More lightning poured into him. Blinding, fierce, and wild. He guided it with sheer will, forcing the raging storm to weave into his own blue flame. Sparks slammed against flame. The air cracked and shimmered as the two powers collided, tangled, and strained for dominance.
It hurt. His skin split in glowing fissures, golden light bleeding out like molten fire running through his veins. His meridians screamed with each surge. Somewhere inside, something definitely popped. Shu Mingye only laughed. The sound was breathless, half-mad. It was the laugh of someone standing on the edge between great courage and complete stupidity.
"Pie," he gasped between ragged breaths, his grin crooked and his lips flushed red, "you've been holding back this?!"
Linyue stared at him in disbelief. He looked like a man about to explode, and somehow he was laughing about it. "You've lost your mind."
"Mm," he hummed, eyes shut tight, shoulders shaking with both pain and exhilaration. "Maybe. But you like it."
Linyue's hands dug harder into his shoulders. "Stop now."
"Nope," he replied cheerfully, as if he wasn't glowing with cracks of fire and lightning, as if he weren't about to combust on the spot. "Too late."
Stubborn to the end, he kept drawing in her lightning. The wild current rushed through his meridians, burning and reshaping, colliding with his blue flame again and again. Each clash felt like a storm tearing the heavens apart. But then something shifted. The crackling chaos that had been fighting tooth and nail finally twisted. Instead of tearing each other apart, lightning and flame wrapped around one another. The storm compressed. The fire bent. The two forces fused. A roar of energy erupted between them. The lanterns hanging in the trees burst one by one. The ground itself trembled.
Shu Mingye's body arched, golden cracks blazing brighter as if he were being reforged from the inside out. His blue flame deepened, streaked with sharp currents of lightning. The air filled with the sound of thunder rolling through fire.
Power burst outward. Blue fire and crackling lightning spiraled around them in furious waves, forming a cocoon of raw energy that hummed, burned, and sparked. Their fused energy glowed in radiant shades, blinding blue-white at the heart, fading into deep storm-indigo at the edges. It wasn't calm or gentle. It was alive. Sharp. Searing. Divine.
White-hot veins of electricity ran through the flame, crackling with a rhythm like a heartbeat. It no longer danced like ordinary fire. It vibrated so fiercely that every flicker left a ghostly afterimage, as if even time itself struggled to keep up. The heat was strange. Not the dry, consuming burn of wildfire. It was sharp, biting, like the electric stillness after a heavenly punishment strikes down.
Linyue stared at the energy swirling around them, her eyes wide as the air lifted strands of her hair. Sparks brushed her skin, tingling rather than burning. "What is this?"
Shu Mingye opened his eyes. He smirked, completely out of breath but somehow still managing to look smug. "Us."
Her breath caught. Her body felt strange. Light. As if she could step off the ground and float away on the next breeze. The storm that had once raged inside her, chained and gnawing at her meridians, was gone. Not destroyed. Not sealed. Freed. It whirled around her instead, alive and sharp, but no longer threatening to tear her apart. It spun like a guardian. Containing. Protecting.
She wasn't burning. She wasn't breaking. She was glowing. The endless pain she had carried in silence was gone, replaced by something raw and vast, pulsing through her veins with unstoppable rhythm. Her lightning had changed. It was still wild, still fierce, but no longer blind. It had purpose. Direction. And bound tightly to it was something else.
His fire. Not just refined. Not just tamed. But fused into it.
Thunderflame.
Her skin shimmered faintly, a thin blue-white glow flickering along her arms. When she turned her head, Shu Mingye was the same—his whole body blazing with electric-blue fire.
She tilted her head, studying him carefully. "Are you okay?"
He straightened slowly, running a hand through his hair. The gesture was completely unnecessary and clearly for dramatic effect. "I feel better than ever."
And he wasn't exaggerating. The trembling that had haunted his limbs was gone. The ache in his meridians had vanished, replaced by something vast and steady. His fire no longer burned wildly. It pulsed. Alive. Rhythmic. For the first time in years, his body felt clear, as if he had just broken through a wall he hadn't even known existed.
His grin was sharp and mischievous, his eyes glowing faintly. "What about you, Pie?"
"I feel light," Linyue said softly, still dazed. "And I don't feel any pain anymore."
She lifted her hands, staring at the faint glow tracing her skin. It didn't hurt. It didn't scorch her meridians. It felt calm. Steady. Like power she could finally breathe with. "…Have we become stronger?" she asked, glancing back at him.
Shu Mingye smirked. "Might be stronger. Might be toast."
Then—whoosh.
The thunderflame that had wrapped around them collapsed, breaking apart into sparks. They floated lazily in the air like fireflies, glowing for one last moment before winking out. The garden slowly came back into view.
Linyue straightened, her eyes scanning the space.
