Thinking back to how forward May had been when she had been disguised as her younger self, things suddenly made sense in his mind. The unexplained up-skirt view back in Elmer, the surprise shaft-grab when he was peeing that one time outside of the same town, the weird tumble they’d taken on the ship after they’d fled the island—the entire time they had known each other, she had been driving towards a single goal.

“What makes me the most suitable?” he couldn’t help but ask, a bit let down over her reasoning.

“I have a special constitution, and to nurture it properly I need to dual cultivate with somebody who has a body that’s just as special.”

“So, it has nothing to do with me as a person? Totally down either way, I’m just curious.”

He remembered all of the times that Uncle Grey had mused over how lucky he was to have encountered May, and he finally knew why. As it turned out, they were a perfect match for dual cultivation.

“To be honest, it was like that at first. Now though, I’d be lying if I said that.” She closed the distance between the two of them again, and gave his tunic another gentle tug. “We haven’t known each other for long, but we’ve been through quite a lot together. We’ve fought one of the most powerful sects on the continent, we’ve saved each other’s lives, and we’re both attracted to the other.”

And the confidence was back.

She kissed him again, which erased all of his thoughts for a second time.

“Okay,” he said once contact was broken a few minutes later. “We’ll cultivate together as many times as you want. Just, we should try to find a better time and place. This island’s not that big, and my friends are all flying around looking for us.” He wanted to slap himself to sleep for putting off such a wonderful life event, but it wouldn’t feel right hanging out with Nyla right after hooking up with May.

I’ve gotta see how Nyla feels first. Around the time that the two of them had been fleeing through the Easterly Kingdoms, he had constantly fantasized about settling down with Nyla once they had finally escaped from the reach of the Bloodhand Sect, and had boldly asked her what she thought about the notion. She’d responded with a laugh and said that, in order to revive the Ravenwing Clan of which she was the only surviving member, she’d planned to take on many partners but had promised him that he could be the first. They hadn’t talked about it since, and he had no idea whether or not she had been kidding around, so he needed to confirm her feelings. No matter how much he liked her, there was no way in hell that he’d allow himself to be ‘some guy’ in a reverse, clan-building harem.

Looking impatient, May frowned and said, “Fine. But you have to agree whenever I ask. Okay?”

“Alright. I’ll be the best student you ever had.”

“Well,” she said, coquettish yet shy, “honestly speaking, you’d be my first student.”

“Wait, so you’ve never…?”

“When it comes to dual cultivation, the first time is the most important. Especially with my constitution. For me, having more than one partner could cause a lot of problems, so I have to be certain that whoever I choose will be there for the long run. If I choose the wrong person, it could ruin my future.”

“Makes sense.”

Volcanoes exploding within his mind, Nolan wanted to forget his earlier words and whisk May off into the woods. She clearly sensed something, for she showed him an alluring smile and gave her neckline a provocative tug that left half of her breasts exposed to the daylight. He was caught off guard at the absence of any undergarments, since he’d expected to see the lingerie that Uncle Grey had made for her after having laid eyes on the matching panties back on the boat.

Suppressing a gulp, he subconsciously willed his flying sword forward ever so slightly and pulled at the cloth of her sect uniform to give him an unhindered view of what lay beneath.

Nice.

In another world he’d have died from an exaggerated nosebleed, but in this world he was no simp. He cleared his throat and pulled away, using spiritual energy to tuck his Johnson behind his belt like a seasoned vet while he clasped his hands behind his back in a profound manner, and then turned to lead the way back to the cave.

May laughed and followed after him, at which point he took off the necklace that he’d taken from Delia and thus allowed the others to sense his aura. Rather than wait for them to come to him, he hurried back to the cave and strode into the pool of heavenly dew, where he and May calmly awaited the arrival of his friends. They showed up shortly after, all of them eager to hear what had caused Nolan to rush out of the cave without any sort of explanation.

He told them why he’d initially hurried off and filled them in on what had happened to Delia after he’d ordered her to act as bait, which drew all sorts of surprised comments and playful observations. The woman in question floated through the waterfall without allowing any water to wet her skin or clothing, her expression having reverted back to the same reserved sourness as before. She didn’t acknowledge any of them and simply found a secluded area of the cave and began to meditate in silence.

“Delia,” said Nolan, who’d opened his eyes while everyone else was cultivating quietly. “You might as well cultivate in here.”

She considered him for a few moments with a cold air about her before she stood up on silent feet and entered what remained of the pool of water without saying a word. She found the most spacious spot where the person closest to her was about three metres away, at which point she resumed cultivating. Her presence clearly made the others slightly uncomfortable, though the fact that she had protected them from certain death many times over mere hours ago was enough for them to sideline any anxieties that they might have held toward her.

They wound up staying within the cave for a lot longer than initially expected, since it was the perfect hiding place from those that might have been pursuing them. The spirit of the lake was now tens of thousands of kilometres away from them, and as far as the sentient creature knew, Nolan and his friends were based in the Nightshadow Sect of the Western Isles. Nolan wasn’t entirely sure how far away the supposed archipelago was, but from what he’d heard about it the region resided far enough away from the continent that it was incredibly difficult to reach without a reliable form of transportation.

Feeling safe and secure for the first time in a long while, Nolan let loose and spent many hours cultivating the White Flame Scripture from within the ever depleting supply of heavenly dew that was still in the pond. While his secondary cultivation method only brought in about eighty percent of the energy that the Ancestral Body Technique did when used in a stable environment, the fact remained that such cultivation speed was still far superior to what most other techniques offered. This was the reason why the vast majority of powerful individuals that he had encountered were at the very least, middle aged. The only youths that he’d seen with impressive cultivations had been those that had enjoyed strong supplies of cultivation resources and heavy support from whatever organization or clan was backing them, and even then these individuals were usually around the same strength as his friends.

It was important to note that almost everyone in the group had only begun cultivating recently, which was a clear indication that the core cultivation methods that he and Nyla had passed on to them were far superior to the other methods that could be found on the continent.

Nolan saw a tremendous amount of progress over the ten days that they spent within the cave, reaching the second level of Integration within the first two days, and the third level on the ninth day. Not only that, but he reached a milestone with the White Flame Scripture and experienced the first of the nine transformations that his dantian would undergo if he practiced the technique to the highest level. Uncle Grey had claimed that his dantian would change colour to some extent, though such a thing didn’t happen, his dantian remaining the same vibrant shade of gold as it had been before the breakthroughs in question. Interestingly enough, however, when he projected his consciousness into his spiritual space—which had grown in diameter by another five hundred metres, for a total of nearly two and a half kilometres—the projection of his dantian in this area now had a tiny red core at its centre that was absent from the source.