Having left the Grotto behind, Yuan Zhen and Qi Zixie arrived at the same beach he had flown to in his excitement. Yuan Zhen noticed that she was coming at him even more fiercely than ever. It was like she had been holding back her desire before, and was now letting most of it out.
He had been gathering his thoughts, sitting on the sand, and she came behind him and leaned into his back. His body had grown significantly, so her entire torso was pressed up flat against it. The sensation of having two soft bristols squished between them interrupted his thoughts.
She had even gone a step further and wrapped her arms around him, sneakily fingering her way to his crotch.
"Mmm... Zhen, would you be able to cleanse the world in nine months time?"
He stiffened when he heard her call his name again, predicting what she would ask. "Well, um-- yes. That should be possible for me to do."
Once he confirmed it, her hands slipped down into the valley of his legs, both on either side of his apprehensive member.
"Then, can't you get me pregnant now?"
Waves crashed behind them as Yuan Zhen's member was grabbed onto with pleasurable fierceness by two small, yet strong, hands. He coughed a few times and shifted on the sand, his heart starting to pound as he conjured up a response.
"Think about it, Zixie. I do not want my child conceived in this flawed era. All must be perfect, so that their karma will be tied to a perfect world. A world made perfect by our hands." He sighed inwardly, praising his quick thinking.
Qi Zixie's grip loosened as she seemed to consider his words. Finally, she gave him one final squeeze, even stroking it slightly through the cloth. She lifted herself off his back and stood up, looking out at the water.
"I understand. I'm going for a dip. Will you be joining me, Lord Yuan?" Yuan Zhen hadn't expected her to start stripping as soon as she said this, so his eyes widened when he turned around to answer her.
Her busty chest threatened to burst out of the linen cloth it was wrapped with, and her perfectly pale skin did nothing to decrease the allure. Yuan Zhen was chiefly taken up with her physique. The toned abs and the meaty, yet graceful shape of her thighs held his gaze for almost a minute.
She removed the wrap on her chest with a smile, then undid the cloth around her waist, both of which Yuan Zhen made for her earlier. All of her was exposed to him while she seductively swayed her hips all the way until she entered the water.
Yuan Zhen snapped his fingers and all of his clothing disappeared. He licked his lips, almost scrambling to his feet and walking in behind her.
Her advances were, once again, limited to casual flirting, but they were able to have an actual conversation.
"Do you prefer the sea , or the rivers," Qi Zixie asked him.
"I enjoy them both, but it depends on my state of mind. When I was worn out from battle, I would always find a peaceful river. However, before every conflict, I would ceremoniously go to the sea and be struck by the waves."
"Meditating in such a condition has always made me feel as though my soul was communicating with natural energy."
"Natural energy... That reminds me. Lord Yuan, have you heard of the legend of qi?" Qi Zixie swam over to him as a rippling wave passed them by. As the water continually rose and fell around them, Yuan Zhen noticed she was slowly coming nearer.
"I've heard learned men speak about qi, but I've never comprehended much about; neither did I know there was such a thing as a legend regarding it."
With a proud smile, she said, "It was only recently uncovered. Some human and beast scholars found the remnant of an ancient civilization-- the strongest experts of a past era."
"Apparently, they had stepped far beyond the Immortal Spirit realm and glimpsed the secrets of true cultivation. According to their findings, energy within and without must become one before a cultivator can acquire their own qi."
Yuan Zhen frowned with furrowed brows. "Then, no two expert's qi are the same?"
"Right. As for the legend, it tells of a variety of qi that can become a living thing. The top expert of that era supposedly possessed such qi, and it enabled him to eventually ascend to higher worlds."
Yuan Zhen then thought back to one of the things the tablet had shown him.
He saw the fiery blaze of an Immortal Spirit being contested by a boundless natural energy. Only when an equilibrium was found did the two end their war and they began to work together.
Linking what Qi Zixie had just said to that vision, he realized that the method to step beyond the Immortal Spirit realm was to cultivate qi within the body. Natural and spiritual energies had to combine, and then a unique qi would be birthed.
After their bath, the two of them got dressed. Qi Zixie, realizing that she had dropped her new dress onto the sand, lamented over her carelessness.
The sun was now setting, submerging itself into the sea. Yuan Zhen departed for the skies with Qi Zixie at his side, both of them preparing their spirits for what was to come.
"Lord Yuan, will you be retaking the beast lands first?" Just below the clouds, the two were swiftly jetting over a large forest.
"Is there an ambassador for the human race in our land?" When she heard this question, Qi Zixie smiled devilishly.
The Central Region, which was newly established as beast's capitol, saw the arrival of two uninvited guests.
At the borders, guards with especially potent soul power had been posted. Their main mission was to assess those that entered, then report those with higher cultivation bases or anything else out of the ordinary.
At the point where Yuan Zhen and Qi Zixie flew in, the guard posted there immediately noticed them. He was stationed in the treetops and thinking himself well hidden while he used his soul power to spy on them.
