"You nearly choked me to death just now!"
Ling Qingzhu's face was flushed with shame and anger. Bracing her jade arms against Xiang Yun's chest, she looked down at him.
Xiang Yun looked at the rising and falling peaks and smiled. "That had nothing to do with me. You weren't ready yourself."
"I thought the Nine Heavens Taiqing Palace was mostly women and wouldn't be good at this sort of thing. Turns out you're pretty good at it."
"You!"
Listening to Xiang Yun's improper words, Ling Qingzhu felt that this fellow was going too far.
Now he was making it sound as though the Nine Heavens Taiqing Palace specialized in teaching such things.
"Why aren't you done yet? How long has it been?"
"Who told you not to try harder?"
Xiang Yun smiled.
Was he joking? His Heavenly Tyrant Body had been developed to this extent. How could little Ling Qingzhu possibly suppress it?
"You're too slow."
"Then you do it!!"
"You said it!" Xiang Yun immediately grinned. "Fairy, let me help you cultivate!"
Inside the cultivation room.
The formation patterns flickered constantly, their spiritual light alternately brightening and dimming. A strand of Chaos Light quietly emerged, casting shifting light and shadows across the cultivation room.
Two hours later.
Xiang Yun lay on the ground, looking at Liu Zhu curled up in his arms. Ling Qingzhu's entire body was covered in fragrant sweat, and her three thousand dark tresses lay wet against him.
Strands of hair clung to her cheeks. Her eyes were narrowed, and her breathing was even. Her fairy-like air of standing above the mortal world had long since vanished.
In its place was an utterly seductive appearance.
The fairy had descended into the mortal world, and the Overlord had worked hard on the battlefield!
Xiang Yun stroked Ling Qingzhu's smooth back and shook his head inwardly. This girl's physical body was still too weak.
She had actually fainted toward the end.
Who told this girl to be so wild?
At first, Ling Qingzhu had been a little inexperienced and shy, but later she had kept trying to turn the tables and take charge, only for Xiang Yun to suppress her ruthlessly.
But the gains had been considerable too.
Ling Qingzhu had just broken through to Three Yuan Nirvana, and her Qi had already stabilized. During the process, he had also crushed Nirvana Pills for her to absorb.
Now she was just a little short of Four Yuan Nirvana.
As for Xiang Yun, his cultivation had not changed much, but he had developed his Innate Dao Embryo further. More importantly, Xiang Yun looked at the strand of Chaos Light in his dantian.
Supreme Power?
While Ling Qingzhu had been "comprehending the Supreme,"
Xiang Yun's consciousness had truly arrived at a special place.
It was as though a grand voice had sounded in his ears and rushed straight into his body.
When he came to, he discovered this strand of Chaos Light inside him. As a Martial Universe fan in his previous life, Xiang Yun naturally knew what it was.
Wasn't Ling Qingzhu's greatest opportunity her comprehension of Supreme Power, which even allowed her to touch the Plane Embryo?
That seemed a little too easy. Could it be that monks from afar really do find it easier to chant the scriptures?
Xiang Yun pondered as he stroked Ling Qingzhu's back.
No, that couldn't be right. Otherwise, the Symbol Ancestor would have gained the Plane Embryo's recognition long ago.
It seemed the Innate Dao Embryo really was formidable. It had actually forced the Plane Embryo to give up its "world discrimination," allowing him to comprehend Supreme Power directly.
That gave him another bargaining chip for his deal with the Great Desolation Tablet, and it was also extremely effective at suppressing Yimo.
Comprehending the Supreme was a fine thing. Both sides had gained from it.
"Huh, what would happen if I let the World Tree absorb Supreme Power?"
A sudden idea occurred to Xiang Yun. He wasn't imagining it out of thin air. Supreme Power was the Plane Embryo's power, an alternative form of World Power.
And the World Tree itself was a tree that bore a world.
