if he suddenly had a third eye above the other two except this ''third eye'' did not have any semnce of vision. No, it had manifested a circr birds-eye view map of the area he was in, directly inside his brain. The mini-map was extremely informative and he had an instinctive understanding of its functions. There were markers for distance, gradients for altitude, little lifelike symbols for rocks, trees, and nts, a slightly shaded area to show that he was underground, and a transparent white cone that aligned with his range of vision. The range right now was only 20M but that would also grow as his cultivation did. He could also customize colors for markers of living things and use appraisal through the range of the mini-map but he left that forter. ''System, doesn''t that mean that I can never be sneak attacked if I keep the mini-map up at all times?'' [System: If an enemy is actively hiding from you and is above your cultivation, you may not notice them through the mini-map. The mini-map will also toggle to off while you sleep unless you practice with it to keep it toggled on.] ''Dammit! I knew it was too good to be true! Why can''t I have a map cheat like Satou!?'' Shane ranted to himself, forgetting for a moment that the system wouldn''t answer him unless he actually asked it a question and the fact that he just received the most cheat like Profound Veins and ability ever seen in the Primal Chaos. He then touched his nose, nodded to himself, and muttered "En, it seems that just being in a cultivation world has made me quite shameless." Shane sent a mentalmand and returned back to the status board to select thest avable option, [Messages]. What greeted him was a single message from a nk sender. ''Suspicious, hmmm well fortune favors the bold. System, open the message'' ["It would seem there has been a short oversight. You are now in a rather dangerous world and due to the issues with both bodies, you have little to nobat experience. This is thest thing I will be able to do for you so make the most of it. Good luck child.] ''Wow just wow. Even her intent conveyed over text made my soul tremble, just how much power does she have?'' The sender was of course the Ancestral Goddess and it seems like she had sent over something to help with what Shane now realized was a VERY serious issue. [System: Fuse Hand-to-Hand Combat Mastery (Tier F) with host Y/N] ''Definitely yes!'' Aaaaand there it was again, another extremely ufortable feeling of something tampering with his brain, except this time it was as if something was using a quill pen to scratch words through his consciousness and onto his very soul. It wasn''t painful per se but more like a sharp itch that you absolutely cannot scratch. After just a moment, he stopped spacing out and it was done. He now felt like he had a pretty basic understanding of hand-to-handbat, basic in a sense of how high he now knew he could reach with practice but to his previous self on Earth, psshhh. He may as well be a martial arts master! Of course, theory and practice were two very different things, though his War-ir talent would ensure that those two became seamless in a short amount of time with the only downside being, he had to be fighting for his life ''Ughh, that thought really put a downer on the excitement of doing real Kung Fu.'' By this point, Shane was getting antsy. He wanted to go outside the cave and explore a bit and also take a look at himself in the reflection of the nearby pool he had spotted on the edge of his minimap earlier. So with renewed determination, he about-faced and took his first step towards being the greatest "*Bleuuuurrrrgh!*" only to fall to his knees and empty the contents of his stomach all over the cave floor. ''Oh god, so gross!! How embarrassing! And why was there no warning about how nauseating the minimap would be when taking sharp turns!? Gotta get used to this fast!'' With extreme difficulty, he ignored the attempts of his weaker side to get him to toggle the minimap to off and started to crawl towards the exit of the cave in an entirely undignified manner. Surprisingly, the farther he managed to get, the quicker the nausea seemed to subside. It wasn''t enough for him to stand yet but it was getting better at a noticeable rate. He finally made it to the entrance of the cave and found that there was an almost incorporeal shadow barrier covering the whole opening and blocking virtually all of the sun''s rays from entering. ''Hmm, so that''s why the cave is so dark, figures'' Deciding not to think too much about this, he phased through the shadowy curtain and squinted his eyes into slits as a bright light did its best to blind him. Not getting discouraged this easily, he got to his feet and took slow shaky steps towards the pool of water. He was thirsty! He had just thrown up, his mouth tasted awful and his tongue felt like a piece of dried jerky! Chuckling to himself, he thought ''of course I''m thirsty, I haven''t had a drink in this lifetime!'' A shame there was nobody around to appreciate his poor sense of humor. He took several deep breaths of the incredibly fresh, clean, and surprisingly sweet? Forest air on his way to the pool. He was feeling pretty great, his nausea was subsiding by the second, his vision was adjusting and everything about being here just felt... right. He finally reached the edge of the pool, bare toes digging into the soft soil of the shallow bank and eyes on swivels as they took in the new yet familiar surroundings. He then crouched to the edge of the water and finally looked down "Ayo! Who the fuck is that?!" Shane jumped back in shock, then raised his hand and shrunk his neck in embarrassment as he realized the person looking back at him was in fact himself. What he saw was: Wild, thick, neck-length dark brown hair with obsidian ck streaks swept back across his brow. Dark and thin, sword-shaped eyebrows, a straight and sharp nose, as if it was sculpted to perfection just for his face, two big and piercingly bright red irises with deep ck pupils, high cheekbones, and a chiseled jawline. On top of that, he had naturally olive-like skin, a very respectable height estimated at around 1.9M, and muscle structure, so perfect it would put Adonis to shame! Shane touched his nose, once again highlighting that the perfection, made reality that was reflected back into his eyes was undoubtedly himself and thought aloud. "Aren''t I a little too handsome now? I almost went down the wrong path myself!" Chapter 6: Forest Shenanigans Chapter 6: Forest Shenanigans A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- When Shane finally recovered from his bout of narcissism, he thought it would be a good idea to have a bit of a workout. This would essentially be hitting two birds with one stone. On one hand, he could fully integrate with his new body and on the other hand, he could start building up vital energy to use when breaking through to the [1st of Elementary Profound]. Shane decided to start off with the old-fashioned Earth way and do some push-ups and sit-ups. These activities that would have left him weak and winded in hisst life were nowughably easy, he even started doing one-handed and even one-fingered push-ups without even breaking a sweat, like some chad! He decided to up the ante and grab one of therge rocks from near the side of the pool to do some squats with. The rock he grabbed was bigger than his head! it must have weighed 50KG no problem and he even managed to work up a bit of sweat while squatting with it. The only problem was ''*Hais* this is boring, it''s like my body just wants to move and the longer I stay here, the worse the feeling gets'' After experimenting with lifting some different-sized rocks for a while longer, the feeling became almost unbearable and Shane decided he would pick one of the trails that led into the forest and explore for a bit. ording to the little clock on his minimap, it was only just after midday and so he had plenty of time before nightfall. As soon as Shane took his first step into the forest, he felt at home and at peace, as if he was finally back where he belonged. All of his senses, smell, hearing, sight, touch, and even taste felt heightened to new levels and before he knew it, his steady steps had turned light and graceful and he began to elerate into a swift jog. As he got faster and faster he instinctually began to use branches and trees to increase his speed even further and in no time at all, he was practically flying through the forest using all four of his limbs to propel himself forward through the undergrowth at a pace that would put most professional cyclists to shame. He could feel the life of the forest, the wind across his face and in his wild mop of hair, every leaf, bush, fern, sapling, and root beneath his feet. He could see streams of light bursting through the gaps in the treetops, shining on birds and insects that were everywhere. The images were being processed back into his brain like a rapid series of shuttered still frames and he could see all of them! He could smell all the different nts and flowers that grew along the trees and the forest floor and he could hear the asional bird call, the rustling of the leaves, and the snapping of twigs as he pressed onwards but mostly he could hear the roaring of the wind in his ears. For the first time in years. He. Felt. Free. Shane could see a clearing ahead in the distance and continued forward but suddenly, something felt out of ce. He slowed down from his feral sprint into a cautious jog and moved closer to the clearing. There was definitely something wrong but Shane couldn''t put a pin in it until he came within 10M of the edge of the clearing and it finally clicked The forest was too quiet, silent even. A cold shiver passed up Shane''s spine followed by a wave of fear that threatened to overwhelm his mind as he came to a terrifying realization. His knowledge and instincts told him that the only possible reason for this urrence was him entering into the territory of a profound beast and a strong one at that. He very quickly tucked himself behind a tree at the edge of the clearing and focused on his minimap. Sure enough, there was something there! The minimap showed the clearing, only 10M or so across, highlighted with a red haze and the image of a tri-colored flower shing in the middle. This red haze was not a good thing, but the flower definitely was! The haze symbolized that the area was the territory of a strong profound beast. Shane wanted that flower, it had to be something good! He was almost drooling at the thought! imagining the benefits he could gain from devouring it awoke a potentially fatal desire within him. He had to have it! But s, as tempting as it was to take the flower now, he hadn''t yet lost his sense of danger. He had no idea where the beast was or when it woulde back and naturally he was also pitifully weak at the moment! So instead of pushing forward, he decided to y it safe for now, retreat, ande up with a n to rob the flowerter. If he was being honest, everything he had experienced today was so fantastical that it had given birth to a dangerous notion within his mind. Everything felt like a game. He knew it wasn''t of course and the very real ''smell'' of danger in the air kept him grounded barely. Shane hated losing games, he was in fact a verypetitive and somewhat petty person so he was naturally unwilling to take this loss. With visible effort, he turned around and silently made his way back towards the cave chanting to himself as he went. ''This isn''t running away, it''s a tactical retreat. This isn''t running awa'' *Grooowlll* Shane immediately woke up from his reverie as his senses heightened to the max and all his hairs stood on end. He turned to his left and his red and ck eyes met with the muddy yellow of a Wolflike creature that looked as if it had just crawled out of the deepest recesses of hell. It stood there, almost a meter in height with obsidian ck fur that had the look of fine needles with inch-long, brutal-looking ws that were practically made for tearing flesh and bone. At the end of its snout, was a gaping maw filled with serrated teeth that dripped thick saliva, streaming towards the ground as it blew clouds of steam into the air with each breath. A quick and intuitive use of appraisal named it [Savage Wolf: Elementary Profound 2], not all that dangerous but Shane felt terrified and unprepared... that was until he noticed the look in the beast''s eyes. It was looking at him like he was food, him!? A primal fury started to bubble up from deep within as it pushed the fearpletely out of his mind. ''The nerve! how could I be food for such a lowly creature!?'' His fight or flight response had evidently already decided on fight and it was as if his whole being was now running on instinct alone. Shane turned to face the beast fully and assumed a loose stance. He moved into a slight crouch, his knees bent and with one foot in front of the other. His arms were raised, elbows tucked into his sides. His hands were spread shoulder-width apart with fingers bent and syed. A low, almost inhuman growl made its way out of his throat and the beast responded in kind. Lips curled back, the beast''s fur bristled as its hind legs tensed and a much louder and throatier growl sounded in the otherwise silent forest. This stalematested for barely a second as both man and beast moved towards each other at the same time. Time seemed to slow down for Shane as he watched the wolf close the distance between them at an incredible pace. ''Fast!, I won''t be able to avoid it entirely!'' As the beast approached, Shane also moved. A split-second decision was made, his feet dug into the soft earth below and he raised his hands as the Wolf leaped high into the air aiming for his throat. At thest moment, Shane''s upper body moved and his hands managed to knock the jaws of the beast towards his left shoulder where it immediately mped down. Shane felt a searing pain and a viciousness that wasn''t there before shed through his now entirely blood-red eyes. His hands raised to grip the wolf''s upper and lower jaws as he was pushed back several meters, feet leaving furrows in the ground. They both came to a halt just as he managed to pry the wolf''s jaws from his shoulder and Shane tensed all his muscles like a coiled spring before twisting his torso and throwing the beast into its back. His hands never left the wolf''s jaws as he came crashing down on top of it, forcing the wind out of its lungs. Straddling its midsection, his knees closed around it like a vice as the stench of its body and rancid breath filled his nostrils. He pushed the wolf''s head back into the ground and it wed desperately at his forearms. With a guttural *ROOOAR* from Shane and a sickening *CRAAAACK* from the wolf below, he pulled the jaws apart using all the strength he could muster... Then it was over, the wolf fell limp and life swiftly faded from its eyes not before releasing a final pained whine. Shane rolled off of it onto the cool forest floor, gasping for air as the adrenaline started to fade. He felt incredibly tired and his shoulder was already beginning to swell. Strangely enough, there was no visible wound there and only a few small bloody holes along his forearms from the wolf''s ws were left as evidence of its final struggle. He touched his shoulder and winced a bit while thinking. ''It seems as if this body is quite tough. The wolf''s teeth may not have broken the skin but the strength of its jaws was no joke!'' Shane looked at the quickly cooling wolf corpse with none of the conflicting feelings he was expecting toe, in fact, he only felt excitement. Excitement so great that itpletely drowned out the pain in his shoulder. Slowly, he reached his right hand forward and activated his ability. "Devour" A small swirl of a tattoo on the palm of his hand, unnoticed until now became something akin to a ck hole and the wolf corpse simply shed once before erupting into a cloud of energy. The cloud of profound energy, milky white in color then rapidly streamed towards his palm before it was all quickly sucked into the tattoo. The whole process took less than a second and Shane could feel his ability converting and refining the Profound energy into what he needed the most right now. It was vital energy! The type of energy he needed to break into the [1st of Elementary Profound]. This was amazing! This meant that he could use this refined energy to break into the Profound way and wouldn''t need to use his own vitality for it, therefore keeping his body in perfect condition! He was extremely happy! Today had brought him great danger but also a great fortune. He nced up past the canopy and noticed that the sun was getting low in the sky. His minimap showedte afternoon and so he turned around with a smile on his face and started making his way back to the cave. Along the way, he once again became lost in the feeling of the forest and seemed to blend into it as he swiftly navigated all obstacles in his path with practiced ease. Thankfully, the journey back was without incident and he approached the pool to take a long drink and wash the filth from his hands and also to attempt to wash the dirt out of the holes in his forearms. He looked down and his eyes widened in disbelief. ''Is it just me or are the wounds smaller than before? And are they scabbing over already!?'' Contemting for a second he came to a logical conclusion. ''Hmm, it seems like the either Primordial Shadow Panther bloodline or my special veins give me a slight healing factor. Either that or it''s just cultivator stuff, better to not question it.'' Thinking about it, his shoulder also hurt a lot less now too He shook his head and ultimately decided not to dwell on something that was obviously beneficial to him. Shane turned back and with a spring in his step, headed towards the cave where he would begin his journey down the path of cultivation. With every step taken, his body trembled in excitement, he was finally about to do it. Everything he ever dreamed of was right within his grasp and he was going totch onto it and never let go! Well Maybe some would think he was being a bit over the top, but not Shane! Real Cultivation was every Otaku''s wet dream and even more so for him who spent hisst few years on Earth with a weak body and unable to move as he liked! Obviously, by real Cultivation, he didn''t mean sitting cross-legged and gathering energy for years on end. God NO! He meant throwing around sword beams and punching holes in mountains, cool stuff like that. As he passed the shadow barrier and entered the cave, he stood still for a moment and allowed his eyes to adjust to the low light before moving towards the pile of furs and dropping down on top of them in a cross-legged position. Shane closed his eyes and willed the energetic ball of vitality floating around his profound veins to dissipate into them. It happened almost instantly and he experienced a feeling that was very hard to exin. It felt as if everything that made up Shane Long was bing better and in almost every conceivable way. His mind felt clearer, his hearing and sense of smell improved, his muscles felt refreshed, his breathing became more powerful and he felt lighter, faster, and stronger. An audible click sounded within his ears and he officially took his first step down the path of cultivation, bing a [1st of Elementary Profound]. Shane opened his eyes and let out a turbid breath, the whole process must have taken a few hours as it was definitely after nightfall now. Just as he was about to jump to his feet and test his newfound strength, he felt awash with tiredness and keeled over on the spot. "*Yaaaawn*" ''I guess I do deserve a nap after today. Goodnight me'' Almost immediately after that thought, he fell into a peaceful slumber ending his first day in the Profound Sky Continent. Chapter 7: A Week of Grinding Chapter 7: A Week of Grinding A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- In case you are unfamiliar with the cultivation realms in ATG, I will list the nine mortal realms here. [Elementary Profound] [Nascent Profound] [True Profound] [Spirit Profound] [Earth profound] [Sky profound] [Emperor Profound] [Tyrant Profound] [Sovereign Profound] Now back to the Chapter ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *Snore, Snore. Cough cough. Ptui Ptui* "*Grooaan* What is that awful taste? Eh!?" Shane woke up the next morning to a feeling of incredible hunger and a piece of hide from the pile in his mouth. Apparently, he was so hungry he was having a dream about food and chewed on something questionable by ident, anyways... He took a moment to quickly check Shan Long''s memories and then moved over to a different area of the cave where some dried jerky was wrapped up and stored. The jerky tasted amazing, it was better than any meat he had ever eaten before! and he quickly stuffed his face with a whole handful. He also noticed that he could have used Devour on the jerky to convert it to energy but the amount he would have gained was so little that it wasn''t even worth the time it would take that and it was his only food! He wrapped up the remaining jerky and stored it again. He estimated that he had enough left for at least a week but wasn''t concerned, in any case, he had been gathering food in the forest for almost a decade by now. Well, Shan Long had but they were the same guy since yesterday so it counted! Shane was about to leave the cave to go and test his newfound strength when something on the floor caught his eye. As he took a closer look, memories immediately floated into the forefront of his mind. This was his self-made protective gear! Yesterday, he had been so excited to explore, that hepletely forgot about these and ventured out into the forest in nothing but his wolfskin shorts. Talking of the shorts, they were very strangepared to the clothing he was used to wearing on Earth but he still thought they looked really cool. The waistband of the shorts waspletely skin tight and fastened with a leather strap that was padded with inch-long white fur, the shorts themselves were a mixture of ck and grey tones and came to just above the knees having jagged leg holes. They didn''t look primitive despite the materials and instead, theypletely gave out the handsome and wild vibe he was recently trying to cultivate. The rest of the gear consisted of a pair of dark leather wrist guards that he frustratingly couldn''t remember the name of, a dark leather, skin-tight Tunic, a pair of greaves (you guessed it also dark leather), and a rather strange but dashing cloak that he was going to leave alone today. Put it on! Are you joking? It was incredibly hot in this forest right now! Both the greaves and the wrist guards were made of the same tough leather that was extremely durable but also very soft and flexible, which he also knew from experience, would allow for strenuous movement. The greaves were standard-looking shin protectors that were secured with two straps at the top and around his calf and also another, thinner strap that secured around the top of his foot, heel, and achilles. As he fitted the greaves with practiced movements he was busy cursing himself for hisck of knowledge in armor types. Obviously Shan Long didn''t know what they were called either, he spent his whole life in a cave for Pete''s sake. "Godsdammit why can''t I remember the name of the wrist eh!? VAMBRACES!!! AHAHAHAHAHA!" He felt relieved and ted for a second but then theughter died down and he touched his nose thinking ''I may actually go a bit crazy if I stay here by myself for a long time. Welp, who isn''t a bit crazy nowadays anyhow, at least I''m not crazy enough to go stand under a waterfall for five months yet'' After remembering their name, he focused on the vambraces next and started putting them on swiftly too. The vambraces covered almost his entire forearms and they too were secured with leather straps in a simr way to the greaves, except they also had small leather straps that ended in a leather loop and extended to each of his fingers. These finger straps were attached to a smooth loop made of bone that sat on the center of the back of his hand that was also firmly attached to both the front and back side of the vambraces, securing it in ce. Shane clenched his fists and heard the satisfying sound of the leather stretching. He could feel that this rather strange looking feature would enhance and support his grip strength while putting considerably less stress on his wrists and couldn''t help but think. ''Real men lift with straps not hooks bro'' Lastly, was the short-sleeved and skintight leather tunic. Nothing really special there apart from the hard as steel, diamond-shaped scales that were embedded in the upper chest portion of the tunic. These same scales were also embedded on the top side of his vambraces and also vertically, point to point, along the front of the greaves. He assumed that they provided extra protection, at least that''s as far as Shan Long''s memories told him and [Appraisal] was giving him nothing either. Feeling ready to face the forest again, Shane jumped up and stalked out of the cave, past the shadow curtain and towards the pool. He noticed that everything seemed to look clearer today and outside it was even more obvious that his eyesight had improved. He moved over to the rocks and lifted the same one he started with yesterday. The 50KG rock felt like nothing! He switched it over to one hand and only felt a slight strain. He dropped the rock and dashed to the treeline beforeing to a stop and dashing back. ''Holy Shit that was fast! Usain Bolt, eat your heart out ahaha! Shane felt that he had at least doubled in strength and speed after breaking through and estimated that he could kill the wolf from yesterday with a single p! He was now itching to get back into the forest and look for something else to hunt. The flower was his goal for now and so he needed to improve his cultivation by devouring more beast corpses. What about sitting down to cultivate and gather profound energy? What about stabilizing his foundations? Shane didn''t have the patience to sit around for months just to break through to the next small realm! What a joke! And with his cheat level profound veins, his realm would be rock solid forever. If he didn''t take advantage of these facts wouldn''t he be an idiot? Shane could feel the very small amount of profound energy within his veins and it seemed to be nourishing his body just by sitting there. He tried to grab hold of some of the profound energy and found that even for the first time, he was able to manipte it quite easily. He took that small amount of Profound energy and used it to clean the inside of his mouth and it actually made him feel a little tired! Not physically but mentally but hey, he now had fresh breath!. He assumed that using profound energy without any profound arts was much more difficult but he would continue to practice. If he could manage to do it as naturally as breathing, then wouldn''t that mean that when he finally acquired an art, he would already have a massive head start in profound energy maniption? Little did he know that most arts do not work in that way and that casual Profound energy maniption is actually something incredibly rare, even in the divine realms. That''s a story forter anyway. With his greedy thoughts set on increasing his strength, mostly so that he could rob the flower, he headed into the forest in the opposite direction of the clearing from yesterday. ''No need to push my luck or as they say over here, no need to court death by going near to the beast''s territory until I am ready. Damn beast coveting my flower, hmph you should wash your neck and wait'' Clearly, Shane was getting hyped up on being in a cultivation world where people even dare to say these extremely embarrassing things out loud and nobody even bats an eye... A week passed in a sh. During these seven days, Shane had a lot of gains and was extremely happy! He had fought a lot of Elementary Profound beasts and devoured all of them, his cultivation had broken through to the [6th Elementary Profound] and although he had started to notice the slight drawback of his cultivation method, it hardly affected his mood. Each time Shane advanced, he found that he needed to devour more and more corpses to get to the next small realm but the good thing was that this forest was absolutely filled to the brim with dumb beasts so it wasn''t costing him anything but a bit more time. Though he sometimes grumbled to himself ''Thete-game leveling curve will be such a bitch and take so much time unless I can find another solution. It might even take me a few years to reach the Sovereign Realm.'' If any of those cultivators from the Profound Sky Continent heard himining about only reaching [Elementary Profound 6] within a week from no cultivation whatsoever andmenting that theter realms would cost ''A lot of time'' to reach, they would spit blood in anger. ''We cultivated for a thousand years to get here you know!'' Shane only had one close call during this week and the memory of it alone was enough to dial back any of his arrogance before it was even able to truly develop. Shortly after leaving the clearing with the cave on the second day, Shane hade across another Savage Wolf. It was the same realm as the one he had killed the previous day and he was far stronger and so he becamecent and even shed a taunting grin. He can''t really be med, he had never been in any dangerous battles during hisfortable life on Earth, and Power, no matter how little, can easily go to one''s head. He let his guard down and focused solely on the wolf in front of him, not noticing the decidedlyrger and more dangerous wolf that was sneaking around in the peripheries. At his most vulnerable moment, when he had lunged over and swiftly killed the first wolf with a palm strike to its spine and his stance was broken, the other one pounced! By absolute luck, Shane had put too much power into his palm and ended up crouched a bit lower than intended and that was what saved his life. Therger wolf (which was at the [4th of Elementary Profound]) missed the back of his neck by mere inches but its ws still left an ugly gash on the side of it as its jaws thankfully snapped shut on thin air. The wolf sent him sprawling and backed up, wary of its failed sneak attack and it was a good thing too because Shane panicked. He could feel the blood running down his neck and into his tunic and he scrambled backward with a hand pressed onto the wound. His back hit a tree and his eyes darted around in a frenzy as he desperately tried to think of a method to escape! As the wolf closed in, he froze and he could feel something akin to a pounding inside his head that only grew more frantic as it Stalked towards him. When the wolf was just a couple of meters away from him and he was literally staring into the jaws of death, there was a sound of ss breaking and the pure instinct of Shane''s body took over. Shane was then treated to the backseat view of an absolutely brutal exhibition of instinctualbat. The wolf never stood a chance, it looked like a child in his hands, and had he been able to calm down, he could have beaten it too. After that episode, Shane made an effort to use his senses and minimap together to always check his surroundings, especially inbat situations. He had also made progress with merging his body''s baser instincts and hand-to-handbat skill and had managed to tier it up to E rank. This actually allowed him to mix profound energy into his strikes, empowering them greatly. By putting profound energy into his strikes and using them inbat, he had also improved his profound energy control overall and was now able to use it in various applications. These included reinforcing his legs when jumping or sprinting and spreading the energy along his fingers and toes to improve grip strength, grappling ability, and footing during battles. Another thing to note is that Shane''s control over profound energy also increased slightly whenever he devoured the corpse of a Profound beast above his cultivation level. Fighting profound beasts was not the only thing he did over these seven days as he also started to fill out the map. The function had been unlocked after the promised 24hrs and it was mostly greyed out except for the areas he had traveled along. When that first happened, Shane had not long survived his brush with death and didn''t open the map straight away. If he found himself in one of the other Empires or on another continent altogether from Qingyue, he probably would have fallen to despair. Thankfully, God or Ancestral Goddess was on his side and he was currently within the Scarlet Dragon mountain range. Funnily enough, he was only around 200km away from the waterfall that Yun Che trained under and around 300km from Cyan Forest town which was the halfway point between New Moon City and Floating Cloud. These distances might seem like a lot to a normal guy, but Shane could easily cover a distance of 20km through the forest in a day without getting too tired. That was as he was now and that distance was only growing as his cultivation did. An interesting tidbit was that the map had detailed the entirety of the Blue Wind Empire but hadn''t named the location of the main sects or any of the other cities that weren''t visited in the novel. He could still see them on the map and could guess that therge collection of ptial looking buildings out in the snow was Frozen Cloud but the others were a mystery. Perhaps he had to go there before the map would update the names. Shane had also found quite a few spirit herbs and profound grasses throughout the week and although they had very little energy in them, he devoured them nheless. What really interested him were the two very different but useful nts he managed to find growing in a decaying tree and within a small hidden clearing respectively. In the decaying tree, after he cleared out a few low-level rat-like profound beasts, he found his first treasure and hopefully his ticket to an easy robbery and quick advance in cultivation. What he found were a few huge Fungi, that appraisal told him had paralysis spores So as he was happily scheming nefarious things, he swiftly used his profound energy to cut the section of the decaying tree with the Fungi and brought it back to the clearing with the cave. Giggling to himself like a child the whole way. Profound beasts never approached the clearing or the cave of their own volition and this confused Shane at first. Then he realized it was probably due to the remaining scent or pressure from the Panther Profound Beast that used to live there with him The next nt he found was profound tobo, yes tobo! He didn''t realize it at first as appraisal came up nk once again but he felt the slight profound fluctuations within them and decided to approach. When he got closer he recognized the shape of the leaves and the smell from his time on Earth and the gears in his head started madly turning with all sorts of possibilities! The Appraisal of the nt also changed before his very eyes into [Profound Tobo (V. Weak) - can help to clear the mind and body when smoke is inhaled] as he mused over the name in his head. He shouted out loud and started doing a little jig when that happened. "Ayo! I''m so fucking rich! That must mean that nobody has discovered this before! Ahahahahaha!" There was a reason for his outburst as he knew that this was something that could help easily with cultivation in the early realms. If the crazy idea he had would actually work that is. He also knew the humans on this continent wouldp up anything rted to cultivation and it would make him tonnes of money, he was sure of it! ''Father inw... ahem I mean Qingyue''s father is also a merchant and I think he has ties to ck moon merchant guild. That old guy Zi Ji or whatever would probably be interested in this too if I can manage to grow some that will affect higher realm cultivators.'' In fact, his excitement was well-founded as the name change in appraisal had actually happened before. One day, he was out hunting and saw a strange brown vine without a name so he tried to give it a one for fun. Little did he know, appraisal updated the next second he never saw a vine like it again, but needless to say, there is now a species called LongsVine out there somewhere. The biggest change in Shane over these days, well, other than his overall strength, was his facial expressions and the way he carried himself. He was always alert for any danger but he no longer had the stoic and mncholic expression he used to carry around on Earth. No, instead it was reced by a huge grin that almost always yed along his new handsome face! If anyone he knew back on Earth saw him now, they would find it hard to recognize him. Shane scratched his nose and narcissistically thought. ''Well if they could recognize me in the first ce with how handsome I am now'' Chapter 8: Hammering out a Plan Chapter 8: Hammering out a n A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- After a good night''s rest in the cave, Shane had decided that his mind needed a break from the tension that the endlessbat that thest week brought and so he sat down in the sun near the pool and started putting his analytical mind to more nefarious uses. First and foremost was finding a way to get that flower and the beast that guarded it without having to fight it head-on. He wasn''t so sure where his obsession for the flower came from but he just knew it had to be something good and so naturally he then had to have it. Perhaps it was pettiness from the fear he felt and how he was made to retreat on his first day here or maybe that he almost got eaten by a wolf because of it. The beast naturally had to die as well and if he could absorb the corpse while being at a much lower cultivation than it, he would benefit greatly. Obviously, if the beast and the flower proved too difficult to get and the situation looked dangerous, he would just go further into the forest and grind to increase his cultivation beforeing back. Shane was quite confident however as he actually had a pretty solid n for how he was going to do this and it involved using the aptly named [Profound Paracap] which was the fungi with the paralysis spores. Although the n was basic right now and required a few other things to remove some of the risk factors, it didn''t stop a feral grin from spreading on his face at the thought of seeding. ''First order of business is a spot of gardening hmm...'' Shane barrelled off into the forest and came back a few minutester with an empty and decaying tree stump that was simr in size to the one with the Paracaps growing in it. He quickly opened it up and separated it longways into two cylindrical segments, both of which he ced against the rock wall, next to where the Paracaps in the initial stump were. He then disappeared into the forest for a few more hours and when he came back, he was filthy, carrying a bundle of huge fern leaves and scowling like someone just stole his jungler''s first blood in a ranked game of LOL. "Damn that''s nasty! Ahaha sweet sweet fresh air" Shane almost cried tears of joy as he dropped the bundle and took some huge gulps of fresh air, d to be away from the smell. What was in the bundle? Profound beast shit of course! He needed some good fertilizer to grow more of the fungus and although it was disgusting, profound beast manure was sure to be better than normal soil. After he had once again firmed his resolve, Shane unwrapped the bundle and tried his best not to gag at the stench. He then mixed in somemon low-level shredded profound grasses and some moist soil from the side of the pool along with his profound energy and spread it out within the two new sections of tree stump. He Coated his hands in profound energy and wrapped a strip of hide around his mouth and nose and very carefully scraped some spores from some of the Paracaps. He then nted these spores into the newly named ''Profound Soil Mix''. He sneered at that and thought ''everything else is called Profound something here, why can''t my shitty soil be called Profound too'' Shane then spent the next couple of days climbing the incredibly tall but surprisingly devoid of energy trees around the clearing with the flower in hopes of catching a glimpse of both it and the beast protecting it. The first tree he climbed, he just about managed to get an appraisal off on the flower and it told him all he needed to know. It was everything he hoped for and more [Tri-Color Forest Orchid: True Profound Herb] *Whistle* "Holy shit it''s a true profound herb! If I devour that flower alone, I would reach thete Nascent realm easily probably" He almost fell out of the tree from shock and giddiness! Although that feeling was soon reced by a cold sweat as he realized that whatever was guarding the flower would not be in a lower realm than it. Shane was right and a few minutester, the soil within the clearing began to churn as a huge 12-15m long body started to rise out of the ground. What appeared after the soil cascaded downwards and the dust settled was arge and muscr brown-green, limbless lizard that looked like a cross between a crocodile and a snake. The beast coiled its tail and raised up to a height of around 4m. It''srge, scaly, thick as an oil-drum body, rippled with visible power as it shook the loose dirt free. The long serpentine head swayed slightly in a rhythmic fashion as its forked tongue darted in and out of its mouth, tasting the air and running across its dim, ssy eyes. It had ridged nostrils and spiked brows that contrasted with its head''s overall sleek look. Its long snout ended in a hooked beak from which its saliva dripped and pooled onto the ground. The body of the Wyrm bristled and twisted as two rows of sharpened spikes popped out and ran along its entire length. This, along with the armor-ted scales that protected the rest of its body, reminded one more of a crocodile than a snake despite theck of limbs. The thickness of the body remained constant for around 75% of the beast before it gradually tapered off and split two whip-like and fully armor-ted tails. It opened its maw and a sound, somewhere between a hiss and a bellow, reverberated throughout the clearing and the nearby forest. Overall it looked rather majestic for a big lizard. Damn that lizard would make a nice pair of shoes!" Shane cheekily thought then whispered "Appraisal" [Forest Sand Wyrm: True Profound 4] His breath hitched and his eyes shined with an appreciative light as he withdrew his presence almost entirely before it could sense him. Unfortunately, the Wyrm proceeded to move around the clearing for a few hours, asionally approaching the flower and a mound of dirt next to it, forked tongue tasting the air all the while. Eventually, nightfall came and the Wyrm circled the clearing onest time before sinking headfirst into the ground and disappearing from view. Shane carefully climbed down the tree and slinked away into the darkness. The Paracaps, as they were, were definitely not going to cut it but he was very reluctant to let it go like this and so he came up with a crazy idea... The ordinary trees and nts within the forest had very little in the way of profound energy and devouring and refining them gave him only a minuscule amount of progress back when he was still at the [1st of Elementary Profound]. Of course, he tried that already, he had read enough ATG fanfics about cheating to godhood! Unfortunately, this wasn''t a fanfic, it was his life now! and although he could think of several ways to cheat himself, absorbing an entire forest wasn''t a viable one. Just because the converted energy wasn''t useful to him, it didn''t mean that the unrefined vitality of the nts wouldn''t be useful to the Paracaps! And so Shane decided to devour a few trees on the way back and store their unrefined vitality in his profound veins. There he could wrap it up in his own profound energy instead of absorbing it or letting it dissipate. This was apparently quite dangerous as after devouring only three trees, his veins started to feel prickly and ufortable. The longer he tried to keep this energy contained, the more his profound energy was exhausted and so he swiftly made his way back to his new garden of poisonous fungi. When he arrived he used his profound energy to separate the unrefined vital energy into three and wrap it up. He then forced it out of his body and released it above each of the three groups of growing fungi. Mentally and physically exhausted, Shane retired to the cave and quickly fell asleep after eating an unsatisfying meal of dried meat and fruits. The initial food stores had run out a couple of days ago and Shane kept one of his kills to use as food along with some apricot-like fruits he found in the forest. Unfortunately, the weak wolf Shane had caught was far inferior to the dried meat he had been eating before, and naturally, he was once again filled with determination and resolve to get stronger as soon as possible. The only difference being that this time the reason for his resolve was so that he could enjoy a good steak! The kid was weird no doubt but that meat was just too delicious, in fact, he even drooled in his sleep just dreaming about it! The next few weeks passed in a blur, Shane went back to hunting and devouring [Elementary Profound] beasts in the mornings. In the afternoons, he would explore the forest while searching for any beasts with elemental affinities and low-level profound herbs to devour and feed his quickly growing group of Paracaps with. Funnily enough, the Paracaps had grown to a height of around 10cm after the first time he transferred energy to them. Now after a few short weeks, They were around 40cm tall, hadrge t, oval heads on them that were adorned with hanging purple protrusions the size of a thumbnail. The group as a whole was surrounded by a slight ethereal mist of a sickly light purple color. The Paracaps had also been progressing through what Shane assumed to be some sort of evolution as they had gone from [Profound Paracap (weak)] to [Profound Paracap (Toxic)] as the protrusions seemed to growrger each day. Shane felt that when the protrusions matured, the fungi would undergo aplete metamorphosis and he was extremely excited to see what it would be. The Paracaps weren''t the only ones to go through a change in thest few weeks, as Shane himself had reached the peak of the [9th of Elementary Profound]. The only problem was that the area around the cave had no beasts above the [6th of Elementary Profound] and, although hisbat proficiency had progressed tremendously, his cultivation''s rate of advancement had slowed considerably. At one point, his scouting bore fruit and he had discovered a pack of wolves ofte [Elementary Profound]. They were led by a trio with wind affinity and he tracked them back to their den out in a rocky in. He scouted them for almost a week before he managed to confirm their numbers were just over 30. Seeing this, Shane realized his fists just weren''t going to cut it this time, and he needed a weapon. From observing the pack of wolves hunt, he estimated that he could easily take the [1st of Nascent Profound] Alpha and the two [Elementary Profound (peak)] Betas if they were alone. Fighting the whole pack together bare-handed, however, would be almost impossible and probably quite suicidal, especially if the leaders were able to utilize their wind energy. It seemed as ifdy luck had been listening in and on his way back from a scouting session, he happened across a group of SteelOak trees! [SteelOak Tree: Wood as heavy and hard as steel]. This was just what he needed! He could easily make a badass weapon out of this! Shane was even lucky enough to find a reasonably sized branch on the floor near one of the trees, and was absolutely over the moon! SteelOak was for all intents and purposes, wood as tough as steel. It was even a silvery metallic color! The only difference between this and actual steel, was the wood grains you could see and the fact that it was organic material, not mineral. This wood was not only extremely hard, it was also incredibly heavy! The whole piece weighed at least 250kg! It took Shane almost an entire day to chip away at the branch with his profound energy until he had a 5ft long, wrist-thick shaft with a roughly cuboid head at the end. That''s right, he made a Warhammer! The whole thing was one solid piece and roughly 75kg in weight. It was crude but it was definitely manly! Smashing things to a pulp is a man''s romance after all, ok! He had etched a grip into the shaft, 6 inches from the end, it was long enough for both his hands to fit and he wrapped it with soft hide for good measure. And so, a primitive yet extremely heavy and most importantly effective, Warhammer was born! He had been using it daily to bully some of the [Elementary Profound] beasts around the area and after a few days of training with it duringbat, he could easily swing the hammer around as if it weighed nothing and kill [Elementary Profound 8] beast with a casual blow. Shane''s gains had not been small thesest few weeks and they were only about to get greater. That was the reason why, even though he was, at this moment, in a rather grim situation, a feral grin never left his face. Shane was currently standing upon a raised stone ridge as he bared his teeth at a trio ofrge wolves. He was covered entirely in blood, only some of it his own and he breathed heavily as a sliver of both exhaustion and madness danced together in his glowing red eyes. His hammer covered in all manner of blood and gore, rested across his shoulder, his untamed hair fluttered in the wind, and with the sun at his back, he looked like a wild god of war! Behind himy the broken corpses of nearly 30 wolves and in front of him stood their leaders. Shane nced at each of the wolves in front of him and scoffed at the cliche names in appraisal. Two, 2M tall [Wind Wolf: Elementary Profound (peak)] and a single, muchrger and more deadly looking [Savage, Alpha Wind Wolf: Nascent Profound 1] ''Well shit, if they all attack at once I may have to lose a pound of flesh today.'' Not a pleasant thought, and so instead of waiting for the wolves to attack him together, he poured profound energy into his arms and legs as he pushed off the ground, leaped into the air, and raised his hammer above his head while gritting his teeth. The smallest of the Elementary Profound Wolves had absolutely no time to react as Shane''s hammer cleaved through the firmament and popped its head like a water balloon! *BOOOOM!* It didn''t stop there and continued through, connecting with the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust and sharp splinters of rock that were sent flying in all directions. "*Groan*" The impact painfully rattled his bones but Shane couldn''t and wouldn''t stop moving. With a visible effort, he pushed off the ground towards where he could sense the other Elementary Profound Wolf. A sh of red from his eyes was all that could be seen within the dust cloud. Not a momentter he appeared, looking like a demon drenched in blood and with a few new cuts and scratches. Heughed wildly as he dashed forwards, spun once, and connected his hammer with the wolf''s side. A sickening *Crunch* was heard as its entire body was propelled into a nearby tree before slumping to the ground. By now, Shane was exhausted and panting heavily as his red eyes bored into those of the Alpha. Using profound energy without any arts was really tiring for both his mind and body but it also seemed to help nourish his constitution as he felt stronger each time he recovered. He still wasn''t aware that profound energy maniption was an extremely difficult thing to do, even in the higher realms, let alone Elementary Profound, and kept practicing it as he felt like his control wasn''t good enough. This wolf was a Nascent Profound realm beast and probably had strength on par with his but its speed was definitely higher! That wasn''t even including the wind ability that he knew it had but hadn''t seen in use yet. So, Shane decided to do something risky. If he could piss the beast off enough to make it mindlessly attack him in rage, he could keep it from utilizing the wind and hopefully kill it without suffering too much injury. And so he thought of some fury-inducing words that he had always wanted to use on someone and let rip... "Defying me to the very end huh? Look into my eyes, Mongrel!" The Alpha obviously had no idea what he was saying but as he puffed his chest out and hooked a finger at it, it did understand that it was being provoked. The wolf snarled and pounced towards him immediately! Its paws were raised and a faint green shimmer of energy ran along its terrifying ws. Shane leaped backwards away from the wolf as heughed to himself. ''Holy shit it worked! Everyone hates you huh Gil-chan.'' Three jagged gashes opened up on his tunic and dug into his shoulder as yet more blood sttered. ''Shit! The wolf must have used the wind energy to extend its ws in thatst attack'' He thought as he exploded with all of his profound energy and poured it into his arms and all along the edge of his weapon. He then began to spin like a top with the hammer extended. The Alpha, sensing danger, tried to pounce again but it was toote! When the beast was in the middle of its lunge, Shane angled the Warhammer slightly and released it. The hammer whistled as it flew through the air at a frightening pace andnded squarely on the wolf''s midsection Time seemed to slow as a visible ripple spread at the point of impact before the head of the Warhammer sank unnaturally into the wolf''s flesh... before it passed straight through the body and exploded out of the other side followed by a shower of blood, gore, and bits of its spinal column. The force of the impact was so strong, that the body was roughly severed into two pieces. The front half of the already dead wolfnded right in front of Shane with a loud wet squelch! And the rear half was blown several meters away, trailing entrails through the air like streamers as it went. Close to being the most disgusting thing he had ever seen and with the awful smell, it caused Shane to act immediately. He quickly used ''Devour'' on it, luckily causing most of the other stray parts of its body to erupt into a mist of green profound energy. The swirl opened and it was all sucked into his palm,pletely refined and stored inside of his profound veins forter. After a few moments of recovering his breathing, Shane crawled to his feet and went over to where his Warhammer was lodged in a tree. He then had to spend several long minutes chipping away at the bark with profound energy as his wrists were almost certainly fractured right now. He could feel them healing, as the bones felt warm and itchy but he couldn''t put much strength into them yet. After freeing his weapon, he first went to the corpses of the two Wind wolves and devoured them before refining and storing the energy. He wasn''t sure what would happen if he absorbed a beast with the ability to wield an element, so he decided to wait until he was safely back at the cave. The other wolf corpses, all between the [6th-8th of Elementary Profound] were immediately devoured, refined and absorbed. Some of the energy was converted to vitality and used to speed up his body''s recovery and replenish his stamina but the rest was converted to Profound energy. Therge influx of Profound energy was enough to push him over the boundary and allow him to breakthrough into the [10th of Elementary Profound]. The excess energy helped him reach halfway to the peak but he could also feel portions of it being siphoned off and absorbed directly into his body and life force, strengthening both. Surprisingly, his wounds started closing at a visible speed and he felt his control over profound energy also improve yet again. By the time Shane made it back, it waste afternoon and he jumped straight into the cool water of the pool almost dying it entirely red. Although the spring at the bottom of the pool and the run-off stream would ensure it was back to clear by tomorrow, he still mentally pped himself for potentially contaminating his only water source with blood and whatever bits of organs were hanging out in his hair right now. After cleaning up, he practically flew back into the cave with an excited grin stered on his face. ''Time to gain my first affinity, then it''ll be Sayonara for that big lizard!'' Chapter 9: The Wind and The Worries Chapter 9: The Wind and The Worries A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- Shane was currently sitting cross-legged against the smooth wall of the cave and below him was his pile of warm andfortable hides. Recently, he had tried sitting in the lotus position on the ground to practice giving off the airs of an expert but that didn''tst long. Even though he was now totally flexible enough to pull it off, it was actually super ufortable and his legs started to fall asleep after only a couple of minutes! Even sitting cross-legged was something he would rarely do before now but he felt that it would be very undignified if he were to stretch his legs out and somehow topple over during intense meditation or a breakthrough. ''How the hell do cultivators do this for years at a time!? They must all be masochists!'' Shane awkwardly shifted from one cheek to the other and grumbled to himself while involuntarily imagining a bunch of peerless jade beauties and wrinkly old men with long white beards, sitting down with flushed faces. "Bleh!" ''God I''m such a degenerate'' Pushing down the swiftly rising self-loathing, Shane closed his eyes, adjusted his breathing, and calmed his state of mind. At least meditation was getting easier and easier the more often he tried it. He ''looked'' inwards and into his profound veins and observed the three swirls of green energy as he contemted on what to do with them. They were of course the refined profound energies from the Wind wolves. To get the most benefit from the three swirls of energy, he knew that he should absorb the biggest one first as it came from the Nascent wolf, and being from a beast above his current cultivation, it would benefit his body the most. This however would make the other two much less useful when absorbed afterward. Shane being the stingy guy he was, was naturally unable to stomach either option and so he decided to try something on the fly. He nudged his own profound energy and attempted to mix the swirls together. He felt resistance at first followed by a prickling pain in his veins but persevered and used a bit more of his profound energy to create moreyers and thickly wrap around the swirls before he started constricting. The resistance of the energies started to wane but the pain increased from a slight prickle to an unpleasant burning sensation. Shane bit his lips till they bled as oily sweat started to flow down his brow, but still, he continued. ''Come on, just a little more. I can feel it!'' Just as the pain was bing too much to bear and his consciousness was about to fade, he seeded! Therger swirl engulfed the other two and pulsed once before condensing into a single point. The result was a small spherical green pill, trembling with power and floating idly inside his profound veins. Shane let out a shaky breath and briefly opened his eyes that shone with a spark of excitement, before closing them and concentrating on his breathing rhythm. After a few minutes of recovering, he managed to enter a meditative state once more and tentatively started to probe the ''energy pill'' within his veins. With a *Puff* The ''pill'' exploded into a cloud of green profound energy. The moment this happened, thousands of tiny ck swirls revealed themselves on the inside of his profound veins and started spinning. These tiny little swirls became microscopic ck holes that began to absorb the energy at an astonishing rate. As the energy was absorbed, the veins themselves started growing wider, thicker, and tougher at a visible speed while taking on a deeper gold hue. Shane started to feel fuller and fuller by the second as his profound veins continued to greedily absorb the energy, not wasting even a drop! Just as the full feeling was beginning to get a bit ufortable, a sound simr to breaking ss was heard. *PENG!* Then a wave of warmth andfort washed over himpletely and he broke through for the second time today, officially stepping into the [1st of Nascent Profound Realm]. As he inspected his veins, Shane realized there had been an enormous qualitative change. His veins that had previously been a gaudy gold color, now had slight green shining slivers running all along their length. A closer look revealed them to be tiny sparkling emerald-like gemstones, probably a sign of the affinity to wind he knew he now possessed. The profound energy within his veins had also changedpletely and only now did he realize that what he was using before was not real profound energy but something different, and then a distant memory clicked into ce and he pped his head. ''Of course it was that! I remember from reading the wiki that Elementary Profound practitioners only use the vital energy of heaven and earth.'' He actually felt pretty incredible right now, it was as if he could manipte this new profound energy almost at will, and the ''difficulty'' he was experiencing before had all but disappeared. While Shane was examining the changes to his veins, a cyclone of green profound energy hadpletely engulfed his body. His hair, now slightly longer and silkier, was fluttering in the wind although everything else was seemingly untouched and unruffled. Shane opened his eyes and they shed with an emerald hue for a second before reverting to their normal crimson red and the cyclone died offpletely. He raised his hand, palm facing upwards, as the residual energy from the cyclonepressed to form a tiny twister in the center. Shane took a deep breath inward, marveling at his creation for a few moments, before willing it to dissipate. ''My life is bing more and more like some fantasy novel. Not that I mind it though... anything is better than waiting around to die'' He winced a little at the depressing memories but soon pped his cheeks and headed for the outside of the cave. "Time to do some testing" He only managed to take one step past the barrier before freezing, the new sensory overload was almost intoxicating, he could sense and feel so much more than before. Raising his hand, Shane syed his fingers and dragged them slowly through the air as if following its unseen streams and flows. It was as if an invisible shackle, previously unknown to him, had been removed. He felt free and unfettered, almost like he was one with the wind and that with nary a thought, it would answer his beck and call. With much excitement, Shane started performing some tests and found that he could influence the air around him to a certain extent without utilizing any form of energy. This only amounted to him controlling small gusts and breezes within his immediate vicinity but it left absolutely no energy signature and he was sure he could think of other uses in the future when his connection was strengthened. It was also ridiculously cool to be able to control the wind like a goddamn wizard! He would absolutely never admit to anyone how long he stood there nerding out and ''pushing'' gusts of air around pretending they were Dragonball moves either. The real Insanity started when he decided to mix profound energy in with the wind. Shane found that his profound energy could take on the wind attribute almost immediately and not only did he already have an amazing amount of control, he could also feel the power and potential it held. There were so many new ways he could utilize this, especially during his n to take care of the lizard and grab that flower! "But first, *Yaaaaawn* I really need some sleep" His previous exhaustion had returned with a vengeance... It was only the next morning that Shane noticed the little shing icon in the corner of his vision that signified notifications from the system. [System: Host has reached Elementary Profound Realm 10. Quest function unlocked.] [System: Host has reached Elementary Profound Realm 10. Existing ability updated.] [System: Host has reached Nascent Profound Realm 1. New ability unlocked] [System: Host has reached Nascent Profound Realm 1. Minimap range upgraded to 25m] ''Hmm, that''s the first thing I have heard from the system in a while, let''s check the new unlocks for abilities first.'' [Abilities:] {Appraisal: (average) - More information will be given about live targets at or below the host''s current cultivation level (NEW!)} {TreasureBody: Tier C (0%)} {Characteristics: Organic Material (Profound Beasts, Corpses and Flora): 1) Devour - Can directly convert and refine organic matter into their most basic forms of energy before assimting with the host. Any benefits gained are directly rted to differences in profound realm and physiology between target and host. ((Organic Constructs - Organic materials can be absorbed by the host and used to create living weapons and armor that exist symbiotically within them)) (NEW!) 2) ??? 3) ??? Inorganic Material (Weapons, Armour, Metals, Crystals, Books etc) 1) Pirate Library - Host can absorb and assimte any written information including profound arts and techniques and manifest them within a mental pce. Profound arts and techniques will be absorbed into the host''s veins and get refined (cutting out unnecessary parts), gaining a minor increase in cultivation speed and efficiency of absorbed energy for each different one that is assimted - destroys information source. (NEW!) 2) ??? 3) ??? ''Appraisal ranking up is pretty good in itself and the newly unlocked Inorganic ability is amazingly overpowered except for the fact that I am hundreds of km away from any information sources and I don''t have any profound arts yet.'' Shane scratched his head in frustration, turning his hair into a bird''s nest in the process. ''Okay so not useful right now but it will beter'' Deciding that was a worry for future him, Shane''s eyes moved onto the upgrade of devour next and a feral grin spread across his handsome face. To be honest, he was originally a little worried that his hammer wouldn''t cut it against the True Profound lizard, even if it were incapacitated but now, he had a way to kill it for sure! ''Hahaha that lizard''s days are numbered. System! Show me the Quests tab.'''' [Quests] Main Quest chain XQ - Save Xia Qingyue from her tragic fate! (you''re here now, may as well fuck the plot before it even starts) 1) Dreaming of you Enter the Dreamscape and convince Xia Qingyue that you are in fact real and not a figment of her imagination. ~ Reward ess to and control of Dreamwalker ability 2) ??? 3) ??? 4) ??? 5) ??? "...Shit!" The rest of the day went by in a nervous blur, as he half-heartedly trained with his new profound energy empowered, wind affinity, for which he managed to find some dangerous and incredibly useful applications. Let''s just say he had now managed to incorporate air cannons into his katas and he could also form the fabled wind balls and even wind des with just a little bit of effort! The Paracaps also evolved as well as they grew to over a foot tall and the purple protrusions now had sickly looking green spots covering them. The mist also looked more substantial and seemed to shimmer between green and purple, it even emitted a faint [Nascent Profound] pressure that was different from normal profound pressure. Overall, they looked pretty dangerous and Appraisal only confirmed that fact further. [Profound Noxious Paracap: Spores will paralyze and apply weak poison. Dangerous to True Profound and below] Still, even this good news didn''t manage to settle Shanes troubled mind as he couldn''t help but wonder if he would be alive tomorrow to see any of his nse to fruition. A woman''s mind was still a mystery to him after all. Eventually, the inevitable happened, night began to fall, and after bathing and chewing his meal... very VERY slowly, he couldn''t avoid it anymore. Shane was currently looking rather frazzled as he paced back and forth next to his bedding. If anyone were here to see him, they would undoubtedly think he was a crazy person! One moment he would giggle to himself before gaining a dark look inside his eyes before muttering something and then pping himself the next second before going right back to giggling again. Gone was the yful grin, the savage bloodthirsty hunter, and the narcissistic yboy (self-assumed). His shoulder-length hair was looking even more like a bird''s nest where he continually scratched and ruffled it in his nervousness. "*Haaaaa*" he sighed loudly again for the umpteenth time, before flopping down, face-first onto his bed of hides. He was going to have to talk to her at some point but he really wanted it to be on his terms and now that he didn''t have any time left, he desperately wished for more of it. Dear Goddess, he wasn''t ready! He waspletely stuck between severe tion and pure terror. It was a very bizarre feeling. He let out a pathetic whine before burying his face in the hides and taking a deep breath. *SLAP* "Fuck it! Man up Shane. You fought a pack of 33 wolves yesterday, youughed as you crushed their bodies while they tried to make you food! Look at you now! Where did that guy go!? You can be a Simp but never a Beta!" After gathering his courage, Shaneid on his back, closed his eyes, and gradually sunk into a meditative state while mentally reassuring himself in any way he could think of. ''That''s right, I''m a badass now and she''s only a sheltered little girl'' Something felt wrong with that thought though and just as he was slipping into unconsciousness, he remembered her constitution. ''She will be able to tell immediately if I tell her a lie or partial truth... Shit!'' ----------------------------------- Once again Shane found himself surrounded by ethereal fog, in a freezing cold, pure white world. He took a step forward and heard the satisfying crunch of the frosted grass below his bare feet. No longer did he feel like an interloper, wandering in someone else''s domain, he felt a strange connection to this world that wasn''t there before. The feeling was a peculiar closeness that wasn''t quite control, instead, it was more of an understanding or belonging. Shane felt as if something was resonating with his very soul and it washed away most of his nervousness. ''Hmm, it should be my intrinsic connection to the unawakened Dreamwalker ability.'' Shane mused to himself as he waved a profound energy-infused hand and the wind answered his call. A thin, almost unnoticeable barrier of greenish energy formed around his entire body and contracted close to his skin before bing invisible. Sure it was a simple and basic application but one that would keep him warm nheless. The now dubbed wind armor. ''I''m terrible at naming things, Sue me oh wait you can''t, there are no copyrightws here!'' could also be a crude shield, capable of deflecting attacks when pumped full of profound energy. It was incredibly draining on his reserves if used on the fly and not prepared beforehand but it got the job done. Contrary to earlier, Shane''s mind was now clear and he felt as if he could exert his will upon the dreamscape, even if only slightly. With a bit of concentration and a slight mental effort, he found himself on a familiar stone pathway. Everything in front of him was the same yet it felt so much more real this time and his eyes gleamed as he took it all in. The flowers and nts, frozen in time were more beautiful than any ice sculptures he had ever seen. The Chinese Willow, branches held at impossible angles as if blowing in the wind yetpletely covered in hoar frost. He was, however, surprised to see a small but clearly green and very much alive patch of grass at its base. The faceted crystalline wall, covered in visible hairline fractures, gave one a tragic feeling, and multicolored light reflected from the angr facets with each step he took. A swirling tempest of profound energy-carrying impossibly shaped shards of the clearest blue ice. At the center of it all, a girl Shane stepped forwards, eyes never leaving her. Aided by the wind, he was almostpletely silent as he slipped into the tempest without pause or hesitation. The wind couldn''t harm him and the ice seemed to subconsciously avoid him, and so he advanced. Finally reaching the willow, he sat down on the grass, his back to the tree, and much to his surprise, it was ever so slightly warm. Hands behind his head and eyes on the girl, Shane rxed for what felt like the first time in weeks. Recently, he was always on the move, whether it be fighting or exploring, although it was usually both. He continued all day and only ate or slept after night had fallen. Day after day, for weeks, he had persevered through hardships and fumbled about in this new world, like a man driven by purpose. Only now, did hee to realize that it was all so that he could see this girl again just one more time. Shane''s eyes softened as he gazed at her motionless form, even now she was truly beautiful, like a proud white swan. Even from afar and while wearing those regal-looking white robes, he could tell her figure was graceful and delicate to the extreme. Although a veil of the purest snow covered her face, it did nothing to diminish her charm. Her thin and curvy jet ck eyebrowsplimented her silky obsidian flowing hair and her delicate eyshes were shaped to perfection. He found it almost impossible to tear his gaze away from her stationary form but there was no lust in his eyes, only mncholy, hope, and a smattering of something else he dared not think about. After an undetermined amount of time, he had hardened his resolve and infused some wind attributed profound energy into his lungs. With a smirk, he whistled the short and sad little Mockingjay call from off the top of his head... At once, the world became silent. The tempest died down almost immediately and Qingyue''s eyes snapped open, shock and fury clear to see but underneath was a heart-rending indifference to all things. That didn''t detract from the allure of her eyes, however. They were simply magnificent, two tranquil, star-like pupils that carried an immeasurable depth to them were surrounded by gleaming irises of the purest icy blue. Shane felt as if he could get lost in them, and for a moment he almost did. That was until a chilly voice, sounding as if straight from the depths of Cocytus, drew him from his reverie. "You!" Shane gulped down at her tone and nearly looked away before a small amount of almost feral pride, cultivated over weeks of being a predator, forced him to keep looking at her. His eyes glowed red and he held her gaze. Though when he spoke, his voice was still gentle. "Me *Haaaa* You probably weren''t expecting me Qingyue, I know that myst time here was rather dramatic" He winced at that thought. "and I know what you must be thinking but if you just listen to me for a mom" And that was as far as he got before she swiftly gathered a chunk of her profound energy within a single wave of her palm, and pushed outwards in his direction. The action took only a moment, before a veritable flood of freezing cold energy surged towards him in an attempt to remove him from this ce. Shane however was different than before. He pumped almost half of his profound energy into the wind armor that was still surrounding him, and it resisted her attack barely. He managed to look nonchnt about it but his pupils were contracting intensely. That casual attack hit like a truck! She was at least a whole great realm above him in cultivation and he didn''t know how many more of those he could actually take. His worries were for naught as her eyes opened wide in surprise and her cute little crescent eyebrows furrowed as she spoke. "You I-impossible! How could you have cultivation? Its element is different from mine, it has no ice and you''re only in the Nascent Realm! Speak! Who are you?!" ''Ok, at least she is speaking and not attacking, conversation is good, conversation is good. "*Sigh* Qingyue, it''s really me, a lot happened. Just give me a chance and I will exin" Chapter 10: A story of Ice and Poison Chapter 10: A story of Ice and Poison A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- Two pairs of eyes searched for answers. One pair, a wild and deep crimson, almost the color of blood, filled with longing and hope. The other, a beautiful icy blue, shock and confusion danced within, although cold indifference still reigned above all. Time almost came to a standstill, the air thick with tension. Shane could hear his heartbeat in his ears and as the seconds ticked on, he started to gain a terrible sinking feeling. Fear, fear of rejection, fear that she wouldn''t allow him a chance to exin and fear that he would be all alone in this unforgiving world should she wish to send him away. An almost imperceptible nod... Shane let out a shaky breath in relief and the sound in his ears lessened. ''Thank God she is willing! This feels far more draining than when I fought that entire pack of wolves yesterday.'' He thought wryly to himself as he tried and almost failed to contain his excitement at her simple gesture. "Ok, please sit, this may take a while." ''She actually sat! Ok progress, progress.'' "What I have to say will probably include a lot of very strange things. Some you will want to question, some you will want to refute and some you may outright reject but if you could let me talk until the end, I would be very grateful." "Speak, I will listen" Even her icy cold voice made his whole body feel soft and warm. ''Goddess dammit! What is wrong with me?'' "Ok where to start hmm Right so let''s begin with something about you before we talk about me." "Why about m" Shane raised his hand to stop her. "Now now, you always were impatient ever since we were kids" He shed a teasing smile at her after saying that and she averted her eyes not knowing how to respond. ''Sooo Cute!'' Crossing his fingers for luck and adopting a serious tone, Shane began to state his case. "When I say ''something about you'', it will naturally be relevant to what I have to say after." He paused to take a deep breath, building a little suspense, before diving right into the metaphorical can of worms. "You are special Qingyue. ...You always have been. You pick things up incredibly quickly and even for the most difficult things, yourprehension is off the charts. You also find it incredibly hard to lie and you can always tell if someone is lying to you." It wasn''t a question, after all, he knew it to be true. Her eyebrows shot up high onto her forehead in surprise. This was probably the biggest emotional reaction he had personally seen from her in years! He was also sure her little mouth was wide open but the pesky veil was blocking his view of it. If only he could remove it... ''Wow seeing her again really does mess with my mental state... like a lot.'' After a moment, her eyebrows slowly came back down, and instead, she knitted them together into a frown, because... he was right. Qingyue was frustrated, to say the least. She couldn''t even lie and tell him he was wrong and silence was the same as admitting so she just sighed and nodded slowly with resignation. Shane smiled wryly. "The reason I mentioned that is simple. Once you have listened to what I have to say and then personally confirmed it, you will remember that you had not felt me lie even once during this conversation." He let that sink in for a few moments beforeunching into his story, gesturing with his hands from time to time, for added dramatic effect. "As I said before, I originally believed that this ce was a hallucination, a mere figment of my imagination that was created to allow me to escape from the real world. If you remember, I once told you that I was diagnosed with a terminal illness at a very young age and it was the illness that led me to this dreamscape." Shane opened his arms wide as if to hold the entire mystical world in his hands. "Whenever I rpsed, I would find myself here, and although I would recover, the illness was doomed to harry me throughout my life, until either I died from it finally or my body gave up. When I was first diagnosed, I copsed at school and woke up here. I wandered alone in the dense fog for days, until I found you, a little girl, all alone in this garden." A gentle smile tugged at his lips. "...Well, the rest you know, we became friends along the way and inadvertentlyforted each other in our time of need. After weeks of being bedridden, I started to recover. At the same time, the connection I felt to this ce became weaker and weaker until one day I was no longer able toe here at all. Naturally, being so young, I was scared and upset and so I tried to talk to both my family and the doctors. The problem was that when I tried to tell them about this ce, all of my memories seemed to fade away... Well not entirely, as I would find outter, that they were still there, just slightly out of reach, but I digress. That was until a whole eight years passed and I once again fell ill and somehow found myself here in this dream. Technically, it was eight years for me but for you, I think it should have been more like five I don''t really know how it works if I''m honest." He shrugged, some things would make you old if you tried to make sense of them. "Why, why are you telling me all of this? How is this supposed to make me believe in you?" She asked, seemingly confused "You really*Sigh* I died Qingyue" She flinched a little at that but quickly regained her indifference. Shane''s eyes turned a little misty for a few seconds and a mncholic air surrounded him as the old memories poured in. "The illness left my body in bad shape and I could barely even move around towards the end. By that point, I had achieved what I wanted and so my will to fight it was practically nonexistent ...and also, I was tired Qingyue, so very very tired" Suddenly, his eyes brightened, and when he spoke again, the mncholy had faded entirely from his voice. "So, I decided to go out on my own terms! A final Fuck You to the powers that be for dealing me a shitty hand! I did the only thing I could do. I refused the treatment and probably passed away over there, soon after I lost consciousness At least I think so...." Shane''s momentum came to a stop and he scratched his nose awkwardly before continuing. "The rest you know, I came here, said my goodbyes to you, and died. Well, that should have been the end but it wasn''t. I woke up somewhere else, somewherepletely different, and now, someway or somehow, I''m here. Here as in the profound Sky Continent. Here as in The Blue Wind Empire." Qingyue''s whole body shook and her eyes turned ssy as shepletely zoned out at his words. ''Shit! I forgot about that. She ispletely obsessed with growing strong enough to find her mother who left them to return to the Realm of the Gods.'' He facepalmed hard. ''Damn I probably just triggered her memories.'''' "Qingyue... Qingyue, Qingyue!" "Hmmm yes?" Qingyue seemed slightly dazed at first but she swiftly recovered. For just a split second, the sadness and vulnerability that she kept so well hidden were on full disy... until the indifferent mask came back up. But how could Shane, who was staring into her eyes the whole time, miss it? Gripping his fist tightly, he promised himself to give this girl all the care she needed in the future. For now, he had to shrug it off and continue. This was too important. "You zoned out there for a bit. Now, moving on to my main point. I am willing to bet that like I did before, you also believe that I am something fictional, a creation of your own mind, correct?" "You are" Shane got to experience firsthand, just how terrible she was at lying. ''She must not be feeling so sure about that anymore.'' "Well, if I am a creation of your own making, then I should not know things that you do not know, correct?" A contemtive look followed by a slow, reluctant nod. "Good good good. We are in agreement then!" Without hesitation, Shane brought up his map, although, to Qingyue, he looked as if he was waving his hand and performing strange motions in the air. "Around 200km west of your Floating Cloud, there is a settlement known as Cyan Forest Town, have you heard of it?" She nodded again. "There is an extremelyrge mountain range near Cyan Forest Town called the Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range, are you still with me so far?" She seemed unsure where he was going with this and only nodded slightly this time. "Humour me for a moment, would you. Currently, I am deep inside that mountain range, around 300km from the town, give or take a few. Do you have any idea what kind of profound beasts live inside the mountain range or what kind of herbs grow there?" "...No" A long pause and then barely a whisper but Shane almost didn''t manage to stop the grin from spreading on his face in time when he finally heard her speak. "Could you find out easily enough?" Her eyes widened again at that. ''Good, it seems she caught on quickly.'' "Well then, listen carefully to this next part, I will name one of the profound beasts I am currently targeting and some of the herbs I have identified while being here. True Profound Beast: Forest Sand Wyrm. True Profound Herb: Tri-Color Forest Orchid Profound Herb: Demon Skull Vine Profound Herb: Iron Sand Vine" A small wrinkle appeared between Qingyue''s brows in concentration as she seemed tomit the names to memory. ''Good, this is the most I can do for now. If nothinges of it, I will go to Floating Cloud myself.'' "Hmmm, you can probably find the wolves anywhere considering howmon they are over here so no point in naming them." He mumbled to himself. "That should be enough. Qingyue, I can already feel that I won''t be able to stay here much longer and so I will leave this with you for now. I only ask for you to give me a chance." Shane reached his hand out and ced his palm on the crystalline structure, not minding repulsive force or the burning icy feeling that was doing its best to invade his hand. Seeing him go so far, once again caused Qingyue to enter into a slight daze. Neither of them had realized but all of his words and actions seemed able to bypass the Frozen Heart Arts to some degree. "Take care of yourself Qingyue" He uttered those words and disappeared. Some may say it was a low blow but all is fair in love and war. She snapped out of her thoughts at the familiar line and raised her hand as if to grab onto something "Wait!..." But he was already gone. Shane awoke in his bed, a wry smile on his face. "*Sigh*" He had been sighing a lottely and for some reason, he really didn''t like it, it irked him more than he wanted to admit. Maybe it was the influence of the wind on him, he decided he was going to be a little more unrestrained and unfettered with his thoughts from now on which seemed to cate the feeling somewhat. ''That went about as well as I could have expected Damn Shane, you nearly blew it at one point there though! If she gets it in her head that You''re From the Realm of the Gods, then things really will getplicated.'' He didn''t purposefully want to hide things from her but he liked her and he wanted her to like him too. Shane knew her mentality and the mentality of cultivators in general, if he could help them climb higher and get stronger, they would flock to him and offer him everything. Well, either that or try to destroy him, dissect him, and take the method for themselves. ''Ooof that was a depressing thought.'' Basically, he wanted to woo Qingyue with his own charms and not have any sort of rtionship based on benefits with her. Obviously, he would help her with everything he could, even if she or the quests didn''t ask him to. He cared for her, much more than anything else in this world at present, she was there when he was at his most fragile even if she wasn''t always weing. In spite of everything, Shane was very intelligent and he knew that given enough time, he could reach the top. He also knew he had incredible abilities, incredible enough to make any cultivator worth their salt, salivate, and he wasn''t naive enough to think that he would form no benefit-driven rtionships in this world. But Qingyue, she was different. Shane got up and grabbed a chunk of his recently made and recently smoked [Peak Elementary Profound], snake jerky before walking out towards the pool. He swallowed, shed his shorts, and dived straight into the chilly water. After a few minutes of sitting on the smooth bottom of the pool and still marveling at how long he could hold his breath for now, he got to his feet. Gathering profound energy in his legs Shane crouched and then propelled himself upwards, bursting out of the water and into the air. He righted himself mid-air andnded on the bank. As he stepped towards his shorts, a gentle twister of green profound energy, effortlessly surrounded him and pulled all the remaining water droplets off of his body. A testament to his recent practice with the wind element ''Whatever happens with Qingyue happens. If she doesn''t believe me this time, I will just go and see her myself.'' Feeling a bit like a new man, with a weight he wasn''t aware of carrying lifted off his shoulders, Shane decided to start setting the final pieces of his n for robbing the flower in motion. And so, he geared up and headed out into the forest, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Over the following days, Shane had managed to hunt down another two packs of Wind wolves. Neither were as big as the first pack he came across but after devouring over forty of them, including two Nascent Profound and two peak Elementary Profound wind wolves he had smoothly broken through to the [2nd of Nascent Profound]. The conversion rate for the energy of profound beasts below his cultivation was heavily stacked against him and if his control over the Wind and profound energy overall hadn''t increased by arge margin, Shane would have called foul y. This meant that he would have to continue to kill and devour beasts close to his own realm in strength if he wanted to advance steadily, or at all... As he suspected that lower realm energy would be more and more useless, the higher his cultivation rose. Shane knew that the payoff was still better than the drawback as he had estimated that with the strength and toughness of his body, he could fight beasts that were 3 small realms above him. That was without counting his hammer or the fact that he still had no profound arts or any skills. Another problem was that arge amount of the energy he absorbed was instead distributed to his body rather than his profound veins and when he finally decided to ask the system for answers he only got [System: Host should check cultivation status]. ''System, open the Cultivation tab.'' [Cultivation] {Profound Cultivation: Nascent Profound Realm 2} {Body Cultivation: Elementary Profound Realm 10(peak)} - Host cannot be harmed by any ordinary attacks, equal to or below body cultivation realm (NEW!). ''I guess that is the part of devour I had been misunderstanding until now. Well, at least I finally know where all that energy is disappearing to. Not that it''s a bad thing.'' Shane had also wanted to try out the new Organic constructs part of his ability but all of the Profound Beasts he could find during thest few days were either built for speed like the wolves or had weak and brittle bodies. This frustrated him to no end as the prime target for good weapon material would be the Wyrm but he needed the goddam weapon to kill the thing! ''With my current strength, my hammer just won''t do enough damage to a True Profound Beast What am I missing here? hammer, hammer Eh!? Hahahahaha!'' Realization gave way to tion, as an almost feral grin spread upon his face. Shane checked his map for a second before dashing off into the forest in search of the SteelOak trees. When he came upon the grove of four, he was ecstatic but when he ced his palm on the first tree and tried to use devour for Organic constructs, he started sweating. He could feel the resistance of the tree and he wasn''t expecting it so it caught him off guard and he almost suffered a bacsh. Growling and gnashing his teeth like a wild animal, Shane then shouted aloud. "Obediently be my weapon!" With the full brunt of his willpower now behind the ability, it wasn''t long before the tree erupted into a shimmering silver cloud that started to gather towards his right hand. The cloud converged and condensed into a small amount of iridescent grey liquid before flowing over his fingers and into the skin, just below the wrist. It was cool to the touch and extremely heavy, but once it had all disappeared into his body, he could no longer feel the weight. It was a strange sensation for sure because he was aware of its presence inside him and he instinctively knew that he could call it forth with a single thought. He also knew that he had nowhere near enough of it to create the weapon he envisioned. It seemed that the amount of refined essence he would gain from a single tree was very small, only around 15kg, and so he added a silent apology as he made his way over to the other three, before devouring them and adding the resulting essence to his organic constructs. Over the next two days, Shane practiced applying fine control to his wind until he could erect and maintain an istion barrier around himself with ease and lift and encase small objects within a ball of wind and hold it almost subconsciously. It wasn''t very exciting, but he couldn''t allow for any mistakes, as thest part of his n held incredible danger towards himself. It wasn''t untilte afternoon, on the seventh day after he had met with Qingyue when Shane finally felt confident enough tomence with the most dangerous part of the preparations. He was currently standing near the group of Paracaps and you guessed it right, his master n was to poison the big lizard and then finish it off while it was down. Pretty shameless but surely effective. Shane coated himself in his wind energy and formed the istion barrier before crouching down next to some of the Paracaps. He then gingerly reached forward, cold sweat dripping down his back, and used a small wind de, formed on the tip of his finger, to remove one of the protrusions. He then created a small ball of wind around the pod and sent a sharp little tendril of profound energy into it. *Puff* The pod erupted and a cloud of sporespletely filled the space within the sphere. Seeing this, Shane shivered and swore to himself to be even more careful with the rest of them. He repeated this action a few more times until he had 5 spheres, each around the size of a marble. He then merged these 5 spheres together, making sure to keep thempletely sealed from the outside air. When they had seamlessly merged, Shane hardened the outside with his own profound energy. Taking a small piece of leather hide which he proceeded to wrap around the sphere before sewing it together. After that, he used some y from the bottom of the pool to coat the entire thing. Next, he moved over to a small fire he had prepared in the clearing earlier, and using the wind energy, he floated the now ping-pong-sized y ball above the fire. When the ball was securely in position, Shane agitated the surrounding winds to spin around the small ball and effectively bake the y into a hard but brittle shell. The finished ball was then carefully ced onto some leaves to cool down before he allowed himself a moment of reprieve. A small chuckle started to spread across the clearing and escted before turning into full-blown maniacalughter. "Hahahahahaha, I did it! I actually made a poison bomb that can take down a True Profound expert with my own two hands! I am the greatest hahaha! Tomorrow will be the lizard''sst day!" After basking in his own magnificence for a while, Shane quickly regained his serious demeanor and made his way back over to the Paracaps, while wondering if he was actually going crazy and developing multiple personalities by being out here alone. Shane managed to sessfully perform the process without a hitch another 4 times, he had 5 poison bombs altogether and was well on the way to merging his sixth until a notification shed across his vision [System: Quest Complete! Main Quest Chain XQ - 1) Dreaming of you] Enter the Dreamscape and convince Xia Qingyue that you are in fact real and not a figment of her imagination. (Complete) ~ Reward ess to and control of Dreamwalker ability (Unlocked) "Oh, Shit!" Shane lost his concentration for just a moment but it was all that was needed for the wind spheres full of spores to break down and explode, sending the poisonous spores directly towards his face. He panicked, forgetting the barrier he had erected around himself and within a split second, he had punched out with both fists. On instinct, he had used a Kata infused with wind energy and two booming air cannons pushed him off the ground. This caused him to fly away at an incredible speed, tracing a parabolic arc through the air andnded his back around 15m away. Totally unharmed, if only a little winded, Shane got up from the ground and dusted himself off. He then nced over to his previous location and fell directly to his knees... "My Babies, Noooooooooooooo!" A mournful wail echoed throughout the clearing, disturbing the tranquility of the surrounding forest. Yep, the Paracaps werepletely obliterated by the air canons he released in a moment of panic. Weeks of work were dashed away, just like that. The only reason he didn''tpletely lose it was because he still had 5 poison bombs on hand and that should easily be enough to get the job done. Chapter 11: Qingyues Memories Chapter 11: Qingyue''s Memories A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- Xia Qingyue was having the most conflicted week of her young life. She''d had that dream again, the one with the wild boy she had grown up thinking was her imaginary friend, turned heart demon. He had said some very shocking and thought-provoking things to her in the dreamscape. Things that she really wasn''t sure whether to believe or not but things that if true, could change everything. It took her two days to summon the courage to ask her father Xia Hongyi for some written information about profound beasts and herbs found within the Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range. He was confused but being used to his daughter having few words to say, he quicklyplied. Now, five dayster, she was waiting to receive the information and it could arrive at any time. Her father was over at the Xiao n, working on early arrangements for her marriage. The marriage that was due to take ce in just over six months'' time, the marriage that was doomed to never be more than a farce She sighed, not for the first time at the thought of it. Xiao Che''s father had saved her life, almost at the cost of his own and she would never regret paying back her debts. The problem was that she could never be a real wife to the Xiao n. Not that she had any feelings other than indifference towards it anymore but her master and the sect would never allow it. It was all a farce and she felt sorry for everyone who was working hard for this ''fake'' marriage. Even worse was that she found it almost impossible to lie and she was forbidden from telling anyone apart from her father about her status as a disciple. For some reason, whenever she found herself thinking about her uing marriage, her thoughts would drift to the image of a certain young man. A handsome, red-eyed, olive-skinned, and wild-looking youth. Then she would always feel that confusing, sinking feeling in her stomach again. Thinking back to Shane, he always seemed to appear when she was troubling herself over something, well apart from that one time She shuddered at the memories of him ''dying'', He looked so different, so defeated and tired That time felt so real and the dull ache in her chest that appeared whenever she recalled it, caused her to instinctively circte the Frozen heart Arts. Unfortunately, her efforts to counter the painful feeling were always ineffective. She could remain indifferent and uncaring, even when facing her own father and brother. The question was, why? why was HE able topletely throw her emotions into disarray in such a short time. Her eyes began to turn a little zed and gained a distant look as memories of the past unintentionally surfaced. Memories of the times they spent together... