It was six in the morning.
The warm sunlight illuminated the world, driving away from the serenity of the night and replacing it with energy to face the world.
In the Long Aristocratic Clan, most children had already woken up and indulged in physical exercises. While it was like any other day for the clansmen, the same couldn't be said for Tianlong.
Waking up, he saw that sunlight filled his room through the crevices of his windows. A sight that he wasn't used to, due to his morning practice.
Feeling a little disoriented, Tianlong tried to get up when suddenly he felt something soft pressing against him.
When he turned his head to the side, he saw Qingxue looking at him with bright and clear eyes.
Noticing his gaze, she averted her eyes unwilling to let him know that she had been observing him the whole morning.
Her bare body was covered by only a thin snow-white quilt which failed to hide her perfect curves.
Seeing her, he closed his eyes for a moment trying to recall the incident of last night where the two rutted like rabbits.
She might have been pretty brave last night but currently, her face was beet red.
Tianlong couldn't resist her charm and claimed her lips again. The two rolled over in bed while sharing a kiss until she couldn't breathe anymore.
"Mmm…"
She locked her arms behind his neck while he put one of his arms on her waist while softly caressing her hair.
Looking at him with a loving gaze, she was about to speak when he suddenly smirked, "How did you like your coming of age gift?"
Though at first confused, she quickly understood his underlying meaning and blushed at his shameless words. A few weeks ago, she had turned sixteen, which was considered an adult according to this world's standard. Clearly, the coming of age gift that he mentioned were the actions of yesterday.
"Hmph… I should be the one who's asking that question, not you."
Gently moving his fingers in her hair, he asked "Wouldn't your mom say something since you didn't return home last night?"
" No, she was supposed to enter seclusion again yesterday. If anything, it's your family I'm worried about… wouldn't uncle and aunt know that we…" She blushed at the thought of addressing them as her in-laws from now on.
"I'm pretty sure they are already aware. In fact, they can monitor the entirety of the..." Tianlong shut up before he revealed too much information.
"How… how should I face them from now on?" She said clearly worried.
"Before answering your question, let me ask you something more important. Yesterday was a safe day right?"
"What if it wasn't?"
"Well, then you need to do something about it because I'm not paying for that child."
"You-"
Before she could say anything, he said, "I'm honestly surprised that you are still a virgin despite being courted by so many men."
"Wasn't that all because I wanted to make you jealous? You… never made a move despite me dropping so many hints."
"Well to be honest… I never saw you in that light. For me, you were always the girl next door."
"So… tell me now, what am I to you?"
Kissing her forehead he said softly. "The world of cultivators is cold and ruthless. With lives spanning thousands of years, how many people can maintain their original heart? Even if two people have sentiments between them, can they retain it even after so much time? Not to mention our affair was nothing but a small incident that happened due to our youth. Don't let this tarnish your heart."
Although what he said was logical, she didn't care about it. "You just want to avoid responsibility don't you?"
Her eyes narrowed and she pinched his waist.
"Huff… huff… why do I feel so weak today? And is it just me or did your body become stronger than yesterday?"
"Huh, come to think of it…"
Tianlong closed his eyes and concentrated on his body.
He felt as if there was an endless amount of spiritual energy running through his bloodstream. All the pores of his body were steadily absorbing energy involuntarily.
It was an indication of him attaining the first stage of Body refining – the Blood Surging realm.
He started laughing loudly while holding her tighter in his embrace.
"Ow! It hurts! Also, why are you laughing like a madman?"
…
While bathing, Tianlong had a foolish smile on his face. All these years of hard work finally paid off. His body felt as if it had become as light as a feather and almost ten times stronger.
Qingxue didn't get off the bed but rather dozed off again because she felt tired and didn't want to face his parents. Also, the pain in her lower body didn't let her move.
Freshening up, he went to meet his parents. Now that he has finally become a cultivator, his next step was to choose an appropriate cultivation art. As for the matter regarding Qingxue, he already knew their reactions.
