"Cough, cough."
Xuan Yi gasped for air like someone just pulled from drowning. She felt she was about to suffocate and pass out from the riot of energy, her eyes rolling back.
Xiao Tian held her in his arms and comforted her gently.
"Behave yourself! You lied to me! You said it was only a practice exercise and there would be no problem!" Xuan Yi slapped away his hand, which was being naughty even as he soothed her. She glared at him with "fierce" eyes, then bit down on his neck.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" Xiao Tian cried out in "pain."
After biting for a while, Xuan Yi let go. Seeing the neat row of tooth marks on his neck, her resentment lessened by more than half. "Hmph, don't even think about it next time. Don't you know what your own things are like?"
Recalling the sensation of the energy riot, Xuan Yi still felt a lingering fear, and her face showed a look of near-choking.
"Hehe, an accident, an accident." Xiao Tian chuckled awkwardly and hugged her tightly.
Seeing him like that, an idea came to Xuan Yi at once. She leaned in to kiss him. The hand he had on her waist pinched her cheek, and he dodged slightly.
"You scoundrel." Seeing that, how could she not understand? She was so angry her teeth itched, and she pummeled him again and again with clenched fists.
Xiao Tian let her light punches land on his body and let her vent. He knew he had been in the wrong earlier. It had been a subconscious reaction and hard to avoid.
At the same time, the two worlds that belonged to Xiao Tian began to vibrate and collide violently, since they had been unbound. He freed a hand and used his strength to hold them firmly steady, but the worlds were so vast that he could only raise his strength gradually to keep them barely stable.
Xuan Yi sensed this as well and gave up taking her anger out on him. But taking advantage of the fact that he could not spare the energy to stop her, she reached out, pried open his mouth, and put a finger in and fiddled around.
"Ugh!" Caught off guard, Xiao Tian made gagging sounds.
"Hahahaha!" Xuan Yi laughed heartily, her voice full of vengeful satisfaction. While he loosened his hold on her, she slipped out of his embrace. With a happy face, she pulled up the skirt that had slipped to her waist, then went to the washbasin to simply wash her face and rinse her mouth.
Xiao Tian had not expected the mature, steady Xuan Yi to act like a child and launch a sneak attack. "Cough, cough." He coughed a few times to clear his throat.
"How was it? You felt it, didn't you? I was far more uncomfortable than that!" Xuan Yi sat down on a chair, smiling at him. "And straighten your collar. Don't leave it hanging open like that."
She looked at the bite marks on his neck, still glistening with her saliva, and her face reddened slightly. She lowered her head shyly. Then she frowned. She saw several clear water stains on her skirt, probably from washing up earlier. She stood, and without any attempt to hide from him, changed into another outfit in front of him. Xiao Tian watched with appreciation and did not make a move.
"Oh, so well behaved this time? That isn't like you. Could it be...?" Xuan Yi came before him, bent down, and said with a smile.
"Are you sure?"
Xiao Tian looked up at her, a smile playing on his lips. Then he activated the Zhe Secret he had just acquired. The moment it was active, his lost essence, qi, and spirit were completely restored. Xuan Yi saw a faint light flash across his body and felt a powerful life force surge within it.
"What's going on with you? How do you suddenly have such a strong life force?"
"This? It's my secret technique. It heals physical injuries. I'll teach it to you later!" Xiao Tian looked at her, and a wide smile suddenly spread across his face. "But that isn't the point right now."
Xuan Yi followed his gaze downward, stood up straight at once, and walked quickly toward the outside. "Excuse me, I just remembered I have to guide Xiao Ling and Xiao Meng in their cultivation."
She hurried out of the main cabin door in a flash.
Xiao Tian watched her, flustered as a startled fawn, and could not help smiling. In a contest with him, she was still too green. Later he would let her know what fear was. Now, with the Indestructible Vajra and the Zhe Secret combined, he was like a perpetual motion machine, never stopping and never needing a rest.
Outside the cabin, Xuan Yi breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that he had not chased after her. Cultivating once had been tiring enough. If it happened again, she would probably be numb. She opened her mouth and worked her jaw left and right, as if it had been dislocated and she wanted to reset it.
Xiao Tian straightened his robes and sat cross-legged on the bed to cultivate, because he felt that he was about to break through.
\* \* \*
A day later, a sound like a bursting bubble came from Xiao Tian's body, and his aura surged accordingly. He opened his eyes and exhaled. "Hm, I'm a Five-Star Dou Zun! And my Earth Thunder has reached seven strands. It seems I need to go to that place."
Xiao Tian thought of a place where, by cultivating and absorbing the energy there, he should be able to make a leap in his progress. It could also speed up his condensing of the Spiritual Thunder. Once the Spiritual Thunder was condensed, he might once again enjoy the thrill of rapid breakthroughs. The feeling was like cheating. It left one refreshed in body and mind, always cheating, always feeling good.
"Congratulations on your breakthrough. It seems you'll catch up to me very soon." Xuan Yi had sensed his breakthrough earlier and had been guarding the main cabin door. This was a spatial wormhole, after all, and unexpected dangers could appear at any time.
"Hm, thank you for your hard work. Then you'll have to cultivate diligently, or I won't be able to live off you."
Xuan Yi rubbed her forehead helplessly, looking defeated. "You, you, you're just lazy. All you think about every day is how to enjoy life. At my current cultivation, breaking through to Half-Saint is not easy. It's a chasm-like obstacle, enough to stop ninety percent of Nine-Turn Dou Zun peak experts."
She remembered that she had already been a Nine-Turn Dou Zun many years ago. With her recent mental recovery, her strength had begun to grow again, but she still had not felt the threshold of Half-Saint. Besides, a breakthrough to Half-Saint required not only an accumulation of Dou Qi but also external opportunity and insight. Without the help of fortune, it was harder than ascending to heaven. Otherwise, the whole Dou Qi Continent would not have only a handful of Half-Saints.