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- He first appeared when her mother ''flew away'' and left back to ''The God Realm'', wherever that was... She was only four at the time and it absolutely crushed her. Her father was ridden with grief and her brother was just a toddler so she mainly found herself alone. She cried all the time at first and before long, she started to be withdrawn into herself, hoping for someone, anyone really, to help her. He appeared there, a strange, curious, and wild-looking boy with an upbeat attitude. They met together in the garden in her dreams and over the span of several weeks, he managed to pull her out of her shell with lots of silly games and weird words. Then one day he left and she was alone again It wasn''t a sudden thing, the visits even decreased gradually over several weeks but to a four-year-old child, losing her first friend, well it hit her almost as hard as losing her mother. After that, Qingyue had stopped closing herself off to everyone but Shane had unintentionally left another gap in her heart... Five yearster, she had just started to learn about cultivation and its different realms. Being as intelligent as she was, she immediately put two and two together. She realized, at that moment that her mother was an incredibly powerful cultivator, and to reunite with her again, she would have to be extremely strong herself. This made her feel totally lost. All she wanted was aplete family again and to attain that, she needed power. The problem was, she had nobody around that could teach her beyond the basics. She was told she had great talent but her family were merchants, not cultivators. The strongest cultivator in her city was Xiao Lie from the Xiao n yet he was only at Spirit Profound Peak. Meaning he couldn''t even fly. It was at this time that Shane visited her dreams again"Who!?" ''Qingyue would have chuckled at the memory if only she were capable of that anymore'' She had jumped straight into his chest and felt his warmth surround her, as she cried all of thest few years'' grievances right out of her heart and onto his peculiar beast hide tunic. He just made her feel so safe and warm; like she wasn''t alone anymore. After that, they spent weeks together, talking and ying by the garden pond. Shane told her many amazing stories and fairy tales from his ''hometown'' and she told him all about her life and family''s business. The only thing Qingyue found strange was that she always found herself unable to talk about certain things... Whenever she tried to tell Shane about the moment her mother ''flew away'', she would choke up and the words wouldn''te out. Simrly, whenever she wanted to ask him what he knew about cultivation in general, she seemed to be absent-minded and forgetful. He mentioned something called Leukaemia a couple of times but back then, she just thought it was another of his weird made-up words. Eventually, the same thing happened again and Shane''s visits started to be less frequent. Qingyue recognized the pattern and tried to shut herself away from him. It was a defense mechanism, designed to reduce the impact of his leaving. It was all in vain however as they both only seemed to grow visibly sadder by the day. That was until he confronted her and she broke down in tears. What neither of them realized was just how much her extremely powerful emotions were affecting the very fabric of the dreamscape. Certain special connections formed and others became stronger while some restrictions actually weakened. This allowed her, in that moment, to get everything out that she wasn''t able to say before. He took her into his warm andforting embrace, stroked her hair, and just before he faded away, he made a promise to meet her again once more... Qingyue at this point was sure that she had imagined Shane as a friend or confidant for her when she needed someone the most and although she was saddened by their parting, she believed that he was always with her. Another two years passed almost without incident until one day when she was cultivating in her garden, a passing expert from Frozen Cloud Immortal Pce noticed her and invited her to join as her personal disciple. This woman told her that she was a one in a million talent, with 21 naturally opened profound Entrances. Whatever that meant. Qingyue saw this as her ticket to growing strong enough to find her mother and agreed with the condition that she would not join the sect until after her ''marriage''. She then exined her situation and how she needed to ''repay'' the life debt of her future husband''s deceased father. Her would-be mastermunicated back to the sect and the sect mistress reluctantly agreed with two conditions. The marriage was not to be consummated and Qingyue would head to the sect shortly after the wedding, leave her family and ''husband'' and stay for good. Qingyue of course agreed and her new Master, a woman by the name of Chu Yueli stayed with her for a few weeks to give her guidance and pass on the sect''s techniques and arts. Her master was a cold woman but she showed Qingyue genuine concern and care and so, over time, Qingyue opened up to her. She even once identally spoke about Shane. The reaction her master had at the mention of him seemed rather exaggerated and she even started mumbling to herself about heart demons. After her outburst, Chu Yueli seemingly decided on something important and imparted another technique on the spot, one called the Frozen Heart Arts. Qingyue''s Master told her that practicing this technique was a requirement for all official disciples and that it would shut away her emotions but in turn, it would help increase her cultivation. She also exined that Shane was a creation born of her own mind in an attempt to help her get over the loss of her mother. She also exined that Shane could easily be a heart demon and interfere with her future cultivation if she didn''t sever the attachment. Since young, nobody was ever able to lie in front of Qingyue without her knowing and she couldn''t detect any lies or even half-truths in her master''s words. In the end, her hunger for power won out and so she readily epted what her master said and started cultivating the technique in earnest. Sometime after her master had left, Qingyue turned 13, and not long after that, she broke through into the Nascent Profound Realm. At that point, the Frozen Heart Arts had be part of her and by the time she realized how indifferent she was bing ...towards everything, it was toote. Qingyue was terrified, but the art locked even those feelings inside her heart. It also stopped her from being able to tell anyone as whenever she spoke, she couldn''t manage to muster anything other than cold indifference. It was also around this time that the nightly cold pains started. Her master had pre-warned her that she would sometimes feel cold pain in the middle of the night due to the technique she was cultivating but that still did nothing to prepare her. Knowing something and experiencing it were twopletely different things and the pain was still a lot more than a young girl could handle. The first time it happened, she was writhing atop her bed, clenching her fists and gritting her teeth and when the pain started to be unbearable, she subconsciously thought of Shane. Almost immediately, the pain seemed to lessen as she recalled memories of the times spent with him. When the pain subsided and Qingyue finally passed out from exhaustion, she found herself back in the dreamscape once more. Shane arrived, he was the same except now he looked like he had gone through a growth spurt and it was much more obvious that he was a year or two older than her. He was taller and more handsome this time, yet something in his eyes gave away his tiredness. He came forward but her art activated and before she could stop herself, she was sending him away by force and with a cold refusal. It was a few days before he showed up again and although he smiled at her, the hurt in his eyes gave away his feeling of betrayal. No amount of circting the Frozen Heart Arts could push away the spike of pain in her chest whenever she caught him looking at her like that. He rarely spoke after that but he seemed to be weaker and more exhausted with each passing day as he rested against the frozen willow. Sometimes she would nce at him and catch him looking at her with a pained expression and other times he would be looking somewhere else wearing one of defeat. He looked hollow, like a shell of his former self and it gripped and twisted at her heart so much that she desperately wanted to reach out to him but she just couldn''t. He stoppeding again not long after that but she never stopped having the dream and the hollow, empty feeling in her chest only got stronger with each time she arrived there and he didn''t turn up. With each passing day, she became more and more indifferent to the world. This continued for more than two years as the dreamscape gradually changed into a hostile world of snow and Ice until one day, he came back. After emerging from the frozen tempest and with visible effort, he dragged himself forward along the ground while gasping for breath and leaned once more against the frozen willow. His usually olive-colored skin was deathly pale and his handsome face had a haggard look to it while the exhaustion was evident in his gaze. His normally bright crimson eyes had a slightly ssy sheen to them although it still couldn''t detract from the determination that yed across his features. He started talking, rambling on about some nonsense and she got annoyed thinking it was all some trick to unsettle her further... Then he told her he was dying, she had no idea why, but her world shook and the anger fizzled away to nothing. He talked about a lot of things, and the emotions behind his words, caused cracks to gradually spread along her indifferent mask. By the end of it, she was in such a daze that she barely noticed him pushing his palm up to the barrier. Before she had any idea what she was doing, her palm was matching his and her heart felt like it was beating again for the first time in almost three years yet it was filled with nothing but sorrow. The next moment, as he spoke, his voice cracked, his eyes started to mist over and his body began to fade away. Within an instant, the heart arts were fractured, he was in her arms and she was crying for the first time in years. Just before he disappeared he managed a small, sad smile and his final whispered words were... "and Qingyue... Take care of yourself ok." After that tragic goodbye, the all-epassing regret she felt, broke her a little. She remained cold and indifferent on the outside but on the inside, she was constantly in terrible pain. She never did manage to fully circte the Frozen Heart Arts again after that day and she guessed that Shane would be her heart demon for all her life because right there at the end, she believed in him, if only a little. *Knock Knock Knock* She was brought out of her trance by someone knocking at her door. "Young Miss, are you in there?" It was her maid Dongling, probablying to deliver the things she asked her father for. "Yes, Come in Dongling. Do you have the information I requested?" Qingyue replied to her maid in her usual ice cold tone. Dongling entered the room with a bunch of papers and two thin books. "I have them here young miss, I will leave them on your desk" Qingyue, having nothing more to say to her, nodded and motioned for her to leave. The moment the maid left, she dropped her stoicism and quickly made her way over to the desk. Immediately, she started searching for the things Shane had mentioned and it was barely a few minutes before she found the first match. ''The Iron Sand Vine, native to the Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range but also not exclusive to that region.'' She told herself that finding just this meant nothing as she could have easily heard of it before in passing. This wasn''t the end however and not a minuteter and she found another match. ''Demon Skull Vine.'' One, she could wave away as a coincidence but two was a bit more difficult to exin. She desperately, frantically, began to pour over the rest of the papers, looking for any of the other two that Shane had mentioned. After half an hour, she started to lose hope. That was until she finally came across them both in the back half of the second book. ''Forest Sand Wyrm. Found in the Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range, Blue Wind Empire. Hatches it''s young next to the Tri-Color Forest Orchid. The Wyrm can be found alone but a mature Orchid will never be without an adult Wyrm'' As she continued to read, her fingers trembled, her chest started to feel stuffy, her eyes grew wet and her breathing stagnated. She was absolutely sure that she had never heard of either of them and that could only mean one thing. He was always real He was telling the truth. He really died. He''s here. Inside her chest, unknown to Qingyue, the Frozen Heart started to crumble. - ''He was there for me when I needed him the most and when he needed me I pushed him away.'' A choking sob escaped her throat and she almost slipped straight into despair at the thought of how she acted towards him before he ''died''. Layers andyers of crystalline ice shedding away one by one - ''You stupid girl, it''s not toote! He''s here!'' That''s right he was here, he didn''t hate her, he even took the time to exin things to her! A warm feeling suffused her entire body, reminding her of when Shane would hold her and brush his fingers through her hair. A single, fragileyer of ice, ast bastion of indifference,pletely blown away by the warmth within - The sound of shattering ss echoed within Qingyue''s ears, years of hard work spent circting the art, gone in an instant. She couldn''t even be bothered to care. She wanted to meet him... no, she HAD to meet him. Qingyue looked outside the window and noticed that night had already fallen. Taking up the lotus position on her bed she offered up a small prayer to who or whatever might be listening and closed her eyes. With practiced ease, she quickly sank into a deep meditation. When she opened her eyes again, She was back in the garden. No longer was the world a pure white, frozen wastnd. No, it had regained its former beauty. To Qingyue, it looked even more beautiful than the original, it caused her to reminisce about the times she spent in the garden both inside the dreamscape and in the real world. How long had it been since she spent any time out there? Or even spent time outside her room for that matter, weeks, months? She gazed around in abject wonder until something stood out in the corner of her eye. There, facing the pool and beside the willow swaying in the breeze, he stood. He seemed to notice her arrival or maybe he heard her footsteps as he turned to face her when she had barely made it halfway down the path. He stood there, back straight and wearing some strange clothing she had never seen before. Not that it looked bad on him, in fact, it made him look rather dashing with his wild hair ruffling slightly in the breeze. His piercing crimson eyes locked searchingly, desperately, onto her moist blue ones. For a moment he seemed shocked and confused at what he saw inside them but it quickly gave way to relief, tion and something far more profound as a charming smile unconsciously yed off his lips. ''Gods, when did he get so handsome?'' To say she never noticed this before would be a lie but due to the Frozen Heart Arts... she just never cared. Qingyue suddenly felt very shy under his gentle gaze and her cheeks and ears began to feel hot. ''Thank the Gods I''m still wearing a veil'' *Thump Thump Thump* As she approached him, every step taken caused her heartbeat to speed up as an instinctual need to feel his warmth, started to spread throughout her body. ''Noo, he definitely noticed!'' His smile turned into a teasing grin as he spoke for the first time, his deep voice sending shivers down her spine. "Like what I did with the ce?" She got within a meter of him but didn''t slow and instead collided with his muscr chest, the familiar heat washing over her as she grasped his shirt and inhaled deeply. For a moment he froze, clearly surprised by the development and a creeping fear of rejection tried to invade her mind, she was terrified. That was, however, only for a moment as his arms seemed to naturally surround her, one hand resting on her back and the other gently brushing his fingers through her silky hair. *Sigh* "What did I say to you before? You clearly weren''t taking care of yourself." She flinched at that and buried her head further into his chest while letting out a small contented humm at his concern. He sighed again. "What am I going to do with you... anyways wee back Qingyue." Chapter 12: Reunited and Resolve Chapter 12: Reunited and Resolve A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- Shane looked unblinkingly at the notification in front of his eyes. The same notification brought with it, two very conflicting and extreme emotions. Joy and rage. Half of him waspletely overjoyed that Qingyue had taken that leap of faith and looked into his ims rather than brushing them off. The fact that the quest hadpleted must also mean that she had her answers and now believed him... Whether she would take it positively or not, well that was another thing altogether. The other part of himself felt absolute mind-numbing rage. Not Directed towards Qingyue or even the system for distracting him but towards himself. He prepared those Paracaps for weeks, he trained his wind maniption specifically for days and he blew it all away in a second because he couldn''t keep his mind calm. He wanted to immediately explore the Dreamwalker ability and talk to Qingyue but he couldn''t, not like he was right now, it wouldn''t do either of them any favors. So, he picked up his Warhammer and set out into the forest to... smash something. Around two hourster, Shane returned. He was covered from head to toe in blood and gore and had a feral look in his crimson-red eyes. Eyes that he had noticed, only seemed to gain a more unique color, the stronger he became. He may have looked like a wild animal right now but his mind was at peace. As he jumped into the stream that ran off from the pool and began to scrub himself clean, he remembered a very fitting quote from his previous life.''Right or wrong, it''s very pleasant to break something from time to time.'' After a swift sweep of profound energy to remove any unseen grime from his body and rather annoyingly long hair, Shane surfaced in the now slightly pink stream and leanedfortably against the bank. "System, show me the new ability." He said it aloud, because why not? Sometimes he just needed to talk or else he felt like he would literally go crazy. It wasn''t even like he was a social person before but he had his phone, his PC, and his books to keep his sanity intact. Here, well here there was literally nothing for him to do other than kill beasts and although he was not squeamish about it, such things are still mentally taxing. [Abilities:] {Dreamwalker - Strength of the ability is based upon the strength of host''s Will (NEW!)} 1) When in a meditative state, allows the host to create and shape a dreamscape to their liking - Created dreamscapes are always under the host''splete control. 2) The host is able to form a connection with a selected person or persons and bring them into the dreamscape - Dependant upon the difference in strength between host''s Will and target''s Will ''The possibilities of this ability are actually endless! I could even use it to y mind games with the Brahma Bae if my Willpower was strong enough or she epted the connection'' *shivers* ''Something tells me that would be a terrible idea. Still, all in good time.'' Stupid, potentially world-ending ideas aside, Shane couldn''t wait to give it a try and give Qingyue a nice surprise while he was at it. He was also hoping that he could somehow counter her Frozen Heart Arts with the dreamscape being his own domain. Nightfall, back in the cave... Sinking down into a meditative pose, he calmed his mind and ''willed'' the Dreamwalker ability to activate. Feeling a change in the air, he opened his eyes and found himself in a very familiar ce. Swirling white fog all around him and soft green grass underfoot. A small smile yed at the corner of his lips as the surroundings brought back memories of the time he first came here, all those years ago. Unlike that time, he wasn''t confused nor was he without purpose. What had once been a feeling of incongruity, had now been reced by an instinctual feeling of control. It was an unfamiliar feeling, like a slight pressure on his brain, not unpleasant but more like the feeling of an unused muscle. ''So that feeling is my Will huh?'' Remembering back to the ability''s description, he could easily put a name to the peculiar sensation. With an instinctual understanding of how it worked, he caught onto that feeling and tried to feed some basic thoughts and intentions into it. Suddenly, the fog cleared and he was standing in the middle of a huge expanse of green grass. Excited at the possibilities, Shane began to y around with the area, forming some trees from the forest, changing the terrain, and even adding a copy of the pool from near his cave. It seemed that the response was almost immediate and could replicate things from his memory quite easily. Creating things from scratch, such as changes in the height of the terrain and even trees, nts, and flowers that he had seen in pictures but had never actually experienced personally was much more difficult, however, and rather mentally taxing. With a slight smirk, Shane got to work and formed a rough version of Qingyue''s garden. The garden from before it changed into a frozen wastnd of course. He started from the crystal clear pool and went on to form the dancing Kois, the Water Lillies, and even some Red and Blue Lotuses as a little touch. Next, he formed the old Chinese willow and the stone path, followed by the perfectly kemptwn. Before long, Shane had formed an almost perfect replica of the garden and he entered into a sort of trance as the memories continuously flowed through his mind. His control over the dreamscape strengthened with each passing moment and the garden began to change ording to his preferences. It became warmer, brighter, and more vibrant than it had ever been. The sweet smells of fresh grass and flowers hung in the air and a cool, gentle breeze blew throughout the whole area. Sometimeter, Shane opened his eyes and let out a breath of relief, finally, it was ready. With just a thought, his forest attire disappeared and was reced by something more out of this world... He was d in dark brown shoes, sand-colored cks with a leather belt, and a dark blue, long-sleeve shirt with the top two buttons undone. He ran his hands through his unruly, shoulder-length, mass of hair and managed to tame it slightly. He was checking his reflection in the clear water of the pool when he felt her presence behind him. ''Come on Shane, you got this buddy!'' He psyched himself up and turned around to face her. Mentally, he was already prepared to see her look at him with indifference once again but hepletely wasn''t expecting what he actually saw when he locked eyes with her, and so he froze Inside her beautiful, piercingly, ice-blue eyes, he for once saw not indifference but a myriad of different conflicting emotions. Perhaps it was because this was his world but Shane could feel them all. Fear, confusion, sorrow, happiness, expectation, and maybe even a little infatuation. This barrage of different emotions stunned himpletely for a second, this was quickly followed by confusion as her Heart Arts should have been unable to manifest here, not unable to work entirely. Shanes mind spun... this could only mean that she had broken them of her own ord. At that stunning realization, he felt relief and great happiness. Not for him, but for her, and he waspletely sure from the look on her face that she would never practice it again. How can one live a life without emotion, is it even really living? He was proud of her and a genuine smile, a rather deadly one at that, unconsciously made its way onto his lips. As she approached him, she started to avert her eyes a little and Shane could tell she was blushing as the tips of her ears were ever so slightly flushed. Normally one would never notice but Qingyue''s skin was as pure and white as fresh snow so it was rather hard not to. He shed her a teasing Grin and watched her eyes go wide as heid it on thick and said. "Like what I did with the ce?" Instead of replying she hurried her steps until she practically collided with his chest, her trembling hands grabbed hold of his shirt and he definitely heard her take a deep breath in through her nose. ''Ayoo, is her true personality a pervert?'' His whole body actually went a little rigid at the unexpected contact of her unbelievably soft and strangely cool body. She also smelt heavenly, like winter honeysuckle. ''Shit, I''m obviously a pervert too. Who goes around just smelling people?'' He felt her spike of fear and the tremble that followed and snapped out of his daze. His arms naturally surrounded her as if they were literally made to hold her. One hand went to the small of her back while the other raised up to her head as his fingers brushed through her stupidly fragrant, obsidian ck hair. *Sigh* "What did I say to you before? You clearly weren''t taking care of yourself." As he lightly scolded her, she buried her head further into his chest to avoid his line of sight and hummed in response. He was feeling rather helpless, obviously, she knew he was talking about the heart arts, but she seemed rather shy about admitting it verbally. This girl, she was gonna make him grow old early. "What am I going to do with you... anyways, wee back Qingyue." Qingyue reluctantly leaned back out of his embrace and met his gaze, her eyes now filled with deep regret and she began to speak in nothing more than a quiet but firm whisper. "Shane, I am really s Ouch!" He flicked her on the forehead mid apology and now she was giving him an aggrieved look. On the outside, he took a serious look but on the inside... ''Damn, I always wanted to do that to someone like in the novels! And now she is actually doing the legendary pout! This is really surreal. What a day to be alive!'' "Qingyue, there is no need to apologize to me, I don''t me you. You would know if I were lying. Sure at the time it really hurt and if I had the energy or the strength, I would have spanked your little butt! However, I''m here now and that is what matters. Well, that and one other thing." He looked pointedly at her for a second. "You aren''t going to be practicing those awful arts again are you?" "...No But if they manage to find out, my sect will force me to practice with them again" She visibly deted and said in a slightly defeated tone. "Hmm, no need to worry about that, believe me when I say I have many ways to deal with your sect and almost all of them should work peacefully." She looked shocked because she could tell once again that he wasn''t lying. "Well then if you aren''t practicing the art anymore, you won''t be needing this, at least not here." Before she could protest, he had swiped a finger across her veil and it fizzled out of existence, leaving her face exposed to Shane''s eyes for the first time in years. She truly was as beautiful as a goddess and if he was being totally honest, she looked almost too unreal. He had absolutely no idea how a person this good looking could exist but he was also in a Xianxia reality right now that was actually a novel back on Earth so he just shrugged that thought off as the universal Grand Dao of BS. Her creamy white and unblemished skin almost sparkled, her little red lips sat there like a pair of perfectly shaped and alluring flower petals and her high and proud nose was as if made of the purest snowy jade. Her thin and dark crescent-shaped eyebrows were currently scrunched up at the swift removal of her veil, and her eyes were fixated on his as if expecting to find the lust there she somonly saw every time she went outside. What she clearly didn''t expect was for Shane to grab her little nose between his middle and index finger before pinching her cheeks and saying. "Hmmhmm, How is it even possible for a person to be this unbelievably beautiful? I bet My Qingyue has all the young masters chasing after her~" What, did you expect him to freeze and start drooling? Sure she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and looking at her definitely made him feel hot to the core, bute on! He had the inte since he was 13 and so there wasn''t a lot he hadn''t seen by now. Plus, he knew her since he was little and he was definitely practicing the Dao of shamelessness, how could he miss the opportunity to take small advantages. She was still a person, what was there to be embarrassed about anyways? That''s not to say he wasn''t attracted to her, because he most definitely was. She was also pressed right up against him which wasn''t really helping things. Naturally, inside him, there was a small amount of turmoil, though it was swiftly dealt with. ''Amitabha lust is a sin, lust is a sin'' At first, she thought he didn''t find her attractive and her poor little heart almost gave out there and then but once she''d heard the next part, she felt as sweet as honey, right before her face wentpletely scarlet red. She then scrunched up her nose and pouted her lips before saying "Who''s your Qingyue?" In what she probably thought was an angry voice but to Shane, she just sounded like a little wife airing out her grievances. Thanks to that, he was now internally fangirling over the fabled pout and squished her cheeks together again. ''My god she is so cuuuuute! Wow, Yun Che really failed super hard at getting this waifu, all I had to do was know her my whole life and... die. Right anyways Yun Che.'' He turned a little solemn at that. She went to p his hands away from her cheeks but somehow, he was already back to holding her and brushing his fingers through her hair again, making her calm down and subconsciously snuggle further into his chest. "Right Qingyue, When do you have to leave for your sect?" He wanted to know how much time he had to work with here and depending on the answer, he was either going to take a shy approach or the preferred diplomatic one. Either way, he was taking Qingyue and he wasn''t gonna let her go and be some ice doll again, nor was he going to let her sect force her to expel her profound arts. So in reality, he needed to speed up his ns and get a move on. Qingyue, still within his embrace, looked down at the ground, knowing she wouldn''t be able to lie in any sort of convincing way, and reluctantly spoke. "...In seven months my master will take me back to Frozen Cloud Immortal Pce. One month after...my wed" She whispered thest part but of course, Shane already knew what she was going to say. The gears were turning quickly inside his head as he worked out what he needed to do and how long it would take. ''I need at least a few more days here to kill the Wyrm and absorb both it and the flower and to grab some of my money trees hehehe. Then, allowing for 10 days travel to Cyan Forest Town and another 5 days from there to Floating Cloud City, I could be there in 20 days if I pushed it, less if my realm advances significantly. My best option would be to allow a month to get to Floating Cloud and then I have around 3 months to get the wedding cancelled an'' "ne ane SHANE!" He felt Qingyue shaking him and realized he was going off on a massive mental tirade. To her shock, he pped himself. Hard. "I have time. I just need to kill the Wyrm and move my ns up by a few days and then I will be on my way to Floating Cloud City. When I get there, we can meet in person and I will exin a lot of things to you that are not convenient to talk about here" She just hummed and nodded at him "I would also like to meet your father, I have a business proposition for him. That is if he is still a merchant?" "...He is." She seemed a little anxious at the mention of meeting her father. "Good. Then can you request a meeting with him for me? I will meet with him exactly one month from today. That should allow me enough time to reach Floating Cloud City and prepare the product." Shane mustered up his best pleading look with a bit of added puppy eyes and looked directly at Qingyue before saying. "Qingyue my dear, can you put in a good word for me and tell him I have something that will make us both VERY rich!" It seemed she was rather weak to that look as her anxious expression softened a little and she nodded. He snickered on the inside. ''Hmm, something to remember forter.'' "Well Qingyue, it''s time for me to go. I have a lot of work to do if I want to be able to talk on equal footing with your sect and more importantly if I am going to break up your marriage~" He said thest part in a singsong voice. Qingyue''s eyes went wide in shock as her little mouth opened and closed a few times while she was unable to make a sound. Even when she did manage to, it only amounted to a "w-w-w-wha..." Shane, seeing his opportunity, gave her onest squeeze and whispered a short goodbye, before swiftly kissing her on the cheek. He then quickly disappeared, leaving a very embarrassed and flustered young girl, trying and failing to prevent a thin smile from spreading across her peerless face. Qingyue helplessly raised and held a hand to her cheek before muttering. "What am I going to tell my father" ----------------------------------------------------------------------- When Shane woke up in the dimly lit cave, there was a notification blinking away in the corner of his vision but he pushed it aside for a moment and began to get ready for what was probably going to be the most important day since he arrived in this world. Humming happily to himself, and with a huge grin stered on his face, Shane couldn''t help but recall Qingyue''s blushing countenance, cute actions, and incredibly. soft. body... ''Damn, I actually always thought those soft, boneless, body, CN exnations were BS but I guess I was wrong. Thank Goddess, the nosebleed trope was made up.'' He rubbed his head slightly in confusion and his gaze turned warm. ''Qingyue also blushed, like a lot, I''ve never seen people blush like that before. I thought that was made up too...'' It was safe to say that by this point, Shane had definitely fallen for her. Hard. And if her actions in the dreamscape were anything to go by, she was probably feeling pretty simr in that regard. This revtion made him even more determined to stop the marriage and convince her sect. This wasn''t just a novel anymore, at least not to him anyway and so not everything would always go to n. No matter how much prior knowledge he had of the world or timeline this could always differ, in fact, his being here had already changed certain things. The thought of Qingyue''s marriage to Yun Che taking ce and the very real possibility of her sect refusing topromise caused a calcting and ruthless glint to pass through his now glowing crimson eyes. Quickly pushing those feelings down before they could get stronger, Shane reflected for a moment. He wasn''t sure whether he should be more freaked out that he had just seriously contemted casually ending both a n and a sect; or that he knew he would actually do it without a second thought if he were forced. ''I will try the peaceful approach at first, it is always better to have friends than enemies. With the Asgard, it is mostly the cultivation technique that makes them as they are, the Grand Mistress should be more open and easier to talk to.'' Coming to a decision, Shane''s resolve deepened. He would need to be much stronger if he wanted to be taken seriously in either situation which would cause him to be very busy over theing months. ''I should get this out of the way first to avoid distractionster. System, show me the notification.'' [Quests...] Main Quest chain XQ - Save Xia Qingyue from her tragic fate! (you''re here now, may as well fuck the plot before it even starts) 1) Dreaming of you (Complete) 2) Wedding Crashers: (New) Prevent the marriage of Xia Qingyue and Xiao Che by any means necessary. ~ Reward All ATG medical knowledge Optional objectives: a) Convince Xiao Che to annul the engagement from his side before the wedding date b)Reach Earth Profound realm before Qingyue and Xiao Che''s original marriage date so that her master will take you seriously ~ Reward Half/Complete Sky Poison pearl {Time Limit: 5 Months, 29 Days.} "*Whistles* Them rewards tho..." he really wanted to get all of them, no he HAD to get all of them... Chapter 13: Windman and Robbin Chapter 13: Windman and Robbin A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- Shane was busy gearing up for the day while mentally drooling over the possible rewards for the new quest. ''ATG medical knowledge is obviously amazing, it will give me another trump card for dealing with Frozen Cloud, not to mention all the pill recipes and treatment methods. The real prize though is thepleted Sky Poison Pearl.'' Something he would need at least half of if he wanted to save Jasmine, and he did really want to save Jasmine. The poor girl had such a tragic story and she deserved to have people in her life that cared about her. Shane was going to be that person, he would definitely take her in as his family, future consequences be damned. He didn''t care that she was feared by most of the Eastern Divine region for her legacy, that she was a princess of a Royal Star Realm, or even that she was a murderer of millions. In the end, She was a lonely little girl, forced by her situation and he just wanted to help her avoid her tragic fate. ''I certainly won''t be allowing her to take the wheel either.'' That was a thought for much, muchter anyway. Snapping out of it, he finished wrapping a strip of leather around his head to keep his hair out of his eyes and left the cave. Once outside, he strapped the poison bombs into a pouch at his waist and started to form a stronger than usual wind armor. Once theyer of wind was formed, his scent and profound energy signature all but disappeared and he slinked off into the forest. A few minutes of prowling through the undergrowthter, and he reached near the edge of the clearing. It was early dawn and just as he had hoped, the Wyrm was still resting underground. The flower was definitely more mature than before and as it danced in the breeze, a sweet, almost irresistible scent invaded his nostrils from over 15m away. Even its colorful petals looked more vibrant than thest time he was here. At first, Shane was caught off guard by the enticing aroma and almost ended up rushing into the clearing to pick the flower immediately. Luckily, the strength of his Will had improved drastically since using it to form and control the dreamscape, and so he was able to forcefully calm his mind. After that, he covered his nose in a film of profound energy that blocked smell for good measure. ''No wonder I couldn''t stop thinking about the flower all this time, it must be something extremely beneficial to me to draw me in like that.'' The next hour was spent slowly circling the edge of the clearing to find a suitable tree from which to stage his assault. By the time he had selected the best position, the sun was almost fully over the horizon and the Wyrm could possibly wake up at any time. Shane swiftly ced 4 of the 5 poison bombs around the edge of the clearing in a crescent-shaped line, with two on either side of the tree he would ce himself on. They were each coated with an extremely stable ball of his Wind Profound Energy and all were within the range of both his senses and his minimap. He then returned to his chosen tree and withdrew his presence as far as he could before he got himselffortable and closed his eyes, spreading his senses to the maximum. Thin tendrils of profound energy, coated with the wind began to spread out from his position and towards the poison bombs. He first went for the furthest of the two outside ''bombs'' which was around 10m away from him and once he managed to connect his tendril to the Wind Profound energy he had coated it with, the connection became stable. Letting out a breath of relief, he concentrated on the other hidden ''bombs'' and started working on connecting them as well. He had practiced doing this same activity before but never with this many connections and if he hadn''t found those extra packs of Wind Wolves, this would never have been possible. Once all of the ''bombs'' were stable and connected to him, Shane opened his eyes and realized that it was now mid-morning. Setting those connections took more time than he bargained for and he was lucky the Wyrm did not usually appear until the sun rose above the clearing. After wiping the sweat off his brow, he took a drink from his snakeskin sk and started to feed Wind Profound energy along each of the connections. This not only strengthened and stabilized them but also allowed him to build a very primitive propulsion mechanism from wind profound energy, behind each of the ''bombs''. Around an hour of waitingter, Shane was starting to feel mentally fatigued and sweat was now rhythmically dripping from his head and along the length of his nose. It would have been much more unpleasant if the wind armor surrounding him had not dried it away almost immediately. Without warning, the ground in the clearing started to shake, a pile of earth began to rise and the soil rolled backwards in waves as the 15m long Wyrm erupted out from within the resulting dust cloud. Shane''s eyes sharpened. ''It''s finally here!'' The Wyrm steadily rose up to its fully imposing height of 4m. Its body swayed a bit with low temperature-affected grogginess. Something that Shane had witnessed many times before and this was what he was counting on! Slowly and carefully standing up, Shane got into a position where he could see the whole clearing and gripped thest poison bomb in his sweaty palm. With onest bit of mental encouragement, he took a deep breath, released an ear-piercing whistle, and quickly ducked back behind the tree! The Wyrm''s reaction was instantaneous, it whipped its head in his direction but due to its poor eyesight and Shane''s wind armor, it couldn''t see or sense him just yet, although it was only a matter of time. The Wyrm slowly and warily started to move across the clearing, making sure to put itsrge muscr body between Shane''s position and the flower. Thest few meters of its tail, however, always surrounded that strangely shaped pile of earth. Dangerous-looking spines popped up along the beast''s length as it came to a halt, and it bristled in agitation. Its smooth reptilian head anxiously moved side to side, while its forked tongue flicked around in the air, trying to find the interloper. ''It''s in position, Now!'' With that thought, Shane sent a little pulse down each of his connected tendrils, and the small improvised propulsion devices behind each of the hidden ''bombs'' ejected them into the air and towards the Wyrm. He immediately broke the connections and focused intently on the clearing. One of the ''bombs'' missed the Wyrmpletely, sailing over the top of its body and across the clearing, bursting into a purple cloud somewhere in the treeline. Another missed the main body of the beast andnded on its tail. The remaining two, however, hit true. One exploded onto the beast''s neck, just below its jaw and the other collided with the side of its face, bursting into a purple cloud that covered its beak-like mouth and filled one of its eyes with poisonous spores. The Wyrm opened its maw and let out a loud *ROOOAR* but Shane was ready. Thest of the poison bombs sailed through the air at a speed far faster than the eyes could follow and was apanied by the booming sound of an air cannon as it proceeded to lodge itself into the back of the beast''s throat. The roar cut off immediately and its eyes bulged as it involuntarily gulped down. There was a palpable silence for a second before Shane heard the telltale *Pufffff* of the ''bomb'' exploding. The Wyrm started thrashing around, spewing purple mist from its mouth and Shane was worried for a moment that the flower would be destroyed in its rampage, before it promptly slumped down to the ground, twitching violently. Shane waved his hand and a gust of wind filled with profound energy swept the clearing free of poisonous spores before he jumped down from the tree andnded on the soft soil next to the beast''s head. He looked straight into its one good eye and it stared back at him with hatred. The pressure it was emitting felt reasonably strong to a [2nd of Nascent Profound] like him but for some reason, Qingyue''s had felt stronger, meaning that her realm, at 15 years of age, was already higher than this beast. ''She really is a genius.'' This wasn''t the time for praising his waifu however and so he concentrated on his right hand, where a strange-looking weapon was beginning to form from the SteelOak essence he absorbed. The silvery liquid essence poured out of the back of his hand before it started to form a solid gauntlet up to his elbow with a handle on the side. The liquid wasn''t done there and as more and more of the essence poured out of his body and along the straight front edge of the gauntlet where the knuckles were. A thick, stubby rod took shape and from that, a 1m long cone began to form. The whole process took around 15 seconds and by the time it was done there was a was nasty looking spiral-shaped cone with many ridges along its length. It also ended in a very thin and very sharp-looking, twisted point. That''s right, using the cheat that was his organic constructs, Shane had formed a moveable drill that was actually attached to his own body! Even he was surprised when he first managed it. This was his trump card and he only needed to do one more thing to make itplete. Gripping tight onto the support handle with his free hand Shane took a deep breath in and opened his mouth. "Wind" He called, and the wind answered. When manipting the wind, he usually had no need to say anything aloud but he had found that it was easier to visualize more powerful andplicated applications if he voiced it out loud. That or he had been alone in the forest for too long... The Drill was suddenly enveloped in dense Wind energy, into which Shane immediately mixed as much of his own profound energy as he could while leaving enough to brace his body and hold the weapon straight. "Spin for me!" The Wind Profound Energy answered as one and began to rotate around the drill, catching in the ridges and causing it to start spinning at an incredible speed while letting off a low whining sound. The Wyrm, sensing danger, managed to shift its body slightly but nothing more. Shane''s eyes glowed brightly with determination and his face took on his signature feral grin as he lunged forward "Die For me!" he shouted as the tip of the drill made contact with the beast''s palm-sized eye. The ss-like coating held on for a mere millisecond before the drill plunged into its eye socket, mincing everything in its path and coating Shane in flecks of red, pink, and milky white gore. The drill plunged in up to the wrist, broke through the thick skull, and abruptly stopped spinning. The beast wasn''t dead yet and it seemed the pain was allowing it to get over the paralysis quicker as its body began to wriggle a bit and it let out a throaty hiss. Exhausted and wrist-deep in a swiftly recovering predator''s eye socket, Shane didn''t panic. The next part was all or nothing and he wasn''t nning on losing. With a concentrated mental effort, he gathered andpressed the remaining Wind Energy that was surrounding the drill head and forced it down through the hole in the Wyrm''s skull. There he released his control and it broke free, mincing the beast''s brains in the process. The Wyrm let out a final shuddering breath and stopped moving altogether. The drill began to break down into its liquid form and rapidly drained into the back of Shane''s hand. Now freed from the position, he slumped forward onto its head and took some very deep, gasping breaths of the forest air. The tension left his body and he allowed himself a moment of reprieve. When he had recovered a little, everything finally sank in as excitement and joy began to bubble up from within. Weeks of preparations had paid off, the Wyrm was dead and the Flower was his for the taking. He had done it! He decided that he wanted a small trophy from his first major sessful hunt and so he used a small bit of profound energy in his free hand to shear off a few ted spines from the beast''s back. Feeling the proof in the palm of his hand, Shane clenched his fists and a wet squelch made him immediately wish he hadn''t. With a groan, he pushed himself off of the carcass and onto his feet, before he devoured it whole. Thankfully avoiding the firstw of Minecraft in the process. The amount of energy he refined from the Wyrm was truly massive and he was almost a little scared to absorb it in one go. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, the Wyrm had only a very small affinity for Earth Profound Energy. However, with Shane''s growing proficiency over profound energy control, it would still be immensely helpful. Sending a pulse through his wind armor, Shane''s body was instantly cleared of all the dirt, grime, and gore. He stumbled over to the flower, while brushing aside a couple of notifications from the system and reabsorbed the wind armor, revitalizing himself a little in the process. Up close, Shane could smell the alluring scent and the desire to consume it grew to almost palpable levels. Before he could lose control and ingest it, he crouched down and used devour on it too. The Tri-Colored energy was then refined and stored inside his veins next to the Wyrms. He stood up and as he was about to leave the clearing, his minimap picked up something else close by. The symbol looked like a little snake and was shing red. Looking around frantically for any danger, Shane saw nothing but that strange dome ofpacted earth. "Could it be" Vigntly approaching the dome, he extended his senses and found a weak and slow heartbeat, just beneath the soil. Shane pushed profound energy into his hands and started to dig down into thepacted earth. What he saw next caused him to let out an audible gasp. A brown egg covered with a green-scaled pattern, around 30cm tall, sat right there in the hole Shane had made. His excitement had risen to apletely new level and a quick appraisal almost sent him to heaven. [Forest Sand Wyrm Egg: Nascent Profound 1]. "Hehehehe! Hahahahaha!" A raucous bout of maniacalughter resounded within the clearing as Shane danced from one foot to the other, all his previous fatigue gone with the wind. He cared not one single bit how crazy he looked right now, not that there was anyone about to see him anyways. ''I can''t believe I''m gonna have my own cool snake to sick on all the young masters! Maybe I can even turn it into a real dragon one day!'' Hugging the egg to his chest, Shane started to carefully make his way back to the cave. He bypassed the pool for today and went straight inside. Wasting absolutely no time at all, he put down the egg, bit his finger, and dripped a drop of blood onto the shell. The drop of blood was instantly absorbed by the egg, It pulsed once, and he felt an immediate connection with it. "Henceforth, you shall be known as... Dusty!" The egg pulsed again and Shane scratched his nose while thinking to himself. ''What a fine name'' Now that the egg had been imed and he wouldn''t need to wake up to a Nascent Profound beast trying to chew on him, Shane sat down on the hides in a cross-legged position, with Dusty in the gap in between and slipped into a meditative state. Shane''s intent probed inwards towards the mass of energies stored within his Profound Veins and as he inspected them, he noticed that they were behaving very differently. The energy from the flower was gentle and weing, as if asking for him to absorb it whereas the energy from the Wyrm was vast and violent. He wasn''t sure if his body could handle the energy from the Wyrm right now and he didn''t want to waste any of his hard-earned kill, so he decided to go with the flower energy. He ''willed'' the energy from the flower to absorb but this time, something different happened. The energy cycled through his profound veins, collecting up his own profound energy before disappearingpletely. This absolutely terrified him for a moment until he felt a small amount of reassuranceing from the egg. After sensing themunication from the egg, Shane only felt anger! He sent a quick mentalmunication to Dusty. ''Spit that energy out you brat! I need that energy! I will give you good thingster on!'' Dusty sent back the feeling of being wronged and after a few moments, the mixture of Shane''s Profound Energy and the refined Energy from the flower came back just as strong but with something else, something more primal added in. This must have been Dusty''s Energy! Thebined energies did another circuit of his profound veins and also filtered out into every corner of his body. He looked closer and noticed that both his body and veins were being nourished as the energy passed through them. Thebined energies continued to cycle between Shane and Dusty for a few more times until all of it had been absorbed and when he opened his eyes, He was shocked by what he saw. Looking down at hisp, he saw a 1.5m long coiled up and chibi looking version of the Wyrm from earlier. This one looked much more elegant and was a beautiful vibrant jade green color, it also had stubby little teeth, something its parent didn''t have. It was Dusty! She had just finished eating thest bit of the eggshell when she noticed him looking at her and chirped happily at him before coiling her way up his arm and softly hung around his neck so that she could lick his face. Strangely it felt extremelyfortable to have her there rather than the obvious opposite. ''Appraisal'' [Dusty: Forest Wind Wyrm: Nascent Profound 7 - Contracted (Shan Long)] "Who''s a cute little girl Dusty? Yes, you are!" She chirped happily a couple more times before shocking Shane once again by shrinking down and turning into a beautiful tattoo of a snake-like Wyrm, holding its own tail in its beak-like mouth. This tattoo was obviously wrapped around the base of Shane''s neck and when he inspected it using his profound senses, he nodded his head thinking it really went well with the handsome wild boy persona he was working on. Now that there was nothing pressing or distracting happening, Shane realized that both of his cultivations had risen significantly but more importantly, he was covered from head to toe in foul-smelling ck gunk. "The legendary Impurities! E, God! So gross!" Running outside as fast as he could, which happened to be a lot faster than he could a few hours ago, he dived into the cold water of the spring pool without care and frantically started scrubbing himself clean. ----------------------------------- A/N: Shameless plug for the fanfics of friends that have supported me: Cheating to Heaven by Dragon15681 God Is My Wingman by Itachi_Hyoudou76 Lazy Life as the Primordial by Darkstar11051999 King of Seven Realms by meatball_san Chapter 14: Between a Rock and the Dreamscape Chapter 14: Between a Rock and the Dreamscape A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- It was mid-afternoon in the humid forest, Shane wasnguidly floating around in the cool water of the pool and staring at lines of text on a transparent blue window. He was taking a moment to confirm his Cultivation Realms and check all the system notifications that appeared after he killed the Wyrm. While Shane was obviously aware that his Profound Cultivation had reached the peak of the [7th of Nascent Profound] but there was also something about just seeing it floating in front of him that tickled his fancy. No, the part he was having some difficulty with was his Body Cultivation Realm. It was something that definitely didn''t exist in the ATG novel and unlike his Profound Cultivation, he was unable to get a solid feel for the difference in realms just yet. His eyebrows rose a little, as expected, the Orchid was very beneficial to his Body. Well, that was obvious, considering his Body Cultivation had caught up with his Profound Cultivation, reaching the peak of the [7th of Nascent Profound]. ''Hmmm, I guess this means that my knowledge of ATG is not absolutely solid. That or Body Cultivation is like some kind of secret lost method from the age of the Gods. Anyways, there''s no point fretting over something that only helps me. System, show me those notifications!'' [System: Hidden Quest Completed] Defeat an enemy with a cultivation higher than the host by one Great Realm ~ Reward - {Basic Inventory} [System: Hidden Quest Completed] Defeat enemies of higher cultivation than you using two different weapon types ~ Reward - {Hand-to-Hand Combat mastery (Tier E)} >> {Combat Mastery (Tier D)} [Combat Mastery (Tier D) - Host will naturally be able to wield all types of weapons inbat] Shane''s eyelids fluttered a little and he felt a momentary spike of pain shoot across his temples. A basic understanding of a myriad different weapons and their stances were crammed into his brain and integrated with his knowledge and experience of hand-to-handbat. "That was unpleasant." Shaking his head a little, he thought about the knowledge he just acquired. ''Combat mastery is pretty awesome but it doesn''t actually make me a master with weapons, it just makes me a natural at wielding them. I wonder if my hammer swings will be smoother now?'' Combat Mastery was undoubtedly a good thing but Shane was much more excited about the inventory! An inventory was something every certified Isekai Protagonist needed to survive a foreign world. As the information regarding it entered his mind, he couldn''t help butugh out loud! This inventory was extremely simr to the Holy Grail of all inventories, Satou''s inventory. The space inside was infinite and although certain restrictions needed to be met, almost anything could be ced into it, including corpses and nts, although living beings could not be stored inside. Time also didn''t flow in there, meaning he could put a bunch of hot food in and never have to worry about fresh meals again. On a more gruesome note, corpses wouldn''t decay either. That wasn''t all however, there were greyed-out functions including the sort function and the time control function that he assumed he could unlockter. Overall, the inventory was a huge gain that would help tremendously with the next part of his money-making scheme, and Shane couldn''t help but drool a little over the thought of all of the stolen*ahem*... acquired treasure he would eventually store inside it. After rxing for a while, Shane decided that it was time to absorb the energy from the Wyrm and then get ready to leave the forest. And so, he made his way back to the cave, the wind surrounding and drying him off as he went. Once he got back into a meditative state, Shane probed the Wyrm''s energy with his intent. He found that although it still gave off a considerable amount of pressure, the energy now felt almost weing. Dusty also sent him a feeling of yearning through the bond and materialized in her small form around his neck. He urged the energy into action and just likest time, it ran a cycle through pathways in his profound veins before flowing into Dusty for a few moments and thening back to him. He noticed that whenever a full revolution waspleted between the two of them, his cultivation would benefit immensely. The cycling of energies continued for several hours until Shane heard a pair of *Peng* sounds as both he and Dusty broke through the barrier into the True Profound Realm in the same instant. Sometimeter, the energy had all been absorbed with not a drop wasted and when Shane opened his eyes he was now at the peak of the[1st of True Profound]. Despite breaking through so many times in a single day, Shane''s realm was rock solid and he felt amazing. He clenched his fists in determination as he sensed the abundance of raw power coursing through his body. He could also now feel an intrinsic connection to the earth beneath him that would need to be explored over theing days and weeks. ncing at Dusty who was frolicking about in hisp and using Appraisal, he was overjoyed by what he saw. [Dusty: Forest Wind Wyrm: True Profound 2(peak) - Contracted (Shan Long)]. Her scales and spines had taken on an even more beautiful emerald hue and above her eyes, she had started to grow a boney crown and a pair of stubby horns that faced back towards her neck. All in all, she was very Cute! "Who''s my beautiful girl Dusty? You are, yes you are" Shane cooed as he ran his fingertips along her scales and received a couple of excited chirps before she swiftly climbed along his arm and reverted back into the tattoo around his neck. Shane had, by now, realized that his cycling of energy with Dusty was not reducing the benefits he would gain, and instead it was refining both of their energies further and so he had be especially fond of this cute little serpent. He wished she would grow big though How on earth was a beautiful little emerald snake ever going to make young masters piss themselves in fear? Noticing theck of impurities this time, Shane checked his body cultivation and found that it had reached Nascent Profound peak and wondered whether he would only experience the ''cleansing'' after each Great Realm. He flopped down onto his bedding and hisst thoughts before falling asleep were ''I can''t wait until I get to sleep in a real bed again!'' ----------------------------------- The next few days were spent limatizing himself to his newfound strength and speed. Shane was both a lot faster and a lot stronger than before but he had improved too much in a short time and needed to be aware of his new limits. During this period, his control over Profound Energy had also improved considerably. The ever-present minimap had upgraded again too, its maximum range was now 30m, making it easier than ever for him to find profound herbs and beasts within the forest. The day after breaking through to the True Profound Realm, Shane made his triumphant return to the field of profound tobo nts and swept the entire thing clean. not even the soil or the saplings were spared! If anyone else were there, they probably would have seen drool on his lips and dor signs in his eyes. The area, 15km in every direction of the cave, had also been cleared of all profound herbs and beasts, both going into his storage forter use instead of being devoured. He even found a pair ofte, Nascent Profound, 3m tall, Water Bison to use as food for the journey. The energy from these herbs and beasts would barely affect him anymore and although meat from a mosquito was still meat, there was another reason he hadn''t devoured them yet. Said reason was the upgrade his ability received when he reached the [1st of True Profound]. [Abilities:] {TreasureBody: Tier D (0%)} {Characteristics Organic Material (Profound Beasts, Corpses and Flora): 1) Devour - Can directly convert and refine organic matter into their most basic forms of energy before assimting with the host. Benefits gained are directly rted to differences in profound realm and physiology between target and host. ((Organic Constructs - Organic lifeforms can be absorbed by the host and used to create living weapons and armor that exist symbiotically with them)) 2) Bestowal - Energy refined with Devour can be separated from the host and formed into a profound pill that can be bestowed upon anyone. Profound pills created by this ability are extremely stable. Anyone listed in thepanions'' tab will gain greater benefits from these pills. (NEW!) 3) ??? With This ability, there were so many possibilities. Shane could start his own sect and very quickly turn it into a powerhouse or even facilitate his own army as long as there were resources around. Maybe in the future but for now, it didn''t interest him in the leastpared to the possibility of aiding the cultivation of the people he cared about and woulde to care about one day. Now that he had finally aplished his goals, reached a level of strength where traveling between Cities should be of no consequence, and gotten a good grip on said strength, Shane decided it was time to leave. He liked it here in the forest, he felt free and unfettered whenever he was running through the undergrowth or hunting profound beasts but all things muste to an end. Not only were the beasts and resources within his daily travel range far weaker than himself now but he was also running out of time. It had been 6 days since hest spoke with Qingyue and he only had 24 days left to get to Floating Cloud City. After that, he still had to enhance some of the Profound Tobo nts before the meeting with her father was due to take ce. He decided to sleep early and head out before dawn the next day but before that, he was going to try and pull Qingyue into the dreamscape for a little cuddling session to recharge ------------------------------------ Shane awoke early in the cave. He only managed to spend a short while with Qingyue in the dreamscape. It had beente into the night when she finally joined him and she looked absolutely exhausted. She didn''t want to talk about it and Shane hadn''t pushed her as he already had a pretty good idea what the problem was. ''She is feeling the cold pains caused by her profound arts huh, gotta fix that by absorbing the ice from her entrances when I see her. My control over devour is good enough now to attempt it and it won''t work on a living human so there is no risk.'' Qingyue for her part had immediately jumped into his chest and started discreetly sniffing him again when she thought he wasn''t paying attention. That was until she sensed his cultivation realm... As expected, what came next was a barrage of enthusiastic questions to which he told her that he would exin it in person and would prefer to just rx and spend time with her in the dreamscape considering the journey he was about to undertake. She looked as if she were about to protest, ...until he created a stupidlyfortable couch with a single thought and dragged her down onto it with him. Without giving her a chance to resist, he moved her head down into hisp and started to brush his fingers gently through her hair. She got extremely flustered at first and it was super cute! Honestly teasing her was the best! Unfortunately for him, Qingyue must have really been exhausted because it wasn''t long before she rxed and closed her eyes. Within 15 minutes, he had her sleeping on his thighs and purring like a cat as he hummed a tune and gently massaged her temples... Coming out of his thoughts, Shane stretched and sighed with contentment. "That was some damn good spiritual healing,e out Dusty! It''s time we were on our way." He had decided to keep Dusty out for the majority of the journey as all the little brat did was sleep inside of him and absorb energy. Shane was determined to have her be useful and although her overall strength was lower, her cultivation was higher than his and her senses were also on par or even better as well. He wasmenting on the inside though. ''Why couldn''t she be big and intimidating as well as cute and cuddly? It''s. Just. Not. Fair. What happened to my dreams of riding a huge Dragon???'' ----------------------------------- Shane didn''t consider himself a very sentimental person. Sure he was emotional, he was quick to love and slow to hate, he couldugh in almost any situation and when he cared about someone he could very easily get angry for their sake. Having an attachment to and caring for a small cave that had been nothing but a temporary residence? Not a chance... "*sniff sniff* Wow, a piece of dust in my eye." Those were the manly tears of Shan Long okay! That also definitely wasn''t his pile of hides and everything else from the cave in a corner of his inventory. Shane turned away from the cave and a few sparkles danced in the air as he withdrew his presence, extended his senses, and coated himself in the wind. He crouched down and the familiar feral grin returned as he shot off into the forest like an arrow loosed from a bow. Clearly, this man had too many faces. Staying alone in a forest was probably affecting him in strange ways, he needed to get to civilization ASAP! Between himself and Cyan Forest Town, there was a rtively small mountain range, well small for this world anyway. Most of the mountains were between 1500m-2000m tall but there were around 150 of them altogether and they covered over 350km of distance. The crazy thing was, this ''small'' range wasn''t even part of the main Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range! Deciding that It would cost him a lot of time to skirt the ''small'' range, Shane instead opted to go over it. He would only need to cross 3-4 mountains this way and if he remembered, Ben Nevis was around 1350m and it took half a day to climb over. He was also much faster and stronger than any mountain climber that ever lived, though they didn''t need to watch out for profound beasts so it was a fair trade-off. At first, Shane covered a good distance and traveled almost 100km in two days. He breezed through the forest like a phantom, picking it clean of any profound herbs or beasts that were unlucky enough to cross his path. Dusty, well she just slept around his neck all day long, looking like some gorgeous emerald choker. She may not have beenrge and intimidating but she was damn cute! At the end of the second day, Shane found a grove of over 20 SteelOak trees and set about absorbing them into his Organic Constructs. When he had absorbed 10 trees worth of essence altogether, he felt full, as if he couldn''t absorb any more. He then got a wild idea and decided to form a new Warhammer from the SteelOaks. As the silvery essence poured forth from the back of his hands, he focused his Will and put together an image in his mind. When it was done, he had formed a 6ft long shaft with a huge rectangr block on the end. The shaft was as thick as his wrist with a ribbed grip big enough for both his hands and had an intricate snake scale pattern along its length. Shane tried, he really tried but in the end, he couldn''t resist and the head of the hammer had a Wyrms head motif on either side and was shaped just like Mjolnir from the Thor movies, except it was probably 3 times the size. He may have ripped it off but goddamn it if it didn''t look awesome! Altogether it weighed around 150kg and it fit very well with Shane''s new strength. He would forever keep his first hammer in a corner of his inventory but recently, it was starting to feel like a toothpick in his hands. The essence was tougher and heavier and would suit him well for a while toe. The harder and much more painful part was separating the Organic Construct from his body while keeping its shape, and boy, did that hurt like hell! He was essentially severing a part of himself while concentrating to the maximum, so he felt everything. Good news, he managed it. Bad news, 10 more SteelOak paid the price of filling the ufortable emptiness that followed. He now had a good weapon and enough SteelOak essence to form his usual gear, headband included, from that instead of the leather. He had also absorbed the scales from his old gear into his Organic Constructs. Even now, he still couldn''t put a scratch on them and when absorbed, they seamlessly mixed in with the SteelOak essence, giving his new armor a snakeskin effect. There were two changes in his new armor and one of them was that the Vambraces had now merged into half gauntlets that protected the back of his hands but left the fingers free so that he could still make dexterous movements. The tunic had also reformed into a pair of Gothic shoulder pauldrons with a Dragon head motif that was strapped up to a pair of faceted octagonal tes that protected his heart from both the front and back. All in all, the new armor not only had a higher defensive value than his old stuff, and it was also technically a part of him, making it exceptionally easy to move around in. ------------------------------------- The third and fourth days were when things started to get tough. Shane had encountered a number of profound beasts along the way including a pair of Savage Bears at the [6th of True Profound], which he killed with the help of Dusty''s incredibly sharp wind attacks and his new shiny hammer. He also removed the cores and stored them for sellingter. The only problem with devour was that it breaks down every part of the corpse into energy and if Shane wanted to stay somewhere that wasn''t the forest or the street in the future, he would need some coin. However the beasts weren''t the main problem, the closer to the ''small'' range he got, the more uneven and unstable the terrain became, and by the end of the 4th day, he had frustratingly only managed to cover another 50km, making him just over halfway towards Cyan Forest Town. Absorbing the corpses of the Savage Bears had allowed Shane to break through again, bringing his Body Cultivation to the [1st of True Profound] and consequently causing another nasty session of impurities cleansing. Good thing he brought literally thousands of liters of water from the pool with him inside his inventory! Oh, how he yearned for a warm bath or shower! His Profound Cultivation had also reached the peak of the [2nd of True Profound] and Dusty''s had reached the [4th of True Profound]. Many different profound herbs had also made their way into his inventory as they had ended up taking a strafed path across the rough terrain instead of a straight one. Traversing the mountains wasn''t difficult per se, it was just incredibly time-consuming. The terrain was rough and the profound beasts gave off a huge aura. Thankfully, they were scarce and were mostly spotted from afar, so Shane was able to avoid them without any problems and press on without many interruptions. As his foot touched back down onto the forest floor on the other side of the range, Shane sighed with relief. It had taken almost 4 days to cross the mountains and get back to the beautiful green, leafy paradise. The minimap had been going crazy almost the entire 4 days, what with the amount of low-level profound herbs that were growing everywhere like cabbage, not to mention all the mineral veins that were just under the ground! Naturally, as a greedy hoarder, Shane had abused his meager skill in earth maniption to the maximum and extracted hundreds of kilograms of different ores. By the end of the mountain crossing, there were even quite a few spirit grasses and herbs that were equivalent to Nascent Realm and a very small amount of Purple veined heaven crystals sitting in his inventory. Shane however, was rather numb to these profound herbs and ores but now he was just d to be rid of the migraine that had gued him day and night due to all the constant pings appearing in his head. He paled a little and almost tripped when he thought of how his minimap would interact with the herb finding ability of the Sky Poison Pearl. Shaking that one off before he could despair, that was definitely a problem for future him. Shane began looking all over for a nice hollow tree where he and Dusty could take a well-deserved rest and where he could visit the dreamscape in. It had been 8 days and he missed her Lyingzily across a couch under the old willow, with a piece of long grass in his mouth and wearing nothing but baggy shorts and a basketball jersey, Shane sensed her approach... He cracked open an eye and shed a teasing grin then said in a singsong voice. "Qingyue dear, it''s your turn to spoil me today~" Chapter 15: Good things Come in Threes Chapter 15: Good things Come in Threes A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- Shane was currently experiencing his own little slice of heaven. He wasid down with his head on Qingyue''s incredibly soft and warm thighs, humming some Lord of The Rings, Rohan tunes, and enjoying her fingers in his hair while she told him everything she knew about Blue Wind Empire and the major sects. He probably knew just as much if not more on the matter than she did, and on some level, Qingyue knew that too but it was all she could do to keep her embarrassment from their current position at bay. When he had first called out to her and indicated what he had wanted her to do, She had replied with "How shameless." Followed quickly by an absolutely adorable, flustered pout. Shane then tried to coax her by reminding her of how she slept in hisp thest time they were here and even how she purred at his massage but she still wasn''t convinced, so he brought out the big guns. Shane exined a little to her about the control he had over the dreamscape and how he could change almost anything in here with but a thought. To which she originally looked at him with a ''so what?'' expression. That, however, changed pretty quickly to one of abject horror when he materialized a bunny suit out of thin air and looked her up and down with a raised eyebrow. After that she caved, it''s not like she was really against it in the first ce, she just had to maintain her image as a refined young woman! And so, Shane got to enjoy a couple of hours of absolute heaven! Although he didn''t forget to gloat a little after he gotfortable on her thighs and said. "En, I knew you actually wanted to spoil me all along, Qingyue." During this time, he had been thinking a lot about what the Will that allowed him to form and create this ce actually was. At first, it had felt like an unused muscle in his head but it had been growing stronger and easier to use each time he took control of the dreamscape and made an effort to change things to the way he envisioned them. It was different from his intent, it allowed him to enforce his presence upon the world, strengthened his mental state, and also cleared his mind. It even aided him immensely in forming and separating his Warhammer from Organic Constructs. Shane had even recently found that each time he entered into a created dreamscape, memories of some things that he experienced from earth would be especially clear. Now, this wasn''t perfect, he couldn''t choose which memories surfaced after all. From things as simple as remembering theplete lyrics of a song, he had been fond of, to remembering the design diagrams for a fridge freezer he had briefly nced at only once before. He had seen many random and some useful things and once remembered, they were all stored away in his memory pce Shane however was already anticipating that with time and the strengthening of his Will, he would be able to perfectly recall a lot of the knowledge he had either intentionally or unintentionally picked up on Earth. This would undoubtedly be immensely helpful, especially for understanding and cultivating thews and elements. In the future, it would essentially make him a walking textbook filled with knowledge from a world where science was an extremely advanced concept ''Providing chemical interactions and physics and stuff actually exist here... Urrgghh'' Qingyue seemed to notice his visible detion as she had stopped talking and looked down at him with a questioning gaze. Shane nced up towards her, his eyes momentarily stopping on the heavenly mountains that were impeding most of his view and when he met her eyes he saw a little embarrassment and a little knowing pride in them. He was about to tease her when something about her eyes caused a song from his life on Earth to sh through his mind. This particr song seemed to perfectly fit their rtionship. Even if the lyrics weren''t exact, the tone and meanings were simr. It resonated with Shane and so he used both of his hands to grasp hers, pinching her velvety smooth little palms and feeling all along her almost boneless fingers as he did so. He brought her hands to his chest and closed his eyes. Then he took a breath and started to softly sing. - Step one, you say we need to talk He walks, you say sit down, it''s just a talk He smiles politely back at you You stare politely right on through Some sort of window to your right As he goes left, and you stay right Between the lines of fear and me You begin to wonder why you came - ''At first Qingyue seemed confused but as the song went on her eyes began to mist over as she let the lyrics resonate with her as well'' - Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life - ''Unknowingly, tears had begun to pool in the corner of her eyes as she tightly gripped his hands and their fingers entwined.'' - Let him know that you know best Cause after all, you do know best Try to slip past his defense Without granting innocence Lay down a list of what is wrong The things you''ve told him all along And pray to God he hears you And I pray to God he hears you - ''A warm smile spread across her face as memories of the times she spent together with her mother and father before they were separated, surfaced and yed over in her mind with perfect rity'' - Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life - ''The memories of her family gave way to those of Shane. He was always appearing whenever she needed him the most. Never giving up on her, even when she sent him away. Never ming her, even when she treated him the way she had. Before long her mind was mostly full of his image and she realized something very important. She couldn''t go back to the way she was before... She couldn''t lock her emotions away again, was that even living? No, Qingyue would never willingly ''exist'' like that again. She couldn''t even begin to imagine living without these feelings anymore. No, it was more than just that, she couldn''t imagine living without HIM anymore...'' Shane''s Will had unknowingly infused with the lyrics as he sang them in his deep and husky voice and they were affecting Qingyue on a spiritual level. Something deep inside her very being was beginning to awaken. As he finished singing, he pulled Qingyue''s little hands up to his mouth and kissed them before sighing in contentment, and this action brought her out of her reverie. At the same moment she looked down, he opened his crimson eyes and gazed into hers with love. What shocked himpletely was that he could only feel the same love and devotion radiating back at him from her icy blue ones. "...That was beautiful," She said, quietly and with a slight shake in her voice. He gently reached a hand up to her face and wiped a stray tear from the corner of her eyes, gave her a wink and said "I know" There was a small pause before she burst intoughter, the sound of which was like a melody in itself. It made his whole body brighten up in happiness and soon he wasughing along with her while thinking. ''Is this the fabled jade beauty''s silver bellughter?'' They spent the rest of the time on the couch in the garden just enjoying each other''spany until Shane felt the familiar pull from his connection with Dusty. That meant it was time to wake up already, and so, after sharing a rather intimate hug goodbye, they both left the dreamscape. ----------------------------------- When Shane''s consciousness returned, he felt that his body was a bit numb and so he opened his eyes to see a 2m long Dusty the thickness of his bicep, wrapped around his midsection. He nced to the right where she was currently chirping and licking his cheek and raised his hand to scratch those cute little stubby horns she had been growing thest few days and cooed. "Who''s my little cutie! Did you get bigger? Yes, you did, yes you did. Are you gonna scare young masters for me one day? Yes, you are." She let out a little yip and did her best to lick as much of his face as she could while he squished her little cheeks together. Slowly but surely, his words devolved into even more mushy nonsense. *ROOAAAAR* A loud roar of unconcealed challenge in the distance brought both Shane and Dusty onto high alert. Dusty quickly reverted to her small size and wrapped around his neck as the silvery essence poured out of both his hands and Shane''s armor materialized within seconds. The roar of the unknown beast caused his blood to boil and his battle lust to explode outwards. Thankfully a rumbling growl was the next sound to reverberate through the surrounding forest and it carried a pressure to it that made Shane''s eyes go wide. Spirit Profound! It was a battle between Spirit Profound beasts! Shane started to move for a better vantage point and so he used his four limbs to climb, jump and swing from one branch to another until he was at the top of a rather tall tree and could see for miles in every direction. In a clearing, around 1.5km away, in the very same direction he needed to head, the two beasts confronted each other. Hesitating for a second, Shane decided that if he wanted to be someone great, he couldn''t just run away from everything and made his mind up to get closer. Even though he didn''t intend to fight, perhaps he could be the Oriole behind and grab some benefits. Besides, Shane didn''t think he would lose to a single beast at the [1st of Spirit Profound]. If he utilized all his abilities and had the help of Dusty, even if he couldn''t win, he could surely escape right? Withdrawing his presence as far as possible, he headed closer to the clearing where the battle between the beasts had alreadymenced. By the time Shane arrived some minutester, there were already a few trees uprooted. Splintered wood and trampled greenery covered the once grassy ground that now had many deep furrows in it. *Crack, BOOM!* Another tree was impacted with immense force and fell to the ground not far from Shane. Then he finally caught sight of them... One of the beasts was a muscr ck Panther-like creature the size of a car. It had deep, slitted yellow eyes, two tails, andrge curved fangs that reached down past its bottom jaw. It was currently snarling towards the crown of the recently downed tree and prowling from side to side with a slight limp, the cause of which was a badly mangled front leg. A quick whispered "Appraisal" confirmed his earlier suspicions. [Fierce Dusk Panther: Spirit Profound 1] Not a momentter, a throaty hiss came from within the huge toppled crown and a massive Komodo Dragon the size of arge van swaggered into the clearing, shaking the ground with every step. It was bleeding from deep gashes all over its tree trunk-like limbs and bulky body, with a particrly nasty one exposing the ribs along one side but that didn''t seem to impair its movement or will to fight at all. Shane used Appraisal again and couldn''t help rubbing his hands together in anticipation when he saw the result. [Grand Forest Komodo: Spirit Profound 1]. This was likely to be a very close fight and if by chance the winner was left exhausted, then hehe. He would have no problem bing the fisherman who catches both the m and the piper. From then on, the fight went as one would expect, the Panther was much faster than the Komodo, even with its injured leg, and it wounded thetter many more times. However, its stamina was not as good and when it got tired, it slipped up and took a beating from the lizard''s tail, cracking some bones in the process. Once Shane had gotten used to the loud sounds of impact, having to move from his vantage point often and the Profound power-infused roars that the beasts kept throwing around, the fight was actually rather boring. Itsted for hours... until finally, the Komodo''s front legs gave in and it slumped to the ground exhausted and defeated. The Panther moved in towards its neck, ready to deliver a killing blow, when it all went wrong... The Panthers mangled front leg slipped as it was about to bite down and the Komodo snapped its neck to the side, capturing the Panthers entire head within its jaws! The panther, Shrieked and used its incredibly sharp front ws to destroy the Komodos eyes and most of its face, but it was toote. With thest of its strength, the Lizard thrashed once, followed by a sickening crunch as the big cat''s neck snapped like a twig. The Komodo slumped over, profound energy exhausted and breathing deeply. Shane knew his chance hade! He summoned his Warhammer and poured everyst drop of his profound energy into his arms and legs. He pushed off the tree andunched 50m into the air like a cannonball as a round crater with spider web cracks formed on the durable wood of the huge trunk behind him. By the time he had reached the top of the arc of his jump, Shane''s arms were fully extended with his hammer raised high above his head. Silvery essence ran along his arms and up the shaft of the hammer until it reached the head where it formed a brutal-looking, footlong, twisted spike. The 150kg chunk of hardened SteelOak essence followed by Shane, stopped their ascent and began to plummet down towards the exhausted and injured Komodo. With an effort from Dusty, and a roaring BBBOOM, Air cannons formed at the back of his shoulder des and the back of the head of his hammer, propelling him downwards like a meteor. The vibrations caused by the air cannons had finally garnered the Lizard''s attention but it was too little toote and the hammer tore through the firmament before crashing down onto its huge head. The spike prated its head like a hot knife through butter and as the resultant weight and force behind the blow shattered the Komodo''s thick skull and turned its brains to mush. A bloodcurdling scream escaped his mouth as Shane''s arms snapped like a pair of twigs on contact. The hammer was ripped free of his grip and he dropped to the ground,nding on his heels and immediately slumping over backwards onto the floor. He had exhausted all his profound energy, banking it on that one attack and if the lizard wasn''t dead right now, he would be sure to follow soon after. Pain! All-epassing pain! Every single one of Shane''s muscles had torn and his bones had rattled so hard from that impact, he was lucky they didn''t all shatter. If his body wasn''t strong, he would probably have sttered against the lizard''s head like an egg on a rock! "*Groan*" ''Fuck fuck fuck! That hurt so much, I guess trying to directly use True Profound strength against the defenses of a Spirit Profound beast was a bit silly. But damn if it wasn''t awesome!'' He managed a weak chuckle before an even worse wave of pain washed over him. After a few minutes of iling around on the floor, Shane seeded in activating devour with both his palms and finally he could focus enough to withdraw things from his storage. After that, a veritable flood of herbs and spirit grasses appeared in the air above his hands before being devoured and refined for vital energy to supplement his body''s natural healing process. He had thousands of the things from thest few days in the mountains so he wasn''t too sad over the loss. It took almost an hour before Shane could move his arms and legs without feeling pain again and it was the most nerve-wracking and defenseless hour of his new short life. Thankfully, no beasts wandered by or he would have been a goner! Anyhow, now that his profound energy had also recovered, he could grab his prizes! Gingerly but greedily rubbing his hands together, Shane approached the Komodo and unceremoniously stored the whole thing away. Consequently, this freed his hammer but there was no way he could lift that right now so he stored it too. ''I really need to get a storage ring when I reach the town or someone will see me pulling things out of thin air and I will attract unnecessary attention. Wait, did I just raise my own g?'' He approached the Panther beast next and decided he would take the core, some meat, and some skin out of this one. He wanted a new pair of shorts, a bunch of profound coins to stay in the best inn and some good food never hurt anyone. What was even the point in struggling to get stronger if you couldn''t enjoy the good stuff? It took another good hour for Shane to dig the core out, peel the skin off the back of the beast, and cut out around 50kg of meat from it too. He stored it all away separately as he looked around to see if he missed anything. What greeted his eyes was a veritable warzone of felled and splintered trees and now that he had a minute to rx, he noticed a rather enticing aroma hanging in the air. After appraising one of the trees he was surprised to see that almost all of them were sandalwood. He remembered it being an expensive and sought-after wood back on Earth, it also had a really nice smell to it. While thinking that maybe he could make something useful out of itter, he went around and stored every single felled sandalwood tree he could find. It was early afternoon by the time Shane got moving again, and this time he focused solely on speed as he moved swiftly across the forest floor, slowing only to store away profound herbs directly along his path. By nightfall, he was back to full strength, and instead of stopping to rest, he decided to find a ce to absorb the two Spirit Profound corpses before continuing on his way. With a sh of emerald green, Dusty was back in her 2m long-form and she slithered around, forked tongue, tasting the air for a bit before chirping at him and shooting off into the undergrowth. Shane followed her through their connection until he found her in front of a den dug into the ground hissing at arge mole-like creature the size of a human. He didn''t hesitate andunched it far off into the air with a kick only for Dusty to bisect it in two with a wind de, mid-flight. Shane withdrew both of the Spirit Profound beasts, one at a time, and devoured them immediately so the smell of blood wouldn''t spread. He and Dusty then retreated into the Den, Sealing it shut as they went. The two sat together in the depths of the den, Shane cross-legged and Dusty in hisp as he probed inward with his intent to observe the refined energy in his veins. Then began a few refreshing hours of the peculiar cycling, circting, and sharing of energy between the two of them that took ce whenever Shane devoured anything recently. ------------------------------------ A/N: Sorry to disappoint, but Shane will be using a Warhammer as his weapon for a while toe. He has yet to fight with anyone, let alone anyone skilled enough at using a faster and lighter weapon that could make him rethink his choices. His naturally strong body allows him to swing the Warhammer around like a sword anyway. ----------------------------------- A/N: Good Lord, howe nobody told me that the spacing for the song lyrics looked that disgusting? Should be fixed now Chapter 16: Civilization isnt so Civilized Chapter 16: Civilization isn''t so Civilized A/N: Hello there readers. It''s been a week since Iunched this fic and what a week it was! I just wanted to say thank you to each and every person who takes time out of their day to read, like, andment on my work. I would especially like to thank those who drop reviews and Power Stones. This is my first time writing anything that isn''t a technical report and so all the support really means a lot and adds to my motivation. please continue to do so. Just a note. Some of you may have noticed that the length of chapters has been increasing and I will confirm that no chapters from now on are less than 3k words, in fact, most are over 3.5k words. A few chapters are even around 4k with today''s chapter being 4.6k. I know, crazy right? At the start, I was having trouble writing 2k words but the more into the story I get, the more I seem to write in each chapter. We call this the Shifty effect (hope someone gets it). Some good news, I still have enough unedited chapters stocked to continue daily release for around 10 more days, depending on how many chapters I can write this week it could be up to 2 weeks. After that, however, the rate of release will slow to 2-3 chapters a week. Without further ado, here''s the chap. ----------------------------------- Shane''s eyelids fluttered open and he released a turbid breath. His gains this time, although still great, were not as much as he had hoped. It would seem that removing the core from the Panther beast caused it to yield a considerably lesser amount of energy. Shane let out a sigh, had barely reached the [8th of True Profound] from two Spirit Profound corpses and a quick check of his status confirmed his Body Cultivation had stopped at [6th of True Profound]. The more he advanced, the higher the energy requirements were to reach the next realm. It may sound like an obvious truth but he knew for a fact that his veins required more and more energy to advance, especiallypared to a standard cultivator. Case and point was Dusty. [Dusty: Forest Wind Wyrm: True Profound 10(peak) - Contracted (Shan Long)]. Her cultivation was advancing much faster than his. Although she was definitely weaker. When the two emerged from the burrow, it was still deep into the night. Dusty returned to the tattoo around his neck and Shane started stretching and popping his joints before dashing off into the forest towards Cyan Forest Town. Throughout the rest of the night and the following day, Shane would take turns sprinting across the forest floor, rushing through the treetops and asionally battling any profound beast above Nascent Profound that he could find. All in order to get used to his newfound strength and speed again. He even came across a fewte True Profound beasts that had been attracted over by themotion the day before but they were easily dispatched. Weaving through the sea of branches in front of him, Shane''s hands reached out on instinct to pivot himself upwards to crouch against the trunk before pushing off towards another branch over 20m away. He caught the branch and continued without the inhumane feat even registering as he thought to himself about his recent problem. ''I really need to get some form of training or find someone to spar against as my strength is increasing too quickly and I have nothing I can use as a reference to judge it against.'' Fighting Profound beasts was fine and all but they are mostly still unintelligent and will always fight with their full power. Cultivators are smart and have all sorts of techniques and arts that can aid them inbat and Shane hadn''t even seen another person in the flesh yet let alone a cultivator. Another uneventful day of traveling followed and the trees were bing more scarce by the hour. Rolling green hills and fields of tall grass covered thest 30km of distance towards Cyan Forest Town and it waste on the third day when Shane finally met with the main road and could see the walled settlement in the distance. Withdrawing an early Nascent Profound bear-beast from his inventory and donning his full armor and wolfskin cape, Shane covered thest km or so in only a few minutes. When he finally approached the gate, the two middle-aged, Nascent Profound guards almost pissed themselves at his cultivation but still reluctantly stopped him. "Halt. Friend, what business do you have in Cyan Forest Town?" A little disappointed that they didn''t call him senior, Shane put up a disarming smile and spoke in a frivolous tone. "Good Brothers, I am just passing through towards Floating Cloud and will stay one night to conduct some business before moving on tomorrow" The guards looked at his strange attire suspiciously for a moment before nodding to each other and waving him over to pay the fees "The entrance fee is 10 Yellow coins friend" Shane awkwardly scratched his nose. "Ahaha well, as you see brothers I don''t have any coins on me as of the moment so how about you ept this Nascent Profound Bear as a gift from me, it was freshly killed today and the core is still intact" Outwardly, he was smiling but inwardly Shane was thanking who or whatever gave him the ability to naturally speak this strangenguage. The guards'' eyes lit up, greed evident in their gazes as one of them cupped his fists saying. "Thank you, young master, Would you like me to show you the way to an inn?" Shane''s eyes twitched and he barely resisted the urge to drop his friendly facade and throttle the guard there and then. "No need" He replied and headed off into the town. Using the map, Shane managed to locate therge sprawling three-story building of the main merchant guild before he ducked into a nearby alley. He swiftly withdrew over half a dozen True Profound Cores, including the pair from the bears and a variety of different herbs and spirit grasses from his storage, and ced them in a pouch. Shane withdrew his armor and Dusty also made her appearance in meter long and slim form before draping herself around his neck like a scarf and chirping at him happily. He scratched her little stubby horns and said. "You little brat, you can change your size to be morefortable getting carried around huh?" ----------------------------------- Entering the Merchant guild, he drew some strange looks and was swiftly approached by a man at the [1st of True Profound]. The man scanned him up and down, his shifty eyes staying on Dusty for a few seconds before he introduced himself as Bao San. Bao San respectfully led him upstairs to the top floor while enquiring about Shane''s purpose in the town, where he was heading, and how long he was staying. The questions were answered vaguely as the man''s fawning attitude gave Shane an ufortable feeling. A feeling that wasn''t there when he was talking to the guards earlier. Brushing off the feeling, he attributed it to his not being used to having social interactions over thest few weeks. Sure, Bao San had a high strengthpared to most people in this town butpared to Shane it was still too low. Even if the man had nefarious intentions towards him or Dusty, there was nothing he could do about the difference in strength and Shane would be gone from the town tomorrow. Bao San left after guiding Shane to the top floor, where he was greeted by the sight of an older, smiling, overweight man in the middle stages of True Profound who was standing behind a counter. "Greetings esteemed guest, I am Manager Wu. Are you buying or selling today?" "Greetings Manager Wu, I am Selling. If you could evaluate these, trade for a storage ring, and convert the rest into profound coins, I would be grateful." Shane then handed over the pouch containing a lot of spirit herbs and the True Profound beast cores. Manager Wu''s eyes widened a little before he regained hisposure and the professional air of a merchant as he began to calcte the prices. A few minutester he had finished counting and swept everything into his ring. He withdrew another storage ring from underneath the counter and handed it to Shane. "Esteemed guest, there are 350 purple profound coins in that storage ring. Will that be all today?" Shane checked the ring to confirm before slipping it on his finger and cupping his fists. He thanked Manager Wu and enquired about a high-ss tailor''s shop and the best inn before turning around to leave, Manager Wu gave a small bow and returned to the counter. As Shane was walking away from the merchant guild, he felt the ufortable feeling return again and nced around, even checking his minimap and finding nothing out of the ordinary. What he didn''t notice was Bao San watching him walk towards the tailors with a pair of calcting and greedy eyes before hurrying towards the town gates and disappearing out of them soon after. In the tailor shop, Shane was once again stared at strangely for dressing in just his shorts and cape but when he brought out a handful of purple coins, the staff immediately became amodating. ''It would seem that money can still get you anywhere, no matter the world'' He was quickly measured up and ordered a few pairs of ck cotton soled, ''cultivator'' shoes, a few pairs of high quality ck and brown trousers, some ck robe sets with crimson ents, and a couple of tailored, button-up shirts in both crimson and light blue. He also bought a beautiful white and blue traditional Chinese Hanfu and a pair of white, pearl-adorned hairpins for Qingyue. In the end, he spent over 100 Purple coins, most of them on the dress for Qingyue but the thought of her walking around in it made the cost absolutely worth it! The shirts would be ready the next morning and so he went to the town''s best inn to stay the night. He got thergest and most expensive room with a hot bath prepared, all for only a single purple coin. ''Soooo worth it!'' Shane let out a groan infort as hey face down on probably the softest bed he had ever experienced. "Why is everything just so much better quality in a cultivation world huh? Even the material of the clothes felt amazing on my skin!" He said to Dusty who was writhing and wriggling around in the silky sheets next to him. He got a few happy yips out of her so that was something ----------------------------------- Early the next morning, a well-rested and fully geared up Shane along with the cute emerald ne-form Dusty made their way to the tailors to pick up some clothes. They then headed straight for the town gates and started thest 200km trek towards Floating Cloud. Back on the open road and quickly making ground, Shane could feel his excitement and anticipation growing to almost palpable levels. As he sped up even further and started to daydream of all the things he could do with Qingyue, he failed to notice three figures following him around 200m behind. It was dusk when everything went wrong. Shane had slowed his pace a little and was thinking of ways to approach the marriage problem with Qingyue and the Xiao family. His sneaky pursuers noticed this and mistook his absentmindedness for tiredness. A signal was sent to theirrades and suddenly Dusty tensed up, she transformed into her 2m long form and started hissing at the air while transmitting intense bloodthirst through the bond. Shane expanded his senses and cursed himself for his absentmindedness. There were people heading in his direction, a lot of them... He fully stopped and adopted a loose fist stance but his eyes widened as tens of red dots started to fill the edges of his minimap. Red meant that whatever was approaching had the intention to harm him! *Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh* Within a few breaths of time, he was surrounded by around 30 men dressed in dark, shabby clothing with full beards and sporting a range of different weapons. The men didn''t waste any time and directly attacked him. Shane''s eyes shed. ''Bandits!'' Their cultivation was all below the True Profound Realm, and so Shane had nothing to fear, even from their weapons. Seeing was believing however and he had never fought another human let alone another cultivator before so what better way to practice regting his strength. He and Dusty battled these bandits bare-handed and non lethally using just his fist arts and her wind maniption. Shane knew that this would be a serious situation if his cultivation were low, but he was reluctant to take a life and also couldn''t help but use the opportunity presented before him, to train himself. The battle continued on for a few minutes and while Shane was throwing the bandits around like rag dolls, the number seemed to continually increase. Suddenly, Shane felt an intense danger from behind and a spear tip shed towards him. He managed to twist his upper body, but still let out a painful groan as the tip scratched across his ribs, opening up a long cut. Dusty hissed angrily and pounced from his body onto the face of the assant. Shane was rmed but had no room to look for her as he was instantly bombarded from either side by 2 hidden True Profound bandits. The pressure on him increased tremendously and Shane''s eyes shed with a bit of panic. The bandits might not be able to do much harm to him, but they could exhaust him with numbers! He was about to summon his Warhammer in ast desperate effort to dissuade the bandits when he heard a gruff voice imbued with profound energy call out in amanding tone. "Halt!" The bandits, now more than 80 strong with at least 5 being in thete stages of True Profound and 3 in the early Spirit Profound, had himpletely surrounded. Those closest to him backed away and left a clear path between Shane and the leader. His eyes went not to the man but instead locked onto Dusty, fear and rage started creeping in, making his mind buzz. Dusty had been captured and was writhing around underneath the boot of the guy with the spear... The man was now holding a peculiar smelling bunch of smoking incense that seemed to be driving her into a frenzy. A quick appraisal showed him at the [3rd of Spirit Profound]. ''Think Shane, Think! How am I going to get out of this one? They have Dusty and I can''t risk them hurting her. Maybe if I just give them my storage ring They will let her go. No that won''t work they obvi-'' "Heh, not so much of a big shot without the beast now are ya" A familiar voice from behind broke Shane out of his thoughts, and as he turned to look, anger burned in his eyes. Standing there with a cocky grin on his face was Bao San. "You Bast-" "Whoa there, better keep it cool or my boot might just slip" A deep, gruff voice from the Leader brought Shane back to the situation again. His head was spinning... What could he do? Was he going to have to fight and kill these people here? What about Dusty, she would surely get hurt if another fight were to break out. "What do you want?" Shane spat. He tried repeatedly to recall Dusty but she was out of control and too far away for him to forcefully bring her back. Cold steel on the side of his neck. "How about that storage ring for starters, then that fancy armor would really look good on me" The smarmy voice of Bao San sounded in his ears making his eyes glow red. A waft of smoke caused his pupils to dte as a previously hidden, feral rage began to bubble up within him, threatening to break out at any moment. ''He wants my armor? That''s a part of me. Does he see me as prey? Wait why is my head so fuzzy?'''' Shane pushed himself to form coherent thoughts and spoke through gritted teeth. "I can give you the ring but the armor is literally attached to me and only made from wood anyway, why would you want it?" Taking off the ring, he stepped forward towards the leader but was stopped by a pained whine from Dusty as the man pressed his boot down harder. