The Grand Elder of the Azure Sword Sect was a man of immense pride. He had spent four hundred years cultivating his private estate on the Cloudsoaring Peak. It had pavilions made of white jade, rare spirit cranes wandering the gardens, and a natural hot spring that flowed with liquid spiritual energy.
Right now, that same Grand Elder was stuffing his robes, his pill furnaces, and his prized tea sets into a storage ring as fast as his trembling hands would allow.
"Faster," Tantai Zhi said. She didn't yell. She was standing at the entrance of the estate, her arms crossed over her crimson robes, looking mildly bored.
The Grand Elder nearly dropped a priceless porcelain vase. He scrambled to catch it, sweating profusely. "Y-Yes, Saintess! I am almost done! I just need to gather my—"
"Leave the tea leaves," Yan Shuo called out from the courtyard. He was currently sitting on a very comfortable bamboo chair, eating a spiritual peach he had plucked off a nearby tree. "And the spirit wine. Actually, leave the pill furnace too. I might need it later."
The Grand Elder looked like he was going to cry. Those were his life savings. He looked pleadingly at Tantai Zhi.
Tantai Zhi's golden eyes narrowed into slits. Her hand rested on the hilt of her blood-stained sword. "Did my husband stutter?"
"No! No, Lord Yan is incredibly wise! Please, take it all!" The Grand Elder abandoned his remaining belongings, bowed so low his forehead scraped the jade tiles, and practically flew off the mountain on his flying sword, leaving his life's work behind in under three minutes.
Yan Shuo tossed the peach pit over his shoulder and sighed in contentment.
This was the life. No fighting, no plotting, no hiding in caves for decades trying to break through a minor bottleneck. Just absolute, unashamed privilege.
"Husband," Tantai Zhi said, her terrifying demeanor vanishing instantly. She glided across the courtyard and knelt beside his chair. She looked up at him with those wide, hopelessly devoted eyes. "Is the estate to your liking? If it's too small, I can slaughter the Sect Master and take the Main Peak for you."
"This is perfectly fine," Yan Shuo said quickly, patting her head before she could go on a casual murder spree. "It's quiet. I like quiet."
"Then it is ours," she beamed, leaning her cheek into his palm like a pampered cat. "But you are still injured. Your meridians were flushed by my Qi, but they are incredibly fragile. We must go to the hot springs immediately. I need to... dual cultivate with you to stabilize your foundation."
A faint blush dusted her flawless, porcelain cheeks when she said the words dual cultivate.
Yan Shuo raised an eyebrow. Dual cultivation was a sacred, highly intimate practice. In the cultivation world, it meant linking your souls, sharing your deepest secrets, and physically blending your spiritual energies. It was also usually an excuse for cultivators to roll around in bed together.
Given his crippled state, an ordinary female cultivator would be disgusted at the thought of sharing her pure Yin energy with a trash body. But Tantai Zhi looked like she was ready to drag him to the springs by the collar if he didn't agree fast enough.
"Lead the way," he said smoothly.
The hot spring was located in the deepest part of the estate, surrounded by glowing spirit stones and thick, fragrant bamboo. The water wasn't just hot; it was thick with white mist, rich enough in spiritual energy that Yan Shuo could feel his pores opening up just by standing near it.
He stripped off his ragged, blood-stained outer sect robes and slipped into the water.
The heat hit him instantly. It felt like a thousand tiny needles gently pricking his skin, rushing into his broken dantian and soothing the deep, aching exhaustion in his bones. He let out a long, heavy groan, tipping his head back against the smooth jade edge of the pool.
I could stay here for a hundred years, he thought.
A soft rustle of silk broke the silence.
Yan Shuo opened his eyes. Through the thick white steam, Tantai Zhi was stepping into the water. She had discarded her heavy outer robes, wearing only a thin, clinging layer of crimson inner silk that left absolutely nothing to the imagination when it hit the water.
Her black hair floated around her like ink. Her golden eyes were locked onto him, dark and heavy with a desire so intense it made the air in the room feel thick.
Yan Shuo was an old monster on the inside, but he was still a man. His heart definitely skipped a beat.
She waded through the chest-deep water, the water rippling around her incredible figure, until she was standing right in front of him. She didn't hesitate. She straddled his lap beneath the water, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her forehead against his.
"Close your eyes, Husband," she whispered, her breath ghosting across his lips. "Follow my Qi. Don't fight it."
Yan Shuo didn't argue. He closed his eyes.
She pressed her palms flat against his bare chest, right over his heart and his shattered dantian.
BOOM!
