A faint fragrance drifted through the window on the night breeze.
The two sat cross-legged side by side, cultivating in silence.
It had been a month and a half since Chen Shu reached the peak of the Seventh Tier. He kept honing his Spirit Lock to loosen it. But under the effect of Divine Power, the quality of his Spirit Power far surpassed what it should have been at the peak of the Seventh Tier without the Mark's boost. Against Spirit Power like that, the lock seemed especially fragile.
Chen Shu even had a feeling—
Even without an Otherworldly Beast Core, breaking through to the Eighth Tier by sheer natural force would take little effort for those of them with the Mark's boost.
But they would still use Otherworldly Beast Cores.
The cores offered too many benefits. For Spiritual Cultivators especially, they could almost make up for the weakness of their relatively frail bodies.
"Whew..."
Chen Shu opened his eyes first and let out a long breath.
A moment later, Ning Qing opened her eyes too. She paused to take stock of her cultivation, then turned to him. "You finished a little faster than me today."
"What does that tell you?"
"That sitting side by side really does help you concentrate more than sitting face-to-face."
"Wrong!"
"..."
"It means you're getting less attractive to me. You can sit right beside me now and I don't even get distracted!" Chen Shu put on a pained expression on her behalf, clicking his tongue and shaking his head as he lamented, "It's over. It's all over. That's not a good sign."
Thud!
A straight punch.
Chen Shu settled down. "I'm nearly at the Eighth Tier."
"Mm."
"You're not surprised?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"That's what the Mark does."
"What about you?"
"I could cultivate