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists in anger, blood dripped from his palms where his nails had bitten into them. "Toss the ring over here and maybe I''ll let the little snake go." Shane was a smart guy and he knew the chances of it being that easy were slim to none but he had no other choice did he? He couldn''t just kill them all, could he? ''Do it! Kill them!'' Shane tossed the storage ring over and watched the leader catch and inspect it before he said. "Now let her go" The leader started roaring withughter which was soon followed by the rest of the bandits in the surroundings until he put his hand up and the sword at Shane''s neck was slowly brought down until it was digging into his corbone. Another wave of smoke washed over him and now, Shane''s mind was spinning. Thoughts of destruction, death, and bloodlust churning around inside him like a hurricane. The only thing keeping him from acting upon them was the naive hope and the minuscule chance of getting Dusty out safe and sound. The voice from behind again. "Now watch this boy" Realization kicked in and Shane''s eyes widened, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks as he stood rooted to the ground. It happened almost in slow motion, the twist of the leaders'' hips, a shrill cry from Dusty, a sickening crack, and then silence. The bandits startedughing and jeering at him again and the sword resting on his cor was pressed further against his skin. Shane felt none of that, it was as if a bomb went off in his brain, the chains had broken, and only the hurricane of violent emotions remained. ''Nonononono. Dead, DeAd, DeAD, DEAD. DEAAAAAAAAAAD!'' Eyes hollow and on the cusp of mental copse, Shane felt the scorching heat of his intense rage, like liquid fire, it filled himpletely. The raging inferno spread throughout his chest with each powerful beat of his heart. *Badump* His armor changed into a rippling, liquid-Esque substance, as it undted with every heartbeat and began to reform into something new. Something darker, sharper, and more sinister. *BADump* Spikes formed on the shoulder tes, greaves, and gauntlets. *BADUMP* Horns formed on his headband as it became a visor covering the top of his face. *BADUUUMP* The liquid spread to his mouth and his teeth were coated, transforming into sharp fangs. All of a sudden, like a vortex of colors, the world seemed to revolve back towards him and the sound came back to his ears. Shane''s crimson eyes glowed the brightest they ever had and a ruthlessness that hadn''t been there before, surfaced. In that moment, Madness, Fury, Sadness, Despair, and All-epassing RAGE, consumed him. Without warning, Shane''s arm shot out, the armor around his fingers forming into ws as they buried themselves deep into Bao San''s eye sockets. The scum''s sarcasticughter immediately changed into a series of short screams as he desperately gripped at the serrated ws,cerating his hand in the process. The rest of the bandits went silent at the sickening disy but Shane didn''t stop there and the ws burst forth from the back of Bao San''s skull, branched like a pair of gruesome antlers, and grew rapidly towards the men behind Bao San, impaling them all through the face as well. Shane retracted the ws, bringing the bodies to himself before they were injected with his profound energy and turned into a blood mist. The mist didn''t dissipate and instead swirled around him, seemingly seeping into his pores as he began to move. A huge chunk of dark grey appeared in Shane''s free hand. *BOOM* A sh of green and then a cloud of dust appeared almost 100m away as his Warhammer cleaved through a group of bandits'' bodies like chopping wheat. Another sh of green and another 4 bandits heads exploded into blood fountains, the cyclone of crimson around Shane growing with every kill. He roared out in rage and despair,unching his hammer forth towards another group of bandits. It rocketed across the battlefield, directly towards one of the Spirit Profound leaders at a blistering speed, sonic booms left in its wake as it turned all in its path into mists of blood and chunks of meat. None were left withplete bodies, the dense smell of blood and desperate wails filled the air. Not caring for the death of hisrades, the Spirit Profound Expert sneered, crossed his arms, and attempted to block it directly. *Boom Boom Boom Boom* His face quickly changed to one of disbelief as air canons materialized along the head of the spinning Warhammer further increasing its velocity. The immense force and speed behind the weapon made contact with him and his defensested less than a millisecond before he let out an unwilling scream andpletely exploded in a shower of blood and gore. The Warhammer continued through a few more unlucky bandits, before contacting the ground with a huge shower of dirt, creating a deep trench, tens of meters in length Shane shed again and appeared in the middle of another group. Before they could even react, his ws had grown to an impressive length and he crossed his arms, directly shing them all into two parts. "Die!" A True Profound bandit managed to stab him with a sword in the midsection but he shrugged it off and giggled to himself as he willed the te covering his back to grow outwards and pierce the bandit''s neck. He continued to sprint through the low-level bandits, his ws along with the wind imbued, blood cyclone, turning them into mincemeat and adding to its mass as he went. It didn''t matter whether they were True Profound or Elementary Profound, the blood cyclone was deadly to anyone below Shane''s cultivation at this point. Throughout the bloody ughter, Shane took a few more hits from some of the stronger bandits, though none of them fatal. His reckless fighting style andck of care for defense, soon caused his body to be covered in wounds and blood from both himself and his enemies. Devour must have activated at some point, siphoning off energy from the blood cyclone and although Shane wasn''t in the right mind to notice, he was fast approaching the peak of True Profound. This rather mindless and sacrificial way of fighting was definitely not sustainable, however, and it wasn''t long before the many small wounds began to take their toll. The intensebat and repeated use of his profound energy also nearly had Shane exhausted. Still, he didn''t stop, he couldn''t stop. Dusty was dead and it was his fault, if only he hadn''t tried to reason with them from the start, if only he had been more vignt, more ruthless. Regardless of everything else, Shane had already treated Dusty as his family. These scum had killed his family, she was thousands of times better than them, not a single one would leave here today and Shane would make sure of it. He would definitely send them all to the underworld as revenge for her! What were a bit of tiredness and some wounds? He was still alive, he could still go on! And so he shook his head and continued the massacre... A few minutester, just as he felt his reserves almost runpletely dry, Shane looked around at the now silent forest ''When did we get into the forest?'' and saw the two remaining Spirit Profound experts were the only ones left. Shane Locked eyes with the leader, madness, and intense hatred battling for supremacy in his gaze as a beast-like snarl escaped his lips and he shed forward again. This time, however, the enemies were morepetent. They could follow his movements and were ready and waiting for his approach. They were both Spirit Profound experts and although they were wary of Shane''s strength, arrogance was still evident in their gazes. Arrogance that would be their undoing... The leader confronted him with a spear while the other split up and attempted to skirt around behind him with a pair of daggers. They made a huge mistake there, Shane''s eyes shone with cruelty, not only for his enemies but also for himself. With a single thought, the blood cyclone was pulled towards his open palm at a blistering pace andpressed into a swirling crimson ball the size of a marble. Lips curled back into a feral grin, Shane tensed his legs, imbued them with the wind, and pounced. The leader was caught by surprise as his spear impaled Shane through the chest, just below the ribs. This didn''t stop Shane however as the momentum carried him along the shaft of the spear and straight into the bosom of the scum. They both fell to the floor and the shaft of the spear was pulled free from the man''s grip, tearing the wound open further and sshing blood everywhere. Shane didn''t care, he was like a man possessed as his ws pierced the leader''s stomach and the bandit felt something pass onto his insides. With a horrified look, the bandit leader desperately scrambled away from Shane, stood up, and screamed "What did you do to me!?" As the man raised his shirt and saw the skin of his torso undting and bubbling, he only became more terrified of the answer. Shane started with his own little chuckle that swiftly changed into a bout of deranged and sicklyughter as it echoed through the forest and sent chills down the men''s spines, until it finally devolved into a hacking and bubbling cough. He spat a mouthful of blood and raised his middle finger as he whispered *boom*. With a sh of crimson-red, apressed ball, made up of the blood from nearly 80 men and enough wind profound energy to chop down a hundred trees, lost its shackles and unleashed itself on the insides of the bandit leader. His body expanded unnaturally to thrice his normal size, but still, it held together as blood began to pour from the wound in his stomach, his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth like a faucet without end. After the initial explosion, The man was already deader than dead, but Shane took pleasure in watching it happen to the final moment anyway. As the body of the leader copsed onto the floor, Shane slumped back to the ground in exhaustion as the sorrow and regret started to roll back in. His body had no more profound energy and he was badly injured, his blood dying the ground red beneath him. Shane''s eyes fluttered open as the sound of shaky footsteps betrayed the wary approach of thest remaining bandit. The man looked horrified yet determined as he approached, daggers drawn. In that moment, much of the calmness came back to Shane''s mind and he cursed himself for his recklessness. ''What the fuck were you thinking, you idiot! This was all your fault. You let your emotions control you and now you''re gonna die again.'' As Shane gazed unwaveringly in the face of his would-be executioner, his thoughts drifted to Qingyue, and he found that he was unwilling! ''Im sorry Qingyue, I wanted to meet with you and hold you for real but I guess some things are too good to be true. At least Dusty won''t be lonely on her way Dusty... why can I still feel her connection?'' Shane found it harder and harder to keep his eyes open but as the bandit raised his dagger, he saw something incredulous appear silently behind the man. He grabbed a handful of dirt from beneath him, stubbornly gathered the minuscule amount of Profound energy he had regenerated, and propelled the dirt towards the bandit''s eyes. Thest thing Shane saw before he lost consciousness was the man covering his eyes while a gigantic, beautiful, emerald-green Draconic head, stealthily approached him from behind with its mouth wide open. ----------------------------------- A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- Chapter 17: Reflection and Arrival in Floating Cloud Chapter 17: Reflection and Arrival in Floating Cloud A/N: So, a lot of mixed feelings about thest chapter. I thought I would just take a moment to exin and rify a few things. Firstly, the situation was a little cliche, a little forced, and the part with Dusty Sucked. I didn''t enjoy writing it but I feel like the change in his mentality was needed. Especially since there would be few opportunities to do so after he reached Floating Cloud, and once there, I want to focus more on him and Qingyue. What you have to remember is that Shane was just a normal guy before this, in fact, I would even say he was more sheltered than an average person due to his condition. Sure, he had a lot of knowledge and even read about what the world was like but knowing something and experiencing it firsthand, are vastly different. Some people will say that Shan Long is also part of the new Shane but well he was a bit simple, he also never left the forest and had no profound strength... A normal person with a working mind would of course be reluctant to kill another unlesspletely forced by the situation. Killing what equates to a mindless beast cannot bepared to taking the life of another human. The bandits were also not proving to be too much for him to handle until the situation changed and Dusty was captured. By that point, it was toote and he had allowed himself to fall into their trap. He isn''t perfect, and everybody makes mistakes. Another thing to note was the incense that the bandit leader was holding and how it affected Dusty... To ay some worries, no Shane won''t be turning into a murder hobo, he will still be the upbeat yet somewhat greedy and shameless guy he always was. He will just be more vignt in the future and not hesitate. {Also, if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative.} Enjoy the chap. ----------------------------------- Shane opened his eyes to find himself in a glowing red world. Swirling crimson fog billowed all around, bearing down upon him from all sides, with a subtle yet ufortable pressure. The temperature was both freezing cold, boiling hot, and neither at the same time. He took a step forward and felt a slight resistance against his ankles and a stickiness to his skin. Raising his leg, a coppery scent invaded his nostrils and he was surprised to see a red liquid covering his foot. The fog gradually thinned around him and Shane could now see that he was standing in an endless shallow pool of fresh, warm blood. His brows furrowed and he thought to himself. ''Am I dead? But why does this ce feel familiar to me? I know I died before, but it felt nothing like this.'' Looking upwards, Shane found the cause of at least one of the temperature phenomena in this strange ce. In the endless ck sky, there were 12 enormous crimson stars shining dimly, asserting their presence with a soul invading chilliness that threatened to consume him if he hadn''t swiftly looked away. Shane just couldn''t get the nagging feeling of familiarity out of his head and as he continued to walk forwards it grew stronger. It was a feeling, simr to when you can''t remember the name of a film you really liked, it was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn''t ce it. A sh of crimson in the sky! One of the stars glowed so brightly that the light eclipsed everything else in this domain,pletely filling his vision. Blinking the spots out of his eyes, Shane looked forward in disbelief as the ''star'' gently floated down towards the ground, shrinking in size as it did. Just before touching the blood pool, the ''star'', now a person-sized crimson cocoon, halted its descent and sent ripples throughout the endless expanse of red liquid. These ripples reached Shane and an incredibly strong profound sense washed over him. As the sense noticed him, the ripples paused and the whole world became hostile in just a moment. A huge pressure descended, almost forcing him to his knees as a myriad of ghastly weapons formed from the blood below and turned to point at him. The ice-cold feeling of dread from before returned, stronger by a thousandfold and it shook him to the very core. Even with cold sweat flowing down his back, Shane felt indignant and summoned his intent, mixing it with the still present anger at the death of Dusty and even stronger rage at himself for letting it happen. He even ced a palm against the blood pool, desperately using devour to siphon off as much of it as he could. Hoping for it to aid in forming his own killing intent tobat the wave in front of him. "Hmph! Pathetic" With that incredibly cold and young? sounding voice, Shane''s killing intent was shattered and a veritable tsunami of bloody weapons surged towards him, consuming him within seconds. ----------------------------------- *Gasp Huff Huff Huff* Shane awoke, drenched in sweat and gasping for air. He managed to take a few, huge, deep breaths before coughing at the burning pain in his throat and lungs. His eyes felt as if they were sealed shut by something sticky and so he summoned water from his storage to cover himself. *Hiss* The pain rolled in and his whole body ached and stung. Shane attempted to raise his right hand to his face and found only a dull pain and nothing else happening. Confused, he raised the other hand. This time, he managed to wipe away the gunk and finally opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the coagted blood coating his hand and then past that, the crowns of a few trees and the bright blue sky far above them. The realization of what happenedst night came back to him in one crushing blow that knocked the wind out of him. Tears pooled in his eyes and he sadly whispered her name "Dusty." A high-pitched chirp followed by a bellow as a gust of hot wind washed over him. Shane froze, as arge wet, and slimy object assaulted the side of his face. He mechanically turned his head to the side, only to see an absolutely beautiful, emerald, draconic head the size of a full-grown man, tongue extended and not a meter away from him. "Dusty?" He wasn''t sure how but Dusty was there and not only was she alive, She was absolutely gigantic. It was also at this time Shane realized that he was not lying on the floor but on her smooth scaled back. [Dusty: Draconian Storm Wyrm: Spirit Profound 3(peak) - Contracted (Shan Long)]. "What the fuck!?" Shane let out a huge breath of relief and pushed that revtion away forter as Dusty chirped and licked him again. Feelings of joy and happiness followed by sorrow and regret passed through the bond. She was much more expressive it seemed. "You''re alive! That''s great. *Cough* *Cough*" His attention now drawn to his own battered body, Shane now noticed that there was still a sinister-looking and extremely heavy set of ws formed on his right hand and so with a slight mental effort, he withdrew them into his body and could finally move. With a little difficulty, Shane managed to sit up and check himself over. He had mostly healed except for a nasty wound below his left ribs. A few dozen weak profound herbs and a couple of profound beast corpsester, it was already closing and he felt much better overall. He allowed the scar to remain as a reminder to himself to never becent and never to hesitate again. This world was unforgiving, he had told himself that before but some part of him was still following Earth''s sense of morals, expecting the situation to solve itself. Shane now fully understood that an Earthlings mindset had no ce here. He wouldn''t insist on his previous sense of values, not anymore. What if it were Qingyue in that situation next time, his heart clenched at the thought, and killing intent surged behind his eyes. He couldn''t allow that to happen. Strangely he didn''t feel much for the lives of the men he reaped and killing Profound Beasts for weeks on end had alreadyrgely desensitized him to blood and gore. Not to mention all those years ''he'' spent in the forest. So why did he hesitate? Searched for an answer Shane realized the ugly truth, it was mostly out of fear. Shan Long was a little slow and arguably even more sheltered than Shane, and so, the majority of his personality right now, was based upon the Shane from Earth. He was afraid, afraid of the consequences, or just afraid of how he would feel afterward, he wasn''t sure. Thinking about it now, it all seemed so pointless, he had killed them all in the end anyway. He didn''t even feel that what he did was wrong. Those men were scum and they simply deserved to die for the simple fact that they harmed his family. He just regretted that he didn''t take it seriously from the start and because of that, Dusty almost lost her life. Shane was incredibly lucky that he only learned a painful lesson rather than losing his own life or keeping some kind of mental trauma due to Dusty. He decided that in the future, he wouldn''t underestimate potentialbat situations and would also try to keep a clear head no matter what happened. Shane didn''t even realize just when their numbers became sorge, but it surely couldn''t have happened within a single minute. He also vowed that from now on, he would swiftly and ruthlessly deal with any simr situations, before they got to a point where those close to him could be harmed. He wouldn''t kill indiscriminately, he just wasn''t that type of person, but he wouldn''t shy away from it either. As bad as it sounded, Shane now fully realized that to him, the lives of those he cared about were much more important than any others. He just needed to ept that killing was a natural urrence here as it wouldn''t be thest time someone had nefarious intentions towards him. Take Qingyue for example, she was already exceptionally beautiful and she would only be more so in the future. There would never be a shortage of arrogant young masters who thought they had the world in the palm of their hand and would do anything to im her for their own. If given the chance to act, those disgusting types of people would never y fair and he had to be prepared. ''Being kind to your enemies is the same as being cruel to yourself'' Shane let out a bitterugh at that thought. He had said that to himself not so long ago and only now could he truly understand it. It was funny how everything went to shit in reality no matter what ns he had before. No, he had learned his lesson this time. Dusty was fine and that was what mattered. Thinking of Dusty, how did she survive? The only way he could think of was that she had somehow absorbed the vital energy of the bandits as he was ughtering and devouring them. He honestly had no idea about that. You could ask him what happened, but who was he supposed to ask? Dusty? ------------------------------ A few hours of resting and healingter, it was mid-morning and Shane had fully recovered. He could feel that his cultivation had improved once again and so he decided to check his status. - [Name: Shan Long (Shane)] [Race: Human/Profound Beast (v. weak >> weak)(NEW!) - slightly stronger senses and reflexes] [Bloodline: Primordial Shadow Panther (extremely weak) - Greatly enhanced Profound Senses] [Cultivation] {Profound Cultivation: True Profound 8 >> Spirit Profound 1(peak) (NEW!)} {Body Cultivation: True Profound 6 >> True Profound 10(peak) (NEW!)} [Abilities] {Profound Arts absorbed - Increase in efficiency of energy absorbed} [Map/Mini-map (expand or toggle on/off)] {Minimap Range 30m >> 40m (NEW!)} - Shane sighed. His cultivation had increased again but that meant he had to once again get used to his new strength. He wasn''t sure how strong he was nowpared to normal Spirit Profound experts but he assumed that it wouldn''t be a problem for him to go toe to toe with someone at the [5th of Spirit Profound]. That would be especially true if he were equipped with his full gear and elemental maniption to boot. Everything else was good, he wasn''t especially attached to his humanity, and having better senses and reflexes would always be a plus for him. Thinking of that, Shane looked around and took a deep breath through his nose. Everything did seem more colorful today and he could smell many different scents clearly in the light breeze. Shane closed his eyes and could also see the very basic profound arts that had been broken down, refined, and added to his body as well as their originals in his mental pce. He could even feel the startings of a pathway within his profound veins that the energy would follow when absorbing it. None of the arts or techniques were something he could or would use but the understanding he gained from them would be useful as a base for creating his own in the future. Casually checking the time & date on his minimap, Shane shot to his feet with a fearful yelp! "Shit!" He had been unconscious for 2 days! That meant he only had 10 days before he met with Qingyue''s father. He needed to travel the remaining 140km to Floating Cloud City and fast! Deciding now was the time to stop ying dumb, he turned towards the 25m long elephant in the room and looked her up and down. She was truly a beautiful creature. Despite being so massive she still somehow gave off a dainty air with all her spinesid back against her body. Her patterned scales reflected the morning sunlight, giving off a gorgeous emerald hue. The cute little stubby horns had now grown into two majestic spiraled cones, supported by a crystalline crown. "You little brat! Tell me, have you always been able to get big like now?" Dusty gave a little whine and tried to act cute by nudging her head against his body, almost knocking him over in the process. Newssh, it was working! "Haaaa, you know what. You are gonna take us the rest of the way and then I will naturally give you the best thingster, okay?" She gave a couple of cute chirps that didn''t suit her new size but still made Shane swoon and scratch her horns nheless before he started to search around for any of the bandits'' weapons and valuables. He noticed that there were no signs of any corpses, even the two leaders or the other Spirit Profound bandit but it would exin the increase in his and Dusty''s cultivation. An hourter, Shane had picked the entire area clean. He even found their camp a couple of hundred meters away. He was approaching from downwind when a terrible, putrid smell assaulted his nostrils. Grimacing to himself, he had a good idea of what it was Unfortunately, Shane''s guess turned out to be correct and he also found the naked bodies of several men and women tossed into a ditch, clear signs of abuse and torture visible on them. That did make him feel a little nauseous but mostly he felt anger. Even if he had epted that this was a dog eat dog world, to see cultivators preying on mortal men and women, still disgusted him to no end. By this point, Shane was already d that he had exterminated them to thest. It wasn''t like he was a hero, nor did he have a hero''s mentality. It was just that preying on the weak for fun and sport, gave him an incredible sense of aversion and loathing. Quickly collecting himself and covering his mouth and nose with some wind profound energy, Shane manipted the earth to cover the bodies over. He offered up a silent prayer that their souls would remain whole when reincarnating, and turned to leave... Heading back to the bandit''s camp, Shanebed over it and robbed almost everything away from there too. He also found something interesting in what he assumed to be the leader''s tent. It was a familiar bundle of incense and herbs that he suspected was the root cause of his and Dusty''sck of control the night before Remembering the way Dusty was writhing under the Bandit''s boot, made him wince but he forced himself to go over the memories. The way she left his side and attacked without warning, was totally out of character, and how he couldn''t recall her back to the tattoo made sense now. The buzzing in his mind and the sudden feelings of bloodlust could also have been attributed to the description offered by Appraisal. It was a special type of incense that would cause profound beasts to go into a frenzy, either for easier hunting or capture or just to make them rampage. Obviously, it wasn''t foolproof but the desperate situation along with his already fluctuating emotions must have left a gap in his mental defenses. That must have caused the bundle of herbs and incense to strongly stimte the profound beast blood inside of him, making him unable to think clearly and to give in to his more feral instincts... *SLAP!* Shane pped himself. Hard. No, he wasn''t going to me it on anything else. He had a tendency to overthink and over-exin things, butst night was on him and he needed to take that lesson to heart. After using his profound energy topletely destroy the little bundles, Shane clenched his fists tightly. These people were already prepared for dealing with Dusty first, so that they could strike a mental blow to him, kill him, and take all of his things. They had done so much for a storage ring and a few hundred purple coins. These thoughts once more strengthened his resolve to be stronger and to not hesitate in the future. Thankfully, he was heading to the rtively peaceful Floating Cloud City where he was already ssed as beyond strong and could quite easily form a good rtionship with the strongest cultivator in town. Shane held his chin in thought, for the family-loving old man, there was a surefire way to gain his support. After looting everything, which only amounted to; a few different coins, food, wine, in steel swords, 3 weapons of True Profound, and a single Spirit Profound spear, Shane spat on the ground in annoyance. "These bandits were truly too poor, let''s go Dusty!" Dusty slithered over in a sh, all silent like and impressing Shane to no end. He couldn''t help but jump for joy at her speed, as he thought, she would allow them to travel much faster now. At least, she would be faster than him at moving along the open road. Grinning to himself, he got ready to leave. Summoning his armor... which now had pulsing red, crystalline, veins along its surfaces... The grin on Shane''s face fell instantly and he nearly dropped to his knees, he was abso...lutely devastated. Then it hit him... Everything that happened yesterday, the cliche situation with bandits, the harming of someone close to him, the losing control and killing them it was all. just. so. Chunni! His once beautiful silver armor now looked like it had been inflicted with ''Dark Lord of the Abyssgate'' syndrome and he couldn''t revert it back no matter how hard he tried. The worst part about it was that he actually thought it was slightly cool! All he needed now was some sort of tragic backstor "Fuuuuuck!" "May as well get a goddam eyepatch!" Shane grumbled as he swung up onto Dusty''s neck near the head and pointed her in the direction of Floating Cloud. She chirped happily and set off at a blistering speed. ----------------------------------- Just two hourster, Shane was standing around 2km from Floating Cloud City and praising his little snake while changing into a pair of dark pants, shoes, and a set of his ck and crimson robes. The robes were extremely ufortable so he only wore the outer robe, leaving his chest bare. ''Why even have abs if you don''t show em off!'' "Dusty, you are just too damn cute! To think you got us here as fast as a car!" There was only a small problem with Dustybus travel and it was mostly his fault anyway. He at first forgot to cover himself with profound energy and yelled out loud as she continued to speed up. Big mistake! Immediately, a fly got into his mouth and his already wild hair ended up looking like a bird''s nest. Although it only took a little smoothing over with more profound energy before he was ready to go, it was still another lesson learned. Shane waltzed thest 2km to the city gates with his cute little snake wrapped around his neck and his aura unrestrained. This time one of the guards did piss themselves in fear. The other one, just ate Elementary Profound, managed to greet him and request the entrance fee. This guard actually called him senior, Senior! Shane''s heart fluttered, he enjoyed that very much. Unfortunately, that guard directly passed out when Shane threw a couple of purple coins towards him and so he wandered through the now empty gate to find a nice tea house or restaurant or something. Although he could tell Dusty didn''t me him in the slightest, Shane definitely felt the need to find the nicest ce avable so he could treat her like the princess she was. Another reason was that eating the meat of Profound Beasts is fine and all but it could get a little boring if that''s all you ate every day. ''You know what they say, variety is the spice of life!'' *Rumble* Shane tapped his stomach and his eyes had a rather strange look to them. ''I never thought I''d actually be craving vegetables.'' Casually walking down the streets dressed as he was and with his aura unrestrained, garnered Shane a lot of attention. He was gaining looks from all manner of people, some were in awe of his cultivation even though most couldn''t sense it, some were jealous of his looks and some women even swooned over his wild handsomeness. At one point he even felt some hostility sent his way from a group of young men but their killing intent was so pathetic it made himugh. Although the following shbacks of the day before caused him to involuntarily release his pressure and they all passed out from fear... Shane may have looked carefree for the most part, but it was mainly just an act. Internally he was vignt and his senses constantly swept the surroundings. The minimap may have expanded to 40m but his profound senses could stretch out to over 200m, whether that was a lot or not, Shane had no idea. Only when he reached a nice-looking tea house, did he reel in his profound sense and walk inside. Only after confirming that nobody in the vicinity could or would pose any threat to him, did Shane allow himself to rx a little and take a seat. He ordered a nice vored tea set with one of each of the best dishes and held out a miniature wriggling Dusty in front of his face. "I told you that I would share the good things with you so go on, be a bit bigger and I will feed you some dishes." Dusty reverted to her two-meter form and curled happily around his arm as they both rxed in silence and waited for the food toe. To say the waitress was surprised at the emergence of Dusty was an understatement but she still managed to regain her bearing and act professionally, even when Shane told her to put some of the dishes in front of his little snake. The meal was tasty and the afternoon went by uneventfully, even though Shane had to order twice more before Dusty was satisfied and now she was sleeping soundly within his tattoo. Finally, he decided it was time to find a ce to stay and so he left the teahouse only to hear amotion happening just down the street. A group of young men had surrounded another and pushed him to the floor. The things they were saying made Shane''s lips curl up into a smile ''Well well well, they do say sunshinees after a rainfall.'' As Shane drew closer, the youths'' insults became clearer. "You''ll taint the city''s number one talent, you should cancel the engagement" "yeah, you''re trash that can''t bepared to fairy Xia" "Useless trash deserves to stay with trash" "You''re a toad lusting after a swan" "Fairy Xia should be with young master Yulong" For a moment, he enjoyed hearing the toad line, but what thest youth said angered Shane more than he was willing to admit and so he interjected with a fair bit of annoyance in his tone. "What is going on here?" The leading youth, an early Nascent Profound, wearing dark blue robes and looking like a cliche viin, turned to him in fury. "This is Xiao n bus S-s-senior! F-forgive me, I had eyes but could not see. N-nothing is happening here, we were just leaving!" Halfway through his speech, the youth paled with fear as he sensed the pressure given off by Shane''s unrestrained cultivation and quickly left while apologizing, although not before sending a threatening re towards the boy on the floor. Shane sneered. *Pei* "Just a bunch of ''fear the strong and bully the weak. Trash!" The boy got up and despite his bleeding lip, cupped his fists at Shane. "Thank you for your kindness senior." "What''s your name kid?" Shane looked at the little guy with a thin smile but inside, he was celebrating! ''What absolute luck! I wanted an in with him and the Xiao n, but to think he would literally cross paths with me. Is this that fate BS they always talk about?'' "My name is Xiao Che senior but you can just call me little Che, how should I address you?" The boy nervously replied. "Hmm my name is Shan Long kid, but you can just directly call me brother Long and I''ll call you brother Che, how about it?" Shane wrapped his arm around the potential protagonist''s shoulders with a grin and started to randomly drag him down the street. "S-s-senior, that doesn''t sound appropriate." Shane waved him off. "Bah! What appropriate, I saw you, I liked you, we must be fated and all that jazz. Now show me to a good inn with a courtyard to rent for a month or two!" "B-brother Long. Y-you could stay at a courtyard in my n but we would need to ask my grandfather first" Xiao Che may be kind and innocent but he wasn''t a fool. The guy next to him was strong, and his grandfather would absolutely want to meet him. Shane could see through the kid and was slightly impressed. He thought about it for a second and came to the decision that this was the best-case scenario and quickly agreed. "En, let''s go and see grandpa then!" The two of them chatted as they walked through the town, Xiao Che pointed out a lot of different ces to Shane, he was truly a nice kid. Nothing like that absolute madman Yun Che. When the two young men finally walked up to the Xiao n, Shane was honestly surprised! It was huge! Like a small city on its own with many different pavilions, courtyards, halls, and manors everywhere! The guards at the gate sneered when they saw Xiao Che approach but paled with fear when Shane pressured them with his cultivation. Did they not see him here with Xiao Che? Was it more important to mock a cripple than assess the strength of potential guests? Was it just the way the world was geared towards bullying the future protagonist? He may have gone a little far with the guards, knowing how awful everyone here treated this innocent kid in front of him and made them directly pass out... Soon after, Xiao Che led Shane into arge, secluded courtyard where a young girl around 15 was wearing green robes and sweeping the floor. She was both beautiful and cute with rosy lips, a delicate nose, a gentle face, and a pair of clear and transparent eyes. She also had a homely feel to her. As she saw Xiao Che, she dropped the broom and ran right up to him, taking his hands in hers. "Little Che! What happened to you?" She had an especially sweet voice like honey when talking to Xiao Che and he smiled at her before replying. "I just slipped over in town and then I met Senio-" Shane coughed "B-brother Long who is looking for a ce to stay. Is grandfather here?" Shane, seeing them together like this got a little jealous, and couldn''t help but tease. "Brother Che, is this your little wife? Ahhh so caring, if only I had a wife like this." Both of the two kids wentpletely red in the face and the girl couldn''t help but stammer "n-n-n-n-n" a few times before giving up, turning around, and rushing inside the house. "B-brother Long, please don''t tease her. That is my little aunt Lingxi" Xiao Che, still red up to his ears, said quietly to Shane. It wasn''t long before little Linxi came out holding the arm of an old man with long white hair and a white beard. He looked to be in his 80''s or 90''s but that didn''t fool Shane as his aura was vigorous and strong. His cultivation was at the peak of Spirit Profound. It was Xiao Lie! "Brother Long this is my Grandfather Xiao Lie" Shane did a small bow and respectfully said "Grandpa Lie" Xiao Lie eyed Shane suspiciously for a moment before he stroked his beard and his smile returned. "Oho, to witness such a talented youngster in the Spirit Profound realm is rarely seen around this forgotten end of Blue Wind. What brings you here?" Shane took a moment to appreciate the old fox before he replied "Grandpa Lie if the question you are asking is what am I doing in Floating Cloud, the answer is that I have some business with a childhood friend in this town. If your question also means what am I doing with your grandson or in your n in general, then the answer is that I simply liked him and his character so I took him as my brother. Call it fate or anything else that is the truth of the matter." The old man''s eyebrow rose causing Shane to feel indignant "I live my life freely and unfettered. I travel where I wish. I train when I wish and I make friends with whomever takes my fancy. It just so happens that fate had put brother Che in my path." ''En, I really sounded like a mysterious expert then.'' "Ok brat! No need to act mysterious with me. You like to be free, I get it. Not like you would need to lie and trick a cripple." Shane scratched his nose to hide his embarrassment and said. "En, Thank you Grandpa Lie" ----------------------------------- A/N: Hey guys, just to let you know. Webnovel has done something ridiculous, and now, literally, anything that constitutes as a curse word (even the word damn) will be automatically censored. They don''t use the **** anymore and yourments will be automatically deleted by the system. I lose like half of all myments to this madness, so if you don''t want to waste your time, make sure yourments don''t have any cussing in them. Apparently, you are able to see your ownments even if they have curse words in them, but not ''like'' them. I can also see them in the author notifications panel sometimes but they won''t appear in thements section for anyone else. Fuck, Shit, Cock, Bollocks, Bastard... Now I feel better Chapter 18: All According to Keikaku Chapter 18: All ording to Keikaku A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words such as: Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- The sound ofughter and merriment could be hearding from a secluded courtyard, deep within Floating Cloud''s Xiao n. Shane was currently sittingfortably at a table with Xiao Che, Lingxi, and Xiao Lie while he recounted some of his stories from the forest, omitting any secret details of course. "And that''s how Dusty became my firstpanion!" Shane patted his chest proudly and said. "Brother Long, did Dustye here with you?" The innocent little Lingxi asked with stars in her eyes. Shane tapped the tattoo at the base of his neck. "En, she is in here beingzy after I fed her some good dishes in the town earlier" "Brother Long, can Lingxi see her?" Xiao Lingxi used the puppy dog eyes technique, it was super effective! Shane was at aplete loss. Xiao Lie actually went so far as to give him a smirk and a knowing look of pity! "So cute!" Shane''s hand flew out lightning-fast and pinched her little cheek! Then he swept his hair back and stood up, not forgetting to put on some airs before stretching his arm out towards the empty half of therge courtyard and yelling out. "Dusty! I choose You!" With a bright sh of green light, a beautiful emerald-colored, 2m long, draconic-headed snake appeared. She waspletely wrapped around Shane''s arm while chirping happily and doing her best to lick his face. Xiao Lingxi shot up out of her chair and appeared in front of him, far faster than she should have been able to. "She''s so beautiful and cute!" Shane did agree with her but inside he was crying tears of blood. ''Can you not let me act cool just once, my little snake? I was already known as the strange guy who wears an emerald ne in thest town and I was only there for one day!" As if to rub salt on his imaginary wounds, Dusty immediately bolted over to Lingxi''s side, shrunk down to her ne size, and wrapped around the little girl instead. "*Gasp* Betrayal!?" Lingxi squealed happily in a very udylike manner before going red up to her ears and covering her mouth with both hands. Dusty licked her a few times before Shane''s eye twitched and he crossed his arms saying "Okay you brat, you can y all you wantter, now show them how awesome you are!" Dusty whined before she reluctantly left Lingxi and flickered over to the side of the courtyard while her presence immediately started to grow more ferocious. Xiao Lie stood up in wonder and said "This aura". Another, much brighter sh of green happened, and then Dusty was finally there in all her glory! Shane just stood there with a smug look, she was a beast at the peak of the [3rd of Spirit Profound] after all. Xiao Lie was stunned and wary, Xiao Che looked a little scared, though he was mostly intrigued, little Lingxi, well she was different altogether. She practically teleported over to Dusty''s side and ran her fingers along the perfectly smooth scales shouting "So beautiful and cute!" Shane''s eye twitched again as Dusty obviously just chirped and licked little Lingxi before shrinking again and slithering around the girl''s shoulders. Needless to say, the atmosphere was instantly diffused. After everyone calmed down and Dusty went back to the tattoo, Lingxi wanted to go off and make some tea. Shane stopped her and first requested her to bring a few things. He gave her a small list and she nodded, albeit after giving him a strange look. Shane just smiled bitterly at that and rubbed her little head. When Lingxi had left, he dropped the smiling persona and asked seriously. "So tell me Grandpa Lie, how did brother Che be crippled?" Xiao Lie showed a pained expression for a moment before. *Sigh* "It was like this" Shane then heard all about how they found out Xiao Che was born with crippled profound veins etc and even though he knew the truth, he kept quiet and nodded solemnly. Shane cupped his chin and thought to himself ''Hmm I should easily be able to heal his veins by using a vast amount of refined vital energy from low-level profound beasts and herbs but I will probably have to damage his veins again so they can heal.'' Acting as if he hade to a difficult decision Shane furrowed his brows and spoke. "Brother Che has indeed had it rough but he has neither been consumed by the bitterness nor affected by the attitudes of others, and is in fact still a good person. Alright! I will do my best to help cure you, brother Che." Xiao Lie, who was still on edge from earlier, sat up straight in his chair, his pressure beginning to leak out slightly. This time he pointed at Shane and said in a deep voice. "Little Long, men can always talk big but there is a time and ce for arrogance." "Grandpa Lie, calm down. Do you sense any deceit in my words? Do I even have reason to lie to you? You can kill me with a fart if I am trying to deceive you in the end. I know what I have said is hard to believe but the world is a big ce full of many experts." ''Good Lord! If there was a bullshit skill I would have earned it there but still, that did sound rather profound hmm.'' Xiao Lie''s face went through several expressions before it settled on a mixture between hope and defeat. "Little Long, I may have been too hasty there but Che''er and Lingxi are my only family left. If you can really help Che''er to heal his profound veins, this old Lie will owe you a great debt!" ''Damn I actually kinda feel a bit like Aizen. All ording to keikaku.'' "Grandpa Lie, I naturally don''t want your debt. I took little Che as my brother because I liked him not because of any benefits. Let''s not talk about this anymore, else I won''t call you Grandpater. Just do a few things for me to prepare." Xiao Che, either not used to others kindness or sad for his grandpa, had some tears in his eyes as he cupped his fists and said "Thank you brother Long I will remember this for my whole life" Shaneughed and pped him on the shoulder saying. "Okay okay, so serious. You called me brother didn''t you, just let me take care of this" ''After all, I already took your wife.'' Shane then listed off a few things he would need over the next few days. This basically just included a secluded courtyard with a lot of space, some help ordering a cart of fruits and to allow him some privacy from any of the other n members save Xiao Lie''s family of three for a few days Shane knew he wouldn''t be able to avoid meeting those snakes forever but he hoped to establish himself a little in the Floating Cloud first lest they think they can bully him and he has to do some cleaning to avoid potential problemster. Not long after, Lingxi returned carrying a pestle and mortar, a sharp knife, a cloth bag, and arge standing incense burner. Shane immediately got to work and pulled out a few good-quality spirit lemongrass and gingers. Basically, they were herbs that are beneficial to one''s body, health, and cultivation but also taste good. Then he ground them up together in the pestle and mortar. He transferred the pulp to the cloth bag and sealed it before handing it to a ck-jawed Lingxi to put into the teapot for stewing. To him, this was rather normal as he would usually mix some of these herbs into his waterskin because frankly, it tasted awesome. Unless he wanted to spend hours pressing berries, the forest had no vored drinks! Shane took out a block of sandalwood and began to use his profound energy to cut a few small cubes of the fragrant heartwood. Pulling out some forest peaches, he pitted them and shredded them before grinding them in the pestle and mortar. Next came one of the mature, profound tobo nts that he quickly removed a couple ofrge leaves from. The tobo leaves were then levitated and dried out using his profound energy before being shredded and added to the pestle and mortar. Shane then ignited the small sandalwood blocks within the incense burner before transferring the tobo pulp to the dish set over the top. Soon after, a sweet, calming, and fragrant mist began to cover the courtyard as the inhabitants sipped the spirit grass tea and were all drawn into an involuntary meditation. Even thezy little Dusty came out of the tattoo and draped around Shane''s neck! A couple of hours passed, and as thest of the peach tobo burnt away, everyone opened their eyes, feeling very content. Even Shane, who basically never sat and cultivated, could feel the benefits of this tobo and after looking around the table, he was extremely excited! ''This will simply be a money-making machine!'' Xiao Che was totally in awe of this new brother of his, even he could feel that his body was stronger than before. Xiao Lie was in shock! He could feel some of his stress had alleviated and the barrier towards the Earth Profound realm had loosened considerably and this happened in just one afternoon! Lingxi had directly broken through to the [7th of Elementary Profound] and her little mouth was wide open for a time before she excitedly hovered around Xiao Che, telling him how she could now protect him the whole time. Shane flicked his wrists and put on an aggrieved tone saying "Aiya! Brother Che. I''m so jealous! I wish I had a little wife who would protect me." Xiao Lie burst into heartyughter while the other two just looked very embarrassed. "Ok little Long, I will show you to your courtyard now and you can tell me if there is anything you needter." "Thank you Grandpa Lie." Shane followed Xiao Lie out of the courtyard while patting Lingxi''s head on the way. He stopped by Xiao Che and whispered to him. "Brother Che, you bettere to my courtyard tomorrow at dawn to start your body training. You are too thin and no brother of mine will look like a woman." Xiao Che paled a little and his gaze shifted all around in panic before itnded on Lingxi, who smiled innocently at him. His eyes shed with a touch of resolve, before he gulped and nodded. ''Very good. Maybe I can make a man out of him yet. First to make him indebted to me and then push him onto Lingxi.'' Lingxi was very cute, in fact, she could even be said to be much more beautiful than any of those supermodels from his previous life. She was howeverpletely smitten with Xiao Che despite their apparent rtedness and Shane was not about to open a can ofori. She also wasn''t a fighter, in fact, she very much disliked battling and fighting in general. On the contrary, Shane loved battling, he loved training, and he loved the feeling of being strong, they were opposites. Two things that he had a great aversion to, were raising vases, and changing people''s personalities to suit his needs, and so, she was better off as a sister-inw. He remembered how worried Lingxi would be for Yun Che every time he went off to fight someone and knew it would never work. Shane would need to fight a lot in the years toe, not just here but also in the Realm of the Gods. He had already decided that he would make Jasmine his family, so the Star God Realm would be his enemy in the future and that alone was terrifying enough. The following nine days had Shane at the busiest he had been since the forest. On the first evening, he shredded hundreds of low-level profound herbs and mixed them into the soil he took from the forest along with a lot of blood from Elementary Profound beasts and his own profound energy. Later on that night, he disappeared like a shadow into the mountains behind the Xiao n and slew dozens of low-level profound beasts. When he came to a rtively t area, he took out a few of the sandalwood trees and started using his profound energy to cut them into nks while extracting the heartwood forter use. Shane had been in this world for nearly three months but the sheer size of mundane things here still awed him. Each tree was over a hundred meters tall and had hundreds of kilograms of heartwood, they were truly massive!. He only needed to use two trees and he had literal tonnes of perfectly symmetrical nks. When he returned to his courtyard, Shane had finally tested his bestowal ability. He devoured a few of the low-level profound beasts that were in in the back mountain and directly refined their energy into vital energy. When the energy was refined, he activated bestowal and found the energy wrapped itself up into tiny, crystal clear pills no bigger than a sunflower seed. With a slight mental effort, he was able to push these pills outwards, and then with a flick of his wrist, they appeared on his palm. The pills had no medicinal smell and gave off almost no fluctuations of power, in fact to the naked eye, they looked totally unremarkable. When Shane probed them with his intent, it was a different story altogether as he could feel thepressed and incredibly stable energy just under the surface. Satisfied with the test run, he did the same with the rest of the low-level beast corpses until he had around 50 pills. He then turned a few of the corpses above the [5th of Elementary Profound] into cultivation pills forter. Finally, he took out the only three corpses he had of thete True Profound realm and turned them into pills for Qingyue. The pills made for Qingyue were different from the others as they were milky white and the size of a marble, while giving off a very sweet scent simr to winter honeysuckle. Shane had a suspicion that it was because she was almost counted as someone on thepanions'' list and so the pills should be much more effective for her. He then got to work using the sandalwood nks to create rows of rectangr ''herb boxes'' for the Tobo nts. The boxes were then filled with the new, rich, profound soil mix. He then re-nted the tobo trees into the soil mix and repeated the process a few times. By the time Shane sensed Xiao Che heading over at dawn, he had only managed to rent less than a tenth of the tobo nts but he still had around 4 full ''herb boxes'' worth. He left a whole twenty nts out in the courtyard and returned inside to clean up and change. Shane then grabbed Xiao Che and shed over to the back mountain before shoving one of the vital pills into his mouth and helping to infuse the energy into his body rather than his veins. He then proceeded to drill Xiao Che in some army-style exercises he had seen at some point, only they were much, much crueler. This kid may look weak and actually be super weakpared to most people around, but he was still faster and stronger than those special forces vets on Earth! Even someone at the [1st of Elementary Profound] was a cheatpared to a normal human. When lunchtime rolled around, Shane cooked up some Elementary Profound beast meat and made Xiao Che eat it along with another pill, while he helped to disperse the energy again. After the drills, Shane had Xiao Che wearing weighted arm and leg bands made from his organic constructs as he performed Thai Chi katas in the courtyard. While in the corner, wafting fragrant smoke, was arge standing incense burner that Xiao Lie had someone deliver first thing on the first morning. Shane then spent the afternoons either ying chess with Xiao Lie while Lingxi yed with Dusty, nourishing the tobo nts with his profound energy or chatting and drinking more spiritual tea. Funny thing, chess was somethingpletely alien to these people but Xiao Lie had taken to it like a fish in water. By the third day, he had even managed to win a few games! After the first couple of days, Xiao Che had really grown on Shane and what originally started as a n to free Qingyue of her engagement, actually turned into a real friendship. This was especially so after hearing the answer given by Xiao Che when asked what he would do if/when his profound veins were fixed. Xiao Che simply answered that he wished to cultivate a little to alleviate the worries of his Grandfather and Lingxi, he didn''t want to be a formidable expert nor did he wish to revenge the bullying he suffered; he just wanted his loved ones to be happy. Before meeting Xiao Che, Shane had been subconsciously treating the boy as a potential enemy. Getting friendly with the kid and even healing him was just a means to an end for earning quest rewards. However, at that moment, Shane realized that not everything was so simple in life. He actually found himself admiring Xiao Che''s character a bit. The kid''s ideals were simr to Shane except the power needed was vastly different. He swore to himself that day, he would never let the madman Yun Che take over the body of his new friend. Shane''s attitude wasn''t the only thing to change these few days, Xiao Che''s body was much stronger than before and he had started to look a bit more manly and rugged. The effects of the vital pills were elerating his muscle growth, he was still slim but now he had some definition and at least he didn''t look like a girl anymore. Due to constant nourishment from Shane, the tobo nts had matured even further and the description had changed from: [Profound Tobo (V. Weak) - Can help to clear the mind and body when smoke is inhaled] to [Profound Tobo (Weak) - Will help to clear the mind and aid the Cultivation of those at Nascent Profound and below when smoke is inhaled] That was just 9 days of basic nourishment with his special soil and profound energy! Shane had over 400 more of those tobo nts in his storage that he was steadily moving into nters whenever he found time to construct more. He even had two whole trees that he had poured a lot of vital energy into and they looked like this [Profound Tobo (Average) - Will help to clear the mind and aid the Cultivation of those at True Profound and below when smoke is inhaled]. These nts had also drastically increased in sizepared to the others, being over 2m tall and each containing hundreds of huge leaves as well as many flowers. That was an interesting thought, because normally flowers meant seeds! Shane had also slipped some of the vital energy pills he made to Lingxi which helped her to smoothly breakthrough to the [8th of Elementary profound] this was to repay her for looking after Dusty while he had things to do. He had also managed to meet Qingyue twice in the dreamscape over thesest nine days. They spent some lovely times together embracing each other and talking about all the mundane things that each of them had been doing. Although she did seem very nervous about their uing meetingst time they spoke. He didn''t tell her that he was staying in the Xiao n or with her fiance he just told her he was very busy with preparing the products to show her father and with repeated trips to the mountains to hunt some low-level beasts. Shane also told her he had a surprise for her when he visited and to look forward to it. She wentpletely crimson and buried her head in his chest at that. She even started sniffing him and going off into her own little fantasies so he teased her mercilessly for being a pervert. ----------------------------------- Now, it was the afternoon of the day before the meeting with Qingyue and her father and everything was as ready as it could be. For the business proposal, Shane had prepared a variety of separate fruit pulp mixes of different strengths. They were all sealed nicely into sandalwood boxes of varying sizes, some for gifts and some for storage. In thest few days, he spent quite a bit of time on trial and error and had even managed to make a few cigars as a gift for Xia Hongyi. There was only one more thing to do and the foundations of his n would beplete. Shane watched as thest of thete Elementary Profound beast corpses turned into a cloud of white energy and entered into his body. With a flick of his wrist, 10 crystal clear pills, the size of jellybeans appeared on his open palm. No matter how many times he saw the phenomenon, it was still rather beautiful and terrifying. Feeling two presences approaching the courtyard, Shane clenched his fist. It was finally time to heal Xiao Che... ----------------------------------- A/N: Big thanks to JUST_LAUGH for spicing up the new book cover. It''s all sparkly! Chapter 19: Im Not a Doctor, But Ill Have a Go Chapter 19: I''m Not a Doctor, But I''ll Have a Go A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. So words like: Fuck, Shit, Bitch, Bastard, Cock, Bollocks are all nonos. Even words like Sex, Hell, and Damn are out too. Basically, if you want toment using forms of those words, you will need to get creative. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- Shane, Xiao Lie, and Xiao Che were currently standing next to the bed in Shane''s guest room while a worried and serious Xiao Lie was questioning Xiao Che for a final time. Lingxi had been instructed to meditate and stabilize her cultivation by Xiao Lie, so she thankfully wasn''t around. Dusty was also on guard in the courtyard with instructions to subdue anyone who tried to enter "Che''er, this will be extremely painful. Are you absolutely sure you want to go through with it?" Xiao Lie was helpless, he still didn''t fully trust Shane. If Shane was the one insisting, he could refuse but if his grandson was the one who wanted to go through with it, what could he say? "I am sure Grandfather." Xiao Che maintained eye contact and said with a small smile. Shane internally nodded and thought. ''That army-style drilling actually turned him into a bit of a man these past few days.'' "*Sigh* You Little Long, how sure are you that this will work?" Xiao Lie raised his hands in defeat then turned to Shane. "Grandpa Lie, if it were back when I first arrived I would say he would have a less than 50% chance. Now? After strengthening his body with me these 10 days, we are very likely to be sessful but only if you keep your concentration at all times!" Shane''s whole demeanor changedpletely and what emerged was a rarely seen and unfamiliar severity, as he spoke with a grim tone. "Brother Che, this will be very painful. Even with the painkiller you have taken, it will very likely be the worst pain you have ever experienced. You must endure it and stay consciouster on or I won''t call you brother anymore." Xiao Che hugged his grandfather and then gave Shane a reassuring look before lying down on the bed and saying "I won''t let you down brother Long" "En. Now Grandpa Lie, you must spread your profound energy throughout his entire profound vein system and fill it up but concentrate and keep it there until I am ready. Brother Che, do not resist him!" Xiao Lie did as he was told and after a few minutes, a slightly ufortable look and a few droplets of sweat appeared on Xiao Che''s face, signaling that the first step wasplete. Shane was absolutely not a doctor, not yet anyways and in actuality, his n was rather simple. The vital energy that Shane could refine was literally the purest type of energy avable and it was able topletely augment the body''s natural healing ability. When he was trying to keep the scar below his ribs as a reminder to himself, Shane had noticed that he had to make a conscious effort for it to remain. It was actually not an easy task, as the vital energy would always try to return the body to its natural state with no seque. Xiao Che wasn''t born with a crippled Profound Vein, his profound vein was crippled in the womb by the cold poison from Sun and Moon Divine Hall. His mother transferred the cold poison to his profound veins to save his life. What did this mean? The natural state of Xiao Che''s body was not with a crippled profound vein but with a fully working one. Shane just needed to injure the entire profound vein over and over and use arge amount of the vital energy for his body to heal it back to its original state. Then, naturally, Xiao Che would have a fully functioning vein again. Simple right? Shane secured Xiao Che''s wrists and ankles to the bed before giving him a grin and saying. "Good luck Brother Che, Whatever benefits you are able to gain from this will be up to you" Shane flicked a vital energy pill into Xiao Che''s open mouth and began using his intent to disperse the energy towards his body. "Xiao Lie. Begin!" "Arrrrgh!" A strangled cry immediately left Xiao Che''s mouth and his eyes turned bloodshot within seconds. He continually thrashed about against the restraints but Shane ced a palm on his chest to hold him down and sped up the dispersion of the vital energy. Xiao Che was experiencing heaven and hell at the same time. One moment, a terrible searing pain would stimte his entire nervous system at once while the next, a gentle, cooling, and rxing sensation could be felt healing and strengthening his whole body. After 15 minutes, the vital energy from the first pill had dissipated but Shane wasn''t happy at all. He frowned and spoke in a deepmanding voice. "More. Xiao Lie, Stop holding back! This isn''t fast enough and most of the pill is being wasted." Xiao Lie grit his teeth as hesitation and regret shed inside his eyes. He didn''t want to hurt his only grandson, it was much worse than harming himself, he couldn''t do this any- "G-g-grandpa, don''t hold back, I-I can take it!" A shaky but determined voice brought him out of his downward spiral. Xiao Lie nodded in defeat and Shane directly tossed 3 more vital energy pills into Xiao Che''s throat. Deciding to respect his grandson''s wishes, The old man no longer hesitated. The next wave of pain was much more intense but Xiao Che never once made another noise. Even when every muscle in his body was spasming in agony and the veins all over his body were standing taut against his skin. Shane couldn''t help but admire this little guy. For the sake of not worrying his family and making them happy, he could go so far. He and Shane were the same type of people. In this new life, Shane knew he would jump through fire and water without fear nor hesitation to help those he cared about. After three more hours, both Shane and Xiao Lie were almost exhausted of their profound energy and sweating buckets but there was a happy smile on both their faces. The procedure was over and it was a great sess! It turns out Xiao Che naturally had 16 profound entrances open, making him a rarely seen genius. That wasn''t all however, he had managed to stay conscious until the end and needless to say, he had reaped a handsome reward. Shane had guided the excess vital energy to his bones, muscles, and tendons making Xiao Che''s body strong and vigorous. His cultivation had even reached the [3rd of Elementary Profound] and due to all the physical training, was extremely stable. Shane untied the wrist and ankle restraints and left Xiao Che to sleep in the room. Outside, Xiao Lie was shaking with happiness and there were tears in his eyes as he turned to Shane. *DON* Shane shed and appeared tens of meters away in the courtyard. "Old man, what are you doing!?" He roared. Xiao Lie sighed and looked towards Shane. "Little Long you-" He stopped talking when Shane shed back over to his side and raised him up to his feet with a gust of gentle wind. He took a step forward and patted Xiao Lie''s shoulders, saying. "Don''t mention this anymore, will you. Where would I put my face if Brother Che saw you kneeling to me? How would I call you Grandpa Lie after that huh?" It was true that Shane needed the Xiao Che and the old man''s gratitude to be as high as possible towards him for his nt to work, but he did actually like the two of them and didn''t want Xiao Lie kneeling to him. Xiao Lie took a deep breath before he hugged Shane and said "This will always remain in my heart" "En, en. I don''t think it needs to be said, but you must never tell anyone what we did here today as neither myself nor brother Che will have a good life after. We will be chased and captured by those big sects." Shane then huddled close to Xiao Lie and used profound energy to transmit his voice saying. "Here''s how you''re going to exin it to the rest of the Xiao n. Myself and my master were passing nearby the city when I met Xiao Che. This is the key part. My master, a Medical Saint, took one look at Xiao Che and diagnosed him with badly damaged profound veins. Badly damaged, not crippled as was previously thought ok? Xiao Che gave us some information about a herb growing nearby. He and I became good brothers in a short time and so I pleaded with my master to help heal him. My master and I then left for some time and he concocted a rare healing tonic for Xiao Che. I was sent here with it to help brother Che and also to stay for a while to gain some experience while my master is exploring outside alone. Are we clear on all of that?" Xiao Lie nodded and raised an eyebrow saying. "You brat is very sly eh?" Shane just chuckled but said no more and they both stood on the porch in silence. For some time, they watched the sunlight slowly recede behind the horizon, each having their own thoughts. *Creaaak* A rather pale but happy-looking Xiao Che emerged from the door to the residence and walked over to Shane with unsteady steps. Just before he was also about to drop to his knees, Shane''s eyes shed and the kid was unceremoniously given a tight p! Shane sneered at him in mock contempt. "What is it with you people, kneeling all over the ce? Is it very fun? Isn''t there a saying that there is gold under a man''s knees? First the grandfather then the grandson, are you trying to embarrass me to death?" Xiao Che smiled innocently, nodded, and said "yes!" Shane just pped him again and said "You brat! Get out of my house, I want to sleep! I have things to do tomorrow. Scram!" before retreating back into his room with a smile on his face. Xiao Che watched his retreating back with gratitude evident in his gaze. The next morning, Shane stepped into Xiao Lie''s courtyard while everyone was merrily chatting and eating breakfast. Little Lingxi was ecstatic over Xiao Che''s healed veins and was hovering very close to him while spitting out words and questions like a cute little machine gun. Shane called out to get their attention. "Aiyo! What''s wrong with little Lingxi? Brother Che, is there a fire in your backyard?" Shane had dressed up good today and was wearing a pair of brown shoes, patio-colored linen pants, and a long-sleeve, button-up, blue-silk shirt with the top two buttons undone. He even had his loveable little emerald ne out in the open in the form of Dusty. Today was special, so he had also spent some time taming and sweeping back his wild brown and obsidian streaked hair and as he looked over to little Lingxi, he shed her a smile and winked at her yfully. She went totally red and her little mouth was left wide open mid-speech. "How is it? Am I handsome?" She nodded dumbly for a second before hiding behind her hands and saying "Uwu, don''t tease me brother Long!" Shane justughed and ruffled her hair saying "Such a cute little sister-inw" before turning to Xiao Che and Xiao Lie. "I only came to say, see yater. I''m going to meet my childhood friend and her father today to discuss the vored tobo business. Aiya, I can only hope she is now a big beauty like sister Lingxi. Maybe I can even get my own little wife in the future hehehe." The two youngsters just took his words for a joke and Xiao Che scratched his head while letting out an embarrassed chuckle. Xiao Lie, however, the wily old fox, could see the love and care in Shane''s eyes when he talked about his childhood friend. The old man was filled with nothing but gratitude for Shane and he had a contemtive look for a second before quickly hiding it. He secretly decided to find out which n or family Shane was visiting and even try to lend a hand if possible Everyone said their goodbyes and good lucks and Xiao Lie watched through one eye, as Shane called out to one of the guards of the Xiao n. They chatted for a bit and Shane asked for directions before flicking a coin to the man and departing. When Shane was finally out of sight, Xiao Lie approached the guards who saluted him and called out "5th Elder!" Xiao Lie waved his hand and unhurriedly asked which family Shane had needed directions to. The guard enthusiastically exined but Xiao Lie paled a little when he heard the answer. Shane was headed to the Xia n and there was only one miss in the Xia n, Xia QIngyue, the most talented and beautiful young woman in Floating Cloud City. She was also coincidentally Xiao Che''s fiance. Xiao Lie sighed saying, "Aiya, what a mess." before he headed back to his courtyard to talk to Xiao Che about the situation. ----------------------------------- Shane was grinning to himself as he strolled unhurriedly through the streets of Floating Cloud. Many eyes were drawn to him whether it be for his cultivation strength or his looks. A lot of shopkeepers, stall vendors, and even some youngdies called out to him as he passed but he just smiled and kept walking. Today was the day he would finally meet her in person. Along the way, he headed into a rather fancy-looking store and picked up a few good bottles of wine and some white Asian lilies for just a few purple profound coins. Next, he headed towards some kind of traditional herb and medicine shop. The shop was filled with lots of different low-level herbs and grasses and the medicinal smell was very thick and pure. Shane bought 4 high-quality jade boxes and 300 storage bottles forter use as well as cleaning the entire stock of low-level medicinal herbs out. The shopkeeper waved him off with a wide smile and a 10% discount, it was not every day he could make such a huge sale! Three of the jade boxes he bought were for thete True Profound ''pills'' he had refined for Qingyue and another one for her brother. He still had 3 of the ''pills'' made from the vital energy ofte Elementary Profound Beasts that were left over from healing Xiao Che and so he may as well earn some goodwill from his future brother-inw. ''Not to mention a potential Divine Master with those veins of his.'' After this shopping spree, Shane had almostpletely run out of purple coins, having no more than 50 left in his storage. Not that it mattered really, as he could leave the city for a day or two and bring enough Profound Beast corpses or cores back to be the richest man here, with ease. Whether the merchants would even have enough capital to buy from him at that time would be another thing altogether. Now it wasn''t as if he would be broke any time soon, as a lot of the herbs he found in the mountains could sell for many purple coins. Heck, the Spirit Profound Spear in his inventory could probably buy him half the city! He was just reluctant to sell his spoils for mere coins, however. Shopping done, Shane started walking thest few km of distance towards the Xia n. It should have taken just a handful of minutes but along the way, he encountered a minor problem that continually slowed him down... Sometimeter... ''Aiya, it''s really a crime being too handsome. This has to have been the tenth time in half an hour.'' Shanemented to himself after gently refusing another blushing youngdy that had approached him. ''I will definitely take a carriage of some kind next time! If only I didn''t have to stage this y for Xiao Lie to find out where I went.'''' Thank the Goddess, he could finally see the front gates of the Xia n in the distance. Shane''s heart sped up a little before he took a deep breath and nervously ran a shaking hand through his hair. Wishing he had a cigarette, Shane, who was now repeatedly smoothing the imaginary creases out of his shirt, restrained his aura, took a deep breath, and started to approach the gates. ''It''s showtime.'' Two Nascent Profound guards vigntly stepped in front of Shane as he arrived at the gate and one cupped his fists in greeting. "Good morning Senior, what business do you have with the Xia n?" "I have an appointment with Senior Xia today, My name is Shan Long." He spoke calmly and with a disarming smile. All the while, fighting off the urge to scratch his nose as Inwardly, he was rather confused and a little irritated. ''Am I THAT scary? Do I really look like a delinquent? Every guard I have met so far has looked at me as if I''m likely to start trouble the next second. Maybe they are jealous of how handsome I am? En, that must be it.'' Unknowingly, Shane was already starting to gather the attention of various people in Floating Cloud for his handsome looks, high cultivation, and wild, unrestrained aura. Some of the young women had even given him the title of ''Wild Prince''. The guards visibly rxed as they realized he wasn''t here to make trouble and one bowed before saying. "Pleasee with me Senior Long, Boss Xia is waiting in the pavilion in the garden." ----------------------------------- Under a recently erected pavilion in the garden of Xia manner, the scent of myriad flowers and fragrant tea wafted together in the gentle breeze. The surrounding trees and nts were beautifully groomed and the flowers bloomed in full color. Despite this almost ethereal sight, there was something or rather someone much more beautiful present. She was so gorgeous that even the sun and moon seemed to lose their splendor in her presence. Xia Qingyue was lost in thought while staring towards the entrance to the garden. Every few seconds, her eyes would nervously flicker between the stone path and the sky, attempting to estimate the time. Shane wasing today... Her Shane. A long time ago, Qingyue had decided that marrying Xiao Che was how she would pay the life-saving debt back to Xiao Ying. Yet now, she could never imagine being with someone other than Shane, even if the marriage were to be fake. The very second Qingyue found out that Shane was actually real all along, the frozen heart arts had been shattered. Ever since it happened, not a single day hade to pass where he didn''t dominate her thoughts. It really was like a dream.. He came for her when she most needed it, more than once. Now he wasing here for her again, and she was mostly filled with excitement, although a part of her was also terrified. Thinking about him inevitably led her thoughts to their meetings in the dreamscape and she ced a hand on her chest as her heart involuntarily started beating faster. She reminisced about the gentle way his fingers brushed through her hair while he held her in his embrace and his intoxicating scent that made her body feel warmer and her heart restless. She was nowpletely sure and without any doubt that she loved Shane. She knew he at least cared a lot for her but she wasn''t sure if he loved her too and that thought terrified her. Deep down, she really hoped he did and you might say the signs were obvious but she had no idea about love okay! Beyond a few ...questionable books she had read recently, she was totally clueless. All she ever did until now was cultivate! Simply put, Qingyue loved him and now that she had realized this, she decided that Shane would be the only man for her in this lifetime. She was no longer willing to marry into the Xiao n, debt or no debt. Strangely, she wasn''t worried. ''More importantly, if I am going to break up your marriage~'' Shane did say that to her and she believed he could do it. If anyone could do it then it would be someone who had managed to advance to the [1st of Spirit Porofund] in less than 3 months. [1st of Spirit Profound], now that was surprising for her when she met him a few days ago in the dreamscape and sensed that he had advanced again. Just how was he doing it? It was such a short time since his previous breakthrough too. His cultivation was now way higher than hers and she was starting to feel a bit of pressure. If Shane had the means to increase his cultivation so swiftly, there were bound to be a lot of other little vixens after him in the future and she needed to secure her ce at his side first! It didn''t help at all that he was extremely handsome and very unique looking. Compared to all the men she had ever seen before, he actually looked manly. Qingyue decided that she would make her move today, she just had no idea how to go about it. ''How should I do it? How can I get him alone without alerting my father?'' The hopeless girl still had no idea that her father had already guessed everything. Deception was in no way her forte and she hadn''t exactly been subtle either. "...gyue, ...ingyue, Qingyue!" She was snapped out of her thoughts and tilted her head to the side in confusion as she asked. "...hmm, what is it, father?" "I just received a message, he will be here any-" Qingyue sensed him ''prod'' her before her father even finished speaking and within an instant, she had exploded out with the full speed of a [6th of True Profound] expert. She even unleashed her movement technique before bolting towards that familiar aura. Xia Hongyi just smiled wryly, he was only an Elementary Profound practitioner, not even ssified as a cultivator, and for him, it was impossible to even see a shadow of her movements. "Seems that girl is already a lost cause, *sigh* what am I going to say to Uncle Lie" Qingyue didn''t stop, using graceful yet extremely fast steps, she cleared the path towards the main house in no time. Fully Locked on to his aura, she rounded the corner and there he stood... Time seemed to slow down as Shane met her gaze with his deep crimson eyes, one eyebrow cocked and a teasing grin stered all over his face. He had obviously felt her extremely rapid and almost desperate approach. Warmth exploded in her chest and her heartbeat went into a frenzy at the mere sight of the real him! With every step, her feelings were constantly erupting with even greater strength and the closer she got to him, the harder they were to contain. Step by step, Qingyue continued her approach. Without slowing her speed one single bit, she mmed a foot into the ground and with arms wide and a joyful smile on her perfect face,unched herself towards him from over a dozen meters away. Shane sidestepped a little as one of his hands snaked its way around his waist, while the other went under her arm and across her upper back. Then, with her feet still clear of the ground and eyes still locked onto his, he pulled her close and they spun together to counter the force. In the midst of it all, Shane continually drew her closer until their chests and foreheads pressed up against one another. Qingyue felt a tremor in her soul. It was a resonance of some sort, a calling, a longing even and in that moment, she knew she could never leave him in this lifetime. