Dantian Limit, First-Rate Expert

"This is what reaching the Dantian Limit feels like!"

Gu Sheng opened his eyes. After leaving his meditation state, he quietly stood up and glanced at Chu Xin and Azure Spirit, who were still cultivating. He walked over and squeezed a stone.

"Crack~"

The hard stone felt like a clod of earth in his hand. With a light squeeze, it crumbled into pieces.

"So this is a First-Rate Expert's ten-thousand-jin strength!"

Gu Sheng's eyes lit up, and a faint smile appeared at the corners of his mouth. Although this was the result of him subconsciously using his Inner Force, his overall strength had genuinely more than doubled. He was even slightly stronger than an expert who had just broken through to the First-Rate realm.

"What's restraining me now is actually my Inner Force cultivation technique!"

Gu Sheng shook his hand and tossed away the stone powder, his thoughts returning to the problem with his cultivation technique. His current cultivation mainly consisted of two aspects: the Internal Fist, which represented physical cultivation, and the Inner Force from the Essence Refining Stage.

As for the Internal Fist, he had inherited everything from Teng Qingshan. Even after reaching the Grandmaster realm, he still had the Tiger Form Spirit Art, which could continue developing the physical strength of humans in the Nine Cauldrons World all the way to the Dantian Limit—eight hundred thousand jin of strength.

However, he had fallen behind in terms of Inner Force. His current main cultivation technique was the incomplete Heaven-Grade Manual, the Meteor Blade, which he had seized from Lang Ge, a guard of Li Manor. That fragment ended once he reached the Second-Rate realm. The reason he could use it to reach the First-Rate realm was because Gu Sheng had used Chu Xin's Human-Grade Manual as a reference and had the system deduce the rest.

However, once he reached the First-Rate realm, even the deduction function was useless. Without relevant martial manual knowledge to use as a basis, the system could complete the technique through deduction from nothing, but the price... Gu Sheng merely chuckled. If he had that many Luck Points to spend, he wouldn't have needed to work so hard in the first place.

"Ah! I still have to think of a way. As for Inner Force manuals, there don't seem to be any good techniques in Salt City. The one most suited to me should be a saber technique.

"The Gui Yuan Sect's Meteor Blade is pretty good. With my current strength, I'm qualified to go there and have them train me as a core disciple. But earning their trust would take time, and time is precisely what I lack..."

Gu Sheng was somewhat troubled. Without the subsequent cultivation technique, his Inner Force realm wouldn't necessarily stop advancing, but his progress would certainly be as slow as a tortoise. That was something a man like him, who pursued strength, couldn't tolerate.

"Ah! It stinks!"

Gu Sheng was thinking about the problem when Chu Xin suddenly cried out in alarm. She covered her nose with a look of disgust. In reality, the smell was coming from her own body. When a martial artist broke through the Dantian Limit, it counted as a minor sublimation of the human body, and the body would automatically expel some impurities.

"Haha! Little Xin'er, you've turned into a stinky little mud pig this time."

Gu Sheng bent over and squeezed in front of Chu Xin, his smiling face swaying right before her little cheeks. His detestable expression made Chu Xin grit her teeth in anger. The little girl opened her mouth and bit straight at him.

"Is the little mud pig getting ready to be a little dog?"

Gu Sheng leaned aside and dodged Chu Xin's sudden attack. Then he spun around, ran to her side, and continued provoking her with a grimace. "Come on! Come on! Chase me! Little Xin'er! Little mud pig! Little doggy!"

Chu Xin was furious. I went through all that danger and suffered so much in the wilds for this bastard, and even then...

"Drop dead!"

As though possessed by Kiba, Chu Xin launched a high kick at the misbehaving Gu Sheng.

"Hey! The little beauty is throwing herself into my arms!"

