The form of souls within spiritual palaces wasn’t fixed. Liao Tingyan, for instance, appeared as a soft, white cloud, so she could only float.
Sima Jiao’s soul was withering. Liao Tingyan, seeing that his soul flower was almost completely shed, went to try to catch those “petals.” She extended her soul a bit to catch a falling piece of his soul. That piece landed on the white cloud, and Liao Tingyan’s mind went blank, feeling as if she’d been electrified—a strange, numb, tingling sensation somewhere.
A negative, world-weary emotion was transmitted through that “petal.” Liao Tingyan felt as miserable as if she’d just watched a depressing film.
She continued catching the pieces. With each one she caught, that strange tingling sensation became clearer. Although her soul was in someone else’s spiritual palace, she could still sense her physical body. She discovered that her body had no strength, her legs were weak, and she had a slight headache.
Probably side effects—entering someone else’s territory wasn’t so easy.
But since she was already here…
She diligently collected a large portion. There were some she couldn’t collect, not because she didn’t want to, but because they had curled up and dissipated like withered flower petals. So she could only float upward with the rest, to the center of the spiritual palace, beside a dim, glowing sphere. This glowing sphere was the core of the soul. If this core dispersed, a person would truly lose their soul completely.
Liao Tingyan didn’t know how to stick these soul fragments back onto him, so she tried to be like adhesive tape, wrapping the soul fragments and attaching them to the core, hoping they might heal on their own.
The moment she attached herself, a sharp pain shot through her mind.
Then came a terrible trembling.
To be specific, it was both pleasurable and painful. The pain came from Sima Jiao’s soul being too sharp. Even without malicious intent, the violent energy he unconsciously emitted all reacted together with Liao Tingyan’s soul when she got close. This pain was difficult to describe—not like being stabbed, more like the stinging sensation all over your body when someone scrubs you too hard while bathing.
As for the pleasure… that was even harder to explain.
In any case, under these circumstances, Liao Tingyan suddenly realized what was happening.
As an ordinary mortal, she had never had a deep understanding of this world, so earlier when she entered someone else’s spiritual palace and saw their soul, she hadn’t thought much of it. But now her body’s reaction told her that what she was doing could rightfully be called “soul fusion,” or more simply, “spiritual intercourse.” In even more common terms, it could be described as the cultivators’ exclusive… dual cultivation behavior.
…Did cultivators engage in such advanced practices? Did this exist?
Liao Tingyan’s emotions surged. This surge, after she struggled to maintain consciousness long enough to curse “Damn!” vanished into a very inappropriate pleasure, making her forget everything.
Liao Tingyan had previously been a single working-class person who had certainly read plenty of erotic stories and watched videos but had never met anyone she wanted to practice with. Although various works described it as quite pleasurable, according to her friends’ and colleagues’ complaints, that act wasn’t as pleasurable as imagined. As one sister put it—”It’s not as satisfying as using my fingers.”
But now, she understood what it meant to have her soul turned upside down. She couldn’t remember for a long time who she was, where she was, or what she was supposed to do. She only felt herself entangled with another person, inseparable, sharing the other’s emotions, feelings, and some fragmentary moods and memories, like a few grains of sand falling through an hourglass.
It was as if she was wrapped up in something, possessing another body in this space, every inch of her skin imbued with the other’s essence…
In soul fusion, the party with lower cultivation would more easily be overwhelmed. At the critical point, the soul would return to its own body.
Liao Tingyan slumped in the chair, her whole body still trembling with lingering pleasure. She was flushed red—not just her face, but her entire body—and gasped for breath with open eyes. Her legs were too weak to stand, her hands were limp, and she couldn’t move a single finger. After barely recovering for a while, she tried to move a little, only to feel another wave of trembling.
She weakly raised her hand to cover her face, like a middle-aged person who had stumbled, her face full of exhaustion and withdrawal.
“Damn! I fucking…”
“You fucking…!”
“Ah—”
She didn’t even know how to describe this stupid operation. Had she just delivered herself to Sima Jiao’s doorstep and then slept with him? This should count as sleeping with him, right?
If he woke up, would he immediately make her soul fly apart and scatter?
Liao Tingyan was so frightened that she unhesitatingly kicked Sima Jiao once to vent. He wasn’t awake anyway, so he definitely wouldn’t know. Best to vent first and worry later.
At this dangerous moment, the flame appeared with terrible timing. Its tone was very excited: “I told you you could do it! Now his condition is much more stable. With a few more efforts, you’ll sort it out completely!”
“A few more efforts?” Liao Tingyan gave the little flame the most irritated expression of her life. One time had already made her feel like she’d died and come back to life, and now it wanted a few more times?
The flame, completely oblivious, continued: “Ah, he still hasn’t recovered and can’t wake up, so of course you need to go back in and help him. But I didn’t expect you to be so capable. I thought you’d at least suffer some soul damage barging in like that. Now I see you not only weren’t harmed but gained some benefits!”
Liao Tingyan thought: Who was it that confidently claimed it would work, that there would be no problems? I knew this troublemaker couldn’t be trusted.
“Shut up, you troublemaker!” Liao Tingyan said.
The little flame started wailing, “Wah! Does dual cultivation between you humans also transfer bad tempers to each other?”
An irritated slacker, extinguishing fires online. Liao Tingyan gave it a soundproof cover, then supported herself on the chair to stand up, and leaned against the wall as she walked out, not even glancing at the unconscious Sima Jiao. She couldn’t look; looking would only make her withdraw more.