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her fingers tangled in his hair and she barely registered as his hand moved up to the back of her head. She could feel his warm breath on her lips and she could see the love in his deep crimson irises. As the spin came to a gentle stop, the world melted away and they stared deeply into each other''s eyes, both searching for their own answers. Apparently, he found what he was looking for as the grip of his hand on the back of her head tightened and all of a sudden, he was kissing her... Shane''s slightly rough lips pressed against her glossy full ones and fireworks exploded in her brain. For all of a second, Qingyue was frozen, it was as if a lightning bolt had crashed into her from above. That passed quickly, however, as her heart filled with joy and tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. She felt everything transmitted through the warmth of his lips. He loved her! Unwilling to be left behind, her fingers tightened their grip, pulling him in, she poured all of her feelings into their connection, and the kiss deepened... Chapter 20: Tongues and Talks Chapter 20: Tongues and Talks A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. Anyways, enjoy the chapter! ----------------------------------- After whispering for a servant to go ahead and respectfully motioning Shane to follow him, the guard set off towards the estate at a moderate pace. Shane marveled at the sights in front of him, hugewns and flowerbeds leading towards a massive stone building reminiscent of ancient Chinese architecture. The gardens here were not only immactely kept but also exceptionally vibrant, the fresh scent of nature invading his nostrils with every breath. Heading towards a tiled archway, Shane could see that the sprawling, single-story manor in front of him was obviously meticulously crafted through time, effort, and lots of money. It was massive and joined together with many different shapes yet it was still very aesthetically pleasing. The guard led him through the archway, into arge courtyard which joined onto a path made from very familiar-looking stone... Meanwhile, Shane''s excitement and restlessness grew with every step, his breathing became a little short with panic and his thoughts ran wild. ''Will she be here waiting for me? What if she doesn''t actually want to meet me? I am kind of like a creepy inte stalker if I think about it.'' Eventually, Shane groaned and shook his head, he couldn''t take it anymore. His profound sense was unleashed and extended as far as it could be pushed, in the direction the guard was heading. He froze, she was sitting right there at a table in that familiar garden, just as beautiful as ever. He could feel her chaotic aura as she anxiously stared towards the stone path. ''Seems like I wasn''t the only nervous one today, hehe.'' Nervousness, somehow blown away, Shane let out a breath he wasn''t aware of holding and adopted an easygoing grin. Seeing her, little miss ice cube, like that, how could he not mess with her a bit? Maybe he should use the wind to transfer a whisper or use his profound sense to tap her on the shoulder? Unfortunately for Shane, he picked up another presence nearing the only other upant of the table. It was the servant from earlier. She rushed toward the pavilion before whispering something into the ears of an average-looking and slightly overweight middle-aged man. Frowning a little that his fun would be ruined before he could act, Shane grinned and used his profound sense to ''prod'' Qingyue. The grin quickly turned to a helpless look as little did he expect that she would explode out with her entire cultivation base and even use her movement technique. Shane watched her approach with swift and graceful steps, his profound sense never leaving her ethereal figure. As she rounded the corner, he prepared his best teasing grin and couldn''t help but cock an eyebrow as her aura directly mmed into the guard and scared him into unconsciousness. She didn''t even slow down, in fact, she seemed to speed up as the distance between them receded by the second. Her Icy blue eyes were locked onto his crimson ones the whole time. Suddenly, Qingyue disyed a beautiful smile with just a touch of mischievousness and Shane swore the morning sun seemed less bright. She opened her arms wide and mmed her foot into the ground as her body catapulted towards him from over a dozen meters away. Perhaps only a few people in the whole Floating Cloud would be able to see her clearly now but Shane was definitely one of them. In fact, to Shane, she was traveling quite slowly, though that didn''t mean there was no force behind her. She couldn''t actually hurt him, but that didn''t mean that he wanted to be tackled to the floor by her, so he tapped into his profound energy for a second and stepped to the side. As she reached him, one of his arms snuck around Qingyue''s waist and the other went under her armpit and to her back as he twirled with her to counter the force. As they were spinning, he instinctively pulled her in close until both their chests and foreheads were touching while their eyes remained locked onto one another the entire time. Shane offered up a small apology to Disney for the giarism. Goddess knew this wouldn''t be thest time either. Once again, he couldn''t help but marvel at how soft and warm, yet also strangely cold, her body was and now that she was in his arms, he absolutely never wanted to let her go. Qingyue must have felt the same because her eyebrows arched a bit in joy and she looked at him questioningly with her eyes brimming with affection, as if imploring him to answer. Lost in those beautiful globes, he was vaguely aware of her arms around his neck and her fingers in his hair as his own hand raised to the back of her head. He could feel her sweet and cool breath on his lips and the heat inside him was rising towards a boiling point She wanted an answer from him? Then he would give her one she would never forget... He pulled her head forward, closing the small remaining distance, and immediately attached his lips to her lush plump ones. He poured all his love into the connection as an intense feeling of contentment nearly overwhelmed him. Qingyue froze for a second and small tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. Shane was almost scared to death and feared that he had ruined everything. Thankfully, as he was about to pull away, her fingers tightened their grip on his hair and she started to respond almost hungrily. At first, she tried moving her lips and although she clearly had no idea what she was supposed to be doing, it didn''t make the kiss in any way less amazing. Shane led her along, swapping between small pecks and massaging or nibbling her soft lips between his. He would also flick his tongue across them from time to time, asking for entry. Qingyue waspletely lost as she clumsily responded to Shane''s teasing. The poor little sheep had no idea that she had delivered herself right into the wolf''s den, not that she minded at all. The limited contact was no longer enough for Shane and he pulled her waist in tight as if trying to fuse them together. Qingyue let out a small gasp at the more intimate touch and that was all the opportunity Shane needed. His tongue darted its way inside her mouth and ran wild, running along her gums and trying to coax hers out to y. She seemed hesitant at first but after only a few seconds she began to lose herself in the kiss once again. It wasn''t long before her tongue was clumsily responding to the ravishing it received from Shane''s. Qingyue''s saliva was cool and tasted incredibly sweet and Shane relished the taste as the kiss deepened. Their tongues continued to dance together like two little fishes for at least a handful of minutes before finally parting. They were both gasping for breath. Qingyue''s face was flushed and her eyes had long turned hazy; she didn''t even notice the string of crystalline saliva that still connected their slightly swollen lips. Shane reached up a finger to wipe the saliva and then put it into his mouth. "Delicious," he said, in what he hoped was a ''husky'' voice. Qingyue shuddered a little and then blushed up to her ears, before hiding her head in his chest. He could still feel her take a few deep breaths in through her nose though... Outwardly Shane had a calm and gentle smile on his face but inwardly, he was celebrating and patting himself on the back. ''I just had the anime kiss moment with the saliva bridge! OMFGoddess you didn''t abandon me!'' ----------------------------------- *Cough* "Ahem. Shan Long, I presume?" A middle-aged man with a slight scowl on his face had rounded the corner and was now giving Shane the stink eye after seeing the position he and Qingyue were in. ''Shit shit shit! How long were we here? That must be Qingyue''s father! How long was he there?'' Shane berated himself for letting down his guard and slightly separated from Qingyue. Thankfully, they were within one of the manor''s courtyards and were mostly out of sight. He took a deep breath to calm himself and gave a small bow to the man that would hopefully be his father-inw. "Senior Xia. It is a pleasure to meet you." Xia Hongyi stroked his short beard while squinting at Shane and said. "Hmmm, when I heard from Yue''er that her friend had a business proposition for me, I must admit I wasn''t expecting the friendship to be this close." Qingyue seemed to be a little lost from the hostility her father was directing at her love but Shane just smiled and reached down to grasp her hand in his. Their fingers naturally intertwined and he gave her a reassuring squeeze before speaking. "Senior Xia, I love her and nobody in this world can take her away from me." Qingyue just hummed in delight when she heard that. "You are aware she is engaged aren''t you boy?" Xia Hongyi almost spat. Shane didn''t even flinch. "I am!" "You''re also aware of the sect she has joined?" ''She must have told him.'' Shanes crimson eyes narrowed a little as they took on a rather ruthless glint for a second before Qingyue noticed and pinched his waist. Shane didn''t even feel it but wouldn''t he be courting death if he didn''t at least pretend he was hurt? And so, he turned to Qingyue and screamed. "Aiya! Domestic abuse! Okay, sorry sorry." He then took a deep breath and released it as a sigh before turning back to Xia Hongyi "Yes I am aware. Worry not, for I have many ways to convince Frozen Cloud Immortal Pce to allow our rtionship. The benefits I can provide them with are also too many for them to refuse me and the Grand Mistress is a reasonable woman." Xia Hongyi had a rather incredulous look on his face for a second as his daughter also nodded her head seriously at Shane''s words. He could have sworn he saw a sh of annoyance in her otherwise lovestruck gaze at the boy''s mention of helping them too. ''Interesting'' "Okay, follow me, boy. Let''s have that chat." And with that, he turned his back and started walking back towards the garden. Qingyue went to follow after her father but before she made it two steps, she was held back by a tug on her hand. As she turned to Shane with her eyebrow raised in question, he ducked down and pecked her on the lips lightning-fast, rooting her to the spot. She gave him a look that said ''what are you doing?'' but Shane just smiled innocently and started whistling a tune while nonchntly dragging her along with him to the garden. When they rounded the corner, the familiar stone path, the flowers, the nts, the old Chinese willow, and the crystal clear pool all came into view. Shane took a deep breath through his nose, appreciating the floral scents before his vision locked onto the new edition. A beautifully crafted,rge, oval-shaped, wooden pavilion with a tiled roof had been erected near the water. Sitting at an intricately designed table, with his arms crossed and a neutral look on his face, was Xia Hongyi. ''How did he even get back here so fast?'' Shane and Qingyue made their way over to the table with smiling faces and Shane pulled a chair out for her like a perfect gentleman. He then sat down next to her and across from her father. Before the poor bloke could even say anything, Shane began. "I am sure you have quite a few questions for me, Senior Xia but I can tell that the most pressing one is about Qingyue''s engagement, am I correct?" Hongyi nodded and said sternly. "Yue''ers engagement to Xiao Che has been in ce since just after she was born and the marriage itself is almost fully organized. If we were to cancel it now, not only would myself and Xiao n lose face, that poor kid Xiao Che would be devastated. What n can you possibly have that would satisfy all parties?" Shane still looked nonchnt about the whole thing and instead asked a question. "Senior Xia, you are aware that Qingyue is a disciple of Frozen Cloud, yes? He nodded. "Are you even fully aware of what that means?" He nodded again but looked less sure. "Frozen Cloud Immortal Pce is 2nd ce of the 4 top sects within Blue Wind Empire. Their disciples, elders, and even leaders are all totallyprised of females. Rtionships between men and women are a taboo within their sect as they are well known for their purity. I am guessing that if not for her incredible talent and potential, they would have never agreed to allow Qingyue to marry." Xia Hongyi raised an eyebrow and said "What does that have to do with anythi-" His eyes went wide mid-sentence and he closed his mouth looking a bit regretful. "It looks like you understand it, senior Xia. Do you think for even a second that Xiao Che won''t be devastated when he finds out that his wife is only a wife in name and that not only can he never touch her, but she will also leave him soon after the marriage and never return. In fact, I think it would probably crush the poor boy and even if I wasn''tpletely in love with Qingyue or didn''t care about him, I wouldn''t have let this happen." Xia Hongyi''s breath quickened and all the color left his face, while Qingyue fidgeted ufortably in her seat as they both ruminated on what Shane had said before they both turned to him questioningly at the same time. Shane grimaced a little and scratched his nose awkwardly as he said. "Well it''s not like I was trying to make you guys feel bad or anything, it''s just, how do I put this? Xiao Che and I kind of became brothers" Qingyue was the first to react, her nails started digging into the back of his hand and she shouted "WHAT!?" in an extremely loud voice, making Dusty wriggle around his neck in an ufortable manner. Shane rubbed her palm with his thumb reassuringly. "Calm down dear, calm down. Let me exin. Can I let my profound beast out into the pond first? She is getting rather restless." Qingyue narrowed her eyes and Hongyi just gave him a small shrug so he decided to call her out. A green sh and the little Draconic Wyrm Dusty made her dazzling appearance. Shane scratched her under her chin and over her little horns and cooed "Who''s my good little girl, heeeeey?" Hongyi sported a shocked expression at how a ne turned into a dragon snake and Qingyue just mumbled "beautiful" although it was unclear whether Shane''s loving visage or Dusty herself were the cause. He shed a grin at Hongyi and said. "Now, try not to be too shocked at the next part, okay? Dusty, you see that pond over there? You can go y in it!" Dusty chirped a couple of times before licking Shane''s face and after he pointed at her, Qingyue''s face as well. She then shot off of Shane''s arm and with another sh, both her aura and size grew dramatically. Within just a second, she was at her full glorious length and another secondter, all 25m of her slid into the pond water without a trace. Qingyue''s eyes went even wider and it looked like her soul flew away. She looked so cute that Shane couldn''t help but pinch her cheeks! Consequently bringing her back down to earth a little. "W-w-what was that?" She managed to ask and Xia Hongyi just nodded dumbly along with her. "Hmmm, that''s Dusty. She is a Draconian Storm Wyrm that I raised from the egg of a Forest Sand Wyrm. She is especiallyzy and affectionate, though she seems to prefer that brat Lingxi to me" Shane grumbled thest bit under his breath, making Qingyue giggle. *p* "Anyway, where were we? Ah, that''s right. On my first day in Floating Cloud, I spotted a kid being bullied on the street. Now normally I wouldn''t have interfered but one of the trash young masters said something about how some other trash young master Yulong should marry Qingyue and so I got a little mad and wanted to send them packing. *Cough* Little did I realize, they would be so weak that they almost pissed themselves in fear and ran away while calling me senior, senior... Aaaanyway, after they left, this crippled kid that was being bullied got up and thanked me and I had a favorable impression of him for the way he acted even though life had been really unfair to him, so I dragged him along with me to see the city a bit. Eventually, I found out his name and realized who he was. Unfortunately, by that time it was toote. He had already invited me to stay in the Xiao n and so I had the thought to see whether I could do something for him in exchange for dropping the engagement." Shane paused to take a sip of the tea that Qingyue had poured for him and brushed his fingers lovingly along her cheek. "At first, I was thinking of him as someone who was part of a transaction and nothing more but after getting to know Grandpa Lie and Lingxi, I realized that they are all good people. That kid Xiao Che also has a simr type of mindset to me in that he will go to great lengths to see his loved ones safe and happy." Shane''s eyes glowed a little at that point which scared the shit out of Xia Hongyi. Qingyue however, just squeezed his hand while giving him a bright smile. "So anyways, after that, I got a rather crazy n in mind for a way to help my brother and allow there to be no hard feelings for canceling the engagement." Qingyue refilled Shane''s cup of tea and he hummed in thanks as he gulped it all down at once this time, giving Xia Hongyi a chance to ask a question of his own. "So what did you do?" Shane looked at him for a few seconds to allow for some suspense to build. "I healed his veins" Xia Hongyi and Qingyue who had both just taken a sip of their tea, choked on it at the same time. Hongyi especially looked at Shane like he was some sort of alien and asked in a quiet voice. "How?" "Well, the official story is that my Master, who is a Medical Saint, diagnosed Xiao Che''s profound veins as majorly damaged instead of crippled and concocted a medication for him which healed it and we should leave it at that." Shane said seriously. Qingyue didn''t know whether tough or cry. What Master? What Medical Saint? Shane had only been here for a couple of months, how could he have either. Hongyi himself wasn''t wet behind the ears and understood that asking further wouldn''t bring any benefits for either of them so he just gave Shane a solemn nod. "Senior Xia, I know you may not yet trust me but surely you trust Grandpa Lie? You can rest assured that Grandpa Lie was there with me when I healed Xiao Che''s veins and he even took part in the procedure" He looked visibly more relieved after Shane said that. "Now, even if that is not enough, I have two other trump cards at the ready as well. Before I can reveal them, I will need you to clear the garden apart from yourself and QIngyue." Hongyi waved off the servants and guards without another thought and leaned in to hear what Shane had to say. "My first card is Xiao Lie himself. Due to my efforts in preparing spirit tea and another product that I will reveal to you soon, the barrier that has been blocking his progression to Earth Profound all these years has loosened. If I can feel this, he surely can too and I intend to have him breakthrough within the next couple of months if not sooner. Now Xiao Lie is very selfless and so he probably cares little about progressing making this my weakest option. My second card is Lingxi herself. I helped her break through 2 small realms thesest 9 days and I also have a good impression of this hardworking little brat too. She is clearly infatuated with Xiao Che and I am sure that he holds her in a somewhat favorable light beyond what their familial rtionship would suggest" Hongyi put a hand up to stop Shane from continuing before he said. "They are blood-rted Aunt and Nephew though." Shane let out a sigh and said. "They actually aren''t rted at all. Xiao Lingxi is undoubtedly Xiao Lie''s daughter but Xiao Che is in no way rted to either of them." Hongyi gasped and whispered. "How can you be so sure?" Shane pointed at his nose and said. "I have an incredible sense of smell and their blood smells nothing alike" Hongyi himself couldn''t understand why he was trusting this boy before him but his eyes still gained a thoughtful look as he muttered. "That means" "Yes, that would mean that Xiao Lingxi and Xiao Che are free to be together... It also means that technically Xiao Che is not the son of Xiao Ying and so the debt of gratitude should not be paid to him. Well, that is only to be used if things turn for the worse, which they won''t." ''I could also spend a month grinding to Earth Profound and return to destroy the Xiao n if I was forced.'' Shane looked meaningfully at Qingyue. "I was hoping that when all this all works out, we could turn the original marriage into a double one." Qingyue blushed a little and smiled but didn''t refuse and instead rested her head on Shane''s shoulder. He shed a cheeky grin at Xia Hongyi and said. "So, What do you think Father-in-Law?" Chapter 21: Better Gifts than your Birthday Chapter 21: Better Gifts than your Birthday A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. Anyways, enjoy the chapter! ----------------------------------- Xia Hongyi looked to be in deep thought. One of his arms sat across his chest, propping up the other that was methodically stroking his short beard. All of a sudden, it was as if the previous stern aura ceased to exist and what reced it was a naturally calm and gentle demeanor. He cracked a smile and said. "Okay, good good good. Yue''er likes you and all I want is for my family to be happy. If you can indeed get Xiao Che to agree then great. If not, we can always find another way." Both Shane and Qingyue werepletely taken aback by the change in attitude and it must have shown on their faces because Xia Hongyi immediately teased them, with a smirk and a wave of his hand. "What!? Who says I can''t act like a stern father judging his would-be son-inw? Little Long, you must already know, but Yu''er is terrible at any form of deception That and she basically talked about you every day, non-stop, for thest month. I would have to be an idiot not to know something was going on." Shane looked to his left, just in time to see Qingyue, who was red all the way up to the tips of her ears; burying her face in her hands and letting out a small devastated whine. Xia Hongyi however was merciless and continued on with mirth evident in his voice. "You better have some good stuff for me after this, brat. Yue''er has been talking you up as well and I must say it will have to be something very good to impress me." "Father!" She half screamed. "Hehehe. Rx, Yue''er. I''m only joking with him. Aiya, not even married and already siding with her husband." He sent a helpless smile towards her before turning to Shane. Shane adopted a thinking pose for a moment. "Well, I did bring gifts for the first meeting but that should probably wait until after I have exined the product and what uses it has. Uncle Xia, it would be for the best if you called your son over as well as he will benefit from this too." As soon as Shane finished talking, Xia Hongyi rang a small silver bell that came from ...somewhere, and a servant rushed over. After exchanging a few words, the servant disappeared towards another area of the house and returned only 10 minutester. During these 10 minutes, Xia Hongyi felt like crying but he had no tears. Little did he expect, Shane and Qingyue would so shamelessly flirt with each other the entire time. Qingyue had immediately rested her head back against Shane''s chest while his fingers brushed through her hair. Then a tter of freshly cut fruits and a pot of spirit tea appeared in front of them on the table. Shane would then feed her the fruits from time to time and if he wasn''t doing that, he would be sharing his tea with her, from the same cup no less! At one point, she even started to act spoiled and requested different fruits to be fed with! Poor Hongyi wanted to pull out his hair but couldn''t even bring himself to say anything as Qingyue had a rare look of bliss on her face the entire time. Shane really did pamper her these past 10 minutes but when he felt the warmth against his chest, smelt the scent of Winter Honeysuckle on her hair, and saw Qingyue smiling brightly while acting spoiled, all he thought was. ''Heh. Worth It!'' ----------------------------------- "Oh thank God! Finally, he''s here!" Shane and QIngyue were brought out of their own little world by Hongyi''s exmation. "Tsk" Qingyue clicked her tongue as the te of fruits vanished and he wiped her mouth with a napkin before propping her up in her chair again. Shane couldn''t help but chuckle at her pout and as he looked towards the house, he saw an absolute giant of a man briskly walking in their direction, one could even faintly feel the ground tremble with each step taken. Reading about him was one thing but seeing him in the flesh was a different beast altogether. Xia Yuanba was over two meters tall and had muscles on top of muscles, his muscles even had a dark tan color to them that would make bodybuilders back on earth jealous. Shane was over 1.9m and pretty ripped himself but this guy took the cake. ''He''s gotta weigh like 200kg, and it''s all muscle!'' "Awhahaha, Father, Big Sis!" He greeted them happily and loudly from quite a distance away. When the giant reached the table, Qingyue waved a hand towards him and said, "This is my little brother Yuanba" Shane raised an eyebrow and looked at Qingyue, then at Yuanba, then at Hongyi, then back to Qingyue, then back to Yuanba, and then finally he looked thoughtfully at Qingyue again. After several seconds he grinned and said "En you have the same nose." Xia Hongyi burst outughing and Qingyue giggled behind her hand like some sort of nobledy. Yuanba just scratched his head and looked a little lost but not for long as Shane swiftly got up from his chair and approached him with an outstretched hand. "Hi Yuanba. I''m Shan Long but you can call me Shane." Yunanba looked a little confused still but epted the hand as Shane dragged him into a half hug and patted his shoulder while secretly inspecting his veins. ''Holy Shit! They are like 3 times wider than normal veins. How interesting.'' "Damn son! You''re solid as a rock! What do they even feed you!?" Shane said while squeezing his shoulder. Yuanba chuckled bashfully and rubbed the back of his head again before moving to sit next to his father at the table. Shane didn''t sit down but instead, he pulled out arge standing incense burner and lots of small sandalwood boxes from his storage before cing them onto the table. He took a deep breath and started to spin his story. *Ahem* "Thest few months, I have been in the Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range exploring and fighting profound beasts for training. Around 300km into the area, I discovered a weak profound nt that I have never heard of before. After some trial and error, I finally found the use for this nt. When burnt, it releases a mist-like smoke that, when inhaled, can help to rx a cultivator''s mind. For low-level cultivators, inhaling the smoke can even loosen the boundary between realms and even allow them to break through directly. I call it profound tobo!" Shane opened his arms wide at thest words and a ''herb box'' with 10, standard, 1.5m tall profound tobo nts appeared behind him Xia Hongyi, who had the sharp mind of a merchant, was the first to catch onto this and he quickly asked. "Do you have more than what you have shown here?" Shane waved his hand and the nter disappeared. "But of course. I have over 400 separate fully grown nts and another 200 juveniles still. Only half of them have been transferred to a wooden ''herb box'' as of now, however. Unfortunately, the effects of standard profound tobo vapor on a person''s cultivation will stop after they reach the peak of Elementary Profound Realm. I will name this strain alpha so that it is easier to refer to." Letting his words sink in for a moment, Shane waved his hand again, as another ''herb box'' appeared behind him, drawing everyone''s eyes. These tobo nts looked slightly taller but also more vibrant than the ones before, they even hadrger leaves. "Thest couple of months, I have been developing a way to enhance the profound tobo, with varying degrees of sess. The ''herb box'' behind me contains 10 fully grown profound tobo nts that can help to increase the cultivation of anyone in the Nascent Realm and below. The effect of the calming of the mind is also multiplied by a foldpared to the alpha strain." Xia Hongyi stood up in a hurry and asked. "Little Long, how long do they take to grow and how much do you need to burn for it to be effective?" Shane casually plucked a couple ofrge leaves from one of the nts before The ''herb box'' disappeared again "Hmmm. If you were to grow them normally I would expect the cycle to take a maximum of 4 months from seed to fully grown for the alpha strain. As for the others, I have no idea as I used a special method to grow them quickly in thesest 9 days." Xia Hongyi picked up on Shane''s tell and licked his suddenly dry lips. In a somewhat shaky voice, he asked. "O-other s-strains? J-just how many o-other strains do you have L-little Long?" Shane grinned. "As expected of a merchant, you are very sharp. I have both the beta strain which you have just seen and a gamma strain which as of now, is my absolute masterpiece!." With a far more dramatic wave, 2rge square pots with each housing a monstrous 2.5m tall tobo tree appeared on either side of Shane, and instantly the surrounding air felt as if it were being purified. Qingyue, who had a thin smile at Shane''s theatrics until now, suddenly had her beautiful big eyes wide open as she faintly muttered. "How is this possible? Just being next to it is slightly increasing my cultivation." "Well my dear Qingyue, not everyone is as much of a heaven-defying genius as you are but yes you had guessed it right." She blushed up a storm while Shane left a slight pause for added build-up. "The mist-like smoke made from burning this nt can enhance the cultivation of anyone at True Profound or below and yes they do also contain hundreds of flowers each... Although I am unsure of how long they would take to growpletely from seed to tree, we at least have hope that the nt is still fertile and can be cultivated separately in the future." His eyes gained a look of excitement as he continued. "Of course, the biggest benefit of all of these nts is that even at the Spirit Profound Peak, Xiao Lie had felt the rxing benefit of calming the mind and that was just from an alpha strain leaf. That means that even cultivators of a higher realm will be interested in purchasing this product even if it is only for recreation." Allowing those words to settle in for a moment, Shane then turned to Xia Hongyi with a knowing look and the man said. "What a heaven-defying thing. Little Long, what part do you want my side to y in all of this? What exactly do you want from me?" "Apart from your daughter" Shane mumbled, causing the little miss next to him to do her best to pinch all the skin on his waist off. He then raised his fingers one by one, counting points, not forgetting to sh her a teasing grin as he included Qingyue as one of them. "What I want is your expertise, yourwork of contacts, your advice, and your time! For this, I am willing to offer you 50%! 50% of the overall profits for you to manage everything!" Xia Hongyi went to speak but Shane held up a hand to stop him. He moved to the edge of the table, pulled out a pestle & mortar, and sat down as the two leaves he recently plucked hovered in front of him and dried out within seconds. He shredded the leaves and took out some of his favorite forest peaches before preparing them as well. Seemingly focused on the task at hand, he spoke again after only a few seconds, surprising everyone. "I am many things. A cultivator, a fighter, an explorer, and a researcher but I am neither a merchant nor a businessman. Yet still, I am fully aware of just how valuable the thing that I hold in my hand is. If the nts can be repeatedly cultivated without my help, the potential for profit is... immeasurable. However, to be frank with you, I just don''t care. All I wish for is to live an unfettered life while making the ones I love happy. If you really must put a reason to it, then take it as a dowry." ''Profound Bullshitting or Profound Acting skill is surely gonna appear at some point. How can I tell my father-inw the truth that I''m just toozy to do it myself and would rather be hugging his daughter''s soft body. Isn''t that courting death?'''' Despite the thoughts in his head, Shane did say thest part firmly and seriously while also gazing lovingly at Qingyue. He wasn''t joking, after all, She was his. The girl herself had some small tears in the corner of her eyes and gazed lovingly back. Yuanba was confused, wasn''t Xiao Che going to be his brother-inw? Who the hell was this guy!? "I''m sure I don''t need to say how dangerous for you this could be if you don''t have the right support. For this reason, I will currently only be cultivating the alpha and a small number of beta nts for selling. The gamma strain will only be for family and friends we can trust until we either have our own hired experts or the backing of a muchrger force to protect both yourself and the nts. I did hear that the ck Moon Merchant Guild is trustworthy but they wouldn''t pay us any mind unless we knew someone who had status with them." Shane knew that Hongyi had a connection to that old man, Zi Ji, somehow and wanted to nudge him in the right direction. The Pestle & Mortar was now finally full of thepleted peach tobo pulp and Shane put it aside before exining. "That is how easy it is to mix up a fruit pulp ready for burning. I decided to call it Spirit Incense as tobo pulp just sounds awful... Don''t you think Spirit Incense sounds very mysterious? I guess that the drying process for the leaves and fruit would usually take much longer unless performed by a cultivator but you get the idea..." "...Shane... most cultivators cannot casually control profound energy to perform external actions like that." Qingyue interjected with a bitter smile and a shake of her head. Heughed awkwardly and scratched his nose. "Welp. In that case, I guess drying them in the sun would normally take a few days..." ''No wonder I found it really difficult to control profound energy externally when my cultivation was lower.'' "Why do you mix it with the fruit?" Hongyi asked. Shane grabbed his chin and said. "Hmmm. Well, apart from increasing the time taken for the mixture to burn and therefore increasing the time spent absorbing the benefits, due to the moisture in the fruit, it also fills a room or courtyard with the misty smoke more easily. The tobo leaves on their own also tend to burn extremely quickly and most cultivators cannot absorb profound energy at that speed, so it would be wasted. Using fruit in the mix also means that less of the tobo leaves are used, effectively saving costs and maximizing profits." After thosest words were spoken, both Shane and Hongyi shared a wicked grin. As if he just remembered something incredibly important, Shane''s gestures became more pronounced. "Oh, and wouldn''t it be boring if all it did was increase your cultivation yet it smelt like burnt grass? With fruit added, it smells amazing!" Sadly nobody shared his enthusiasm and instead looked at him like he was some sort of strange animal, even Yuanba... "*Cough* Aaaaanywaay, I brought gifts!" Shane coughed awkwardly and changed the subject as a pile of things appeared around him. "There are 3 small, portable incense/oil burners here and 3 boxes of vored Spirit Incense for each of you... Uncle Xia, you have peach, lemon, and ginger from the alpha strain. Yuanba, you have peach, orange, and apple from the beta strain. Last but not least for my little Qingyue, you have peach, strawberry, and ckberry from the gamma strain." Now each of the boxes should have enough pulp for ten, 2 hour-long burns." Everyone was looking at him a little weirdly, and he knew why. He coughed in embarrassment and then continued as if nothing happened "*Cough* I like the forest peaches the most." Shane then handed them each a bag of small, pre-cut heartwood blocks with shining eyes. "Use this in the bottom of the incense burner rather than coal and it will smell much better" After handing out all the needed items he turned to Yuanba and fished out a small jade case. "These are pills suitable for the Elementary Profound Realm. Along with the tobo, you should be able to progress for 1 or 2 small realms." Yuanba was a little taken aback. Howe he was getting gifts? Never one to question things too much, he just epted the box with a smile in the end. "Thank you, Shane!" Next was Xia Hongyi. Shane withdrew a few of the expensive wine bottles he had brought earlier along with the case of cigars and 200kg of the Sandalwood Heartwood. "Uncle Xia, you are not a cultivator so I decided to gift you some of the finest heartwood I have along with some good wine and these ''cigars''. These ''cigars'' are made from the beta strain of nts and are to be ignited at one end and inhaled directly. You can offer them to potential partners or friends or keep them for yourself." Xia Hongyi was stunned speechless at the pile of things he had received, just the heartwood alone was a priceless treasure! "Little Long, this is too muc-" He looked up mid-sentence to see Shane was already approaching Qingyue. His gaze had turned immeasurably soft and he raised a hand to brush his fingers across her cheek. It was unknown when, but arge bouquet of beautiful white Asian Lilies had appeared in his other hand. She leaned into his touch with eyes squinted in happiness. Today was like a dream to her. Not only was Shane a strong cultivator with magical means, but he was also very resourceful and had treated her family so well. "Qingyue, everything I have is already yours" Her eyebrows arched even more as a dazzling smile adorned her beautiful face and she hummed at his words although a small seed of disappointment did start to invade her heart. Shane paused for a few moments before pinching her nose a little while a yful grin slowly spread across his face. "Still, I did specially prepare you a few little things." He then took out the Chinese Hanfu dress and the white pearl hairpins he brought in Cyan Forest Town. Qingyue''s hands shot out at an unbelievable speed and grabbed onto the dress with stars in her eyes "...beautiful" Shane smiled wryly as Qingyue ignored himpletely and inspected the dress all over like it was some priceless treasure. ''Women love beautiful clothes no matter the world eh. Thank goddess they don''t have those big malls over here!'' He scratched his nose and looked around, his eyes scanning the other upants for any possible help, only to see Xia Hongyi shoot him a knowing look with a shit-eating grin attached. *Ahem* Shane cleared his throat awkwardly to bring Qingyue out of her daydream and she shot him an annoyed look, only to realize where she was and be flustered. "Qingyue, the dress is very nice but I have some better things to show you." He then pulled out the three jade boxes containing the pills he made especially for her. "These pills are suitable for cultivators in thete True Profound Realm but in this case, they are refined especially for you. All together they should help you to advance at least 3 small realms without affecting your foundations in any way." Everyone''s eyes went wide. "Such a heaven-defying pill!" "Wow, big brother Long is amazing!" Shane chuckled, it seemed as if the peanut gallery was out in full force today. Qingyue got up from her chair, eyes beginning to water, and buried herself into Shane''s chest. "Thank you." She whispered. He wrapped his arms around her and whispered into her ear. "I know what you want the most is strength and I will always do my best to help you with whatever you need. After all, that is what a family does." "En" Unfortunately, those words didn''t help turn off the waterworks and his shirt quickly became wet with tears. Hongyi and Yuanba pretended to be very interested in their new gifts, the floor, the garden, and even the table until a few minutester when she shyly removed her head from Shane''s chest and returned to her seat. He punched his palm for emphasis and said. "Okay, gifts out of the way. I want to hammer out a few details before you test the pulp I just mixed not long ago." Shane then exined to Hongyi how he wanted to first open up a teahouse in Floating Cloud filled with private rooms for burning the Spirit Incense. He showed all of the vors he had previously mixed with the addition of raspberry and mint. Shane thought that having a building with two levels and some of Hongyi''s trusted staff to work there would be fine for now. Hongyi agreed that there was no need to start too ambitious. The ground floor would have many small rooms and the top floor would have a workshop area as well as a storeroom and a few VIP rooms for the customers who wanted the much more expensive beta strain tobo. Shane left all the details of staff and pricing to Hongyi and also reassured the man that he would personally be there most of the time. They then decided that the opening would be in two months. This would give Shane enough time to sort the issues of the engagement and to prepare arge stock of tobo pulp. Shane''s voice turned serious towards the end and he said grimly. "Uncle Xia. Only our most trusted people can be in charge of something this important. I will leave all of the details to you but I have the mind to train Xiao Che and Lingxi until the middle stages of Nascent Profound in these two months. Neither of them are really suited for the tough life of a cultivator but they both have the talent to be strong enough to act as deterrents. After that, they can manage the teahouse for us and I will give them 10% of the profits of the teahouse in Floating Cloud along with regr cultivation resources." Xia Hongyi agreed with him and they shook hands ending the business for today. Shane transferred the recently made pulp into therge standing incense burner and took some blocks of heartwood from his storage, but before lighting it he said. "Uncle Xia, Yuanba. This will burn for around two hours and you will both be so rxed that you will enter a meditative state while inhaling it for the first time. I am going to help Qingyue absorb the pills and burn a stronger one with her as both of our cultivations are too high to gain any benefits from the beta strain. Dusty!" *Whoosh* *Ssh* Dusty erupted from within the pool in all her glory and everyone froze for a second until she was enveloped in a sh of green light and appeared on Shane''s arm while chirping and licking him. "W-w-what was that!?" Yuanba shouted, half terrified and half excited. Shane scratched her little horns and said. "This is the cutest little dragon snake in the whole world, Dusty. She will watch over you two during the next couple of hours." Qingyue''s heart felt extremely warm once again hearing his words and unable to contain her emotions, she grabbed his hand and held it tight. Shane casually brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it, causing her to swoon and Hongyi to roll his eyes. He then lit the heartwood and made sure it was burning properly before Qingyue grabbed his hand again and started dragging him towards the manor. Leaving him barely a second to store away her gifts. He knew that she had been very patient thesest few weeks and now she wanted answers but he first needed to think hard about how much to tell her. ''I will just go with the flow and based on how extreme her reactions are, I will tell her more.'' ----------------------------------- A/N: I will be busy for most of tomorrow helping my friend with things for his wedding. Uggggh I know, but a promise made while intoxicated, is still a promise. That means that I probably won''t be able to post a chapter. I will make it up to you guys with my first attempt at a lemon on the day after, however. Chapter 22: A Deep Connection (R-18) Chapter 22: A Deep Connection (R-18) A/N: Wow. Just wow. It''s honestly still hard for me to ept, but we hit the top spot for Power stonesst week! That''s an amazing achievement, and I couldn''t have done it without you guys! Words can''t express how thankful I am for all the continued support you guys have given me and my fanfic. It really is great motivation for writing, so thank you again. 2.3k Power stones! Without a doubt, it''s a big number but if I keep pushing out content and you guys keep spamming stones, maybe we can beat those numbers again this week. Anyways, this is my first attempt at a lemon, let''s hope it isn''t too bad... Without further ado, enjoy the chapter! ----------------------------------- Hands held tightly together and fingers intertwined, Qingyue silently led Shane through the scenic courtyards and corridors of the Xia Manor. Deep in thought, he had been using his thumb to slowly draw circles on the girl''s palm and if one looked closely, they would see a small flush around her neck. Shane himself didn''t notice as he was having a mental battle with himself about how much to tell Qingyue today. Not because he wanted to keep things from her, no, he just didn''t want to overload her with information and spoil their first meeting by making her worry. He naturally drew closer to the girl, his subconscious desire to protect her edging him along even while lost in his thoughts. After almost ten minutes of walking, the two of them were now walking closer and much more intimately with one another. Their arms were wrapped around each other''s waists and their bodies were naturally pressed tightly together. Shane''s fingertips were now casually running across the side of her hips, up and down, even drawing slow circles from time to time. She felt as if they were leaving burning trails in their wake. Qingyue was beginning to feel hot all over. The intoxicating presence, warmth, and aroma of Shane along with his gentle caresses, were all causing her thoughts to run wild. From time to time she would nce at his serious, thinking face and couldn''t stop her eyes from wandering to his lips. Would he kiss her again? Remembering the feeling of his lips on hers and his tongue in her mouth... she couldn''t help but shudder a little and bite her lower lip, trying to recreate the sensation. If the kiss felt so amazing, how would it feel if he were to do more... Qingyue couldn''t help but blush at the thought but a voice in her head was pushing her to find out. ''I want him to be mine. No, he will be mine.'' Determination surfaced in her thoughts and gaze as she subconsciously leaned further into his body, imagining how she would go on the attack with only the very basic knowledge she had. Snapping out of it when she realised they had reached their destination and quickly checking to make sure Shane hadn''t noticed, Qingyue let out a breath in relief. "This is Qingyue''s room. Pleasee inside~" she said breathily and with a hot sigh. Her eyes went wide for a second. That came out sounding much more alluring than she had originally nned it to... Shane came back to reality and shuddered, that sexy voice of hers sent shivers down his spine, making him feel extremely aroused. She caught him off guard there. Now that wouldn''t do at all, he couldn''t let himself be teased by her and give nothing in return. For a small bit of payback, he drew her body closer to his as she dragged him into the room and ced his mouth next to her ear. *Puff* "My dear Qingyue, are you trying to seduce me?" he blew a breath of warm air into her ear and asked in a husky voice before nibbling on the tip of it. Qingyue shivered and whatever control she had been trying to maintain crumbled. *m* She kicked the door closed and pushed him up against it. Her arms immediately locked around his neck as she went onto her tiptoes and crashed her lips into his. Although still inexperienced, she was obviously a fast learner and it wasn''t long before their lips opened and her soft and cool little tongue snaked its way into his mouth. From there, the kiss turned into another battle of tongues. With their mouths still locked together, Shane hoisted her legs up into the air and she let out a slight moan as her legs wrapped around his waist. Qingyue tightened the grip around his neck, naturally pressing their bodies even closer together and if anything it only drove them further down the path of no return. Time passed as they enjoyed each other''s mouths without either of them caring for how long it had been. Eventually, Shane''s hands, not content with simply holding her up, made their way to her perky behind and itpletely evoked the beast in him. It wasrge and soft like a marshmallow but also firm and toned. Like the rest of her, it was absolute perfection. Shane couldn''t hold himself back, he started skillfully squeezing and massaging Qingyue''s ass to his heart''s content. She shut her eyes tight and moaned into his mouth, their kiss growing sloppier by the second. Shane could feel his own body rapidly heating up and he naturally had a reaction to the intoxicating vour of her kiss and the softness surrounding him. The real Little Long made his appearance and rose to attention, pressing up in between his and Qingyue''s bodies. Eventually, he staggered over to the bed and fell back onto it, taking Qingyue with him and breaking the kiss in the process. She was nowid atop him, hair dishevelled and eyes clouded with lust as she subconsciously rocked herself against the hot and hard object pushing against herhers. The heat inside Shane rose almost to the boiling point as his hands held her hips and helped to move her back and forth. Their breathing became increasingly rough and he could feel his crotch bing wetter as the time went on. Their lips and tongues met again and for a while, they both lost themselves in passion. Shane wanted her. He had never quite wanted anything more in his life. He was sure that Qingyue would never deny him if he were to take her here and now but there just wasn''t enough time to make it as special as she deserved. With great difficulty, he separated his lips from hers and sat up. She continued to rub her crotch against his erection and her eyebrows furrowed as her lips searched for his. He very nearly lost control again but managed to hold it together and kissed her on the forehead. "Qingyue, I really really don''t want to, but we need to stop here. A lot of time has already passed and we have important things to talk about." He said to her in a soft and gentle, but also firm tone. She looked up at him with a flushed face and no small amount of me in her eyes as she nodded but didn''t stop slowly rocking her hips back and forth. Her face did however turnpletely crimson when she realized just how wet her robes were down there and she started squirming to get out of his embrace. Before she could escape, Shane suggested. "Why don''t you change into something morefortable like a nightgown and I will first remove the negative effects of your cultivation method, okay?" She nodded and pecked him on the lips, making him grin like an idiot despite what they were just doing, before getting up and swiftly heading towards a paper screen at the side of the room. Hepletely missed the mischievous and determined glint in her eye as she walked away, however. When Qingyue was behind the screen, all Shane could hear was her still slightly rough breathing and the rustling of fabric until she called out to him a momentter. "I won''t ask how you know about the side effects but, how will you remove them? Not even my master has the ability to stop the cold pains with her cultivation being at the Sky profound Realm." As the rustling sounds continued, Shane gathered his thoughts and took out the small burner from his storage. He ced it on the desk in the corner of the room and added some Strawberry Spirit Incense made with the gamma strain before lighting it up. "Qingyue, concentrate and firm your mind so as not to slip into a meditative state." He said in a deep voice before the mist began to spread. Taking a deep breath in through his nose and appreciating the vour for a moment, Shane began to exin. "Every person has a total of 54 profound entrances in their body but everyone has a different number of naturally opened ones. The number of naturally opened profound entrances normally determines a person''s ''talent'' and speed of progression through realms." The sound of clothing moving around paused and he heard Qingyue''s breath catch as the mist finally reached her, before she hummed in contentment and resumed changing, albeit at a much slower pace. Shane was impressed by her mental fortitude and ability to resist the desire to meditate, despite it being her first time experiencing it, praising himself as if it were his own achievement. ''Heh, my little wife is amazing.'' Taking another deep breath, he continued. "You have 21 naturally opened profound entrances, making you a genius above geniuses anywhere on this continent. However, the art you are currently practising is in fact, a very watered-down version of a much more primal and powerful art that requires a certain bloodline talent to use. Due to this limitation, ice is building up inside your closed entrances and it will only get worse, the longer you practice the art. Not only is it incredibly painful, but it will also reduce your lifespan by half unless you receive regr treatment from me." Qingyue''s movements slowed and her eyes widened in disbelief. If Shane wasn''t here she would lose half her lifespan? It was easy to put two and two together, he hade here to help relieve her pain. The warmth in her chest exploded once again as her love for him grew exponentially. Would there ever be anyone else in this world who would care for her in such a way? The determination from before returned in full force and mixedpletely with her lingering lust to form a single overwhelming desire. She had to make him hers. Unaware of Qingyue''s thoughts, Shane shook his head and continued. *Tsk tsk tsk* "All of these disadvantages in exchange for what? Slightly faster cultivation. I can only imagine how much pain the Grand Mistress, Mistress, and even your Master must have to endure on a daily basis with how long they have been practising the arts." He sneered. "There is a simple way to remove this limitation and the pain, although currently, I cannot open up profound entrances, I am working on it and should be able to do it within a few months at most. So, my dear, you need not worry" Qingyue popped her head out and raised an eyebrow, gave him a questioning look, as she obviously detected no lies in what he said. How could he be so sure? He couldn''t tell her about the system and quests, she might think he was crazy, so he just gave her a wry smile and continued. "What I can use is one of my abilities to devour the ice inside your closed entrances. The ability allows me to turn anything organic, so nt or animal matter, into energy that will aid my cultivation, although anything that isn''t a nt must be dead before I can devour it. Now, I know that doesn''t make much sense but the energy that was produced by your body is pure ice, so I should be able to devour it without a problem due to my veins. To put it simply, I should be able topletely remove the build-up of ice energy without causing problems or any risk to your health. I can do this, just by touching your body and feeling for the profound entrance locations." As he finished his exnation, Qingyue appeared from behind the paper screen wearing a short white, long-sleeved nightgown. It only came down to the middle of her thighs and perfectly entuated her curvaceous figure. The misty vapour hanging over the room gave her alluring body an ethereal feel, as she sashayed her hips towards him. Her proud and perky breasts that were mostly hidden beneath the robes she wore during the morning, were now free and shook with each step she took. Shane was in rapture, his eyes were glued to the tiny points he could see poking through the fabric. ''My God, no Bra! Is she trying to kill me?!'' Qingyue came right up to his front and he could smell her fragrance, winter honeysuckle mixed in with something stronger and muskier, something that made his mind buzz. She was obviously still aroused and Shane could already feel himself getting back up to full mast. She smirked a little before turning around and bending forwards at the waist, emphasizing her perfect ass as she slowly straddled his legs with her back facing him. Shane could immediately feel the warmth and wetness make contact with his already diamond-hard cock and he nked a little. ''She isn''t wearing panties either. S-she''s trying to seduce me... God, it''s working!'' He let out a groan as he felt her ''innocently shift her weight against his crotch and turn back to him with a questioning look. "Aren''t you going to start?" Shane bit his tongue a little, nodded, and ced his palms on her legs while activating devour. He ran his hands up and down her creamy smooth thighs, pulling out all of the ice energy from the nearby entrances. He repeated this with more strength and a few times more than strictly necessary. Her body shifted with each motion, dragging her crotch along the bulge of his shaft as it did and causing her to mewl in satisfaction. His hands raised higher, caressing the sides of her body and under her breasts. She gasped and reached back, linking her arms together behind his head. He used this opportunity to start kissing her tender neck, yfully nipping it every now and then. The new sensations, catching her off guard and making her whimper. His fingertips caressed around her stomach going just low enough to reach her navel, before moving upwards and onto her chest as her hips continued to rock against him. He moved up along her cor bones and down her arms, all the way to her fingertips before repeating his caress again. As he reached her breasts, her breath hitched, her soft moans increased in frequency and her movements sped up, grinding against him with more power than before. Finally, after massaging those fleshy globes to his heart''s content, digging his fingers in, and lifting them up, his hands reached her fully erect nipples. In just a few moments, he felt her take a deep breath in and begin to shudder on top of him. Shane traced a circle around one of those little cherries and pinched it while sucking her neck. His other hand darted down into the bottom of her nightgown and started rubbing around her entrance. He curled two fingers up inside of her, rubbing her inner walls, while using his thumb to trace circles over her clit. The strong stimtion proved too much, Qingyue''s back arched like a bow and she let out a loud, drawn-out moan. At the same time, arge amount of cool, clear, fluid sshed out over his hand and crotch. She copsed back against him, chest heaving and hair stered across her sweaty forehead, while gasping for breath. Shane traced his fingers across her lips as he kissed his way up her throat and along her jaw. He turned her head and their lips met in a gentle touch. Suddenly, Qingyues eyes opened and shed with determination, her whole body was pushing her to connect with him on a deeper level and she didn''t resist in the slightest. In just a second, Qingyue turned round in hisp, her legs locked around behind his back and her lipstched onto his again. This time it was much more passionate and their tongues danced with each other briefly, before he caught hers and vigorously sucked on it, causing her to moan into his mouth. Her fingers reached down to his shirt and started to fumble with the buttons, barely managing to get one open before he separated his lips and gently pried her hands off with his own. "Qingyue, w-" She wrestled a hand free and put a finger to his lips. Staring into his eyes she said. "Shane, I love you. I want you and I want this." As if nothing more needed to be said, she resumed her fumbling with his shirt only for it to disappear into his storage the next moment. Qingyue immediately switched to tracing her fingers along his muscles and leaned forward to nt a trail of kisses along his neck as her hips resumed their grinding. Shane''s trousers also disappeared and she could feel the warmth of his crotch directly rubbing against her moist sacred garden. "Are you sure about this? I won''t ever let you leave me in this lifetime." He said in a deep possessive voice. She hummed and nodded before continuing to suck and kiss his neck in the same manner as he did to her earlier. Shane took a deep breath, not forgetting to set up a wind barrier against her door, and stored away his underwear. His rod sprang free and Qingyue moaned as the scolding hot member rubbed all along her dripping wet snatch, slightly parting herbial folds with every movement. The familiar sensation of profound energy circting could be felt as his energy disappeared into Qingyue''s body for a few moments before returning to him with something new, something cold, yet also soothing. They both felt it but it wasn''t harming them, if anything it made the experience feel even better, they felt closer, more connected. With a thought, a pearly white pill with an alluring fragrance appeared between Shane''s teeth. He kissed her, using his tongue to pass it into her mouth where it dissolved into a gentle energy that poured down her throat and spread out across her chest. "Don''t worry, something good is happening. This will benefit you a lot" he whispered. She reached down, running her hands all along the shaft and up to the sensitive head, making him shudder and release a low groan. ''It''s so big and hot, will it fit?'' She thought to herself with a small amount of trepidation but in the next moment, her determination returned as she raised herself up and positioned his throbbing cockhead at her entrance. She sank down slightly and gasped as the head parted her folds. "Qingyue, go slowly" He managed to warn her through gritted teeth. She was so warm and wet inside, the feeling was already unbelievable, if he didn''t concentrate, he would cum in no time. Qingyue nodded and slowly started to lower herself onto him. A bit of sweat dripped down her brow as his rod slowly spread her open and she winced a little as she felt the head hit a barrier inside her. Shane stared into her eyes and wrapped his hands around her hips. "Ready?" She stared back at him with nothing but love and lust in her eyes and nodded. Shane pushed her down slowly and she let out a small, pained, whine that immediately turned into a long-drawn-out moan as she easily slipped down the rest of the way and impaled herself to the hilt. He could feel the tip press up against the entrance to her womb as her syrupy walls undted and massaged against his shaft. He felt as if he fit her perfectly; it was like she was made for him. A barely noticeable line of blood trickled down from where they were connected, the proof that he had imed her virginity. Kissing away the small tears that had gathered in the corners of her eyes, he tenderly sought her lips for a moment before pulling away and saying "You''re mine now". Qingyue''s response was to twist her waist side to side and fidget a little as he held her hips tight against his. "Husband~" she pleaded coquettishly with a breathy sigh as his rod twitched inside her. Her sensual voice had totally flipped his switch. Digging his fingers into her ass cheeks he lifted her up until only the tip was left inside before dropping her back down, eliciting a loud moan from her. He repeated the action, again and again, causing the sound of flesh smacking to echo in the room. She was sopping wet and her fleshy walls stuck to his shaft, sucking onto him and trying to pull him back in every time he raised her hips. Her eyes had long clouded in lust and as her soft pillowy breasts danced in front of him, he couldn''t resist reaching forward to take one of her pink cherries into his mouth. Her moans grew in pace and volume as he switched between the two little buds, giving them equal attention. Qingyue wrapped her arms around him, drawing him deeper into her bosom as she threw her head back in pleasure. Shane continued to suck and nibble on her nipples and no longer content with the simple movement, he began to thrust up into her with an increasingly faster pace. Every time their hips met, Qingyue''s ass rippled and the pping sounds of their now wet thighs could be heard clearly. Without warning, Shane lifted her up, removing his member in the process and causing her to let out a whimper at the feeling of emptiness. He turned them around, threw her onto the bed, and lined himself up before plunging all the way back into her in a single movement. She gasped and gripped his shoulders, nails digging into his skin as he rocked his hips back and forth, searching for her sweet spots, wanting to bring her even more pleasure. Her pussy felt amazing and without her even doing anything, it massaged and squeezed his dick from tip to base with every movement. After a few long and slow thrusts, Qingyue let out a high-pitched moan and Shane knew he''d found the spot. He started to pick up the pace with even more, deep and powerful pistons, sawing in and out of her and making sure to scrape along her sensitive area every time he moved. They both lost themselves in a passionate rhythm. With each stroke, Shane pulled back, almost to the tip of his dick, before burying himself entirely into her with a powerful thrust. Qingyues moans became fast and high-pitched as her hips rocked to match his pace and her inner walls continually tightened around him, trying to milk him dry. Shane could feel his own orgasm fast approaching and the familiar heat started to spread from his balls all the way up his shaft as his dick twitched inside her heavenly pussy. Feeling his rod twitch and swell inside her, tipped Qingyue right over the edge and she gasped out, "S-somethingsing!" Qingyue''s legs locked around his back and her whole body started vibrating as her vagina mped down on him even harder than before. Her entrance gripped him like a vice and the undting walls sucked him further in than he thought possible as she creamed all over his shaft. The flower at the end of her tunnel had parted slightly and was now sucking onto the head of his cock bringing him closer and closer towards the precipice. Shane grunted and pulled back as much as he could before he started thrusting into her faster and faster. With swift but shallow thrusts, he powerfully rutted her into the bed in a way she absolutely loved, drawing out her climax while swiftly approaching his own. Just a few short secondster, Shane let out a low moan as his vision went white and he bottomed out inside her onest time, flooding her pussy with spurt after spurt of his seed. As his scalding hot cum hit the back of her womb, Qingyue''s mouth opened in a silent scream and she desperately wed at his back, experiencing another mind-blowing orgasm right after the first. Shane''s hips bucked a fewst times, making sure to empty everyst drop inside, before he copsed on top of her breathing heavily. For almost an entire minute they held each other tightly and in silence as their bodies twitched and shuddered, riding out thest of their respective orgasms. He finally lifted himself up and they shared a loving kiss while staring into each other''s eyes. ""I love you."" They both said at the same time and shared another kiss before Shane rolled over onto his back, bringing Qingyue with him, and beganzily brushing her hair from her face as sheid on his chest. After a few minutes of rxing like this and basking in the afterglow, Qingyue remembered the strange phenomenon of energy sharing and checked her cultivation only to gopletely wide-eyed the next second. "H-how is this possible!?" She half-whispered and half-shouted. She had reached halfway through the [9th of True Profound] from the [6th of True Profound] and her realm wasn''t the least bit unstable. Shane was also in disbelief as he had reached the [3rd of Spirit Profound] and had also inherited Qingyue''s small world as well as her cultivation arts. Unfortunately, the arts were trashpared to the real thing, however they still benefited him greatly. He would go through it allter but for now, he needed to exin some things to Qingyue. Well after a nice warm bath They got up to head towards the bathroom where they spent some time and washed each other like a newly married couple. Shane obviously got erect again seeing her beautiful body in all its glory and at one point, she was even actively, albeit awkwardly trying to seduce him. Unfortunately, time was against them and it had already been a long time. Shane could feel Dusty''s agitation through the bond and she would be here soon so he pulled Qingyue onto hisp and slipped back inside her with no resistance. He helped her move quickly while ying with her nipples and her little bean, bringing her to the peak in just a few minutes, and following her soon after. As they were rxing in the bathtub and Qingyue had an extremely satisfied smile on her face, he exined to her about the peculiar energy sharing situation that happened before. He told her that it was simr to what usually happened between him and Dusty but also not at the same time. His thoughts were that it was something to do with his special veins or her physique or both and that they inadvertently started Dual Cultivating while they shared and mixed her virgin Yin with his virgin Yang. Which in turn caused both of their cultivations to rise sharply. Shane then exined to her about her physique and how she had a small world inside of her that would allow her to hold more power than her physical body or cultivation realm feasibly could. He also told her that it had now been passed to him as well to which she smiled happily knowing that they shared something so unique. He told her everything he knew about her physique, and how she would never have troubleprehending any art up to any stage including theprehension of a domain before she reached the Throne level. He also sternly warned her how dangerous it could be if others became aware that she had this type of physique and not to broadcast abilities above her level unless she was fighting to kill. Shane then went on to tell her that he had also inherited the Frozen Cloud Arts and she tensed up a little until he exined to her that the real reason rtionships were forbidden was due to this happening whenever a disciple had sex. Done with their bath and the serious talks, the duo dried off with profound energy and dressed up before sharing a short kiss. Shane removed the wind barrier and a disgruntled Dusty barged into the room letting out some little aggrieved yips at him while slithering over to Qingyue and quickly curling around her shoulders. Qingyue cooed at her and started scratching her over the horns while he grumbled away. "This little brat, she always makes me look bad bytching onto everyone else" Shane withdrew the storage ring and transferred Qingyue''s other gifts to it before walking over and sliding it on her finger. She gasped and looked at him questioningly as he raised his hand and a small amount of silvery essence wound itself into a ring around his finger, looking just like the one he gave her. "Thank you ...Husband" She said as she hugged him tight and tried her best not to blush. "I said it before my dear. Everything I have is yours." Shane told her with a grin as he hugged her back and brushed his fingers through her hair in the way he knew she loved. With Dusty now joining the fray, they swiftly changed the sheets beforeying back down on the bed and enjoyed each otherspany. Both of them pampering the cute little snake while they chatted about anything and everything including his n for convincing Xiao Che and Xiao Lie to drop the marriage. A few hours passed peacefully like this and it was nowte afternoon. Shane lingered for as long as he could, wanting this to be a good memory for Qingyue and also simply enjoying every minute spent with her. Unfortunately for him, Qingyue was a sharp cookie and it wasn''t long before she saw through his stalling attempts, gently reminding him that he needed to go. Convincing him with just a few words "The quicker you settle this, the sooner we can be together again." Neither of them really wanted to part, Qingyue especially so but the next step of Shane''s n needed to be set in motion. Deciding not to make this harder than it needed to be, he pulled her up from the bed with him. He kissed her deeply for a few seconds and with great difficulty, separated from her soft body while sending a mentalmand to Dusty to return. Qingyue watched his back with unconcealed longing and he himself felt an intense feeling of loss, pushing the feeling down, he moved towards the door. Unfortunately, he had only made it a few steps forwards before he turned back and grasped Qingyue''s hands. Looking deep into her icy blue eyes, he said "I have no idea how to get out of here" ------------------------------------ A/N: Hope it wasn''t too cringe lol Chapter 23: Buying a Wife with Words Chapter 23: Buying a Wife with Words A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- It waste afternoon in Floating Cloud City and the streets were bustling with activity. Shane was currently walking down one of said streets, with a spring in his step and a shit-eating grin on his handsome face. Dressed in a pair of dark trousers and a crimson silk shirt with the top two buttons undone, there were many eyes fixated on him. From time to time, he would return the greetings of any townspeople or stall vendors that called out to him or sh a charming smile to any youngdies that were swooning over his looks. Most cultivators at the Nascent Realm or above would actively avoid him however as the wild aura he was emitting pressured them unconsciously. Shortly put, Shane felt absolutely amazing right now! Why wouldn''t he? Today was a huge sess! He got the approval of his future father-inw, sealed a business deal, his cultivation increased by two small realms and the woman he loved jumped his bones! Okay thest part he wasn''t nning for nor did he expect but goddam if he didn''t feel proud of himself. ''Hehe, that mook Yun Che only managed to kiss her after 15 years of marriage. I only met her once and she practically jumped me. She wasn''t gonna take no for an answer either...'' Shane was understandably a little smug at the thought, though he couldn''t shake the slight feeling of incongruity at her actions. Then it hit him. Qingyue had been very forward, more forward than he would have ever thought possible for someone as sheltered and single-minded as her... When thinking from the perspective of someone on Earth, having an intimate physical rtionship before marriage didn''t seem strange at all. For someone with the values of this ancient cultivation society, however, it was indeed strange. "Could it be" He couldn''t prevent the words from escaping his lips as he remembered Qingyue''s other special physique. The Heart of Snow zed ss. From what Shane could remember, a person possessing the heart will experience qualitative changes to the mind andprehension. Their soul, wisdom, vision, power and speed of growth will improve immeasurably. They will also develop a rather single-minded attitude towards their goal and will no longer hesitate in their decisions. Perhaps Qingyue''s heart had started to awaken towards him. ''Would she go yandere for me if it fully awakened? That would be so hot!'' Shane stroked his imaginary beard in thought. ''She was very enthusiastic and she knew exactly what she was trying to achieve. She even deliberately seduced me in the bathroom.'' Thinking back on the afternoon''s activities caused his eyes to squint and his grin to turn more lecherous. ''There was no hesitation in her actions, it is possible.'' The more he ruminated over it, the more convinced he became. ''She deliberately called me Husband to stoke the fires! The sounds she made were also enough to drive any man crazy, although I don''t believe that part was deliberate hehe.'' By this point, Shane was in his own little world remembering all the sexy noises Qingyue let out earlier, especially the ones she made when he sucked on her cherries. ''Her breasts are obviously quite a sensitive spot, something to remember for next time... Thankfully, her seduction was very awkward but what if she were to use her insaneprehension to learn?'' Shane''s eyes went wide and he shivered at the thought ''I need to be careful or I might just spend the rest of my life on the bed.'' Quickly wiping a stray bit of drool from the corner of his mouth, he looked up and realised he was already within sight of the Xiao n main gates. pping his face and recing the grin with a slight scowl, he began storming his way over. ''Gotta make this look convincing.'' Shane quickly stalked his way back over towards his courtyard where he sensed Xiao Li and Xiao Che and when he entered he ran right up to them and spat. "Brother Che! Quickly help me beat someone up! My little Qingyue is engaged to some Xiao n, Young Master and this daddy is gonna send him packing!" Xiao Lie helplessly looked at Shane''s face full of righteous indignation while Xiao Che was speechless. Didn''t that mean this wild brother of his wanted to beat him up? Shane''s clothes disappeared, reced by usual shorts and silvery, crimson veined, armour. He turned around swiftly, cape dancing in the breeze and his aura surged like a roaring me. *BOOM* An impact shook the courtyard as the Warhammer appeared in front of his hand before it was single-handedly hefted across his shoulder. Xiao Lie''s eyes went wide! It had only been a few hours, yet the kid had advanced two small realms! What kind of heaven-defying thing was this? "...Brother Long" a quiet voice from Xiao Che but it was as if Shane didn''t hear and step by step he left towards the rest of the Xiao n buildings. "Brother Long!" Shane rounded on him with glowing crimson eyes and the boy could feel the ambient pressure beginning to saturate the air. "What are you still doing there Brother Che? This is important! Look ...I promise I won''t kill anyone okay?" Xiao Che gulped and said. "...it''s me." "What''s you?" Shane asked impatiently. Xiao Che shut his eyes tight, clenched his fists and shouted. "I-I''m the one w-who''s engaged to Xia Qingyue!" Shane''s aura dissipated like a candle blown out in the wind and the armour turned into essence before it poured back into his hands. The outer robe from earlier appeared around his shoulders and he cocked an eyebrow. "I say, brother Che, aren''t you being a bit too greedy? What about little Lingxi? Are you trying to build a greenhouse with flowers everywhere?" Shane berated him. Xiao Che groaned. "Brother Long, Lingxi is my blood-rted aunt! We don''t have a rtionship like that." "Wait wait wait! She is actually your little aunt and it''s not just something kinky you like to call each other?" Xiao Che blushed up to his ears but still nodded firmly. Shane looked confused. "Eh? But you''re not rted at all." He tapped his nose. "Your blood smells absolutely nothing alike." The whole courtyard went silent. Xiao Che furrowed his brows and the signs of annoyance had started to be apparent on his face. Xiao Lie''s hands shook and he went pale as paper for a moment before he regained his bearings and let out a long, tired sigh. Looking at Xiao Che who was shaking slightly, with his fists clenched and his face scrunched up in anger, Shane then nced towards Xiao Lie and put on a look of deep regret before whispering. "...You didn''t know." Xiao Che stared Shane right in the eye and coldly said "Just because you don''t want me to marry Qingyue, it doesn''t give you the right to say things like that about my famil-" "Enough Che''er" The tired voice of Xiao Lie cut him off. "Shane is indeed correct in what he said, no need to treat him like that. Both of youe sit over here, I will tell you the story." Shane and Xiao Che went to sit at the table and Xiao Lie told the story of how his son, Xiao Ying had switched the babies with his sworn brother so the bloodline could continue h h h. To be honest, Shane didn''t think what Xiao Ying did was noble or honourable, he actually thought it was rather disgusting to use a child''s life like that to repay a ''best friend''. Who in their right mind, would value the life of their child, their own flesh and blood, less than some guy they met and helped for a while. During the exnation, Xiao Che had gotten rather pale. He had bitten his lips till they bled, his knuckles had turned white and his eyes were beginning to cloud over with despair. "...So, in the end, I never really had a family." He whispered. Shane pped him hard on the head and said. "You ungrateful brat! Who raised you up huh? Grandpa Lie did! Who fed you and clothed you all these years huh? Grandpa Lie did! Who loved and cared for you when everyone else beat you down huh?" He paused and scratched his nose awkwardly before saying. "Well, little Lingxi did, maybe a bit too much actually... But also Grandpa Lie! Do you think just because you don''t share the same blood, that you are any less of a family to them!? Wake up brat, you''re lucky you have a family!" He said thest part solemnly. The next second, however, Shane''s serious demeanour changed into a shit-eating grin and he continued. "If anything, this is actually a blessing in disguise. Not only do you keep your family, but you also have a chance at gaining a new one..." Xiao Che looked a little shaken still but he had mostly calmed down until Shane''s next words echoed inside his ears. "In fact, I wouldn''t be surprised if little Lingxi were to go on the offensive from now on so you had better prepare yourself, Brother Che. Isn''t that right Sister-in-Law?~" A little squeal followed by the scrambling sound of footsteps on stone and someone retreated from the courtyard''s outer walls at breakneck speed. Xiao Che smiled fondly towards the courtyard wall and although his gaze shed with a small amount of trepidation, that quickly turned into determination. He then turned to Shane and said. "Thank you Brother Long for helping me open my eyes." Shane''s eyes hardened and his attitude became serious as he said. "Don''t thank me yet kid, I''m about to take your wife away." "Long''er, you have done so much for us. If you want the engagement to be cancelled, we will fulfil your request." Xiao Lie said sadly. "Grandpa Lie, While I undoubtedly love Qingyue and want nothing more than to marry her myself, I do not want the engagement annulled for just my own selfish reasons. You must both know that Qingyue is incredibly talented in cultivation, right?" They both nodded "What you do not know is that she is already near the peak of True Profound Realm" Xiao Lie gasped. Qingyue was not even 16 years old yet and although Shane was already in the Spirit Profound Realm, from the way he carried himself, Xiao Lie assumed he was at least a few years older than her. "That isn''t all, for Qingyue had already taken a Master since the age of 12. She was previously forbidden from telling anyone else about her disciple status and had hidden her cultivation for her own protection. Her Master is also not Someone that should be provoked without reason. Xiao Lie gulped and couldn''t shake the bad feeling he had about where this was going. "Whose Disciple is she Long''er?" Shane forced a wry smile. "Chu Yueli. The Fairy of Frozen ss. Rank number five of the seven Fairies of Frozen Cloud Immortal Pce!" This time, both of their eyes widened inplete shock. For anyone out here in the fringes of Blue Wind, the words ''Frozen Cloud Immortal Pce'' were akin to the sound of thunder in one''s ears. "Do you fully understand what that means? No, then let me tell you. Frozen Cloud Immortal Pce is a sectpletelyprised of women. They only ept female disciples and their sect rules forbid any of them from having a rtionship with a man. For hundreds of years, no disciple of their sect has ever been married to a man. This means that Qingyue''s talent is so heaven-defying, and she is so highly valued by her Master, that she was allowed to stay in Floating Cloud and marry you instead of being directly taken back to the sect. This also means that you and Qingyue would have only been married in name and nothing more. The sect would never have allowed you to touch her and I am willing to bet that shortly after your marriage, she would leave for good and never return." Xiao Che''s jaw was hanging open and Xiao Lie was looking angry, his aura was getting rather unstable too. Shane actually had to rub his eyes and make sure he was really seeing what he thought he was seeing. "Whoah there Grandpa Lie, no need to get so angry over a small matter. Don''t want you to have a stroke. AND LINGXI! Is it fun to hide behind that wall all night? There aren''t any secrets here to keep from you." Little Lingxi entered the courtyard a few secondster with a pot of tea she got from... somewhere, and waved embarrassedly at the three of them. Much of Xiao Lie''s anger abated and he smiled thinly at her, Xiao Che stared at her for quite a bit longer than was absolutely necessary... Shane just rolled his eyes and beckoned her to pour him a cup of tea. Dusty, obviously the best at diffusing awkward situations, shed out of the tattoo and wound herself around Lingxi''s shoulders while chirping away and licking her face. "This little brat, you better not beining about me." Shane grumbled under his breath. Lingxi poured some spirit tea, not like they drank anything else these days anyways, and Shane took a sip before continuing. "Like I was saying Grandpa Lie. Qingyue was forbidden from telling anyone about her being a disciple in case anyone with nefarious intentions decided to cut the young grass before it could grow. If that really happened, do you think anyone in Floating Cloud City could have survived the wrath of Blue Wind''s number 2 sect? A sect where they eliminate their own emotions and view life with indifference, no less." Silence. What could be said? Nobody could really be med for this matter and so the feelings of annoyance had no outlet. The four of them sat in silence for a while, each of them with their own thoughts. Lingxi''s were pretty easy to see through however as she had scooted her chair as close as physically possible to Xiao Che''s. She also kept stealthily reaching her hand out towards his, only to withdraw it the next second. Shane just watched on with a ''serious'' expression, holding his chin in thought as he enjoyed the awkwardness of the two teens. ''Maybe it won''t be long before Brother Che gets to experience the legendary reverse push down hehe.'' After a few minutes had passed with nothing said, Shane started to be impatient and no longer suppressed the desire to move the conversation along. He turned to Xiao Che and said in a gentle tone. "Brother Che. If you were still a cripple, the status provided to you by default as the husband of a Frozen Cloud disciple would allow you to live a safe life free of bullying. Now, however, you are not a cripple, your own potential is high and you could easily be as strong as your grandfather within just a few years if you had the right resources. Living a life where your marriage is a farce would be humiliating instead. I love Qingyue, I do, but right now I am telling you this because I also don''t wish to see someone I care for live that kind of life. The point I''m trying to make here is that If I wanted, I could just use the fact that I already healed you as reason enough for you to break the engagement without trying to exin." Xiao Che gave Shane aplicated look. On the one hand, His brother just told him he is in love with his wife-to-be, on the other hand, he cares enough about him as a brother to talk to him about it. There were also all of the things Shane had done for him, including the training and the pills... Shane could only smile helplessly at him. He wasn''t supposed to actually be friends with the kid when he started this n, forcing him to take an alternative route to the one of leveraging overwhelming debt, that he originally intended to use. Deciding to borate a little for the family of three, he stood up. "You still don''t seem fully convinced, so allow me to enlighten you. Frozen Cloud Immortal Pce may be the smallest of all the major sects in Blue Wind, but they are by far the most united. That is the reason why, with their sect rules, there is only one single way for anyone to be husband and wife with Qingyue in the truest sense. That is to have the determination to face the entire Frozen Cloud Immortal Pce for her!" Shane''s arms spread wide, his eyes glowed red and a domineering aura spilled out with each of his words, his intent was clear. "Long''er, you..." Xiao Lie was surprised, it seemed like this little guy wanted to challenge the entire sect. Strangely he didn''t think it was arrogance or stupidity talking. Shane clenched his fists tightly. "That''s right Grandpa Lie. I will never allow her to be one of those emotionless dolls, and I am willing to face the entire sect for Qingyue if I must!" He sneered and his aura and killing intent billowed out causing a fierce gale to pick up and swirl around him. "If they still won''tpromise after I have offered them the innumerable benefits and knowledge I possess, then, I will kidnap her away... If they try to force her to leave me or practise those disgusting arts again, then, hehe. I will wash their sect in blood and take her out by force!" Feeling no small amounts of rage at the thought, Shane quietly continued, almost as if he were talking to himself. "If I used all of my means, I could increase my cultivation greatly within a very short time, although it would likely be incredibly dangerous to do so. Meaning that I would also be even more pissed off with them." Realising that he was probably looking a bit like a psychopath at the moment, he stopped talking and nced at the family of three. Seeing them looking a little worried, Shane released his clenched fists and took a deep calming breath. Within just a few moments, the winds and his aura died downpletely. Sitting back at the table with one leg over the other, casually sipping his cup of tea, he said. "Of course, I will try my utmost for a peaceful resolution. After all, I am a civilised kind of guy." *Pfffffft* Xiao Che and Lingxi burst outughing while Xiao Lie smiled wryly. What civilised? Didn''t this brat want to go and ''beat up'' some people half an hour ago, dressed in beast hides and with a giant Warhammer at that? Shane leaned forward andced his fingers together. "Anyway, I want to ask you all to give up on the marriage with Qingyue. Not only for me, but also for yourselves. I know it isn''t fair to you Brother Che but I will definitely offer you some things that will hopefully more than make up for it!" Dering that, he raised a finger. "Firstly, I will train you and Lingxi up until the middle of Nascent profound within the next two months, and after that, I will provide the both of you with regr pills and resources. Now the pills are less of a bribe and mainly because I call you brother. Family should always share the good things with each other" he said, the warmth evident in his tone "Long''er surely you can''t be serious, That level of increase is not possible. Cultivation takes time, especially once you break through to the Nascent Profound Realm, that is where true cultivation starts. You of all people should know this" Xiao Lie shook his head, thinking ''this kid really likes to brag''. Shane looked towards Xiao Lie, pointed his thumb back towards his chest and said matter of factly. "Less than a year ago, I had absolutely no profound strength whatsoever. Do you believe it?" ''I think he might lose it if I told him it was less than 3 months ago,'' "Impossible" Shane interrupted him. "Wasn''t Xiao Che''s crippled vein also ''impossible'' to heal?" Xiao Lie could only nod, a crippled profound vein is indeed supposed to be impossible to heal yet this brat did it anyway. Still, he couldn''t help but feel he had wasted his life. Shane pulled out a standing incense burner from his storage before swiftly setting up a peach voured, beta strain to burn and floating it towards the middle of the courtyard. He waved his hand and a gentle gust of wind spread the vapour around them. Taking a deep breath in through his nose, he sighed in contentment as the others also did the same. "This is the new strain of ''Spirit Incense'' I have been working on. It will help any cultivator below the Peak of Nascent Profound to improve their cultivation speed and the benefit on the mind is doubled. Anyway, my second benefit is actually rted to this. Today I had discussed a business deal for selling the Spirit Incense with Xia Hongyi. Two monthster, we will open a specially modified teahouse in the centre of Floating Cloud where patrons can purchase this ''Incense'' to use on the premises. When I have to leave Floating Cloud City in around 6 months, I want Brother Che and little Lingxi to take over the management of the teahousepletely and you will each receive 10% of the profits." Xiao Lingxi, never one to care about things that weren''t her ''nephew'' or Dusty, was just happy that she and Xiao Che would have something to do together, while Xiao Lie was shocked. He who couldn''t even fully estimate the value of this product, could still tell its potential for profit was immeasurable. Xiao Che, however, didn''t seem happy about this in the slightest and for a moment Shane thought he would be refused until the kid spoke in a subdued tone. "Brother Long you''re leaving?" Although he had only known Shane for 10 days, they truly had formed a bond of brotherhood and although it was a long time away yet, the thought still made him sad. "Yeah, kid. Firstly, it''s a long time away yet and you might be sick of me by then, so don''t go getting all emotional like a woman on me because it''s disgusting. Secondly, who else is gonna knock some sense into those ice sculpture women if not me?" They both chuckled at that. For the first time, Shane dropped the act and looked emotionally at the family of three before him. "I know you guys probably need some time to think about all this and make a decision so I won''t disturb you any longer even though this is my courtyard." Shane stood up and was about to head inside when he heard a chair moving behind him. "Wait!" Xiao Che stood up with a straight back and looked directly at Shane. "I ept. Brother Long, this new life of mine was given to me by you. If I can somehow repay you by cancelling the engagement with Qingyue, I will do it in a heartbeat." He paused for a second and nced shyly at Lingxi. "After all, I also want to experience how it feels to make my own choices." "Waaaah" Before he could even blink, Shane had shed in front of him and pulled him into a tight bear hug for just a second before he shed back to his previous position again. *Cough* "Private Che, Private Lingxi, Training starts tomorrow at dawn! salute!" "Yessir!" "whaaa, little Che what does he mean?" Lingxi asked with stars in her eyes as she watched Xiao Che perform a perfect military salute from Earth. Shane ignored them and pulled out a small sandalwood box before handing it to Xiao Lie and whispering. "Grandpa Lie, this is the gamma strain. It can help to increase the cultivation of anyone below the peak of True Profound." Xiao Lie''s eyes widened and his pupils shrank as he let out a soft gasp. "I don''t have a lot, but this is especially for you to burn alone. The effect on calming the mind is much stronger than the other strains and It will hopefully help you to destress and loosen the bottleneck." Shane pulled back from a still frozen Xiao Lie and handed him a piece of paper. "There are a few books on here that I need you to get for me if possible. No need to worry if not." he said offhandedly before turning towards his room while waving goodnight. ----------------------------------- A/N: So, after this week I will have mostly run my stock of chapters dry... I''m sure you guys have noticed, but the chapters are now around 4k words, some even reaching 5k. Obviously, that''s not a sustainable number to write every day and so I want you guys to choose whether we have 2 long chapters a week (4k words) or 4-5 shorter chapters a week (2-2.5k ish). Leave yourments and likes below. Long chapters ~ vote here: Short chapters ~ vote here: Chapter 24: Schemes and Skips Chapter 24: Schemes and Skips A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- Now back in his temporary room, Shane formed a wind barrier around the door and window, before letting out a breath of relief. Although he heavily stacked it in his favour, that conversation could have gone in any number of different directions. Thankfully, the best oue was the one that urred. Finally allowing the happiness at the day''s events to catch up with himself, Shane''s body rxed and he jumped back onto his bed with a silly grin adorning his face. ''Aaaaah, that''s so much better! Goddess damn it! this world is way too serious!'' He licked his lips thinking of Qingyue. ''Although, gaining the body and heart of a jade beauty is a good payoff for all the "hardships" I had to endure today...'' "En, I deserve it!" After once again confirming how shameless he was, Shane decided to deal with the system notification and the two things he received from his intimate session with Qingyue. "System, open the notification." [System: Companions Tab Unlocked] [Companions List:] - Companions will gain greater benefits from bestowal and are able to engage in energy transfer with the host during intimate moments. - {Xia Qingyue: True Love} Shane sneered. "So it''s basically Dual Cultivation! No need to act mysterious No! No no no, wait a minute... I did it with Dusty too" He wondered if that meant that Dusty would one day turn into a sexy snake girl and for just a second, he really hoped it was true. ''I''m such a degenerate.'' Even without the sex earlier, the Energy Transfer was really ...sexual. What if it felt the same for Dusty as it did for him and Qingyue? The thought was fleeting but the damage was done. Shane dropped to his knees, eyes hollow and a look of utter devastation present on his face. ''This can''t be true! She''s my little baby for God''s sake!'' Dusty, who felt his despair through the bond, rushed into the room and coiled round his arm, licking his face and making everything worse. "Oh my poor baby girl! What have I done?" He wailed. She just chirped and nudged her head towards the floating blue window. Reading the description once again and conveniently disregarding the part that said ''intimate moments'', the light returned to Shane''s eyes and he stood up. "You''re right girl! If the system says it''s called Energy Transfer then Energy Transfer it is! Ahahahaha." A burst of awkward and unconvincingughter resounded throughout the room. After that harrowing battle against his own self loathing was over, he quickly confirmed that only good things hade with thepanions tab. Being ever so slightly relieved that there wasn''t an affection meter, Shane closed his eyes, held his palm out and ''looked'' inwards. After concentrating for a couple of minutes, something clicked. The surrounding temperature suddenly dropped by a few degrees and a chilly blue lotus made from the purest ice began to rapidly form in the air above his hand. Opening his eyes, Shane raised a finger to poke at the lotus in front of him, sending it spinning through the air. With a bit of effort, more and more ice lotuses bloomed in the air and started to revolve around him. "The arts themselves may be trash, but they are indeed beautiful" Shane would never experience the drawback of using these arts himself but it still annoyed him that his Qingyue was given a self harming technique to practise with. Of course, when the arts were passed to him they were automatically snapped up by his ability like a delicious little morsel Due to this, Shane could somehow instinctively feel that he would be able to perform any of the stages of the Frozen Cloud Arts within a short time, he only needed to concentrate. He was however, much more interested in the ability to manipte Water and Ice Energy that these arts brought him. Now that the art had been refined within his body, he could easily see all of the ws held within it. The biggest being the fact that the art itself was a bootleg, followed by the ice buildup in closed entrances and subsequently the decline in the practitioners lifespan. Shane believed that given enough time and some more cultivation arts to absorb, he could edit the Frozen Cloud Arts to make them better than before and without any of the side effects. He couldn''t do it yet, as he was missing some understanding of cultivation arts and profound entrances in general but it was only a matter of time. As for collecting a variety of different profound arts and techniques, well he had a n for that too... Shane could even vaguely feel that he would be able to form a frozen cloud domain for an extremely short amount of time if he pushed himself to the limit and exhausted his energy. Although, that was mostly due to the other big change that had happened to his body. He had now inherited a ''small world'' from Qingyue''s Nine Profound Exquisite Body and just like his veins, it was constantly producing profound energy. Not only would it aid him in cultivation, It also would enable him toprehend and use techniques above his realm. He would also be able to explode out with a greater power than his cultivation realm would suggest. For Shane who could already punch above his realm, this was a massive gain and his mind couldn''t help think back to the source... ''Holy Shit! Qingyue really is a monster. She is literally THE most broken ass character in ATG!'' Not only did his little waifu have this extremely cheat-like physique that allowed her to fight above her realm, but she also had the Heart that let her advance forward like a bullet train and learn anything. "She''s my Waifu too! Hahahaha." How could he not be happy and proud, he would never need to leave her behind! If anything, she would surpass him if he becamezy. Although he could always hug her leg on the way up if that happened. Coming out of his thoughts and delusions Shane used his intent to probe the Profound energy that the ''small world'' was emitting and felt a