The Southern Wilderness Demon King — newly minted Gentle Breeze Queen, newly minted wife — had grown considerably in the space of a single night, and learned considerably more.
Two people in love, happiness overflowing.
This was the honeymoon period, and she had no intention of leaving her beloved wolf’s side a moment sooner than she had to. She took up residence in his Grimoire World and settled in, each day passing in a sweetness that made the hours feel like minutes. The affairs of Greenvalley City she abandoned entirely — someone else was handling it, and that was perfectly fine. Her daily occupation was the study of how to be a good wife: how to properly attend to her husband, how to close the gap between herself and Fengxian and the others as quickly as possible. Even if complete parity was some distance away, she was determined not to fall too far behind.
What the Southern Wilderness Demon King was most proud of, however, wasn’t her own cultivation advancement — the step from Perfect Innate Sovereign tier one to tier two that the snow-country hot spring and what followed had produced. What she was proud of was something more significant: through the best possible variety of cultivation together, she had helped Yue Yang — who was notoriously difficult to advance — break through to a new level entirely.
To outside observers, Yue Yang’s cultivation speed appeared remarkable. But those closest to him — Princess Qianqian, Fengxian, the Southern Wilderness Demon King — knew the truth. He was investing so heavily in foundation-building at every level that if he weren’t, his talent and natural cultivation speed would probably have had him standing at the edge of the Sacred Sovereign realm already.
The investment, of course, had its returns. His advancement was slower than it might have been. But his foundation was unlike anyone else’s, and within any given realm, his actual power in every dimension exceeded people who had formally surpassed him. This was one of the reasons he so consistently won fights against people who outranked him on paper.
“Not bad at all — Perfect Innate Sovereign tier five,” Fengxian observed with some surprise, noticing the change. “One more step and you’d almost be catching up to me.”
“Goes without saying, doesn’t it? When I’m involved, his advancement is bound to be fast.” The Southern Wilderness Demon King couldn’t contain her pride, radiating the specific energy of someone who wants to be congratulated and doesn’t see why everyone isn’t already doing that.
She had a genuine claim to the credit. Not long ago, Yue Yang had managed the step from tier three to tier four after defeating the Solar King — and had assumed that the next advancement would take a very long time. What he hadn’t anticipated was that joining with the Eastern Demon Clan princess and cultivating together as husband and wife would allow him to sense the presence of True Dragon Blood deep in her lineage. Guided by the Sword Spirit’s quiet wisdom, he had perceived and condensed from that essence a Heart of the True Dragon — a heart that knew no fatigue — and riding that condensation, he had broken through again within a short period.
The Heart of the True Dragon resembled Aman’s Earth Heart in category, but differed in crucial ways.
It required nothing external.
It was an ability the Sword Spirit had awakened through his own blood once he reached the necessary level — something like a innate talent, but operating outside the framework of his Grimoire’s laws. Its primary quality was that it was formed entirely from Yue Yang’s own inner potential, which meant it couldn’t tire, and couldn’t be destroyed by any external force.
He hadn’t tested this claim, and the Sword Spirit hadn’t stated it explicitly, but Yue Yang suspected that even a divine being from the old legends couldn’t destroy this heart. It had no direct offensive application. But as an existence beyond the reach of any law, it occupied a category of its own.
He also had a theory about why it had appeared now. The last time he’d faced the Solar King, his heart had been stopped by a divine-force punch, and stopped for a considerable length of time. The Sword Spirit had likely used that moment — and the True Dragon Blood stored deep in the Southern Wilderness Demon King’s lineage — as the occasion and the material to give him something that wouldn’t fail him the same way again.
She really did care about him, in her own way.
She never paid him much direct attention. But she wasn’t going to watch him get beaten without doing something about it.
With this new heart, plus a body that had been reshaped and perfected through countless cycles of Nirvana Flames, Yue Yang had a feeling that if he faced the Solar King again right now, he could manage a genuine single combat — without needing Hong, Aman, Ika, Jiang Ying, Duoduo, or Xiao Wenli to back him up.
Whether he could actually kill the Solar King in that scenario was a different question. But at least he wouldn’t be afraid.
At Perfect Innate Sovereign tier five, Yue Yang had caught up to Fengxian, who had been ahead of him for some time and continuing to advance through their cultivation sessions together. He was now approaching the Night Empress, who had reached tier six after their collective World Tree session on the Sky Stairway.
As for catching the Supreme.
That was still a long road. She was a cultivation obsessive, and her pace was unhinged by any normal standard. When the time came to close that gap, it would mean going to the World Tree on the Sky Stairway and climbing toward her — ten million stairs if that’s what it took, a hundred million, whatever the number was. He would catch up.
“You used her to awaken the ancient power, didn’t you?” Fengxian was perceptive enough to see it immediately. The Southern Wilderness Demon King’s body had fundamentally changed — the ancient dragon-force sealed away since the time of her ancestors had been awakened. There was no other explanation for the double advancement in such rapid succession.
“I’m no longer of the demon clan, not really,” the Southern Wilderness Demon King said, and there was genuine feeling in it. “The ancestral bloodline seal has been opened. The scoundrel opened it. I may actually be able to return to the Eastern Immortal Clan lineage eventually.”
She knew it would take effort — she was a descendant of the exiled branch, and that wasn’t resolved overnight — but there was hope now, where there hadn’t been before.
