The Prison Emperor’s residual consciousness within the Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword had already dissipated long ago, back in the Prison Emperor’s Divine Hall.

But his will and energy had persisted throughout.

It was precisely because of that persistence that the Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword, while recognizing Yue Yang as its master, granted usage rights to Princess Qianqian as the Prison Emperor’s descendant. Unlike Yue Yang, who had fully merged with the Prison Emperor’s Divine Seal without reservation, Princess Qianqian had always carried a deep reverence for this ancestor of hers. Whatever she might say or do on the surface, at the core of her being she had never truly been able to bring herself to erase the remnant energy of her forefather. On top of that, there was another obstacle to the sword’s full fusion — once all of the Prison Emperor’s residual energy was completely removed, the Divine Sword would default to Yue Yang entirely as its master, and Princess Qianqian would most likely be unable to wield it at all.

“Careful.” Princess Qianqian watched the Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword — having been swallowed and passed through by the yellow dragon — seem to emerge renewed, the residual Prison Emperor energy condensed into a single cluster that could dissipate at any moment. She urgently reminded Yue Yang to preserve this ancestral energy.

“White — Frost Bloom Sword!”

Yue Yang’s hand moved. The White Frost Bloom Sword flashed out and drew a light stroke through the chaos energy.

The Genesis Divine Pearl blazed with radiance.

Working in combination with the Heaven’s Eye, the Creation Domain, and the Chaos God-Force, Yue Yang poured the chaos energy — now wrapping the Prison Emperor’s residual power — into the Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword. The sword’s outer substance began to dissolve under Yue Yang’s Sovereign Intent, and within the Genesis Divine Pearl’s shining illumination, it gradually condensed into something that resembled a living presence.

At the right moment, Yue Yang let fall a single drop of divine blood, then used the divine blood as a core around which he reshaped the Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword’s outer substance together with the chaos energy — molding it into the form of a dragon-devouring beast somewhat like Taotie, though from certain angles bearing a resemblance to Princess Qianqian’s own little water-repelling golden-eyed beast.

This form was entirely new.

Nameless.

If it had to be described, it was something beyond Sacred tier — an earth divine soldier.

The Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword, stripped of its outer substance, sang out with what sounded like joy — a resonant hum that lingered long in the air.

It transformed into a seven-colored stream of light, full of spiritual vitality, circling around Yue Yang and Princess Qianqian in flight. Seeing this, Yue Yang quickly gathered what law-force comprehension he had — still at its limits — to bring it under control, then gripped both it and Princess Qianqian’s small hand together.

Coupled cultivation between lovers — it began.

In the world of consciousness, Yue Yang and Princess Qianqian embraced, their lips meeting.

In reality, the same was true. Both held the Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword as it radiated seven-colored light, all barriers between their bodies dissolving as they came together without the slightest gap between them. Their perceptions merged into one — energy flowed from his mouth to her lips, then returned from her tongue back into his, lost in each other in a way that was without precedent, forming a bond that could only exist between two people who loved each other most deeply.

In this moment, Princess Qianqian forgot that she was the feisty proud tiger girl who loved glaring at him with her tiger eyes. Yue Yang forgot that he was the mischievous transmigrator who took particular pleasure in provoking her anger.

At the bottom of both their hearts, only each other remained.

He held her close.

She held him.

Physical sensation deepened the connection of consciousness, and the sweetness flowing between their lips deepened the intimacy between lovers.

Endless joy swept through this pair of young lovers, intoxicating them completely. No matter how long the kiss lasted, no matter how long they remained together, there was no exhaustion in it — if they could have, this happy pair would have stayed in this deep embrace forever.

At some point — neither could have said exactly when — the Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword, under Yue Yang’s Sovereign Intent, successfully formed a bond with Princess Qianqian. This was not abandonment of Yue Yang — it was the acceptance of a second master. Within the sword’s newly formed awareness, Yue Yang and Princess Qianqian were recognized as a single unified existence, not separate at all. And the Prison Emperor’s Divine Sword could no longer truly be called by its old name.

It had become a divine sword reborn — swallowed and altered by the yellow dragon in some inexplicable transformation, then purified by Yue Yang’s chaos energy and Sovereign Intent, then combined with Princess Qianqian’s Six Senses Gift, Sacred Force energy, and life-guardian war beast power, and emerged new:

The Tiger Prison Divine Sword.

The Tiger Prison Divine Sword, blazing with seven-colored light, let out a resonant cry.

Like a dragon’s roar, like a tiger’s howl.

Soundless — yet it shook the entire inner world of both Yue Yang and Princess Qianqian with tremendous force.