The moment their spiritual energies connected, the soul-binding contract flared to life in their minds. A massive, roaring ocean of pure, refined power rushed from her palms directly into his body.
If Yan Shuo were truly a fifteen-year-old trash disciple, this amount of energy would have caused his body to violently explode. A mortal cannot swallow a star.
But Yan Shuo wasn't a child. He was a veteran warlord who had once stood at the pinnacle of the world.
Instead of panicking, his soul calmly took the reins. He activated a supreme breathing technique from his past life—the Heavenly Cycle Art. He didn't fight her energy; he welcomed it, twisting it, refining it, and guiding it perfectly through his frail meridians like a master directing a raging river into a gentle stream.
Tantai Zhi gasped aloud, her eyes flying open in shock.
She had expected to have to carefully, painstakingly force the energy through his blocked pathways. She had prepared herself to do all the heavy lifting to keep him safe.
But instead, his body was eagerly devouring her Qi with flawless, terrifying efficiency. The way his soul intertwined with hers wasn't the clumsy grasping of a weak disciple. It felt ancient. It felt powerful. It felt like a perfect, missing puzzle piece snapping perfectly into place.
"You..." she breathed, her cheeks flushed bright red from the intense heat of the spiritual exchange. Her heart pounded against his chest. "How are you doing that?"
"Doing what?" Yan Shuo replied calmly, keeping his eyes closed as he focused on repairing his dantian.
"Your soul," she whispered, her voice trembling with an overwhelming wave of emotion. Her arms tightened around his neck, pulling him flush against her soft curves. "It's so beautiful. It knows exactly how to hold mine."
She didn't question it further. To her, it only proved one thing: their fates had always belonged to each other.
The intimate session continued through the night. The water bubbled and steamed around them as their auras blended into one. There was no need for explicit actions; the sheer intensity of their souls binding, the overwhelming heat of her body pressed against his, and the raw power flowing between them was more intimate than anything physical.
He could feel every beat of her heart. She could feel every breath he took.
Slowly, incredibly, Yan Shuo's cultivation base began to rise.
The trash body that hadn't been able to gather a single wisp of Qi for fifteen years suddenly roared to life.
Crack. Qi Condensation Realm, First Level.
Crack. Second Level.
Crack. Third Level.
It didn't stop. Because her energy was so impossibly pure, and his mental realm was already at the absolute peak, there were no bottlenecks. He just kept absorbing her power, repairing his body cell by cell.
By the time the first rays of morning light pierced through the bamboo outside the hot springs, the spiritual mist in the room had been completely sucked dry.
Yan Shuo slowly opened his eyes.
He felt incredible. The heavy, suffocating weakness of the trash body was completely gone. His meridians were wide and glowing. His dantian was perfectly repaired. In a single night, he had reached the Ninth Level of the Qi Condensation Realm. He was one step away from Foundation Establishment.
A normal genius would need ten years and a mountain of resources to do what he just did in eight hours.
"Soft rice really does taste better," he murmured to himself.
He looked down. Tantai Zhi was fast asleep, her head resting peacefully on his shoulder. Her arms were still locked around his waist in a vice-like grip, as if she was terrified he would vanish the moment she let go. In her sleep, the terrifying, bloody Saintess just looked like a normal, beautiful woman clinging to her husband.
Suddenly, a loud, panicked voice echoed from outside the estate walls.
"Saintess! Saintess Tantai! Emergency in the Main Hall! The Righteous Alliance envoy is here, and they are demanding an audience!"
Yan Shuo frowned. The Righteous Alliance? He had blown up their leadership a hundred years ago. They were still around?
Before Yan Shuo could even move, Tantai Zhi's eyes snapped open.
The peaceful, sleeping beauty vanished. The golden eyes of the unhinged yandere returned, swirling with dark, murderous annoyance.
She didn't even get out of the water. She just raised two fingers, pointing them toward the walls of the estate, and casually flicked her wrist.
A massive, crescent-shaped blade of crimson sword Qi erupted from her fingers. It sliced straight through the jade walls, tore through the sky, and completely obliterated the protective barrier of the Main Peak miles away.
A distant, muffled explosion echoed across the sect, followed by the sound of crumbling stone and screaming elders.
Tantai Zhi lowered her hand, snuggled closer to Yan Shuo's bare chest, and closed her eyes again.
"They were too loud," she mumbled sleepily. "Husband needs his rest."
Yan Shuo stared at the massive hole sliced through the wall of his new hot spring. He looked at the smoking ruin of the Main Peak in the distance. Then, he looked down at his wife.
He slowly reached up and patted her wet hair.
"Good wife," he said.
Yes, he was definitely going to enjoy this retirement.