“How did you break the seal?” Fengxian looked at Yue Yang.
“Fumbled into it, honestly.” He spread his hands, expressing genuine uncertainty about the mechanism — which was true, in the sense that the Sword Spirit had been the one to actually act. His own power wasn’t remotely sufficient to break a bloodline seal dating back to the ancient Eastern Immortal Clan exile. The techniques involved were the province of supreme divine beings, and he didn’t have access to them. His private theory was that the Sword Spirit wouldn’t normally have lifted a finger for the Southern Wilderness Demon King’s seal — she’d done it specifically because condensing the True Dragon Heart required True Dragon Blood, and using the occasion to unseal the rest of what was stored in that lineage was simply efficient.
He kept this theory to himself. Some things were better left unexamined.
Fengxian didn’t press him on whether his power was actually capable of doing it. She was intelligent enough to know what to pursue and what to leave alone. She studied the Southern Wilderness Demon King’s self-satisfied expression for a moment, then turned back to Yue Yang, wrapped her arms around him, and delivered a thoroughly enthusiastic kiss before making her request: “Little scoundrel, do mine next. Help me break open my ancient bloodline seal.”
“You’re not Eastern Demon Clan,” Yue Yang said, slightly overwhelmed. “And I really did fumble into it — I still don’t understand what I did.”
Fengxian settled herself in his lap with easy comfort. “I’m not Eastern Demon Clan, but I’m closer to the Eastern Immortal Clan lineage than they are — we’re remnants of that line, there’s definitely ancient blood there. You ran the experiment on her and gained experience. Now you can use that experience to help your older sister.” She delivered this with a smile that made ‘older sister’ sound like a title of considerable implications.
Yue Yang felt his pulse react to where this line of thinking was going — if the Supreme ever agreed to something like that—
He collected himself, and shook his head at the woman in his lap. “I genuinely don’t know how to do this. If I did, would I need you to ask?”
Fengxian was entirely unbothered by the refusal. She laughed. “No rush. We’ll study it together over time. Understanding comes eventually. I’m patient.”
The Southern Wilderness Demon King, watching Fengxian perform this particular brand of sweet reason on Yue Yang, felt a spike of alarm. With this woman around, her own presence would cease to register entirely. She stepped in immediately: “Hold on. We agreed — three days, you stay with me. Sisters are sisters, but a deal is a deal. You can leave now, Fengxian. The scoundrel and I will work it out ourselves and tell you when we know something.”
“Why not do it together?” Fengxian’s bright eyes carried a small flicker of mischief. “The two of us can compete. Loser calls the winner ‘big sister.'”
“I object.” The Southern Wilderness Demon King had no illusions — she was going to lose this, and badly. Never mind that she’d only just begun; even with extensive future practice, competing with Fengxian wasn’t a winning proposition. By all accounts, Fengxian ranked first in this particular category by a margin that no one disputed. Luohua, Inan, Hailan, and the others combined couldn’t match her — and that wasn’t even accounting for the fact that Fengxian essentially operated as a two-on-one with Vivienne’s presence. Xiao Nu had Pandora sharing her body too, but Xiao Nu’s body was still one body. Fengxian with Vivienne was genuinely two to one. Competing against that arrangement wasn’t brave, it was just bad math.
“You can’t build expertise in isolation,” Fengxian said pleasantly. “Even I learn from others. If you refuse to engage, you’ll end up last.”
“I am absolutely not going to be last.”
“Fine, no need to compare if you’re not comfortable.” Fengxian made a gesture of magnanimous acceptance toward someone whose combat rating was presumably below the threshold of interesting.
“Who’s not comfortable? You want to go one on one? Let’s go.” The Southern Wilderness Demon King’s temper had an exact trigger, and Fengxian had just pressed it. In front of Yue Yang, of all people. Losing anything else was tolerable. Not this.
“Actually—” Yue Yang considered pointing out that this competition presumably required his participation and therefore possibly his consent.
“Stay out of it.” The Southern Wilderness Demon King had fully committed. “We’re settling this today. You witness. She loses, she calls me big sister.”
“You’re very clever,” Fengxian said, smiling. “If I lose, I call you big sister — and you already are one, so what’s the risk to me? No, if you lose, you forfeit your restricted zone. I get unrestricted access to your space whenever I want.”
“Done.”
“Don’t—” Yue Yang tried to intervene, but the deal was already closed. The Southern Wilderness Demon King was too far into competitive mode to hear warnings. What he was trying to tell her was that Fengxian having unrestricted access to their space would mean the end of any two-person time — Hailan, Lieyan, and Bi Lv had all fallen into exactly this trap, and only Luohua and Inan had been clever enough not to bet against Fengxian, and thus had managed to preserve their private arrangements.
“I won’t lose,” the Southern Wilderness Demon King said, chin up, committed entirely.
The outcome, in the end: a certain empress who had declared her intention to conquer the Tianhua Domain went home in excellent spirits to catch up on sleep.
A certain demon clan princess whose ancestral bloodline seal had just been broken came to a certain transmigrator with a tearful account of injustice.
Next time, the transmigrator said, you’ll win.
Whether having a Heart of the True Dragon that never tired also substantially improved certain other categories of endurance was the kind of information he was absolutely not sharing with anyone.