The peach pages knew that this opportunity to cultivate in Heaven's number one divine land wouldn't happen again. None wasted time. But while some focused on direct cultivation, others stored as much Heavenly Qi as they could in their Divine Blood Drops. Mortal cultivators all had a limit to how much Qi their body could absorb or store. The limit increased with cultivation realm breakthroughs, but was still there.
The same applied for celestials. However, Divine Blood Drops were like compressed Qi worlds. One drop could stash as much Qi as an entire mortal world possessed. In low-level celestials, this created the misconception that they were only restrained by their absorption rate and resources. That they could take in as much Heavenly Qi as they wanted to, and later use it for breakthroughs or to transform their Celestial Nature. The most gifted celestials could successfully store 95% of their absorbed Qi in their Blood Drops, while the least gifted failed to retain over 10%.
After the banquet, the Qi-storing pages aimed to take 100 year of cultivation holidays to digest their gains—ignoring two glaring issues:
First, the more Heavenly Qi they stored, the more difficult purifying it became.
Second, while at first glance, the practice didn't cause direct harm, the Divine Blood Drops were like a human stomach. Once they reached their Foreign Qi limit, cultivators turned sluggish, with some extreme cases not being able to stand up while their hearts threatened to explode.
Unrivaled treasures such as the Peaches of Immortality aside, all Foreign Qi produced this effect. And with the superabundance of Qi in the Highest Heaven, many risked reaching this state. By then, either they "vomited" all the absorbed Qi, or burst into blood and gore.
Those Qi-storing pages were being greedier than they could afford to. And while they played with fire, Harun put the available Qi to immediate use. The second petal of his Decaying Flower withered at a slow, but visible pace and, at the current rate, would wither in four days—enabling Harun to reach the second layer of his cultivation scripture.
Each time the invisible strands of Heavenly Qi slid into his Blood Drops, Harun rotated his cultivation base. Driven by the Qi boost and Harun's own foundation, the Divine Blood Drops gleamed dark-blue. The image of a mighty cobra appeared in Harun's eyes, and the four drops shot out of his chest, swirling around his seated form to form a blue ring.
As if bound to the Blood Drops' rotation speed, the cobra in Harun's eyes twisted and morphed, expanding in height and mass. The first day of cultivation passed by in a flash, and by the time the blood rotation stabilized, the fifth gong of the second day already echoed.
The Blood Drops flew back into Harun's body, noxious clouds gushed out of his pores, and from a teenaged-looking boy, he turned into a dark-blue serpent with the shape of a king cobra but the size and weight of an anaconda.
The abomination stretched across the room, coiling while its colossal frame still experienced changes. Its venomous fangs dropped, replaced by rows of jagged fangs fit for an apex predator. The neck ribs shrank, and the daunting beast's size increased to that of a full-fledged titanoboa.
"Hahaha! An Elephant-Swallowing Serpent! I've finally shed the bitch looks!" Harun wiggled his serpentine head in glee. Devouring Serpents were classed in four levels: Elephant-Swallowing, Mountain-Swallowing, World-Devouring, and a last mythical level unseen in the 33 Heavens for countless Cosmic Cycles, the Star-Devouring Serpent.
At the World-Devouring level, Devouring Serpents rivaled True Dragons, Golden Crows and Phoenixes in bloodline strength.
One could thus imagine Harun's grief at being downgraded to a green snake. Worse, as a six-star Plaguebringer, the venomous snake path was, for him, redundant.
Elated by his achievement, for a second Harun forgot about the hidden forces plotting against him—coiling on himself as pictures of his past all-dominating form swirled in his mind. This time he would go beyond the World-Devouring level, become a Mythical Beast, eat the sun and moon, eat the Three-Legged Crow Clan, eat the Fourth Heaven, eat the...
"Rehearsal time!"
"Ok."
Forced out of his dreams, Harun returned to his white-robbed teen appearance, adjusted his eyepatch, and left alongside the other pages to rehearse with the fairies. The Imperial Domain was a disjointed pyramid formed by one Ground Palace, nine Floating Cloud Mansions each representing a department, and the God Emperor's Divine Palace overlooking it all. There, the Peach Garden, court, harem and the bulk of the Imperial Guard lay.
By the end of the second day, all selected pages had arrived. The rehearsals went without issue, with most of the pages' time dedicated to cultivation. After a few page explosions, the cupid lot grew wiser.
Harun's only regret was that he couldn't eat any of the medicines growing in the gardens. The pages could look but not touch.
Thus, without any noteworthy events, three days passed. At the start of the fourth, the second petal of Harun's Decaying Flower withered—enabling him to break through to the second layer of the Decaying Flower Art. The breakthrough multiplied his strength and speed by nine, while reducing his resilience by another 25%.
Fortunately, Harun's Elephant-Swallowing Serpent Nature excelled at defense. But unless he found an effective way to counter the art's drawback, Harun feared that in time he'd turn into a true glass cannon.
The fifth day arrived, and even before the first gong, the pages had already assembled, forming 200 columns before the court's entrance. The spirit servants and fairies arrived soon afterward and split into 200 groups. The procession subsequently went through various teleportation halls, rifting straight to the Peach Garden.
Along the way, although they didn't dare make noises, the pages' eyes remained glued on the fairies. And who could blame them? Flawless figures, pearl-white skin, overflowing grace. Pick one at random and she'd become the top beauty of a mortal world. For once, even Harun seemed engrossed in the beauties. So engrossed in fact that he subconsciously got closer to one, intently staring at her chest.
Though annoyed, the fairy didn't make any sound, thinking that a woman of her caliber must be a first for the country bumpkin. But then Harun opened his mouth, and she lost her shit.
"Dear Heavens, what an enchanting fragrance! From the shape and scent alone, I can imagine the divine nectar contained inside. If I could just get one sip, just one, I'd die content."
Harun joined his hands in a prayer sign, beseeching the stunned fairy with innocent, beady eyes.
Numb from shock, she staggered, butting against another fairy at her back.
"Lascivious, depraved, vile sexual deviant! In broad daylight, how dare you harass me?!" Red from rage, the fairy dropped the wine jug she kept pressed against her chest, and summoned a short fan.
But before she could make her move, Harun grabbed the dropping wine jug, and took three steps back.
"What are you talking about? I meant the wine. Is there anything else on you worthy of such an appraisal? This is a national treasure. Be more careful," Harun said while rubbing the wine jug as if it were the most exquisite treasure he'd ever laid his eyes on.
What kind of barbaric woman could be so reckless with such precious wine? Definitely not marriage material.
Blinking with her mouth ajar, the fairy squeezed her C cup breasts. Snickers broke out left and right, disturbing the group's pace.
"Oooooh, I see. Nah sorry, not my type," Harun said, pushed the jar back into the fairy's hands, and left for the Peach Forest. Girls nowadays were getting too conceited.