Chapter 173: Dual Cultivation

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“I still need to visit Moshou City.”

Lu Xuan exited the Dream Ruins, holding the lotus seed and examining it closely.

This peculiar existence, straddling the line between reality and illusion, could freely traverse between the Dream Ruins and the real world.

He placed the lotus seed into his storage artifact, his movements a bit exaggerated.

“Um…”

Cheng Lingzhu in his arms murmured and clung to him tighter.

Lu Xuan withdrew his hand, gently stroking her sleek back and the perfect curve of her spine.

After a while, Cheng Lingzhu woke up.

Opening her sleepy eyes, she saw Lu Xuan smiling at her.

“What are you smiling at?”

Cheng Lingzhu playfully tapped his chest with her delicate hand.

“Well… nothing much.”

Lu Xuan’s eyes sparkled with amusement as he picked up a handkerchief from the bedside. It bore a small plum blossom pattern.

He waved the handkerchief, chuckling, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder, indeed. Your performance last night was quite surprising to me…”

Cheng Lingzhu’s face immediately turned red:

“You… What are you keeping that for?!”

Lu Xuan blinked:

“Well, because you took the other one I had…”

Previously, when they were together, Lu Xuan had kept a handkerchief as well.

Unfortunately, Cheng Hongtan, who was rather shy back then, couldn’t stand Lu Xuan’s teasing and unreasonably confiscated it.

Back then, he was just an ordinary Golden Core cultivator, often suppressed by the unreasonable Cheng Hongtan.

Except for the initial period when Cheng Hongtan incarnated as a mortal and was physically weak, Lu Xuan had a brief period of assertiveness.

For the rest of the time, he was the suppressed one.

Though as a master, he wasn’t opposed to… Accepting this dynamic.

But when the noise and chaos faded, and Lu Xuan contemplated the stars and fate in solitude, his tranquil heart would still harbor other thoughts.

Now, the situation was quite different!

Lu Xuan’s eyes gleamed.

He had struggled through many years at the Golden Core stage, and now his achievements were remarkable.

Cheng Lingzhu, having cultivated anew in this lifetime, was now a genuine Golden Core cultivator.

The situation of offense and defense had changed!

He had surpassed Cheng Lingzhu!

This referred to surpassing in cultivation strength, with no ambiguity.

“What are you thinking about?”

Cheng Lingzhu looked at him skeptically.

“Nothing at all.”

Lu Xuan maintained a serious expression.

“I don’t believe you.”

Cheng Lingzhu narrowed her eyes, “You just looked very pleased with

yourself. ”

Lu Xuan never hid his emotional changes from her.

“You saw it wrong, saw it wrong…”

Lu Xuan chuckled, placing the handkerchief into a wooden box.

Cheng Lingzhu gritted her teeth, intending to snatch it away.

But Lu Xuan was on guard, and after sizing him up for a while, she couldn’t find an opportunity to act.

‘What’s so great about that handkerchief?’

Cheng Lingzhu thought disdainfully.

With herself, a stunning beauty, standing in front of Lu Xuan, he surely wouldn’t be concerned about that handkerchief.

‘Pfft, big beauty, indeed. Don’t be so shameless…’

Cheng Lingzhu’s cheeks burned hot, wondering how she became so bold, completely lacking in reserve.

She buried her face in Lu Xuan’s chest, rubbing vigorously, her earlobes turning pink.

Well, if she wasn’t reserved, so be it. Who told her to like him so much?

“Delicate and genuine in demeanor, fair and evenly toned in skin…”

Lu Xuan murmured as he tied Cheng Lingzhu’s stomachers, admiring her slender waist and beautiful back.

According to the time inside the Demon Emperor’s Palace, it was now noon.

The reason they only got up at noon, despite waking up in the morning, was naturally… Due to being occupied.

Cheng Lingzhu had never heard this poem before, but she could tell that Lu Xuan was praising her, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

“It’s tied.”

Lu Xuan let go and gently kissed her shoulder.

“You took almost an incense stick’s time just to tie two strings.”

Cheng Lingzhu tilted her chin up, deliberately teasing.

“Isn’t it about cherishing the time we spend together…”

Lu Xuan had a justifiable reason.

After all, he was a slow mover, taking his time in everything…

An incense stick’s duration wasn’t really that long.

“…You always say the sweetest things.”

Cheng Lingzhu hummed.

She turned around, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him.

Cheng Lingzhu thought to herself, she wanted to taste just how sweet this man’s mouth was.

If possible, at this moment, Lu Xuan really wished he could save the game.

Because continuing the kiss meant they wouldn’t get out of bed again by noon.

In the evening.

Lu Xuan and Cheng Lingzhu sat side by side on the stone steps at the entrance of the palace.

The Demon Emperor’s Palace was a complex of buildings, with more than one palace.

The outer boundary was enveloped in a light screen formed by the laws of a great power, shrouding the entire Demon Emperor’s domain.

“There are stars here.”

Cheng Lingzhu looked up at the starry sky overhead.

“Many thousands of years ago, the sky must have looked like this.”

Lu Xuan commented.

Demon Emperor Mie possessed great divine powers. As a sovereign of her race, she naturally wouldn’t use illusions to create a starry sky.

The stars within the ruins of the Demon Emperor’s Palace were real.

She had plucked stars from the sky, refined them, and embedded them in the light screen.

Using spatial laws, she extended the distance between the stars and the palace. Even the sun in this world was replaced by an unhatched egg of a Golden Crow.

These were all gifts left by Demon Emperor Mie for her successor.

“When Demon Emperor Mie created this starry sky, she must have missed the person with whom she once watched the stars with..”