The secluded cliffside cavern was typically shrouded in a dense, cool blanket of morning mist, fed by a subterranean spring trickling through the damp stone walls. But as Gu Chen stepped inside, carrying the flushed heroine in his arms, the mountain vapor evaporated into thin air.
The ambient temperature within the cave soared with every step he took, the air shimmering with erratic, intense thermal distortions.
Gu Chen set Su Yan down onto a smooth, moss-carpeted stone slab near the edge of the cool underground spring. The heat radiating off her frame was so blistering that the surrounding moss dried and shriveled in seconds.
Her skin was a fair, flawless porcelain, but a feverish crimson flush crept up her throat, cheeks, and delicate collarbones. Her voluminous, fiery crimson-red hair spilled wildly across the stone, glowing like liquid copper in the dim cavern light. Her white-and-red hanfu robes soaked in sweat and damp mist clung heavily to the full curves of her waist and voluptuous chest, scorched by the chaotic blaze burning her from the inside out.
Steam rose from her skin in visible wisps as she let out a low, shuddering groan. Her slender back arched slightly against the rock, her entire body trembling beneath the agony of her internal inferno.
DING!
[SYSTEM WARNING: Target Su Yan is experiencing a lethal meridian collapse!]
[Quick, Host! Use your warm words to comfort her and run to the nearest town for a senior physician!]
Gu Chen completely ignored the System's panicked chiming. His dark violet eyes locked onto the girl, narrowing into a cold, predatory glint.
He didn't see a helpless maiden in distress. He saw a priceless, untamed goldmine.
The Sun-Phoenix Physique, Gu Chen recognized, his ancient soul thumping with raw demonic ambition. An legendary fire-attribute physique. In the Upper Realms, righteous sects and demonic clans alike would slaughter entire imperial dynasties just to secure a celestial furnace with this constitution.
In a high-energy realm, her body would naturally absorb and cycle the flames, elevating her into an untouchable goddess. But in this Qi-barren wasteland? Her physique was an unexploded bomb. The pure, chaotic Yang energy had accumulated in her lower core with nowhere to go, steadily roasting her meridians and soul to ash.
"A physician?" Gu Chen let out a dark, quiet chuckle that held zero warmth. "You stupid parasite, be quiet."
He took a slow step forward, kneeling on one knee beside her feverish form. The air radiating off her was hot enough to scorch ordinary flesh, but to Gu Chen's cold demonic soul, the heat was an irresistible, intoxicating feast.
Su Yan’s long, dark eyelashes fluttered open. Her ruby-red eyes were glazed over with fever hazy, desperate, and entirely helpless.
As Gu Chen reached out, his cool, long fingers lightly traced the sensitive line of her burning neck, sliding up toward her sharp jawline. A sharp, breathy gasp tore from her throat at the sudden, agonizing relief of his cold touch.
"S-Stay... stay back..." she rasped, her voice trembling, heavy with pain and unspent, suffocating heat. "It will... burn you..."
"Sh," Gu Chen whispered. He leaned down until his breath brushed the shell of her ear, his low, magnetic voice laced with subtle demonic hypnosis. "Save your breath, beauty."
A slow, wolfish smile widened across his handsome face. She was trapped in a wasteland with a physique that was slowly consuming her life. And he was a Demonic Sovereign who possessed the ancient, forbidden arts of Yin-Yang Energy Refining.
By using her volatile Sun-Phoenix physique as a personal celestial furnace, he could draw out the toxic, boiling Yang fire, filter it through his own resilient soul force, and use her core to catapult his crippled body past the mortal realms in months instead of centuries all while acting as her sole savior.
DING!
[SYSTEM ALERT: Host, why are you smiling like that?! Host, please adhere to proper medical distance standards! Host!]
Gu Chen mentally muted the white cat’s shrill screaming.
Without hesitation, he slid his long arms beneath Su Yan's slender waist, hauling her scorching, trembling body up and pulling her tightly against his chest. She let out a soft cry of shock, her body instinctively tensing. But as his icy soul energy seeped through her damp robes, soothing the searing fire in her meridians, her resistance instantly crumbled.
His hands gripped her firmly, pulling her so flush against his lithe frame that he could feel every frantic beat of her heart and every shuddering breath she exhaled against his collarbone.
"Don't fight it," Gu Chen murmured against the heat of her skin, his fingers anchoring her waist. "If you want to live, yield to me."
Su Yan’s mind was a hazy storm of blinding pain and liquid relief. Every point where his cool skin made contact felt like rain pouring over a raging forest fire. Unable to endure the agonizing heat any longer, her weak arms slid up, clinging desperately to his broad shoulders as a soft, helpless moan escaped her lips.
Gu Chen closed his eyes, initiating the preliminary tier of the Abyssal Energy Refining Art.
A faint, crimson-violet array seal flared softly beneath his palms where he held her tight. Slowly, deliberately, he began to draw the overflowing, toxic Yang Qi out of her lower core.
The sensation was immediate and profound. The dense, fiery energy rushed out of her meridians in a turbulent stream, flowing directly through the contact of their locked bodies and pouring into Gu Chen's withered core.
Su Yan’s head fell back, her slender neck arching in raw, overwhelming release. Her breath hitched in ragged, rhythmic gasps as the agonizing pressure inside her chest shattered, replaced by a wave of soothing, cool energy that rushed through her veins. Shudders rippled through her body, her hands twisting tightly into the fabric of his black robes as her entire frame trembled against his hold.
The feverish flush on her skin deepened into a radiant rose bloom, sweat gleaming on her collarbones as the sensory surge overwhelmed her fragile control. She whimpered softly between broken, breathy gasps, completely helpless beneath the sheer intensity of the clearing blockages.
CRACK!
With a final, sharp gasp from Su Yan, the violent plug of toxic fire inside her lower core broke completely open. A radiant burst of golden-red steam erupted from her body, burning away the damp moss around them into fine dust. The destructive pressure collapsed, leaving her gasping, weak, and thoroughly pacified in his arms, her forehead resting against his shoulder as her breathing slowly evened out.
Inside Gu Chen's core, a dark explosion of energy occurred.
The raw Sun-Phoenix fire he had drawn out was instantly refined by his ancient soul force. The tiny, clogged meridians of Yu Shen's crippled body were violently blasted open. The microscopic thread of Qi he previously possessed expanded into a slightly larger microscopic thread.
Qi Refining 1st Stage... 2nd Stage... 3rd Stage Peak!
His internal organs healed at a visible rate, his pale skin regaining a healthy, vital sheen while his lithe muscles tightened with newly restored strength.
Gu Chen opened his eyes, his dark violet pupils swirling with crimson embers. He looked down at the unconscious, trembling beauty cradled in his arms, her face soft and peaceful, completely purged of the deadly heat.
A dark, triumphant smirk spread across his lips.
"A marvelous furnace," he purred softly, running a cool hand through her damp crimson hair. "And this is only the beginning."
A sudden chime echoed inside his mind as the blue panel flashed.
DING!
[EMERGENCY QUEST COMPLETED!]
[Target Su Yan's life has been saved! Moral Karma Calculation... ERROR!]
[Rewarding Host: 10 Low-Grade Qi Stones!]
Gu Chen scoffed, sweeping the resting girl securely into his arms as he stood up with effortless ease, feeling the fresh, roaring power coursing through his veins.
"See, parasite?" Gu Chen chuckled inwardly, stepping toward the deeper, dryer chambers of the cavern. "A 'hero' saves the girl. A Demonic Sovereign saves her and takes her power. We both got what we wanted."