After hearing his explanation, Sword Venerable Mingxiao realized that the Sect Master had misunderstood. The Sect Master thought that he had given Song Zhizhi a Fertility Pill, causing Song Zhizhi to become pregnant with nothing, thus forcing the unsuspecting Song Zhizhi to marry him for the sake of the child.
He sighed and rubbed his temples. "Senior brother, Zhizhi is really pregnant. I'm going to be a father."
Sect Master:?
"It's not fake?"
Sword Venerable Mingxiao: "Really."
"Please keep this matter quiet, Senior Brother, and keep it a secret until the Bonding Ceremony."
The Sect Master was consumed by jealousy: Why couldn't such good things fall into his and Mingwei's lap?
"Alright, I'll handle things, you can rest assured." The Sect Master also knew that it Song Zhizhi was pregnant before marriage. After making sarcastic remarks, he began to consider what auspicious day was available to hold the Bonding Ceremony. This Bonding Ceremony had to be grand and spectacular, and it also had to be done before Song Zhizhi's belly got too big.
Speaking of recent good days--
The Sect Master's eyes lit up: I've got it!
" Mingxiao, our Sword Sect will hold Sect Tournament in a month. The Sect Master of all the major sects will be there. After the competition, we will hold your Bonding Ceremony with Junior Sister Song. What do you think?"
Sword Venerable Mingxiao had no objection to the date, but forming a contract was not a matter for him alone.
"I'll go back and ask Zhizhi what she thinks, and I'll give you an answer tomorrow."
The Sect Master waved his hand, telling him to hurry up and ask. After Xie Xiuji left, he returned to his own palace to discuss the procedures for Mingxiao and Song Zhizhi's Bonding Ceremony with Mingwei.
*
At Clear Snow Peak, Song Zhizhi practiced her sword for a while, estimating that Xie Xiuji's matter should be over. Thinking that she would be cultivating the Spiritual Heart Art with Xie Xiuji later, she hesitated for a moment, then took a bath and changed into new clothes.
Ever since Xie Xiuji cooked for Song Zhizhi once, he's been too lazy to carry the food around in the food container anymore. Besides, although the food container has a heat preservation function, food left in the container for a long time is never as good as freshly cooked food.
Song Zhizhi's cultivation level is not yet high enough to abstain from grains, and coupled with her pregnancy, her body is being consumed at a greater rate than before. Sword Venerable Mingxiao has changed to a batch of higher-quality ingredients. Song Zhizhi what kind of spirit beast's meat it was, but she found it strangely delicious. After eating, she felt a warm feeling in her lower abdomen, which was extremely comfortable.
After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, it was time to get down to business. Song Zhizhi didn't have any meditation cushions or other props for sitting and cultivating in her room—the cushions were too hard, how could they compare to a bed with several layers of bedding? If she got sleepy while cultivating, she could just lie down and fall asleep.
But sitting on the bed with Xie Xiuji to cultivate always felt a bit strange. The person was strange, the place was strange, and the things they were doing were strange.
However, by the time Song Zhizhi what was happening, they were already sitting on the bed: Oh well, it was just a pure cultivation session, we were all dressed up, we didn't even touch hands, so it's fine as it is on the bed.
As long as she's not embarrassed, it's others who are embarrassed.
"Ahem," Song Zhizhi took out the jade slip and said to Xie Xiuji, "Let's begin."
The Northern Rong technique on the jade slip wasn't profound; Song Zhizhi had already thoroughly studied it by the afternoon. Cultivating this technique was similar to her usual method of absorbing spiritual energy, except for an additional step of merging spiritual energy with another person's before absorbing it back into her own body.
Xie Xiuji nodded and extended his hand to Song Zhizhi.
Xie Xiuji's hands have long, straight fingers with distinct knuckles, a true blessing for hand fetishists. Although Song Zhizhi isn't a hand fetishist, she couldn't help but take a second look at such beautiful hands.
but--
Song Zhizhi looked at him in confusion: What do you mean? This step doesn't seem to be in the cultivation method.
Xie Xiuji remained calm and reminded him, "If you want to infuse your spiritual power into my body, you must have skin to skin."
Song Zhizhi:...
They say pregnancy makes you stupid for three years, Xie Xiuji had just given her spiritual energy in the morning, but she had already forgotten about it by evening.
She calmly placed her hand in Xie Xiuji's palm, and he gently grasped it.
This exercise manual doesn't seem to be all that serious; it still needs some guidance.
Although she had held Xie Xiuji's hand in front of Qingyu during the day, she didn't have time to think about such things then. Now that they were alone, Song Zhizhi realized that Xie Xiuji's hands were very large, enough to completely envelop hers. There was a thin layer of calluses on his palms, which must have been left from years of holding a sword. Although he had Ice Spirit Root, his body temperature was not cold, but rather had a warm and smooth feel like jade.
Song Zhizhi felt her heart beating a little fast.
Song Zhizhi, it was just holding hands, not doing anything inappropriate, don't be so pathetic!
Song Zhizhi a deep breath, calmed down, and recalled the contents of the Spiritual Heart Art.
What were the contents of the Spiritual Heart Art again?
Soul Fusion? Oh no, that's the content of the second level.
" Zhizhi," Xie Xiuji called to her with a smile, "Close your eyes and absorb spiritual energy as usual..."
Xie Xiuji's voice carried a reassuring power, Song Zhizhi quickly calmed down, recalling the contents of the Spiritual Heart Art: absorb spiritual energy, let the spiritual energy circulate in the body, then merge with the body of the one with higher cultivation, and then absorb the merged spiritual energy.
This sounds a bit like using the one with higher cultivation as a vessel for spiritual Cultivation Harvesting, but the beauty of this technique lies in the fact that after Song Zhizhi reabsorbs spiritual energy, it will not harm Xie Xiuji's cultivation. On the contrary, it will benefit him. However, because Song Zhizhi's cultivation is too low, the benefit is minimal.
However, the terrifying aspect of this cultivation technique is that if Song Zhizhi can withstand all of his spiritual power one day, the two of them will have a cultivation speed that is greater than the sum of its parts. As long as the two of them cultivate together, their cultivation speed will be more than three times that of someone cultivating alone.
However, it is too early to say these things at this time.
Sword Venerable Mingxiao carefully observed the flow of spiritual energy within Song Zhizhi's body. His cultivation level was far higher than Song Zhizhi's, so the effect of the first level of cultivation technique was negligible for him. He only needed to control a portion of his own spiritual energy to merge with hers when Song Zhizhi's spiritual energy flowed into his body. At the same time, he had to be careful not to let Song Zhizhi absorb too much spiritual energy. His cultivation was profound, and even if it was only one-tenth of his spiritual energy, Song Zhizhi could not withstand it now.