Yang Kai stood outside the suite on the uppermost deck of the large ship, a conflicted expression on his face. He hesitated for quite some time before finally raising his hand and knocking.
A languid voice drifted from inside: "Come in."
Yang Kai steeled himself and pushed the door open. He glanced around — the suite's décor wasn't particularly lavish. Instead, it exuded a refreshing elegance everywhere he looked. A faint fragrance lingered at the tip of his nose, pleasant and subtle, though he couldn't tell whether it was some personal scent or sandalwood incense.
The proprietress was nowhere in sight. She was probably in the inner chamber.
He parted the beaded curtain and stepped through. At a glance, he spotted the proprietress reclining on an incense wood chaise, one hand propping up her temple. Her figure was beautifully curved, her expression one of pure languor.
She didn't even glance at Yang Kai when he entered, merely asking in a flat tone: "What is it?"
Yang Kai said nothing. He stood before her and studied her quietly. Though they'd had several encounters before, every one of them had been a verbal sparring match, a silent clash of wills — he'd never actually taken the time to really look at her. Now, doing so, he realized that the proprietress was truly a ravishing beauty. From head to toe, inside and out, she radiated a kind of fully ripened allure. Even lying there like that, she exuded an indescribable temptation.
No wonder the guests at the Inn were always trying to take verbal liberties with her. With that kind of beauty, very few men could easily look away.
On the chaise, the proprietress's eyes snapped open: "Keep staring and I'll gouge your eyes out!"
Yang Kai lowered his gaze and strode forward. Under the proprietress's dumbfounded stare, he climbed directly onto the chaise, clambered over her body, and lay down on the inner side, spreading himself out in a wide sprawl. He turned his head away with a look of utter humiliation: "Even if you get my body, you'll never get my heart!"
The proprietress was completely stunned. Yang Kai's behavior was far too outrageous — at her cultivation, Sixth-Order Open Heaven, she'd been so caught off guard that she hadn't reacted in time, and he'd actually gotten onto her bed. She sprang up as if stung by a scorpion, standing on the chaise and glaring down at Yang Kai, trembling with fury: "What do you think you're doing?!"
Yang Kai turned his head to look at her: "Didn't you say..."
A dozen or so breaths later, accompanied by a miserable scream, the suite door burst wide open. Yang Kai shot out of it like an arrow from a bow, slamming into the ship's protective barrier before he finally stopped.
He slid slowly down the barrier, clutching his chest, and cursed: "You didn't make yourself clear! You said 'compensation in kind,' and now you attack me? Where's the logic in that?!"
"Get out!" the proprietress roared from inside the suite.
"What happened, what happened?!" Bai Qi and the others came scrambling out of the lower cabins at the commotion. At a glance, they saw Yang Kai standing there with a look of righteous indignation, two enormous black eyes perfectly balanced on his face...
Suddenly, this scene felt rather... familiar!
"What are you staring at? All of you, get back to work!" the proprietress bellowed again. Bai Qi and the others shrank their necks and darted away in the blink of an eye, vanishing without a trace.
"Crazy woman!" Yang Kai hissed through clenched teeth, then turned to head back into the cabins.
"What did you say? Say that again!" the proprietress's voice rang out.
Yang Kai glared at the third-floor suite, his mouth twitching for a long moment before he ducked his head: "A wise man doesn't court trouble!" He dove into the cabin and found an empty room to settle into.
The room was spacious enough, fully furnished with all the necessary amenities.
Yang Kai sat cross-legged on the bed, rubbing his bruised eyes, feeling thoroughly wretched. When the proprietress had said "compensation in kind," he'd thought she meant something else entirely. Who could've guessed she wasn't thinking along those lines at all — the crazy woman just wanted him to work off his debt at the First Inn. Only once he'd paid back the ten million Open Heaven Pills would he regain his freedom.
Yang Kai didn't know how Bai Qi and the others' wages were calculated, but ten million Open Heaven Pills couldn't possibly be easy to earn off. He figured that for the next several decades — maybe even a century — he'd be stuck following that crazy woman around.
At that thought, Yang Kai couldn't help but sigh. Following the proprietress wasn't entirely without its benefits — at the very least, having a Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivator around was a tremendous deterrent. His personal safety wouldn't be a concern.
But staying with her was dangerous too. He'd secretly absorbed the bulk of the Golden Crow True Fire and condensed it into Five Elements Fire Power. If she ever noticed something off down the line, he wouldn't be able to explain himself.
The thought of the Golden Crow True Fire set his blood racing. He'd condensed it into Five Elements Fire Power back in his Ruyi Bag but hadn't had the chance to examine it properly. Now that he finally had some leisure, he was eager to see what changes had taken place.
He calmed his breathing, centered his mind, and turned his gaze inward.
Within his Dao Seal, two colors of radiance flowed and shimmered — one green, one black. The green pulsed with exuberant vitality, the black was restrained and understated, yet harbored an aura capable of destroying heaven and earth.
The Wood Element power and Fire Element power coexisted perfectly within the Dao Seal, giving it its distinctive red-and-black coloring. It looked rather unusual, yet radiated an impression of hard, unyielding force.
The Golden Crow True Fire was extraordinarily powerful. Now that he had successfully condensed the Fire Element power, Yang Kai felt more keenly than ever that what the proprietress had said before was correct — only sufficiently powerful Wood Element power could suppress the Golden Crow True Fire. If the Wood Element power in his Dao Seal hadn't been strong enough, absorbing the Golden Crow True Fire would have risked the Dao Seal shattering entirely.
And if the Dao Seal shattered, that would mean the destruction of his entire martial foundation — a fate with no survival.
But there was more. Yang Kai also sensed that his own strength seemed to have increased somewhat. A flash of understanding rose in his mind. It seemed that among Open Heaven realm cultivators, even those who had both condensed a Dao Seal, there could be vast differences in power. The root of those differences likely lay in the quantity of Yin, Yang, and Five Elements power they had condensed.
Every time a new portion of power was successfully condensed, one's strength would increase noticeably. And once all five types of power were condensed, one would experience an explosive surge in growth. Such individuals were generally called Half-Step Open Heaven.