little disappointed. "Eh? That''s it" Unfortunately, the speed in which it was able to passively improve his cultivation, was very slow. Every time Shane''s cultivation advanced, he needed a massive amount of energy to fill his veins before he could reach the next realm. This meant that the excess energy produced by the ''small world'' was only equivalent to a tiny stream trying to fill an Ocean. ''Maaa I guess it means I''m always cultivating... but it doesn''t really do very much.'' Shane frowned for a moment thinking this, but then just shrugged and got over it. it wasn''t as if he sat around and cultivated for years at a time like those old fools anyway now was it? - Across the universe, millions of Ancestor level cultivators, suddenly felt the urge to spit blood - With that out of the way, Shane decided to make a n for the things he needed to do in the next two months before the teahouse opened. Firstly, he would start the daily training of Xiao Che and Lingxi which wouldn''t be much different from the conditioning he had been doing so far. He would also include basic fist and weapon training so that they could at least defend themselves to a satisfactory degree. Secondly, Shane wanted to upgrade his weapon. Now that he was used to the strength of Spirit Profound, the Warhammer seemed way too light again. Not to mention that it wasn''t technically of any grade and so it wasn''t capable of bringing out his full might. He had lots of old weapons from the bandits just sitting around in his storage and he had a n for forging them together into his warhammer. What Shane really wanted to try was to use his Will along with the spirit profound core and the Purple Veined Heaven Crystals as a catalyst to create a living weapon. He already felt as if he understood the concept and connection a little from his own experience using the Organic Constructs ability. The Warhammer was also once part of him and he theorised that he could nurture the connection again but still have it remain separate. Shane stroked his chin in deep thought. The only thing stopping him from trying was theck of forging knowledge, although hopefully Xiao Lie woulde through on the books he requested. Thirdly, was another hunting trip into the Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range. Shane needed battle stimtion to improve; he also needed to devour some higher level profound beasts to make sure his cultivation would reach Earth Profound in time to meet Qingyue''s master. There were also the quest rewards to consider. Hopefully this time, he would take Qingyue and the other two along with him for bothpany and training. Travelling together for a few days and visiting another town would be a nice break from everything after all. Lastly, Shane wanted to collect as many different profound arts, techniques and other skills as he could during his time here. Most of these would hopefullye from trading low level ''pills'' with the Xiao n members. He could even collect some herbs from them for ''refining'' the pills. He chuckled darkly to himself, knowing full well that those snakes would fall over themselves at the chance to get some pills. The n leader was arrogant and hungry for power and the visit from the main Xiao Sect was only a few months away after all. Future ns decided, Shane slipped into a meditative state and brought Qingyue into the dreamscape. He wanted to exin some things to her. There was no reason not to tell her about his life up till now and that he came from another world. Their rtionship was established and she had surely guessed half of it already, so keeping it from her any longer would break the trust they had built. There was also the fact that within a few years, they would both surely step into the God Realm together and the concept of other worlds was an everyday thing up there. ----------------------------------- When Qingyue appeared next to him by the pond in the dreamscape garden, it took less than a second for her to dive onto hisp and getfortable in his embrace. "I missed you!" She said before pushing her head into the crook of his neck and taking a few sneaky breaths in through her nose. Shane rolled his eyes at her actions and pulled her up so that they were face to face. "It''s only been a few hours." She scrunched her face into the cutest little pout and he rolled his eyes again, this time in a much more exaggerated way. "Okay okay, do you think you can y me already? You''re too green for that missy." He kissed her forehead and continued in a firm tone. "There are some things I need to tell you." She sensed the seriousness of the topic and moved to sit next to him instead. Holding his hand and leaning her head against his shoulder. Shane tangled their fingers together and started speaking. "Well I certainly haven''t been very secretive about it and I am sure you must have guessed some of it, so i''ll just go ahead and say it. ...I''m not originally from this world." Qingyue tensed up a little and her grip on his hand became tighter but she didn''t interrupt him. "Hmm so you already guessed huh? Well, I didn''t want to keep it from you but my circumstances are a little unbelievable. It was much better for us to meet in person and discuss it but certain ...distractions, got in the way." Qingyue went a little red at his words but she still managed to look rather proud of herself at the same time. The grip on his hand remained at the level of a bench vice, however. "What I can say for sure, is that it''s not how you think it is. I am not from the Realm of the Gods." Shane then went on to exin about his life on Earth, giving her the abridged version of how he lived and died over there, then met the Goddess who gave him some good things and helped him to join his soul back together. He told her exactly what the Goddess said about his soul being split and also decided to bite the bullet before briefly exining that he could glimpse certain future events due to his connection to Earth. When he told her thest part, Qingyue looked at him questioningly, because she could tell he wasn''t saying the whole truth. Instead of exining himself, Shane shook his head lightly. "Qingyue, there is a term from my old world called the butterfly effect. In this concept, it is said that it''s possible to link the formation of a tornado with a minor influencing factor such as the pping of a butterfly''s wings happening several weeks earlier." Qingyue understandably had a face of ''how can that be that possible'' but didn''t interrupt. "The exnation is much longer than that but essentially what it means is that every action has its own cause and effect, and you cannot change something small without affecting the immeasurable whole." With that said, his whole demeanor became especially serious and he stared into her eyes. "What I know about the future events, will cease to be an advantage for us if too many people are privy to the knowledge or if too much is subconsciously changed. In fact, I may have already altered the future in an irreparable way just by being here with you, now..." For a moment, Shane went into a slight daze thinking about the possible ramifications of his recent actions, but soon he shook it off and smiled. Having Qingyue by his side was much more important than knowing every little detail about the future. It wasn''t like things that had been in the works for many years would be changed by one girl bing happy either. Her part in any future events would just... change them slightly. It did mean that Shane''s knowledge of characters and events would be more and more blurred as the timeline progressed, but so what? it wouldn''t even matter by then. Besides, he had always intended to forge his own path. "Some things I am clear of and some I have very limited knowledge or even just vague ideas about but I can tell you one thing" He took a deep breath. "Your mother, she is safe and she will be so for the foreseeable future." Qingyue''s nails dug into the back of his hand and she went to speak but Shane stopped her with a finger to her lips. "What I know about her is spotty at best but it would do you no good to know anymore right now. Just trust me and trust your ability. When I say I would never hurt you and only want you to be happy you know it''s the truth." Qingyue''s eyes widened for a second before she visibly rxed and they started to water a little bit. She swung round onto hisp and snuggled back into his neck for a few minutes to calm herself down before pulling back and kissing him softly on the lips. "So let me get this straight, you came from another world all the way here to the Profound Sky Continent. Then you came all the way to Floating Cloud just to meet me oh and you are also a cultivation cheat!." She said thest bit with a small smirk. "Ahahahaha!" Shaneughed out loud for a while before he wiped an imaginary tear from his eye and said. "That was a good one! No my dear Qingyue, you are the cultivation cheat!" This time they bothughed ----------------------------------- The next two weeks passed by without incident. The morning training of Xiao Che and Lingxi was progressing very positively. Xiao Che was ''surprisingly'' catching up to Lingxi''s cultivation realm and had reached the [6th of Elementary Profound]. Of course, this was due to Shane making his training much harder than Lingxi''s. She would always be ready with a wet towel for him at the end and would use the excuse of him being exhausted so that she could wipe him down. Shane was sure she had caught onto his n after the first few days and it made him happy that she was so smart. He would also give her a sneaky thumbs up from time to time whenever she became more daring. Xiao Che was also bing more receptive to her closeness and not in a familial way. At this rate, she was going to bag him before the teahouse even opened! Shane had now managed to pot all of the Profound Tobo nts, juveniles included, and was ready to start harvesting them. As soon as he found some time to hunt a bunch of Elementary Profound beasts, he could replenish their leaves and also evolve more beta and gamma strains. One day, Shane came back from training the brats to find a moderately sized and very deep pool in the corner of the courtyard. Xiao Lie had presumably hired some people to build it for Dusty after he told them how much she liked the one at the Xia Manor. Shane was very thankful but to his frustration, the old man just smiled, acted surprised, and pretended he hadn''t done anything. Xiao Lie had alsoe through once again during this period, and managed to procure copies of all manner of books for Shane. The books even included a small amount of basic profound arts and techniques. The majority of the books however, were about battle tactics, sword y, crafting, and forging. Shane greedily absorbed all of the knowledge into his Mental Pce and in his free time, he would pour over the different forging techniques and refine them together into a better one. Unfortunately, there were no books around on formation runes or letters. He knew it would be hard to find one, especially out here in the sticks, but he thought that it would be easier to find a book on the symbols than it would be to find an actual active formation in Floating Cloud. During these two weeks, Shane had only been able to meet with Qingyue once. He went over to Xia manor to inform her father about the marriage and they spent the afternoon cuddling together and drinking tea under the old Chinese Willow... They did meet in the dreamscape a few times, but he mostly spent that time exining to her about his understanding of science and the table of elements. This Included his knowledge of the chemical interactions urring during the formation of Ice. Qingyue however, was not content with this arrangement at all and, currently she was on her way over to stay with him for a few weeks. Shane had no idea how she managed to convince her father to agree considering she couldn''t lie to save her life. She had probably used the excuse of joining in the training and also fully intended to do that. She was also bringing some more books on forging that Shane had requested from her father and hopefully he would be able to reforge his weapon in the near future. Considering the young miss of the Xia n was pretty high profile around these parts and not to mention technically engaged, they needed an excuse to give to the Xiao n. Thus the official exnation was that she would stay a while and learn some basic medical knowledge andbat pointers from Shane. Qingyue''s status as a Disciple of Frozen Cloud needed to remain a secret, and to the outside, it looked as if she had no teacher. Thinking that far, it didn''t seem strange for her to wish to learn from a young and talented Cultivator at the Spirit Profound Realm. There was also the fact that her Cultivation was shown as the peak of Elementary Profound Realm to the outside world ''I feel like I am missing something important here'' *Gasp* Shane took a sharp breath inwards and his eyes shone with excitement. "The Pearl of Frozen Deception! How could I forget?" He wondered aloud, The Pearl of Frozen Deception could hide the cultivation of the wearer and disy it however they wished, as long as it was lower than their actual cultivation. That wasn''t all, it was effective on and against cultivators up to the level of Throne! That little pearl could be Shane''s ticket to learning at least a few formation letters! Now, he was even more enthusiastic about his waifu visiting him and it even seemed to lessen the annoyance at what he needed to do before she arrived... To allow the Big Miss of the Xia n toe and stay with him, there were obviously many hoops that needed jumping through. Shane would be toozy to do this normally but thedy had insisted and he obviously stood to benefit from his ''enthusiastic'' future wifeing to live with him. So, naturally he cooperated, even if the matters that followed were slightly ...irritating. To follow procedure, Qingyue''s father had to put a formal request forward to Shane through the Xiao n to request for her training under him. There were also things that needed to be under consideration such as her bodyguards and servants during her stay at the Xiao n. Shane refused to allow bodyguards or Xiao n disciples anywhere near his courtyard for obvious reasons. How would he act a lovey dovey and take small advantages of his wife if he were being watched all day long? That and the valuable tobo nts yeah. Qingyue also adamantly refused and stated that she would bring her own maid Dongling with her. When the disciplinary elder tried to insist, Shane pointed out that if there were to be anyone able to harm him, then the guards wouldn''t be any use at all. He then innocently smiled at the man and said. "Unless Elder Xiao will personally stand guard here during Miss Xia''s stay? I would feel very relieved if that were the case." Needless to say, the man left with a red face and no longer insisted. With the agreement of the Xiao n, Shane himself had to agree with Xia Hongyi''s terms and the symbolic payment of some ''rare'' herbs. Those herbs were already given to Hongyi during Shane''sst visit to Xia Manor. By now, most of Floating Cloud knew of his backstory as the apprentice of a Medical Saint, naturally that meant that the Xiao n Elders and leader were aware as well. Between Shane''s own high Cultivation, Xiao Che''s healed veins, his and Lingxi''s explosive increase in cultivation and now the Xia n''s young miss bing a student, the n leader had be increasingly interested in his abilities. As a free resident within their n, Shane had to at least act as if he respected them, and that was the reason why he was now being escorted into a meeting hall by a servant to meet with the n Leader, Xiao Yunhai... As they entered the doors of a spacious room filled with the scents of incense and fragrant tea, Shane saw a middle-aged man seated at a table ncing at some documents. He looked a little like a cliche viin with an angr face, hooked nose, thin line moustache, fake smile and small dishonest eyes. After spending many years as the overlord of this small forgotten corner of Blue Wind, arrogance and pride were also deeply ingrained into his very being. "n Leader, I have brought Master Long." The servant bowed 90 degrees and spoke. Xiao Yunhai nced at the servant and his eyes shed with clear disdain. However, that was reced by a fawning and ''happy'' smile, the moment his eyes spotted Shane''s presence and he stood up. "You may leave... Little Long, it''s wonderful to finally meet you! Comeee, please take a seat!" Shane smiled and did his best to look a little shy while internally he wasughing. ''Let the games begin.'' ----------------------------------- A/N: So... The results of yesterday''s Poll are forck of better words, stupidly confusing. On the app version, I am getting apletely different set of numbers and notificationspared to the browser version. If that wasn''t strange enough, a friend of mine is getting yet another set of notifications on his Android. Confusing Screen Shots here.-----> Anyways, I will leave twoments in thement section, one for shorter, and more frequent chapters and one for Longer, less frequent chapters. Please like whichever one you want to vote for. The one with the most likes will be the standard formatting from now on Chapter 25: Scams, Warnings and a Pleasant Evening Chapter 25: Scams, Warnings and a Pleasant Evening A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. Yeah, I know thisment is getting old but I wouldn''t keep putting it up if people were capable of remembering. Around 30% of all the paragraph and chapterments that get left are still being auto-deleted. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- Shane was currently sitting across from a smiling Xiao Yunhai, nephew of Xiao Lie, the n master of the Xiao n,te Spirit Profound Realm cultivator and more of an arrogant snake than Dusty could ever hope to be. "Little Long, we are all very grateful to you and your master for healing Che''er. Do you, by chance, know when your Master will be returning? We would very much like to express our gratitude to him as well." Outwardly he was all smiles, but inwardly Shane was sneering. To any normal human with cultivation at or below his own, the man looked like a kindly uncle who was concerned about his family but to someone with senses as advanced as Shane''s; the arrogance and insincerity were practically rolling off of him in waves. He was attempting to get on Shane''s good side by praising him and also testing the waters to see how affected by said praise he would be. There was also the casual probe about the whereabouts of his Master, hidden behind the veil of gratitude. They wanted to see how much time they had to take advantage of him. Holding an amiable smile the whole time, He acted just a little bashful and a little humble, two could y at this game Rubbing the back of his head, Shane said. "Aww no need to thank me for that, I only did what any good brother would do. As for Master, I don''t know how long he will be gone, he likes to wander, but it should be at least a couple more months." Xiao Yunhai''s eyes shed with greed before he quickly schooled his expression. "Little Long as you called Xiao Che your brother you can call me uncle in the future okay." Seeing as Shane seemed to be a person who valued bonds, the man quickly formted what he thought was his own n. "Okay, Uncle Xiao!" Shane yed along, knowing exactly where this was going. Xiao Yunhai patted him on the shoulder and said "Good Good Good! Now that we acknowledged each other as family I have something that I wanted to ask you." He put on a fairly convincing awkward smile "Aiya! All of your new cousins are sopletely awed by your strength and skill that they have been pestering me non stop to arrange a meeting with you... I was hoping you could meet with them and maybe give them some advice on cultivation Only when you have the free time of course. This would be great for deepening the bonds between all you younger generation! What do you think?" Shane had to resist an almost impossible urge to roll his eyes at those words, and he very nearly lost. ''Here ites.'' "I couldn''t help but notice that Little Lingxi and Che''ers cultivation had advanced extremely quickly thesest few weeks and I am sure that it must be due to your teaching. I wanted to ask if you had any methods to help others cultivate quickly? You see, some of the younger generations are not talented and I worry for them." Again the mask of a concerned elder was pushed forward. Shane put on an exaggerated frown as if he was struggling with something but inwardly he was wondering why nobody ever gave Lingxi any respect. Technically, she was in the same generation as the man in front of him, weren''t they supposed to respect generation things here? ''That''s not even mentioning the twisted shit the younger Xiao n members tried to pull on her in canon.'' Finally, Shane looked to havee to a decision and motioned for Xiao Yunhai toe closer. The man''s eyes shed with greed again and his smile widened before he leaned forwards. "Uncle Xiao, can you keep a secret?" He nodded. "My master taught me one of his special methods to make Elementary Level Profound gathering Pellets from low-level profound herbs. They can help advance realms for anyone under thete stages of Elementary Profound." Shane put on a rather helpless look and continued. "Unfortunately, he told me not to spread them around too much and I ran out of herbs to make them." Xiao Yunhai gasped and showered him with fancy words and praises. "Little Long, that''s amazing! To think you are so young but can make something so incredible! You must be very talented!" Shane shyly looked away and allowed a small smile to grace his lips. "Do you think you could make some to help out your new cousins if I gave you the herbs?" he quickly asked, trying to push the conversation forwards and keep Shane on the back foot. Shane once again pretended to be struggling toe to a decision before he shook his head and said. "I want to help you uncle Xiao but I really shouldn''t... if Master found out, he would be unhappy with me. Unlesssss..." He deliberately dragged out the word in mock indecision to bait the arrogant fool further. Xiao Yunhai looked rather irritated when Shane refused but he quickly reeled in his arrogance and brightened up at thest part. "Unless what Little Long?" Once again, Shane was calmly watching Xiao Yunhai cycling through expressions, like a traffic light, with just a few well-ced words and trying hard to fight the urge to sneer at this clown. ''Got him! Hook, line and sinker. His arrogance prevents him from seeing further than his own nose. How did this guy ever be a n leader?'' Shane gripped his chin in a thinking pose for a moment. "Unless you could help me get some things for my master that would make him happy on his return. You see he is always travelling, and he loves to collect knowledge from everywhere he visits. He is specifically interested in collecting books on forging and crafting techniques as well as formation letters, any and all profound arts and techniques and cooking recipes. He has some strange hobbies" Recing his thoughtful look with an excited gaze, Shane spoke as if thinking aloud. "En! Master will surely praise me if I get him lots of things from here! The books don''t need to be originals either, he would be happy with copies! Uncle Xiao! I will make pills for you and in exchange, you will bring me the herbs and books on the things I asked for okay?" Xiao Yunhai jumped from his chair and startedughing in a ''good natured'' way. "Hahahahaha! Little Long you are truly filial! You can count on your uncle Xiao to get you those things, your master will surely be happy with you!" Shane smiled brightly and cupped his fists. "Thank you, uncle Xiao, I will get started in the next few days after I have settled my new student" ''And wife hahahahaha!'' He then turned to leave and began to walk back towards his courtyard to wait for Qingyue''s arrival. Once Shane had left, Xiao Yunhai dropped the friendly smile and a mocking sneer reced it. He was disdaining Shane while thinking about the amazing ''deal'' he had just made with little to no cost. What were a few copies of regr knowledge and ''useless'' profound techniques? The n may be small but it still had hundreds of them. He continued in his own fantasy of growing his power in the region, without knowing that in the near future, he would soon be scammed for all his n''s profound herbs while smiling and praising the one who did it. ----------------------------------- Walking back to his courtyard, Shane smiled at the passing Xiao n members whileughing darkly to himself on the inside. He could have easily refused Xiao Yunhai and the man wouldn''t be able to do anything to him. Not to mention the fact that realistically, Shane could hold his own against the man in actualbat and that was without counting Dusty. He could also definitely escape without injury if he needed to and nobody would be able to stop him. Essentially, that meant that he was not afraid. He didn''t promise'' with the man out of fear. Even if the other 4 Spirit Profound Elders were to side against him, as long as Xiao Lie didn''t join, Shane was confident he could hold his own. Shane may not be afraid of them, but it was very clear that Xiao Yunhai and probably the Xiao n in general, were somewhat fearful of his ''Master''. After all, a Medical Saint could have many powerful figures in their back pocket. The life of a cultivator is filled with dangers and who doesn''t get injured from time to time? In short, Shane had a number of ways to refuse, however, what would be the fun in that? That cretin wanted to take advantage of him so why couldn''t he flip the tables and do the same? Sure, Xiao Lie may be a little unhappy when he finds out, but in the end, he won''t do a thing. He owes Shane for all the things he has done for his family and he knows it. From spending thest few weeks together, the old man should know Shane''s character by now. He knows that Shane is intelligent, cunning and won''t allow himself to suffer a loss easily. He should also have been smart enough to realise that Xiao Yunhai would have tried to cheat Shane in the first ce. Yet still, there was no warning... There isn''t really a reason toin either, it''s not like the pills will be fake or anything, the cost will just be inted drastically. No, this will serve as a warning, both to Xiao Lie personally for choosing not to advise Shane of Xiao Yunhai''s character and for him to see how Shane has the same arrogant leader dancingpletely to his tune. The old man will understand the hard way from this, that Shane hates to be forced into things and also that he has no love for the Xiao n as a whole. If Shane didn''t know the snake''s character or didn''t have good senses, he could have easily been taken advantage of today. Xiao Lie needed to understand, the things Shane was doing and had done for him, Xiao Che and Lingxi, were because he wanted to do them, not for any other reason. ----------------------------------- Arriving back at his courtyard, Shane spotted Xiao Lie and Lingxi sitting at the table drinking tea. Xiao Lie looked up and their eyes met. Try as he might, Shane couldn''t keep the disappointment out of his gaze and Xiao Lie seemed to understand, his head lowered in shame and his eyes shed with sadness and slight disbelief. ''He must have had some hope that the n would give him face and treat me properly. Heh, what a fool! Maybe he will wake up a bit after today.'' The little snek Dusty materialised in a sh of emerald and just like that, she was wrapped around Lingxi''s shoulders chirping and licking away, while silver bell-like giggles escaped the girl''s mouth. Shane approached the table and went to take a seat. "Little Long I-" Xiao Lie started to speak but he was stopped by Shane''s raised hand. He stared into the old man''s eyes and said. "Pour me a cup of tea would you Grandpa Lie? ...Only one sugar though." Thest part was said firmly, while Shane''s striking Crimson eyes glowed brightly. This scenario was for the best, it allowed Xiao Lie to apologise, save face and be forgiven while still warning him that this was thest chance. Xiao Lie himself was very grateful for Shane''s actions but he was also a little terrified, he felt like he was being stared down by a primordial beast for a second there! All of a sudden, Shane felt that familiar spirit sense wash over him. His sour mood disappeared in an instant, only to be reced with a joyful smile. It was so fast, Xiao Lie had to rub his eyes thinking to himself. ''Just how many faces does this kid have?'' *tap tap tap tap* The sound of hurried footsteps could be heard approaching the patio area, and In a sh, Shane was out of his seat. She appeared at the entrance to the courtyard, face unfortunately but understandably veiled, and wearing the beautiful Chinese Hanfu that he had bought for her. Her pair of magnificently deep, bright blue eyes found his figure and her brows arched happily into two little crescents. Time stood still for just a second as even the sunlight seemed a little dimmer in her presence. Qingyue let out an excited little squeal through her nose and took a single graceful step Disappearing from most normal peoples vision she appeared again almost immediately, now wrapped within Shane''s arms, rubbing her head into his chest and greedily inhaling his scent. Shane smiled wryly. ''This girl! She always uses her movement technique to jump at me, nearly giving me a heart attack!'' He decided to tease her a little in retaliation and leaned down, blowing a puff of hot air into her ear before whispering. "Do I really smell that good?" Qingyue shuddered and nodded absentmindedly before realising what she did and went red up to her ears. "You, you. You''re bullying me!" she whispered back in an aggrieved tone and Shane just brushed his fingers through her hair while chuckling softly. While the two love birds were in their own little world, Xiao Lie was trying his best to pretend he couldn''t hear everything and Xiao Lingxi was busy getting over her shock. She couldn''t believe it! What the heck just happened? She only blinked once and Qingyue had already travelled the 15m of distance to Shane? "Big sister is amazing!" she said absentmindedly with her palms on her cheeks and stars in her eyes. At that moment, three more sets of footsteps could be heard approaching the courtyard and it wasn''t long before Xiao Che and Xia Hongyi entered. They were chatting amiably, although Xiao Che seemed a little shy, and were followed by a delicate and pretty girl wearing a servant''s robes. *Cough* "Yue''er, Little Long. You two... *Sigh*." Xia Hongyi coughed awkwardly when his eyesnded upon Shane and Qingyue who were embracing tightly and whispering to each other in front of the equally awkward Xiao Lie. They reluctantly parted and Qingyue gave him the stink eye for a moment before being pulled towards the table and offered a seat by Shane. "Aiya! The elbow really turns the wrong way." Hongyi continued in a defeated tone. Shane didn''t let this perturb him and he started pulling out his ultimate weapons, a few of his finest spirit tea pouches. These had been made with some of the best herbs found in the mountains. Not only that, they had been enhanced with his own special methods until they were brimming with vitality, causing them to be extremely beneficial for the body. The tea also tasted amazing... Xia Hongyi''s eyes brightened up when he caught a whiff of the Spirit tea and no matter how he tried to prevent it, excitement still coloured his attempt at a stern expression. Shane just took a moment to appreciate the exceptionally ordinary man who unknowingly Cucked one of the most powerful people in the entire universe. "...Little Long?" Shane just smiled and shook his head. A fragrant and enticing aroma soon began to spread throughout the courtyard, rxing everyone within. Lingxi had finallye back to herself with the help of Dusty and pulled Xiao Che to sit closely with her at the table. Shane gave her a sneaky thumbs up and finished steeping the tea. "Uncle Xia, Grandpa Lie." Shane first poured Xia Hongyi and Xiao Lie a cup before filling up Qingyue''s and his own. With a wave of his hand and a little Wind Energy, he floated the teapot across the table and motioned directly towards the two other upants. "You brats should pour a cup and sip it slowly while absorbing the energy, it will benefit you greatly." He looked to be in thought for a moment before he spoke again. "Or you can also just drink it to enjoy the taste and not worry about the energy, that''s what I do." Xia Hongyi and Xiao Lie looked at him incredulously and Shane just shrugged, what is the point in life if you can''t enjoy things? Qingyue looked at the cup of jade green, fragrant tea in front of her and her eyes lit up in expectation before her eyebrows knitted together in a frown. Shane understood her struggles and rxedly said "No need to worry Qingyue, we are all family here." before touching her veil and storing it directly away. Shane and Xia Hongyi were not shocked by her peerless face and Xiao Lie''s eyes only shone with appreciation for a moment before they squinted again as he went back to sipping his tea. Clearly to the old man, a good pot of tea was much more interesting. The two youngsters however were a different story... Lingxi again had stars in her eyes again, as if looking at her idol while murmuring "So pretty". Xiao Che however, wentpletely red and was literally dumbstruck by her beauty. With her new emotions out in the open, Qingyue was also understandably getting a little shy and awkward being stared at. After watching her squirm for a few seconds, Shane easily diffused the situation by pinching her cheek and saying "See my Qingyue can attract all the young masters~" This broke the charm effect and Lingxi directly pinched and twisted the flesh of Xiao Che''s waist with a "Hmph!" causing him to yelp and apologise repeatedly, everyoneughed and the awkward atmosphere disappeared. As the afternoon went on, they all rxed and chatted happily together, the other youngdy was also introduced as Xia Qingyue''s maid Dongling. Shane''s eye twitched fiercely when she bowed to him and called him ''Young Master'' but he let it be ...for now... Finally, after the sun had begun to set and they ate a meal together, they decided to talk about the marriage. Xia Hongyi got up and apologised to Xiao Che and Xiao Lie who both just waved it off and were extremely understanding about the whole situation. Xia Hongyi scratched his head awkwardly, truthfully, he was a little dumbfounded. Didn''t this brat steal away a wife from them? Why are they just sitting here and even acting very intimate with him? Surely there would still be a little resentment, instead, they looked like a harmonious family! --------------------------------- Bah! What resentment? Xiao Che the rascal had just got a new lease on life! His brother Long healed him and even trained him to be stronger than half of the younger Xiao n members in less than a month! It was as clear as day, even to someone with as little EQ as him that Qingyue loved Shane. She was practically sitting on top of him the whole night! All smiles and giggles and soft gazes, in their own little world. Aiya! At least he had his little aunt Who in their right mind would want to marry a woman who loved another, wasn''t that asking to wear a green hat? Besides he had a feeling that Shane and Qingyue were more than just in love with each other. He didn''t know how to exin it, but It was something about the way they looked into each other''s eyes. As if everything else could burn to dust as long as they had each other, and to be honest, it scared the shit out of him. His Brother long''s eyes usually only glowed crimson when he was training, hunting, excited or pissed off and they gave off a huge pressure to anyone who met his gaze during those times. The usual reaction of a person was to feel like they were being stared at as prey by a primordial beast. Others felt as if they had been drenched in cold water, some even pissed themselves in fear or directly ran away. Yet Shane''s eyes had been subtly glowing the whole time he was interacting with Qingyue and she seemed totally unaffected by it. Not just that, her vision was mostly locked onto his eyes, as if nothing else in the world existed for her. Yeah, he was definitely d to be out of that... Not knowing what Xiao Che was thinking and only seeing him absentmindedly stare at Shane and Qingyue, little Lingxi was getting pretty jealous. Surprisingly she started acting a little on the offensive during the course of the afternoon. Shepletely took advantage of the situation to show her stance and had been moving closer and closer to Xiao Che as the day went on. In the end, she was practically sitting on top of him and so, he managed to gain a few benefits when she was putting food on his te, her soft body ''identally'' brushing up against him. Of course, Xiao Che knew that she was acting jealous but his Brother Long had been rubbing off on him and so he just quietly benefited from her misunderstanding. He had a good thing going on here, why would he stop it? Just because he was shy, everyone treated him as an innocent boy, well, almost everyone... He could have sworn he caught his Brother Long smirking and raising his thumb up towards them more than once, whatever that meant... Maybe it was simr to the ''fist bump?'' ----------------------------------- By the time the sun hadpletely disappeared behind the horizon, everyone was full and content. Shane was in a great mood and had pulled out all the stops today. He brought some good wine out and even set up a special mint and ginger Spirit Incense that was good for rxing the body. Only an hourter, once it had finished burning, the group decided it was time to disperse. Hongyi left first followed by Xiao Lie who went to see him onto a carriage and out of the gates, leaving the four youngsters together. Lingxi was reluctant to leave, but she knew they would be training together from now on and so she handed Dusty to Qingyue and went to pull Xiao Che away. "Wait!" Qingyue stopped them from leaving and bowed to Xiao Che. "Thank you for being so understanding! Xiao Che, Qingyue may not be able to be your wife but Qingyue still wish for you to live happily!" Shane stepped up to her side with a grin and held her little hand before he nodded towards the kid and said "Brother Che, I won''t say thank you." There was no need to cheapen their friendship, so they just bumped fists like Shane taught him before and he pulled Lingxi out of the courtyard. The moment silence returned to the courtyard, Dusty read the mood and returned to the tattoo. The two lovers linked hands and gazed into each other''s eyes for a second,pletely ignoring the flustered maid. Well, Shane remembered her but she called him ''Young Master'' so he felt like being a little petty. Shane pulled on Qingyue''s hands and smoothly swept her into his embrace. He leaned down to kiss her... Over and over, their lips meeting together with many gentle and affectionate touches that lingered for longer each time they connected. Before long, his palms were framing her face and her fingers were in his hair as the once chaste kiss devolved into a passionate battle of tongues thatsted for minutes and left them gasping for breath. They reluctantly pulled back, realising this was not the ce for such things, they were together now and had all the time in the world. "Come, let me show you your room." Shane pulled her towards the vi and in through the front door. The silent maid was blushing up to her ears but still diligently followed them inside. Pointing towards the room directly across from his, he said. "This is where you will be staying, my room is right across the hall." Qingyue nodded and kissed him sweetly, before heading straight inside. Dongling bowed to him and followed her like it was the natural thing to do. The door closed and Shane was left standing in the corridor alone. He scratched his nose and felt a small sense of disappointment but mostly though, he was surprised. This was the Qingyue who had insisted on staying with him for almost two weeks, badgering her father all day long and him all night long in the dreamscape. Shane''s eyes narrowed, she epted it very easily, almost too easily, something was fishy here. ''What is she up to?'' In the end, Shane decided that he wouldn''t be at a disadvantage no matter what she tried and so he went into his room and undressed before slipping into the bed. She was still too green to be messing with him after all. Chapter 26: The Succubus and the Demon General (R-18) Chapter 26: The Subus and the Demon General (R-18) A/N: So if you guys aren''t aware, Webnovel has been ''shadowbanning''ments recently. This means that anyment that contains profanities in any form, will be automatically deleted. Well, Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- A few hourster, in the dead of the night, Shane was awoken by the sound of his door slowly opening. He sensed the familiar aura and kept his eyes closed, the corners of his mouth arching upwards slightly. The ''assant'' snuck their way over to the bedside and he heard the ruffling of fabric before the corner of the quilt was lifted and the bed sank slightly as another weight moved slowly across it. Suddenly, the person pounced, and his body was surrounded by the irresistible warmth of another. Qingyue''s impossibly soft, fragrant and very naked body was pushed flush against him, making his heart itch madly. His arm naturally surrounded her, pulling her even closer as one of her hands draped across his chest and her head rested on his shoulder. The two heavenly mountains along with their prominent little cherries were pressed against his side, scratching across his ribs with the rise and fall of her chest. For a few moments, theyy together like this and thefort, almost allowed Shane to doze off again, almost... Qingyue slowly turned her head and began to gently kiss his neck while her hand traced circles on his chest. One of her legs stretched over and brushed against his crotch, instantly bringing him to full mast. This seemed to embolden the girl as she gradually slid across his body until she was almostpletely on top of him. Shane''s member was standing tall and Qingyue shuffled down a little until herher regions made contact with it. She bit her lip at the tingling sensation, squeezed her thighs together and began to twist her waist. For some minutes, she continued. Her movements, although shallow and teasing, did nothing to prevent her own pleasure from building. Shane''s shaft, now lubricated by her wetness, twitched at the stimtion, pushing against her sensitive folds and Qingyue''s breathing hitched. Emboldened by her ever-increasing arousal, she began to gyrate her hips with greater speed, though due to their position, it was nowhere near enough to reach the peak they both desired. Shane''s eyes opened, glowing crimson in the dark room and he stared down at her before *p!* his palm made contact with her butt and squeezed it strongly. She yelped and his other hand came up and pinched her chin before forcefully kissing her cherry lips. Before she could even register what was happening, he had flipped them over and pinned her hands to the bed. Qingyue''s breathing quickened further and she rubbed her legs together as Shane loomed over her, eyeing her body up and down while licking his lips. He then spoke in a deep and husky voice. "My little wife, you havepletely ''woken'' me up and now you must pay the price. Are you prepared?" Like a deer caught in the headlights, Qingyue was wide-eyed and nodded meekly. "Good." Satisfied, His eyes roamed down her toned stomach and over her clean shaven and slightly glisteningher regions before a grin yed across his lips. "Let me have a taste." Shane lowered himself down until he was faced with her beautiful pink slit and blew a light breath over it. She shuddered and more juices flowed out of the secret garden "D-don''t it''s dirty." Unfortunately, with her hands still pinned to the bed, Qingyue couldn''t put up any resistance, not that she was really trying to anyway. Giving her no more time to protest, Shane extended his tongue and parted her already wet folds. He explored all the way along her outer lips, licking and sucking on them, drawing out various different reactions from the girl, though none of them unpleasant. Tongue fully extended, Shane used the tip to travel all the way along her slit, from bottom to top, and back again, purposefully avoiding the little hidden bean. When he skipped it again for the third time, Qingyue whined and struggled to free her hands from his grip. He decided to let them free, choosing that exact moment to lock his lips around her clitoris and mercilessly circle it with his tongue, while two of his fingers quickly began pumping in and out of her tight snatch. Qingyue released a series of short moans and her hands, now free from his, immediately grabbed his head, her fingers twined into his hair and pulled him deeper. "Mmm Oh, Yes, Husband!" Shane''s arms surrounded her hips and he pushed his tongue as deep inside her incredibly wet and cool passage as he could go. His now free hand found her little bean and he gave it a slight pinch as he felt her walls quiver around his tongue. Qingyue started to let out a few high pitched mewls and her grip tightened in his hair as he felt her insides start to constrict further, massaging his mouth muscle. Her taste was addicting, it was sweet and slightly minty but also cool and the longer he continued, the more the juices flowed until they easily drenched his face. An alluring scent filled his nostrils, making his mind buzz and driving him to dig deeper with his tongue, wreaking havoc on her insides. The mewls became higher pitched and he moved back slightly to rece his fingers and flick the tip of his tongue against her clit a few times. Qingyue''s eyes shot open, a deep hunger visible within and she exploded with strength, dragging him up towards her. Her legs naturally wrapped around his waist and with surprising strength, she pulled him fully onto her. Although unexpected, Shane still managed to react and adjusted his rod at thest second, plunging it inside her up to the hilt in a single thrust. Qingyue moaned loudly and her walls tightened around him. She once again clenched her fingers in his hair and kissed him, deeply, sloppily, and not minding the taste of herself in the slightest. They both groaned in satisfaction, as they felt the familiar sensation of the ''dual cultivation'' pathways activating. It felt smoother this time, deepening their connection further and causing their lust to spike. Shane dragged his hips back as far as her legs would allow and began to thrust powerfully into her. She was already close from earlier and so it didn''t take long before her pussy started contracting around him, her insides squeezing and massaging his dick all the while. The flower bud at the end of the tunnel opened up and started sucking the tip of his cockhead allowing him to get further in and making her gasp. Revelling in the familiar sensation, he pushed further into her, and for the first time that night, Shane''s hips fully met hers. Sighing in satisfaction, he ground them against her, his pubic mound rubbing against her clitoris pushing her closer towards the edge. All of the different stimtions caused her breathing to devolve into a series of short and quick gasps. The grip of her legs around his waist naturally loosened and taking advantage of the opportunity, he held her hips tightly while slowly pulling back. He made sure to slowly and teasingly drag himself along her sensitive spots before quickly thrusting all the way back in without warning. He repeated this a few times until she couldn''t take it anymore. "Husband~" Seeing her pleading look, Shane began to pick up the pace, repeatedly hammering into her and causing loud flesh pping sounds to spread throughout the room. "Mm mm mm" The frequency of Qingyue''s moans increased and she started to shudder beneath him. With each thrust, her entrance tightened around him even further and it wasn''t long before he felt the familiar signs of his own approaching climax. Shane felt his own climax approaching and didn''t hold back at all as the addicting warmth spread from his balls all the way up his shaft. He pushed himself as deep inside of her as he could before he exploded, unloading thick ropes of semen directly into her baby chamber. Qingyue''s fingernails gripped his shoulder des, her back arched and she bit his bottom lip as the feeling of his scalding hot cum filling her up brought herpletely over the edge. After a few moments, they both came back down to earth and Qingyue let her arms fall to the bed, breathing deeply. She looked into Shane''s eyes affectionately and kissed him once more. With hazy vision and a muddled head, she mumbled. "I love you." He brushed some hair from her face and his lips curled into a smirk as he replied. "I love you too my dear but you don''t think you''re getting off that easily right?" Immediately after saying that, Shane''s eyes shed with a teasing light as his rod began to harden again. He lifted her legs up until they were on his shoulders and wrapped his hands around her delicious derriere. He gradually leaned forward folding her legs and framing her breasts beautifully before pulling back until only the head was left inside of her. The newfound warmth and almost suffocating closeness of their bodies along with the feeling of emptiness woke Qingyue up from her daze. Her face was an absolute picture as she finally registered the position he had her trapped in and a small amount of panic entered her still hazy eyes. The gravity of the situation she had gotten herself in when deciding to tease her husband was just now revealed. "H-husband. W-wai- *Mmmmm Ahhhh*" Having no mercy for this little subus, Shane thrusted all the way back into her, and sighed in contentment at the amazing feeling of beingpletely buried in her weing depths. Qingyue''s rather weak protests devolved into a loud and extended moan as a feeling of fullness, the likes of which she had never experienced, momentarily overwhelmed her. The pleasure was intense butfortable and she could have easily stayed like this forever. Shane, however, had other ideas and he pulled back quickly, only to thrust forward with strength, drilling her into the moist sheets below and starting another heated round of lovemaking. He leaned further forward and captured her parted lips in a heated and domineering kiss. When his tongue joined the battle, Qingyue desperately tried to respond, only to be easily pushed into submission by his own. He withdrew his lips from hers and moved to her neck, sucking and biting his way down the side and onto her cor bone, leaving a trail of visible love bites, even as he picked up the speed and power of his hips. The intensebination of pleasure and slight pain did absolute wonders for Qingyue if the further tightening of her pussy against his shaft was anything to go by. Deciding to push her further, Shane roughly teased and pinched her little pink nipples while mercilessly hammering into her, causing her to scream out loudly into the night. "Yesss!" This time, there was no gentle embrace, his movements full of passion and fervour. She had provoked him and this was her punishment. Although she loved every single second of it. Their intense session continued for hours into the night and by that point, neither of them thought or cared about setting up any kind of sound barrier as Shane brought her over the edge again and again. After the 3rd one, Qingyue lost track of how many times she had climaxed that night, but needless to say, Shane made her go at least several more rounds after that. ----------------------------------- In the dim light of the approaching dawn, Shane opened his eyes to a curtain of obsidian hair. Feeling the irresistible warmth of Qingyue''s body, he directly invoked the power of the head of the family and she moved into his room the same day. Her victorious grin at those words told him all he needed to know about her little game. In the end, he had already won when she begged for mercy the night before and so he just pped her juicy butt before heading to the bathroom. After cleaning up, the horny young couple exited the room to find a totally scarlet faced maid, holding a tray of breakfast with dark circles evident under her eyes. Qingyue took one look at Dongling and her whole world shook. An atomic blush of her own slowly crept all the way up to the top of her ears. She mechanically turned her head towards Shane only to see his shit-eating grin as he took the tray of food and headed outside while humming the tune ''sexual healing'' by Marvin Gaye. He reached the table and ced the food down calling out. "Are you girlsing?" Qingyue quickly appeared next to him and fiercely twisted the flesh at his waist. "Aiya! Domestic abuse! Call the Police!" he screamed in pain, even though the grin never left his face. After that, the mood lightened up and they ate their breakfast infortable silence with Dongling taking sneaky nces at his exposed chest and abs from time to time. Just as they finished, a pair of footsteps could be heard approaching the courtyard, followed by the appearance of Xiao Che and Lingxi. They were each dressed in a set of training trousers and button-up shirts that Shane had made at a tailor in town. Standing up to greet his two privates, Shane subtly used the wind to make his robe flutter as the two youngsters gave him a perfect army salute. Although dressed only in a pair of shorts and the ck and crimson outer robes, he still managed to cut an imposing figure. Qingyue rolled her eyes at his theatrics but still stood up as well, leaving her maid to clean the table. Without another word, Shane departed towards the back mountain heading straight for the area he had turned into a makeshift obstacle course. As Shane walked, a feral grin spread across his handsome face, he was excited. Why wouldn''t he be? He was about to train with a cultivation prodigy, the likes of which the Primal Chaos had never seen. Until Shane came into her life for real, Qingyue had an overwhelming hunger for power but with her talent, breakthroughs came easily to her and she was never fond of training. How ridiculously strong would she be if he repeatedly pushed her to her absolute limits? It was finally time to see what his little wife could really do... It was from that moment on, that his dear wife became fully aware of why little Lingxi called him the demon general when the girl thought he wasn''t listening. Apart from spending a set amount of time every day doing physical exercise, Shane drilled her repeatedly and extendedly with the sword, spear and hand-to-handbat. He also pushed her hard in working on her profound energy and Ice energy maniption while sparring against her every single day, limiting his profound strength to her level. They only ever stopped when it becamete afternoon or her profound energy was exhausted. Sometimes exhaustion wasn''t even enough to save her as his ''pills'' could also refill profound energy in a short amount of time. Qingyue''s pride and stubbornness, mixed with her want to please him, drove her to push headfirst into any challenge or goal Shane set for her. Over time, her disinterest in training gradually turned into ambition. Ambition to be as good as he was, good enough to stay by his side and never be left behind. Ambition turned into satisfaction as she achieved her set goals, one after another, and satisfaction turned into enjoyment as she realised this was yet another thing they could share together. ----------------------------------- Although he was spending time training Qingyue, Xiao Che and Lingxi, Don''t think that Shane had been cking off during his time spent in the Xiao n. Giving the pair of Xiao''s tasks and directions took almost no time at all and he had, in fact, been training himself harder than anyone. Physical training, profound energy maniption, elemental maniption and weapons training from dawn tote afternoon. Absorbing knowledge, refining his forging techniques and growing the profound tobo nts in the afternoons. The only thing that had changed with the addition of Qingyue was the increase in the intensity of his own training, now that he had someone of rtive strength to spar against. Most evenings, he would even take Dusty into the areas surrounding Floating Cloud to further train in weaponsbat against profound beasts, while limiting his cultivation realm to below theirs. Shane had two abilities and a single trait that were perfect for enhancing hisbat capabilities. One that allowed him to quickly be proficient with all types of weapons and another that allowed him to absorb any knowledge. The trait was the most broken of them all and allowed him to improve immensely during livebat. There was absolutely no way he wouldn''t take full advantage of them all. During his time in the Xiao n, he had absorbed many books on sword, axe, spear and even dagger handling increasing his theoretical knowledge immensely. He had also managed collecting a few basic profound techniques for each type of weapon which allowed Shane to familiarise himself with the weapons on a more intimate level If you ounted for his many many hours of practice with said weapons, it was no wonder his proficiency with them was rising every single day. He would even go profound beast hunting while cycling through all the different weapon types so that his other ability War-re kicked in and the learning speed more than doubled. Just because he currently used a Warhammer, it didn''t mean that he was unable to use other weapons and he perfectly showed that by absolutely destroying the other three trainees with both the sword and spear sparring, on a daily basis. A huge Warhammer was just so handsome, and imposing He just liked to smash things, okay!? ----------------------------------- When Qingyue first saw his armour and Warhammer appear, she was shocked silly and refused to spar against him, saying she didn''t want to be squished. Shane grumbled a little but was secretlyughing on the inside, thinking. ''Hahahaha that''s the reaction you should have to a mighty Warhammer!'' Satisfied with her reaction, he let her off and pulled out a steel sword before proceeding to casually and one-sidedly dismantle her. He pointed out all the ws and useless flowery movements in her stance stating. "A sword is used for killing. Sharper movements mean a sharper de and a sharper de means a cleaner kill" It may sound hypocritical to say that to her but his mentality really had changed in that regard and he didn''t Want Qingyue to make the same mistake he did. Shane now had a lot more to lose and had be a firm believer in the saying. ''If you pick up your weapon, you should be prepared to kill with it.'' The absolutely great thing about training Qingyue was that herprehension was absolutely off the charts and she understood everything the first time it was exined or corrected. Within a few days she could already somewhat pressure him in a spar but the real beauty of it was, the better she got, the more he improved. They were literally the perfect pair. The only downside is that neither of them would truly harm the other and even though small nicks and scratches happened on a daily basis, there was ack of actual threat. Still, they weren''t the only ones who improved at a rapid pace, the pair of Xiaos were also starting to gradually be little monsters. Shane would never hurt them either, but they didn''t know that ----------------------------------- Like this, another three weeks passed by like a breeze... Within the first few days, Shane almost cleaned out the n''s herb storage and took their only cauldron with him. Apart from specific medicinal herbs used for healing, he took almost everything! Another few days after that, Shabe ruffled up his hair and acted exhausted as he presented Xiao Yunhai with 50 Elementary Profound Gathering Pellets of mid-level strength. He ''tiredly'' stated that he had run out of herbs to make more. Xiao Yunhai couldn''t keep the greed out of his gaze and didn''t even bother to care whether Shane had noticed. He even thanked Shane profusely, over and over again, without the knowledge of how it had only taken the energy from the corpses of less than 5 peak elementary profound beasts to create the entire batch. He had only mixed in the unrefined energy of a few low-level herbs so that the pills had a scent. The best part of all of this was that those beasts were offhandedly hunted in the Xiao n territory while he was clearing out an area for the obstacle course! Shane almost couldn''t stop himself from bursting outughing as the hundreds of herbs and spirit grasses filled a nice corner of his storage. He held his chin and stared at the mental image in appreciation, this was his first real loot! ''Not a bad haul for just an hours worth of work'' The arrogant fool even promised to acquire as many more herbs as he could so that he could help Shane fill his storage up even further! Although, whether Shane would still be willing during that time was another thing altogether. Not only that, the idiot even spread the news throughout the entire n using empty praises as a way to avoid paying actual benefits. Though to Shane, this was even more delicious than purple coins as every time one of those Xiao n young cultivators or elders passed him, they would always have either a fawning smile or a look of worship on their faces. To Shane, it was as if with every smile he could hear the crisp sound of a p on Xiao Yunhai''s face as his own n worshipped the man who robbed them blind for years worth of their collected profound herbs. Just a couple of days after he handed over the pellets, a veritable mountain of ''trash'' profound arts and techniques were delivered to Shanes courtyard. They appeared along with many different copies of books on various crafting skills, weapon training manuals from beginning to advanced, books on battle tactics, maps, cooking recipes you name it. Back inside his bedroom, Shane ced his hands on the pile and it began turning into dust. He couldn''t help but praise whoever was in charge of this job as no two were the same. To others, these may just seem like ordinary books, but to Shane, they represented a direct improvement to everything that he was. The Profound arts and techniques would be refined and create pathways within his profound veins increasing his cultivation speed, efficiency and the smoothness of using profound energy. The various weapon manuals and stance guidebooks would directly improve his understanding of said weapon and the way he held it. The books on crafting skills would be refined together with his other knowledge easily finding the most effective ways to perform them. Everything else was stored as recountable knowledge in his Mental Pce. Basically, his gains were in no way small. During this time, Shane had also managed to cultivate all of the profound tobo nts, including the saplings, up to a suitable enough maturity to be ssed as alpha strain. This meant he had hundreds of them, and they were all brimming with vitality, ready to be turned into Spirit Incense. He now had 50 of the beta strain nts as well and even 5 gamma strain. There was even a particr nt among the gamma strains, that Shane had been feeding his own profound energy into daily and he could tell that it was very close to evolving again. With daily fruit deliveries and harvesting of the leaves, he had managed to amass great quantities of both the alpha and beta strain Incenses in all different vours. Even this could be ssed as training, as Shane harnessed his considerable mental power and externally manipted his own profound energy toplete all of the preparations. He had even managed to stock up on a lot of gamma strain incense, enough for him, Qingyue and Xiao Lie to wantonly use for half a year without worry. With all of these potential cultivation increasing means, the cards in his hands were bing more and more. Due to Shane''s ''demonic training'' regimen, Xiao Che and Xiao Lingxi had already started to be quite proficient in hand-to-hand and with the sword. Their cultivation had also risen rapidly as well. Xiao Che had made it to the peak of the [8th of Elementary Profound] and Xiao Lingxi was at the peak of the [9th of Elementary Profound]. The real monster award however went to Qingyue. Her skills with the sword, spear and even her fists had improved tremendously. Her understanding of water and icews were profoundly deep and her ability to manipte the ice itself was starting to edge into the territory of Shane''s level of control. That wasn''t all, just from their nightly activities, her cultivation had reached the peak of the [10th of True Profound] and was just a hair''s breadth away from breaking into the Spirit Profound Realm. She didn''t even have all of her entrances open yet! With her being exhausted both during the day and at night, and along with Shane''s nourishment, her profound energy regeneration rate had also increased greatly. What kind of concept was Qingyue right now? Canon was still over 3 months away. Would she be at Sky or perhaps Emperor Profound before the Blue Wind Tournament even happened? From time to time, the XianXia fanboy inside Shane would give himself a mental pat on the back, thinking ''I''ve awakened an absolute cultivation monster, and she''s all mine!'' Shane''s cultivation, however, had only slightly risen to the peak of the [3rd of Spirit Profound], although he felt much, much stronger than before. ----------------------------------- Another rather interesting encounter had happened during the first few days and now Shane could regrly be seen with an emerald green snake wrapped around his neck and a beautiful pink and crimson luan bird sitting on his shoulder. He had been awoken from a rare afternoon nap by a distressed feeling emanating over the bond with Dusty and rushed to the side of her pool. Thereid an injured white Chinese peacock on her dying breath. She was barely a profound beast at all, only being at the [2nd of Elementary Profound]. However, facing Dusty''s somehow pleading gaze and her feelings of sorrow being transferred directly into his mind, Shane could only heal her. He brought out a few herbs that had a strong vitality, mixed them with the refined energy of two Elementary Profound beasts and directly fed it into her beak, guiding it through her body and helping her to heal. The bird broke through into the [4th of Elementary Profound] and got up after a while, injuriespletely mended and vitality refilled. She affectionately rubbed her head against Shane''s face before hopping up onto his shoulder and refusing to leave. After that day and much to everyone, including Dusty''s amusement, the little bird almost never left his side. She would sit in hisp during every meal and always wait patiently on the porch for him toe out every morning, the maid Dongling had even set a little bed up for her. Mostly though, she would try to spend as much time as she could either in hisp or on his shoulders and even if he put her down, she would still follow him around everywhere like a little chick following its mother. Shane, being the big softy he was, would cuddle her into hisp and feed her his ''pills'' from time to time when he was rxing in the courtyard. Due to this, her cultivation had somehow reached the peak of Elementary Profound Realm within just a week. Qingyue would ''jokingly''in that he treated his ''second wife'' better than her. Though she truly was a little jealous because, for some reason, the bird was not at all fond of her. Obviously, Xiao Lingxi was loved, but that was a given. Cute little animals attract other cute animals after all. Nobody found it surprising that it was only another 3 dayster when the birdy had a breakthrough to the [1st of Nascent Profound], their sensibilities were slowly being broken down by Shane after all. The little darling even became much more beautiful, her silky white feathers gaining a slightly pinkish hue. That wasn''t all, however, for she also grew a full feathered coat, reminiscent of a Male peacock''s plumage. Each of the long white feathers ended in a stunning crimson eye simr to the colour of Shane''s own irises. She even grew an adorable pink crest on top of her head. Needless to say, the not so little bird was even more inseparable from him and by the end of the second week, he thought ''fuck it'' and just directly asked her if she wanted to be his second contracted beast. Of course, she made a few of her signature *Phi Phi Phi* sounds while excitedly rubbing her head against him as if she was waiting around for this the whole time. Just a momentter, the contract waspleted. The little bird disappeared with a red sh, and a tattoo of a majestic Phoenix head branded itself onto his left pectoral. He couldn''t help but wonder whether these ominous tattoos of his contracted beasts had some sort of premonition of greatness. Considering the first one was an Ouroborus and the other was a Phoenix. Maybe he just subconsciously wanted some cool ink and they took pity on him? A couple of days after that, Shane took Dusty out past Cyan Forest town in the evening and hunted two True Profound Beasts. He wanted to see if the energy transfer worked with his little birdie and if possible, promote her realm at the same time. After devouring one of the True Profound Beasts, he could confirm that the cyclic energy transferral did indeed work in a simr way as it did before with Dusty. This time, with both beasts inside their tattoos, a single rotation took much longer. Being without any of his energy for that amount of time, yet still able to feel it cycling through another space was a rather strange sensation, to say the least. By the end of the third week, the little bird had ''evolved'' into a [Pink ze Luan: True Profound 1(peak) - Contracted (Shan Long)] She was a little bigger than before and her plumage became even more outstanding and silky smooth. She also gained the same peculiar ability as Dusty. The ability to shrink down into a chibi form and look absolutely adorable. The attack was super effective! Her striking crimson eyed feathers would leave behind a trail of embers in the air whenever she moved and her little crest was now topped by tiny ethereal mes. She was as gorgeous as Dusty and he sadly couldn''t get away with calling her little birdy any longer. Shane, who was obviously amazing at naming things (just look at Dusty will ya) wanted to directly call her Coral because it was a cute name and she was cute and pink. The coalition of all the two women, however, said she would be called Xiao Fen Se or Xiao Niao which meant little pink or little birdy... Shane rolled his eyes so hard, they nearly popped out of his sockets and said "En, I will call her Coral then." The system agreed. [Coral: Pink ze Luan: True Profound 1(peak) - Contracted (Shan Long)] By the end of the three weeks, he had also finished the initial stage of his own refined forging method but before he could begin, he needed to prepare a few little things. ----------------------------------- A/N: Oof 5.4k words. might be my biggest chapter. Chapter 27: Crystals and Fluff Chapter 27: Crystals and Fluff A/N: So, in the vote, short and frequent chapters won by a country mile and from next week, the schedule will change to four 2-2.5k chapters a week. Release days will probably be: Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday at 17:00 (GMT + 1). Or if you go by Webnovel timezone: Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday at 00:00. Some days my motivation is higher than others and I can breeze through a couple thousand words no problem. So, if I manage to write more than four chapters in a week, I will release more, simple as that. I must admit, all of yourments, likes, reviews and stones are much more effective motivation for writing than I originally thought they would be so thank you for that. I had actually run out of chapters for this week, after editing and posting myst 5 long ones but since we finally hit 1million views, I will release the first two shorter chapters, today and tomorrow, as a bonus thank you to all my readers! Enjoy the Chapter. (Bonus 1/2) ----------------------------------- For the past month, Shane had been preparing to reforge his weapon. By now, he had likely collected every single forging technique and manual within the city that wasn''t a secret art. He had refined them together, keeping only the best parts of each one and from them, he had created what he could only call a masterpiece. The technique required him to use a forge for now, as he had no control over the fire element yet, but that was as close as it came to a traditional way of forging. The essence of the technique was for him to apply heat, and pressure to the central piece until it had meltedpletely. He would then add other materials and temper them into that central piece using abination of his newly created forging art, his profound energy, and his Will. The Will would help to form the shape of the weapon during the whole process and in theory, help to imbue it with a concept. Shane was going to try and turn his Warhammer into a living weapon that could grow alongside him by absorbing materials and hopefully change size. He wanted it to be able to change form as well, but he had a sneaking suspicion that his forging method wasn''t perfected enough nor was his Will strong enough, to imbue or enforce any more than a single overarching concept. Shane had a big hunch that his Will was not only dependant on his determination but was also rted in some way to the strength of his soul. He really didn''t want to push his Will too far out of thefort zone, only to end up with soul cancer or something. No, best not to be too greedy. Plus, he liked the Warhammer, why care about swords and spears when you can swing a Warhammer around like one? The next part of Shane''s n was to use an incredibly strong catalyst to improve the chances of forging sess. Now, you may ask, where would he find such a catalyst around Floating Cloud city? Well, that would be the reason why Shane and Qingyue were currently walking hand in hand across the eastern hills. Long gone were the boring white robes and she was again wearing her favourite dress, the Hanfu that Shane bought her. ncing down at the flowing sleeves and elegant form of the Hanfu, wrapped around her devilish body, Shane was once again captivated. Although she was without a doubt beautiful, he frowned a little, the dress was the only one she owned that wasn''t boring in robes. It was at that moment, Shane decided to make an extremely huge and quite possibly painful sacrifice for his little wife. ''I will take her to the tailor and get some more clothes for her when we arrive in the next town.'' Qingyue, unaware of Shane''s impending sacrifice, had a joyous smile on her face and swung his arm happily as they casually walked along the rolling grassy hills. Time passed by as they enjoyed some idle chatter and each otherspany, no true destination in mind but there was an objective... Although he looked rxed whileughing and ying with Qingyue''s soft little fingers, Shane''s profound senses were actually extended to the maximum. The hundreds of meters around him constantly being scanned for any high or abnormal energy signatures. Every so often, he would even send a pulse of energy through the Earth beneath them that acted like a sonar. Qingyue, being the monstrous cultivation genius with acute senses that she was, picked up on the fact that he was searching for something, fairly early on. She asked a few times what they were looking for but he just smiled and told her it was a surprise. Even though there were things to be done, Shane was in no rush and he idly pulled Qingyue across the beautiful countryside while enjoying himself immensely. What use was cultivating and struggling for strength and power if one couldn''t enjoy moments like these? ----------------------------------- The two Xiao kiddos and Coral were setting up a forge in the back mountains ording to the blueprints that Shane left for them. Dusty was also around 200m away, using her own sharp senses tob thendscape for any abnormalities. That meant that for the first time in a long while, they were truly alone. Shane wasn''t just out here to search for treasure. Oh no, He wanted to have a romantic pic with his little wife. He had gotten up very early this morning, nning and preparing food with the help of Qingyue''s dutiful maid. Thinking about that girl, Shane actually felt a little jealous of his wife. Dongling was pretty much the perfect maid. Sure, she might have called him ''young master'' once or twice, but he was almost over that by now and everything else she did was absolutely outstanding. ''Grayfia Lucifuge eat your goddamn heart out! Hmm, maybe I should give her some pills too. Then she could follow us wherever we went. God knows I never want to wash sheets again.'' He was brought out of his thoughts by a sharp tug on his hand and turned his head only to see Qingyue''s puffed-up cheeks. He had obviously missed what she said just now, but that was irrelevantpared to the expression she was showing him... it was just so Moe. In the end, Qingyue pouting was just too Goddam cute to resist! So, without any remorse, Shane poked her puffed up cheeks and kissed them both before hugging her into his chest and spinning her around in contentment. "What were you thinking about?" She asked curiously when he finally put her down. "Hmm, just Dongling." He replied casually without thinking much of it. Qingyue''s eyes narrowed and Shane sensed a rather dangerous aura beginning to emanate from her, so he quickly put his hands on her face and rified. "I was thinking how I never wanted to wash sheets again. Dongling is the perfect maid and I was thinking whether I should give her some pills so that she can follow us in the future." He swept her up into his arms again and held her tight. "What do you think my dear? I''ll leave it up to you to decide." *Pffft* Qingyue giggled and said "You just don''t want to ask her in case she calls you ''Young Master'' again~" Shane''s face turned sour at that and he returned a pout of his own, which only caused her tough at him even harder. He grinned at her happy face and nted a few kisses on her cheeks. Then, he actually took a second to think about it... He was just considering training up a maid so that she could follow him wherever and serve him *Gasp* "Qingyue I-I''m not a ''Young Master'' am I?" Qingyue held up a hand to her mouth in mock surprise and stared at him seriously for a few seconds before she nodded a little. Shane narrowed his eyes. ''She is getting better.'' She wasn''t able to lie but they had found a way around that, and she was able to be untruthful when teasing others as long as she had no malicious intent. Others, meaning Shane and Lingxi... well mostly Lingxi of course. A soft nket appeared out of nowhere and Shane dragged her down onto it with him while his hands moved to her sides and began to tickle her. "Well, I guess this Young Master will have to punish his disobedient wife!" Qingyueughed and struggled until she was out of breath but would Shane let her soft body go? Of course not! For minutes, his fingers danced along her body while he nted kisses along her neck until her face was flushed, her breathing short and she finally couldn''t handle it anymore "N-no more Husband, please." In the end, she had to beg him in a sweet voice, even calling him husband and so he pulled her into hisp and ran his fingers through her hair while feeling very smug. Qingyue leaned her head back and looped her arms around behind his neck, pulling him down for a heated kiss while she started twisting her hips and grinding her butt around in hisp. ''This little subus!'' Shane pulled away before things could go any further and bopped her on the nose "Now now my Young Miss, will you behave! It''s time to eat and you are not on the menu." Qingyue blushed. She didn''t exactly start this, but her shameless husband, who had been teasing her for many minutes had actually called her out on it as if she were the pervert! "Hmph!" She turned her head to the side. Shane just chuckled and waved his hand as all manner of things appeared around them on the nket. There were little sandwiches, snacks, grilled meats, rice, sds and sliced fruits, along with a chilled bottle of fruit wine. "In my old world, this was called a pic and it''s something lovers might do together for a date." ''Well old fashioned ones anyway, she doesn''t need to know that, however.'' Qingyue immediately turned her head back and her eyes lit up at all of the enticing smells and colourful looking food but cutely scrunched up her nose in confusion at the unfamiliar word. "What''s a date?" "Oh, man. Ummm, well a date is when two people who share romantic feelings for each other go out and enjoy themselves together. It deepens their bonds and strengthens their rtionship." He exined while feeding her a little finger sandwich. Of course, she sucked all of the ''crumbs'' off his finger in a totally ''innocent'' way and for a much longer time than required. Shane attempted a deadpan while feeling just a slight amount of self-loathing at his swiftly rising excitement. ''Sigh Where did she even learn that?'' Recently, Shane would catch Qingyue reading suspicious books about things like rtionships, how to please your husband and how to be a good wife etc when she thought he wasn''t looking. Each time it was a different book as well! He had absolutely no idea where she kept getting them from but he couldn''t deny benefiting directly from what she had read on more than one asion. His money for the source was on Lingxi, she may look innocent and blush a lot, but that girl was a closet pervert. Qingyue told him that Lingxi had, without a doubt, started sneaking inside Xiao Che''s bedroom at night and each time she was wearing an increasingly thin negligee. Apparently, she''s a real hugger as well and when poor little Che woke up on the first morning with her attached to his body like an octopus, he almost had an actual heart attack. The full might of the Demon General came out that day and Lingxi had never worked so hard in all her small life. Imagine it! All that hard work Shane put in and Xiao Che still almost directly became Yun Che! Qingyue turned towards him with a slice of his favourite forest peach held between her teeth. She obviously knew it was his favourite and he was therefore even more likely to take her invitation, not that he needed any persuasion in the first ce. Shane leaned forward and captured half of the slice between his own teeth, although instead of pulling back, he mped his lips over her bottom one roughly rubbing and sucking on it, asionally pulling back. Qingyue went limp in his arms and her own lips parted, a hot sigh escaping them. He chose that moment to slip his tongue into her mouth, easily subduing her own, drawing it into a dance and mixing the peach vours between them in a domineering and heated kiss. Shane pulled back and hummed at Qingyue''s dazed look. "Got more than you bargained for there, didn''t you, my dear wife~" They continued to y around, acting all lovey-dovey and feeding each other food and wine for a while longer until Shane felt a little tug on his bond with Dusty. This was closely followed by arge amount of pride and satisfaction flowing over the bond and emanating from her, he could almost hear her saying ''Praise me! Praise me!'' He gave her the okay to return and when she came back, both he and Qingyue spoiled her rotten and fed her lots of the delicious foods. By the end of it, the adorable snek looked like she was having a better day than even the two lovebirds! ----------------------------------- After resting and enjoying each other''spany for another half an hour, the trio rose up from the nket and Shane stored everything away. It was time to dig up some crystals ...and avoid the massacre of hundreds of millions of Blue Wind citizens... ''Oops. Forgot about that lol.'' As they approached the location of the Crystals, Shane''s excitement was building up to a crescendo. Not only would these crystals be incredibly helpful for increasing cultivation, but he would also have enough for Jasmine to reform her body right off the bat, earning those early brownie points in the process. She needed 35kg of the stuff and if he remembered correctly, there should be 50kg in just this one spot... Upon reaching the area discovered by Dusty, Shane let out a low whistle. "Wow, that''s a rather sobering sight." In front of them and in between two hills, there was arge area of ground that was scorchedpletely ck. For dozens of meters in every direction, the surface hadpletely changed into a lifeless zone. Whatever material the soil had now be, absorbed all the surrounding light, looking just like volcanic ss. The area even felt much colder than the time of day would suggest, as if the heat in the vicinity was also being absorbed. That wasn''t the most distinctive feature, however, as the Obsidian-like surface was covered in radial, spider web cracks with the impact zone at the centre being sunken below ground level by around half a meter. Shane remembered from the wiki that this was where Xiao Lies'' wife had been struck by a strange ck lightning bolt. This once again reminded him that he was in a real-world, as the novel did this solemn sight no justice whatsoever. Stepping forward, still hand in hand with Qingyue, he began sending pulses through the earth to locate the crystal deposit and it wasn''t long before he sensed it. Smiling in satisfaction, he started moulding some Earth Energy together into a rope of sorts. Qingyue, who had scrunched up her nose, trying to understand the peculiar energy signature, she could sense from the area, caught Shane grinning like an idiot and her earlier curiosity returned. "Are you going to tell me why we are here now?" Deciding that it didn''t matter anymore, Shane told her about the deposit of Purple Veined Divine crystals underneath them and her little mouth flew wide open. She may have been a sheltered girl until rtively recently, but even she knew the value of such things. "Shane! You can never tell anyone about this! Even if you join Frozen Cloud Immortal Pce, You must never mention it to them!" Qingyue''s grip on his hand tightened considerably and she couldn''t help but call out in fear. Despite the seriousness of the situation and the concern evident in her tone, her words still managed to warm his heart. She thought not of the value of the crystals to herself or her sect but cared only for the harm it could bring him should they find out. It needs to be known what kind of heaven-defying concept 50kg of Purple Veined Divine Crystals is. That amount could allow a small sect like Frozen Cloud to rise in power, and given enough time, easily contend with one of the Sacred Grounds. That was without mentioning the absolute benefits one could attain to their personal cultivation through absorbing the energy of the crystals. It would seem that his importance in Qingyue''s heart had already far surpassed her Master and her sect. Shane rubbed her hand soothingly. "Mhmm, I know its value. Don''t worry, it will stay inside my storage space until I use it. Okay, stand back, I will get it out now..." ----------------------------------- A/N: *Sigh* So, I guess when I tried to do a short chapter it came out at nearly 3k... Hear ye, hear ye! Beware of shadowbans! If you wish to curse me, get creative punks! Chapter 28: Extraction and Advancement Chapter 28: Extraction and Advancement A/N: So, in the vote, short and frequent chapters won by a country mile and from next week, the schedule will change to four 2-2.5k chapters a week. Release days will probably be: Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday at 17:00 (GMT + 1). Or if you go by Webnovel timezone: Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday at 00:00. Enjoy the Chapter and the rest of your weekend. (Bonus 2/2) ----------------------------------- Shane closed his eyes and started to concentrate. An invisible spike, made of his profound energy infused with the earth element, formed at one end of the ''rope'', before it was unceremoniously pushed into the ground. The ss-like surfaceyer was only around half a meter thick, but it gave him some severe resistance, however, he quickly grew ustomed and reinforced the ''spike'' with more energy. Before long, it passed through and his speed of advance increased considerably. After a few minutes of time had passed and with over half his profound energy depleted, Shane finally reached the crystal deposit. With beads of sweat gathering on his forehead, and while silently thanking the Goddess it was all one piece, he began spreading his energy over the entire crystal deposit. The ''rope'' of energy coiled around the crystals and began to fray apart into thousands of thin strands of energy, before wrapping around the deposit like a cocoon. More of the surface was covered in his energy each second and he could almost feel a connection to it. People do say that hard-working men are more attractive and Qingyue, who stood by the side, could attest to that. She stared at Shane''s incredibly focused face in a slight daze, feeling butterflies in her stomach as she fell in love with him all over again... The reverie was broken when she looked closer and noticed his strained visage and the sweat droplets forming across his forehead. Shaking her head and swiftly withdrawing a handkerchief from her ring, she started to wipe it away like a dutiful little wife. "Uff." With ast bit of mental effort, thepletely enveloped crystal was moved directly into Shane''s storage and he let out a breath of relief. Opening his eyes, he disyed a bright smile at the dutiful Qingyue, causing her to enter a daze again. Feeling a little good about himself, he decided to tease her. "Am I handsome? Did you fall for me?~" "Yes!" Not expecting her to react that way, he was caught by surprise when she nodded and jumped into his embrace, arms and legs wrapping around his neck and back, pulling him in for a hot kiss. Shane felt a warm and slimy object pushed past his lips and teeth as Qingyue added her tongue to the mix. It wreaked havoc inside his mouth for a few seconds before pulling back. She extended a finger, wiped his lip and then put it straight into her mouth, sucking it clean. "Delicious" She whispered alluringly. This time it was Shane''s turn to be dazed and Qingyue replied with her own tease. "Is Qingyue beautiful? ''Young Master~" *p* "Ahhh" "You see if I won''t punish youter!" He said domineeringly while his dishonest hand made its way inside her dress, fiercely rubbing her soft butt over the ce he just pped. Her teasing face was quickly reced by a blushing one and she released a hot sigh before begging coquettishly. "Ahh no, mmm. Husband, Qingyue was wrong mmm." ''This little subus!'' Shane cursed in his mind and swiftly put her down, lest he loses control. A sh of green, and a familiar weight appeared around his arm, apanied by some happy chirps, earning him another pout from Qingyue. Shane brushed some stray hairs behind her ear and said. "Don''t you want to see what I got?" Qingyue''s pouty look quickly turned into one of interest and then again into one of abject shock as a huge lump of quartz-like crystals appeared next to them. The group of translucent white crystals were grouped together in a cluster of long prismatic shapes,plete with glowing purple veins that ran through the entire structure and pulsed rhythmically as if they were alive. That wasn''t all, as soon as they were released into the open, the surrounding air was immediately suffused with an aura of immense power! Shane took a deep breath in, feeling extremelyfortable and his cultivation actually started to advance just by being next to it. It was only when he noticed the ufortable look on his wife''s face that he stored it away. "Quickly! Sit down and cultivate." Acting immediately, Shane checked his profound energy to find only around 40% left, and didn''t hesitate to pour it all as far out into the surrounding air as possible. Finding it wasn''t enough, he called upon the energy from the small world and added that too. Soon, the speed of his energy''s saturation of the air molecules exceeded that of the escaping energy of the Crystals and he stopped pushing it forward. Spreading his own Wind Energy out into a dome shape, Shane managed to form an extremely huge albeit thin as a cicada''s wing, wind barrier. His own energy,bined with an instinctual use of his Will, interacting with the air molecules in such a way that they managed to trap the lingering energy from the crystals. The air, dozens of meters around them in every direction waspletely under Shanes control, effectively creating a very primitive Wind Domain. Now wasn''t the time to think about that, however, and he checked to make sure the energy trapped inside his barrier wasn''t dissipating. Only after being Satisfied that it wasn''t, did he rx and turn to Qingyue, whose brows were furrowed in difort. "Qingyue. Don''t force yourself, just rx and calm your mind. The energy isn''t going anywhere now." To be honest, she was indeed a monster. At the peak of True Profound, she could cultivate with the energy from a resource, still used by people in the Divine Realms, albeit with slight difort. His calming words seemed to have an effect and her expression gradually smoothed out while the surrounding temperature started to drop at a rapid pace. Funnily enough, the pace of her energy absorption increased as she rxed. ''Truly broken.'' Shane sat down next to her and began to greedily absorb the surrounding energy while concentrating on steadily reducing the size of the wind barrier. This was a good chance for him to practice controlling arge amount of elemental energy at once and also had the added benefit of keeping the energy density in the air around them at a constant level. The usual cyclic energy transfer started with Dusty and it wasn''t long before two identical sounds could be heard. *Peng Peng* Shane and Dusty smoothly entered the [4th of Spirit Profound] and while his cultivation slowed down immensely, hers did not. The next thing to happen was a rapidly spreading hoarfrost that originated from under Qingyue and in the blink of an eye, covered over a dozen meters. Another sound akin to breaking ss echoed within the surroundings. She smoothly broke through to the [1st of Spirit Profound] and Shane, not affected by the temperature in the slightest, ced a hand on her shoulder, devouring away the ice that had momentarily umted in her closed entrances. Did he really need to run his fingers all over her body, the first time he removed the ice? Absolutely not. Would he ever admit it? Absolutely not. She opened her eyes to see Shane''s gentle smile and couldn''t help but return one of her own. He handed her a few special Nascent Profound, ''vitality pills'' while touching her cheek lovingly. "Congrattions my love. Now exit the barrier and use those to stabilise your realm." Qingyue showed him a beautiful smile, her perfect pearly whites on full disy, and kissed him on each cheek before turning around and heading out of the barrier. Fortunately due to her training and consuming Shane''s vitality pills and vitality ''injections'' often, her foundation was extremely solid. A few more pills and some meditation should help to adjust her body to the new realm fairly quickly. ----------------------------------- With her back turned to Shane, Qingyue put a hand to her chest as her heart fluttered wildly again at his words and actions. Shane was so caring towards her, always thinking of her and always prepared with anything she may need. Most of the time, they didn''t even need to talk between themselves for him to know and all the little things he did for her made her love him even more. Being with Shane made every single day fun and exciting, he just kept bringing her surprise after surprise. Like the ''date'' today for example... It was like he opened up a whole new world for her and she just couldn''t get enough of it. Qingyue''s steps turned lighter as she giddily recalled their ''date'', how he prepared all that delicious food, fed it to her, and treated her like a princess... She giggled to herself. Perhaps she was the first person in The Blue Wind Empire to be taken on a ''pic date''... even if she wasn''t, she was the first person that Shane took out on a ''pic date''. In the end, that was all that really mattered. She had even broken through to the Spirit Profound Realm, all thanks to him... Warmth exploded in her chest and a beautiful smile graced her cherry lips. She was well aware that Shane had many important things to do yet he still made sure to make the day special for her before everything else. He was always thinking of her, but she wasn''t any different. He dominated her thoughts, day and night, and by this point, he was almost her entire world. She was definitely in too deep now, in fact, she was almost drowning in her love for him. No, perhaps it had even gone beyond that. Of course, she was well aware but all Qingyue knew was that she had absolutely no intention of keeping herself afloat. The longer she stayed with him, the more she found herself slipping. Deeper and deeper, it was just so... intoxicating. She was his and she would do absolutely anything to stay by his side. Anything he asked her for, she would give. Anything he desired, She would get. Anything he needed, she would acquire. All of his troubles, she would willingly face with him. All of his enemies She would destroy. ----------------------------------- With Qingyue safely out of the barrier, Shane started topress it at a frightening pace, absorbing the lingering energy at such a speed, that a small tornado of Profound Energy formed above his head. *Peng* The cycling energy finished another full revolution and Dusty broke through again. By the time the wind barrier was flush against his skin, Shane had barely advanced half of the way through the [4th of Spirit Profound] and frowned when he sensed that Dusty had reached the peak of the [5th of Spirit Profound]. Sighing, he shook his head, reabsorbed the wind barrier andmented. ''Aiya, there goes my idea of absorbing the crystal to reach the heavens in a single leap. My veins truly require too much Profound energy to advance!'' Although the lingering energy in the air, could not bepared to using an actual piece of the crystal to cultivate, the amount given off by 50kg of the stuff was still dense enough for him to estimate its effects. He already had a feeling that cultivating normally was not going to be a viable option and it looked like he would need to go hunting for more beasts to devour soon. It was a pity that the crystal was not ssified as an Organic material and couldn''t be devoured. Shane nced around and frowned. The area still looked incredibly suspicious, practically screaming e look over here!'', and there was still a slight aura of power hovering in the air. That wouldn''t do at all. He definitely did not want the Phoenix empire attacking Blue Wind or even having any reason for nning to do so. This nation would be the starting point for his and Qingyue''s eventual conquest of the continent and then the world! Why conquer? Well, originally he didn''t have that thought but after his wake up call with the bandits, he gradually changed his mindset. Shane and Qingyue were both guaranteed to reach the Divine realm sometime within the next few years, it wasn''t a guess or unfounded arrogance, it was a reality. Their cultivation speed was already monstrously fast and when her entrances were all open, it would only get faster. They would also inevitably cause a lot ofmotion during their time on the Profound Sky Continent. Two less than 20-year-old peak Sovereigns would probably do that anywhere. Simrly, there were some extremely disgusting people in this world that would turtle underground and not hesitate to act when the two had left. People like Xuanyuan Wentian and Ye Xinghan. Those people had to die... Shane wanted to make sure this ce waspletely safe for whatever friends and family they left behind. He would do this for the simple reason of being able to travel the Realm of the Gods leisurely with Qingyue and without worries. If that meant dirtying his hands then Shane would do it without hesitation. Plus, that rapist bastard Ye Xinghan would want toy his filthy hands on Qingyue given half a chance and that was enough for him to be sentenced to something much, much worse death That would inevitably lead to conflict as The Sun and Moon Divine Hall would never let the death of their young master slide and Shane would never let him go. The bastard''s favourite thing to do was kidnap beautiful women to use as cultivation incubators, essentially **** with a side helping of mind-break. In the novel, he had tried to do the same to Feng Xue''er and that adorable little girl was already on Shane''s protection list, in fact, it wouldn''t be long before he paid her a visit with Qingyue... That particr Sacred Ground was also filled with scum like his father, Ye Meixie, who clearly condoned his son''s actions, and so they would eventually need to be dealt with. Back to the suspicious-looking surroundings and while lost in his thoughts, Shane had still been pouring Profound Energy into the earth. Now that he felt it was saturated enough, he started walking towards the edge of the ss-like substance. *Tap tap tap. Rumble rumble* With each step taken, the ground churned and overturned, fresh soil recing the ck ss as the peculiar substance was buried meters under the ground, in seconds. The phenomenon spread out until the entire circr area, dozens of meters in diameter, was all fresh brown soil. Shane didn''t stop there and took out a few herbs before devouring them andpressing their unrefined vitality into pellets. Flicking his wrist, they appeared on his palm and he pinched them between his fingers, turning them to dust. He then used the wind to spread the powder across the recently churned area of soil. What happened next looked like magic, as different grasses and small meadow flowers began to grow up from the soil. Within minutes, there was no visible difference between the area and the surrounding grassy hills. ncing at the evening sunset, Shane smirked to himself. The whole thing had barely taken him a few hours whereas those idiots from the Divine Phoenix Empire took months or even years to dig it out! Crystals now acquired and the area covered up, he turned to Qingyue just as her eyelids fluttered open. She stood up, gracefully floated over to his side and naturally hugged onto his arm. "Are you finished my dear?" He asked while stroking her cheek. "Mmm" She hummed a reply and without another word needed, they began to walk back towards Floating Cloud while Dusty slithered along, frolicking in the grass nearby. Shane was extremely happy, there were only two things left to do tonight before he could begin forging tomorrow. The first one was to somehow deal with an agitated little birdy, who could feel the increase in both his and Dusty''s cultivation and had been sending him feelings of displeasure across the bond for thest hour or so. The other was to finally look at the formation inside of Qingyue''s Pearl of Frozen Deception and see if there could be anything inside that would aid him in reforging his weapon ----------------------------------- When Shane and Qingyue returned to their courtyard, it was already almost dark, the only illumination around was provided by the severalnterns that were hanging above the porch. Dongling, who was waiting diligently beside the table, greeted them with a bow. "Wee back young miss and you-" *Cough* "Master Long. It''s a pleasant evening, would you like to dine outside?" Shane patted Qingyue on the butt and used his eyes to signal her to talk about his earlier offer. She nodded, smiled softly in return and skipped into the courtyard towards the maid before dragging the girl inside. Shane, who sensed a presence fast approaching, only had time to crouch down and spread his arms before a pink, white, and crimson blur crashed into his chest. *Phi! Phi! Phi!