Devour

As his mind immersed itself, the state of Xu Yuan's own soul manifested before his consciousness once again.

Those floating, granular particles had spread to every corner of his soul's surface, dense and layered, surging in waves like a wheat field during the autumn harvest.

The method of attacking with this secret soul technique, which complemented the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art, was actually quite simple.

Despite all the complexity described, it could be summarized into two points.

Sever and devour.

One would condense their soul into a blade to sever the soul-probes extended by an enemy, then use a special secret technique to devour and refine them.

The former was extremely difficult; unless one possessed heaven-defying talent with maxed-out comprehension, it was impossible to master it immediately.

However, the current situation did not require Xu Yuan to use the former; perhaps for the sake of concealment, these floating particles had essentially crushed themselves and delivered themselves to his doorstep.

All he needed to do now was use these floating particles to practice.

Xu Yuan carefully controlled his soul, attempting to circulate the secret technique.

His Innate Soul Body provided sensitive and precise control over his soul; as soon as he began, a few floating particles quietly vanished from amidst the "wheat waves," and Xu Yuan carefully enveloped them, beginning to refine and absorb them along the paths dictated by the technique.

While absorbing, Xu Yuan observed the dynamics of the floating particles on the surface of his soul.

The loss of a few particles did not seem to attract the attention of the woman beside him; the rhythm of the wheat waves on his soul's surface remained unchanged.

Once the absorption was complete, these few floating particles transformed into a trace of imperceptible, pure soul energy that added to Xu Yuan's sea of consciousness, strengthening the "defensive line" on the surface of his soul by a tiny fraction.

Repeating this process several times, Xu Yuan was no longer as clumsy with the secret technique as he had been at the start.

He briefly estimated the speed at which these floating particles were grinding down the surface of his soul.

If he were to open his "stomach" and devour these floating particles indiscriminately, Su Jinxuan would have no way to stop his condensed Innate Soul Body, but Xu Yuan chose not to alert the enemy.

This was because Su Jinxuan's upper limit remained an unknown variable.

Su Jinxuan might truly be helpless right now, but Xu Yuan could not be certain if she possessed a method to perish together with him.

The number of these floating particles swarming his soul was countless; if Su Jinxuan had a way to command these things to self-destruct...

He reined in his focus. The cautionary tale of arrogance was still fresh in his mind; it was better to be subtle and cautious.

Through repeated "thefts," Xu Yuan continuously tested Su Jinxuan's sensory threshold.

A few, a dozen, several dozen, hundreds—until the moment Xu Yuan absorbed over a thousand floating particles at once, the particles swarming his soul began to stir.

Having roughly guessed the limit, Xu Yuan ceased his greed.

He began to select an average of seven hundred to eight hundred "lucky ones" from the surface of his soul to devour and absorb each time.

And so, time gradually slipped away amidst this repetitive cycle.

Su Jinxuan seemed truly unable to be too far from him; for several consecutive days, she used the floating particles to control his body, keeping him within her room.

Whether he was using the latrine or washing his body, Su Jinxuan never left a ten-meter radius of him.

As time passed and the number of floating particles Xu Yuan devoured accumulated, Su Jinxuan's complexion gradually shifted from alluring and rosy to pale.

At the dawn of another day, Just as Xu Yuan was preparing to select a few hundred more "lucky ones" for breakfast, Su Jinxuan's resentful voice drifted softly from his side:

"Third Young Master, what did you do to Jinxuan last night?"