The garden. The peaceful, carefully cultivated space Shu Mingye had prepared for her. It was no longer a garden. It was now an apocalyptic wasteland.
The grass was charred black. The smooth stone floor cracked in spiderweb lines. Lanterns hung in tatters. The koi pond was nothing but a smoking hole in the ground. As for the flowers and trees… they had been erased from existence. Not burned. Not wilted. Simply vaporized. The back wall leaned dangerously, half-collapsed with a crater yawning behind it. The air still smelled faintly of smoke and lightning.
Linyue turned her head stiffly toward Shu Mingye. "…It wasn't me."
Shu Mingye raised one eyebrow, utterly unbothered by the devastation. A smirk tugged at his lips. "It's us. You're included, Pie. No running away from responsibility."
"But…" she tried to argue, clearly betrayed by logic.
He leaned back with the most aggravating grin. "Don't worry. I'll just add it to your debt. The repair fee, my personal trauma compensation, and now environmental destruction fee. You owe me a fortune."
Linyue stared at him. "Didn't you say everything would be mine when I marry you? Why do I have to pay for repair fees and explosions?"
"Because I'm still the king," he said smoothly. "I make the rules."
She opened her mouth, ready to argue, but before she could say anything, a voice rang out from beyond the broken wall.
"What happened?" Song Meiyu's voice rang loud and clear. "We heard an explosion! We came right away, but no one dared to get too close."
And just like that, a small group filed in through what remained of the wall. Song Meiyu led the charge, followed by Shen Zhenyu, He Yuying, and Boyi. The white dog trotted in behind them, sniffed the air once, then sneezed from all the ash.
Boyi's eyes went wide. "Lord! Was it an assassin? An intruder? Are you hurt? Was it a trap?!"
Shu Mingye let out a long sigh and waved one hand lazily. With a perfectly straight face, he turned to Song Meiyu. "Didn't I tell you we were making a baby? Why didn't you inform them?"
Song Meiyu gasped, both hands flying to her mouth. "This is… part of making babies?!"
Shen Zhenyu coughed into his fist, his usual calm expression cracking.
He Yuying, unbothered as ever, tilted his head with a thoughtful squint. "So it's a secret cultivation method to make babies more effectively?"
Boyi's mouth opened and closed. He stared at the cratered ground, the scorched trees, and the faint glow still shimmering faintly around Linyue and Shu Mingye. "S-So… we misunderstood…?"
Linyue let out a sound halfway between a groan and a scream. She buried her face in both hands, wishing the ground would swallow her whole.
"Why," she thought bitterly. "Why does he always have to bring up babies? And in front of everyone?"
"…Shameless," she muttered from behind her hands.
Shu Mingye turned to the group, completely unfazed by the chaos. "What are you all standing there for?" he said lazily. "We're technically still newlyweds, and you barged in like this? How rude."
Song Meiyu straightened with surprising seriousness. "Right! Making babies is the top priority! Everyone, retreat!"
And just like that, she spun around and marched out, grabbing Boyi by the sleeve as he stammered in confusion. Shen Zhenyu gave Linyue a long look filled with quiet sympathy before following after them. He Yuying sighed, muttering something about needing to write a full report on "baby cultivation techniques" before slipping out the door. Even the white dog paused at the threshold, gave them one final sneeze of judgment, and trotted away with its tail high.
Silence fell in the ruined garden.
Linyue slowly lowered her hands from her face. Her ears were still red.
Shu Mingye, of course, looked utterly pleased with himself. Not even trying to hide it. Without saying a word, he bent down and swept her into his arms.
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, their bedchamber had survived the spiritual fireworks. The door was still whole. The room was untouched. Shu Mingye nudged the door open with his foot and carried her straight inside. He set her down gently on the bed. His teasing grin faded as his expression softened. He knelt at the edge, leaning closer until his voice dropped low. "Pie, are you really okay now? Nowhere uncomfortable? No more pain?"
Linyue nodded. "Yes. I'm really fine now. The trapped energy has stabilized. My body feels light. Energized." She paused, then added honestly, "I've never felt like this before."
Shu Mingye let out a long sigh of relief. "Great." Then his expression changed. Slowly, that mischievous curve returned to his lips. His eyes darkened, not with worry but with something else entirely.
"Pie." His voice dropped low, deep and dark in a way that made her heart skip. "You owe me something really important."
Linyue stiffened. "Um… repair fee?"
Shu Mingye let out a low chuckle, soft but dangerous. "No."
"C-Compensation?"
"More important than that."
"…The broken garden?"
He leaned in slowly. One hand braced beside her shoulder as he lowered himself, his body shadowing hers. The air between them grew warm.
He dipped his head until his lips brushed her ear. His voice came out hoarse and slow. "Our first night."