* cried out the little birdy in indignation while nipping his fingers. Shane swept her into his arms and cooed. "I know, I know. Who''s my sweet little Coral? Did you work hard?" She snorted a little but quickly calmed down as he began to run his fingers along her silky plumage while making his way over to the table. Grabbing some of the better, looted herbs from his storage, Shane turned them into little snack pills mixed with some of his own profound energy and gently fed them to her. "There there. Don''t worry, you will get some good stuff tomorrow too." He said soothingly while ying with her little crown. Her anger and jealousy,pletely forgotten, she rubbed her head into his chest beforeying out t in hisp and somehow purring like a kitten. Shane could feel Dusty''s amusement through the bond as she made some *hihihihi* sounds at her little sister, from her perch on the edge of her pool. even he couldn''t help but chuckle at how easy Coral was to satisfy... ----------------------------------- A/N: With this, we hit 100000 words! Woop Woop! Maybe short chapters are impossible for me, This chapter is still 3k. Chapter 29: Maids and Formations Chapter 29: Maids and Formations A/N: Another savage week we had there guys! 3.15k Power Stones is a phenomenal amount and I couldn''t have done it without you. Your reviews,ments, likes and power stones are great motivation for writing so keep eming! Enjoy the Chapter. ----------------------------------- Shane was currently sitting at the table in his courtyard, absentmindedly running his fingers through Coral''s silky plumage while sipping tea and enjoying the cool night air. He was thinking of how to approach the following conversation. How to seriously warn the maid without seeming like an asshole and also convince her to follow them. ''Fucking character growth eh, I feel like I only act serious recently. It''s not fun at all.'' Shane''s heart was restless and he had been starting to feel cooped up recently. It was a strange feeling, like his body just wanted to move and no amount of training could satisfy the desire. His thoughts always drifted back to the days when he sprinted through the forest, free and unfettered. He yearned for adventure, he wanted to travel, to see the world and experience everything it had to offer. Of course, he didn''t need to go on some big journey alone, he just wanted to do all the things that he couldn''t before and share it all with the one he loved. He also felt a longing for battle against tough opponents. That feeling only got stronger as the days passed, he needed to find some opponents that were at or above his level to vent on. Shane had always been interested inbat, even when he was on Earth and sparring daily with Qingyue had awoken an insatiable hunger for battle from deep within. Having to constantly beware of his actions when he was with Qingyue on the outside, so that her reputation wasn''t spoiled was also extremely annoying. She didn''t really care about things like face or reputation and neither did he but if people started talking bad about his wife, he would probably blow a gasket and kill some young masters, so it was for the best. The more he thought about it, the more irritated he became with the situation. In some ways, he wished he just broke the engagement in the first ce. ''That''s it! Enough is enough! There is no way I will ept being anything less than lovers with Qingyue any longer!'' Shane decided that he would push to advance to Earth Profound Realm before the teahouse opened and announce his engagement to Qingyue, hopefully along with Xiao Che''s engagement to Lingxi at the same time. He didn''t want to be the reason why the kid was mocked and bullied, although, not many people in Floating Cloud would dare to ridicule a 15-year-old middle stage, Nascent Realm cultivator. By the time the teahouse opened in three weeks, Shane would make sure Xiao Che and Lingxi were both in the middle stages of Nascent Profound at the very least. Then he would help Qingyue and Xiao Lie break through into Earth Profound Realm and even if all of Floating Cloud had some thoughts about the situation, they wouldn''t dare speak. Surprisingly, his restless heart calmed down a fair amount after making the decision and he rubbed his chin. ''Umu, I suppose I wouldn''t have been so attracted to the Warhammer if I wanted to be low key.'' ------------------------------------ Shane was brought out of his thoughts by the return of Qingyue and Dongling who were carrying a few dishes of food. Both were smiling happily and when Shane raised an eyebrow at them in question, the maid gave him a deep bow. His little wife pulled a chair close and sat down right next to him. Coral gave her the stink eye for a second, but changed her tune when Shane tapped her on the beak a pair of times. He casually nced over to the maid and gestured towards the table with his hand. "Dongling, sit with us." "Master Long, I don''t thi-" Shane raised his hand to stop her and said. "You have spoken with Qingyue, correct?" She nodded "And you agreed?" She nodded again. "Good. Then sit. We have some things to talk about." It wasn''t an invitation, and she quickly caught on to the underlying tone of seriousness in his voice. Shane cleared his throat and began swiftly setting up a pot of fruit tea, using his profound energy to chill it and pour it into cups, while seemingly considering his words carefully. "Just to let you know, this is a one time offer, there won''t be another chance if you refuse and there is no going back once you ept." The maid held his gaze and nodded again. "Good. By choosing to stay with us, work for us and travel with us, it naturally means that you will be with us for a very long time. I want to make sure that youpletely understand, the ''long time'' I am talking about, will be unquestionably hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years." Her ears perked up at that, after all, who didn''t want to live a long life. "I can promise you now, that if you do choose this, not only will we never mistreat you, in fact, we will dly treat you akin to family. The thing I am mainly concerned with is where your allegiance lies. In the future, while working for us, you are bound to see some things that are forck of a better word, secrets. It goes without saying that these ''secrets'', naturally need to be kept as such. If you can do that, and your job, then you will always have your share of the best things we can offer. Even reaching the peak of cultivation in this world, would not be a dream for you." Those words struck like hammer blows onto the little girl''s chest Surely he was joking? Dongling, of all people, knew her talent for cultivation was very weak. She had been stuck at the peak of Elementary Profound Realm for 2 years now and it would likely still take her a few more to break through. She was nobody, just a maid to the young miss of a small n in the Blue Wind Empire. How could she be a mighty cultivator? Looking towards her young miss, the maid felt as if she were struck by lightning to see her nodding. Many others didn''t know about Qingyue''s ability to detect lies and her own inability to lie to others, but how could Dongling, her personal maid, not know? If the young miss was agreeing, it meant that shepletely believed in what the young master said. What magical means did her new ''Master'' have on his body that could so thoroughly convince her Young Miss? The maid nced at him, her little pink tongue darted out of her mouth and licked her dry lips Maybe it wouldn''t be so bad to find out. Shane watched the myriad emotions churn within the girl''s eyes, her subtle exchange with his little wife and the moment when her interest in him peaked, with abject amusement. He held her gaze and let the suspense build for a few more seconds. "You will gain people that care for you, power and riches beyond yourprehension and the authority that will naturallye with your position. All we ask for, is your loyalty..." He finished with a warm smile, his fingers gently running across Coral''s little crest. Suddenly, Shane''s whole demeanour changed in an instant, his very being radiating extreme seriousness and solemnity. His aura and killing intent billowed out, nketing the entire courtyard. When he spoke again, his voice was grave, the surrounding pressure growing steadily stronger with each word uttered. "Just know that if you were to ever betray our trust then there is only one path ahead of you. Death. Believe me when I say that nothing in this world or any other, will be able to save you at that time. Do. I. Make. Myself, Clear?" As he finished, his eyes glowed bright crimson and Dongling no longer felt as if she was in front of her usually kind and caring young master but a great primordial beast instead. A predator that needed nothing more than a shallow excuse to devour her whole. The girl shivered madly in fear and quickly nodded. She was terrified, strangely not so much of her new Master but of the very real possibility that he may find her unworthy, although she couldn''t deny also feeling a surge of heat in her core as the air thrummed with his power. Shaneced his fingers together and ced his chin on top of them while looking into the maid''s eyes, searching for anything that could give him cause for doubt. His aura saturated the air and droplets of sweat started forming the girl''s forehead, yet still, she held his gaze. Although afraid, her eyes were pure and he was satisfied with what he saw in them, she had the strength of will and the determination needed for greatness, she justcked the talent and the confidence. Nothing he couldn''t fixter. After just a few short seconds, Shane took a long, deep, breath in through his nose. "Good." With that single word, his aura, pressure and serious demeanour, all disappeared as if it were a lie, seamlessly reced with the gentle one from before. When that irresistible aura of power disappeared, Dongling sighed in relief, she was just a few seconds shy of having a minor crisis in her underwear. Still, a slight flush decorated her neck and cheeks. Shane felt a little bad for pressuring the girl but it needed to be done, nobody under his cultivation could effectively lie to him, especially under such pressure. He could always make it up to herter. "That being said, your dedication to your job has already greatly impressed me, even now you remain calm and professional despite being scared. Normally that professionalism would be much appreciated but I already dislike the formalities that everyone else here seems to thrive on" He grumbled while selecting some dishes for Qingyue and swiftly filling her te. "I guess what I am trying to say is that when we are alone, you can rx a little, talk to us, call us by our names, ask questions about cultivation or anything else, and of course, join us for meals." Shane pulled a clean te from his storage and began selecting some dishes for the girl before passing it across the table to her. She thanked him with a slight blush... that he ''ignored'', already filling a te for himself and Coral. He obviously noticed the girl''s reactions but was helpless about it, he wasn''t doing it on purpose okay! What Shane tended to forget was that he was already uniquely handsome, and that, coupled with his disy of power could be quite fatal to the women of this world. Even Qingyue felt a stirring in her heart and her loins when he released his domineering aura and she was already his in mind, body and soul! Unfortunately, someone else saw the maid blush at her husband''s care. For a brief moment, Qingyue narrowed her eyes at the girl, giving her a calctive look... until a piece of chicken was held in front of her nose by Shane "Say ahh". All other thoughts seemingly forgotten, Qingyue''s eyes lit up in joy, and she opened her mouth to delicately take in the tasty looking morsel. While chewing the piece of salt and pepper chicken, she couldn''t help but think it was the sweetest thing in the world. Yup, she waspletely beyond saving. Shane was incredibly relieved that the maid epted his offer, he really didn''t want to do what came next if she were to refuse... Some may say that what he was offering the maid was too much and the benefits that she was gaining were not equal to what she provided. Shane didn''t think so, he would naturally treat his subordinates well in the future. That was where he believed Yun Che went wrong in the novel. He had so many abilities that could have garnered many allies yet he decided not to. He didn''t even open up all of his women''s entrances for Goodness sake. Would anyone want to fight for you if you held back on the good things? No, what Shane wanted was loyalty over strength, he could easily fix thetter with his abilities and as long as the former was already present, it would only increase over time. Well anyway, if Dongling disagreed, she was already too much of a risk to them and he was prepared to deal with her. It may seem harsh but he would never hesitate to go that far to protect himself and Qingyue. Luckily for her, she was already loyal to his little wife and the fact that Qingyue was no longer an ice sculpture probably helped immensely in that regard. All Shane had to do to breed that loyalty was to improve the girl''s life and make sure his benefits far outweighed what others could offer. Simple matters. The three of them enjoyed the rest of the meal in afortable silence without one of them ever realising how close she came to an unfortunate end. ----------------------------------- After dinner, Shane was sat cross-legged in a spare bedroom, eyes closed and eyebrows furrowed in concentration while an unremarkable-looking white jade pendant floated in the air in front of him. His profound energy gradually wrapped around it and he used his senses and intent to probe the jade stone... It was Qingyue''s Pearl of Frozen Deception. This in-looking ne could be used to hide the wearer''s profound strength at will! It was powerful enough to even avoid detection from a Throne level cultivator. Unless they were actively examining the ne itself of course. For tens of minutes, he sat unmoving, garnering no reaction from the pendant and disappointment began to well up from within... Suddenly, as he was on the verge of giving up, Shane felt an incredibly small yet familiar pull on his energy. It was such a minuscule amount of feedback that if he wasn''t concentrating so intensely, he would have missed it. Thankfully, he didn''t. Shane''s eyes opened and his hands started tapping his thighs with excitement! He had done it! In thest seconds there, he instinctively felt that his ability wanted to activate meaning that there had to be a formation of some sort inside of the pendant! Wasting no time at all, Shane rxed his mind and burrowed his intent into the jadeite again. This time it took only seconds before he felt the pull and immediately activated his ability {Pirate Library}. Shane''s eyelids fluttered as aplete image of the specific formation and the knowledge of how to replicate it was branded into his mind. The formation letters were then broken down and further refined within his mental pce. Unnecessary pathways were erased and new connection channels were formed, simplifying the formation and also increasing its effectiveness. Shane sighed, that ability really was a massive cheat. He spent a few moments in wonder, thankful that the ability was his alone, as he poured over the newly refined formation before releasing another long sigh and standing up. He went to grab the nowpletely ordinary pendant out of the air but it turned to dust in his palm and shortly disappeared. Frowning a little, Shane used his understanding of the Frozen Cloud Arts and waterws to create a small translucent crystal of the purest ice. Using the knowledge he had just gained and his great control over profound energy, he withdrew a Coral feather quill from his storage and began writing glowing letters in the air. The formation letters joined together in the air and began to shrink down before smoothly entering and inscribing themselves within the newly created crystal. Along with the refined version of the standard formation, he also added an extrayer that inscribed itself along the outside.. The crystal glowed once to signify the activation of the formation, before returning to normal. It had cost him around a third of his profound energy to create, but this one should be able to fool the senses of even a Tyrant Profound cultivator. The crystal was around the size of a fingernail and diamond in shape but the strangest thing about it was that it was only cool to the touch and gave off no indication that it was anything but a cheap gem. He withdrew some ''Profound'' white silk thread from his storage and under his direction, the crystal opened a tiny hole to allow it to pass through. He then spent a few minutes braiding the rest of the thread with his own profound energy, making it much more durable. "There." Using a small amount of Ice profound energy to secure the two ends of the braid together, the simple bracelet waspleted. Satisfied with his work, Shane went to find Qingyue and tell her the good news. He clenched his fist, that was another card in his hands that could be used to convince Frozen Cloud. Call him paranoid, but there was always a chance that they refused to cooperate or deal with him in any way. There was no way he would ever let someone take Qingyue away from him and he really didn''t want to wipe out a sect full of beautiful women who had unknowingly turned indifferent to the world. Plus the two Chu sisters were there *Cough Cough* Qingyue had told him how the Frozen Heart Arts had locked her emotions away and was restrictive to the point that it almost controlled her actions. Allowing her to feel the sadness, fear and loneliness but never being able to act upon it. Shane wasn''t sure if it was only her that felt like that inside but he was willing to take that chance to ''help'' them all. After the technique was broken by Qingyue, she became like a cuddly cat, always asking for love and attention. Shane licked his lips. Would he even be able to call himself a man if he had the chance to be the benefactor of a sect full of possibly affectionate and definitely beautiful big sisters and didn''t take it? Chapter 30: Bracelets, Mathematics and... Halflings Chapter 30: Bracelets, Mathematics and... Halflings A/N: Remember, no profanities inments or you''ll get Shadowbanned to Fuck! ----------------------------------- With an enthusiastic gait, Shane swiftly entered the master bedroom where he found Qingyue standing in front of the mirror,bing through her long silky hair. She turned to him with a raised eyebrow, feeling the excitement radiating off of him. He took two steps forward and picked her up into the air and twirled her around before nting kisses all over her face. "Did it work?" When he finally pulled back, she asked him. "It did indeed my dear!" Nodding happily he put her down and continued. "I was able to learn the formation perfectly and even refined it to make it more powerful. That''s not all, though." With a wave of his hand, the bracelet appeared. Qingyue reached out at around Mach 10 and swiped the bracelet from his hands with a girly squeal. "It''s sooo pretty! Did you make it for Qingyue?" She asked bashfully with those wide and limpid eyes. How could Shane resist that pleading look without taking critical damage? He scratched his nose a little to cover up that moment of crippling weakness and nodded. "En." Qingyue Hugged him tight and whispered. "Thank you, Qingyue loves it!" He noted that although she was getting better at not referring to herself in the third person, the cut little verbal tick still came back when excited. He pulled her hands and sat down with her on the end of the bed. "It does exactly the same thing as the Pearl of Frozen Deception, except the refined formation matrix inside should make the effect stronger, allowing your Cultivation to remain hidden from even those in the Tyrant Realm." He secured the braid around her wrist and continued to enthusiastically exin all about the formations he had learned and how he crafted the new bracelet using the Frozen Cloud Arts ice. Qingyue understood immediately that this was something that would be incredibly precious to her sect and felt even happier that her husband now had another possible way to convince them to listen to him. While Qingyue daydreamed about spending her days in the sect apanied by her husband and training side by side, said husband was animatedly exining about the formations "When I first found the formations inside the Pearl, I had almost given up hope. Who would have thought that just as I was about to give up, I would sense it atst" He did have an inkling towards Qingyue''s indifference but he decided that he would exin anyways, considering he worked hard to achieve this. The least she could do was apany him on his tirade. There were threeyers to the original formation. Firstly, there was a small Profound Energy gathering array that drew in excess Profound Energy from the wearer and used it to power the other two formations. The secondyer formed an almost nonexistent barrier around the wearer, hiding their cultivation from non-invasive profound senses. The thirdyer would work in tandem with the second, to project a chosen Cultivation realm outwards from the barrier. The primitive Profound Energy gathering array was cause enough to celebrate on its own. The other two were simply a gold mine of potential! With just a slightly better understanding of formation letters or enough time to practice, Shane was certain that he could turn those two into something amazing. When inscribing the formation letters onto the Ice crystal, he added an extrayer to the outside. This was a modified version of the secondyer, a barrier that keeps profound energy inside of it. To ensure that Qingyue''s bracelet never melts and the Ice Profound energy doesn''t leak to her surroundings, he had to modify it slightly and from an outside perspective, it was nothing more than a pretty looking bracelet. The formation itself was tiny and so it didn''t take much for him to modify it but on arger scale, it could easily be unstable and with all of the calctions needed, it would surely be a headache. After talking like a machine gun for what was probably a good quarter of an hour and getting so into his exnations that he ignored everything else, only then did Shane look over at Qingyue. She had a gentle smile on her face but her cheeks were flushed, her eyes unfocused and every so often she would nod a little. Clearly, she was a little absent-minded. Shane scratched his nose in embarrassment again thinking. ''Did I break her? Perhaps talking to someone who never studied modern math about theplex mathematical equations used in formations was too much.'' Deciding not to mind it too much, he stored all his clothes away and dragged her under the sheets with him. After all, as long as he knew how it worked, and it actually did work, it didn''t matter if Qingyue understood. Not everyone was a cheat like him, although Qingyue was definitely a cheat. The girl in question quickly snuggled into his chest and he wrapped himself around her, using her as a hug pillow. "Sleep tonight my love, I need to think over a few things before forging our weapons tomorrow." He kissed her on the forehead and tightened the embrace. Shane''s thoughts drifted to the day''s activities and the momentary feeling of control he felt when releasing all of his Wind Profound energy into the air to stop the residual energy from the crystals escaping. ''Was that a primitive domain formed in a panic? I could feel all of the different gaseous elements present within the air. Each one had a different feel to it as if the amount of energy required to influence them were different. Perhaps if I could differentiate the different elements, I could use them as a way to attack or defend. Removing the surrounding Oxygen for a fire user or nketing the area with Nitrogen would be fatal interesting.'' That was a very exciting prospect, if he could feel the different elements, could he forcefully separate them? Could he gather some together? With his knowledge of science and the elements, as well as chemical reactions, there were a lot of interesting things he could do if that were the case. The small world really was amazing, to think he would begin toprehend a domain while still in Spirit Profound Perhaps he could use that tomorrow to imbue a concept into the weapon he was going to forge for Qingyue. Maybe it would be impossible alone, but what if she helped him With so many ideas running through his head, it was a long time before Shane was able to calm his emotions enough to fall asleep although the soft sound of Qingyue''s breathing and thefortable warmth of her body in his arms, did help a lot. ----------------------------------- Shane opened his eyes to the familiar sight of swirling red fog and an infinite yet shallow expanse of warm crimson blood. The feeling of confusion that dominated his mind during hisst visit was not at all present and the lingering hostility of before was almost nonexistent. It was clear that his Will had improved immensely since his run-in with the bandits. This time, the searing hot air and freezing cold pressure didn''t bother Shane as much and raising a hand, he waved at the fog above him. Slowly, sluggishly, it responded to his Will. He was just a guest here, but with every moment longer he spent in this ce, the more it relinquished control to him. If he had to describe it, it was like he was backdooring aputer system without the host knowing and granting himself administrator ess. Rolling back to give him a view of the sky, it was as Shane had guessed. Eleven, gigantic, dimly shining crimson stars hung in the vast expanse of nothingness. Radiating a chilling coldness that threatened to snuff his soul out of existence. Threatened being the keyword for they couldn''t hurt him any longer. This time, he was able to look closely at them, although doing so caused the hairs on his neck to stand on end and brought forth a wave of unknown anger from deep within. He quickly averted his gaze, immediately dispelling the sensations, there may be no danger but unpleasant things are still unpleasant. Not wanting to rm the other person within the dreamscape, Shane carefully reeled in and then kept his profound senses as close to himself as he feltfortable with. Funnily enough, the minimap never worked in the dreamscapes. He started to walk in a random direction, confident that the path would open up to him, just as it did with Qingyue all those years ago Slowly gliding through the warm shallow carpet of endless crimson liquid, Shane allowed himself to be drawn by feeling alone. It wasn''t long before the fog rolled back in a different manner, opening out and forming into almost solid walls. A wide circr clearing, tens of meters in diameter, was exposed before him. At the centre of which, hovered a person-sized cocoon made of bloody red starlight. The thick crimson liquid swirled around the cocoon at a frightening speed as a cold light shined from within. Suddenly, an immensely powerful spirit sense washed over him, scanning him in his entirety, but this time he was prepared. Having already expected this scan and remembering how it only attackedst time after registering his hostility, Shane let his emotions and intentions flow freely, permeating the space around him. He projected many thoughts and feelings yet the most dominant were genuine care, understanding and the desire to protect followed by a small amount of poorly concealed pity and sadness. Even he wasn''t aware of how strong these feelings would be before now but the scene in front of him evoked such stirrings inside of him as if they were natural. The spirit sense and pressure withdrew but he could still feel it all around him, poised and ready, merely waiting for a reason to act. As he stepped forward towards the cocoon, the fog rolled back in behind him, trapping him in the clearing. The sheer effect of her power''s ambient pressure had on surroundings was enough to crush him a million times over if released, but he wasn''t afraid. Slowly, carefully, he made his way towards the centre of the clearing and stopped a couple of meters away from the cocoon and gave it a small wave apanied by a kind smile. His voice was soft and gentle as he spoke. "Hello. Hmm, I''m not really sure of what to say as I didn''t expect to find myself here again. I hope you can hear me or else it would be pretty embarrassing to stand here talking to myself." Silence... He rubbed his nose awkwardly. "Well anyways, I just wanted to warn you before it happens, but I''m going to create something to sit on so don''t be rmed okay." The air thrummed with power, causing ripples in the blood. Disfigured crimson weapons of all shapes and sizes rose into the air around the edge of the clearing, ready to pounce on him at a moment''s notice. Shane deadpanned and grumbled. "It''s not like I''m gonna find it any easier to concentrate now." which caused the momentum of the weapons to stiffen and falter a little before slowly sinking back into the liquid below. The pressure remained, however. Shane smiled disarmingly. "Thank you". ''At least she isn''t totally unreasonable.'' With a slight mental effort and an added *poof* effect, afortable recliner spawned behind Shane and he unceremoniously took a seat. "Ahhhh. That''s the good stuff." Not caring for the blood covering his feet, he spawned a nket, draping it over his legs while a pair of reading sses dropped onto his nose from thin air. Shane made sure he was asfortable as he could get which also doubled up with allowing the pressure in the surroundings to rx at his somewhatical actions. He leaned back in the chair and scanned his mental pce for a good book. Although the library of totally remembered books from his time on earth was very slowly growing along with the strength of his Will, there were still a few dozen there. He didn''t need to browse for long however and his handsome face showed a look of genuine joy. An old-looking green-covered book with a dragon on the bottom of the front cover poofed into existence in his hand. "I''m not going to talk to myself here all day or night or whatever time it is, so I decided to read you one of my absolute favourite books." Shane couldn''t stop his own eyes from lighting up in childish wonder as he caressed the spine of the book affectionately. "My grandfather read this book to me when I was eleven years old and the way he read it apanied by the words brought the characters to life in my mind. Although the feats will probably seem mediocre at best,pared to what cultivators can achieve, I will at least guarantee that you won''t have heard the story before." He opened the cover and took a deep breath in of the old book smell, it was just as he remembered it... *Ahem* "Chapter 1. An Unexpected Party. In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole filled with the ends of worms" As the words flowed and the hours passed, Shane became absorbed in the story and the memories it brought him. He acted out the characters, changing his voice when needed and even sang the songs as his Grandfather had done for him, many years before. By the time he felt the familiar tug on his consciousness signalling that his time in the dreamscape was almost over, he had almost finished the first part of the story. Bilbo and the dwarves had just escaped the goblins and wargs on the back of the eagles. There were times that Shane felt the ambient power in the surroundings fluctuate which coincided with an exciting moment in the story and he felt a little smug on the inside. However, the thought of not being able toe here again drowned out any happiness. Shane softly closed the book and looked gently towards the cocoon, eyes full of familial affection. "Listen, I may not be able toe here again for a while. I will try my best, and if you feel like someone is attempting to enter then let it happen..." Shane firmed his resolve to say something else, in case he didn''t get another chance. "Just know that you are not alone. When you are at your lowest point, don''t give up and know that there is still someone in this universe who will be there for you." He managed to get the words out, right before fadingpletely from the space. ----------------------------------- As the wild-looking young man turned transparent and faded from the space, the presence within the centre of the clearing, stirred. The Cocoon of crimson starlight cracked open, long slender fingers attached to a small, white jade hand, reached out towards the recliner. The faded green book floated towards the outstretched hand and when it was within reach, it was snatched from the air. The book was opened to thetest page, using the old cloth bookmark, only for the girl to be more and more confused as she turned them. Each and every page after the bookmark waspletely clear and unblemished, without a single word written. Only on the veryst page did she find something, a drawing and a small note. A small version of the young man with a snake wrapped around his arm and a bird on his shoulder was sticking his tongue out towards a little girl with long crimson hair while holding a book just out of her reach. He even had a strange bubble, hovering above his head that said. "You dare to read it alone when we started it together!?" "Hmph!" The girl snorted and snapped the book shut. However, she didn''t toss it away and instead pulled it in towards her chest, tightly hugging it and savouring the lingering warmth as the cocoon sealed itself shut again. Remembering thosest gentle words and that expression of his, filled with affection, her eyes turned a little hazy and her nose a little sour. When was thest time anyone showed her care like this? He was not someone she had ever seen before in The Realm of the Gods and with his unique appearance he would be easy to recognise, but just who was he? Could he be someone sent by the enemy to bewitch her? No, she discarded that thought immediately. Despite her young age, she still had the powerful soul and mental capacity of a Divine Master. It wasn''t that easy to trick her, there was also the fact that every fibre of her being was screaming at her that that wild young man would never hurt her and that she could trust him, absurd as that sounded. ----------------------------------- Opening his eyes in the dim light of dawn to the usual sight of a syed out curtain of obsidian hair, Shane sighed a little regretfully. Maybe he was too hasty with his words... There just wasn''t enough time to gain her trust. He had no idea whether he would be able to join her dreamscape again and so his heart had pushed him to at least say something. There was also no way he could use his Dreamwalker ability to talk to her, she would never willingly allow herself to be pulled into his zone of control. He knew he couldn''t stop her from going after the Heretic God''s Blood, nor did he want to. She wouldn''t listen to his words and instead, she would be unable to trust him. The most he could do was leave someforting words that may at least reassure her a little in her darkest moment. Whether she would believe him or not, that was another thing altogether. Pulling him from his thoughts, Qingyue began to stir in his arms, her eyshes fluttering a little. After a few seconds of wriggling around, she stiffened and hugged him tighter while keeping her eyes closed and feigning sleep. Shane chuckled and brushed his fingers lovingly through her hair. ''She is such a terrible actor'' He patted her on that luscious butt of hers and said. "Come on wifey we need to get up, those weapons won''t forge themselves!" ----------------------------------- A/N: Before any of you Goddess damned degenerates startining about Shane looking at Jasmine with familial care and affection rather than romantic... She''s twelve you sick fucks. I''m looking at you. You know who you are! *Author used ''Deadpan'' on Reader - it Better be Super Effective* It''s not like things can''t change in the future... (insert pepe here) Chapter 31: The Elemental Forge (Part-1) Chapter 31: The Elemental Forge (Part-1) A/N: Hey guys! I have been on a bit of a roll with writing thesest few days and I promised if I wrote more than 4 chapters in a week I would post more, so here is the next chapter a day early. The next chapter will be tomorrow and the bonus one will be the day after that. You get me? To anyone concerned about the slow pace of the story... It is a slow story yah. I mean we are 30 chapters in and you only realised now? To anyone concerned about the romance with Qingyue. Fuck you, she deserves every single letter of fluff I type for her! In regards to the story pacing, The stuff that is going on at the minute and the skills that he is developing will set up things for the rest of the novel. Meaning that I won''t have to pause in the middle of smashing apart canon to exin how the forge works or why the maid is so loyal to them or when Coral became a big bird etc. I am trying my best for it not to be boring but if it does get that way, constructive criticism is always appreciated. Anyways, I am a bit of a science guy myself, hence Shane''s University background, so I am trying to go with a scientific... ish approach to the elementalws in this fic. More wille to light on thatter, however. ----------------------------------- After taking much longer in the shower than anticipated, obviously thanks to Qingyue''s early morning energy, they ate a hearty breakfast and Shane was finally ready to forge some weapons. He and Qingyue collected the two little chibi beasts in their arms and left the courtyard, heading towards the back mountain where the forge had been set up. ''Xiao n really is too kind to provide me with all this space and resources hehe.'' Shane thought to himself when they arrived at the hidden clearing The kids had done a good job making it to his specifications and what stood there was a simple, cylindrical forge with a small chimney, made of stone bricks, and coated in y. There was also an intake pipe fixed to the side so that he and Dusty could push wind energy through it to increase the temperature. Shane had given Xiao Che and Lingxi the day off from training, and so they were technically alone but that wasn''t good enough for him. He didn''t want to take the chance of somebody witnessing what was going to happen here. He decided to set up the first of the preventative measures and walked in arge circle around the forge, leaving a few meters gap, pouring his energy into the ground and syncing with the earth element in the soil. Afterpleting ap, Shane returned to the forge and closed his eyes. Feeling his connection to the Earth below he held out a hand, and slowly lifted it as he called. "Rise!". *Rumble* All around the forge, 3m tall and half a meter thick Earth walls rose up andpletely concealed them from view. The walls themselves were created with his profound energy so, in theory, they would block the profound senses of anyone weaker than him. The forge was deep in the back mountains and Xiao Lie was also keeping a lookout for them, so anyone with a higher cultivation realm was unlikely to pass by. Even though everything in this world had profound before it, Shane had started to shorten the perfect mixing of his profound energy and an element as just Wind Energy etc. Instead of saying Wind Elemental Profound Energy to himself which was extremely long and annoying to say every time. Just like before when he mixed his Profound Energy into the ground to take control over the earth element, he would refer to the finished product that allowed him to manipte the ground as Earth Energy. Oh, what he wouldn''t give for there to be Qi in this universe instead of Profound Energy... Turning back to his wife who had a rather curious look on her peerless face, Shane took a chair and a small table from his storage for her to sit down on. He ced them against the wall facing the forge and warned. "It''s going to get very hot in here soon my dear. Are you sure you want to stay inside?" Qingyue smiled brightly at his concern and tiptoed to kiss him on the nose. "Naturally as your wife Qingyue will stay and keep youpany." "Where do you think you''re going? Hmm," He said as she turned around, reaching out and pulling her back into his embrace before pinching her chin and kissing her deeply. Her arms naturally looped around his neck and his hand slid down her back and onto her delicious buttocks giving it a firm squeeze. Shane broke the kiss after a few seconds and Qingyue, not realising, continued to chase his lips with a flushed face and hazy eyes. He backed up a little further and pecked her forehead causing her to open her eyes properly, only to see her husband''s teasing grin. Deciding to get in a little payback of her own, she let her arms drop and squeezed her chest against him until those fleshy globes were deforming against his sturdy frame and the little cherries were poking against his skin. Shane swallowed a mouthful of saliva and his throat went dry, he barely even noticed what Qingyue was doing until she reached around and squeezed his own buttocks. She licked her lips, turned around and slowly sashayed back towards her chair with a slight sway of her hips. When Qingyue finally sat down, she feigned a stretch in the chair, arching her back and pushing her towering breasts forward while facing him, the whole time her face was sporting a smirk of her own. Each one of her movements were alluring to the extreme and Shane''s eyes shamelessly followed her the entire way. Although she was wearing just a simple blue robe, it didn''t detract from her beauty or curves in the least. She was so captivating, that even after fighting a pair of rounds in the bathroom, he still had to stop himself from taking her right here, right now and the little vixen knew it. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he filled the forge with ''Profound Coal''. Yep, it turns out that if you saturate something with your profound energy, every day for nearly a week, even things as mundane as coal will be ssified by the system as ''profound''. Taking out the skin and fur he removed from the Spirit Profound Panther all those weeks ago, he absorbed half of it into Organic Constructs and used it to form a new pair of shorts, ones that should keep his ''not so little anymore'' friend safe from the heat. *Gulp* As he Stored away all his clothes except for the shorts, exposing his rugged body with its perfect muscture, he heard a loud swallowing sound from behind. Looking down at himself, he nodded and flexed in a way that would perfectly outline the definition of his back muscles against his olive coloured skin. A sharp intake of breath this time was all he needed to know. ''Heh, who said women are the only ones who can seduce with their bodies!'' Deciding it was time to stop messing around before things got out of hand, Shane called out for his partners. Dusty turned full size, her body and tail taking up most of the space between the back of the forge and the Earth wall, while her head was hovering near the intake pipe. Coral did the opposite and shrunk down into the size of a little chick. She looked quite proud of herself but Shane didn''t care and picked her up into his chest giving her a hundred little kisses. She was just too cute! Of course, Coral didn''t mind the attention and just nuzzled his face while purring contentedly. *Ahem!* His body stiffened as his wife loudly cleared her throat and a few little ice chips bounced off his shoulders. Coral quickly jumped out of his arms and disappeared inside the forge. Shane tried really hard to carry on as if nothing had happened, but there was absolutely no way he could unhear Qingyue''s jealous mumblings. "I won''t let a stupid chicken get ahead of me!" In the background, Dusty who also heard everything just started her little *hihihihi* sounds of amusement. Shane facepalmed. ''My life has be a circus.'' *Sigh* "Ready girls? Dusty, remember to only manipte the wind without too much profound energy. We don''t want to hurt the little chick now do we." *Phi Phi* Without warning, an orange glow started spreading outwards from the inside of the forge as it began to ignite. After a few seconds, bright crimson mes took over from the orange and erupted out from within. Dusty took this as her cue and breathed a huge gust of wind energy into the intake pipe. The temperature increased instantly and Shane, being right in front of the forge, felt it the most. It couldn''t really hurt him but it was still rtively ufortable. A huge chunk of carved and hardened silvery and metallic-looking wood appeared in his hand and Shane unhesitantly began to channel profound energy into his new forging technique. Gripping the head of his old Warhammer and feeding it into the forge handle first, he was able to melt most of the six-foot shaft within the first 15 minutes. The head of the Hammer itself, took him almost an hour to melt down but by the end of it, he had arge ball of molten silver essence. Pulling out the Spirit Profound Spear, he pushed it into the forge while motioning for Dusty to increase her wind output. Within minutes, The spear had melted enough for Shane to remove its core and he stored it away. Now was when the real deviation from the standard forging methods began... Taking a deep breath and channelling his new technique to the fullest, Shane took control of the raging inferno within the forge and using his Will, he pulled it towards the ball of essence hovering between his hands. The fire, now infused with arge amount of his Profound Energy, acted as if alive. It wrapped around the molten sphere like a miniature sun The wind followed shortly after forming a small cyclone around the sphere of fire. A thin stream of Earth Energy rose up from the ground and created a snug barrier around the swirling mass of green energy, containing the heat and projecting Shane''s profound pressure inwards. Lastly, Ice Energy coated Shane''s hands as he gently pressed them against the solid outside of the Earth Energy barrier and with a bit of ''Profound Energy shenanigans'', allowed it to permeate through. This was it, his masterpiece! The only technique or skill he could truly say existed due to his own personal hard work and virtue. This was his greatest achievement sinceing to this world, bar Qingyue, a self-sustaining forge made from only the elements and held together by his Will! The only thing it required past the initial expenditure, was a small amount of Profound energy to keep it running, extreme control and a tremendous force of Will. He called it ...Elemental Forge! As the cyclone of Wind spun not only did it carry the heat of the mes, evaporating the ice that formed on the inside of the Earth Energy Barrier but also built up static charge due to the friction between the specks of dust carried by itself and the barrier. This static charge built frighteningly fast and acted as a form of electrolysis to separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms from the water vapour created by the evaporated ice. As a matter of fact, ever since he had first gained the ability to manipte Wind Energy and felt the flows in the air, Shane had theorised that simr elements existed here as on his earth. This belief had only strengthened as his Profound strength and connection to the Wind had increased. He could now even slightly feel the weights of different atoms and molecules in the air, allowing him to be sure that the elements were at least simr, meaning Water was still made of Hydrogen and Oxygen. These two elements, separated from each other out of the water vapour, were then drawn inward, fuelling the central inferno while the cyclone itself stabilised the shape and the Earth Energy held it all in ce. It did look incredibly impressive and remarkably simr to a miniature sun, and with all of the refining he had done over this technique, it was actually extremely stable with little to no outside fluctuations of heat or energy. For the moment, it was just incredibly hot and only looked the part but perhaps in the future, he would even be able to perfect it to the extent of creating a portable hydrogen fusion reactor as a forge core. It was a nice dream but one forter, however, as he would at least need to be a high-level Divine Realm practitioner to have the cultivation pressure rivalling the core of a star. "Amazing" Well, at least Qingyue was impressed. Getting her interested in anything that wasn''t cultivation, training or him, was an achievement in itself. With the Elemental forge stabilised and feeling ready to proceed with the next step, Shane used his profound energy to draw some letters in the air. A muchrger and more unstable version of the Profound Gathering formation used in the bracelet took shape directly in front of him and then attached itself onto the floor below the Forge. It wouldn''tst for long but it would hopefully be enough to prevent anything from escaping. The remains of the spear along with the Spirit Profound core from the Panther momentarily appeared above the Elemental Forge before being sucked into the centre. He could feel the spear melt first and join the essence while the beast core was gradually being purified. What followed it was a veritable mountain of steel weapons from the bandits and other mineral ores that he dug up in the mountains. They were all refined into essence form andpressed into the molten centre while their impurities burned away to nothing. As everything melted and merged together and surrounding the purified beast core, the mental pressure increased causing sweat to start running off his body in waves. Suddenly, Shane''s eyes snapped open. "It''s time!" Using a single hand, a pulse of profound energy was sent into the rudimentary formation below and 5kg of Purple veined Divine Crystals appeared on top of it. That too was sucked into the Elemental Forge, melting almost instantly and turning into a veritable tsunami of Profound Energy that rapidly infused itself into the molten metallic core. Althoughsting just a few seconds, controlling this huge spike in energy drained Shane''s mental strength at an extremely frightening pace and hisplexion turned a little pale. After the crystal had been absorbed, the Profound Gathering Formation overloaded almost instantly, shining brightly before bursting into a million motes of light that were also not spared. Shane let out a breath of relief, in the end, he had still managed to prevent any leakage of aura to the surroundings and therefore any wastage of the crystals. Feeling as if he could lose control of the Elemental Forge at any moment, he cleared his thoughts, took a few deep breaths and gathered his Will. In his mind, he began to form a clear image and a single concept. ''Growth''. Feeling the image firmly, Shane used his full strength to enforce it upon the forge and surprisingly felt it easily take hold, enthusiastically responding to him as if he were a long lost friend. Excitement bubbled up from within as the connection between himself and what was once a part of him, began to once again grow stronger with each passing second. Shane stopped supplying Ice Energy to the forge and the fires died down. The cyclone stopped spinning and the Earth barrier crumbled away, leaving a huge chunk of glowing liquid with a ck and grey metallic lustre, floating in the air. Image still clear in his mind, he began shaping the molten substance to his whims. Feeling a lot of his mental strength returned with the demise of the forge, Shane pressed his Will upon the still forming weapon and imbued it with another, lesser, concept. ''Expansion''. The newly birthed weapon, as if knowing Shane had done all he was capable of, eagerly responded and the forming process sped up. It wasn''t long before a huge hunk of brackish looking metal attached to a 2m long Handle had taken shape in the air before him. It had arge rectangr-shaped head, with two, t, protruding sides joined to a thick shaft covered in a scaled pattern. The t sides of the hammer were adorned with an intricate panther head motif that held an obsidian ck coloured core in its mouth. It was a Goddess damned majestic monster of a Warhammer! Chapter 32: The Elemental Forge (part-2, R-18) Chapter 32: The Elemental Forge (part-2, R-18) Shane reached out and ran his trembling fingers along the handle, feeling a deep resonance between himself and the newly formed weapon. He tightened his grip and hefted it out of the air, expecting but still not totally prepared for the difference in weightpared to his old one. *Uffff* With a concentrated effort, he managed to lift it onto one of his shoulders and with a bit of difficulty, turned to look at Qingyue. Her little mouth was still wide open at the rather incredible sight she had just witnessed. Shane took a step forward only to stumble as his foot sank several inches into the soil. Scratching his nose awkwardly he said. "Uhhh. I will need to get used to that." It wasn''t really that bad, it just ruined his cool image a little, the thing must have weighed at least 1000kg okay! Qingyue finally snapped out of her daze and giggled a little before running towards him. He stored the hammer away in a panic as she reached his front and crashed into his chest. She took a deep breath in through her nose and began running her hands across his muscles. "Umm... Qingyue dear." "I''m just checking to make sure you didn''t hurt yourself!" She hastily albeit poorly defended her actions but didn''t stop them. In the end, he had to p her hands away so that he could clean himself off with profound energy. Sitting down in the chair, hisp and then his lips were quickly imed by his little wife. She broke the kiss after a few seconds and pped her little hands. "Congrattions! That was amazing. Qingyue has never seen or heard of anything like that before!" She seemed even happier and more energetic than he was, evident by the fact that she called herself in the third person without realising. "Mhmm. It worked just as I hoped it would" He said before burying his face in her hair and squeezing her tight. "I just need to recharge from my cute little wife and then we can make the next one." "Next one?" She asked, confused. Shane''s teasing grin returned. "Well, obviously I can''t be the only one with a badass weapon now can I?" She hugged him tighter and kissed his face all over before a little bit of panic entered her eyes. "H-husband, Qingyue loves you but Qingyue doesn''t want a hammer." She whispered meekly. "Hahahahahaha! No, my dear, hammers are manly and handsome. What you need is something that personifies you, something noble and elegant. Beautiful yet deadly." he pinched her nose and Qingyue''s previous happiness came flooding back as she preened under his indirect praise. They sat together like that for a few minutes until Shane''s mental strength recovered and he felt ready to start again. This time it would be different and hopefully easier. Qingyue''s element was Ice and the cold beauty image really did it for her, so naturally, the new weapon would have to mirror that. Shane had a rather crazy idea for a way to form her a de, but it would hopefully seed if they both worked together as one. This time, the forging process was much shorter as he only needed to forge a hilt, pommel and a guard. With the purified Spirit Profound Core from the spear, some more ores and another 5kg of Purple Veined Divine Crystals, the process was much less draining on his mental strength and went without incident. The concept of growth was also sessfully imbued and with a few drops of Qingyue''s blood added to the mix, it was soulbound to her. Once the hilt, Guard and pommel were formed, it was time for theplex and adventurous part to begin, the forming of the de... Allowing the mes in the centre of the forge to die out but the rest of the structure to remain, Shane exined to Qingyue what he wanted her to do. She seemed sceptical at first but still chose to believe in him anyway and so she nestled into Shane''s arms with her back facing him and ced her hands atop of his. With a thought, Coral and Dusty returned to their tattoos. A handful of refined profound energy ''pills'' appeared in his mouth, ready to be used as a quick refill at a moment''s notice. Taking a few deep breaths through his nose and clearing his mind, Shane ced his lips to the back of Qingyue''s head as a signal to begin. They both started channelling the Frozen Cloud Arts and the surrounding temperature dropped by dozens of degrees almost instantaneously. A sh of chilling blue light spread out rapidly from their bodies and a sheet of ice started to extend out from beneath them at an rming rate. The surrounding air turnedpletely white with ice, snow and frost as it fell all around them without pause. The air was as frigid as purgatory and although unaffected by it, the breaths of the two still turned into ice crystals in front of their faces. Shane''s profound energy emptied almost immediately and he grit his teeth as the ''small world'' tried hard topensate. ''It''s not enough!'' Feeling another, more gentle, profound energy connecting with his own, Shane crunched the ''pills'' in his mouth without another thought. Immediately an immense current of warm energy surged through his veins and into the connection. He relinquishedplete control to Qingyue as he heard her utter three words in a serene yet chilling voice. "Frozen Cloud Domain". Gathering the full might of his Will, Shane managed to catch hold of the domain at the edges, right before it escaped their makeshift enclosure and gradually started topress it toward the forge and the hovering hilt After what felt like hours but was probably no longer than a minute, Shane was drenched in sweat but had sessfully managed to condense the power of a Throne into a raging blue sphere 1m across. Feeling a slight pressure in his temples, a prickling pain behind his eyes, and a few warm trickles running down his face yet having no way to care about it, Shanemenced with the final and consequently most dangerous step. The pain became worse as the domain was furtherpressed and his eyes were bing blurry but it was so close topletion and failure at this point would be catastrophic for the both of them. So he grit his teeth and pushed on... Shane desperately gathered the remainder of his Will and with one final push, thepressed domain was forced to enter into the core at the pommel. A meter long, bright blue, freezing cold yet absolutely beautiful de suddenly burst out from the hilt and shed once before the entire Elemental Forge and Shane himself copsed. "Shane!" Qingyue''s heart tearing scream echoed throughout the clearing and thest thing he saw before cking out was her horrified and tear-stained face, thinking to himself. ''That was when Shane knew, he fucked up.'' ----------------------------------- *Sniff sniff sniff* "Please be okay." *Sniff sniff* "Husband if anything happens to you, Qingyue will immediately apany you" Shane heard her before he saw her and even that was enough for his chest to feel like it had been pierced with a red hot poker. He couldn''t leave her to suffer like that so he forced his eyes to open. *groan* "Gahhh the light! Somebody get me some aspirin." It turned out that overusing his Will and ignoring the signs was like asking for the mother of all migraines. "Shane! Are you okay? please be okay, I was so scared!" Qingyue practically shouted from somewhere above him. It was only at that point, that he realised they weren''t outside any longer. Feeling the softness beneath him and currently not willing to risk using his spirit sense, he guessed they were back in his courtyard. "Not so loud, please. I''m okay. I just need some herbs or pills or a profound beast corpse as I currently can''t ess my storage. Can you get some for me? You should have a few of those pills left over, right?" Qingyue didn''t respond and instead, he felt something soft press against his lips while a hand pinched his jaw. A wet and slimy object passed a few small pills into his mouth and Shane swallowed them while sluggishly responding to the kiss. He guided the energy towards his head and felt a cooling sensation spread across his overheated brain. Healing it as it went. ''Note to self, Don''t try to push and control an actual Domain while in Spirit Profound. No matter how much of a cheat you are.'' Finally feeling some of his mental facultiesing back, Shane opened up his storage and dropped a bunch of herbs and corpses into his hands, where they erupted into a white mist before being sucked into the little ck swirls on his palms. There were still dozens of Elementary Profound corpses left in his inventory but he was running out of those of Nascent and above. The Elementary Profound corpses basically did nothing for him anymore, another hunting trip was on the cards sometime soon Feeling the vital energy take hold and heal him up and consequently nourishing his mind, Shane opened his eyes only to see the heartbreaking sight of Qingyue''s tear-stained face. He raised his hand up to her cheek to brush away the teardrops *p!* His hand was ruthlessly knocked away. He had never seen such rage in her eyes before. "Don''t you ever do something like that again! I-I-I can''t lose you too! P-please d-don''t leave Qingyue! Qingyue will do anything! waaaa!" She started strong but her voice cracked halfway through and by the end, tears were flowing freely from her eyes like a broken pearl ne. If Shane didn''t feel like an asshole before, he sure as hell did now. Even though it would have been extremely dangerous for Qingyue if Shane let his control over the domain go, he didn''t make excuses and just swept her up into his embrace. He apologised to her over and over in his heart while mentally berating himself. ''How could I be so stupid? She had obviously never gotten over her mother leaving and now she views me on the same level of importance as her mother. Of course, she would react like that, I was too busy ying happy families with her to notice how vulnerable she was underneath.'' Never wanting to put her through something like this again, the fire inside him ignited and began to burn with the desire for strength. Qingyue epted the hug and cried all her grievances out while hitting his chest. Those punches weren''t light either, she was a Spirit Profound Realm cultivator. Feeling helpless, he could only brush his fingers through Qingyue''s hair and try to soothe her worries. What she needed now was an assurance rather than an apology. "Shhh, silly girl. Don''t worry. I won''t leave you, not now, not ever. You can''t escape me in this lifetime." Her tears didn''t stop but she rose from his embrace and dropped her robes to the floor before diving right back onto him, hungrily kissing and sucking on his lips. The salty taste of her tears mixing together with her saliva and further permeated his mouth with each passing second. It broke his heart and he promised himself to never put her through something like this again. Qingyue dug her fingernails into his shoulders and nibbled his bottom lip and knowing what she wanted, Shane''s shorts quickly vanished back into his body. Feeling his nakedness, she began to frantically rub her soft, nubile body against him as the intoxicating fragrance of his wife''s arousal entered his nostrils and evoked his own lust. With one hand and most of her strength, she pushed him back onto the bed, while reaching down with the other and aligning his shaft with her entrance. Qingyue rolled her hips, and the head slipped inside her weing tunnel with only the slightest resistance. Without hesitation, She firmly gripped his shoulders and pushed herself down with force. Shane''s rod disappeared into her syrupy vagina, sheathing him all the way to the base in one go and causing her thighs to p against his pelvis "Ahhhh" Qingyue''s mouth left his and she let out a long contented moan at the familiar fullness. Momentarily twisting her hips left and right to get used to the sensation, she raised herself up before mming back down, impaling herself over and over with reckless abandon. "Ahhn mmm mmm..." Her heavenly moans were apanied only by the repeated flesh smacking sound of her buttcheeks on his thighs. No longer content with being passive, Shane''s hands went to her hips, speeding up her movements and increasing the power while her nails dug further into his shoulders. Qingyue copsed against his chest and her lips desperately sought his own, locking together in a battle of tongues full of hunger and passion. His grip tightened on her waist and her movements sped up further as her inner walls did their best to milk him dry. She started to add a rotation to her hips as he guided them up and down causing them both to groan in pleasure. Qingyue''s back arched when he began moving his own hope and Shane''s mouth took this opportunity to find its way to her beautiful pink nipples. Hetched onto one, rolling his tongue over the tantalising little cherry and making her back arch further. Her fingers tangled in his hair and she yanked his head into her chest while he sucked and nibbled on them to his heart''s content, never stopping the movements of her waist all the while. Shane grazed his teeth across her nipple and she gasped at the new sensation. When he bit down a little harder, her pussy mped down on him even harder and her moans became even louder and more frequent than before. "Mmm mmm mmm" The room was filled with the sound of their skin colliding, Shane''s grunts and his wife''s moans. Within minutes, they were both gasping for air, drawing ever closer towards that sweet release. Qingyue reached her limit first, her walls tightening like a vice around his cock, undting against his shaft and massaging it as she moaned wantonly. In the peak of her pleasure, her movements slowed but she didn''t want it to stop, her mesmerisingly beautiful eyes, clouded by lust, locked onto his, pleading with him to just grab hold of her and fuck her into oblivion. This was far from the gentle or yful lovemaking they usually engaged in but after today, she needed to be fucked, she needed him to cum inside her and she needed to really feel him, to know that he was still here. Shane was the same, he understood herpletely and there was no way he would stop now either. Holding onto her pillowy buttcheeks, he started thrusting rapidly into her from below and after just a few seconds, he felt the familiar rush of warmth building in his balls. Pulling her hips down onto him as far as he could and crashing their lips together again once, Shane''s rod started twitching inside her as spurt after spurt of scalding hot semen hit the back of her womb. "Ahhhhhh!" Feeling him filling her up, Qingyue''s back arched like a fully drawn bow. She began to shudder in ecstasy and a warm fluid gushed out over his crotch followed by a loud, high pitched moan escaping her lips. When thest drop had been emptied inside of her, she copsed on his chest like a puppet with her strings cut. A few momentster, only the soft sounds of breathing could be heard within the room. Shane looked down, only to find that she had fallen asleep on his chest with him still inside of her. He tucked some loose strands of hair behind her ear, kissed her on the forehead and pulled a sheet over the top of them. "Goodnight my love" ----------------------------------- A/N: Next time on Devouring the Heavens, Shane gets grounded! Chapter 33: Beasts and Breakthroughs Chapter 33: Beasts and Breakthroughs A/N: Here have an extra-long bonus chapter 3.7k. Honestly, I could have probably split this one up but I just couldn''t find a good ce to stop so it is what it is. Enjoy the chapter. ----------------------------------- If Shane thought that everything was going to be fine in the morning, he would have been wrong. Despite being healed back to 100% health, he was still forbidden from taking even a single step out of the courtyard for another two days. It turned out that Dusty and Coral were pretty pissed at him too, which was definitely giving him a headache. If Coral, that obsessive little chick, was mad at him, then he had clearly fucked up. The thing is, he wasn''t even that badly hurt and with his abilities, the injuries were healed in practically no time at all. So at first, he was only outwardly apologetic, while inside he was indignant and felt as if they were overreacting. But after thinking it over, Shane realised that they were probably more concerned with hisck of care at being injured to that extent than the injury itself. Worrying that he would do something reckless in the future that would end up costing his life... There was no way that Qingyue didn''t realise how dangerous it would have been for her if he let thepressed domain free at that time yet she would have rather faced the bacsh than let him do it. Wasn''t that a little hypocritical? Obviously, Shane would never let her get hurt in any way, especially if he could be injured in her stead and so he pushed on without feeling anything. It was more than that however, at that time, he felt that the injury was a more than eptable payment for the oue. Perhaps, having experienced that suffering and death once, he had be a little indifferent to his own life, a sobering thought... It wasn''t indifference per se, he actually was very much attached to his new life, after all, it was more like an eptance of the danger involved with the so-called risk and reward actions andck of care for the consequences. Shane found that as long as he could achieve his goals and didn''t actually die, he would deem almost any injury or ailment as fair payment, knowing that he could just heal it away the next minute. although, perhaps that was the problem. He didn''t enjoy pain or getting hurt, he wasn''t a masochist, not by any stretch of the imagination, but he couldn''t quite find it within himself to care that it had happened. He cared much more about the effect his injury had on Qingyue than he did himself. That was another rather sobering line of thought and this one actually scared him a little... Perhaps, it was some sort of side effect of the profound beast''s bloodline or the soul shenanigans. The saving grace of all of this was that the indifference only extended to himself, as the mere thought of Qingyue getting a slight scratch, made his blood boil like molten magma. Well, he would talk to his wife about it and she could reel him in if he went too far in the future, they were a team after all. So, after thinking things through and putting himself in their shoes, Shane felt that the easiest solution would be to just stay back, rx and spend time with the three of them for a couple of days while doing a few experiments. ----------------------------------- On the first day, other than carrying his little wife around like a Ko for most of the day, Shane started casually working on the creation of a more stable version of the profound gathering formation that he used during the forging. By the second afternoon, he managed to work it out by linking seven smaller formations together into an array, each of them being about 1m in diameter. One of them was positioned in the centre of the array and the others around it in the shape of a 6 pointed star. The whole formation would remain stable with a total diameter of around 15m which was just fine for fitting in his courtyard. On the second evening, Shane decided to test it with Coral and a small piece of Purple Veined Divine Crystal. Qingyue decided not to partake as she was still getting used to her strength at Spirit Profound and after their nightly activities, she was already halfway to the peak of the [1st of Spirit Profound]. Dusty, being the goodest girl that she was, was happy to let her younger sister have this one to herself, however, she still stayed back in the shallows of her pool to watch. With Coralid out in hisp like she was taking a vacation, Shane sat cross-legged on the floor of the courtyard and rapidly drew formation letters in the air. The letters connected together and formed 7 identical formations that, oncepleted, span freely in the air, while slowly floating around him. He held his palm out t and lowered it towards the floor, causing the separate formations to stop spinning and spread out from him before sinking into the ground. A pulse of profound energy was sent into the ground, causing the formations to glow and blinding white channels of light to form between them, connecting them together. The whole thing became a singr entity and pulsed once more before the surrounding hundreds of meters of profound energy rushed towards the centre eye where Shane and Coral sat. He was lucky that the Xiao n was truly massive and the formation wasn''t that powerful, or else everyone would be alerted before he couldplete his task. Taking out a tiny piece of the crystals, he pinched it between his fingers and it turned to dust, releasing an overwhelming aura of pure power into his immediate surroundings. The formation glowed strongly from the overload, but in the end, it managed to hold long enough for the small tornado above Shane''s head to absorb all of the crystal''s Profound Energy into himself. The cyclic energy sharing kicked in, and Coral''s Cultivation realm began to rise at an rming rate. She went all the way through from the peak of the [1st of True Profound] to the peak of True Profound in under half an hour, surprising even himself. When Shane thought she would use the excess energy to charge straight into the Spirit Profound Realm, She suddenly broke the connection and sent it all back towards him. *Phi Phi!* She called little Dusty over before taking off into the sky and quickly exiting the range of the now crumbling formation. The cute little snake didn''t protest and appeared on hisp in a sh, recing Coral as the link formed again. It wasn''t long before she broke through into the [6th of Spirit Profound] and then quickly began approaching the peak. Shane''s cultivation, however, had only barely reached the [5th of Spirit Profound] and his eyebrows knitted together in annoyance. By his estimates, the remaining 5kg of Purple Veined Divine Crystals would at most be enough to raise him to the realm of Thrones. Frankly, that was a waste of a valuable resource that he could use to boost both Qingyue, his maid and his beast''s cultivation. There were always plenty of beasts to devour, bloodlines to collect and formations to improve for when he wanted to advance quickly. Shane licked his lips in anticipation. ''Especially all those tens of thousands of beasts in the Dragon God trials.'' Though he would need to wait until at least Sky Profound Realm if he wanted to make the most out of that one. ----------------------------------- When his quarantine was finally over, amid a flurry of protests, Shane firmly decided to use the forge onest time before fully focusing on improving his cultivation andbat ability. Right now, what he needed to do was improve his and Qingyue''sbat capabilities as far as possible before making a push towards Earth Profound andpleting the quest. The canon timeline was fast approaching and the blood of the Heretic God would boost his strength tremendously. Enough that Shane would easily be able to contend with Chu Yueli who should be at the [7th of Sky Profound] while only being at around the middle of Earth Profound. Once he then had that power to punch far above his weight, firmly within his grasp, it would be rather easy to increase his own cultivation further and in a ridiculously short time at that. He wanted to make sure that Qingyue would still be able to follow him at that time... In his opinion, there was absolutely no point in being all-powerful if you had nothing to acquire that power for or nobody to share it with... ----------------------------------- Shane, now familiar with the Elemental Forging technique, dived into it and reformed the pair of True Profound Swords for the two Xiao kiddos and also the set of True Profound Daggers for Dongling, within a single afternoon. The swords would serve as a fitting congrattions gift for his little pseudo students for when they reached nascent Profound and still be useful to them for a long while. He didn''t do anything crazy with them or imbue any concepts, he just forged them as a pair of sister swords that could be fed with profound energy to create wind shes or use the wind to make the de sharper. Simple things... He also only used some of the Purple Veined Heaven Crystals found in the mountain range as a catalyst instead of the Purple Veined Divine Crystals, so the effects weren''t that strong. Maybe it was due to being forged together as a pair, or whether it was the effect of Shane''s ever-increasing Will but these swords did have a peculiar ability. Both of the des shared some sort of resonance with one another, causing the wielders to be aided by the wind, their movements bing faster and faster, the longer they fought together. The daggers forged for Dongling ended up being a weapon that was infinitesimally close to Spirit Profound in strength and really he couldn''t wait to see the maid''s reaction when he gave them to her. These weapons were not only incredibly sharp, they also had a concept imbued. Chameleon. It allowed the daggers to camouge as a pair of simple looking silver and gold rings that would remain hidden from even the invasive Profound Senses of a Throne. Although that hadn''t been tested for obvious reasons, he didn''t doubt Appraisal. It was Shane''s hope that he could train this little maid up to be their unsuspected trump card that would attack from the shadows... Or perhaps there was just something about having abat maid that tickled his fancy. ----------------------------------- With how busy everyone was, the rest of the following two weeks passed quickly. Shane and Qingyue spent a lot of time getting used to their new weapons and could be found sparring with each other in the back mountains for arge portion of each day. Shane pushed himself incredibly hard, often trainingte into the evenings to handle the huge and extremely heavy hammer. Fortunately, after just a few days, he could swing it about as if it were a sword or a simple stick and by the end of the two weeks, he could carry it around in its mini form at his waist without sinking into the ground or missing a step at all. The teahouse in the centre of Floating Cloud City was also almostpleted and scheduled to open in a week''s time. The building itself was two storeys like Shane had nned but the size was definitely more than he expected. It was arge pavilion type building with pagoda-style eaves roofing, at least fifty meters in width, and thirty in height, making it look very grand and imposing. He decided to call it Spirit Cloud Pavilion and Xiao Lie, who had visited it along with the four of them, was happy to write a little bit of Calligraphy for the sign. That actually shocked Shane quite a bit, as he had thought this world was the basic bitch of all cultivation worlds. That little trip went mostly without incident as both Qingyue and Lingxi were wearing veils. Funny thing to note about that is that a side effect of consuming Shane''s vitality pills is apparently making a startlingly positive difference to a youngdy''s skin andplexion. The young men of the Xiao n were practically drowning each other in their saliva while falling over each other to try and talk to little Lingxi, when she visited the n''s technique tower one afternoon. At one point during the outing, a few idiots sent some killing intent towards Shane for either his handsome looks or the fact that an absolutely gorgeous woman was hanging off his arm, could have either. He furrowed his brows, trying to decide whether to pressure them with his cultivation or killing intent when many extreme things happened in the split second of time it took him to make a decision. An absolutely massive unbridled aura of killing intent exploded out from the beauty next to him, mming directly into every person in the street. That was followed near-instantaneously by a meter long ice blue de appearing in her hand and the activation of her movement technique. It all happened so fast that Shane was only just able to keep hold of his wife''s little hand but could do nothing to prevent what happened next. With a sh apanied by a throaty bellow, a huge, mesmerising, emerald-coloured, Draconic headed snake of almost 30m in length announced her presence to the world. She, Dusty, the quiet one, actually roared at the group of young men and surrounded them with her body, her foot long, usually t spines were all angrily erected, their incredibly sharp tips glinting in the sunlight. *Screeech!* As if that wasn''t enough fanfare, With a melodious cry that would put a bald eagle to shame, Coral used this chance to reveal herself as well. Although she remained on his shoulder, at the size of arge peacock, her mes were anything but small and she shrouded the sky with arge conical inferno. Shane, still instinctively gripping Qingyue''s hand and poised to pressure the group of youths, though just a single step toote, had his jaw wide open before facepalming. Hard. Although he felt warm in his heart, Wasn''t this overreacting a little much to a bunch of nobodies? He was still a man for crying out loud, not some gigolo who needed their protection, especially not from these ants! There was absolutely a small part of him that got incredibly turned on from his wife''s yandere-Esque actions but that would remain hidden for a while longer. Qingyue''s cultivation pressure aided by her anger, killing intent and the sheer aura of her sword caused an absolutely tremendous effect on that group of imbeciles, leaving their whole bodies shaking like leaves in a gale-force wind. When Dusty surrounded them, mouth open and bathed in shadows due to the gout of orange mes released overhead, they pissed and shat themselves in fear before their eyes rolled back in their heads, fainting dead away. Thankfully, the youths passed out and were unable to open their mouths, as Floating Cloud''s mayor along with a few of the other ns would have almost definitely lost their son''s that day. If the girls hadn''t also been disgusted by the smell, Shane and Xiao Lie would never have been able to calm them down as easily as they did and prevent the incident from blowing out of proportion. Not that he was afraid, With his weapon in hand, he had no need to be wary of anyone in Floating Cloud any longer. There just wasn''t any point in leaving behind trouble for Qingyue''s father and Xiao Lie for a bunch of insects Training with weapons and bullying Young master''s were not the only things Shane did during these two weeks. His sesses with formations were only minor during this time but he did manage to stabilise the Profound Gathering formation slightly. The singr formations, now 1.5m in diameter, could operate smoothly for around an hour without any interference and each draw in Profound Energy from the surrounding 50m. Shane didn''t know if therger array he used to advance Coral would be more efficient as there wasn''t any need to test it and risk rming anyone by draining hundred of meters around himself dry of the ambient profound energy. He had also been working with the other two formations from the Pearl in tandem and had an interesting idea to implement it into the teahouse. The only problem was, he was missing a couple of different insights into new formation letters andpleting them through trial and error would take an enormous amount of time. It would be a better idea to visit the ck Moon Merchant Guild in New Moon City if they had time during their training trip and attempt to buy a book on formations and arrays. If that wasn''t possible, an artefact that contained a formation might be a good alternative -----------------------------------. Qingyue, being as much of a little monster as always, along with their nightly Dual Cultivation sessions, had already reached close to the peak of the [2nd of Spirit Profound] these two weeks. Shane himself wasn''t even halfway through the [5th of Spirit Profound] causing him to sigh endlessly and yearn for some worthwhile beasts to hunt. The energy needed for him to advance now was just too massive to waste time cultivating, so instead, he chose to work on other areas while waiting for an opportunity. Sparring daily against Qingyue was improving both of their skills at a frightening pace and along with perfecting his elemental control, he was still satisfied with his progress. The reason Shane hadn''t gotten too antsy and impatient, at least in his opinion, was that he had been preparing to take Xiao Che, little Lingxi and Qingyue on a trip to Cyan Forest Town for a while now. He wanted to use thest week before the teahouse opened to take them to see the world outside of Floating Cloud and hunt some beasts in the preliminary areas of the Scarlet Dragon Mountain Range. He was only waiting for them to break through into the [1st of Nascent Profound.] Now that he had spent so much effort on fostering their loyalty, it would be a shame to leave the two Xiao kiddos without any actualbat experience. Obviously, he would still take Qingyue alone to hunt, even if the pair of them weren''t ready. This was an opportunity to hunt some of the stronger beasts around that area to improve his and his wife''s own cultivation as much as possible. After all, Shane was sure that those exceptionally strong auras he felt when passing through the small mountain range belonged tote Spirit Profound or even Earth profound beasts. He was just waiting for the right time to take them all and whether by luck or hard work, it finally came! ----------------------------------- Both Xiao Che and Lingxi had reached the Peak of Elementary Profound by the end of the first week and for the remaining week, they were sword sparring against Shane whenever possible to stimte their bodies. He had limited his strength to the [6th of Elementary Profound], relying mostly on skill alone, but it was still enough to absolutely destroy them, emptying their profound energy over and over. Right at the end of the second week, on literally thest possible day and when Shane was starting to lose hope, for taking them with him, it happened... Little Lingxi had been cultivating for much longer than Xiao Che and the more Shane pushed her limits, the closer to breaking through she came. She wasn''t hugely talented in the way of cultivation and so Shane had to push her more, repeatedly draining her energy, so that the boundary between realms started to waver. Seeing Lingxi on the verge of a breakthrough, Shane hooked his training sword under the approaching Xiao Che''s legs and flipped him onto his back. A Nascent Profound ''pill'' was then flicked into the kid''s open mouth but repeated sparring sessions had told him that staying down was akin to asking for death, so he started to roll away. "Enough! Sit down and cultivate. You are both ready to break through into the Nascent Realm." Shane waved his hand and Xiao Che flew through the air andnded in front of Lingxi. She smiled at him, pumped her fists, and grasped his hands before cutely yelling. "Let''s do our best little Cheeeeee-ahhh!" "Soo cute!" Qingyue appeared at a speed neither of them could follow and pinched Lingxi''s cheeks while Shane flicked a ''pill'' into her open mouth as well, a perfect example of husband and wife teamwork. With Shane quickly drawing formation letters in the air, a Profound Gathering formation took shape in seconds, before it sank into the ground below the two of them and another pulse of his Profound energy activated it. He would probably never be able to get over how cool writing formations in the air looked. They were formed from sparkling white lines of arcing profound energy, looking simr to the magic circles used in the movie Doctor Strange yet just more profound. All of the profound energy within 50 meters was drawn towards them as Shane and Qingyue looked on with warm smiles. The two Xiao''s sitting cross-legged together and holding hands broke through to the [1st of Nascent Profound] at almost exactly the same time and without any troubles. Opening their eyes, and standing up, the two stared into each other''s shining globes for a second before Lingxi closed hers again, leaned forward and pecked Xiao Che on the lips. It was only a momentary contact but it left him totally rooted to the spot, in a daze and with a silly smile all over his face. He still didn''t let go of her hands, however. "Bowchickawowow! You get him, Tiger!" *whistle* A few catcalls from Shane and a surprisingly loud wolf whistle from Qingyue broke the pink atmosphere and Lingxi wentpletely red before running over to hide behind Dusty. ----------------------------------- A/N: Soon, the hunting trip willmence and then Shane and Qingyue''s cultivation will rise sharply, he will also be able to get those juicy quest rewards. After that, there will be the wedding and a few more things to deal with in floating cloud and then I can hopefully get up to the start of canon and that fateful meeting with the Crimson haired murder Loli. There are probably still around 10-15 chapters before that happens and they meet face to face (the whole Chu Yueli fiasco will take a couple of chapters too) but ''This Princess'' will be appearing again soon. Have a great weekend! Chapter 34: The Birth of a Loyal Maid Chapter 34: The Birth of a Loyal Maid Back in Shane and Qingyue''s courtyard, where Xiao Lie was sleeping in a wicker chair with Coralzing about on hisp, Dongling was mechanically preparing for a congrattory feast while lost in thought. The four youngsters would be travelling to Cyan Forest Town tomorrow and she wasn''t going with them... Despite her status, the young maid couldn''t help but frown at being left behind. ''if you do choose this, we will never mistreat you, in fact, we will treat you akin to family'' Shaking her head to clear the useless thoughts, Dongling continued her preparations. She understood of course, they were going for training, fighting and to gather resources but why did it still cause a little bit of sadness and longing to appear whenever she thought of it? During thest month, she had grown especially fond of the lively atmosphere that covered the courtyard and even fonder of the one responsible for it... The one teased her and yed with her by ''forgetting'' to put up a sound-insting barrier at night, while he made her Mistress scream out his name. - She raised a hand to her modest breast and tightly pinched her already erected nipples through the robe, letting out a muffled moan - The one who made her body turn hot and her mouth turn dry with his powerful aura and threatening words. - The maid closed her eyes and gasped as her other hand snaked its way into her undergarments, finding and teasing the little nub on top of her already moist core. - The one who pressured her into willing submission with his soul-piercing gaze and that overbearing feeling of formidable might as he suffused the air with his cultivation. - Her fingers started to dig deep into her core and pump vigorously as she imagined him pushing her against a wall while those wild crimson eyes, clouded with desire, bored into her own - The one who acts gentle and kind most of the time but underneath is actually a feral bea- "Dongling! We''re back!" "Ahhh, cumming master!" ------------------------- When they entered the courtyard, Shane raised an eyebrow but wasn''t entirely surprised to see the old man sleeping under the porch with Coral on hisp. The family of three basically spent all of their free time here anyways. In her little chibi chick form, Coral stirred at the familiar presence of her master, spread her wings, and shot off of Xiao Lie''sp. Gliding over to Shane''s shoulder in just a few seconds and consequently waking the poor old man up. After a few grumbles and a few shared pleasantries, Shane and Qingyue left Xiao Che and Lingxi to excitedly talk about their breakthrough and called for their maid. "Dongling! We''re back!" "Ahhh,ing master!" The sound of something being knocked over followed by a half moan half shout was the reply. Shane, barely managing to refrain from using his Spirit sense to check, turned to Qingyue only to see her smirking and instantly realised she had no such qualms. "Don''t tease the poor girl." He booped her nose yfully and put his arm around her waist while they waited for the maid. The girl appeared a couple of minutester, looking prim and proper with just a barely noticeable flush still lingering around her neck. That couldn''t fool Shane''s senses, however, as her close proximity and professional bow carried the lingering scent of her arousal into his nostrils causing him to flinch slightly. Qingyue, who was very good at reading him by this point, noticed, and her smirk only grew wider. "What can I do for you Master and Mistress?" The state of address had changed and Shane had to admit, he very much enjoyed it. "We would like to talk to you alone," Shane said in mock seriousness, it was hard to stop himself from teasing this girl... "O-of course M-master." She stammered, clearly caught off guard and unable to hide her nervousness. "Come with us to our room," He said, grabbing Qingyue''s hand, walking past the girl and into the house. To his wife''s credit, she managed to keep the pout off of her face until they had walked all the way through the doors and into the building. "You told me not to tease her yet you started right after!" She hissed at him in English. Shane had been using their nights inside the dreamscape to teach her thenguage. That way, they couldmunicate secretly, even out in the open. Obviously, they wouldn''tmunicate important things through speech but he had no idea if there was a way to intercept spirit transmissions, so it never hurt to have more cards on hand. "I know I know, I couldn''t help it!" "Hmph" He replied simrly in English, only to be shut down by a sound of mock indignation that almost fooled him and simrly caused him to be proud of her at the same time. ''She is getting better.'' She may never be a great deceiver, but her progress still showed that people are only limited by themselves and everything should be possible. ----------------------------------- Meanwhile, the maid''s mind was running at a million miles an hour. Panic, fear, trepidation and mild anticipation fighting for control, although due to Shane''s seriousness, panic was winning by a country mile. She frantically tried to remember if she had done something to displease them and after a few seconds, decided that it could only be that her shameful actions were discovered earlier or Dongling paled in fear when she thought of how defensive her Mistress was of her Master. What would happen if her Mistress noticed her budding crush? Would she be dismissed ...or punished? Thest one didn''t seem so bad but still, she was afraid! The maid was so lost in her own mental tirade that she didn''t even realise that they had already entered the master bedroom until she heard the door close behind her. Then she heard her mistress''s voice carrying salvation. "Husband, you scared her!" ----------------------------------- "Shit! My bad." Shane turned towards the maid with an apologetic smile on his handsome face and raised his hand to pat her head. Despite her being older than both him and his wife, no offence was taken and it, fortunately, had the desired effect, being that she immediately rxed and pushed happily into his hand. Shane felt this gap between her blushing shyness and professionalism quite cute and only removed his hand when he had appreciated it enough which also coincided with her calming down enough to talk. "Qingyue, if you could, my dear." The girl nodded and closed her eyes for a second, when she opened them, her already blue eyes glowed with an icy light. Then, the room was suddenly so thickly suffused with Qingyue''s Ice Energy that even the Spirit sense of an expert at the peak of Earth Profound would not be able to see what was happening inside. Waving his hand, Shane created a bubble in the middle of the room covering him and Dongling so that she would be morefortable. Qingyue had no need for that, The Ice Energy was fully under her control. "First of all, I wanted to talk to you about our trip," he said gently. The girl stiffened a little and opened her mouth but he didn''t give her a chance to speak and continued... "While we do not wish to leave you behind, you are currently a nonbatant and believe me, the outside is a dangerous ce." Shane lifted his outer robe out of the way to disy both sides of the jagged scar just under his ribs to emphasise his point. Shane rolled his eyes as both girls suddenly seemed extremely interested in his ''scar'' "It may have been my own stupid mistake that caused this, but it still doesn''t change the fact that there is danger out there." He let go of the edge of the robe and it fell back into ce. ""Tsk"" He deadpanned, It wasn''t exactly like he wore many clothes as it was. "Anyways, What I meant by that was that Myself and Qingyue will start to train you when we return so there will be no further situations like this in the future. Unfortunately, we have been extremely busy thest couple of weeks getting used to our new weapons and I will be brutally honest here, that took precedence over training you." Dongling tried to smile understandingly at him but he saw through the acting immediately and smirked. "That doesn''t mean I forgot about you~" Shane teased and booped her nose while she blushed up a storm in embarrassment at being discovered. He then waved his hand and pulled tworge Sandalwood boxes and two jade boxes out of his storage, before cing them on the bed. "These are for you. The one here contains a pair of daggers that I personally forged for you." Shane said proudly as he motioned for her to open the box and when she did, the aura emitted by them almost overwhelmed her. "These daggers are as close as you can get to a Spirit Profound weapon, without actually being one. They only have one thing special about them, beyond being impossibly sharp of course. They can disguise their shape and aura by transforming into a pair of rings. Go on, drip a drop of your blood onto them and imagine them transforming." She did as instructed and when the daggers shed once and appeared on the girl''s open palm as a pair of gold and silver rings, Shane smugly appreciated the look of worship that coloured her pretty features. Their aura alsopletely disappeared and Dongling kept turning the rings over in her hands in wonder and gave no indication of stopping any time soon. Shane chuckled a little and coughed to interrupt her. "*Cough* Okay, you can appreciate themter. Let''s move on to the next ones, shall we? This box here contains a personal Incense burner for you, enough heartwood to burn for a week and some separate boxes of the beta strain Spirit Incense in a few different vours. These will aid you in the increase of your cultivation and should be used in conjunction with these." He said as the two jade cases floated from the bed and into his hands. Swiftly inscribing the formation letter for seal onto one of the cases, he started to exin. "These two cases contain pills created specifically for you by myself. The one without the formation letter on it contains ''vitality pills''. You are to take them 3 times a day and also after every breakthrough. Not only will they help to strengthen your body, but they will also allow you to rapidly stabilise your cultivation realms without needing to spend days or weeks focusing on it." He said while waving his hand as if it were an annoying and trivial issue. "Now the second case contains Profound Gathering Pellets that are suitable for increasing the cultivation of Nascent Realm cultivators." The maid gasped and looked as if she wanted to say something yet again but Shane stopped her with a wave of his hand. He really was enjoying the delicious look on her face. Torn between not wanting to ept something so precious and absolutely not wanting to go against her Master''s wishes. In the end, she stamped her foot in frustration, sighed defeatedly and kept her silence although her eyes did turn a little red. ''Ahh, beautiful. This girl truly brings out the hidden sadist in me.'' "Like I was saying, There are pellets for you in this case and there should be enough for you to reach thete stages of the Nascent Profound Realm at the very least. How far you manage to go after that, will be up to you. Unfortunately, the real problem is yourck of opened entrances" She flinched but Shane paid it no mind and patted her on the head nonchntly. "While I am unable to do anything about that currently, that won''t be the case forever and in at most a month, it will be a non-issue." Shane looked meaningfully at Qingyue, only to see a face full of pride as if it were her own achievement he was talking about. "Take out one of the pellets now, I will help you to break through to the Nascent Realm." She did as she was told and tried to remove the lid of the case with her shaky hands but had no such luck. Fortunately, someone took pity on the girl and a soft yet strangely cool hand, the colour of fresh snow, took it from her. Seeing her Mistress''s gentle smile from this close, the girl couldn''t help but be a little charmed. The long, slender, jade fingers grasped a single pellet and held it out towards her mouth before popping it inside while arge warm hand pressed down on her shoulder until she was seated on the bed. "Swallow the Pellet and Focus!" Shane''s deep voice brought Dongling out of her daze and she closed her eyes in attempted meditation, just a second toote to catch a peak Elementary Profound wolf''s corpse appearing above Shane''s other hand. The Wolf erupted into a cloud of shining white particles before being sucked into the miniature ck hole in the centre of his hand. Shane flicked his wrist and a mostly translucent-white, ''vitality pill'' appeared on his palm, even as he used his own intent to guide the previous pellet''s energy towards his maids'' Profound Veins. He smiled wryly, 6 entrances did not give him much to work with and although the girl was at the very peak of Elementary Profound, she would have been likely to stay that way for years. Using his pinky and thumb to pinch the girl''s chin, he passed the Vitality pill into her mouth, quickly diffusing and guiding the energy to spread across her entire body. The vital energy had an immediate effect and provided substantial reinforcement to her rtively weak body, while her profound energy absorption rate sped up considerably. It took almost 30 minutes and over half of the pellet''s energy being wasted before Shane was able to help her charge into the Nascent Profound Realm. Thankfully, the excess vital energy in her system quickly stabilised her new realm. ''Aiya! Having only 6 open entrances is truly too cruel!'' When Dongling finally opened her eyes, they were shining with crystalline tears and she hurriedly stood up and turned to the side, trying to wipe them away. That was unfortunately to no avail as they built up momentum the more she wiped until they were falling like raindrops on a stormy day. Qingyue and Shane both felt incredibly awkward, both being people who wore their hearts on their sleeves, smiling when happy and crying when sad, they were stumped. Maybe they were both a bit emotionally retarded when it came to situations like this but shouldn''t she be smiling? wasn''t this supposed to be a happy thing? So, Shane just did what he felt was right and patted the maid''s head hoping tofort her a little. Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect and her tears fell even more freely while she continually sniffled and rubbed her puffy red eyes, still refusing to look at him. She actually resembled a struggling child trying to act brave, it seriously tugged at his heartstrings, making him want tofort and protect her. A quick look at his wife confirmed that she seemed to be feeling the same way. Finally, the girl managed to calm down a little and utter a single, strangled word "...Why?" Shane sighed. "I told you before, stay loyal to us and we would treat you like you were our closest family, right?" He barely finished the words when Donglingunched herself into his bosom, holding tightly onto his robe and started crying loudly. Now, he wasn''t some dense idiot, it was obvious the girl had some sort of feelings for him and if he were to act as her emotional support at this time, she would only fall deeper. So, he did the only thing he could think of... His arms shot up in the air and an involuntary look of horror appeared on his face as he turned to Qingyue, only to find her silently giggling at his plight and signalling with her eyes for him to hug the girl back. He was already feeling the need to hold the girl tight andfort her, so not needing to be told twice, Shane wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back while Qingyue snuck over and glomped onto the girl''s side, softly rubbing her cheek. They stayed like that for a while until Dongling finally calmed down and mumbled a soft "...Thank You" Shane just tightly wrapped his arms around both of them, feeling a little sour in his nose as he once again enjoyed the warmth of a family. Neither Shane nor Qingyue were aware of the fact, but this small moment of care andfort was like a cool breeze to the maid, one that cleared away her doubts and fanned the mes of a budding devotion deep within. To the girl, this small amount of care was priceless. Since her mother died and she was adopted into the Xia n, she had always been alone, always yearning for a ce to truly belong, and now, she had found it... This small feeling of devotion would swiftly grow, like a raging inferno, into an allegiance that would forever remain untested. A loyalty so fierce and undying, it would even be famous throughout all the realms in the future... Even after a long period of time, the three of them felt no difort in their closeness but unfortunately, Shane still had other weapons to give out and so after a few minutes, he broke the hug. Qingyue, seeing that it was all over, withdrew her profound energy from the room but didn''t release the girl from her arms, rubbing their cheeks together. Shane swiftly created another ''bracelet'', this time for Dongling, obviously simpler in looks than the one Qingyue had. He didn''t want to die okay! It was, however, no less effective. That way, he could assure that her sudden power increase wouldn''t be noticed by anyone while they were away. He then quickly created two more, except these were even simpler and styled like tassels, before storing them away. Giving Qingyue a deep and powerful kiss that left her breathless, Shane left the room with a swagger and headed outside where he saw the family of three still happily chatting... *Ahem* "Anyone else Hungry?" Chapter 35: Strawberries, Swords and Pissing Off a Princess Chapter 35: Strawberries, Swords and Pissing Off a Princess It took less than a quarter of an hour for Qingyue and Dongling to arrive in the courtyard with the first round of celebratory dishes. Qingyue herself came towards Shane and carefully ced down a dish of something in front of him that was giving off a tantalising smell. He could tell from her slight flush and the way she was ncing repeatedly between the floor and his face that it was prepared personally by her. Deciding to both tease and praise her a little he grabbed exaggeratedly at his chest. "Oof my poor heart can''t take anymore! Good with a sword, good in the kitchen." ''great in the bedroom!'' He added through a small spirit transmission "My Qingyue is so perfect, I''m falling in love all over again~" It was a credit to her budding shamelessness that instead of backing away or stammering a reply she instead approached him, almost straddling hisp and ran her hands across his exposed chest, checking for any ''damage''. Her blush was still quite evident though... The rather bold and intimate move, well intimate for an outdoors family dinner in an ancient cultivation society, shocked little Lingxi out of her daze and she hurriedly tried to stand up and help the girls. Before this, she had been in a world of her own, riding the high of breaking through and subsequently kissing her ''nephew''. Touching her lips and giggling to herself from time to time, it wasn''t hard to imagine where the little perverts'' thoughts had been. Shane waved his hand and kept her in her seat. "Stay there little Lingxi, tonight is a celebration for you and Brother Che!" Exposed to the full power of his charming smile, she lowered her head and mumbled "Thank you big brother Long" Shane had to give the kid credit, because Xiao Che chose that perfect timing when her guard was down, to casually grab her hand and squeeze it while also nodding towards his brother. "Here here!" Xiao Lieughed heartily with rosy cheeks as he waved his half-empty cup of wine in the air. At that moment their excellent maid arrived with the rest of the dishes, kicking off a rather lively dinner. Of course, Shane ate mostly from Qingyue''s specially prepared chicken and vegetable dish, making sure topliment her generously. Being rather good at cooking himself, thepliments hit a lot closer to home and ensured that theparatively dazzling smile never left her face. When the meal had ended, he decided to do a test run and make something special for the asion. So, he began withdrawing various items from his storage that he had found over thest weeks in the city and at the market. Strawberries, peaches, milk, butter, sugarcane and the final ingredient, which had been sitting in the kitchen in a jar of strong spirit for a few weeks, vani. Requesting Dongling to fetch one of the sealed porcin jars from inside, Shane rolled up his sleeves and went to work. A pair of bowls appeared and having the mind to make this as shy as possible, he drew a T shape in the air above them with a glowing finger, forming two shimmering lines of incredibly sharp Wind Energy. The strawberries began to float up, in a uniform fashion, towards the stationary energy des, passing across them andnding in one of the bowls, sliced perfectly in half with their tops removed. Milk was poured into a deeper bowl while the butter was levitated next to his shoulder in a metal dish. "Coral, if you would." With an excited *Phi* The chibi bird blew a thin jet of me towards the metal dish and Shane wrapped it with his profound energy, evenly melting the butter in mere seconds. The me dissipated as Shane cooed. "There''s a good girl" The butter was added to the milk and the bowl covered as he conjured a small tornado on a finger and pushed it inside, needing only the slightest of his ever-growing mental capacity to keep it stable. As he peeled back the skin of the sugarcane, revealing the pure white centre of what was usually a brown nt, Shane couldn''t help but marvel at this world again. Everything grown here was without impurities. He sliced the core into sections and levitated them in the air as a ball of Water Energy formed around them. Motioning for Coral to use methrower again, it was super effective by the way, the water began boiling and before long the ball was a lot smaller and thicker in consistency. Shane used a burst of profound energy to remove the rest of the moisture from the syrupy mixture and form it into a block before dropping it into a small bowl and separated into a pile of tiny white crystals. Taking the bottle from his maid, he uncorked it and dispelled the small tornado within the mixing bowl. Opening the lid a crack, he then poured a little of the brown liquid and a generous amount of sugar inside. Re-conjuring the tiny twister, he pushed it into the bowl and resealed it once more, leaving it to whip up nicely while he arranged six tes in front of him, each with a t and sweet biscuit the size of his palm on them. These actions took no more than five minutes total and opened up a whole new possibility for the applications of Profound energy, although he was beset with waves of irony and nostalgia at the thought. ''It''s like I''m an Isekai Protagonist with OP powers yet I''m using them to cook my way into people''s hearts.'' Wiping away a nonexistent tear his delusions continued. ''Satou would be so proud of how far I''vee hehe.'' Shane finally started to feel some resistance from the small tornado, pulling him out of his thoughts and onto more important matters. The whipped cream was done! Removing the lid, he used his profound energy to scoop out six generous dollops and a more gentle wind to shape them into swirls atop the biscuits. Sticking strawberries and peach slices into each of them and sprinkling a little sugar on top, the masterpieces were finallypleted! All of the bowls and ingredients disappeared and Shane pushed thepleted tes in front of everyone at the same time only to look up for the first time in ten minutes and freeze. Everyone was gawking at him like he was some kind of Alien "What? ...Ohhh" Something Shane had discovered early on from Qingyue was that his remarkable control over Profound Energy was anything but normal. People could use it outside their bodies to perform attacks and such but the fine control that he had over it was practically unheard of. He had deduced that since he had no preconceptions about what was and wasn''t possible in the beginning, he had just constantly pushed for more control in the early stages and ended up with something extraordinary. He had also never stopped practising and improving on his control and maniption of energy. His profound energy was a part of him, an extension of his body in a way and it just made sense to Shane that he should have full control of it. The casual way he had manipted his Profound Energy and even two elements at the same time, had stupefied Xiao Lie, and Qingyue, while in a better situation still had her little mouth open wide. The maid and the two younger Xiaos were looking at him with fanatical worship which, to be honest, was freaking him out a little. Although whether it was his maniption of energy or the delicious looking dessert he had created that evoked it was up for debate. Shane was more inclined to bet on it being thetter. If that was the case, how would they react when they actually tasted it? Would their clothes explode? Well, the stares were bing a little ufortable so he went with the route of shameless narcissism. "Have you stared enough? Aiya being too handsome is sometimes not a good thing." Dongling nodded absentmindedly, Lingxi had already homed in on the sweet smell and was swallowing mouthfuls of saliva, Xiao Lie and Xiao Che sneered at him while Qingyue exaggeratedly rolled her eyes. *Cough* "...Don''t you want to try it?" Shane scratched his nose and asked awkwardly while waving towards the desserts. They all nodded hurriedly and a few secondster... three loud girly squeals rocked the courtyard. Shane had to admit it was hard to resist making a simr noise, the effect of the vani was worth the effort of maturing it with profound energy every day for weeks. There was obviously another reason why he had spent so much time and effort in preparing this dessert. The crimson-haired murder Loli... If reading fanfics in his previous life had taught him anything, it was that Jasmine would surely be extremely receptive to sweet and tasty things. That and the fact that she was obviously a sheltered young girl whocked the care and attention of others, should make her extremely weak to delicious foods that were cooked especially for her. Basically, he would try and bribe one of the Eastern Divine Region''s most feared inheritors with sugary food... Also, she deserved to experience all the nice things he could and would give to her, she was worth it after all. If Shane was asked to give a reason why he felt so strongly towards the little star god princess, then a few months ago he would have said he sympathised with her character from the novel. Now, after meeting her, however, he wasn''t so sure. He felt a sort of pull towards her that resonated with his very being. Simr to how he had felt with Qingyue but not in a romantic way, she was just a kid after all but in a way that brought forward intense feelings of wanting to protect her. Maybe he was just soft to damsels in distress. Now that the future of this universe had already irreparably altered with his interference, perhaps the feeling of connection to some of the important characters was being influenced by fate... ----------------------------------- After the desert disappeared from everyone''s tes one by one and everyone was rxed and happy, Shane decided it would be the best time toy something else on them. He swiftly withdrew the pair of sister wind swords he had forged for his little students and handed them over without much fanfare, as if they were just some things he had lying around and taking up space. The sheathes covered most of the de''s splendour and he was hoping for it to be kept that way until he had a chance to slip away. Unluckily for him, it didn''t seem like it would be that easy and Lingxi, within all of two seconds, had unsheathed the sword What followed was a bit of ''overexaggerated cultivator being surprised'' noisesing from Xiao Lie. Not that he was the strange one, Perhaps the entire Xiao n only had one or two True Profound weapons and those were absolutely in the hands of thete Spirit Profound elders. Showing that a random bandit group was actually more wealthy than the top n in one of this empire''s cities. Sure, it was a city out in the arse end of nowhere, bute the fuck on... The real problem stemmed from the fact that the effects on the weapons actually made them much more valuable than the average Spirit Profound weapon and there absolutely wasn''t one of those in the entire Floating Cloud City. The value of those swords was without a doubt above thousands of purple profound coins and Shane, well he literally couldn''t give a shit about the value. The creator himself only had an uninterested expression on his face while picking his ear as the old man almost had a brain aneurysm while he murmured about how ''even the n leader''s weapon was inferior and how you could buy half the city with one of those swords''. Shane couldn''t help but think that the people of Floating Cloud really were frogs at the bottom of the well. A True Profound weapon was valuable, yes but it wasn''t that valuable once you travelled ind a bit. The obligatory back and forth of not wanting to ept something of such value or attempting to pay for them had then threatened to rear its head and luckily Shane had caught it early on with the cheap counter of... Puppy dog eyes and saddened words. "Are you not treating me as family? now, after everything..." Oof. Shane: 1 Sentimental old grandpa: 0. That was pretty effective at keeping everyone''s face while also pping them at the same time, leaving an iparably smug cksmith/chef/soon-to-be doctor who was also pping the sneaky little hands of his wife away from his own unfinished dessert. "*Tsk* Stingy." Apparently, Qingyue found it easy to be dishonest when desserts were involved. Something to note forter. The tassels hade out next and Shane swiftly exined what they were to Lingxi and Xiao Che, who looked as if they were still racking their brains to find a way to either thank or repay him. "These tassels are actually ''primitive'' devices used for hiding your true cultivation level from others" *Pffft* Qingyue, still not reconciled with her foiled stealing attempt, started snickering next to him. What primitive? They can hide your cultivation realm from anyone in the Tyrant realm and below, a realm never before seen in The Blue Wind Empire... "...like so" Shane said while shooting his wife a strong look that promised punishment. He absolutely did not want to deal with the troublesome things that would undoubtedlye up after that reveal. One of the tassels activated and Shane''s cultivation lowered to the peak of Elementary Profound. "We don''t yet have storage rings for you two and so I want to attach them to your swords to hide their True Profound aura. This will both avoid unwanted attention from strong profound beasts, confuse enemies into underestimating you and allow you both to get used to carrying the swords around without everyone losing their shit." Xiao Lie''s eyebrows shot up, he couldn''t even distinguish between Shane''s actual cultivation and what he was projecting. It was as if an actual peak Elementary Profound was sitting right in front of him and again the old man looked as if wanted to mention the value of the items. To others, these items might be unordinary and invaluable but to Shane, it was not the case. There was really no need for the kids to know the worth of these items, or they might be afraid to use them which would, in turn, make them pointless. Shane just directly gave his best impression of the disapproving hobbit guy from Lord of The Rings. The old man, clearly not cultured enough, didn''t understand how good the impression was and still wanted to refute. Unfortunately, Shane wasn''t having any of it so he sneered and said mockingly. "Grandpa Lie, wouldn''t I be embarrassed if I went outside with my brother and he looked so poor. Where would I put my face if he looked like he couldn''t even afford a good sword?" Xiao Che gave him the finger. Shane, unperturbed, casually returned it and waved towards Lingxi. "Also, look at this cute little creature! How can you bear to take things away from her? Don''t you just want to spoil her!" "En!" Qingyue nodded and somehow she had already appeared next to the girl, patting her head and squishing her cheeks, while Lingxi herself deployed a puppy dog eyes technique that put Shane''s to shame and made it look disgusting inparison. Xiao Che just yed up the small ''innocent'' smile that made people think he was a niced. Shane narrowed his eyes, this kid was clearly enjoying how awkward he had looked tonight. Maybe he should give Lingxi some more ideas... Having both his grandkids used against him, the old man was beaten and instead his eyes got a little wet around the edges. Shane sent him a Spirit sound Transmission. ''I gave them those swords for three reasons beyond the obvious one that they both needed a good weapon. Let''s be realistic here, would the n provide anything good for them if I didn''t? Xiao Lie was silent, they both knew the answer to that. ''The first reason was the same as my earlier words, he really is too poor and I actually would be embarrassed.'' Xiao Lie actually choked on thin air at that. ''The second reason is that I had no use for the original weapons and reforging them wasn''t much of a bother. The third reason is to protect them.'' Shane''s eyes narrowed dangerously. ''When I leave, there may be many greedy eyes upon those two from both within the n and outside of it, you know for a fact that not a lot of them are good people here.'' Shane licked his lips, crimson eyes glowing briefly. ''I would hate toe back, find out my brother had been bullied, and have to destroy them all.'' The casual smile returned and he continued. ''This is not arrogance talking here but not long after I leave, I will likely be a person of renown within The Blue Wind Empire. It is my hope that my name and thus having a weapon forged by myself will offer anotheryer of protection for them.'' Shane didn''t intend to go making enemies everywhere, in fact, he intended to join the Frozen Cloud publicly and so there shouldn''t be any high level outside danger to the pair. The Spirit Incense business would also likely be at the stage of partnership with The ck Moon Merchant Guild by then as well. If by chance, one of the other major sects had ideas and decided to do something extreme like using these kids against him let''s just say it wouldn''t end well for them. This meant that the majority of threats woulde from within the n and not of the direct kind. Shane would help the kids establish a firm foundation while he stayed in Floating Cloud but he could and would not hold their hands forever. Not long after, the initial excitement over the weapons had died down and they all decided to get an early night in. That way, they could leave at dawn the next day and arrive in Cyan Forest Town in the early morning. Shane didn''t need all that much sleep anymore but he did want to try and contact his little red reading buddy ------------------------- A pair of crimson eyes met with swirling crimson fog and it smoothly parted with just a single thought. Shane sighed in satisfaction. "It would seem that crisis and opportunity really do go hand in hand." Only here and now, where his control was not absolute, could he fully appreciate the strengthening of his Will that had urred with the repeated use of his new forging technique. The fog around him receded and as he walked and the blood beneath him began to rise into the air, forming into a multitude of different shapes with just a wave of his hands. Actions that before would have been impossible or at the very least, given him a severe mental strain, now seemed as easy as breathing. The major tipping point for the growth of his Will was likely to be the overuse when forging his wife''s sword. That begged a question, could he cheat by doing something simr and just be ready to heal himself up before he passed out, effectively increasing the power of his Will in a short time? Qingyue''s tear-stained face shed across his mind and even in this dreamscape, he flinched at the spike of pain it brought to his chest. No, he would find another way... Now instinctually feeling the extent of the control he could exert, Shane wrinkled his nose in distaste. Frankly, this ce was awful. The temperature, neither hot nor cold but both at the same time, the soul-sucking stars above his head and the floor covered in ankle-deep, warm, sticky, blood The worst part was that there was no variation. It was both unpleasant and monotonous. ''This ce is really getting old Hmph, nothing like my beautiful Qingyue''s dreamscape.'' He thought smugly to himself, conveniently forgetting the frozen wastnd, the freezing cyclone of Ice energy and her hostile attitude. People in love are truly blind The temptation to grasp the very fabric of the dreamscape and change the whole thing into something less ...revolting was extremely strong but Shane held it in. He didn''t want to startle the other upant, not when she was allowing him to return after so long... He had tried to connect here a few times since he hadst visited, but either she wasn''t sleeping at the time or she didn''t want to let him in. Honestly, it could have been either. A girl''s mind, in general, was mysterious enough, without factoring in that this one was a teen girl with an extreme amount of power and major daddy issues. It also could have been the fact that she was likely looking for the inheritance already. Well today, he was going to try and shake her up a bit and hopefully get her talking. She may be a monster to some but to him, she was still a little brat and he was banking on her falling for a little trick... Provoke her enough to irritate her into arguing back but not enough to kick him out. Then engage her in a conversation about something she enjoys, is knowledgeable about, or can easily get interested in. That will hopefully keep her distracted long enough to befortable with his presence. ''En, I''m a genius.'' So, he just needed to be a bit of a dick at first ...what could possibly go wrong? The crimson fog opened up and a familiar clearing came into view. He idly noted that the cocoon of soul-chilling starlight surrounded by a silent tornado of rippling blood was as creepy as ever. The recliner, nket, small table and even his ''reading'' sses were still where he left them, but no book Shane smirked inwardly to himself ''Interesting.'' He ignored the cocoon in favour of swaggering over to the recliner and taking a seat, the spike of anger and killing intent he felt for a second was iparably dreadful but he did not falter. Leaning back, one leg over the other and reading sses firmly on his handsome face, Shane''s eyes snapped to the cocoon. His lips curled up in a small yful smile. "I say little Red, this ce is disgusting." And the world became hostile... ------------------------------------ A/N: Sorry for the minor cliff. The chapter was already 3.8k and the scene with Jasmine is another 1800 ish works so I had to separate them. Chapter 36: This Princess! Is Actually Cute Chapter 36: ''This Princess!'' Is Actually Cute A/N: Hi guys. Sorry for thete release but I had a small procedure at the hospital today called a Bone Marrow Biopsy (I won''t exin, look it up). Don''t worry, I am in remission so the fic won''t be dropped due to illness or anything. So, about the procedure, sometimes it can be quick but the one I had today took a pair of doctors over 80 minutes of continuous jabbing to get a sample out and I think they clipped a nerve too (wouldn''t be the first time). Although they do give you gas and air and a local, that doesn''t really take away the pain, so I took some codeine and had a nap afterwards and I am feeling a bit crippled right now. Depending on how I am feeling tomorrow, the scheduled chapter may also bete or even posted the day after so I apologise in advance if that''s the case but also wish me luck lol. The chapter is edited but I may have missed some things. Enjoy... ----------------------------------- Walls of bubbling blood rose around the edges of the clearing, trapping him within, and from them spawned a myriad of deadly yet disfigured scarlet weapons. As if they were a single entity, the weapons all turned their sharp edges to face him as the liquid they were formed from writhed and undted as if struggling to keep their shapes and giving off a frightening heat. A huge Spirit Pressure loomed above him as if it were a gigantic mass of water held back by a small dam, ready to crush him into dust if only it were released. Added to the mix, was a deathly cold windposed of tiny des of tangible killing intent that whipped across his face and scratched at his skin. Shane, however, just cocked an eyebrow, that same yful smile still locked in ce. Sure, his back was coated in cold sweat and he felt extremely ufortable right now but if she attacked, he won. And she knew it The world faltered a little as she realised he would call her bluff, the blood weapons retreated, the blood walls receded, the pressure was taken back and the winds died down. "Hmph! Coward." Shane''s eyebrow twitched a little but he managed to recover and continue to raise it questioningly instead. Coward? How the hell was he a coward!? What an unreasonable girl! ''Calm down Shane, this ce is messing with your head. She very nearly annoyed you into reacting! How could you almost let a little girl beat you at your own game?'' He took a few seconds to calm himself down while outwardly he somehow managed to retain hisidback posture. "So Little Red" Shane drawled. "Care to exin how that makes me a coward?" Was that the sound of teeth grinding or perhaps a small growl he could hear? So delicious. "You are obviously scared of the space created by this Princess." her voice as confident as it was cold and lofty. Shane deadpanned, really. "Hold up missy. Don''t confuse disgust with fear here! I will admit, I was afraid the first time I came here, but in my defence, I thought I had died again. Honestly, now it just feels weird and... creepy." "C-creepy!? How dare yo-" Shane waved his hand and cut her off. "Look Little Red, I don''t know if you have ever actually taken a stroll out here but I can tell you now, it''s not exactly pleasant. Firstly, what is with all this blood? Where the hell did ite from? Why is it ankle-deep and endless? What does it even mean? Secondly, The Goddess damned temperature here is awful. Either pick boiling hot or freezing cold, the two don''t mix, they just cancel each other out and in the end, are only mildly diforting. Lastly, the soul-sucking stars, just what the fuck is that all about?" Shane nced upwards, ran his hands through his hair and shook his head. This ce truly was annoying him. Maybe it was the fact that he had the ability to control it but was holding back. Just what was wrong with him today? He knew that there wasn''t much time left to make an impression on her but rushing things would only make her suspicious and seem fake, pushing her away instead. "...I just wanted talk... rx read don''t want deal with... shit" He mumbled in irritation as every action he had taken so far suddenly seemed a little pointless. What n? He should have juste here to rx and read with her likest time. *puchi* A small girly giggle echoed in the clearing and Shane''s ears perked up as he was pulled from the whirlwind of self-loathing. Maybe it wasn''t all so bad after all. He regained a little of his confidence and decided to just have a bit of fun instead of trying to scheme when he was clearly too emotional for it to be his strong point. He was treating her like a kid when he should have been treating her like a friend and although it would have probably worked, it just felt wrong. "Are youughing at me now Little Red? Youe out here and see if I don''t clean you up!" He shouted while shaking a fist around, although, his only answer was another giggle. "You''ll see Hmph!" He pouted, a tiny sliver of madness shining in his crimson eyes as he finally stopped holding back and crazily poured his Will into the very fabric of the dreamscape, seizingplete albeit momentary control. *Snap!* With a feral grin and a click of his fingers, the world answered his call, and everything changed. An extremely bright burst of colourful light, full of soft greens, light browns, whites and reds, exploded outwards from Shane''s position. The light spread rapidly in every direction and only receded after a few seconds, revealing that the entire clearing and even the distant surroundings were now nketed by rolling hills covered in a huge amount of wild, green, grass. Flower stems swiftly began to grow up and out of the ground, blooming into a myriad of crimson coloured poppies, and white jasmine flowers that swayed slightly in the breeze. The eerie, soul-invading, scarlet stars in the sky were catapulted far off into a corner of the space and instead, a massive warm ball of orange fire rose to rece them. "*Whistles* En, now that is a real star." A low appreciative whistle followed by iparably smug sounding voice drifted in the air. Shane was admiring his handiwork without any kind of reservation while still sitting on that recliner, looking especially out of ce in a meadow full of flowers and with the same annoying yful smile on his face. He could have sworn he heard the sound of teeth grinding together and that stifling pressure began to fill the air again. When it had reached a palpable level, the girl finally spoke in an immeasurably cold voice, as if straight from the ninthyer of hell. "Why did you choose these flowers?" Shane shuddered and put his hands up, this girl truly could change her attitude at the drop of a hat. "Whoa there Little Red, actually let me exin will ya. I just thought the whole blood thing was disgusting and I was tired of the feeling against my feet. Never been fond of wearing shoes you see" "Speak! Answer this Princess!" Now, Shane wasn''t exactly happy about the tone of voice that she was using on him but he knew when to be patient. He was still reaching his goal by keeping her talking. Plus it was so goddess damned cute when she said ''This Princess'' "Well, where I am from, these red flowers, the poppies, are notoriously known for growing thickly on battlefields where there has been a lot of bloodshed. Fitting choice considering this was all blood not long ago" He shot her a rather hollow look. "The white Jasmine flowers..." That''s right, why had he added the Jasmine flowers, was it subconscious? Shane now realised why the girl acted defensively but as a different set of memories poured into his mind, he just couldn''t be bothered to care. The world faded away into the background as his eyes zed over a little. He didn''t even notice the extreme spike of killing intent and pressure in the surroundings that made whatever the girl tried to oppress him with earlier, look like child''s y. "*Sigh* ...They were my mother''s favourite..." He tried to speak normally but couldn''t quite stop the way his voice quavered or how he almost choked up on the word mother. Obviously, it would take an idiot to not realise what was going on. The pressure and killing intent disappeared but still, he remained stationary,pletely immersed in his own memories, totally unaware of the surroundings. Shane didn''t often think about his family on Earth as it wasn''t exactly a pleasant subject but he just couldn''t help himself this time. Over thest few months, he had been extremely busy, setting one goal after another and didn''t have many opportunities to dwell on the past but the pain and sorrow of never being able to see his family again were still there, just buried deeply. He had a new family now in the form of Qingyue and Shane could safely say that he loved her more than anything in both worlds but even that still couldn''t heal the mother shaped hole in his heart. How she was always so selfless, supporting him throughout his illness and how she helped him study to get into university early, despite knowing that he might see her less when he got in. How she cared for him when he was at his lowest, even though he wasn''t always a bundle of joy to be around. Unknowingly, and despite his best efforts, the corner of his eyes grew a little moist as he lost himself in the pleasant memories of another world. The little girl here with him also understood the pain of never being able to see her mother again. She didn''t know why, but when she looked on at the Wild young man whose face was contorted in sadness, she felt an unfamiliar stuffy feeling in her chest. Not only was there that slight pain in her heart but the worst thing was the immense feeling of incongruity. Seeing him with that mncholic expression just. felt. wrong. Before she really knew what she was doing, she had opened her mouth. "...Jasmine" It was barely a whisper but it managed to shake Shane from his thoughts. "Huh?" "...This Princess allows you to call her Jasmine." He took a deep shuddering breath and pped his cheeks. Damn, he really could do with a hug right now! With a concentrated effort, he pushed the lingering sorrow back down inside, allowing for a genuinely happy smile to spread across his face instead. How thankful he was that heart demons didn''t actually exist in this Universe. Reminding himself to give Chu Yueli''s backside a tight p, he turned towards the cocoon that was now loosely wrapped in long grasses and said softly with a gentle smile. "Hi Jasmine, I''m Shan Long but you can just call me Shane." Quite a few seconds passed and he was actually wondering whether to create some tumbleweeds or not when he heard a slight grumble and then a whisper. "Hi, Shane." His smile turned into a wide toothy grin. "Who knew you could be so cute, little red!" something that sounded especially simr to the growl of a small animal was his response. "Now, how''s about you give me that book back. Unless you don''t want me to continue reading it to you?" Her reply only came in the form of a snort but was soon followed by a crimson sh. The well-worn, green paper-covered book with a dragon at the bottom of the front cover appeared in his hands. Shane ran his fingers lovingly along the spine before opening it andunching into the story. This time, he managed to elicit a few gasps and giggles from the girl as he narrated the events and voiced the characters, a testimony of his progress with her. By the time he could feel the familiar tug on his consciousness, the book was two thirdsplete. Deciding to push his luck a little, Shane snapped it shut and stood up from the recliner. He waved the book along with his hand and said. "Little Red, it''s time for me to go, If you want to read the book, you will have to get it from me yourself." Silence Shane sighed, maybe that was pushing too far? He started turning around, intending to observe the field of Jasmine and Poppy flowers for thest remaining moments. "Okay then, I''ll see you next ti-" "Wait!" With a rustling sound, the grasses surrounding the cocoon swiftly began to recede and the chilly starlight once again reared its ugly head. The cocoon cracked open a little and a small dainty hand followed by a snow-white arm reached out of the crack. Shane was iparably shocked but he still managed to take thest two steps towards the cocoon and pass the book into that small hand. The book itself was almost but not quite snatched from his grip and the hand swiftly withdrew back into the depths, the crack sealing up behind it. He couldn''t help but chuckle, that reaction was actually quite cute, like a little cat in a box... What would her reaction be when she realised the content recorded in the book was still only up to where they had read together, he wondered. As if he was going to let her finish it alone! He waited weeks to meet her again when he could have read it any time! Giving the cocoon his best charming smile, Chad edition, Shane waved with his semi-transparent hand. "Well, see you next time ...little Jasmine" and faded away. ----------------------------------- Shane awoke to something tickling his nose and the familiar weight of Qingyue treating his entire body as a mattress. Opening his eyes in the dim light of early dawn, he was greeted by a curtain of Obsidian ck. Inhaling herforting scent of Winter Honeysuckle and recalling the sess of the night before, a huge grin spread across his face. He roused his lovely wife from her slumber and amidst her protests, bundled her into the bathroom. Shane himself went to wash in the other one, patting his lovely maid on the head on the way through and making her beam a smile like a fresh ray of sunshine. Feeling his blood beginning to boil at the thought of the uing hunt, Shane decided to have a cold one for old times sake. He directly opened a portal to his storage somewhere near the ceiling and poured gallons of the chilly water from the cave side pool on top of his head before roughly scrubbing his hair and skin with some special sandalwood and vani soap. Yes he knew how to make soap like a second rate Isekai MC, yes he had already made soap for himself and Qingyue and no he wouldn''t be selling soap to make money here unless he could make profound soap... ''Maybe when we get to the sect. Can''t imagine that those fairies would be against something like that.'' They also knew how to make soap here, by the way, it just fell under the extremely expensive and only used by the wealthy cliche. Finally, after rinsing off with more of the same cold water and shaking himself dry, Shane couldn''t help himself but let out a loud and happy howl at the ceiling. ----------------------------------- *Howl!* The corner of Qingyue''s eyes crinkled and her cheeks involuntarily disyed two rosy dimples at the sound of her husband''s yell. She elegantly raised a sleeve of her new white and blue robe to cover her giggles. He must have been looking forward to today more than even she had realised. Qingyue was always watching him and so she had obviously noticed how restless he had be over thest few weeks. She knew Shane yearned to travel and explore but because of her, he was staying here in this small ce... Qingyue felt a small pang of sadness and regret at the thought of possibly holding him back but before it could even take root, she remembered the words that he had spoken to her when he first realised she was having these feelings. ''Qingyue my dear, Loving someone is all aboutpromising. We have our whole lives, hundreds or even thousands of years to travel and see the world together. If I cannot halt my desires for a few weeks, to ensure our future together, how could I be worthy of being your husband? I will NEVER leave you behind, I would rather be mediocre my whole life and spend it with you than be all alone in greatness.'' A huge burst of warmth flowed into her chest and chased all of those errant thoughts away. God, she just loved him so much. How did he always know when something was bothering her, and how did he know exactly what to say to ease her fears and worries? She would have to see if Lingxi had any more of those books and find something special to do for him, a ''special'' gift, given by a loving wife. Qingyue''s fragrant tongue darted out and moistened her cherry lips before they curled up into a lewd smile that was thankfully still hidden by her sleeve. ''Something special indeed.'' "Master seems to be in an especially good mood today~" Dongling hummed from behind her while skillfully running a jadeb through her silky ck hair. Qingyue squinted her eyes through the mirror at the happy looking maid and noticed how the top of her head had a few loose strands of hair. ''He''s not the only one. Sneaky girl, I bet he patted your head on the way through.'' Suddenly she had a rather oundish idea and began to gaze even more intensely at her diligent maid. The robes she wore were high quality albeit very in but she was without a doubt a pretty little slip of a thing. Qingyue started to feel a little warmth in her core and licked her lips again. Perhaps she and her husband could enjoy a special gift, together She wasn''t stupid, it was obvious that her maid had it bad for her husband and strangely, it didn''t bother her at all like she had thought it would. In fact, she only felt pride that HER husband was able to attract women to him everywhere. She also somehow had an inkling that her maid would love nothing more than to be wrapped up ''or tied up'' and presented to him as nothing more than an item. She was aware that it would be a longshot trying to get him to treat the maid like that but the possibility of it excited her greatly. Qingyue had seen how those youngdies in Floating Cloud looked at Shane, even some of the young misses that had eyes on top of their heads would show lovestruck expressions after exchanging just a few words with him. Shane always talked amiably with those girls, remembered their names, and even sometimes shed them a gentle smile, but that was just how he acted with everyone. Qingyue actually immensely enjoyed the fact that he didn''t even put any of these girls in his eyes, he just treated them like ordinary people, no matter how beautiful they were, yet always looked at her with such hunger and passion. Of course, it didn''t stop them from flocking around him whenever he went out into the city proper. He had some sort of animal maism to him that attracted youngdies... Qingyue let out a small groan and the building warmth in her little sister was snuffed out as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water over her. This was unfortunately the greatest cause for her recurring headache over thest few weeks. Shane was handsome, charming, powerful, confident and domineering yet also kind and gentle... all without meaning to be. In fact, she would hazard a guess that he was mostly unaware of how fatal thatbination was to a woman... In just a few months, he would follow her back to a sect full of hundreds of emotionally starved and extremely innocent yet beautiful young maidens. Qingyue didn''t even need to think about whether he would be allowed to join, adding on to the fact that she would never stay there without him, they would actually have to be stupid to refuse his offers. Obviously, Shane could provide them with many extremely beneficial things, and she knew that he would go to extreme lengths to ensure her happiness. She just worried that he would intentionally allow the sect to take advantage of him if it were for her. That wasn''t the point. When he arrived there, all sexy and half-naked and gentle and then broke through the shells created by their Heart Arts, Qingyue had absolutely no doubt that he would break through those shells, what kind of a romantic mess would he cause there? What if he broke through those emotional barriers and those fairies imprinted on him as she herself had done to an extent? Wouldn''t that be ridiculous? She didn''t especially mind the thought of having a few sisters, as long as they understood who was at the top, but hundreds of them, all beauties in their own right, bing emotionally dependent on HER husband was still a very worrying thought. Dongling finishedbing her hair and handed over a snow-white veil. Qingyue frowned a little, she wasn''t fond of wearing a veil but thest thing she wanted was to cause her husband issues because of her appearance. Thankfully, the veil didn''t hide her eyes or there was no way she would even toy with the idea of wearing one, regardless of what troubles would await them or whether she was able to see through it or not. Smiling fondly at the memory, Qingyue remembered how she once asked Shane which part of her he liked the most and his answer surprisingly matched her own. ''Without a doubt, your eyes are the most iparably beautiful thing I have ever seen in both my lives.'' Now, that was funny because she felt the exact same way about his own crimson globes and could easily spend the whole day staring into them With the veil secured firmly in ce, she rose from her chair and turned to pull the maid into her embrace. ''A nice body indeed.'' "Take care of yourself Dongling and remember my husband''s words. You are only a servant to us, nobody else in this world has the right to order you." Lofty words indeed, but Qingyue had no doubt that her husband would one day stand at the apex of this world and she would be right there next to him... The girl''s eyes got a little moist again but she refused to let anything fall. Dongling clenched her fist, she would get stronger so that she was qualified to follow these two people who had given her a real home and shown her real care. "Thank you Mistress Qingyue. I will." Chapter 37: Departure, Arrival and Becoming a Master Chapter 37: Departure, Arrival and Bing a Master A/N: Okay, so I wanted to rify something quick. I am not actually sick anymore, and while I really do appreciate the sentiments from you guys, the pity party feels a little undeserved lol. I had a rare form of Blood Cancer (Leukaemia - like Shane, who would have thought lol) and now I am in remission (which is the doctor''s way of saying '' we think we got it all but it''s hard to tell so we will keep testing on you for a few years''). Technically I''m still recovering but it doesn''t affect my health all that much anymore. Enjoy the chapter... ----------------------------------- As Shane walked out into the courtyard, he noticed a pair of excited Xiao''s talking animatedly amidst the light of the breaking dawn. Lingxi, who was fawning over a little chick sized Coral, was the first to notice his arrival and ran over to his side. Coral took this opportunity to hop onto Shane''s shoulder and nuzzle against him while the little girl started swinging his arm with stars in her eyes. "Good morning, big brother Long! Lingxi is so excited for today! I can''t wait to see everything!" Her enthusiasm was truly infectious and Shane couldn''t help but softly smile and pat her head a pair of times. Looking over to Xiao Che, this kid just nodded at him with a slight smirk. ''Aiya, this kid is now a man of few words. At least he is no longer like a blushing maiden but instead became all stoic and mysterious.'' Shane cried inwardly. The kid was always quiet and polite but Shane knew that he was actually very smart and sarcastic on the inside. Obviously, Shane was the one to me for influencing him this way. Being as he was the one who alwaysughed at the kid when he did anything embarrassing or made crude jokes at the expense of those ''Young Masters'' and their ''inability'' to perform, often within their earshot too, not that he would ever admit it. Unexpectedly, Xiao Che seemed to have a little penchant for dry humour, especially if the aforementioned ''Young Masters'' were involved. Who would have thought? "Morning Kiddos, are you all packed and ready to go?" Shane asked as he gave their attire a once over and nodded smugly to himself. As his pseudo disciples, obviously they had to match colours with him. They were both wearing tailored ck and crimson robes that looked reminiscent of Darth Maul''sbat outfit, just more stylish and with less material. They were also both sporting their new swords at the hip. While Shane himself liked to wear a minimal amount of clothing, he couldn''t have his students, especially Lingxi, do the same after all. Obviously, Shane was only wearing his usual shorts and open, outer robebo, still a mix of crimson and red. The only difference to the usual was that the shorts, formed from the recently absorbed Spirit Profound skin, now had pulsing crimson veins simr to lighting running along them. The reason he still wore the outer robe, despite normal shirts being morefortable, was not only so that he could show off his chiselled chest and abs, oh no. As stupid as it seemed, he had quickly fallen in love with the snapping sound made by the loose sleeves whenever he flicked his wrists... When in a cultivation world do as the cultivators do eh. At that moment, Qingyue and Dongling strolled out into the courtyard, one looking excited, despite the lingering irritation at the presence of her veil, made apparent by her ''casual'' tugging on the fabric while the other looked rather mncholic. Lingxi, this cute little animal, had absolutely no filter and hopped on over to his wife while saying "Big sister, big sister! You look so beautiful even with a veil! Look at my new robes, Big Brother Long got them for me! Can you help me wear my veil? Are you excited about the trip? What are you looking forward to the most?" She was like a little machine gun with questions for ammo and god was he d he dodged that bullet with headpats, pun intended. ''Dongling is a little sad, give her a hug'' After a Spirit Sound Transmission from Qingyue, Shane offered up a silent prayer for her and stepped towards his maid, who ''coincidentally'' had Dusty hanging around her neck. Then without warning, he pulled her into a tight hug. "Eeeep!" Dusty swiftly slithered across his shoulders, returning to the tattoo and despite the girl''s exmation, it didn''t stop her arms from slipping inside his robe and her fingers sying out across his back while her whole body melted into his bosom. The naughty little maid didn''t even acknowledge the fact that her fingers were roaming across his back muscles with all the subtlety of a freight train while she not so discreetly rubbed her cheeks against his chest. ''She must have got some sort of permission from Qingyue or she would never be this bold.'' There was no way Shane could resist teasing her so he held her tighter, stroked her hair and moved his mouth right next to her ear, his lips momentarily tracing along the tip and his warm breath causing her to shiver before he whispered. "Take care of yourself and work hard my little maid. If anyone tries to bother or pressure you into anything while we are gone, hold your head high and remember my words. You are a maid to us and us alone, no one else is worth entering your sight. They are beneath you." Dongling stopped her shenanigans, wrapping her arms tighter around him than before and hummed while enjoying his warmth. A few momentster, Shane pulled back, satisfied to see the fire burning in her eyes as she bowed to him with a hand against her chest and spoke in a determined voice. "I won''t let you down, Master." "Good girl." He gently rubbed her little head onest time and could have sworn he heard her mewl before abruptly turning heel, robes fluttering in the breeze ----------------------------------- Exiting the courtyard, Shane was unsurprised to find Xiao Lie waiting outside for him with the trio nowhere in sight. Extending his spirit sense as far as possible and still not finding them anywhere, he asked. "Grandpa Lie, did they go ahead?" The old man nodded and gazed emotionally at him for a long while. "Little Long" Shane patted him on the shoulders and reassured him. "Worry not Grandpa Lie, nothing will happen to them. I will not make it easy for them but I won''t allow them to get needlessly hurt, you have my word. I would like to ask you for a favour though." Xiao Lie leaned back against the wall, letting out a breath in relief. Shane may be many things but he was definitely a man of his word. "Of course, if these old bones can be of use to you then I won''t shy away." "Good, this matter I can only entrust to you. I want you to keep an eye on Dongling this week, even moving into the courtyard if you can." For a second, he showed a rather awkward and apologetic smile but still continued. "To be honest, I don''t trust anyone here but our own people and if someone were to try and take advantage of that girl, my hammer would surely be itching to pay them a visit. Qingyue that fierce little tiger would also cause a terrible scene and I can guarantee that neither of us wants that." Xiao Lie gulped when Shane mentioned Qingyue''s temper, no doubt remembering the incident in town but quickly schooled his expression. The old man didn''t immediately agree or disagree with Shane''s request, he neither nodded nor frowned, he just kept an indifferent expression and extended a hand. Shane understood what he meant and withdrew ten pouches of Spirit Tea, yet surprisingly the old man remained unmoved. "50" he said and Shane started choking on the fresh morning air "*Cough* 50!? Isn''t this a daylight robbery? Could you even use 50 in a week!? What the hell happened to what you just said!?" Unexpectedly this old grandpa was acting so shamelessly! You had to know that one of these Spirit Tea pouches made by Shane would easilyst for the whole day! "50" Seeing the old man''s unmoving gaze Shane couldn''t helpment inwardly. ''Spoiled them! I spoiled them too much!'' "Truly, never thought that of all the skills I could possibly learn from you, ''iron skin'' was your most aplished." Shane spat while shaking his head and handed over another 40 pouches. Xiao Lie swiftly stashed them somewhere inside his robes and went back to being all smiles and squinted eyes, acting like a kindly grandpa. He patted Shane on the shoulder and said. "Take care of yourself Little Long", Despite his shady actions, the genuine care in his tone was evident. Shane began to walk towards the Xiao n gates and said over his shoulder. "Don''t worry old man, I won''t let my guard down, I have too much to lose." As Shane''s back view got further away, a Spirit Sound Transmission made its way into Xiao Lie''s ears, causing his whole body to go rigid and remain unmoving for a long time. ''When we return, I will help you break into the Earth Profound Realm. Grandpa Lie you need to stop hesitating, you have things to live for and look forward to now. ----------------------------------- Shane caught up to the trio in the middle of the almost Empty street and they all chatted happily together as they walked the rest of the distance to the City gates. After leaving the City, they continued to walk for a couple of km until Floating Cloud was out of sight. Shane summoned Dusty to transform into her full size, while the silvery liquid essence poured out of his wrists, fully armouring him up in seconds. His hammer appeared in a miniature size on his waist in a sheathe made from Organic Constructs. He would be taking this trip seriously from the get-go. He helped Xiao Che and Lingxi get seated on Dusty''s back before sweeping Qingyue off her feet and jumping up on top of the huge Draconic head. Coral took flight from his shoulder and reverted to the size of arge peacock mid-air, circling above their heads and rising in altitude with each passing second. The now gigantic Draconic Wyrm just chirped a couple of times as if she didn''t even feel the extra weight on her head and Shane barely had a chance to yell out. "Coat yourselves in your Profound Energy or you will regret it!" before she took off at a blistering speed. Shane himself just casually waved a hand, a wedge-shaped Wind Barrier forming in front of them and allowing Dusty to concentrate on manoeuvring across the terrain while his little wife was content to stay in his embrace. She wasn''t unguarded, however, as he could feel her spirit sense unleashed and spread out to its full capacity within the sphere of his own senses. His spirit sense was considerably stronger than Qingyue''s, extending for hundreds of meters in each direction, although, even after noticing that fact, she didn''t let her guard down or return it. Shane was proud, It would seem that all the training together had paid off and she was using this opportunity to train her Spirit Sense. He just held her tighter and kissed her hair as a reward. "Good girl" Even the kiddos seemed to be alert and observant of the surroundings, although only being at the [1st of Nascent Profound], their Profound senses were pitifully weak, their determination to follow his teachings were still admirable. Among warnings of vignce and to never underestimate an enemy, Shanes creed was basically that by thinking outside of the box, everything can be further improved beyond preconceived notions. That, and to always look for an opportunity in every situation. This was one such opportunity... The speed of Dusty, ifpared to the two kiddos, was exceptionally fast, although they may be able to reach it in short bursts if they were to push themselves to the limit. The point here is that if one were to extend their Spirit Sense while travelling at that speed and in their realm, normally they would be overwhelmed and confused, causing them to pull it back in. These two were keeping it extended and if they could manage to do that as easily as when walking around, it would improve their awareness and response times immensely. Qingyue was also training this way but with her, Spirit Sense extended to the absolute limit. ----------------------------------- Despite the rather worn-out condition of the roads, it only took around three hours for Dusty to traverse the 200km distance and reach the outskirts of Cyan Forest Town. Holding Qingyue close, Shane jumped thest few meters to the ground before gently cing her on her feet. He turned to see Xiao Che smirking a little while doing the same for an absolutely lovestruck little Lingxi. ''Ah, there might be hope for this kid yet.'' Lingxi started securing a ck veil to her face and Shane nodded approvingly, they were only passing through today, so the less trouble the better. Her looks couldn''t be mentioned in the same breath as Qingyue''s, who could cause the fall of a country and its people but she was undoubtedly still a beautiful girl. With an Emerald sh, Dusty wrapped herself around his arm and his wife started spoiling her plenty, sneakily feeding some vitality pellets and rubbing her little horns all over. "Thank you little Dusty, who''s my beautiful girl." Qingyue cooed and the snake jumped ship! Shane''s mouth opened wide while he screamed ''Traitor!'' in his head. He was about to call Coral to ease his lonely heart when he heard another sweet voice loudly shout out, making his eye twitch in the process. "Fen Se, Fen Se! Come here, girl!" With a loud and sonorous cry resembling an Eagle''s only much more melodious, a white and crimson blur dived towards them at a frightening speed only to pull up at thest second andnd smoothly on Lingxi''s shoulder. She too proceeded to take out some vitality pellets from somewhere and ''sneakily'' fed them to Coral. What injustice was this!? He made those Goddess dammit pellets in good faith and now he was being ignored in favour of them! Shane snorted derisively, his Warhammer appeared in his hand at full size and already slung across a shoulder. He tightly grabbed Qingyue''s small hand and started dragging her towards the town. Once they had passed the gates, little Linxi''s head was as if on a swivel pointing at all the new shops and restaurants and even Xiao Che, this recently pretending to be a mysterious and silent guy, was no different. Qingyue''s eyes also lit up with interest but she had already had a broader view of the world than the other two through the words of both her husband and her Master, and all the images shown in the dreamscape, so this much wasn''t enough to impress her. Shane took them all to a fancy looking and lofty-sounding restaurant in the middle of the town, called something Profound Charming Fragrant something House, and the six of them ate a hearty breakfast, knowing it could be theirst proper meal for several days. Thankfully, it was still early in the morning and ''Young Masters'' clearly don''t wake up before noon, so even their return journey back to the town gates went unimpeded. A few men did stare at Lingxi and Qingyue briefly but the size of that huge Warhammer hefted across Shane''s shoulder and a quick re of his Killing Intent did the trick. ----------------------------------- As soon as they left the town, the training began and Shane had them run the 30km of distance over the rolling, grassy hills between the town and the forest edge. It took around an hour and a half, but he was impressed to see that everyone still looked chipper. *Whistle* "Coral!" This time his little birdie came to him and so he looked left and right before ''sneakily'' turning around to feed her some vitality pellets mixed with his own Profound Energy. The other three just momentarily stopped chatting, shared a look and simultaneously rolled their eyes. "Hey, girl~ Can you fly above the canopy and locate anyte True Profound or Spirit Profound beasts and lure them to us?" He asked while running his fingers through her feathers. There shouldn''t be any Earth Profound beasts near here or the town itself would actually be in danger. *Phi Phi* Coral took off again in a blur and Shane turned to the other three with a serious gaze. "Brother Che and little Lingxi, any Profound Beast below the [5th of Nascent Profound] will be yours to kill." They shook a little but neither said anything. "You both have a True Profound weapon and although you cannot bring out their full strength, there should be no problem damaging any profound beast below the peak of Nascent Profound. I also want you to fight together every single time. The whole style of your swords and attacks are based around and depend upon the quality of your teamwork. So, don''t be afraid to rely upon each other and trust your already impable coordination but remember tomunicate. You always go all out against me so it shouldn''t be hard to do the same against something that actually wants to kill you." He wasn''t joking, With his Body Cultivation being at the peak of True Profound, there was no way either of them could put a scratch on him, even with their new swords, so he always encouraged them to try to kill him during the spars. There was also a good reason why Shane had always trained the two of them together, sparred against them both at the same time and forged them sister swords. They had a great understanding of each other on an almost instinctual level and could easily fight enemies a few small realms above when working in tandem. They were onlycking the experience of actualbat. He smiled proudly at them and patted Xiao Che''s shoulder, staring into the boy''s slightly nervous eyes. "You are no longer weak, you are no longer frail, have confidence in yourselves and remember to always stay vignt of your surroundings. There will be real danger here and you. will. get. injured if you are careless. Neither I nor Qingyue will step in to help unless you are about to lose your lives. So, make sure to never underestimate an opponent and always go all out, no matter their strength." They both nodded and Xiao Che smirked while giving Lingxi a meaningful look. Shane had a bad feeling all of a sudden and narrowed his eyes while his brain started running at a million miles an hour. ''What is this kid nning?'' They both quickly took a step back, fell to their knees and Kowtowed ""We won''t disappoint you, Master!"" Contrary to his original bad premonition, Shane could still feel the genuine sincerity used by both of them to perform this Kowtow, the smirk was merely Xiao Che finding humour in how awkward Shane would be after the fact. Qingyue had already started snickering into her sleeve by the side and although Shane himself was touched, he could feel that small blood vessel behind his left eye, the one that made itself known every time someone did some stupid cultivation world bullshit, throb painfully. Nheless, he decided to y along, stroking his imaginary beard as he lifted them off of the ground with a wave of his hand. "Good Good Good! Let Master take a look at you." Chapter 38: The Hunt: Mistakes and Gains Chapter 38: The Hunt: Mistakes and Gains As Shane approached the two kids, smiling like a kindly old man, they shared a terrified look of understanding. Something was drastically wrong and doing the most sensible thing they could think of, they began circting Profound Energy in their legs to bolt. Well, they tried Who was Shane? The moment he had firmly decided to pay them back for this little embarrassing attack on two fronts, they were alreadypletely surrounded by invisible ropes of Earth Energy. As soon as they shared that panicked look and their bodies twitched as if to run away, he had constricted the ropes and bound them in ce. Seeing the kindly smile reced by a wide toothy grin, Xiao Che went deathly pale and almost fainted, knowing whatever fate awaited him would be much much worse than his little aunt. Lingxi, well she also tried her best to produce some crocodile tears and it was definitely effective, she was just too cute. "B-big b-brother Long" She blinked while showing him an expression of being wronged but s, he remained unmoved. Well on the inside he was kind of freaking out, that master level puppy dog eyed technique of her was almost lethal! "Come child, let Master take a look at you~," He said in a singsong voice, enjoying this immensely while thinking. ''That''ll teach those kids to make me feel sentimental'' Shane was definitely being a bit tsun tsun but he clearly felt the genuine respect and emotion that they projected into their Kowtows and it shook him up a little. Obviously, they knew his character by now and how he wouldn''t allow them to always be thanking him for every little thing. Shane liked to take care of people if it was within his means to do so and didn''t want those that he saw as equals always lowering themselves in front of him just because this backwards society demanded they do so. Hence the Kowtow and acknowledging him as their Master. Even if he would never truly treat them as disciples, they saw him as their Master and benefactor in their hearts. This unexpected, two-pronged, attack had been able to make him feel exceptionally awkward with the added benefit of a warm heart and a stuffy chest. Naturally, he needed to get some payback... So, Shane deliberately took his time approaching and when he finally reached the front of Lingxi, she was sweating cold, her eyes roving around from side to side looking for a possible saviour or failing that, any means of escape. What was going on? The puppy dog eyes technique had never failed before! Her big sister Qingyue had assured her it would work on him. Shane extended his hands, pinched her little nose and then amidst her protests of "Pweash schwop!" and "Liimzi''s shoy", he proceeded to ''lovingly'' squish and pull her cheeks for a few minutes until they were bright red. Qingyue, that little devil, was unexpectedly leaning against a tree trunk and clutching her stomach while literally cackling withughter, yes ...cackling. He wasn''t exactly sure what she found so funny. Whether it was how awkward the kiddos managed to make him feel, what he just did to Lingxi or the fact that she likely put them up to it. Thinking about it, it was probably all three, though another thought was more apparent in his mind right now. ''How the actual Fuck can she be cackling like a witch and still be so Goddess damned sexy? Where is the fairness in the world!?'' While this was all going on, the other perpetrator had been all too quiet, seemingly epting of his fate albeit still madly revolving his Profound Energy to struggle against the bindings, hoping against hope to break free. Amendable if ultimately futile effort. An otherworldly blue lotus made of the purest Ice burst into bloom on top of Shane''s palm, slowly revolving in the air and emitting a chilliness that could be felt a dozen meters away. He blew softly at the lotus and itzily floated through the air before hovering above Xiao Che''s head where it erupted into a huge cloud of goose feather sized snowkes, each one many times colder than any normal snowfall. As the snowkes covered the boy, he stopped struggling and started shivering, resignation and defiance fighting for a ce inside his eyes. "Brother Long, did I ever tell you how much of a great brother you are?" Shane sneered. "Really kid? That''s the best you can do?" The gears were turning in the kid''s head now and knowing his brother so well, he soon had a stroke of genius, his expression brightening up. "Umm, Brother Long, you know you look really heroic with that majestic Warhammer slung across your shoulders. Oh, how I wish I was strong enough to wield one." Bingo! Shane''s whole demeanour changed, turning extremely amiable within an instant and he slung an arm around his brother''s shoulders. "Hahaha! I knew you woulde around Brother Che!" Xiao Che, still shivering and covered in that unmelting snow, tried his best to show a sincere smile and nodded along as Shaneunched into a tirade about the greatness of Warhammers. Insert obligatory ''sometimeter'' "...Okay brother Che, now we are on the same page, how about let''s get those snowkes washed off of you?" "W-washe-" Before the kid could even finish, Shane stepped away and a hole opened up in the air above him, gallons upon gallons of chilly water from the forest pool surged out, instantly soaking him to the bone. Qingyue, who had calmed down during Shane''s enthusiastic talk about Warhammers, burst into a fit ofughter again and even Lingxi couldn''t help but giggle along. Satisfied with his little payback, Shane picked up and dried out a madly shivering Xiao Che out with his own Profound Energy while being treated to a few colourful phrases that would easily make a sailor blush. He justughed them off and secretlymitted a few of the more Asian ones to memory forter before sending them on ahead into the forest to search for beasts to hunt. Shane and Qingyue spread out their Spirit Senses and activated their bracelets, for all intents and purposes, they became simple Elementary Profound peak cultivators. They then followed along at a distance that was not too close but still within both of their Spirit sense range''s while Shane exined what he wanted his wife to do on this trip. "Qingyue, I want you to get used to livebat, so anything between the [6th of Nascent Profound] and the [1st of Spirit Profound], you will defeat using profound arts coupled with hand-to-handbat. Although unlikely as it will be to find one on the outskirts, I want you to use your sword at maximum power, along with all the skills you have developed to defeat any beast between the [1st of Spirit Profound] and the [6th of Spirit Profound] in the fastest time possible." He said seriously. Qingyue''s small world had always been a part of her and now that she had trained with it in mind and bonded deeper with her physique on a fundamental level, it was difficult for her to not show more power than she had any right to possess should she find herself in any sort of extended battle. He needed her to get used to using overwhelming power for ending things quickly and avoiding detection, as her physique wouldn''t be undetectable until she reached the Divine Way. They had already been over the reasons and she knew the risks, so Shane just held her hand and rubbed his thumb across her palm reassuringly. "Like brother Che and little Lingxi we are also two halves of the same whole and I will be right here next to you in case anything goes wrong. Still, I believe in your talent forbat, your skill with your techniques and your overall ability. Remember to stay vignt and don''t underestimate your opponent and nothing will happen to you." Not that he would ever let anything happen to her. Qingyue next to him was sporting a gentle smile at Shane''s concerns and overprotectiveness. Having cultivated for years now, this obviously wasn''t the first time she was hearing words like these, although it still didn''t diminish the warmth in her chest by even a fraction. A little bit of teasing wouldn''t hurt though, right? Turning around and cing both hands on Shane''s chest, she rapidly fluttered her mesmerizingly beautiful eyes, bit her bottom lip and said coquettishly. "Yes Maaaster~" *p* "Ahhh" Only to receive a tight p on her juicy buttocks, followed by a strong squeeze. Shane then disappeared in a sh of green while sending over a spirit sound transmission. ''Hmph Hmph! You see if this Master doesn''t punish you plentyter.'' Qingyue just licked her lips, satisfied at the thought of getting exactly what she wanted and started preparing her mind for battle while constantly scanning ahead with her spirit sense, scrutinizing the area around her two friends. ----------------------------------- Shane watched on with a serene expression, betrayed only by the sharpness of his gaze, as Xiao Che drew the attention of a stocky looking canine the size of a horse. A stake of the purest ice hovered above his palm, ready to take action at the slightest inkling of lethal danger as the beast again narrowly missed its prey. He frowned slightly at the transparent blue window in front of him, [Profound Earth Wolf: Nascent profound 6]. ''Why is it always wolves?'' The beast didn''t look all that much like a wolf but Appraisal hadn''t steered him wrong before, so it must have been named by someone...zy. *Growl* Shane shook his head and focused his attention fully on the battle going on below him. The kid''s sword and both his legs were enveloped in a faint green aura as he nimbly dodged another lunge from the ferocious overgrown pup. The beast''s answer was to let loose a throaty growl and lunge forth yet again, causing sparks to erupt along Xiao Che''s de as he parried the sharp ws with an upwards swing. Amidst the shower of sparks, were shards of the beast''s ws, and from the way it roared in pain and flinched away, that strike must have hurt it greatly. Xiao Che''s sword shone with a greater emerald hue and taking advantage of the Wolf''s distraction, he performed a perfect downwards sh. *Hooowl* The sword opened up a long and deep gash along one of the beast''s forelegs, it wasn''t a fatal wound, or even a disabling one but that wasn''t what the kid was aiming for. Xiao Che wasn''t fighting alone and he had sessfully caused it to forget about the otherbatant. "Haaaa!" With a cute shout, a blurred figure, sword covered in that same emerald aura, sailed through the air andnded on the wolf''s broad back. A gale formed in the surroundings as all of the figure''s aura condensed into the tip of the sword, and without hesitation, it was plunged into the base of the beast''s skull. Of course, it was a wild little Lingxi! The wolf jolted forward, catching the boy, who was watching her off guard and scraping across his thigh with the ws of its uninjured leg. It let out onest indistinct whine and copsed down dead on top of him. "Arrrrrghh!" "Little Che!" Lingxi abandoned her sword and jumped down to the side of her love with a horrified expression but Shane was faster. The corpse of the beast vanished into thin air and revealed Xiao Che, pale face covered in cold sweat, teeth grit and holding his badly bleeding thigh. "Ahh, Little Che! No no no no no!" Lingxi panicked as she saw the amount of blood and lunged towards the kid only to be pulled back by Shane. "STAY. BACK! Qingyue, a little help!" he shouted in a deep voice, before ignoring everything else and swiftly crouching at the side of Xiao Che. Qingyue appeared with a sh of blue and held the now sobbing girl in her arms, while lightly scolding her to not lower her guard. More beasts would soon be attracted by the scent of blood after all... Shane pulled the kid''s hands away from the wound, revealing three bone-deep gashes and his eyes narrowed. There was a heck of a lot of blood but also dirt and other shit from the beast''s ws mixed into the wounds. He had no idea whether a cultivator could get infections but there was also no way he would take the chance. Oh, how he couldn''t wait to finally finish that quest and get the medical knowledge when he returned from this trip. Smiling wryly, he pinched the kid''s chin and pushed a handful of ''vitality pills'' into his mouth before saying. "Brother Che, this is going to hurt." Xiao Che nodded with determination and to show his understanding, he without the slightest hesitation, crunched the ''vitality pills'' in his mouth. With a wave of Shane''s hand, his leg was enveloped in by a cocoon of dense Water Energy as the blood and other shit was pulled out from the wound, washing it clean. Shane couldn''t help but inwardly respect the kid as he only took in a single sharp breath through his tightly shut teeth but made not a single other sound throughout the entire process. Satisfied that the gashes were clean, he ced a hand on Xiao Che''s chest and started guiding the vital energy towards the wound while encouraging his body to also rece the lost blood. They both could feel the temperature of the air drop by arge amount as profound energy attacks were discharged into the surroundings one by one, but trusting theirpanions, they continued to work on healing the wound so as to leave no seque. After a quarter of an hour, most of the lost blood was reced and Xiao Che''s leg was almost back to normal when Shane felt a tap on his shoulder. "Leave the scar." Two pairs of eyes met, one filled with regret, the other understanding, and two brothers nodded together. When the small issue was over with and the beasts in the surroundings that were thoroughly frozen into ice sculptures had entered Shane''s inventory, the group decided to find a ce to stop for the day. ----------------------------------- Dusty, no longer suppressing her aura, burst out from the undergrowth and wound herself around his arm as they worked together, using the wind to clear an arearge enough for their tents. A few minutester, the camp was set up and an ear-piercing and sonorous Eagle''s cry was heard from above before Coralnded on his shoulder and nuzzled against him. Shane ran his fingers along her beak and cooed. "Such a good job today my adorable little birdy, yes you are." She truly had done magnificently for them today, luring over manyte and peak True Profound beasts which were promptly ughtered by Qingyue using nothing but her Ice art enhanced hand-to-handbat. Three of the four Spirit Profound beasts including a [1st, 3rd and 5th of Spirit Profound] were also cleanly ughtered by her with her sword. The full might of which she was already clearly capable of disying as she finished off all of her opponents with either a single sh or stab augmented by Ice Energy. To be honest, Shane did have some misgivings about her ability to kill at the start. After all, this wasn''t an emotionless Qingyue who would feel nothing from death. However, it would seem he worried for nought. When in battle her eyes became sharp and her face turned indifferent as she employed all of his teachings and experiences from the many training and sparring sessions, to the absolute limit. There was zero hesitation in her movements. That,bined with her incredible awareness, wless attacks, and swift executions, meant that everywhere she went, there would only be frozen corpses left behind. Qingyue was simply a demon on the battlefield and God would Shane be lying if he said it didn''t really really really turn him on. Seeing that indifferent expression soften at the sight of him and that icy cold goddess turn into a little kitten only for him to enjoy, also did wonders for his ego. Unfortunately, the only other high-level beast found by Coral was at the [6th of Spirit Profound] and Shane identally froze it into a popsicle with a lotus that was boosted in power by his small world. Still, it was only the first day and the harvest so far had already been bountiful. Xiao Che and Lingxi had in dozens and dozens of peak Elementary Profound and early Nascent Profound beasts, Qingyu had in a lot ofte to peak True Profound beasts and even four Spirit Profound beasts had fallen. All of those had made their way into Shane''s storage and would be valuable cultivation resources for the group. Chapter 39: The Hunt: Lessons and Advances Chapter 39: The Hunt: Lessons and Advances A solemn mood hung in the air of the campsite, only the asional sounds of chewing and cutlery touching chinaware could be heard, as out of ce as they were in the dense forest. Shane and his group sat in sandalwood chairs, at a sandalwood table and ate a freshly cooked and well seasoned dinner out of porcin bowls. What was even the point of having an inventory if you couldn''t travel infort? Today, the dinner was prepared by himself and Qingyue, while the two kids took a small rest in their tent. Piping hot meat stew, made from the thigh of Spirit Profound Beast, some forest vegetables and fluffy white rice. Simple, sure, but delicious and nutritious nheless. Despite the downcast expressions of Xiao Che and Lingxi, not a single morsel was wasted from anyone''s bowls, causing him to inwardly nod in approval. Another of Shane''s survival lessons for travelling outside: Always eat real food when you have the opportunity because you never know when you will next be able to. He was clearly aware that the energy and stamina regeneration of a well-fed body will be enhanced greatlypared to one that is artificially sustained. That, and real food also obviously tastes better than dried rations or pills. Good tasting food can lead to satisfaction. Satisfaction leads to contentment and contentment helps to relieve stress, which will subsequently affect mental well being in a positive way. In extended situations of imminent danger, mental wellbeing is usually the first thing to suffer. Not that cultivators are alright in the head anyways... Shane put down his chopsticks and sighed contentedly. He would never get over how amazing everything tasted in this world and was simply unable toprehend how or why cultivators beyond a certain realm, basically chose to go without food for their entire lives. He dabbed the corners of his and Qingyue''s mouths with a napkin then patted her on the head with a doting smile. "Would you mind clearing this up, my dear?" She hummed and he stroked her cheek affectionately. "Thank you." The atmosphere changed as Shane removed his hand, his warm smile slowly disappeared, reced with a serious expression and he calmly stood from his seat. "Follow me" He then turned and walked into his and Qingyue''s tent without looking back, two uniform pairs of slightly hesitant footsteps followed along in his wake. - When the two Xiaos passed the ps of the tent, they were greeted by a stony-faced Shane who sat in a high back chair. Two stools were ced in front of him and he gestured towards them "Sit." Shane locked eyes with Xiao Che and then moved on to Lingxi for a few seconds then back to Xiao Che. The kids squirmed under his gaze a little but didn''t look away. After a minute or two, Xiao Che couldn''t take it anymore, he was the one who suggested letting them fight against that beast at the [6th of Nascent Profound] and finally opened his mouth. "Brother Long I''m sorry, I shouldn''t have suggested" "*Sigh* Don''t apologise to me, I am not angry with you." Shane rubbed his temples and some of the sternness left his expression. "You almost died today Brother Che. IF, and it''s a bloody big IF, you managed to get out of there, at the very least, you would have had a crippled leg for life." Lingxi shook and grasped at a corner of Xiao Che''s clothing with a pale face. "Listen, kid, I am not angry with the fact that you insisted on testing yourselves against a beast that was higher than the level of strength I rmended for you to face. No, fortune favours the bold after all I am disappointed at the fact that because you were confident of her victory, you let your vignce slip in favour of watching Lingxi make her move. Despite the fact that a cornered beast is at its most dangerous, your eyes were glued to her from the moment her figure entered your vision. I am disappointed that you took such a fatal wound from a beast you were previously treating as little more than a mild inconvenience, even when it had a sword stuck in the base of its skull." Shane ran a hand through his hair and continued. Little Lingxi may be beautiful as a flower and that move was indeed mesmerising but ask yourself this. Can you still look at her if you or she are dead?" The colour drained from the kid''s face and he desperately grabbed for her little hand, holding it tightly. Lingxi had started to blush a little at Shane''spliments and Xiao Che''s bold action until Shane rounded on her, eyes glowing and brows furrowed in anger. The poor girl jumped up, like a frightened rabbit, her back straight in her seat. "And You! Let us not even mention the fact that you abandoned your weapon. You neither confirmed whether the beast you had stabbed was dead nor did you check the surroundings for any lingering threats before you ran to his side. Without your weapon, you would be as good as dead if you had to face anything above the [1st of Nascent Profound] alone but that wasn''t the worst part, oh no. Despite the fact that I was already there, you panicked... I taught you both basic first aid, so you know what blood loss can and will do to a person and how to prevent it." Shane''s voice rose with every sentence spoken. "He was clearly injured, clearly in a tough spot and instead of assessing the situation calmly, you let your emotions take hold of you and went to jump into his arms. That is no worse than killing him!" He thundered, causing Lingxi''s pupils to shrink to the size of pinpricks, she shivered with fear and her eyes began to turn red. Shane sighed again, all the anger leaving his face to be reced with a gentle affectionate expression and he got up to rub her little head a few times. He wasn''t aiming to make her cry but he needed to scare them both a little bit or the same could happen in the future when he wasn''t around to save anyone. Unfortunately, he had to cut it short before she started the waterworks, one of Shane''s three ring weaknesses. ''Aiya women''s tears really are a legendary ss weapon.'' The other two being puppy dog eyes from cute little creatures and Qingyue. Shane had to give it to the girl, although there were a few sniffles, she stubbornly refused to let any tears fall. Compared with the timid girl of just a few weeks ago, she really hade a long way. "What did I tell you before about responding to a serious injury?" He softly asked her. "W-wasting time is w-wasting life." "Good girl," Shane said as he caressed her head onest time. *Flick!