After melting off a small piece of Whale Glue with intense flames, Xu Tianming set the large piece aside for the time being, then focused intently on heating the small piece in his hand.
With ordinary flames, it would take at least an hour to heat this Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue until it was ready to be consumed and refined.
But Xu Tianming was different.
With Mavuika's help, the flames produced by the Radiant Sun Martial Soul softened the Whale Glue completely in just half a minute, making it ready to swallow.
He brought the black, sticky lump close to his nostrils. After making sure it didn't have any strange smell, Xu Tianming shut his eyes and swallowed the entire piece of Whale Glue in his hand.
It was as smooth as jelly, with a faint fishy taste, but it wasn't unbearable.
At first, Xu Tianming didn't feel anything unusual.
Just as he began to wonder whether he'd swallowed too little and prepared to take some more, an unprecedented heat suddenly spread from his abdomen. In less than ten seconds, it had coursed through his entire body.
Meanwhile, Mavuika let out an extremely comfortable moan in his Mental Sea of Consciousness.
"Hss... This pure, masculine power feels so good! I can feel my strength recovering rapidly. Quick, give me more!"
After Mavuika said this, Xu Tianming was astonished to find that most of the heat spreading through his body had mysteriously vanished into thin air. The tempering effect of the Whale Glue had weakened accordingly.
It seemed Mavuika had absorbed some of the Whale Glue's medicinal power.
Having reached this conclusion, Xu Tianming wasn't the least bit displeased. After all, he and Columbina and Mavuika were now bound together in a symbiotic relationship. The two of them growing stronger was basically the same as him growing stronger.
Since Mavuika could also absorb the Whale Glue's medicinal power, Xu Tianming simply cut the remaining large piece in half. After melting half of it with flame, he swallowed it once more.
Perhaps because this time he'd taken too much, the heat returned just two seconds after he swallowed it, and it was even more intense than before.
He lasted only five seconds before he couldn't help looking toward Ye Guyi, who still wore a bewildered expression.
A flame called desire rose within him, but Xu Tianming didn't dare let it run rampant through his body. Before it could cloud his judgment, he hurriedly called for help.
"Mavuika! Absorb this medicinal power quickly. I don't think I can hold out much longer!"
"Seeing you swallow so much just now, I thought you could handle it."
After teasing him, Mavuika continued absorbing the Whale Glue's medicinal power, taking in the heat that had been affecting Xu Tianming's thoughts as well.
Though the sensation was uncomfortable for her too, she was the God of Fire, after all. Her tolerance for heat was naturally far greater than Xu Tianming's.
Once the discomfort had completely faded, Xu Tianming felt the refined medicinal power remaining in his body. He immediately sat cross-legged and began focusing on refining it.
As time passed, he felt the qi and blood in his body boiling, his bones cheering, and the strength of his body becoming at least twice what it had been before the refinement.
Before refining this piece of Whale Glue, Xu Tianming had estimated that without Mavuika's help, his body could absorb and refine at most a two-thousand-year Second Soul Ring.
Now that the Whale Glue's medicinal power had been fully refined, he felt that even on his own, he could challenge a Second Soul Ring of at least four thousand years.
The effects of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue were terrifying indeed!
Just as Xu Tianming was feeling refreshed and invigorated, Mavuika suddenly let out an uncomfortable groan in his Mental Sea of Consciousness.
Hearing the strange sound, Xu Tianming immediately sank his consciousness into his Mental Sea of Consciousness. But before he could open his eyes, a fiery figure pressed against him and covered his eyes with her hand, keeping him from seeing what was happening.
"Phew... I overestimated how much I could handle in my current state... But don't worry. This position will help ease the heat. Don't speak, don't move. Just let me hold you for a little while... Just a little while."
Along with Mavuika's voice came a hot breath that set his heart aflutter.
Though Mavuika had told him not to move, Xu Tianming couldn't resist spreading his arms and wrapping them tightly around the fiery, delicate body before him.
"You're allowed to hug me, but I'm not allowed to move? Weiwei, tell me, isn't that a case of the officials being allowed to burn down houses while the common people aren't even allowed to light lamps? Were you this domineering when you were Natlan's God of Fire, too?"
Mavuika didn't reply, but from the increasingly heavy breathing beside his ear, Xu Tianming knew that her heart wasn't calm.
After that, neither of them spoke. They simply held each other in silence.
But only a moment later, a strange sensation appeared—one that was difficult to describe in words.
One of them was clearly a spirit, while the other was merely a body conjured from mental energy. Yet at that moment, they seemed to be connected heart to heart: she knew what he was thinking, and he knew what she had in mind.
Just then, a soft voice that rather spoiled the mood reached their ears.
"What are you doing? Are you doing something only family members can do together? If so, I'd like to try it too and see how it feels."
The moment Columbina's voice reached them, Xu Tianming and Mavuika's hazy consciousness cleared. They reflexively let go of each other.
But before either of them could explain, Columbina saw what had happened, took two steps forward, and imitated Mavuika's earlier pose. She spread her arms, white as jade, and hugged Xu Tianming.
"Is this how you do it? It feels pretty nice..."
An unprecedented sense of happiness nearly knocked Xu Tianming senseless.
Still, he managed to keep enough of his reason to analyze the situation...
"Mavuika's figure was mature and fiery, like a ripe peach. Most alluring of all were those two soft impacts that had landed right on his face when she first entered his Mental Sea of Consciousness..."
"Columbina's figure wasn't as mature as Mavuika's, but a young girl had her own unique charm. He loved her just as much..."
Wait...
Was he analyzing the wrong thing?
Realizing this, Xu Tianming suddenly snapped back to his senses. Only then did he remember that he'd entered his Mental Sea of Consciousness because he was worried about Mavuika.
He hadn't expected things to turn out like this.
Before you continue