Zong Ao had been right about one thing — they couldn't stay here any longer. The people on Water Moon Star probably didn't know whether Xue Yue was alive or dead yet. Once word reached them and someone arrived, it would be hard to explain things.
Xue Yue didn't want to expose her greatest secret either.
He needed to get her back on her feet as quickly as possible, break the Soul Chain, and then they could each go their separate ways — the sky was vast enough for birds to soar, and the ocean deep enough for fish to leap.
For half a month straight, Yang Kai had been treated to incredibly generous hospitality. Every day brought delicacies from mountains and seas, fine wines and exquisite dishes, with rare spiritual fruits served as dessert. It took all that time for him to finally restore his depleted blood and qi energy and shake off that lingering feeling of weakness.
He quietly resolved that in the future, unless absolutely forced into it, he would never again try to craft a Pill Cloud.
If a pill generated a Pill Cloud on its own during refining through sheer luck, that was one thing. But forcing one to appear through his own effort, as he'd done before, was far too draining and far too little reward for the cost.
The palace at Zong Ao's valley had already been completed. Kalika had sent out only her very best experts — a dozen or so of them — and building a single palace was child's play for them.
But Zong Ao hadn't gone back, because the spiritual energy in that valley was still too thin. It would likely take a while longer before it recovered to the average level of Rain Waterfall Star.
News that he had refined a Li Fire Pill bearing a Pill Cloud had spread like wildfire. Alchemists from all across Rain Waterfall Star had come knocking one after another to pay their respects. They were all fellow practitioners, so Zong Ao couldn't very well give them the cold shoulder. Day after day, he endured the torment of their flattery and pestering, never getting a moment's peace.
Whenever he witnessed this scene, Yang Kai silently congratulated himself on having made the right call.
If the credit and reputation for crafting the Pill Cloud had been pinned on him, there was absolutely no way this harmonious scene would have unfolded. Those old men and women would have done nothing but challenge him at every turn, questioning his skills and methods, and it would have all ended in acrimony.
They would never admit that their abilities were inferior to Yang Kai's — to them, that would be an insult.
In the room, Yang Kai sat cross-legged on the bed. He propped up the unconscious Xue Yue and seated her across from him.
Staring at that bewitchingly beautiful face, Yang Kai really didn't want to wake her up.
Xue Yue was at her most agreeable when she was unconscious. She would let him do whatever he wanted without a hint of resistance or complaint. Once she woke up, all she'd bring was endless trouble and danger.
But Yang Kai had no choice but to wake her. Breaking the Soul Chain required the consent of both parties. With Xue Yue's spiritual body nowhere to be found, there was simply no way for Yang Kai to break that binding without her response.
His Divine Sense erupted forth with tremendous force, silently infiltrating Xue Yue's sea of consciousness.
The next moment, Yang Kai's spiritual body materialized above that sea of consciousness.
This wasn't Yang Kai's first time entering Xue Yue's sea of consciousness. He had visited once before to check on her injuries, though he hadn't probed too deeply at the time.
At any time, probing into someone's sea of consciousness was a grave taboo among martial artists. It was something only the most intimate of people would do. The sea of consciousness held a person's entire life experiences and secrets — peering into those secrets was worse than stripping someone bare. It was the vilest form of humiliation.
The last time, Yang Kai had kept himself in check, unwilling to dig too deeply into Xue Yue's secrets. He hadn't wanted to get too entangled with this woman.
But this time, whether he wanted to or not, he had to do it.
A gentle sea breeze drifted across the calm surface. Xue Yue's sea of consciousness contained nothing but a vast, boundless ocean — no other features existed within it. Not like his own sea of consciousness, which was a riot of colors, dazzling and magnificent.
This woman's life must have been incredibly dull. The state of one's sea of consciousness was a reflection of the heart — from it, you could tell what kind of person someone truly was.
Xue Yue was a woman, yet Ai Ou had raised her as a man. She had to constantly put on the airs and bearing of "Third Young Master Xue Yue." She had probably grown sick of this life long ago, but had no choice but to keep up the facade.
"It's not that I want to snoop through your secrets — I just can't wake you up without doing this. Just don't come causing me trouble later." Yang Kai muttered under his breath as his spiritual body dove downward, plunging into Xue Yue's sea of consciousness.
Warm seawater enveloped Yang Kai's entire body, like countless boneless little hands caressing every inch of him, delivering sensations of pleasure and stimulation beyond imagination.
Yang Kai nearly lost himself in that single instant.
The merging of spirits was a terrifying thing. During the process, both man and woman could experience pleasure a thousand times more intense than physical union — it was a trembling from the very depths of the soul. That kind of pleasure was like the most dangerous of quagmires; once you sank in, it was nearly impossible to pull yourself out.
Fortunately, Yang Kai had done this before. Back when he'd gone to the Ice Sect to find Su Yan, he had merged spirits with her once, so he had at least some experience dealing with this sort of thing.
Struggling to suppress the trembling of his spirit and fight back the desires welling from the depths of his heart, Yang Kai continually called out to his original self, reminding himself with his initial purpose — now was not the time for indulgence.
Little by little, that pleasure subsided. He regained control of his own spiritual body, which brought him some measure of relief.
For some reason, the current situation made Yang Kai think of the word "rape."
Xue Yue's spiritual body was nowhere to be found — she was clearly feeling nothing and couldn't resist the intrusion of Yang Kai's Divine Sense. If this wasn't rape, what was it? And the most despicable kind at that — rape of an unconscious person!