"I'll try it later. First, I should wake this girl up, or I'm worried the Palace Master of Taiqing Palace will tear this place down."
Xiang Yun couldn't let Ling Qingzhu keep sleeping either.
He really was worried that the Palace Master of Taiqing Palace would tear the place down. Even if she had tacitly accepted their relationship, they couldn't be so brazen about it.
"Wake up. Your master is probably getting anxious from waiting."
Hearing this, Ling Qingzhu looked dazed for a moment before hastily coming fully awake and recalling what had just happened.
The last time, she had felt her understanding of the Supreme Induction Art reach its peak.
Then she had completely passed out, though before she did, she had let Xiang Yun do as he pleased.
Feeling the soreness and weakness throughout her body, she realized that the cultivation just now had indeed taken a great deal out of her!
No wonder she had heard that few of her senior sisters had married into the Primordial Hall, but after they returned, they rarely seemed to complain about their husbands.
A powerful physical body really was formidable!
"I have to go back."
Ling Qingzhu hurriedly got up and took a fresh dress from the Universe Bag that had fallen to one side. If she returned late, her master would scold her.
She hurriedly dealt with any power that might have remained on her body and stabilized her newly advanced cultivation.
Xiang Yun got up as well. With a sweep of Origin Energy, he cleared away the strange smell, then put on his robes. "Just as well. I also want to ask how the talks went."
After tidying themselves up, the two left the cultivation room and followed the passage back to the main hall. Their expressions immediately turned awkward when they saw Hong Wuji and Yi Taiqing sitting there drinking tea.
Hong Wuji looked awkward, while Yi Taiqing's face was calm, but her fingers were already drumming on the armrest with a clatter.
"Master!"
Ling Qingzhu's face immediately went pale. Xiang Yun, on the other hand, cupped his hands quite naturally. "Master!"
"Palace Master of Taiqing Palace!"
Yi Taiqing acted as though she had not heard him. Instead, she looked at Ling Qingzhu and said, "I put you in charge of the disciples. How long have you been gone?"
"Do you have no sense of propriety when you're out?"
Ling Qingzhu lowered her head, not daring to say much.
Xiang Yun, however, took two steps forward, blocking Yi Taiqing's view. Smiling, he said, "Palace Master Yi, every disciple of the Nine Heavens Taiqing Palace is a paragon among mortals. Do they still need someone to manage them?"
"Besides, Palace Master, surely you've noticed Qingzhu's current condition. Do you think she could keep those people under control? Isn't that a little too harsh?"
"Young Hall Master Xiang, are you teaching me how to do things?"
Yi Taiqing spoke coldly.
Although she was curious about Xiang Yun, and had even been quite patient with him because he could improve the Supreme Induction Art,
what business did he have interrupting while she was instructing Ling Qingzhu?
Yi Taiqing turned her gaze to Hong Wuji, only to find him simply drinking his tea. She was slightly surprised.
Was he planning to leave the negotiations to Xiang Yun?
"Palace Master, you overstate it. I'm only telling the truth."
Xiang Yun smiled. With his master right here, did he need to worry about Yi Taiqing flying into a rage?
"Young Hall Master Xiang, I haven't even settled accounts with you for what you've done. What gives you the standing to interfere in how I instruct my disciple?"
"I'm Qingzhu's Dao companion."
Behind Xiang Yun, Ling Qingzhu's eyes went wide. Had this fellow just said it so openly?
"I haven't acknowledged that."
"Whether you acknowledge it or not, it's the truth." Xiang Yun put away his smile and spoke calmly.
"Young Hall Master Xiang, although you are indeed gifted and have limitless potential, potential is not strength. Zhou Tong had potential too, but in the end he became arrogant to the extreme. He actually dared to attack the Yuan Sect, and his body perished and his Dao vanished!"
"Young man, youthful recklessness is no good. You should keep a low profile. At the very least, when facing someone stronger than yourself, you must show respect!"
"If you weren't wild in your youth, could you still call yourself young?"