Gu Sheng was nothing like the weak Sora. He stepped back, then raised a hand and caught Chu Xin in a bridal carry. Looking down at the little beauty's indignant face, Gu Sheng slowly lowered his head and lightly kissed her fair forehead. "Thank you, Little Xin'er! Thank you for always staying by my side!"

"Eh~"

Chu Xin was somewhat dazed. She still hadn't recovered, and the bewildered expression on her face looked especially adorable.

Gu Sheng gently held Chu Xin in his arms and kept telling her what was in his heart. During this period, he had appeared calm, but in reality, he had been under tremendous pressure the entire time.

He had planned for a long time. What seemed flawless was actually like walking a tightrope. If even one step went wrong, it could easily bring total disaster. Precisely because of that, he had been even less able to speak about it, because even he didn't know what to do!

The wilds were vast and devoid of people. It was difficult to find even two people across a thousand-mile stretch. Staying alone in such an environment for too long naturally bred all kinds of problems. On top of that, Gu Sheng pursued perfection, constantly calculating and planning, unknowingly placing even more pressure on himself.

During this period, the pressure in his heart had truly been immense. If Chu Xin hadn't come with him, hadn't often kept him company and helped him untangle his thoughts, hadn't let him know that someone was waiting for him to return safely every night, perhaps he would have already broken down.

"Thank you! Thank you, my dear Xin'er!"

Gu Sheng pulled Chu Xin tightly into his arms, closed his eyes, and lowered his head to nuzzle against her. His sudden actions made Chu Xin's little face flush bright red. For a moment, she had no thought of resisting. Her small hands rested against his chest, and she didn't even know whether she should push him away.

"All right!"

After quite some time, Chu Xin's mind finally rebooted and she regained her composure. Her little hands gently pushed at Gu Sheng again and again as she turned her head away, refusing to look at his aggressive gaze. "Don't, don't look at me like that, okay? I, I, I'm afraid you'll..."

"Afraid of what? Afraid I'll eat you?"

With a smile at the corner of his mouth, Gu Sheng deliberately lowered his head and leaned close to Chu Xin's ear. He nibbled her earlobe and breathed warm air against it as he said, "Little Xin'er, will you let me look at you for the rest of my life?"

"Ah! Ah! Ah~~"

Chu Xin cried out three times in succession before realizing what Gu Sheng had just said. Does this count as him confessing to me? Isn't this too sudden? I haven't even... Chu Xin's thoughts ran wild.

"If you don't say anything, I'll take it as you agreeing!"

Gu Sheng smiled smugly and pressed his advantage, not giving the little beauty a chance to consider it. His mood was excellent, so naturally he had to pursue a fleeing enemy while he still had the strength. He would use this opportunity to win Chu Xin over.

Although this sudden "attack" seemed a little "despicable," he had long since regarded Chu Xin as his own, so naturally he wouldn't let such a perfect opportunity pass. From the moment he decided to make Chu Xin his teammate, he had already planned to take this little beauty for himself. The best teammates were, of course, "one of your own"!

"No~"

Chu Xin instinctively rejected him. It wasn't that she had no feelings for Gu Sheng; everything had simply happened too suddenly, and she wanted to slow down.

"Mmph~"

Gu Sheng naturally wouldn't give the little beauty time to slow down. The instant Chu Xin prepared to speak, he sealed her cherry lips with his own. Chu Xin struggled slightly, but in the end, she still yielded to Gu Sheng's "lewd might."

"So this is... kissing..."

Chu Xin's mind remained completely stalled. Looking at that face so close to hers, she recalled the peaceful life they had shared these past few days, one that was almost like a married couple's. A new voice appeared in her heart: Accept him...

After a long while, their lips parted.

Chu Xin quietly lay in Gu Sheng's arms with her eyes closed, burying her head and pretending to be an ostrich. She simply refused to look at his smug, detestable "face."

"Little Xin'er!"

Gu Sheng lowered his head and called out to her. After a while, he finally understood what was going on. Then he threw his head back and laughed, carrying Chu Xin toward the stream.