"Two unrecognizable beasts in Soul Nourishing. Wait, they're flying!? That's definitely not normal." He prepared to send a message with his soul, but a change occured in the space next to him on the large branch.
A tendril of mist, aquamarine in color, stabbed into his forehead as easily as if it were tofu. In the instant that it penetrated his skull, his soul had been extinguished and he died.
"Just like a human, wanting to get in my way." Yuan Zhen scoffed, tightened his hold on Qi Zixie's arm and then increased his speed.
The forest gave way to a large city, built amongst the trees. Since a large number of the buildings were made of trees, it wouldn't be hard to pass the city if you were looking from above.
Yuan Zhen was able to discern where they were, and then had Qi Zixie guide him to a certain location. He maintained their altitude, allowing for Qi Zixie to have a better view of the capitol.
"There. That tree with the pink leaves. That should be it." Far off to the western end of the city, a large house had been built into the trunk of an even larger tree. This was the human race's embassy, a sign of their relations with the beasts.
Yuan Zhen wore a vengeful glare as he looked down on the embassy. Tiny flames automatically appeared on the tips of his horn, indicating the state of his head at that moment.
He raised one hand into the air, the flames on his head raging for a short moment as dark violet fire gathered on his palm. Down below, the beasts and humans had no clue of what was coming.
It was only when the terrifying heatwaves scalded the city that some of them noticed the figures in the sky.
"Is that fire?"
"Who is that? Just what are they doing? It's getting hot..."
Yuan Zhen tossed the flame in his hands, wasting no more time. A ball of dark violet flame blazed across the sky and descended, akin to a meteoric catastrophe. The temperature skyrocketed for thousands of meters around the embassy, but it was already too late.
Once the dark violet flame landed at the top of that tree's canopy of pink leaves, it spread out in the blink of an eye. The top of that tree was transformed into a hell of dark violet.
As that was happening, Yuan Zhen took out his scythe and coated the blade in fire also, then intensified it with his energy.
He slashed out dozens of times with his scythe, each time sending arcs of fiery energy. Not only did that energy speed up the already unbelievable speed at which the tree burned, but those arcs also cut straight into the tree, through the trunk, and left etches in the ground.
The humans inside barely had time to think as the building came under the assault of inexhaustible fire and powerful energy. A number of human officials were even cut in half by his attacks.
Beasts and humans that had been nearby all sought to put distance between themselves and the burning tree, but even some of them fell victim to the onslaught of scythe attacks.
The embassy was completely reduced to ash, but even more astonishing was the result of his attacks. He had not just been blindly or casually striking, but had actually acted so that his name would be carved into the earth.
Lingering flames could still be seen around the large characters, granting it an imposing might.
Just like that, Yuan Zhen summoned his fastest speed and brought Qi Zixie away. They flew to an unremarkable area in the forest, not too far away from the capitol, and found a cave.
"We'll let them stew for a bit. They might even think it's just some copycat trying to use my name to scare them."
Night fell and Yuan Zhen and Qi Zixie were having dinner. Yuan Zhen had prepared the meat after killing a few deer and roasting them, and Qi Zixie had gathered leaves for a bed. Yuan Zhen gave her a large cloth to spread over the leaves after noticing her aversion to lying down directly on them.
They ate, slept, and woke up early the next day. Yuan Zhen wanted to go into the town and guage the attitudes of the people after his stunt.
If he could, he wanted to have his enemies fearful and anxious all the way up until he revealed himself.
Early that same morning, a blue-robed man who appeared to be in his forties was hovering over where the embassy was. He looked closely at the name carved into the ground with dim, silver eyes, and stroked his short beard.
A numbers of grey hairs, intermingled with black, blew in the air around his head.
All of a sudden, thunderous explosions split the clouds as two brightly glowing figures descended from above.
"Ji Xie!" One of those shining figures shouted to the blue-robed man.
"Prince Shui, I don't think I appreciate your tone." The blue-robed man spun around to face the oncoming figures, his figure undergoing slightly changes.
His ears became long and pointed, while his hair grew into a wild mess. The two approaching figures were both men, but only one of them was wearing fully white clothing with gold patterns embroidered. The other was dressed in black and kept a shirt distance between him and the other.
The young man in white was Prince Shui. Him and his companion were both human. They slowed down, their intense glow fading somewhat.
"Oh? Do you think we appreciate your tone? We have yet to receive any news regarding human entry into Bane-devil Grotto, and now various humans have perished under your protection!" Prince Shui was clearly enraged, but his energy fluctuations showed that he was more than prepared to fight Ji Xie then and there.
Suddenly, his energy reached a pinnacle and exploded out of his body, rattling the space around them. "Do you expect us to just accept this!?"
Ji Xie shook his head and sighed, "No, I do not. However, you might just have to."
After saying that, he motioned toward the massive characters carved into the earth. Despite hours having passed, the wrathful killing intent imbued in those characters still persisted.
When Prince Shui saw that, his aura was momentarily cowed and he shrunk back, his voice wavering as he exclaimed "Y-Y-Yuan Zhen!?"