The Jade Yao Palace was Chu Yao’s personal princess palace. It was large with three floors, the third floor being her personal chambers.

Long Chen had never once gone into a woman’s chambers before. What surprised Long Chen was that Chu Yao’s room didn’t have any majestic or grand decorations. Instead, everything was very simple and plain.

“Isn’t it strange?” Chu Yao pulled Long Chen in and quietly said, “I’ve always imagined that if only I had been born into a normal family, I would be free. I might not be able to have the luxury or a high status, but at least I would have my freedom.”

Long Chen smiled. “That’s just because of your viewpoint. To be born into poverty is to have to struggle every day. In this world, if you want to be free, then you have to have a matching power.”

Chu Yao nodded and led Long Chen into her room. Long Chen was startled to see that her bed was covered with drawings of himself.

Those drawings weren’t made by a master painter. Instead, they were remarkably lifelike, without the embellishment of the drawings of him on the market.

“You drew these?” Long Chen asked in surprise.

Her face reddened a bit and she nodded. “Ever since the Lantern Festival, drawing images of you is the only way I can pass the time. Otherwise, the days would be even more unbearable.”

Long Chen felt a sudden burst of emotion toward her. Looking at how much thinner and more wan she was, he felt his heart ache. “Chu Yao.”

Wrappings his arms around her tender waist, he pulled her into a tight kiss.

Chu Yao immediately felt the sky and earth spinning around her. Long Chen’s masculine scent filled her nose, and it was like sparks were running throughout her body. Tightly hugging onto Long Chen’s back, the two of them lost themselves in that intoxicating feeling.

“Long Chen, Yao-er wants to be your woman.” Her breathing was shallow and her beautiful eyes were blurry as she looked at Long Chen. The intense feelings she had for him were enough to melt steel.

With a beauty in his arms, Long Chen felt as if his whole body was about to ignite. Even his breathing was becoming hurried.

With her encouraging him, Long Chen’s most primal desires ignited and his hands slowly started roving up from her waist.

“Long Chen, I want to be your woman. Even if I die, Yao-er will be content.” Her entire body turned soft as she quietly whispered.

Chu Yao’s voice was soft, but to Long Chen, the words were like thunder. His originally aroused desire was immediately extinguished like icy water had been thrown over him.

When Chu Yao sensed Long Chen’s body suddenly stiffen, she slowly opened her eyes and saw that his expression was a bit unnatural. “What’s wrong?”

He took a deep breath and told himself to stay calm. After gently planting a kiss on her forehead, he said, “Yao-er, do you not have faith in me?”

From her tone and what she said, Long Chen had understood her inner thoughts. She was planning on ending her life after giving herself to him.

And also for some unknown reason, Long Chen had a sudden premonition that if he did go through with that, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

Although such a premonition was extremely abstruse, Long Chen had always had a keen intuition ever since merging with a Pill Sovereign’s soul. His gut had never misled him.

“Long Chen…”

Chu Yao looked at Long Chen and suddenly started sobbing into his chest. “I love you, Long Chen. I would rather die than marry someone else.”

Long Chen gently stroked her back. As expected, his intuition had been correct. After patting her, he said, “Yao-er, did you forget the promise we made to each other at the lantern festival?”

“The Dragon swims across the four oceans; the Phoenix flies throughout the nine lands,” she softly recited. But as soon as she finished, her tears truly began to fall.

“Seas of blood may block us, but we will never give up our path; Dragon and Phoenix will both live to old age!” Long Chen also heavily recited what he had said in return. That was his first promise to Chu Yao.

Chu Yao’s jade hands tenderly stroked Long Chen’s cheeks. She was choked with emotion as she sobbed, “But… can we really live to old age?”

“We definitely will. Believe in me.”

“Ok, I’ll trust in my future husband.” Chu Yao smiled, appearing like a dew-dropped flower with her tears on her beautiful face.

“Yao-er, you really are beautiful,” blurted out Long Chen.

“As long as you like how I look then I’ll let you see me every day.” This time Chu Yao wasn’t shy anymore.

“Haha, good, we’ll have many more days for that. But today I came mostly to bring you this.”

Long Chen took out the Starfusing Pill, immediately causing the light in the room to turn gentle. Although it was the middle of the day, that was not able to conceal the light coming from the pill.

“Here, consume it. I’ll protect you.”

Although she didn’t know what it was, due to her trust in Long Chen, Chu Yao obediently swallowed the Starfusing Pill.

With Chu Yao sitting lotus style on the bed, Long Chen placed his hand on the middle of her back, using his Spiritual Strength to keep a close eye on the state of her body.

That Starfusing Pill was something Long Chen had used his full effort to refine. It was the best pill he had refined up to this point, and it could already count as a peak existence amongst second tier medicinal pills in Phoenix Cry.

In just several breaths’ time, the medicinal pill dissolved and spread quickly throughout her body.

“Don’t bother with it. Let the energy flow as it wishes.”

The Starfusing Pill spread throughout and filled every single path of Chu Yao’s meridians. Some of her meridians, which hadn’t been opened up yet, were slowly forced open by its energy.

But such a feeling was not a pleasant one. It felt as if millions of ants were crawling throughout her meridians, causing her to feel an irritating itch.

