Taking advantage of this opportunity, after waking from the dream, Mu Qiu Ying made a new demand of Chen Juenian.
She wanted him to take the initiative.
“I won’t tell Xuanyuan Jiong or Xuanyuan Mingye about this, but only if you’re the one to act first.”
“Uh… What do I need to do?”
“While it’s still dark, let’s try it here by the table.”
Knowing that Mu Qiu Ying would have to go patrol the outskirts of the sect after dawn, Chen Juenian let out a helpless sigh.
She had him completely under her control.
That naive and adorable girl from childhood, that determined and kind-hearted woman from her youth…
From this woman now bracing herself against the table with her back to him, Chen Juenian could no longer see even a single trace of her former self.
Time indeed changes many things.
But—
“Hurry up, or the sky will be light soon.”
Mu Qiu Ying lightly turned her head to glance at Chen Juenian, who for some reason was standing there in a daze.
There was even a hint of resentment in her eyes.
“Mm.”
Chen Juenian stepped forward and reached out his hand.
Mu Qiu Ying’s meaning was very clear—he was to do everything himself.
Finding and untying the sash at her waist, the white robe she wore instantly loosened considerably.
But the next step left Chen Juenian stumped.
When he lifted the robe, he saw a jeans-like lower garment beneath, which was tightly connected to the golden silk armor she wore on her upper body.
If he wanted to proceed, he would have to strip Mu Qiu Ying down to nothing.
“Qiu Ying, I don’t know how to…”
“If you really can’t figure it out, you can just tear it open directly. I can always change into a new set.”
Chen Juenian vaguely sensed a trap in this.
Mu Qiu Ying likely wanted him to either peel it off perfectly with his own hands or be a bit more violent.
“Alright.”
Parting the mist, Chen Juenian saw the abyss beyond.
“You’re spacing out again.”
“Soon… soon…”
Chen Juenian took a deep breath, then reluctantly leaned in gently.
There might be some friction again.
To avoid the raw, painful pulling from before, he chose to proceed step by step this time.
But Mu Qiu Ying was unwilling.
She hated this feeling.
Releasing her spiritual energy, she took control of a long staff hanging from the ceiling.
While Chen Juenian wasn’t paying attention, the staff swung horizontally through the air and shoved him forward hard.
“…”
“…”
Mu Qiu Ying changed into a new set of clothes.
After sharing a deep kiss with Chen Juenian, she left the hall, satisfied.
Left alone in the main hall, Chen Juenian sat by the still-messy table, wondering why Mu Qiu Ying looked at him that way.
This shouldn’t have happened at all.
After recognizing him, Mu Qiu Ying should have called him “Master” to fulfill her unfinished wish.
Given all the help Chen Juenian had given her in the past, he was fully worthy of that title.
But the reality now was that he and Mu Qiu Ying had developed an improper relationship.
“Forget it…”
What was done was done, and clearly, he couldn’t turn back.
Fetching a bucket of water, he cleaned up the mess by the table.
Then, Chen Juenian took out the ring containing the heavenly materials and earthly treasures he had obtained earlier and began preparing the preliminary work.
First, he needed to set up a formation capable of shielding heaven and earth.
That’s right—shielding heaven and earth.
Juenian Mountain already had such a grand formation in place, so Chen Juenian could freely refine immortal pills on the mountain without disturbing the local spiritual energy.
In the current world, most people who could refine immortal pills had no need to hide it.
If they disturbed the spiritual energy, they’d simply let it announce to the world that they had succeeded.
But Chen Juenian clearly couldn’t expose himself so easily.
So he had to set up a formation like this.
Using the center of the hall as the formation eye, he also arranged a spirit gathering array above it to draw enough spiritual energy to activate the heaven-shielding formation.
Not long after, this miniature “grand” formation started up successfully.
The local spiritual energy would no longer be drawn by the newly forged pills and create any anomalies.
With a thought, spiritual fire bloomed in Chen Juenian’s palm.
The dozens of heavenly materials and earthly treasures neatly arranged around him were all sucked into the spiritual fire in his hand.
In less than half an hour, Chen Juenian had successfully refined six different immortal pills in his hand.
Gazing at the radiant, flowing pills before him, Chen Juenian could only adopt a trial-and-error attitude, popping them into his mouth one by one like candy beans.
As the six immortal pills entered his stomach, Chen Juenian quickly turned his inner vision to observe the changes they brought to his body.
Then he watched as the six pills traveled through his meridians to his dantian, only to transform into six wisps of spiritual energy that swam back into his meridians.
His cultivation base had increased.
And then?
Wait—there was no parasite in his dantian sneaking a bite, so why did these six pills, capable of defying fate, only turn into six wisps of spiritual energy to nourish his meridians?
This energy wasn’t even enough for Chen Juenian to break through to the Foundation Establishment (Mid Stage).
Just then, Mu Qiu Ying returned.
She saw Chen Juenian standing in a daze at the center of the hall, then looked down at the formation patterns at her feet.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Really…”
Mu Qiu Ying stepped forward and placed her hand on Chen Juenian’s abdomen.
His cultivation base had improved?
“So you were just cultivating.”
“Ye-suh.”