Liao Tingyan spent an hour in withdrawal, took a bath, ate something, drank tea, and set up a spot by the lake to view the mountains and water. She couldn’t stay withdrawn any longer—when a person is too comfortable, it’s hard to stay depressed.
It wasn’t that difficult to accept. It had felt quite good, and there was nothing wrong with adults having some sexual activity. Now her entire being was filled with a kind of transcendence after pleasure.
Well, now the only problem was worrying that Sima Jiao wouldn’t be pleased, that he would wake up and unleash world-destroying fury on her. Thinking about the emotions she had felt during the process, Liao Tingyan wasn’t so afraid anymore. She even had the inflated idea that perhaps Sima Jiao quite liked her.
No, no, that was too presumptuous. One of the three great misconceptions in life was “they must like me”—ninety percent of the time it was just wishful thinking.
The foolish big black snake played in the lake, completely unaware that its colleague was about to be upgraded to the boss’s wife. Liao Tingyan wasn’t aware of this either.
She rested for a day, then once again floated into Sima Jiao’s spiritual palace, urged on by the flame’s shouts. What else could she do? Abandon someone halfway through a rescue? As the saying goes, having come this far in the rescue, it would be a shame to let the earlier efforts go to waste; otherwise, it would be an even worse deal.
As they say, the first time is unfamiliar, the second time becomes familiar. Liao Tingyan floated outside of Sima Jiao’s spiritual palace and entered as easily as before, feeling as smooth as if she had a ticket. Sima Jiao’s spiritual palace looked slightly better than yesterday. The parched, cracked earth was still the same, and the flames were still there, just smaller. The bloody smell in the air had diminished greatly, the oppressive atmosphere had dissipated considerably, and most importantly, his soul was no longer withering.
Dual cultivation worked well.
The condition of one’s spiritual palace reflected their psychological and physical state. Such a desolate and terrifying place represented Sima Jiao’s terrible condition. The pain Liao Tingyan felt was only one ten-thousandth of what Sima Jiao felt, filtered like sand to her.
Before entering the second time, Liao Tingyan had done her homework and learned quite a bit about this. She once again pressed herself against that glowing soul, feeling the familiar sharp pain. She couldn’t help but think that if someone constantly experienced pain a thousand times worse than this, anyone would probably go mad. Yet Sima Jiao mostly just appeared gloomy and annoyed, rarely showing expressions of pain.
She didn’t know if he was used to it or just good at hiding his suffering.
Liao Tingyan thought: This is bad, I’m feeling a bit of pity. Wake up! This ancestor is at least five hundred years old and kills people more easily than drinking water!
But being entangled with someone’s soul was too intimate as if becoming one. She couldn’t raise any fear or other emotions, only feeling secure and happy.
After coming to her senses again with her whole body weak, Liao Tingyan tidied herself up and sat by the bed looking at Sima Jiao for quite a while.
She had never really looked carefully at his features before; her impression of him remained from their first meeting. At that time, watching the sister beside her fall dead, with fresh blood staining her dress and hands, she had truly broken out in a cold sweat. Later, seeing him kill more and more people, her fear of him wasn’t as deep as before. Now, it seemed she wasn’t afraid at all.
Even thinking that he might explode in anger when he woke up, honestly, she couldn’t generate any sense of tension.
His hair was very black and soft to the touch, the delicate soft kind that didn’t match his personality. His features were handsome. Calling him a pretty boy wasn’t wrong, but he was always unhappy, which made his presence seem frightening and diverted attention from his actual appearance. His nose was high, his lips thin—their originally bright red color had turned pale due to excessive blood loss, perhaps the only vibrant color on his body.
The flame said it would take at least three sessions of integration and nurturing for him to awaken, so Liao Tingyan boldly observed him and even touched his face.
His earlobe was unexpectedly a bit fleshy and quite nice to pinch.
As she pinched, she met Sima Jiao’s open pitch-black eyes.
She withdrew her hand, naturally pulled up the thin newly-changed blanket to cover his neck, and displayed an expression that said, “This is hard to explain to you because I’m just a lazy slacker.”
She was cursing the troublemaker flame by name in her heart. This thing was truly unreliable! Despite her restraint earlier because of its cute baby voice, she hadn’t doused it with too much water!
Sima Jiao sat up, causing the thin blanket to slide off, revealing his fair chest. Once this man opened his eyes, no matter how weak his body was, he didn’t look like a patient. It seemed as if he could go on another killing spree at any moment. He reached out to Liao Tingyan, his expression showing no anger.
Liao Tingyan silently placed her hand in his. At this moment, she sincerely wished she were still an otter, not having to face such a horrific scene.
Sima Jiao grasped her hand and pulled her to the bedside. Then he laid down, embracing Liao Tingyan, one hand stroking her hair, the other around her waist. He lay quietly for a long time without any movement. His constant unhappy mood had disappeared, replaced by a calmness she had never seen before.
Liao Tingyan thought: I have this misconception that I might be about to start a romantic relationship with someone.
After holding her for a while, Sima Jiao pressed his forehead against hers. His pitch-black eyes were especially close, and when he looked into hers, they seemed to become a vortex. Liao Tingyan’s consciousness became somewhat blurry, and unconsciously her spiritual palace was opened.
The two had previously merged their energies, becoming familiar with each other’s souls. Her spiritual palace opened with barely any resistance. Like two attracted small balls, they stuck together and merged.
A sensation more intense than the previous two times almost instantly robbed Liao Tingyan of all consciousness.
Before she lost consciousness, she felt cold fingers lightly pinch the back of her neck, making her whole body tremble. Sima Jiao’s voice said in her ear: “What were you doing before? This is spiritual intercourse.”
Liao Tingyan thought: Damn it!