Jun Yanye, how dare you use force!
Jun Yanye touched his lips, feeling a novel sensation of pain.
Pain was not always uncomfortable; to a person who could barely feel any pain, it was fresh, bringing a heart-racing thrill and an anticipation of wanting to taste it again.
Few people could make Jun Yanye feel pain, but Shi Li could.
Shi Li could make Jun Yanye’s lips ache, his head ache, and his heart ache. Some of the pain was transmitted through the Dao companion bond, while some was bestowed by him directly.
This was one of the reasons why Jun Yanye was completely certain about Shi Li.
“Shi Li, I thought you would really want to heal your spiritual root,” Jun Yanye said.
Shi Li tilted his head slightly: “Why?”
“Once your spiritual root is healed and you cultivate to a higher realm, you can live for a very, very long time.”
“Why should I live for a very long time?” Shi Li countered. “You want to find your memories, and you have the entire Demon Realm to govern. I have nothing to hold on to.”
Shi Li’s parents had passed away long ago, his foster father had abandoned him, and he had no friends or tasks left to accomplish.
“Don’t you want to take revenge on the two people who harmed you?” Jun Yanye asked. “You haven’t seen them in a state worse than death yet.”
Shi Li flashed an absolute fake smile: “Thank you, but if it weren’t for your interference, my revenge would already be complete!”
“The revenge is not yet finished, so you cannot die yet,” Jun Yanye said.
Shi Li remained silent, staring blankly out the window.
Jun Yanye walked to the table, placed the blood chalcedony into a bowl filled with spiritual flower dew, and watched as the blood chalcedony gradually softened and dissolved into the dew.
“I won’t drink it,” Shi Li said, catching it out of the corner of his eye.
Jun Yanye held the bowl in one hand and used an immobilization technique on Shi Li with the other.
He took a sip himself, then leaned down to pass it to Shi Li, feeding him the entire bowl mouthful by mouthful. Only after ensuring that Shi Li had swallowed it all did he release the immobilization technique.
Shi Li’s eyes flew wide open. He instantly leaped out of bed and cursed furiously: “Jun Yanye, how dare you use force! I’ll kill you!”
In an instant, Shi Li swept all the cups, plates, and bowls off the table and onto the ground, leaving a complete mess.
Guarding outside the cave, Du Yuanzhong and the other demon soldiers heard the commotion. They looked at one another, their eyes speaking volumes.
The Demon Venerable even used force; what else was there to say?
The lights in the entire cave flickered from Shi Li’s tantrum. Jun Yanye held the continuously kicking and flailing Shi Li and said, “Once your spiritual root is reconnected, we can dual cultivate. Raise your cultivation a bit so it hurts more when you hit me. Right now, I can’t feel a thing when you strike me, it’s like a cat scratching.”
Shi Li slammed his fists hard against his shoulder, spitting out resentfully, “Tell me, to what realm must I cultivate to beat you to death?”
Jun Yanye pondered for a moment and said seriously, “The late stage of the Tribulation Transmutation realm, I suppose. If you cultivate to the late Tribulation stage, take tonics to enhance your techniques, and beat me non-stop for a year without me fighting back, you could probably beat me to death.”
Shi Li was on the verge of tears but had none to shed; he fiercely thrashed against the bedding.
“Your hands will hurt in a moment,” Jun Yanye said.
“Get out!” Shi Li violently threw a pillow outward.
That night, Shi Li slept while choking Jun Yanye’s neck, and Jun Yanye slept very soundly.
.
.
Seven days later, Shi Li’s spiritual root was mostly repaired, the spiritual energy inside his body circulated very smoothly, and his emotions had stabilized significantly.
Jun Yanye released the medical cultivators he had captured to treat Shi Li.
“Right now, the medical cultivators in the Sacred Domain don’t even dare to go out; they are very hard to catch,” Jun Yanye remarked casually. “This last one was only caught because he got drunk and lost his way.”
“The Sacred Domain loathes the Demon Venerable to the bone, and it’s not without reason,” Shi Li smiled. “Even the ones who grow medicinal herbs stay as far away from you as possible.”
“Come, let’s go dual cultivate.” Jun Yanye tugged at Shi Li’s wrist.
“You said last time that it would be the last time,” Shi Li noted.
“What a good memory,” Jun Yanye did not let go. “Then let’s treat this as the first time.”
This was indeed the first true dual cultivation in its proper sense. Both of their spiritual roots were intact, and both of their cultivations could be elevated.
The orchid scent permeated the air as the evening glow blanketed the surroundings. Jun Yanye held Shi Li, becoming somewhat lost in the moment.
The spiritual qi inside their bodies slowly flowed and exchanged, as if the two were blending together to become a single person.
Shi Li felt the pool water grow warm, and his body felt lighter than ever before. A stream of clear spiritual qi surged upward to his crown and downward to his dantian. Everything he saw before his eyes seemed much sharper, clearer, and more detailed than usual.
Shi Li perspired heavily, his hair soaked with sweat, yet Jun Yanye’s body remained cool to the touch, feeling like smooth jade.
Although Jun Yanye’s body was cold, his manner was incredibly fervent, even more so than during their previous sessions of dual cultivation.
“Jun Yanye, you’re going to kill me!” Shi Li struck Jun Yanye’s shoulder.
Jun Yanye clasped Shi Li’s hand, lacing his fingers through Shi Li’s just as he had done on the day of their wedding contract. Shi Li leaned against the large rock by the lakeside, completely lacking the strength to even voice his curses.
This session of dual cultivation lasted for a very long time from dusk until deep into the night, moving from the lake up onto the shore.
Shi Li distinctly felt a vortex of spiritual energy gathering deep within his dantian. Could it be.
Jun Yanye touched Shi Li’s spiritual pulse: “Congratulations.”
“Am I pregnant?” Shi Li bantered.
“You’ve broken through to the early Golden Core stage.”
“So fast?” Shi Li felt as though he had done nothing at all, yet he had advanced by an entire major realm.
“It’s just a Golden Core.”
“Just?!” Shi Li nearly coughed up blood. “Previously, in order to break through a minor threshold to the late Foundation Establishment stage, I worked myself to death cultivating for a hundred years, only to fail the breakthrough!”
Afterward, the matter spread around, and every sect and faction found out about it. Shi Li had once again become a laughingstock. He had never forgotten that sense of humiliation.
“Now you can cultivate to the late Tribulation stage before you turn three hundred. How about that?”
Shi Li laughed: “Then it would be unprecedented and unmatched in the Sacred Domain. Looking across the entire cultivation world, there are no more than five people above the Tribulation stage. It’s just, what use do I have for such high cultivation?”
To Shi Li, reaching the late Golden Core stage should be more than enough.
Jun Yanye thought about it: “You can use it to hit me.”
In the Mystical Realm, on the Daoming Terrace.
This place resembled a labyrinth, lined with countless towering jade walls. Row after row of names flickered across the front and back of each jade surface.
Shi Li and Shi Chen’s names were listed side by side, buried among the Foundation Establishment cultivators at the very bottom of the jade wall.
Suddenly, Shi Li’s name flared with golden light, leaping upward and rising directly into the ranks of the Golden Core cultivators.
“Within a mere seven days, Shi Li broke through his previous bottleneck, rising from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core. Young Master, is this within your deductions?” Yan Moxiao looked up slightly at Shi Li’s name.
“Let him advance,” Shi Chen smiled serenely. “The higher the cultivation, the stronger the heart demon. Advancing while carrying a heart demon, the higher he rises, the faster he will die.”
“In that case, we can discreetly send over some auxiliary tonics and treasures to help him advance even faster.”