Chu Yao knew that this was something Long Chen had refined for her, so she did her absolute best to hold back any pained sounds, not wanting to worry him.

This kind of suffering was something Long Chen was extremely familiar with. Back when he had first absorbed heaven and earth’s spiritual energy into his body to open his meridians, he had felt such an intense pain that he would never be able to forget it in this lifetime.

Although Chu Yao was much better off than he had been at that time, one was pain while the other was itchiness, the degree of difficulty in bearing with it was essentially equal.

It took a full two hours for the Starfusing Pill’s medicinal energy to completely merge into Chu Yao’s meridians.

“Now draw the medicinal energy into your Dantian. You have to pull that energy from the farthest parts first, just like how rivers flow into the ocean.”

Chu Yao nodded and slowly began to circulate her spiritual qi. She began to collect the medicinal energy from her meridians into her Dantian.

What surprised Long Chen was Chu Yao’s control of her spiritual qi which was extremely precise, to the point where she could control the slightest detail.

Chu Yao was definitely a martial genius. Long Chen couldn’t help but sigh emotionally. Just by using her familiarity with her spiritual qi, she was already able to reach such a high level of control.

If those nine foreign spiritual qis weren’t blocking her Dantian and causing her spiritual qi to be too chaotic and weak, the result from their fight on Sunset Mountain would probably have been reversed.

“Good, now increase the speed. The faster, the better. Channel your energy,” directed Long Chen quietly.

With the pulling of the medicinal energy in her body, Chu Yao gradually caused the small streams of energy to become large rivers, the energy becoming greater and greater.

Following Long Chen’s directions, she increased her speed and now her meridians were pushed to their max, sending the energy to her Dantian like wildly surging waves.

BOOM!

Chu Yao’s Dantian shook and the nine foreign spiritual energy seeds locking it were immediately pushed to the breaking point by those huge waves.

“No, you’re still lacking some energy!”

Long Chen’s expression changed slightly. His Spiritual Strength rushed out, aiding Chu Yao in pulling the Starfusing Pill’s energy to her Dantian. Those waves now became a flood.

If it had been just the medicinal energy, then it would count as a flood; but adding in Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength, that flood became a huge torrent.

Those nine foreign spiritual qis that had been nourished by Chu Yao for so many years were immediately crushed to pieces and merged into her Dantian.

BOOM!

Following the breaking of those nine spiritual seeds, Chu Yao’s Dantian immediately became filled with endless energy. It caused Chu Yao who was originally at the ninth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation to immediately break through to the Blood Condensation realm.

“First Heavenstage of Blood Condensation!”

“Second Heavenstage!”

“Third Heavenstage!”

…

Her cultivation base rapidly advanced at a shocking pace.

Those nine spiritual seeds had been nourished for so many years. Now that they were crushed, the amount of energy they released was absolutely astonishing.

It could also be seen just how terrifying Chu Yao’s talent was. Despite not spending much time on cultivating, just the accumulated energy she had gained passively was enough to even scare Long Chen.

“Fifth Heavenstage!”

“Sixth Heavenstage!”

Now Long Chen was truly stupefied. Chu Yao’s talent was so great that Huang Chang would have been nothing in front of her.

“Seventh Heavenstage!”

“Eighth Heavenstage!”

Long Chen’s expression changed. He realized that under Chu Yao’s rapid advances in her cultivation base, it seemed she was going to break out of the Blood Condensation realm to reach a higher level.

BOOM!

As he predicted, Chu Yao’s cultivation base advanced to the ninth Heavenstage, and there was still an enormous amount of energy remaining.

“Crap!”

Long Chen shouted and immediately activated his FengFu Star. He poured extremely pure spiritual qi into Chu Yao’s body and tightly sealed her Dantian.

He spat out a mouthful of blood. In order to avoid hurting Chu Yao, that spiritual qi he had poured into her body was not capable of defending itself from that wild, out of control spiritual qi in her body, causing him to suffer a loss.

“Long Chen!” Chu Yao let out an alarmed cry. At this point, she had already lost control of her own cultivation base!

“Not a problem! Just calm yourself. I’ll help you control your Dantian’s energy. You absolutely can’t break through again; otherwise, your foundation will be practically ruined.” Long Chen explained while suppressing her Dantian.

Chu Yao hastily stabilized her state of mind. Working with Long Chen, they tried to control the energy in her Dantian that seemed almost endless.

Luckily, Chu Yao’s control of that energy was extremely great. Knowing that this was a crucial moment, she focused completely on controlling her Dantian.

Two hours later, her Dantian finally stabilized. Chu Yao collapsed on her bed. The amount of mental energy she had used up just now had been too great.

Long Chen wasn’t much better off than her. Without his powerful Spiritual Strength, he would have already fainted. The feeling of having to take hits without hitting back truly was a bit irritating.

He covered Chu Yao with her blanket and left a piece of paper behind that told her to properly rest and to let him handle everything else.

Chu Feng had been waiting for six hours. Only now did he see an exhausted Long Chen walk down, and for a moment, he didn’t know what to say.

Long Chen didn’t even have the strength to explain. “Let’s go. I’m tired.”

But after the two of them exited Jade Yao Palace, they hadn’t walked far before they were stopped by someone.

“The fourth prince wishes to see you.”