As much as I wanted to just rush things through and get back to the level of strength that would allow us to comfortably walk through this world… I wasn't going to make it happen at the cost of our future potential!
That's why, as soon as we settled down—again—due to the pressure of the garden overwhelming us, we sat down and started to cultivate as usual.
By now, our bodies overca the issue of balancing flesh and qi… or whatever else this strange, unnoticeable energy could be, reforming to be now able to house it much more easily than before.
And yet…
"Can we stay on the peak of the fourth stage for a little longer?" I asked, pretty much right as we reached the point where all that was left for us to advance was to gather enough montum and then push our spirituality to expand its reach.
"Did you notice sothing?" Claire opened her eyes and asked, genuinely surprised by my request… which was quite the achievent, given how our connection made our thoughts align anyway.
"Rather than notice… Don't you find it weird that we had to go through this process again?" I asked, squinting my eyes down as my mind focused on the topic now that I'd voiced it out. "While I can't really speak for myself in this regard, you already went through the process of reforming your flesh back when you reached the fourth stage on your own, before you even t , didn't you?"
Following my line of thought, Claire leaned her small head over her shoulder, taking a mont to think before slowly nodding her head in confirmation.
"If so, how co you had to go through this process again?" I asked. "Even if we gave up on our cultivation, it's not like our bodies suddenly rushed to absorb impurities from the outside for no reason. And with how little ti there was between us dropping our old cultivation and then reaching the fourth stage again… when were our bodies even supposed to lose their quality to begin with?"
When it ca to cultivation, the fourth stage of the mortal realm was the part of the path most closely related to one's physicality, as opposed to all the other stages that were focused on expanding one's spirituality instead.
And yet… how co the process apparently looked the sa, even though one's biology was much harder to change than sothing as enigmatic and intangible as cultivation?
"Now that you pointed it out, huh…" Claire squinted her eyes. "Could it be… Wait, no, that doesn't make much sense. But…" Lowering her face, Claire locked her eyes down on the floor while raising her hand up… only to cutely munch on the nail of her thumb, most likely not even realizing what she was doing.
Still, given just how insanely adorable I found this sight, Claire felt the echo of my emotions, shook her state of deep contemplation off, and then finally realized what she ended up unconsciously doing.
"Why are you staring so much…?" she asked, changing her voice to make herself seem slightly off-put by my keen desire to just keep staring at her adorable self… but just like the echo of my emotions alerted her to her state just now, I could clearly feel that, rather than disgusted or creeped out, Claire was currently amused.
"Can't I?"
As much as she tried to hold it back, a small smirk quivered on her lips as they twitched, trembling while stuck between their natural task of reflecting her mood and her desperate attempts to keep her weirded-out mask.
"Oooh!"
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An explosion of an even deeper amusent later, Claire struck her fist down at the open palm of her other hand, acting as if she'd finally figured everything out.
"You like the sight of biting down on my nail because it looks as if I was sucking on your dick, don't you?"
For a mont, we just stared at each other from the distance of the few inches that separated our faces.
Still, with the topic Claire suddenly dropped, and while feeling her weight bear down upon my lap…
"Not really, no," I still decided to shake my head in denial. "That only made you look so adorable, I wished for nothing but to just hug you, cradle you, and cuddle you up for the rest of my days," I revealed, only to then change my small, infatuated smile into a smirk that matched the one Claire so desperately tried to keep off her lips. "But now that you've ntioned it…"
Leaving my sentence hanging, I just stared right into Claire's eyes for a mont as the silence filled the twists and turns of this labyrinth of a garden.
"Hmph…"
Claire slightly jumped on my lap, her hand shooting to cover her mouth as she stifled her chuckle.
"Hehehehe…"
Joining her, I bothered not to hold my laugh, openly reveling in the amusent brought by the mont.
Soon, we found ourselves laughing our heads off, holding onto each other out of worry that, if left alone, we would both just fall down on our backs as we struggled to breathe through all this nonsensical amusent.
"I'm telling the truth, though," once we finally managed to calm down, I remarked. "You just looked insanely adorable, munching on your thumb like that. Rather than staring at you with thirst, I just couldn't get enough of how cute you are. But as any man you would ask would know…"
I turned my face off to the side, slightly embarrassed by my own primal instincts.
"The cuter and more innocent a girl is, the easier it is for her to invoke a man's desire to spoil her with our own hands…" I admitted, only for Claire's lips to tremble again, as if she was about to give in to the laughter again.
"You an, with your own penis, that is," she added, chuckling for a little bit longer before finally shaking her head as if to push all the needless thoughts aside as she rose back up on my lap, only to then gently lay herself down atop my chest.
"That, I won't deny," I admitted, patting her back. "But that's for later. For now…"
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