The dragon-devouring beast form of the newly born earth divine soldier also shifted in mysterious ways, becoming an indescribably beautiful sword sheath that wrapped around the Tiger Prison Divine Sword with perfect precision — not a hair’s breadth off in fit.

The sword that had refused all attempts at complete fusion had, at last, been fully achieved.

It was officially now the newborn Tiger Prison Divine Sword in Princess Qianqian’s hands.

And as an unexpected bonus beyond the original plan, she’d also gained a heaven-devouring beast form earth divine soldier sword sheath.

Perhaps because the sword fusion had finally succeeded, or perhaps because the coupled cultivation’s embrace had stirred feelings she couldn’t contain, Princess Qianqian responded to Yue Yang’s kisses with unrestrained warmth, her lips and tongue intertwining with his in lingering sweetness, answering his every greedy demand with all the tenderness she had. At some point, his disreputable roving hands had claimed her most proudly guarded territory — and she, departing from her usual behavior, only shifted her body slightly in seeming discomfort rather than delivering the stern rejection that would normally have followed.

Yue Yang, gaining ground, was naturally unwilling to be satisfied with a single summit conquered.

Before long, a second summit had fallen as well.

And while he bent his head to savor the sweet spoils of that victory, Princess Qianqian — her body burning with the fires of intimate feeling — found herself pressing his head deeper against her chest without quite meaning to, wanting him to linger over the sweetest part of herself, to know what he had, to make sure he’d never want to leave for the rest of his life.

Mischievous hands continued their wandering journey downward, gliding over the curve of her moon-round form.

Approaching a flowing stream.

Like a curious visitor strolling into spring blossoms, seeking to find the origin of a peach blossom paradise, eager to take in all the scenery.

Cough. Cough.

Two deeply mortified, thoroughly awkward coughs jolted the pair of young lovers out of their intoxicated state.

It was only at this moment that Yue Yang and Princess Qianqian both remembered there was a Yue Yu present — who, while having had no intention of watching, had been connected to them through the Heart-Link thread the entire time, experiencing everything the two of them had just done as though it were happening to her.

Yue Yu had not actually wanted to interrupt Yue Yang and Princess Qianqian’s intimate exchange. But she’d had no way to extract herself from Yue Yang’s inner world — she was terrified that a forced disconnection at this critical juncture might cause serious damage to both his mind and Princess Qianqian’s, particularly since the complete openness of coupled cultivation made both participants especially vulnerable to disruption-induced harm that could be difficult or impossible to repair.

Unable to leave, Yue Yu had been doing her best to endure the embarrassment, to hold back her own mortification and resist what the shared perception was putting her through, and to wait quietly for the coupled cultivation to reach its conclusion.

If not for Yue Yang’s relentless advance toward the peach blossom paradise — an act so thoroughly scandalous that Yue Yu simply could not continue to bear witnessing it through shared perception —

She wouldn’t have interrupted them at all.

She would have kept waiting quietly for the end.

“Yue Yu-jie!” Yue Yang was absolutely beside himself with embarrassment. His wandering hands had gotten completely out of control and she’d caught him — at this moment he genuinely had no idea what to do with himself.

“Please return us to the mind-world.” Princess Qianqian was so mortified she wanted to find a crack in the ground to slip into.

“Ah — yes.” Without pausing to check whether he’d truly comprehended the fifth sword’s Yellow Dragon Abyss, Yue Yang dissolved the sword-world of consciousness as quickly as possible, allowing both Princess Qianqian and Yue Yu to safely and smoothly return to their physical bodies. When he opened his eyes, he found Princess Qianqian still in his arms, every article of clothing somehow dissolved away, her form like warm jade, like soft cream.

And behind him, Yue Yu was beating her small fists against his back — not hard, entirely from mortification. He didn’t need to look to know what state she was currently in.

Yue Yang set Princess Qianqian aside for the moment and conjured a snow-white sheet, wrapping it around Yue Yu behind him first.

Princess Qianqian, meanwhile, swiftly and instinctively extended one soft pink hand.

And covered his eyes.

Even if it was the most futile of gestures, it at least reduced some of the shared embarrassment.

Both women hastily dressed. Unlike Princess Qianqian, who was occupied managing Yue Yang’s covered eyes with one hand while trying to get dressed with the other, Yue Yu put on her undergarments first and immediately summoned her Angel Blade in its super-evolved sub-divine artifact form — the “Dawn Angel.” The exquisite sub-divine artifact battle armor instantly covered her from head to toe, which resolved a significant portion of the awkwardness.