"Look who's coming… Heh, and here I thought you won't be getting out of your room today." Yun Dingxing had a smug look on his face as he teased his son.
Long Qianmei shook her head at the scene, "Like father, like son. None of them can keep their pants up."
Tianlong kept a straight face at their remarks and said, "It was her who made the first move."
Sighing, Qianmei shifted the topic. "Anyway, it was just a simple incident. You are already grown up, don't let it tie your heart. Without strength, your loved ones will only become your liability."
Before she could start her lecture, Yun Dingxing lightly coughed.
"*Ahem* That's enough!" He wanted to shift from this awkward topic "Let's talk about the fact that he has now entered the blood surging stage." Dingxing was quite excited as Tianlong had started body refining first.
"Speaking of that, I still had at least a month before entering that stage. What accelerated my breakthrough?"
Tianlong knew the condition of his body the best. Although he was just a half step away from becoming a cultivator, he still needed a push.
"As weird as it may sound, it was you taking her virginity that caused the incident."
Tianlong raised his eyebrows in interest.
"All things in nature have a binary opposite, with whom they share a Yin and Yang relationship. Males and Females similarly share a relationship, the former being yang, and the latter being yin. So, if someone practices abstinence from sexual activities for long enough, their essence condenses a large amount of yin or yang spiritual energy."
"That's why virgins are coveted by powerful devil cultivators, as they can be used as cultivation furnaces. Some sects raise children from their birth, training them to a high cultivation base, only to be sold like livestock. Their only outcome is to be plucked by their 'owners'. Most of the time they are treated as playthings or just directly killed." Qianmei interjected.
"One of my friends has a harem of three thousand men, where all of them are her furnaces. She either bought them, kidnapped them or they had once opposed her but she spared them due to their talents and pretty face."
Tianlong shivered after hearing the fate of those men.
"I already had a woman in mind who I was going to gift you as your cultivation furnace. I'll postpone that matter for now..."
"But mom isn't forcing someone too excessive?"
"So is wiping out clans and sects. Mindless slaughter happens everywhere in the cultivation world. Being treated as a furnace is better than just outright dying. Slaves, human puppets, and furnaces are quite common among the devil cultivators…"
Before the conversation could take a darker turn, Yun Dingxing slapped the table.
"Enough of this pessimism! We have more important matters at hand."
The two became silent and focused their attention on him.
"Listen up! The purpose of the blood surging realm is to refine the blood as storage for spiritual energy, just like how Qi refiners use their meridians. After completion of the stage, you'll have tremendous vitality, endurance, and regenerative abilities."
"Since you have dragon and roc bloodline as your demonic foundation, you'll need a corresponding demonic cultivation art for progressing further."
Most people had misconceptions regarding demons. Demons were not nefarious creatures as depicted in the stories of mortals. They mistook the demonic beasts with pureblooded demons.
Demonic beasts were just animals who could absorb spiritual energy, they didn't have the intelligence of humans and still retained their feral nature. They could also shapeshift into humans once they gained high enough intelligence. From then onwards, they would be referred to as demons.
On the other hand, True demons were as intelligent as humans from birth. They were born with either human or beast physique and could shapeshift once they reached a certain level of cultivation.
As such, the term 'demon' was used to classify any living organism that had gained intelligence through absorbing spiritual energy.
There was another group called the True spirit race who were just like the true demons, except that they were born from inanimate objects.
"I've searched body refinement techniques for dragons but didn't found anything satisfactory. The Long clan's dragon arts are too low level to be of my liking. So, for now, you'll cultivate the body refinement techniques for rocs."
Yun Dingxing took out a manual from his ring and handed it to Tianlong.
"This is the Divine Roc Transmogrification art' of the Yun clan. After the minor completion of this art, you'll be able to turn into a great roc and command over wind and lightning."