* "O!" She held her forehead where a red welt was already beginning to form. "That will be your punishment Lingxi. As for you Brother Che" Shane shed a bad smile at the kid. "Let''s say you have to follow all of Lingxi''s whims for the rest of tonight as punishment for worrying her so much. Ah, don''t worry, I will put a sound barrier around your tent." Lingxi''s eyes shed with a strange light and turned a little moist for a different reason, she even licked her lips seductively, causing Shane to do a double-take, thinking. ''This little vixen actually changes her face really quickly'' "Before that, I want to give you the ''pellets'' made from that Wolf you killed." Shane flicked his wrist and two translucent white ''pellets'' with a faint herbal fragrance and four almost transparent ''vitality pills'' appeared on his palm. "You should both be able to make it to the peak of the [2nd of Nascent Profound] with those pills and you have two choices. You can take them here and I will help you to assimte the energy quickly or you can take them alone in your tent and help each other, although it will take much longer that way" Shane winked at Lingxi, knowing it was her decision but at the same time, not really giving her a choice. "Here! Big brother Long, we will take them here!" She practically shouted while swinging his arm about in desperation. Shane just chuckled. "Very well." "Thank you Big Brother Long! Quickly, quickly, let''s start now!" He ruffled her hair strongly and smiled. "Fine, but you best not dare tell your grandfather how bad it was today or I''ll skin you both alive." "I want another one of those deserts when we get back," said Xiao Che with a smirk. Shane''s eye twitched before he pulled the two kids up into a bear hug and they allughed a little. Qingyue, who had been eavesdropping with her Spirit sense, chose this moment to enter through the tent p and join them. She hopped on over to him and wrapped around one of his arms like a snake. "Husband~ I want one of those desserts too" Of course, Shane was aware of her ''watching'' them and in fact, he had spoken so much out loud for all of their benefit, including his own. Truthfully, he wasn''t sure if his wife or himself would be able to remain calm if the other was injured that badly and although, he didn''t think either of them would panic to the extent of Lingxi today but theirbat strength would surely be affected negatively ------------------------------------ A few minutester, Shane and Qingyue''s tent had been cleared and the floor covered in a nostalgic pile of hide furs. Xiao Che and Lingxi were sitting next to each other in the lotus position while Shane crouched behind them, a palm on each of their backs as he guided the energy of the pellet to help them break through. Qingyue sat close by in her own little bubble of the purest blue ice as she absorbed the ''pellet'' Shane had created from her [5th of Spirit Profound] kill and a couple of ''vitality pills'' made from the corpses of True Profound beasts. Due to their rtionship, and her position on hispanions'' list, the ''pellets'' that ''Bestowal'' created for Qingyue were extremely potent and contained a huge amount of profound energy. Meaning that Shane would not be surprised if she smoothly made it into the [4th of Spirit Profound] from the peak of the 2nd. After a quarter of an hour, two *Peng* sounds were heard in his mind as the pair in front of him advanced to the [2nd of Nascent Profound]. Over another quarter of an hour, their energy, aided by the ''vitality pills'' rose and then stabilised around the peak of that realm. Xiao Che and Lingxi opened their eyes, excitement and gratitude radiating off of them in waves. Shane raised a finger to his lips and ushered them out of the tent and through his sound-insting wind barrier. In the clearing they both checked their cultivation realm and found that it was stillpletely stable and he just smirked at them before waving his hand to erect a simr barrier over their tent, saying goodnight and heading back inside his own. Thinking about how he was getting more and more skilled with manipting and guiding energy inside of others and how he could stabilise their realms immediately after a breakthrough, it really did have some mind-boggling prospects for the future. ''Holy Shit, I really am almost as much of a cheat as Qingyue.'' Shane nced over to where his wife was basically using a localised version of the Frozen Cloud Domain as a cultivation abode. Inside a tent. In the middle of the woods. While still being at the 2nd *Peng*, no scratch that, the [3rd of Spirit Profound] and shook his head. ''Almost.'' Shane felt a familiar pull on his consciousness and stepped towards the sphere of ice cing his hand on it and feeling the energy weing him. He took a step further, entering inside, only to find apletely nude Qingyue standing there with a smirk on her face. "Husband we should ''cultivate'' to get the most out of the ''pellet'' i swallowed" Shane''s clothes disappeared, his spear already standing tall at the thought of partaking in the peerless feast in front of his eyes. Dusty could keep watch for a couple more hours... ----------------------------------- A very refreshed looking Shane wearing just his pair of ck with crimson veins, chunni shorts, exited his tent in the middle of the night. Leaving behind an exhausted Qingyue, now akin to a pile of mud at the peak of the [4th of Spirit Profound] and with a silly smile on her face, he headed towards his two cute beasts. There was a small temptation to peek inside the barrier around the tent of the two Xiao''s but it would be so much more fun to find out in the morning. Shane snickered to himself, Lingxi would never let this chance go, especially when he had even used his storage to drop a single bed from one of his spare rooms in there and stolen away all their other sleeping things. With Dusty in herrgest form and using her body to directly encircle the camp, it was easy to find her and coral, although, never did he expect the scene to be so incredibly Kawaii that he almost prayed to the goddess to give him a camera. Coral was spread out on her back along Dusty''s huge snout with her wings hanging off either side. Tiny embers floated in the air, surrounding the two and every time the cute snek breathed out, the birdies'' wings would flutter, causing those sparkling cinders to flutter around in the air like a cloud of fireflies. He was almost at loath to wake them up and only did after spending a few minutes watching them in silence while his near eidetic memory saved it all into an album in his mental pce... Leaning back against the crook of Dusty''s neck with Coral curled up in hisp, Shane was hit with a wave of nostalgia and once more reminisced his first few weeks in this world as he again did something just a little crazy. Using his now much more powerful Will and Intent, he grasped the two swirls of refined energy within his Profound Veins and forcefullypressed them until they merged together. This time, there was no burning pain, mental strain or prickly feeling in his veins and the energy merged smoothly. It was possibly due to the energy swirls only beingposed of beasts at the [3rd and 6th of Spirit Profound] or may be attributed to his increase in Body Cultivation Realm since thest time he pulled this trick. Either way, this result was preferable as the energy requirements for his advancement increased, discovering and using cheats like this would be of paramount importance. He triggered the absorption of the now merged pill inside his veins and the cyclic energy transfer, which was totally not dual cultivation, once again started making revolutions between the three of them. Just an hour or twoter, and they were done. The first thing Shane noticed was surprisingly not the enormous white and crimson bird, now far far bigger than him, somehow giving him the puppy dog eyed look with an eyeball the size of a dinner te while still trying toy across hisp. Nope, it was the god awful smell and sticky, oily feel of impurities on his skin, signifying that he had finally broken through to the Spirit Profound Realm in Body Cultivation. After washing all of those off, he checked their gains and although Coral had once more reverted back to her preferred size of arge peacock, he got the feeling from her through the bond that she wanted to surprise everyone another time. Though he also suspected that was only a secondary reason, the main being that she wanted to continue to sit in hisp and be spoiled. No matter, he would surely fly through the sky on her back very soon. Overall, the night was very productive, Shane himself had advanced to around halfway through the [6th of Spirit Profound] and his Body Cultivation had surprisingly reached the 4th. Dusty had somehow broken through into the [7th of Spirit Profound] and Coral hade a long way to the peak of the [4th of Spirit Profound]. All in all, it was a rather stressful first day as Xiao Che''s potentially fatal wound had worried Shane more than he would like to admit but there was no denying that the day was still immensely profitable. Chapter 40: The Hunt: Breakfast and Bugs Chapter 40: The Hunt: Breakfast and Bugs A/N: Fuck me I''m terrible at chapter names. ----------------------------------- Seeing that it would be dawn in just a few hours, Shane decided against sleeping and instead pulled arge, cushioned, wicker chair out of his storage and summoned Dusty and Coral onto hisp. They both shrank down into tiny little guys and he lovingly ran his fingers across the two different yet equally satisfying surfaces while his little pets let out contented whines. "You girls have worked so hard today, have a nice little rest okay. I''ll keep watch for a while" Shane cooed and withdrew a luxurious nket before wrapping them in it. By now, his storage was full of almost every single daily necessity you could think of and in most cases, there were multiple copies. Even back on Earth, Shane had always had stood by the creed that ''money was for spending'' although, it was probably just a way for him to justify his bad habit of buying anything that took his fancy. It didn''t help that Shan Long had never seen or used currency in his entire life in the forest, lowering Shane''s sensibilities towards money even further, and so, a lot of shops in Floating Cloud had their entire stocks bought up by him on a whim. He had also recently been training ways to store things from a distance using abination of his Profound Energy, Will and Spirit Sense for research purposes and had ''identally'' ransacked one of therge, uninhabited courtyards near Xiao Lie''s for absolutely everything that wasn''t bolted to the floor. Meaning he had a few tables, chairs, beds, sofas and even garden furniture in there along with a multitude of other things. Nothing much on the ''profound'' side of things but enough to be able to livefortably wherever he went in the future. As he pulled up a transparent blue window and browsed through his jumbled inventory, he couldn''t help butment the organisation of it. ''No wonder I have multiple copies of everything, slightly different things don''t even stack! It''s like the town storage from BDO all over again! What do I have to do to unlock the sort function?'' A soft snort and a small movement from hisp pulled Shane from those vexing thoughts. ''Really good sisters, who would have thought a bird and a snake could be so close.'' He thought to himself as he fondly gazed at the little beasts curled up around each other in hisp. Shifting a little in the chair, Shane closed his eyes and then spread his spirit sense out to the maximum, the surrounding hundreds of meters of forest, immediately forming a faint and fuzzy image inside his mind. Deciding that this could be a good opportunity to attempt to learn parallel thought processing, Shane urged his Will to fortify the image in his mind and support him in scanning for any abnormalities while another part of his mind split its focus and various things started popping into existence around him. It took a few minutes before anything happened and at first, a single table appeared nearby, then a small wood-burning stove next to that, then bowls of ingredients and utensils appeared on the table one by one Over the next couple of hours, Shane, as if in a trance, using nothing but the external maniption of his Profound Energy and Elemental Energy, slowly prepared a rice and meat porridge for breakfast. All while still seated in his chair with his eyes closed, keeping vignt watch for any dangers approaching the campsite. Sensing movement from inside his tent, Shane awakened from that semi-meditative state that he assumed was simr to some sort of enlightenment for cheat characters, opened his eyes and smiled wryly. ''I truly am ripping off Disney a lot aren''t I..'' What he had just been doing had absolutely looked like a live-action version of a cross between the mop and broom scene from Fantasia and the living household items from beauty and the beast. Though Shane no longer had misconceptions about how difficult and abnormal what he had just achieved was, that didn''t mean he would stop training himself or utilising advantages, just because he might stand out too much. Controlling things from a distance like using telekinesis was something he had always dreamed of ever since he watched Sr in heroes, years ago. There was also the force choke! Childish delusions aside, at least the breakfast was nearly done ----------------------------------- Not long after, the tent p moved and Qingyue, d in her blue and whitebat robes stepped out into the clearing. With her long hair tied up into a crown of braids that circled around the top of her head and held the rest of her hair straight against her back, she looked both heroic and valiant. Those magnificent eyes of hers lit up as she caught sight of the pot of hot porridge that was casually stirring itself. Shane drank in every detail of her form and each small change of expression with a soft smile, she always did seem to love the food he cooked for her. The next thing Qingyue noticed was the barrier still around the two kiddo''s tent and a mischievous smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. She was about to send her Spirit Sense inside when she felt a gust of wind lifting her into the air and before she could react she was already inside her husband''s warm embrace. Within seconds, the two little beasts had settled on top of herp, two warm arms encircled her waist and a nket that emitted a faint heat and smelled just like him was wrapped all around them. Shane buried his face in her hair and inhaled deeply as she purred happily and turned into a puddle on hisp. He lowered his head and breathed a puff of hot air into her ear. "Good morning my mischievous little fox spirit." "Don''t you go looking in there. I, your husband is right here and you were going to peep on another man." Shane said and grasped her chin, turning her head to face his own, their lips almost close enough to touch. Qingyue went into a slight daze, why was it that her husband looked even more handsome today? Really making people envious to death. "Be careful Yue''er, I might get jealous," he whispered, his close proximity, warm breath and husky voice causing her to feel hot and dry all over while her lips parted faintly in anticipation. Shane leaned forward slightly and took her bottom lip between his own, nibbling lightly before retreating and then doing the same to her top one, slowly alternating between the two. She shivered involuntarily but still let him do as he pleased. He pulled back again and saw her gazing intently at him, her little lc tongue darted out and wetted her suddenly dry and lonely feeling lips. Shane chose that very moment to lean forward again and nt his whole mouth over hers, kissing her deeply. Their tongues tangled together until they ran out of breath and Shane broke the kiss, gazing into her beautiful blue eyes and cing their foreheads together as a bad smile spread across his face. "Plus, don''t you think it will be incredibly funny to see how awkward they are when they realise she won''t be able to walk properly?" Qingyue''s eyes widened, her grin bingrger by the second and not long after, sonorousughter could be heard throughout the clearing. ----------------------------------- Time passedfortably within each other''s embrace, the light of dawn had spread across the horizon and the breakfast had long ago finished cooking yet there was no movement from the Xiao Che and Lingxi. Shane, deciding it waste enough, infused some Wind Energy into his mouth and let out an ear-piercing whistle. The barrier around the two absentees tent fluctuated, its dome-like shape bing faintly visible for a second before the whole thing popped like a soap bubble. Of course, he didn''t need to do anything of the sort, the barrier was formed from his own profound energy after all, but who doesn''t like some theatrics from time to time? Hushed whispers followed by a pained hiss could be heard from within the tent before returning to silence. Only after another few minutes did a rather sheepish looking Xiao Che, who was scratching the back of his head appear from within. He looked over to the chair that Shane and Qingyue were sharing only to freeze as he caught sight of the mirth in their eyes and the shit-eating grins stered across their faces. ''Truly too simr.'' He thought to himself as a blush crept upon his face,bined with that pleading expression in his eyes, he looked rather pitiful. Thankfully, Shane took pity on him and waved his hand causing another barrier to appear around the tent, just in time too. *Pffffft* "Hahahaha!" Shane burst outughing "Look at you brother Che! It''s only been one night and you are already a henpecked husband!" Shane recalled the beasts and stood up with his wife in his arms as the nket and the chair disappeared into his storage. He handed Qingyue a few ''vitality pills'' and patted her buttocks to send her towards Lingxi. By the time she had entered into the tent, Xiao Che''s face had already turned from blush topletely red with anger and embarrassment and his features darkened. "You may be my brother, but today, I your father will fight it out with you and see who is a henpecked husband!" Without another word, he rushed towards Shane, who adopted a loose stance and calmly deflected the wild yet extremely precise flurry of fist, elbow and knee strikes without the use of any Profound Energy. To outsiders this might look like a rather fierce exchange between hated enemies, however, both had huge smiles on their faces and were enjoying it immensely. Shane deflected an overhand right and grasped his brother''s shoulders, delivering a swift knee to the midsection while whispering in his ear. "So how was it?" Caught off guard, the kid was about to instinctively answer, when Shane suddenly crouched, twisted his body and Xiao Che''s world spun upside down. *Bam* "Uff! ...It was amazing, I asked her to marry me." Xiao Chended hard on his back but still had a sunny smile on his face as he dazedly replied. Shane was stunned for a second but soon picked him up and gave him a bear hug "That''s my brother! Now go get some breakfast and take some to Lingxi, we are moving on in 15 minutes!" ----------------------------------- When the promised time had passed, Lingxi finally left her tent and unlike how Shane expected her to react, she unexpectedly remainedpletely unfazed and only wore a happy and satisfied expression on her slightly rosy face. Who would have thought that even when teased, except for an almost permanent blush, she would remain as calm as floating clouds on a spring day, unfettered by everything. Shane could tell from this difference in her demeanour that a weight had been lifted from her shoulders and he was sincerely happy for the two of them. She had even started to radiate slight vibes of confidence and maturity in the way she carried herself, which he approved of greatly, the skittish Lingxi was cute but a little too naive for this world. They soon packed up the camp, via the incredibly efficient way of storing everything directly in Shane''s inventory and moved on to start another day of hunting. Everyone had advanced at least a small realm and what better way to get used to new strength than with somebat practice... ----------------------------------- Like this, another two days quickly passed. Due to the strong Spirit Senses of Shane, Qingyue and Dusty as well as the minimap, hundreds upon hundreds of herbs had made their way into his inventory, including at least a few dozen that were equivalent to Nascent Profound and even a handful of True Profound Realm ones. This time, he would keep and cultivate arge number of those herbs, flowers and grasses, in the same way, he had been growing the Profound Tobo nts. Shane would need to prepare many good Spirit Teas and Spirit Wines for the weddings but he would also need his own stash to take to Frozen Cloud, therger the better. Who knew if he would be able to grow those nts outside, in that Frozen Tundra without killing them off. Perhaps if he could create a greenhouse from ovepped sheets of pure, sealed, Ice Energy it would work Thoughts forter. Also, call him paranoid, but something was telling him that they wouldn''t have a lot of things in the way of luxuries over in that Ice fortress and his tongue would never allow him to stop making Spirit teas, let alone his wife. Naturally, the corpses filling his inventory had also increased manifold and there now quite a few Spirit Profound and even many True Profound carcasses in there. Of course, Coral''s contribution could be attributed to most of those. With her increase in cultivation, so too had her speed, flight range and strength of aura grown, allowing her to lure back many more strong beasts from all over the forest. The Nascent and Elementary profound corpses piled up in Shane''s storage were also now too many to count. These woods were truly infested byrge groups of low-level Profound wolves, felines, rodents and to the girl''s abject horror, insects. A swarm of thousands of dog-sized ants crawling towards you as that chittering sound steadily grew to be the only thing that one could hear, was not something that anyone in their right mind would want to experience. Qingyue, with a disgusted expression on her usually calm face, used swaths of Ice Energy beyond her realm and froze them in droves with extreme prejudice. Shane basically just went along behind her with eight tendrils of profound energy extended around him, and nonchntly stored them all away. There were a few near misses during these days and some slight injuries here and there but the only one that was in any wayparable to the one suffered by Xiao Che was actually received by Shane himself. ----------------------------------- It happened on the eve of their third day in the woods. The thinning trees at the edge of the forest and the beginnings of the vast rocky mountainsides had finallye into view, rousing everyone''s adventurous spirits. A few hundred meters of uneven ground, dotted with boulders as big as a full-grown man, gave way to a cluster of densely packed natural stone pirs that were casting long shadows down the mountainside, courtesy of thest few rays of the evening sun. Above those, were huge rolling slopes of whitish-grey rock that seamlessly inclined into several steep, snow-capped peaks. Past the forest of gigantic stone pirs and around halfway up the sloping stone was a visible indentation, a cave. Easily defensible and out of the way of the elements, it was the perfect ce to stop for the night. As long as any possible upant could be evicted. As the team of four exited the forest, all of them, without exception, gazed upon the impressive sight in front of them with unconcealed awe and they continued onwards quietly, only the sounds of their breathing and footsteps could be heard. When Shane had passed through here before, he was of no mind to appreciate the view and only saw this ''small'' mountain range as an obstacle, one he needed to ovee as quickly as possible. Only now could he afford to take a moment to fully appreciate the magnificent sights in front of him. The view was no doubt breathtaking, not enough for Shane to drop his guard or his Spirit Sense for that matter, but enough to not notice the slowly building feeling of unease in his heart until it was almost toote. He had originally chalked the increasing sense of foreboding up to generally feelingparatively small in front of such impressive and sobering examples of nature but then he realised another key factor. It was way too quiet... Shane raised his clenched fist as a signal for the group to pause their movements. The other three assumed battle positions but remained silent, knowing that hand signals signified the need for silence. He dialled back his spirit sense from all around and using a strong mental image, with a generous application of his Will, focused on intenselybing over the sections of the mountainside, in front of the group, section by section. Under normal circumstances, the area of coverage of Shane''s spirit sense could bepared to the illumination of a bright light bulb, however, what he was now doing could bepared to the condensed beam of an extremely focused spotlight. Usually the ''light bulb'' would illuminate a circrrge area, with him as the centre, where things would be more indistinct and harder to focus on, the further away from him they were. However, this new application dubbed ''the beam'' would intenselyb over a narrow area of just a few meters wide, that extended from himself to his Spirit Sense''s maximum range, and ryed everything within back to Shane''s mind in perfect rity. Now that his Spirit Sense was hyper-focused, he could feel a very slight ominous presence mixed in with a dab of almost illusory killing intent, hiding within the rocky pirs ahead. It only took him a minute or so before he managed to locate it. The presence was there, vertically attached to the hidden side of one of therger, tter pirs,pletely stationary and defying gravity as it did so, a predator lying in wait. Shane gulped, it was just several tens of meters ahead of the group, and with its aura almostpletely concealed, he would have had trouble sensing it before it came within range of the minimap. He somehow doubted that the 40m warning distance that the minimap provided would have saved him from a tough battle that he absolutely didn''t want to take ce, if only for his own mental wellbeing. Fortunately, they wouldn''t be ambushed and all wasid bare in front of Shane''s ''makansap...'' Special Spirit Sense Beam Cannon, although he really really really wished what was there, wasn''t there. The roughly 15m long body wasposed of many different segments the size of dustbin lids with dozens of de-like feet jutting out along its length and two pairs of long and sharp mandibles, reminiscent of barbed short swords and likely containing a strong venom, that were affixed to the head. It was an iparably terrifying-looking Centipede at the Earth Profound Realm. Suppressing a violent shudder, the few meters of air around the group thrummed as it was suffused with his power. A localised and bastardised wind domain that blocked most of their auras, sound, scent and was also imbued with a richer amount of oxygen than the surrounding air, came into existence. The extra oxygen in the air would help their minds sharpen and allow their bodies to feel more energised with the added effect of allowing them to remain calm. Although the effects were basic, the pseudo domain was incredibly useful for the current situation and it wasn''t even particrly draining on his reserves. All of the Wind energy influencing the surrounding air was technically still part of him and he also had the small world topensate, making the running costs negligible. Shane beckoned them toe closer and the four of them huddled together, however his eyes never left Qingyue''s, knowing she would have an important part in the battle toe. "Okay so here''s the deal" ----------------------------------- A/N: Try DxD Aspect of Greed if you have the time. Looks like it''s going to be an interesting take on that world, but be warned the MC has no qualms about anything and likes to go balls to the wall. Chapter 41: The Hunt: Fuck Centipedes Chapter 41: The Hunt: Fuck Centipedes A/N: This weekend will be difficult for me as my mother has a knee injury and so I will need to look after both her and my disabled grandmother and consequently won''t have much time to write. I apologise but the next chapter may not be released until Monday or even tuesday. ----------------------------------- "Okay, so here''s the deal," Shane said somewhat defeatedly, he really really didn''t like centipedes. "In front of us, lying in wait is a voracious predator that is naturally able to hide its aura and it is also in either the [1st or 2nd of Earth Profound]." Xiao Che and Lingxi both took in a sharp breath and the colour drained from their faces. They may have reached the [4th of Nascent Profound] in just a few days, but an Earth Profound was still basically just a legendary existence to them, they wouldn''t even be able to escape, let alone fight the damn thing. Qingyue, however, remained unfazed in the face of this revtion. She was at the [6th of Spirit Profound] already and could, for a limited time, disy enough strength to rival a mid-level Earth Profound if she went all out with her sword, small world, and high-level profound arts. That was even without forcefully using the domain. "Husband, I don''t know exactly how strong you are, but Qingyue believes you can kill a profound beast at the Earth Profound Realm even though you are only at the peak of the [7th of Spirit Profound]." She said and looked towards him with unwavering belief, only to freeze as her eyes met his and saw horror, disgust and hesitation inside of the unusually dim crimson globes. Those kinds of eyes seemed somewhat familiar to her but she couldn''t put her finger on the why, although it didn''t stop the cold shiver that traced its way along her spine, bringing with it an unsettling feeling that made her skin crawl. For absolutely no reason at all, Qingyue suddenly remembered the hordes of dog-sized ants. As if sensing her thoughts, Shane shared a look ofradery and smiled wryly at her before saying. "I can..." Three sighs of relief and three people''s expressions rxed and then he dropped the bomb. "But I really really don''t want to fight it." Followed by three gasps in disbelief. Shane, this battle maniac, didn''t want to fight something he knew he could defeat, albeit, with a certain level of effort expended. "Brother Long, are you feeling okay?" Xiao Che said with a slight smile and mostly mock concern while Lingxi just mumbled "Is that really big brother Long?" Qingyue''s unsettling feeling intensified and when she spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper. "Shane, quickly tell us what kind of beast it is!" He spread his hands out to the sides and hunched his shoulders with a helpless expression. "A centipede" Lingxi froze in fear, her eyes turning hollow as she no doubt vividly relived the horrors of those swarms of Profound Ants, Qingyue went pale and gripped his hand hard enough that her knuckles turned white while Xiao Che still seemed rtively unfazed. The other three rounded on him with looks of disbelief, he just rolled his eyes and kicked the ground a couple of times. "...What, it''s just a centipede." Shane sneered at him and with a wave of his hand, a model of the vicious looking centipede rose from the ground near their feet. "Imagine that, but fifteen meters long and can cover a hundred meters of distance in under a second! Still think it''s, just a centipede!?" Qingyue''s grip somehow became even tighter and she desperately said. "Shane, let''s quickly run away!" "Unfortunately, we can''t" "...Why not?" "It has already sensed us, the only reason it hasn''t attacked yet is because it''s an ambush predator and probably believes itself undetected. That would surely change if we were to turn tail and as we are not likely to outrun an Earth Profound beast with over a hundred legs, we would still need to fight it in the end." He said helplessly. Damn it all! He really really didn''t want to fight this thing... Sure, the thing was creepy, disgusting and the stuff of nightmares, but there was another reason why he was reluctant to fight it: centipedes had powerful and extreme pain-inducing venom... If bitten by one or in any way affected by the venom for the first time, a person''sbat prowess was bound to experience a sharp decline and in a battle with a beast a realm above them, even a momentarypse could prove fatal. Shane held his chin in a thinking pose for a while, immersing himself in his thoughts. ''If only there was a way to hold it in ce long enough for me tounch an attack with all my strength. If I could do that, I could probably kill it in a single blow.'' ''What can we use hmm'' His eyes casually passed over Qingyue and all of a sudden, they lit up like Christmas. ''Maybe it couldn''t be held in ce, but it could be frozen in ce!'' "I have a n" Shane''s n was rtively simple in theory but actually required great skill, control, luck and just a smidgen of his wife''s special brand of bullshit. In essence, He would pour almost everything he had into a single attack. Meanwhile, Dusty wouldunch him, as fast as possible, towards the rock pir that the deadly arthropod was lurking behind while Qingyue cast a localised domain on its location. Shane didn''t believe that the foul creature would be able to move under the might of a domain, pseudo or not, the power of a Throne was not something an Earth Profound couldpare to. As long as the domain managed tost for a couple of seconds, it would be enough. Even if the initial strike didn''t kill the creature, it would still be wounded and they would only be back at a more favourable square one. If it didn''t die in a single blow, he could still use his weapon and the strength of his Body Cultivation to fight it, along with Qingyue and his beasts. With a wave of his hand, the imposing Warhammer grew to full size and all the excess oxygen in the domain gathered towards it before wrapping around the 6ft long shaft in a slowly spinning green cyclone of energy. "Dusty, get into position." She reverted to her full size and positioned her huge head behind him. "Coral, remember to take the kiddos back to the forest as fast as possible and then fly back in case we need your support." He lovingly stroked her little crest and cooed. "Let me have some of the good fire too, precious." *Phiiii* She blew out a gout of deep crimson coloured me, several magnitudes hotter than she was able to previously and Shane wrapped it up in his own profound energy before having it spin around the head of his Warhammer in a counter direction to the oxygen-rich Wind Energy. "Qingyue my dear, start gathering your energy." She stepped up and kissed him lovingly on the cheek then nodded and he could feel the air begin to saturate with both water and ice elements. "Be careful" Her eyes narrowed. "Or else" Shane nodded, took a deep breath and reabsorbed his pseudo-Wind Domain. "It''s showtime!" Then a few different things happened all at once... *Screeech* Coral transformed, grabbed the Xiaos and powerfully pped her wings before booking it towards the treeline at top speed. Shane slightly bent his knees, bracing himself for the iing impact, as a huge, spinning, ring-like structure formed in the air between his back and Dusty''s open maw. That terrifying amount of Ice Energy, always shackled within Qingyue''s body, surged and bubbled just beneath the surface as her eyes shed with an Icy Blue splendour. "Frozen..." The Oxygen-rich Wind Energy coiled along the Warhammers shaft and fed into the crimson mes, giving birth to a tremendous roaring sound as the heat increased tremendously and they took on a slightly blue hue. "...Cloud..." Shane gripped his roaring weapon and extended it to the side... then he felt it. the customised air cannon at his back pulsed once with a ridiculous feeling of unbridled power and burst into life. *BOOOOOM* Then he simply disappeared. leaving behind a sonic boom, a trail of mes and a cloud of dust. Suddenly, Shane found himself travelling forwards at an incredible speed, excitement bubbling up in his chest and wild neck length hair whipping in the wind as the pir that supported the former predator becamerger andrger in his vision His eyes adapted mid-flight and as if everything slowed down, he started to view the passing scenery as a series of still, shuttered, frames and when he was just meters away from the pir, an immeasurable amount of Ice Elements rapidly gathered in front of him. Shane''s eyes glowed crimson, his grin turned feral and he tightened his grip on his weapon. "...Domain!" A localised sphere of the purest cold energy materialised around the top half of the beast, bringing with it snow, frost, hail, Ice... and the absolute freezing power of a Throne! The Centipede, who had been prepared to pounce upon its swiftly approaching assant, flinched and that was all the distraction Shane needed In the blink of an eye, he had travelled thest dozen meters and the head of his hammer came into contact with the stone pir. The 1000kg block of metal sank right into the stone and caused ripples throughout its surface as if it were dense liquid rather than solid rock. Cracks spread along the surface, following the ripples and the entire thing fragmented into an uncountable number of pieces while still momentarily holding its former shape. As the hammer sank in further and was followed closely by its wielder, the resultant force carried by Shane''s body caused the fragments of the stone pir to explode outwards at a speed far faster than the naked eye could follow. to anyone else it looked as if the stone simply disappeared, and in that split second, it left behind a disgusting 15m long Centipede, frozen in mid-air. Shane had far from run out of momentum, his zing Warhammer cleaved through the firmament and came crashing down towards the head of the vicious looking arthropod. As frozen as the creature was, its bowl-sized eyes still followed his descent, and it even managed to barely move its mandibles into the path of his weapon. The head of his Warhammer made contact with the short sword sized, serrated mandibles and pulverised them without skipping a beat, turning them into deadly shards of buckshot that fired back towards their owner''s head, piercing its eyes and lodging inside its terrifying mouth. The ttened, armoured head was next in the path of destruction and again provided little resistance to the hammer''s charge. When contact between the two was finally made, the business end of the weapon sank right in through that hardenedyer of chitin like a stone into the mud. Shane saw all of this in slow motion, his instincts supported by his Will allowing him to ess a higher state of mind and greater reaction speed for a short period of time. With just a thought, the remaining dregs of Wind Energy, rich in Hydrogen rather than Oxygen, were crazily fed up the Hammer''s shaft and into the roaring mes buried deep within the carapace. *BOOOOOM* All of it expanded and then ignited at once, the resultant explosionpletely destroying the head of the beast while the three segments below burst into a mist of blood and flesh chunks. As if time finally started running again, the influence on Shane''s instincts lifted just as his resultant force mmed into the headless body and nearby rocky structures. Both Shane and the Centipede were carried far away into the forest of stone pirs by his remaining momentum, causing many more of them to copse and filling the air with a cloud of dust and debris that blocked everyone''s vision. "Shane!" Qingyue extended her Spirit sense and frantically searched within the forest of pirs and rubble for her husband''s energy signature, even as she smoothly mounted Dusty and rushed over towards him. ----------------------------------- When Shane finally came to a halt, his body had already smashed through several tens of stone pirs and he was almostpletely covered in rubble. He couldn''t help but marvel at the minimal pain he was feeling. Despite having just used his flesh and blood body to barrel through hundreds of tonnes of what he assumed were sandstone pirs at close to the speed of sound, he was basically unhurt with only a few slight scratches here and there. ''My life sure is ridiculous these days, if it were the old me, I would have turned into a red smear on the first pir, or in the air beforehand.'' He remarked inwardly. Hearing the worried shout of his wife and feeling her familiar Spirit Sense wash over him he gathered his profound energy and pushed the rubble on top of him aside and waved a hand to clear the dust, only to jump back with a start. "Holy Fuck!" The hideous coiled up body of the Centipede, sharp, ded legs twitching rhythmically, was right in front of his face and scared the shit out of him! "Shane!" Qingyue''s frantic shout reached him. "Are you okay!? Are you hurt?" Like he would ever tell her he almost pissed himself in fear. "*Cough Cough* I''m Okay, I''m Okay! Steel and fire types are super effective against bug types after all!" He tried to make a crappy joke instead to ay her worries but she obviously didn''t understand and thought he had a head injury instead. ''Gonna have to show her some pokemon in the dreamscapeter'' Shane thought while shaking his head. Much to his dismay, she then began frantically digging and pushing rubble aside with Dusty''s help before jumping up andnding on a rocky outcrop above him. Only to let out an ear-piercing scream and jump straight back down again. Not that he could me her, it was rather terrifying to look at. Shell as ck as the darkest night, angry red underbelly and orange legs that got lighter and changed into a bright yet somehow sickly yellow towards the glistening ded tips. There was also a slightly fishy smell that surrounded it that he suspected was its venom. Shane shivered at its close proximity and then gulped. There was no use looking at it anymore, he might as well devour it immediately and hope that some of the fragmented bits nearby would also still count as connected. He gulped once again and cautiously approached it with clear reluctance, unfortunately, to use Devour, he still needed to be in contact with the target. Shane''s hand reached out slowly and was almost upon its carapace when the body''s nerve impulses fired onest time, all of its rigid muscles twitched and a single errant leg, the one closest to his arm, iled in the air. The unbelievably sharp tip passed right through his vambrace, directly into his muscle, the skin offering up only the most basic resistance, and then straight through his entire forearm as if a hot knife through butter, just as the entire creature erupted into a cloud of slightly purple-ish particles and was sucked into his palm. "Gahhhhhhh!" A white-hot burning pain came from the area where the foot had pierced through and as the punctured armour drained back into his wrist, a ghastly looking hole that was surrounded by a multitude of devilish looking, wriggling ck veins, became visible to his eyes. The pain was immeasurable and within no time at all it had spread as Shane found himself rolling around on the floor with gritted teeth while he desperately gripped at the area above the injured flesh with his spare hand. The muscles of his entire body started to spasm erratically but thankfully, due to his high willpower, he was able to maintain the grip which somewhat stemmed the flow of blood and slowed down the spread of the venom. As the initial shock of the pain wore off slightly, he bit his tongue hard to draw blood and further clear his mind enough to ess the storage. After several torturous seconds, a ''vitality pill'' made from a peak True Profound beast appeared in his mouth. The familiar cooling feeling started to spread and Shane eventually managed to focus inwards using his intent to spread the vital energy towards the wound. He then set about clearing the toxins from the pathways and forcing out a bunch of ckened and dirtied blood through the wound, before it began closing up at a rapid rate. Thankfully the bones were mostly untouched, and within a minute the wound was fully healed. That however was enough time for the rest of his concerned party to arrive and take up defensive positions by his side. "Fuck fuck fuck! That hurt!" Shane let out a turbid breath full of curses and opened his eyes to see the concerned ones of his wife-to-be, shrugged his shoulders, and gave her an exnation. "I forgot that Centipedes can still move, even after dying. On top of that, I have never seen one that had venom in its feet for goodness sake, isn''t that a little ridiculous?!" "My armour needs to be reced with something stronger too, the leg passed through it like I wasn''t even wearing any." She didn''t look very impressed with his deflection but it wasn''t the time or the ce. Shane''s Spirit Sense spread out again in every direction and he found nothing else within the area so he dusted himself off a bit and said. "Let''s make for the cave in the mountainside. Coral grab those two again, Qingyue you''re with me on Dusty." Amidst a few jumbled protests from the windswept duo, Coral, truck-sized edition, grasped them within her talons and took off into the air. Shane stored his hammer, swept Qingyue into his arms and jumped up onto Dusty''s back before they headed towards the cave he spotted earlier. Right now, he just wanted to get away from here, have a wash and absorb that turbulent energy within his profound veins.. When they arrived, the ''cave'' was more of an ownerless indentation than any sort of livable den and so, after an hours worth of excavating and a lot of Earth Energy used to block the entrance, they had finally made itrge enough for them to pitch tents and rest the night in... Chapter 42: The Hunt: Conversations and Mountain Climbing Chapter 42: The Hunt: Conversations and Mountain Climbing A/N: Hey guys, although the situation over here has not improved much over thest few days, I did manage to get this longer than normal chapter done for ya. There should be at least another one before the end of the week but beyond that, I can''t promise anything. Stay ssy and enjoy. ----------------------------------- When the group had all eaten a hearty meal together, Shane handed out the daily cultivation pellets and ced a wind barrier around Xiao Che and Lingxi''s tent. Then it was time for him to face the music from his wife-to-be. He spent a long while calming Qingyue''s restless heart with lots of hugs and kisses, hair stroking, heavy petting and even some good old dry humping on her part, before managing to reassure her that he was in fact fine. For the sake of giving credit where credit was due, at no point did Qingyue ask or tell him not to do dangerous things in the future, she only vented out her heart''s grievances at his injuries and acted a bit more spoilt than usual. She was, after all, a girl from a different world, with a different mindset and aware of their constant need to challenge their limits, especially if they were to strive to be peak experts in the future. She also knew the overall effectiveness of his ''vitality pills'' on healing wounds, especially when applicable to himself, however, knowledge of the fact, wouldn''t stop her from getting scared or worried when he actually got injured. Shane understood her concerns of course, if Qingyue were to get injured he would no doubt be frantic, they were each other''s world after all. She was his pride, his treasure, and for the time being, his only family while he was her support, her rock. This time''s incident was truly an unexpected ident, however, so it didn''t take too long to appease her, and soon, the two of them were cuddling together in their tent. Shane brushed his fingers through her hair and took in a deep breath of her calming fragrance before he spilt out all his ns and worries for the near future, as well as his view on today''s major battle, and they spent a long time talking through everything together. The de-like leg piercing his armour and then flesh with minimal effort did indeed catch him off guard, although, it could also be expected from an Earth Profound Beast that specialised as an ambush predator. The real surprise hade in the form of deadly venom being present in the ws of the Centipede, it was simply a terrifying hunter, shown by its ability to resist Qingyue''s pseudo domain, even if only slightly. Shane suppressed a shudder at the thought of having to fight the thing head-on and Qingyue agreed that the actions they took were the correct ones, as battling the creature together could have had some terrifying consequences. The creature''s evolutionary defensive capabilities seemed to have beenpletely sacrificed in favour of an overwhelming offence, as shown by the ease with which his weapon cleaved through its exoskeleton. Although his weapon seemed to have no trouble inflicting damage on the beast even though it was at Earth Profound, in reality, the truth was different and only due to several nned factors coinciding, were they able to dispatch it so easily. The main reason Shane was able to deal a decisive blow was because of the superior materials used in his weapon''s creation, the resultant force behind his swing, the use of different elemental energies in the attack, Qingyue''s domain stopping the creature from circting Profound Energy and finally, itsparatively weak shell... The usage and maniption of Elemental Energies were obviously one of the majorly important deciding factors, as both he and Qingyue could manipte much stronger energy than their realms would suggest. They then talked about acquiring some Winf-based Profound Arts for Qingyue to learn in tandem with or maybe refined together with the Frozen Cloud Arts. That way, she would have another means for increasing the attacking power of her weapon and fighting above her realm. No need to talk about whether or not it was even possible for a single person to practice two different Profound Arts, she was the cheat character Qingyue after all. Shane would be lying if he said that he wasn''t surprised when she got all embarrassed, even to the point of blushing bright red when he simultaneously mentioned her doing the impossible while expressingplete confidence in herprehension ability. ''Heh, so this little seductress can still be embarrassed this way.'' He thought with glee. The next second, Shane was shaking his head andmenting on the inside. ''Aiya, where did my blushing little snow fairy go away to?'' His little wife really had been too hard to tease recently, sometimes, she would even be the one to tease him. Refining Wind Energy maniption into her existing cultivation method shouldn''t be too hard as he was positive that Ice Energy was already more than just Water Elements. Whenever he or Qingyue used the Frozen Cloud Arts, Shane could also sense some sort of subtle response from the Wind Elements in the air. Meaning that the Frozen Cloud Arts, Ice Arts in general or at the very least, The Ice Phoenix God Investiture Canon itself, incorporated some type of Wind Energy maniption into its processes. Another thing that came up throughout the evening, was how they had both verified that the growth aspect of their weapons was functioning correctly. They had also identified the how and that was through the weapons passively siphoning off Profound Energy from both their reserves, every time their cultivation advanced, in order to grow along with them. Both their weapons had kept up with their own realms so far, with the Warhammer giving off an aura of the peak of the [7th of Spirit Profound] and Qingyue''s sword also matching her cultivation of the [6th of Spirit Profound]. Shane exined his hypothesis about how it would no longer be as simple as providing Profound Energy when they wanted to advance their weapons into the next great realm along with themselves. He had spected that in order to advance, and that they would each need to ''feed'' it the core and/or materials from an Earth Profound Beast. Those were thoughts forter, however. The ease with which his armour had been prated was Shane''s major concern for the day. Qingyue pointed out that he hadn''t used Organic Constructs to absorb anything since the skin from the Spirit Profound Panther and even though it worked together with his greatest defensive strength, his Body Cultivation, he shouldn''t have expected it to be able to take more punishment. That had to change, every single bit of extra protection, no matter how small, would benefit him greatly in the future, but first, he needed to acquire some good materials to improve its defence by a lot... It was decided then, one of the Earth Profound Beasts residing within these mountains would be nourishment for his red-veined, silvery liquid essence, living armour that was once nothing more than in old gothic scaled steel. Shane had found himself genuinely enjoying this brainstorming session with his wife, normally he wouldn''t have wanted to say anything as he didn''t want to burden her and also his head was usually so full of random shit, it wouldn''t do anyone any favours to hear it all. This time, however, he found that it was nice to have someone to properly confide in and talking about his worries surprisingly made them feel even closer. It definitely helped that Qingyue was incredibly sharp and smart enough to be able to pick up on the things he had missed. ----------------------------------- Shane left the tent feeling as if a weight he didn''t know he was carrying had been removed from his chest and a wry smile on his face. That was probably the longest conversation he and Qingyue had ever shared, outside of the dreamscape where themunication between words and thoughts toed a fine line, of course. This had never been an issue between them, as they were both quiet people, content to spend hours at a time in each other''spany without a word spoken. They would also mostlymunicate with their eyes or Spirit Sound Transmissions when alone and in the dreamscape, a lot of things could be conveyed with a mere thought. Qingyue herself was quiet by nature and Shane had spent thest few years of his life as a bit of a recluse. When he thought about it, hadn''t most of the conversations he had partaken in since arriving here been premeditated and then him either leading or talking at someone? Shane tended to talk a lot more than necessary in front of others, that wasn''t to say that he found it difficult to talk to others or get along with them but it was mostly to ay his own rather awkward nature. It was more of a case of an overactive mind, where he would have so many things running through his head at once that he would end up saying something that didn''t make all that much sense in regards to the conversation at hand and then have to over-exin so that people didn''t get the wrong idea. It just felt a lot easier to Shane if he was the one to lead the conversation forward with his own momentum rather than let it get away from him, the only problem with that was that it tended to put him in a somewhat ''superior'' position, which wasn''t what he actually wanted. A warm smile graced his lips. ''There is no way that old fox Xiao Lie didn''t realise how awkward I acted at first and instead of calling me out, he must have realised that I wasn''t intentionally acting like a douche and just let me be. Still, that''s something I can work on from now on.'' Thankfully, the feeling he got from Qingyue was different to everyone else and Shane wasn''t sure why but he sure was grateful. When he was with her, he didn''t feel that same awkward need to fill any conversational gap with meaningless words and they could just enjoy silence together infort... Shane walked towards the blocked entrance of the cave and rubbed his hairless chin in thought. The family of three were also quiet people in their own right... no, they certainly talked a lot more together these days. His eyes widened, perhaps they had all realised early on that he was quite the awkward speaker and let him do his thing... Shaking his head with a wry smile, Shane pulled out a ''Coral Feather Profound Quill'' and began using his Profound Energy to inscribe formation letters in the air. Arger and more refined version of the ''cultivation realm hiding formation'' he had learnt from the pearl took shape and imprinted itself onto the wall of earth before pulsing once as he filled it with enough Profound Energy tost for half a day. Shane nodded to himself as he scanned the outside with his Spirit Sense. He had used Earth Energy to mask the blocked entrance until it looked the same as the surrounding rocky slopes and with the formation covering their energy signatures, he should be able to cultivate for a few hours with no risks. Calling Dusty and Coral back into the tattoo, he re-entered the tent and sat down on the bed next to Qingyue, who was already in the lotus position, absorbing the pellet consisting of her strongest prey of the day. Shane made himselffortable against the headboard before gently manoeuvring her into hisp and it showed that her trust in him was unfathomably deep as he was able to do this without disturbing her in the slightest. It had to be known that a cultivator was at the peak of vulnerability and defencelessness while attempting a breakthrough, so their bodies would normally react instinctively to any approaching presence. His wife''s only reaction was a slight curling of the corners of her mouth before she naturally leaned back into his chest as he closed his eyes and began probing the slightly toxic looking purple swirl hovering around in his veins. ----------------------------------- When the morning came, there were many great changes within the group. Shane''s cultivation had soared, reaching halfway through the [9th of Spirit Profound] and also reaching the [8th of Spirit Profound] in Body, he even had a vague feeling that he may have gained a slight poison affinity and resistance. Coral had reached the peak of Spirit Profound and little Dusty had again jumped ahead of her Master, by finally reaching the Earth Profound Realm and was currently adapting to the changes in her profound energy, within the tattoo. The Earth Profound Realm is after all the first great change along the road to cultivation. Not only does the Profound Energy within one''s veins be extremely vigorous and sturdy, but the life expectancy also increases. Although Shane himself had absolutely no idea if that applied to Profound Beasts and only knew that Dusty ''felt'' different to him today, beyond the usual strength increase, of course, it was as if every aspect of her had been through a qualitative change. Qingyue, that beautifully monstrous genius, had again broken through to the [7th of Spirit Profound] and was very proud of herself for getting that far by absorbing pellets from beasts that she had personally killed, ''vitality pills'' notwithstanding. Xiao Che and Lingxi had also both reached the peak of the [5th of Nascent Profound]. Lingxi, unfortunately, had only half the amount of opened entrances that Xiao Che did and so Shane was tweaking their given pellets on the sly so that they stayed at the same realm until he could open the same number of entrances for each of them. The ''vitality pills'' he gave out like candies, were possibly even more important than the cultivation pellets themselves, even though they were made from low-level beasts as they basically allowed the three of them to cheat their way through cultivation realms while maintaining a strong foundation and perfect stability. ----------------------------------- The group spent the next three days hiking all across the ''small'' treasure trove of a mountain range and in total, they visited over a hundred different densely clustered peaks. Compared to the forest, there were very few Beasts that made their nests in these mountain peaks and the majority of them were in thete Spirit and early Earth Profound Realms, boastingrge areas of territory. All of the beast''s that called this deste ce their home were incredibly tough and ferocious, often attacking anything that entered into their territories without hesitation and madly fighting at full force until theirst breaths. The first time he confronted one of them, it was as if it had been injected with chicken blood, attacking with a much greater speed and strength than its realm would suggest, causing Shane to have a cold sweat. ''It seems I was truly lucky to keep my life when I first travelled through here.'' Due to these high-level beasts having suchrge territories, arge portion of the flora was ultimately untouched and had in one way or another, evolved into some type of profound nt or flower, the LongsVine even made a reappearance! For the group, the standard modus operandi was to do airborne reconnaissance runs from the back of Coral while using their Spirit Senses to locate any strong Profound Beasts in the area. Next, Shane and Qingyue would jump down to deal with them before everyone would traverse andbe the nearby area with their Spirit Senses, collecting every Profound Herb and Spirit Grass they could find. Shane would stand on his cute Dusty''s head and ride her around, covering as much ground as possible while using abination of his minimap and pulses of Earth Energy to locate every single valuable ore deposit in the area before storing them away in his inventory with the same trick he used on the Crystals. They would rinse and repeat on different mountain peaks until the day began to grow dark, at which point they would hop onto the back of Coral and fly back to their cave at breakneck speed to spend the nightfortably. Talking of Coral, she received many praises from Qingyue and Lingxi when transforming into herrgest form for the first time. She seemed to be warming up to his wife more recently which was a good thing, perhaps it was their opposing natures that caused the friction at the start. Still, the not so little birdie looked beautiful and majestic to the extreme, while maintaining the plumage of a peacock with the exception of a sturdier body and her head which, despite still having her cute crest, resembled more of a falcon Esque bird of prey. Her wingspan was over ten meters and even though she was certainly strong enough to carry them all, in the beginning, her body was barely a meter wide and three long, making for a tight fit. That problem was nonexistent after the first day, as Shane and Dusty went all out to hunt a sleuth of four Mountain Cinder Bears at the [2nd of Earth Profound]. They were slow, much slower than him at least and only four meters in length, so they couldn''t really pose much of a threat but they had incredible strength, tough defence and each of their attacks brought forth extreme waves of heat. Shane and Dusty had the time of their life fighting those bears, this was made evident by the way his crimson eyes glowed with a deep bloody light and that signature feral grin was stered all across his face the entire time. When only thergest of the sleuth remained, he even stopped augmenting himself with the wind to dodge and instead wielded his Warhammer coated in Earth Energy, matching the Alpha blow for blow without being knocked back a single step. The Alpha''s corpse as well as one of the others wereter devoured andbined within his veins before he cultivated the resultant energy, not only boosting both of his cultivations to the very peak of Spirit Profound, but also giving him the ability to produce and wield Fire Energy. Shane was overjoyed at the result, as possessing Fire Energy, was also coincidentally thest step needed for his ''Elemental Forge'' to be an actual skill on his status. He would check that properly when he returned to Floating Cloud, however, as there would be a lot of notifications that needed attention once he reached Earth Profound. The energy from two Earth Profound beasts caused Dusty to advance into the [2nd of Earth Profound] and Coral to go through another evolution bing a Royal ze Luan when she broke through to the [1st of Earth Profound], her full size also increased again. Unfortunately, it took Shane and his pets almost the entire night to assimte the energy from those two Earth Profound bears, so he decided to wait until they were out of the mountains before breaking through to the Earth Profound Realm himself. That way he wouldn''t need to rush his breakthrough or worry about eating into the remaining time left on their trip. Chapter 43: Counting corpses and New Moons Chapter 43: Counting corpses and New Moons After three days spent in that ''small'' mountain range, almost every single peak had been littered with the footsteps of Shane''s group of six. Wherever they went, they left behind the empty dens of powerful Profound Beasts, bare rocky ground andrge empty pits. The amount of stacked up corpses in Shane''s inventory were no longer just in the hundreds. After the incident with the Profound Ants, it had already surpassed a thousand, subsequently unlocking the sort function of his Inventory. He tapped his finger absentmindedly on the table while browsing through the gathered loot and wondering how he ever lived without this extremely helpful function before. Thousands upon thousands of low-level corpses and herbs, multiple tonnes of ore, hundreds of kilograms of gold, silver and tinum, almost thirty kilograms of purple-veined heaven crystals and a small sack of gemstones were neatly separated inside the transparent blue window''s disy. With a mental nudge, the tabs changed and the higher tiered ''loot'' was disyed before his eyes. There were at least a few hundred corpses between the peak of Nascent Profound and the peak of Spirit Profound, enough tost them for months, if not years and finally, eleven corpses of Earth Profound Realm. Shane grinned to himself, remembering clearly how each one of them fell... ----------------------------------- First was the pair of Jade Tempest Scorpions at the [2nd Earth Profound] that Qingyue, after reaching the peak of Spirit Profound, killed through unleashing her domain and Profound Arts to the fullest. The scorpions were only the size of arge dog but they were able to skillfully utilise the wind to move at incredible speeds and werepletely covered in emerald coloured, crystalline armour. This armour consisted of many facets and sharp angles, consequently giving Qingyue, who insisted on battling with them in closebat to improve her swordsmanship, an extremely hard time piercing it. She danced around the pair of beasts like floating clouds and flowing water but even after a long while, she had only managed to leave a multitude of shallow scores along their armoured exoskeletons Qingyue, who had basically insta killed everything she had fought so far, got exceptionally frustrated. Gathering almost her entire remaining Profound Energy reserves, she poured it into her most aplished Frozen Cloud Domain yet and effectively froze them into ice cubes. She then proceeded to use the energy reserves of her inner world to form two gigantic ice loti, one on each palm, and mmed them down onto the frozen scorpions, turning them both into bloody ice fragments. Rather unnecessary, but it gave her great satisfaction for a moment until she realised what she had done and started panicking about how they could possibly use the corpses in that state. Thankfully, her husband was able to salvage the situation by devouring one of them and using bestowal to form a pill, then wrapping the other one up with his profound energy before storing all the pieces away together. ----------------------------------- Shane''s grin grew to look rather mocking as he nced at the six corpses at the [4th of Earth Profound]. They were Fierce Storm Hawks, The Xiao Sect''s patron bird, and frankly, they were extremely disappointing. Flying atop the back of Coral, who was much faster and way more beautiful than these scraggly looking buzzards, by the way, he had swooped down and targeted their wing joints with tiny localised spheres of his own Frozen Cloud Domain, freezing them stiff mid-flight. After that, well the birds either hit the ground and died or they hit the ground and then Shane hit them and they died. It was a rather easy and boorish way to hunt them but then again he was cheating by using the power of a Throne against an Earth Profound beast. The other three Earth Profound corpses were the two leftover Cinder Bears and a single Wyrm like Earth elemental beast that Dusty, in all her new forty-meter long glory, had ripped out of the ground and proceeded to toy with for almost an hour before snapping its neck. ''There must be some way different evolutions or bloodlines affect the strength of Profound Beasts.'' Shane absentmindedly thought to himself, not for the first time, as he reminisced over Dusty''s extremely brutal fight. Even though the beast had higher cultivation than Dusty by two small realms, the battle itself was as if an adult were battling a child. ''Thinking about it, Coral was the same with those Fierce Storm Hawks. She was faster andrger and the amount of elemental energy she could utilise was many times greater than them too.'' Perhaps his beasts were just special, he nced over to where Coral was sat upon Lingxi''s shoulder and Dusty was draped over Qingyue''s neck, both acting like spoiled children for breakfast morsels and smiled softly while shaking his head. In any case, they were the cutest Feeling satisfied with the newfound order to the chaos that used to be his inventory, Shane closed the window with a thought and chewed hisst piece of Spirit Profound Zephyr Bird Egg omelette, relishing the rich taste. He ced his chopsticks down and pped his hands to get everyone''s attention *p*. "*Ahem* This has been an extremely beneficial and enjoyable week for everyone. We''ve all improved by leaps and bounds, whether it be by cultivation orbat experience and I''m really proud at how far we all came." The words sounded happy but unfortunately, nobody found much joy in them. There was just a single day left until they needed to return and as Shane nced around the breakfast table, yes he had a different one for breakfast, he couldn''t help but marvel, not only at their cultivations but also at the looks of reluctance on their faces. Qingyue was probably depressed that she would have to go back to publicly keeping her distance from him, a matter he would solve as soon as he returned, so she didn''t count. Xiao Che and Lingxi, however, had been thoroughly enjoying themselves these past days, exploring areas that had likely been untouched by other humans for thousands upon thousands of years and getting all the closer for it. "As much fun as this was, all things muste to an end and unfortunately, there is only one day left before we have to return." Three groans were his answer and even Shane knew that keeping the bitterness out of his own voice was impossible at this point. "Big Brother Long, can''t we just stay out here forever?" Lingxi whined with reluctance. "You brat, you just want to stay out here and explore the wilderness in the day and brother Che at night don''t you?" Shane teased and she nodded without hesitation. "En" He raised an eyebrow. "You want to spend your life in a tent in a cave?" "En" "Wandering the wilderness, battling beasts and exploring unknown areas, away from all the other people?" "En" "You just want to avoid telling your dad that you ate up your nephew in the wilderness don''t you little Lingxi?~" Qingyue chimed in from next to her. Lingxi started to sweat bullets and turned her head to the side, she looked to be struggling with something and finally after Qingyue poked her cheeks a few times, she nodded meekly with a pout. "...En" Qingyue''s eyes lit up and looking extremely happy with herself, she held her hand up to a rather stunned Shane who nheless still received the unexpected high five with a deliciously crisp and satisfying sound. *Pa* Shane then burst outughing, bringing Xiao Che who had been staring, wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the situation out of his stupor. The poor kid started choking and spluttering on whatever was or wasn''t in his mouth at the time and Lingxi tried to turn her pout into a slightly fearful look that was convincing for the most part, although the corners of her lips were curled. At least the mood became lively again. Afterughing for a good half a minute, Shane wiped a small tear from the corner of his eyes. "*Hooo* That was brilliant, anyways I have a surprise for everyone today! As a reward for all the hard work thesest few days, we are gonna go for a ride on Coral to New Moon City and visit the ck Moon Merchant Guild! While we''re there we can sell a couple of cores and buy some other things to take back home for Grandpa Lie and my future father and brother-inw." ''Ah shit! Definitely forgot about that.'' When he mentioned Yuanba, the mood around the table sank again and Shane facepalmed inwardly. The kid had been avoiding them since the day he first met Qingyue and gave some cultivation pills over, despite being invited to join them more than a few times. Xiao Che scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Whenever I went out to meet Yuanba, I tried to get him toe and join us with training or even for a meal, but he always made some excuse saying he was busy." Qingyue looked over to Shane with concern and he grasped her hand reassuringly as Lingxi did the same to a defeated looking Xiao Che. Before Shane arrived, Yuanba was his best friend and knowing the kid, he was probably thinking he had let Yuanba down. "Okay, no need to be so depressed, I only met him a couple of times but I have a good eye for people and I know exactly the kind of person he is." He bullshitted without reserve, causing his wife''s eye to twitch. "My guess is that he used the cultivation resources that I gifted to him on our first meeting and his cultivation realm barely advanced at all and so he is ashamed to see me, thinking he wasted them. Obviously, I don''t feel that way but he''s such an honest kid that he can''t help but feel bad. Anyways, I''ll talk to him when we get back, now let''s get ready to go." He waved his hand dismissively and stood up to start clearing away their campsite. As he walked past Qingyue, she activated the innate, master level skill, of all women and used her little fingers to violently pinch his waist before whispering. "You know something, don''t you." In his ear in English. ''Truly, can''t get anything past this little lie detector.'' Shane wrapped his arms around her waist and gripped her soft buttocks out of view of the others, kneading and pinching them to his heart''s content. He moved his mouth to the side of her head and nibbled on her earlobe, causing her whole body to limply lean into his chest. "Yuanba has a special physique like you, I will tell you about itter." Qingyue was shocked stiff at the revtion, if that was the case, then what kind of special physique would stop her brother from being able to advance his cultivation? Was it the reason why he was so huge and muscr too? She was brought out of her thoughts as Shane blew a puff of warm air into her ear, one of his wandering ws tracing the crack of her buttocks while the other trailed up along her spine. She started feeling hot and dry all over from his continued ministrations and while she still had enough awareness remaining, decided to push him away albeit while grumbling in a very flirty manner. Shane, satisfied with both his cheap advantages and sessfully pulling Qingyue out of a thinking cycle that would inevitably lead back to her missing mother, began humming the Game of Thrones opening tune while storing away their campsite. He had a bad habit of humming these really catchy and repetitive tunes that easily got into peoples heads... ----------------------------------- As it turns out flying on the back of a living creature with a yful personality, that canfortably travel at around a third of the speed of sound is in no way as glorious as Shane thought it would be. The good news? They covered a distance of almost 500km in just over an hour. The bad news, it cost almost half of his profound energy reserves to shield the group from the 400kmph winds. Oh, and apparently cultivators could also get travel sick. Shane also discovered firsthand, the effects of profound energy streams and chaotic Wind Energy on fast-moving flying objects. Yes, he experienced profound turbulence. He could let that one slide however as he somehow managed to gain a greater understanding of how to utilise the Wind just by sensing the flows all around him. On the plus side, he did manage to exin to Qingyue, through Spirit Sound Transmission, everything he knew about Yuanba''s Tyrannical Emperors Divine Veins, including the requirements for awakening them and the drawbacks of not awakening them. Needless to say, she wasn''t especially thrilled about either option but Shane believed there would be another way and reassured her that they would help him together. He was banking on Jasmine also having a good head full of generations of Star God''s knowledge to take advantage of. She wouldn''t be hiding her identity from him in this timeline and so he could hopefully pick her brains. ----------------------------------- When New Moon City finally came into view, Shane''s jaw was hanging wide open, it was huge! At least ten timesrger than Floating Cloud and even bigger than the whole of London had been on his Earth! There were nine gigantic structures within that stood out from the rest, seven grand sectorial buildings, a huge walledpound with many towers and above it all, the city lord''s ptial-Esque mansion. Each of them spread far and wide throughout the enormous walled-off city, having enoughnd of their own to house tens of thousands of disciples, even then, the city didn''t look crowded in the least. Temples, pavilions, kiosks, courtyards, gardens,kes, and huge mountain rockeries made up the various small andrge n territories scattered across the rest of the blooming cityndscape like a forest of stone. Dozens of miles of dazzling white and blue coastline were dotted with docks, transport vessels, fishing boats and leisure yachts. The city truly was a very beautiful ce. Faced with the pleading gazes of his entire party, Shane had Coral do a slowp around the city borders so that they could all get a good look from above before he checked his map and nudged her towards one of therge open courtyards of the ck Moon Merchant Guild. They didn''t want to rm anyone bynding swiftly, so he had her slowly glide down toward thending spot. That of course was too good to be true as Dusty, the little showoff, wriggled free from her perch among the birdie''s talons and dropped thest dozen or so meters to the ground. She promptly transformed, while still in mid-air, disying herself in all her beautiful forty-meter long emerald glory and consequently shared the absolute shit out of the already waiting attendant, although, by the time Coral had fully descended, he had regained hisposure. The attendant bowed at 90 degrees and spoke some veryfortable words directly to Shane. "Wee to our humble establishment noble guests, your majestic entrance was truly impressive. May this little one inquire as to your business here today?" The attendant only nced at Qingyue, Lingxi and Xiao Che for a second and although his eyes shed with appreciation when his gazended on Qingyue, he was able to pull them away after just a moment. Shane nodded inwardly, the attendant''s eyes were pretty good, and he was very professional. Although Qingyue was wearing a veil, she still had a kingdom toppling beauty and an innate noble temperament that was absolutely not possible to be possessed by an ordinary person. When he spoke to Shane, he spoke with respect, not fake pleasantries, genuine respect. Shane himself was mostly unaware or more like unbothered but he had definitely cultivated a rather dangerous and unyielding aura that seemingly surrounded him at all times. The number of Profound Beasts that had died in his hands by this point were not less than a few thousand, and he had even inadvertently absorbed a tiny portion of the killing intent of the Heavenly ughter Star God. As unintentional as that was, it still had a direct effect on his aura and bearings... All in all, he gave off the feeling of a predator and that crossing him in any way would result in a fate worse than death, especially when he was closely eyeing someone with those glowing crimson irises. Shane flicked the attendant a Purple Profound coin and spoke amiably to him. "I want to sell some higher-level cores and buy a few other things today, I wonder if you could help set me up with a manager who has some say around here, hmm?" "May I inquire about the level of the Cores you wish to sell esteemed sir?" The attendant asked through Spirit Sound Transmission. "Spirit Profound Peak" These three words were returned nonchntly with just a small amount of Shane''s Will infused yet the attendant felt as if a p of thunder resounded in his ears. An illusory great pressure had descended on the shoulders of the man, it was as if he could directly feel the death of those beasts from the young man''s mouth, and within an instant, his back had grown slick with a cold sweat. He was only at thetter stages of Spirit Profound himself after all, and Profound Beasts were also widely known for being tougher than cultivators of the same level. For these ''kids'' to be able to y multiple peak Spirit Profound Beasts and remain uninjured, they were no doubt monsters. That was fearful enough, without even taking into ount the appearance of not one but two Earth Profound contracted beasts. However, risk and reward were said to go hand in hand and good business was often hard toe by, especially out here in a fringe city of the Blue Wind Empire. The attendant was no simple character, so the man easily regained hisposure, bowed his head, and dered. "Leave it to this lowly one!" ----------------------------------- A/N: Thank you for being patient, I don''t know how long this situation will persist for but unfortunately, it looks to be long term with my mother needing a joint recement operation in the near future. Chapter 44: Announcement Chapter 44: Announcement Hi guys. Unfortunately due to the circumstances at home, I am finding it a little difficult to use my PC right now and all the notes and research I have done on the novel are there. I''m sorry to say that it may take a while before everything gets back to normal for me (1-2 months minimum). I apologise for leaving everyone hanging but at the end of the day, my family is the most important thing to me so it is what it is. Thank you to everyone who stuck with me this far and for those of you who keep this book in your library, I''ll see you when I return! Stay ssy. Chapter 44: Shopping with a Fiery Ice Fairy Chapter 44: Shopping with a Fiery Ice Fairy A/N: Yo! (Insert Kakashi here). Did ya miss me? Firstly, I would like to start by apologising for the dy in posting. I had hoped to be back in full swing by mid-September at thetest but ''no n ever survives contact'' and all thatrk, so here we are at the start of October instead. While I am still quite busy, I have managed to find more motivation to make extra time to start nning, writing and re-reading again over thest couple of weeks and I have to say, that is mostly down to you guys. Words of support,ments and questions still continue to pile up at the end of chapters and even asionally someone will find me through ament on another novel to ask how everything is going. Knowing there is still support from a frankly awesome reader base, regardless of the time since Ist posted a chapter does go a long way towards motivation. Secondly, this chapter will hopefully mark my return to regr posting. While I can''t promise multiple chapters a week, there should be at least one a week from now on. I hope you guys can be understanding of the content while I work out some kinks in my writing after being away from Devouring the Heavens for so long and slowly manage to slip back into the same style. I just need to regain my Mojo a bit and everything will be gravy. Lastly, I have another fic on my tablet that I have been working on while my PC was inessible. It''s a Danmachi Gamer start that I had been ying around with where I have attempted to bring a realistic touch into the city of Orario. It also has an incredibly powerful, lecherous and sarcastic Gamer system along for the ride who loves to take a back seat and snark at everything. The chapters are longer (around 7-8k words) and will be posted every 7-10days. The fic also has a lot of numbers and stats in it (mostly as I was trying to brush up on my excel knowledge for a new work contract at the time), which I know isn''t a lot of people''s favourite thing but in my opinion, the finished status screens are easy to understand. Then again, I did create them... moving swiftly onward. The only problem is that there is no option for bold nor italics in the Webnovel creator''s section and I use a LOT, like a LOT a LOT of both of those. It was hard enough just changing all the Bold and Italic texts I originally used in DtH let alone a novel where one of the main characters onlymunicates through Bold text. Sigh, but I digress. For anyone who is interested, I will keep y''all updated on where it will be posted in the near future. Without further ado, the chapter... ----------------------------------- Cue Game of Thrones opening theme tune... RECAP: Last time on Devouring the Heavens Shane and his adventuring party of four did a week-long training montage which saw all of them rapidly raising their cultivation realms andbat experience. By day, the party trained theirbat senses as they fought battles with Profound Beasts in the forest while at night they ingested Shane''s ''cultivation pills'' and cheated their way through solidifying their foundations as they moved towards the small mountain range while scouring for precious herbs and resources. In the midst of the rocky mountainside, they were nearly ambushed by a deadly Earth Profound Realm centipede! However, it was ultimately in through abination of Shane, Qingyue and Dusty''s swift and decisive blows. The centipede severely injured our poor protagonist with a deadly venomous talon and scared our heroine witless yet it was ultimately but a trifling matter. Apart from that; Qingyue killed Profound Bugs with extreme prejudice, Lingxi finally ''ate'' up her nephew, Dusty and Coral were as always, cute as fuck and Shane still used that Goddess damned Warhammer! After filling up his inventory with thousands of Profound Beast corpses from Elementary Profound all the way to Earth Profound, a multitude of rare and precious medical herbs and literal tonnes of valuable ores, Shane took his party for a trip to The ck Moon Merchant Guild in New Moon City. Party Strength after training montage: Shane reached the peak of the [10th of Spirit Profound] in both Standard and Body Cultivation. Qingyue reached the peak of the [7th of Spirit Profound] Xiao Che and Xiao Lingxi both reached the peak of the [5th of Nascent Profound] Dusty reached the [2nd of Earth Profound] Coral reached the [1st of Earth Profound] ----------------------------------- After following the attendant into the most majestic and grandiose building, Shane and his group were led up to the top floor of the tower where a smiling old man at the peak of Earth Profound was waiting for them. He introduced himself as the manager of the New Moon City''s ck Moon Merchant Guild Manager, Elder Pu He. After exchanging a few pleasantries, including somepliments to Dusty and Coral they were finally seated in avishly decorated albeit weing andfortable room. A servant brought out some fine tea and delicate snacks which were decimated by the two little beasts in no time at all. Shane took out five peak Spirit Profound Cores of exceptional quality and the old man began looking them over, his surprise and excitement further building with each subsequent core he inspected. The quality was nearly perfect, with almost no efficacy lost. This was due to Shane''s practice of selectively devouring a beast while protecting the core with his Will that had borne fruit over thest few days. So as the corpse of the beast erupted into that familiar cloud of energy, the core was left nonchntly floating in the air When the final core was again rested on the desk in front of him, Elder Pu He looked iparably happy and directly opened his mouth to offer a price. "Esteemed guest, this Pu has never seen such exceptional purity in consecutive cores of this level!" "This old man will dly offer you 7000 Purple Coins for each one of these cores." he said Shane was quite happy, he was definitely expecting less than this and so without hesitation "Deal." The word was said and the two men shook hands. Shane leant back in his chair and sipped some tea while observing the smile on the man''s face over the rim of his cup, seemingly contemting something. In a sh, the cup was empty and while humming contentedly at the mellow vour, his crimson eyes shone. "Elder Pu, I wonder if you would be interested in a slightlyrger deal?" The old man leaned forward expectantly and said. "This is ck Moon Merchant Guild, no deal is toorge, esteemed guests can be frank with this Pu!" Shane waved his hand nonchntly and arge sandalwood chest appeared on the table even while Qingyue dutifully refilled his teacup on the side. He held her little hand and raised it to his mouth, amidst the eye-rolls of Xiao Che and Lingxi, never missing a chance to flirt with her. Elder Pu however was busy appreciating the dense sandalwood aroma of the heartwood box for a moment before opening the lid and gasping. Inside, still fresh and dripping with an acrid, fishy-smelling liquid were some of therger shards of the serrated, de-like mandibles from the centipede beast. These pieces had been found frozen near the original impact site on the following day and were still somehow able to constantly produce very small amounts of their own venom. "Esteemed guests are indeed impressive! To be able to take down the Earth Profound, Ten Venoms Rocky Centipede, even with your capabilities..." He gestured at Shane, Qingyue and the two little beasts. "Is no easy task, this Pu truly feels inferior! Would esteemed guests mind my asking where the rest of the beast corpse is?" Elder Pu He acted as if he was simply asking but he was a wily old fox and thought he had seen the avenue for further profit. He didn''t doubt that they had killed the beast, oh no, he had mingled around in these waters for decades and could easily identify the vast majority of the Profound Sky Continent''s high ranking fauna and flora. The Ten Venoms Rocky Centipede was a fast and vicious ambush predator, it would never let a prey escape, especially after they had injured it to this extent and it certainly wouldn''t allow them to pick up pieces of its body at their leisure. Shane''s eyes narrowed slightly for a second but then his hands raised and he showed a wry smile while shrugging. "Completely consumed, bones and all. Aiya, who am I to argue with a forty-meter long Wyrm and a huge bird that can breathe fire?" The two beasts let out a few small sounds of grievance before snuggling up to Lingxi and Qingyue and Elder Pu He chuckled a little. "It seems as if Esteemed Guest also has his own troubles. This Pu will offer 20000 Purple Coins for the shards here, that is my most generous offer out of respect for your strengths." Shane held his chin for a second and nodded. "Throw in the Smoky Red Fairy Dress that''s on disy downstairs and you have a deal." The old man nodded and took out a sound transmission jade, presumably to send for an attendant. Shortly after, the man from before returned with a beautiful fiery red dress on a cross-shaped standing hanger. The dress was clearly made for someone of much shorter stature than Qingyue, and her colours were white and blue anyway so she raised an eyebrow at Shane, only to receive a Spirit Sound Transmission in English saying that he would exinter. The attendant ced the cross-shaped hanger down and bowed before leaving the room. Elder Pur gestured towards the dress and said. "Esteemed Guest truly has good eyes, this Smoky Red Fairy Dress was made with heavenly silk chiffon and embroidered with eighty-one blood-red crystal tassels. It can also ward off evil spirits, help to improve blood flow and in the entire New Moon City, there is not a single other one like it!" After praising the dress to the high heavens and back again, Elder Pu gently and obsequiously, with a tough of unconcealed regret, handed it over to Shane who put it away into his inventory with a genial smile. The dress was indeed rather breathtaking and he was sure the perfect little Murder Loli would be happy with it even if she pretended not to be. After that, the atmosphere of the room again turned serious as Shane and Elder Pu He began discussing a deal to buy a multitude of low-level Profound Herbs, huge lengths of a wide range of fabrics in many different colours, a few tonnes of metal ingots and some fine jades. There was already a lot of Gold, Silver and tinum in Shane''s inventory and after finding out how well these metals conducted not only electricity and electrons but profound energy too, he would absolutely use them for more permanent formation runes and array disc crafting in the future so it was still better to buy more now. As for jades Well, let''s just say every cultivation novel Shane had ever read in his past life got one thingpletely correct! Jades were easily the best material for inscribing formation runes onto. That was without mentioning the amount of Profound Energy each piece was able to store rtive to their size and the ease with which the material epted said energy in the first ce. So, after negotiating a fair price with Qingyue''s help, Shane''s inventory now contained thousands more Profound Herbs, manyrge bolts of fabric, literal tonnes of steel ingots, nearly a tonne of good quality jade, arge amount of Gold, Silver and tinum ingots, and a pair of Space rings for the kiddos. Much to his absolute delight, he was also able to get hold of some hundred, thousand and even ten thousand milemunication talismans as well as a primitive book on formation runes and a pair of Sound Transmission Stones. With those treasures in his possession, Shane firmly believed it wouldn''t be long before he was able to understand the formations inside them and manufacture his own with little effort. Just as the deal had beenpleted and Shane received the remaining 31000 Purple coins into his ''storage ring'' he shook. His pupils shrunk to the size of pinpricks and his senses were all going absolutely haywire. A terrible pressure was approaching rapidly from the sky, birthing dread in Shane''s heart and although almost indiscernible, it was locked onto the very room they were standing in. Although immensepared to the current him, the approaching Spirit Sense was still but a drop in the oceanpared to his little Star God Princess and so Shane had the leeway to at least use his mind to think of a solution. Countless thoughts shed through Shane''s head, countless ns and strategies unfolded although none of them would likely work, he calmly continued, ready to stake everything for a chance for the others to at least escape if the person eventually proved to be hostile. Shane knew he was in no way a match for this being and in the face of absolute strength, all schemes had very little meaning, the person swiftly approaching them was VERY strong after all. However, he wouldn''t just give up! A fierce and crazed light appeared in his striking crimson eyes as he stood tall, nced to his right and clenched his fists in determination. Qingyue was here, and nothing in this world was more important to him, not even his own personal safety or secrets. If needed, he would use everything he possibly could to distract the approaching person while she escaped. It had taken less than a second for all of these thoughts to sh through his head. Only Qingyue, who was always watching him, and his beasts who had a permanent connection to his psyche had realised something was wrong. Shane gave her a small helpless smile that conveyed more than a thousand words, preparing to order Coral to take her and the kiddos away as fast as possible and her eyes widened a margin but all was for nought. The pressure intensified for a split second, enough to announce its presence to all upants of the room but not enough to hurt any of them, before it abruptly disappeared. What happened next caused Shane''s panic to abate slightly but made him sigh and groan endlessly inside. A cloud of flower petals that brought along with it a sweet-smelling and fragrant wind materialised in the centre of the room, right next to Shane and enveloped him within! The petals swirled around for a few seconds, forming a cocoon before bursting out in all directions,pletely nketing the room in whites, reds and yellows. As the petalsnded they rapidly dissipated, revealing an endlessly charming figure. There, dressed in pure white robes with hair as ck as midnight, porcin white skin shining as if the finest milky jade, thin red lips, an alluring effeminate face and draped all over Shane''s body like a summer jacket was a man? "This one has never seen such a wild and handsome boy! This one has truly lived for nothing all these years! Tell this one your name wild boy!" Elder Pu He froze, Xiao Che froze, Dusty froze, her forked tongue stillically hanging in mid-air, Coral''s eyes went wide and little Lingxi the pervert, her cheeks went bright red. Qingyue''s lips instantly pressed into a thin line and she frowned. "...It''s ...Shan Long" He replied in an exasperated tone through gritted teeth. This was certainly not as hopeless a situation as it could have been but neither was it ideal. Never before had Shane been so incredibly... conflicted over his handsomeness. If he wasn''t extremely handsome, then the person In front of him may have even killed him outright but then again said person would not currently be draped all over his body. Death or whatever this INCREDIBLY ufortable situation was honestly the choice was a pretty difficult one. The man? Reached out a ridiculously delicate hand and caressed Shane''s muscr chest through the gap in his outer robe his coquettish eyes lighting up. His ruby red lips parted, releasing a pleasant orchid-like fragrance he spoke, his words like flowing water. "So robust and smooth! little Shanshan, whatever do they feed you?" Shane shivered, feeling like a little mouse in front of a yful cat and while endlessly cursing his bad luck inwardly he firmed his resolve. Taking a deep breath, he mentally crossed his fingers and activated Appraisal ...only to let out a short sigh of relief. [Ji Qianrou: Supreme Ocean Pce, Elder: Tyrant Profound 10(peak)] He had a good idea of the character of the man? who was currently molesting him and so he was prepared to forcefully remove the roving hand from inside his robe when a loud sound and a powerful energy fluctuation from next to him attracted everyone''s gazes. *Crash!* Qingyue had risen to her feet, her teacup had frozen into a block of ice and shattered as a ripple of profound energy obliterated it entirely. Ever so slowly, she closed her eyes, her whole figure shook once and an oppressive aura began emanating from her body. Shane stared at his wife incredulously with his jaw hanging open as her profound strength continued to soar before his very eyes. The profound energy from hundreds of metres in every direction was attracted to Qingyue''s ethereal figure as if it were a ck hole and her cultivation swiftly approached the peak of Spirit Profound. However, it didn''t stop there. No, it wavered for a split second before a much stronger wave of profound energy emanated from her as she almost immediately broke through to the Earth Profound Realm. From there, to everyone''s amazement, her speed of advancement actually increased and within a scant few seconds, she had stepped into the middle stages of Earth Profound. Only then did Qingyue''s surge of strength begin to slow and her profound realm stabilised at the peak of the [6th of Earth Profound]. It was then that her eyes opened again, revealing an extraordinary splendour even as they shed with an intense amount of heavy killing intent. Her sword, [Clear-Shard] appeared in her hand and hummed happily as it greedily absorbed the surrounding profound energy, desperately attempting to match its wielders new realm. Fortunately, Shane had enough foresight to realise that this was a huge opportunity for his wife and released the shattered pieces of the Jade Tempest Scorpion, along with its intact core, into the air for the greedy little growth weapon to absorb. Ji Qianrou, for all his yfulness, had also realised that this was a fortunate encounter for the girl before him and simrly allowed her to continue, his eyes shing with interest along with a slight teasing light. As if a snake, he wrapped himself around Shane tighter and got ready to watch the show. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!