"Poof~!"
Another week crawled by in spiritual silence. Zhu Qing had long given up on monitoring Su Xiaobai's "divine breakthrough" and had instead taken to sulking in Bai Yujian's immaculate bedroom like a depressed exorcist.
In her hand?
A long, elegant smoking pipe packed with demon-repelling incense.
The demon in question?
Su Xiaobai.
She exhaled a cloud of smoke. The scent of herbs, spirit-repelling lotus, and sheer frustration filled the room.
And then—
"Ha… Finally!"
The demon awoke.
Su Xiaobai's eyelids fluttered. His white brows twitched. His lashes trembled like a woman in a bad romance novel.
Zhu Qing sighed with the weight of ten thousand disappointed cultivators.
The man sat up.
His crimson eyes glead like he'd just climbed a heavenly summit—or eaten an entire Dao.
Crack! Crack!
He stretched with all the smugness of a man who just broke reality, mumbling sothing incoherent.
Zhu Qing had zero interest.
Then—he looked up.
"Qingqing?"
"Yeah..." She stared at him with the sa energy as a tiger staring at a malfunctioning washing machine.
He stood.
Thud. Thud.
The floor trembled.
Su Xiaobai paused, feeling the entire world shift under him—but casually shrugged.
"Must be because I ditated for two months," he muttered like a dumbass.
Whoosh!
He spotted the pipe in her hands, snatched it casually—
CRACK!
It shattered like it was made of dried tofu.
"…"
Su Xiaobai stared in betrayal. "Qingqing, why is this thing so weak? Give another one."
Zhu Qing looked like she was contemplating mass murder.
"It's not weak. Look there."
"Huh?"
He followed her finger—
And saw it.
The wooden floor beneath him was cracked to hell, the bedfra was half-missing, and even the doorfra was split.
His anger rose. "Who the hell broke my—"
Then he saw the trail.
Every single crack traced back to him.
"…Sigh."
Zhu Qing stood. Calm. Composed.
Then she gently tapped his chest.
"Wha—"
BANG!
Su Xiaobai exploded backwards, smashing through the wall like a Soul Fusion Kool-Aid Man.
"…The fuck?"
He lay in the rubble, dazed, confused, and slightly aroused.
Zhu Qing lit another incense stick and muttered, "Little villain, you're looking real silly right now. Have you seen yourself in a mirror lately?"
"??"
Su Xiaobai sat up.
Then he noticed.
Every ti he moved, the floor splintered.
When he reached for the door—
RIP.
It tore off like a wet paper scroll.
His footsteps made mini craters.
His hands bent tal like tofu.
And his aura? It was like hugging a lightning rod during a thunderstorm.
Zhu Qing clapped her hands.
"Congrats! That's what happens when you breakthrough by devouring your Nascent Soul and plundering your master's Yin Essence!"
"....What do you an?!"
She grinned. The kind of grin cultivators give before pushing you off a cliff for 'training.'
"You've completely lost control of your strength. Don't go outside. One breeze too strong and you'll trip and accidentally punch a mountain in half."
"Even though you're in Soul Fusion Realm…"
She leaned in.
"…a fly could beat you up right now."
Zhu Qing wanted to give a full evil villainess laugh—like Muahahaha—but she ended up sighing instead.
"I hate that I have to explain this seriously… but yes. You've got big boy cultivation now, but you're like a toddler wielding a divine tribulation sword—one wrong swing and you'll slice yourself in half."
Su Xiaobai's expression darkened.
He started connecting the dots.
Indeed…
He hadn't suffered much from earlier breakthroughs because they were relatively close in level. His foundation could handle it.
But now?
Now he was a Soul Fusion Realm cultivator before the age of 30.
Even among legendary talents, that was borderline cheating. Most genius cultivators reached this stage at 80. So at 60. A rare few at 50.
Su Xiaobai?
Twenty-fucking-eight.
If those so-called sects' new-generation heavenly geniuses found out, they'd vomit blood, slap themselves silly, and willingly offer him their wives for dual cultivation lessons.
But the problem?
He didn't consolidate a damn thing.
And now, his body was supercharged—he could sll herbs a mile away, hear the cicada complaining from across the courtyard, see 360-degrees like a Spirit Chicken of Heaven...
But he couldn't even judge his own slap strength.
If he faced Huo Lingxue now?
He'd definitely win.