Princess Qianqian, flustered beyond measure, could barely remember how to put on clothes.

Her hands were a complete mess.

Yue Yu hurried over to help, and while Princess Qianqian’s back was turned, quietly and naturally wrapped the sheet around Yue Yang as well — she’d done exactly this countless times during their experiments and had long since grown completely accustomed to looking after him this way. If not for his incorrigible wandering hands just now, if it had been only embracing and kissing, Yue Yu would have continued pretending not to notice. They were a couple, after all — soon to be husband and wife. Physical affection between them was perfectly natural.

What had forced her to intervene just now was simply that his actions had been making her feel everything through the shared connection.

“Congratulations — you’ve finally fused the Divine Sword. The Tiger Prison Divine Sword has truly been born today!” Yue Yu smiled warmly at Princess Qianqian, who still hadn’t recovered from her blushing, as though nothing unusual had occurred at all.

“Thank you, Yue Yu-jie!” Princess Qianqian, equal parts embarrassed and joyful, couldn’t help throwing her arms around Yue Yu and pressing a kiss to her cheek.

“He’s still essentially a big child — I’ll leave him in your care from now on.” Yue Yu stroked Princess Qianqian’s soft hair, quietly pleased. After the kind of wholehearted coupled cultivation that had just occurred, she suspected this tiger girl would stop picking fights with her brother quite so readily. Even if the surface bickering continued, in their private moments together Qianqian would most likely soften into a gentler kind of tiger entirely.

“I’m not going to look after him for anything—” Princess Qianqian’s mind immediately flashed back to the mortifying events of just a moment ago, and she reached out and grabbed Yue Yang’s arm and gave it a vicious bite. That’s for letting those hands go all over everywhere, and for being that disgraceful in front of Yue Yu-jie too!

“Ow — I admit my wrongdoing fully. I accept the judgment of the people.”

“Yue Yu-jie, let’s not bother with him — let him stay here and reflect on his behavior.” Princess Qianqian felt that if she let him coax her any further, she might go soft, and going soft in front of Yue Yu-jie and being captured again so soon would be unbearably humiliating. She suppressed the powerful impulse to press a kiss to his lips, aimed a kick at his shin instead — delivered with approximately enough force to inconvenience a mosquito — then seized Yue Yu’s hand and bolted for the door.

They hadn’t gone far before a string of laughter bright as bells came floating back.

It had been a long time — a very long time — since this tiger girl had felt this genuinely happy.

All the way through dinner that evening, Princess Qianqian remained in excellent spirits, holding her small bowl, and though she pointedly maintained a straight face in Yue Yang’s direction, the barely-concealed smile tugging at the corners of her lips refused to go away entirely no matter how hard she tried.

Seizing on the princess’s good mood, Xiao Nu cleverly produced a design sheet showing six clothing styles, including two pieces of lingerie that were as alluring as anything could possibly be: “Princess, would you take a look — which style do you prefer? Xiao Nu will make a prototype first!”

Princess Qianqian set her bowl down and broke into a cold sweat looking at it. “The lingerie I can almost accept, but how did you design the battle armor like this? Does cleavage actually increase combat power? This isn’t battle armor — this is a seduction ensemble designed to make a certain wolf bleed from the nose until death. With the thighs exposed like that, what kind of defensive capability does it even have?”

“It’s not for wearing into battle — it’s for a certain wolf to enjoy looking at.” Luohua indicated this was intended for domestic use only and the actual combat armor wouldn’t be designed this way.

“Actually, you could wear it to battle too — don’t you think it would make things more interesting?” Well. The Divine Punishment Empress’s boldness was simply in a category no ordinary person could compare to.

“What’s all this? Something good?” Yue Yang appeared from nearby like someone who’d discovered a new continent.

“None of your business!” Princess Qianqian’s fist sent him stumbling back. She genuinely couldn’t bring herself to imagine the scene if she put on those alluring designs and stood in front of him — he’d probably lunge immediately, his disreputable hands going everywhere. She was actually reaching out to tear the design sheet to pieces when she reconsidered. It was just for home use, never leaving the Grimoire World, and he was the only male there — how serious could it really be? Princess Qianqian set the designs back down, sparing the hard work of Fengxian and Luohua from destruction. She pressed firmly down on the mental image of him going completely to pieces at the sight of her in those designs, opened her mouth, and said: “I’m not interested in anything that frivolous. If the rest of you want to wear them, go ahead — but don’t corrupt the younger children. Especially Yue Bing and Baobei’s group. They absolutely must not find out about this.”

(End of Chapter)