The only issue?
He might accidentally slap her into next reincarnation.
Su Xiaobai laughed.
A bitter chuckle.
"…Haha. I can't even tell how hard I hit anymore."
"That's not the most important problem at the mont..."
Zhu Qing stood up slowly, walking toward the bed with a heaviness that ca not from spiritual pressure—but from emotional exhaustion.
She sat on the edge, gazing at Su Xiaobai with that look won reserve for n who've both amazed and horrified them in the sa breath. His appearance? Saintly. White hair. Serene aura.
His heart?
Pure demon.
She could say the sa for herself, sure...
But let's be honest—Zhu Qing doesn't roast herself.
Only others.
____
She leaned forward, elbows resting on her thighs, thinking deeply—and accidentally presenting two perfect, alabaster peaks through her slightly loosened robe. Her soft, snow-like breasts rose and fell with her breath, practically humming with the Dao of Distraction.
Su Xiaobai absolutely noticed.
If not for the severity of the topic, she might've teased, "Want to suck on these babies while we strategize?"
But alas.
It was not the ti.
____
"Why did you consu your Nascent Soul?"
Her voice was quiet. Dangerous. The tone of soone who was about to either cry, kill, or kiss.
"You were supposed to fuse with it—not treat it like a midnight snack."
Su Xiaobai blinked. Shrugged.
"What's wrong with that?"
"..."
Zhu Qing stared at him the way alchemists stare at pills that explode on contact.
"How are you going to form your True Spirit embryo now? You've destroyed your original root. You literally can't form a True Spirit from within anymore!"
Su Xiaobai waved her off.
"Oh, that? I'll just steal one."
"…What."
"Yeah, I'll rob so peak Soul Fusion cultivators mid-breakthrough, extract their embryo, and fuse 'em together. Saves ti. Instead of one True Spirit, I'll build a Poly-Daonic gaspirit. A fragnted, adaptive, multi-Dao beast with multiple insights stacked like spirit pancakes."
Zhu Qing's jaw hung.
"…You're going to build a synthetic True Spirit?"
"Yes..."
"That leaks Daos like a drunk sword cultivator leaks poems at midnight?"
"Yup."
She closed her eyes.
She could already imagine it:
A stitched-together monster spirit that oozes five conflicting philosophies, randomly chanting Sword Sutras and Fire Sutras at the sa ti while shaking uncontrollably like a Qi-deprived goose.
A walking heart demon x10.
"Are you… a demonic cultivator now?"
Su Xiaobai smiled bitterly.
Maybe?
A little?
But hey—as long as he didn't show the True Spirit to anyone, no one would know!
Fake it till you ascend.
Zhu Qing sighed deeply. She had to give him so validation. A little encouragent before she tore his worldview apart.
"Fine. Then tell ." She leaned in. Eyes sharp. Voice low. "How are you going to reach Integration Realm without a proper Divine Embryo?"
Su Xiaobai raised a finger.
"Easy. I'll eat that too."
Zhu Qing choked on her own spiritual Qi.
"WHAT."
"Instead of rging consciousness, Nascent Soul, and True Spirit the normal way... I'll sever the Dao of others. I'll absorb their insights. Their spiritual roots. Their understanding of heaven. I'll hijack their 'Dao destinies' and build mine from the wreckage."
He grinned.
"I won't form a Divine Embryo. I'll beco one."
Zhu Qing stared at him like he just invented the Heavenly Devouring Cultivator's Guide to Dao Theft.
"So no embryo. No root. A consciousness that's already fused with a digested baby soul. A True Spirit that's a stitched-up lootbox. And a cultivation thod that bites other people's destinies?"
Su Xiaobai nodded.
Proudly.
"I am the Dao now."
He continued, dead serious:
"Most cultivators have three forces forming a triangle—Consciousness, Nascent Soul, and True Spirit—all cooperating like an ancient polyamorous marriage."
"But ?"
"I'm the king."
"My True Spirit? My slave. Custom-built. Frankenstein'd with stolen parts."
"My Consciousness? Already fused and evolved."
"My Nascent Soul? Dead, digested, and added to my calories."
"I don't have a triangle. I'm the center of a collapsing Dao star."
Zhu Qing blinked.
"…You know if you say this in public, Heavenly Tribulation will personally co down and bitch-slap you."
Su Xiaobai nodded.
"I'll slap back."
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